Pink: Doctrine

I enjoyed discovering this while perusing a newly acquired copy of A. W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God:

“It is by doctrine (through the power of the Spirit) that believers are nourished and edified, and where doctrine is neglected, growth in grace and effective witnessing for Christ necessarily cease. . . . [D]octrine is the very base of the practical life.”

--The Sovereignty of God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976), 213

Theological Recovery

I was glad to see #1 on this list from J. I. Packer.

HT: JG

Westerholm: Faith in Christ

One of the many reasons reading Steve Westerholm is a delight:

For my part, I have no objection whatever to the subjective genitive reading of the pistis christou (faith/faithfulness of Christ) formulas other than that it is wrong.

--Perspectives Old and New on Paul, 305 n18

Whether Westerholm is right or not, I look forward to the volume edited by Mike Bird and Preston Sprinkle, The Faith of Jesus Christ, to be out in 2009 by Paternoster, which I'm hoping will help me settle the matter in my own mind.

Richard Bell's Conversion from the New Perspective

Richard Bell teaches theology at the University of Nottingham in north-central England. He had a dramatic conversion experience as a student investigating All Souls Church in London (where John Stott and Richard Bewes were rectors). He shares his story here. After finishing his PhD in theoretical atomic physics, he went to Oxford and then Tubingen to study theology. His dissertation was written under Peter Stuhlmacher on Rom 9-11. He's written three NT monographs (1994, 1998, 2005, all published in the WUNT series).

I mention him because of the fascinating autobiographical account that opens up the third of his monographs (The Irrevocable Call of God - yours for only $165, which at 550 pp is 3 pages per dollar).

When I studied theology at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford, the "new perspective" on Paul was starting to dominate British scholarship and like many others I adopted this new approach. There was a certain excitement in arguing that the traditional Lutheran approach to Paul was mistaken. We could now set the record straight: Judaism was not a religion of works-righteousness and neither was Paul criticizing Judaism for being such. I was particularly attracted to the work of N. T. Wright (now Bishop of Durham) who argued that Paul’s criticism of Judaism was not for works-righteousness but for ‘national righteousness’, i.e. trying to confine God’s grace to herself and not sharing it with the Gentiles. As I started my curacy in the Diocese of London I studied Romans in detail and decided that one of the best ways to understand this great epistle was to preach through it. . . . I applied the new perspective to Romans and when I reached Romans 9:29 took a holiday. It was to be a theological holiday. I spent some time in Bonn reading German protestant work on Paul, then traveled further through Germany eventually reaching the charming town of Tübingen where I had arranged to meet Professors Hofius and Stuhlmacher. Meeting them and reading their work (and that of Professor Martin Hengel) was to change the direction of my theological thinking. When I returned to England and to Romans (at Romans 9.30!) I found myself taking a more traditional ‘Lutheran’ approach and I (and the congregation) discovered that my sermons were beginning to make much more sense of the text. (My consolation about those earlier ‘new perspective’ sermons is that I happen to have a ‘high’ view of preaching, i.e. even if the exegesis of the text is not right, God can nevertheless speak to his people.)

HT: DG

Three Kinds of Men (2)

I was fascinated to discover in a book left to me by my grandfather that C. S. Lewis was not the first to speak of “three kinds of men” (which I posted earlier)—the immoral, the moral, and the gospel. Those who don't want to obey, so they don't; those who don't want to obey, but they do; those who want to obey.

F. B. Meyer was a Baptist pastor in Britain a century ago. In his 1904 book The Directory of the Devout Life, I read:

There are three kinds of men. First, those who have no intention. Second, those who have a double intention. Third, those whose intention is pure and simple. (148)

Meyer goes on to explain that “those who have no intention” are the immoral, the irreligious, those who couldn’t care less about cultivating virtue in their lives. (149)

Those who “have a double intention” are those who have heard and responded to the call of Christ but whose lives are consumed with other concerns, either circumstantially or morally. They “seem to be very earnest in Christian work, but their apparent devotion arises from a masterfulness of disposition that likes to be independent and rule” (150). “The heart is so deceitful,” writes Meyer, “that it becomes us to examine ourselves with all carefulness, lest at the end of life we shall find that whilst we appeared to be doing God’s work, we were really doing our own; and that whilst our friends gave us credit for great religious devotion, we were really borne along by a vain, proud, and unworthy purpose, which robbed out noblest service of all value in the sight of eternity” (151).

The third group are the “pure and simple,” who have one aim in life, who pray and give in secret, who care not about the praise of men, who desire only to please God—and who are the only ones who have really discovered joy.

Along with Lewis and Meyer, the two men living from whom I have learned this truth—that our options are not obedience and disobedience but immoral disobedience, moral disobedience, and gospel obedience—are Tim Keller and my dad.

Against, yet not Without, His Will

Just read this in Augustine's Enchiridion (on faith, hope and love), written well after, and sounding very different from, his "On the Free Choice of the Will" written in the immediate wake of his conversion in the 390s.

In a wondrous, indescribable way even that which is done against His will is not done without His will. It simply could not be done if He did not permit it, and of course He permits it not against His will, but with it; nor would He in His goodness permit evil unless in His omnipotence He could bring good even out of evil. (p. 95 of the ACW edition)

An ever-relevant and stabilizing reminder as we open our emails and receive phone calls and spill our coffee on our computers and get poison ivy and experience rejection and generally live life in a fallen world.

Lloyd-Jones: Ps 73

I look forward to getting my hands on this meditation on Psalm 73 by Lloyd-Jones. Here's what D. A. Carson said on its release as a reprint:

When this book first appeared in 1965, I was an undergraduate reading chemistry and mathematics. I recall thinking as I read the book that this Lloyd-Jones chap (whom at that point I still had not met) had a God-given ability to meditate on a text, and ponder it within the framework of the entire Bible. I have not changed my mind, but I would now add as well that his exposition of Psalm 73 is saturated with spiritual wisdom designed to help Christians face trials and temptations of many sorts. I am very thankful to God to see this book come back into print.

Our Inveterate Pelagianism

The ingenuity that we have as inveterate Pelagians is unlimited.

--Michael Horton, in the first panel discussion of this conference this April

Frame: Seminary

I benefited from this interview with John Frame on the propriety of the current standard seminary model.

HT: AN

Preparing for Ministry

[S]uch is the depth of the Christian Scriptures that, even if I were attempting to study them and nothing else, from boyhood to decrepit old age, with the umost leisure, the most unwearied zeal, and with talents greater than I possess, I would still be making progress in discovering their treasures. . . . (Augustine, as cited in Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, p. 263)

Many a nice young man since, as well as before his time, of narrow views and crude knowledge, has rushed into the pastoral office with scarcely any of that furniture which enables the shepherd of souls ‘rightly to divide the word of truth’; but Jonathan Edwards, with a mind of superior grasp and penetration, and with attainments already greater than common, did not think three full years of diligent professional study enough to prepare him for this arduous charge, until, after his collegiate graduation, he had devoted six years to close and appropriate study. (Samuel Miller, commenting on Jonathan Edwards' 1723 decision to return to Yale after a brief New York pastorate [cited in Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, p. 56])

I've preached too much and studied too little. (Billy Graham, in 1970, to a gathering of 600 pastors in London)

If I only had three years to serve the Lord, I would spend two of them studying and preparing. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, as quoted in John Stott, Your Mind Matters: The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life, 55)

Are you an MDiv or MA student preparing for fulltime ministry? I hope you will consider taking a few extra years for a second Master's or a PhD before opening your Bible to teach others. The point is not that intellectual preparation is sufficient. According to Paul, "all knowledge," without the spark of love, is meaningless (1 Cor 13). But the kindling of study is invaluable. A fire needs a spark in order to be lit; but if no kindling exists, no amount of sparks will produce anything.