Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches: A Book Review

A recent collection of essays on the various details of Baptist polity deserves a wide reading. It is Thomas White, Jason B. Duesing, and Malcolm Yarnell, III, eds., Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches (Kregel, 2008). I have found it a gold-mine of informed reflection on such things as the meaning and mode of baptism, the nature of the Lord’s Table, the necessity of a regenerate church membership, and the vital importance of church discipline. And believe it or not, what I found as important as the content of the articles were the riches in the footnotes. My hearty commendation of this work does not mean that I concur with all of the sentiments and convictions expressed. I was surprised that Thomas White, for instance, affirmed that the Calvin’s view of the spiritual presence of Christ at the table “has not found favour among Baptists” (p.148). Actually, during the 18th century—those halcyon days of Baptist advance—the spiritual presence of Christ dominated Baptist convictions about the Table. See, for instance, this blogger’s “ ‘His soul-refreshing presence’: The Lord’s Supper in Calvinistic Baptist Thought and Experience in the ‘Long’ Eighteenth Century” in Anthony R. Cross and Philip E. Thompson, eds., Baptist Sacramentalism (Studies in Baptist History and Thought, vol.5; Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K./Waynesboro, Georgia: Paternoster Press, 2003), p.177-93. But this is a minor blemish in an otherwise excellent essay.

On the other hand, I was thrilled to see the point—for some, minor—made by Malcolm Yarnell that Nicene Christology went hand in hand with the affirmation of the church’s independence of the state and his drawing upon some articles of George Hunston Williams to make his point (p.235-36 and n.44). I have never forgotten reading those articles in the late 1970s and being convinced of the same.

All in all, it would be very difficult to single out an essay or essays in the book that was or were better than the others. This is rare. Usually, a collection of essays like this suffers from an uneven quality of content and argument. Not so here, I felt. White, Duesing, and Yarnell have produced an excellent compendium of contemporary—yet fully biblical—reflection on Baptist polity that every Baptist pastor would do well to read, study, and ponder, and that every Baptist seminary should use as required reading in their courses in Baptist history and polity.

Thesis Topics on “Long” 18th Century Baptists from England: A Dozen

What of some topics in 18th century Baptist life and thought then? Here are 12—I have another dozen at least!

  1. The piety of Anne Steele as reflected in her hymnody or that of Anne Dutton in her writings (many of the latter are now published)
  2. The life and ministry of Caleb Evans—vital figure but little done on him besides a great work by Roger Hayden that deals with him along with his father and Foskett of Bristol
  3. Daniel Turner as a theological author—nothing that I know of has been done on Turner
  4. The doctrine of baptism in 18th century Calvinistic Baptist circles
  5. John Foster: the ministry of his pen—a completely neglected figure
  6. John Foster’s Calvinism
  7. The Christology of Robert Hall, Jr.—a very important figure, transitional in some ways
  8. Joseph Kinghorn’s Christology—a neglected favourite of mine
  9. The exegesis of the gospels in 18th century Baptist authors
  10. Benjamin Beddome as a preacher—another of my favourites
  11. The life and ministry of Samuel Medley
  12. The Stennetts: biblical fidelity across five generations from Edward to Samuel’s children—a good place to do some social history

William Carey’s “Sweet Pleasure”

Again, John Appleby and his biography of Carey: ‘I Can Plod…’ William Carey and the early years of the first Baptist missionary Society (London: Grace Publications Trust, 2007). This time I was impressed by a partial sentence from one of Appleby's quotes from Carey. The Baptist missionary is writing back to England in January, 1795, and comments about his friendship with Andrew Fuller, John Ryland, Jr., John Sutcliff, and Samuel Pearce: "I am fully satisfied of the firmness of their friendship that I feel a sweet pleasure in writing to them…” (cited p.109).

Does this not lie at the heart of most successful Gospel ministries? The bonds of friendship that unite co-workers in great ventures for God are markedly present in so many great turning points in Church History. So it was with Paul and his apostolic band, the Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine and his band of brothers at Hippo Regius, Columbanus and his fellow Celts tramping through Merovingian Gaul, and Calvin and his friends during the Reformation.

From one perspective, these bonds uniting co-workers in the Gospel are a pale imitation of the ontological and social bonds uniting the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And so we should not be surprised that friendships in God and for God are common to great advances of Gospel truth.

Radical Christianity: William Carey and a New Biography by John Appleby

I never tire of reading about William Carey (1761-1834) and his circle of friends. So it was with a sense of excitement that I bought the latest biography of Carey by John Appleby, who, like Carey, has served in India: ‘I Can Plod…’ William Carey and the early years of the first Baptist missionary Society (London: Grace Publications Trust, 2007). It is a study I would definitely recommend as a reliable introduction to Carey’s life by one who shares not only his ecclesial convictions but also his soteriological beliefs—both biographer and subject are Calvinists. I was struck afresh by some of the things that Appleby pointed out, including this note in the minute book of the Particular Baptist Church at Leicester that Carey served before going out to India—this is dated March 24, 1793:

“Mr. Carey, our minister, left Leicester to on a mission to the East Indies, to take and propagate the gospel among those idolatrous and superstitious heathens. This is inserted to show his love to his poor miserable fellow creatures. In this we concurred with him, though it is at the expense of losing one whom we love as our own souls.” (cited page 99).

Wow, what a text! Here is radical Christianity at work, both in Carey who went and in his church that stayed at home. His love for fellow sinners took him half-way around the world. Their love for sinners sent him out with their blessing. Some might say, their love was hardly as radical as Carey’s. Really? No, think again: here is one they loved as their own souls—the sort of love that marked Jonathan and David—whose love for one another knit them together like thread in a garment. And then to let go of the beloved. No, this is an expression of radical Christianity.

And why did he go and why did they send him? It was love: love for sinners who, like him and they, were “poor” and “miserable” without Christ. Creatures who were worshipping the creature rather than the Creator: the people of India, like the godless in Great Britain at the time, were “idolatrous.” The difference was that in the UK the Scriptures were available in English, there were gospel-preaching churches and there were faithful ministers of the Word. But India had little or none of this.

We live in a day when some are calling for new radical expressions of Christianity, in which Christ is wholeheartedly served as Lord. This is needed, but what should form should it take? Well, one good model is Carey and his Leicester Church.

On Wolves and Dogs

The New Testament authors are frank about false teachers. Just to give a sampling from the Apostle Paul: false teachers are “wolves” (Acts 20:29); men who “by smooth talk and flattery” deceive hearts (Romans 16:18; cp. 2 Cor 11:1-4; Titus 1:10); “false apostles, deceitful workmen” (2 Cor 11:13); “enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil 3:18); “dogs” and “evildoers” (Phil3:2); men with seared consciences (1 Tim 4:1-2), who speak “irreverent babble” (1 Tim 6:20); “evil beasts,” “detestable” and unfit for any good work (Titus 1:16). This is but a sample. It is very strong language. Rightly are we careful in applying such texts to the present day. Moreover, I know that this list of errorists does not refer to the same type of problems.

But…we would be utterly naïve if we thought our generation above all others had managed to avoid this problem entirely, a problem that was clearly not rare even in the Apostolic era.

In this light, read this excellent post by Dr. Russell Moore: Serpent-Sensitive Worship.

Reading Church History: 2. 2nd-Century Greek Christianity

Collections of primary sources Robert M. Grant, Second-Century Christianity. A Collection of Fragments (2nd ed.; Louisville/London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003).

Steven A. McKinion, ed., Life and Practice in the Early Church. A Documentary Reader (New York/London: New York University Press, 2001).

Herbert Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972).

Cyril C. Richardson, Massey Hamilton Shepherd, Edward Rochie Hardy, eds., Early Christian Fathers (Repr. Touchstone, 1995).

Maxwell Staniforth, trans. Early Christian Writings (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1968).

General studies

Henry Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition: Studies in Justin, Clement and Origen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966).

Henry Chadwick, The Early Church. (Rev. ed.; London: Penguin Books, 1993).

Henry Chadwick, The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

F. L Cross and E. A. Livingstone, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Philip F. Esler, ed., The Early Christian World (London/New York: Routledge, 2000), 2 vols.

Everett Ferguson, Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (2nd ed.; New York/London: Garland Publishing, 1998), 2 vols.

Harry Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1995).

Robert M. Grant, Greek Apologists of the Second Century (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1988).

Geoffrey M. Hahneman, The Muratorian Fragment and the Development of the Canon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).

Peter Lampe, From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries, trans. Michael Steinhauser and ed. Marshall D. Johnson (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003).

Eric Osborn, The Emergence of Christian Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Colin. H. Roberts and T.C. Skeat. The Birth of the Codex (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983).

Thomas A. Robinson, The Early Church: An Annotated Bibliography of Literature in English (Metuchen: The American Theological Library Association/The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1993).

Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity. A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996).

David Trobisch, Paul’s Letter Collection: Tracing the Origins (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994).

D.S. Wallace-Hadrill, Christian Antioch: A Study of Early Christian Thought in the East (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).

W. C. Weinrich, Spirit and Martyrdom. A Study of the Work of the Holy Spirit in Contexts of Persecution and Martyrdom in the New Testament and Early Christian Literature (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1981).

Ignatius of Antioch

Charles Thomas Brown, The Gospel and Ignatius of Antioch (New York: Peter Lang, 2000).

Virginia Corwin, St. Ignatius and Christianity in Antioch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960).

John E. Lawyer, Jr., “Eucharist and Martyrdom in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch”, Anglican Theological review, 73 (1991).

Daniel N. McNamara, “Ignatius of Antioch On His Death: Discipleship, Sacrifice, Imitation” (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, McMaster University, 1977).

Issa A. Saliba, “The Bishop of Antioch and the Heretics: A Study of a Primitive Christology”, The Evangelical Quarterly, 54 (1982).

Cullen I. K. Story, “The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch”, The Evangelical Quarterly, 56 (1984).

Christine Trevett, A Study of Ignatius of Antioch in Syria and Asia (Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992).

Christine Trevett, “A Study of Ignatius of Antioch in Syria and Asia”, Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity 29 (1992).

Irenaeus of Lyons

David L. Balas, “The Use and Interpretation of Paul in Irenaeus’ Five Books Adversus Haereses”, The Second Century, 9 (1992).

Denis Minns, Irenaeus (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 1994).

Richard A. Norris, Jr. “Irenaeus’ Use of Paul in His Polemic Against the Gnostics” in William S. Babcock, ed. Paul and the Legacies of Paul (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1990).

Eric Osborn, Ireneaus of Lyons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Justin Martyr

Craig D. Allert, Revelation, Truth, Canon and Interpretation: Studies in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho (Boston: E.J. Brill, 2002).

L.W. Barnard, Justin Martyr: His Life and Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967).

Willis A. Shotwell, The Biblical Exegesis of Justin Martyr (London: SPCK, 1965).

The Letter to Diognetus

Bruce Fawcett, “Similar yet Unique: Christians as Described in the Letter to Diognetus 5”, The Baptist Review of Theology, 6, No.1 (Spring, 1996), 23-27.

Joseph T. Lienhard, “The Christology of the Epistle to Diognetus”, Vigiliae Christianae, 24 (1970).

H.G. Meecham, The Epistle to Diognetus (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1949).

W. S. Walford, Epistle to Diognetus (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1908).

Melito of Sardis

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, The Lamb’s High Feast: Melito, Peri Pascha and the Quartodeciman Paschal Liturgy at Sardis (Boston: E.J. Brill, 1998).

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed., Melito of Sardis. On Pascha: With Fragments of Melito and Other Material Related to the Quartodecimans (Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001).

The Odes of Solomon

James Hamilton Charlesworth, ed., The Odes of Solomon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973).

Theophilus of Antioch

Robert M. Grant, trans., Theophilus of Antioch: Ad Autolycum (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970).

Rick Rogers, Theophilus of Antioch: The Life and Thought of a Second-Century Bishop (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2000).

T4G & Similar Conferences: Their Importance

I was not able to take in all of T4G last week—only a couple of sessions-unlike two years ago when I was there for all of it (an unforgettable experience). But I was reminded of its importance today in a letter from Martin Holdt [“Out of Africa: Newsletter” (April 2008)], where he states vis-à-vis the UK Banner Conference (but it would apply to T4G or John Piper’s Desiring God conferences, or Dr. MacArthur’s Shepherd Conference or those put on by Ligonier, or the Banner confernece over here, or on a much smaller scale the SGF conference in Southern Ontario): “A friend and colleague in England once told me that it was once found that in England the men who are most likely to persevere against the usual odds in the ministry are those who regularly attend minister’s conferences. Those most likely to drop out are those who isolate themselves and never get the benefit of such a fraternity.”

Reading Church History: 1. Latin Christianity

Tertullian Timothy Barnes, Tertullian. A Historical and Literary Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).

Gerald L. Bray, Holiness and the Will of God: Perspectives on the Theology of Tertullian (Atlanta: John knox/London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1979).

Gerald L. Bray, “Tertullian and Western Theology” in John D. Woodbridge, ed., Great Leaders of the Christian Church (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988), 49-54.

Perpetua

The Martyrdom of Perpetua, introd. Sara Maitland (Evesham, Worcestershire: Arthur James Ltd., 1996).

Joyce E. Salisbury, Perpetua’s Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman (London/New York: Routledge, 1997).

Joseph J. Walsh, ed., What Would You Die For? Perpetua’s Passion (Baltimore, Maryland: Apprentice House, 2006).

W.C. Weinrich, Spirit and Martyrdom. A Study of the Work of the Holy Spirit in Contexts of Persecution and Martyrdom in the New Testament and Early Christian Literature (Washington, D.C., 1981).

Cyprian

William S. Babcock, “Christian Culture and Christian Tradition in Roman North Africa” in Patrick Henry, ed., Schools of Thought in the Christian Tradition (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 31-48.

J. Patout Burns, “The Holiness of the Churches” in William Caferro and Duncan G. Fisher, eds., The Unbounded Community: Papers in Christian Ecumenism in Honor of Jaroslav Pelikan (New York/London: Garland Publ., Inc., 1996), 3-15.

J. Patout Burns, Cyprian the Bishop (London/New York: Routledge, 2002).

Michael A. Smith, “Cyprian of Carthage and the North African Church” in John D. Woodbridge, ed., Great Leaders of the Christian Church (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988), 59-62.

Jerome

Everett Ferguson, “Jerome: Biblical Scholar” in John D. Woodbridge, ed., Great Leaders of the Christian Church (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988), 77-80.

J.N.D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (New York: Harper & Row, Publ., 1975).

Augustine

Gerald S. Bonner, St. Augustine of Hippo, Life and Controversies (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963).

Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967).

Donald X. Burt, Friendship and Society: An Introduction to Augustine’s Practical Philosophy (Grand Rapids/Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1999).

Elizabeth A. Clark, St. Augustine on Marriage and Sexuality (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996).

Robert Dodaro and George Lawless, eds., Augustine and his Critics: Essays in Honour of Gerald Bonner (London/New York: Routledge, 2000).

Thomas A. Hand, Augustine on Prayer (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co.,1986).

Carol Harrison, Augustine: Christian Truth and Fractured Humanity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

N. R. Needham, The Triumph of Grace: Augustine’s writings on Salvation (London: Grace Publications Trust, 2000).

John M. Rist, Augustine: Ancient thought baptized (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Gary Wills, Saint Augustine (New York: Viking Penguin, 1999).

Patrick

Máire B. de Paor, Patrick: The Pilgrim Apostle of Ireland (New York: HarperCollins, 1998).

David N. Dumville, Saint Patrick, A.D. 493-1993 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 1993).

R.P.C. Hanson, Saint Patrick: His Origins and Career (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968).

R.P.C. Hanson, The Life and Writings of the Historical Saint Patrick (New York: The Seabury Press, 1983).

E.A. Thompson, Who Was Saint Patrick? (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 1985).

Posting Reading Lists in Church History

A number of brothers have enquired about reading lists on various eras in Church history. I have decided to post these in a series. Not sure how many there will be. But I shall number them consecutively so interested readers can keep track. And while I hope to work through the whole of western church history, I will not be posting every day, but as I have time. And I am sure many of you find will omissions of favourite things. Two things to note in this regard: I would love to hear of possible additions. But remember these are lists that I feel are necessary reading and because I am limited, the lists are also limited. In each of the areas I shall post on the reading could be multiplied many times over.

So here goes. The first reading list, on the Latin Fathers, follows immediately.

Why Are Cats Not Mentioned in Holy Writ?

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), one of the greatest of Renaissance artists, has a painting entitled Adam and Eve (1504) in which there is the most curious of things: a cat (for the painting, see http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/ho/08/euwc/ho_19.73.1.htm)! The cat, experts in artistic metaphor tell us, represents the choleric temperament in man. In Dürer’s rendition, the cat seems to be sleeping, while very close to it is a mouse, utterly unconcerned for its safety. The scene is pre-fall, and thus the fact that there is no danger for the mouse. Now, what I find most curious is this: cats are never mentioned in Scripture. How strange in that case to find one at the feet of Dürer’s Adam and Eve. That other prolific western pet, dogs, are mentioned in the Bible, though they rarely come off well. But cats make no showing at all. It is a good reminder that Scripture is not to meant to give us an exhaustive encyclopedia of all human knowledge nor is it designed as a comprehensive guide to every conceivable human decision.

Should I buy a cat? Well, cats are not even mentioned! So, no way. If God had wanted me to have a cat, he would have told me in his Word.

No, this is a misuse of Scripture. There are principles of guidance about buying and selling—which, we must say, are utterly sufficient—but as to the specifics of the question above in relation to cats, no details. This, it seems, has convinced some in the western tradition that cats are evil. Otherwise, why no mention of them? No, cats are not inherently evil—our flame-point Siamese Chai is rambunctious, but hardly evil—they are part of the goodness of God’s creation which our Maker has given us to enjoy.

All of this is a good reminder that we must ask questions of God’s Holy Word it is designed to answer. And the most critical of those is how can a Holy God deal with the sin of us post-fall human beings and yet still love the creation he has made and do it good? This is a weighty question indeed (and we heard some good answers at this year’s T4G this past week).

Where to Start in Reading Patristics

I was asked by one reader (www.letmypeopleread.blogspot.com ) about where I would recommend beginning a reading programme in the Fathers. Here is my brief reply. (And thanks, brother, for the great question). I would start with Robert Louis Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003). Then: Christopher A. Hall, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1998). Finally, a third book that is a gem, but not easy is Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition. A History of the Development of Doctrine. Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1971).

And do not forget getting into the Fathers directly. Start with Augustine, Confessions, trans. R.S. Pine-Coffin (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1961) [this is the translation I like, but there are others]. Or read through an excellent collection by Steven A. McKinion, ed., Life and Practice in the Early Church. A Documentary Reader (New York/London: New York University Press, 2001). Another favourite of mine is Basil of Ceasarea, On the Holy Spirit, trans. David Anderson (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimirs Press, 1980).

For a good overview of the period, see the relevant pages in Tim Dowley ed., Introduction to the History of Christianity (1990 Rev. ed.; repr. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995) and for the key leaders, see John D. Woodbridge, ed., Great Leaders of the Christian Church (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988). The latter is regrettably out of print, but second-hand copies can be gotten easily. I have also had published Defence of the Truth: Contending for the truth yesterday and today (Darlington, Co. Durham: Evangelical Press, 2004), which deals with theological challenges faced by the Ancient Church.

I did blog on this back in 2006: see WHAT TO READ OF THE FATHERS?

Wise Words from Wendell Kempton

In the most recent issue of The Baptist Bulletin (March/April 2008) I noticed a two-page memorial tribute about Wendell Kempton, the President Emeritus of ABWE, who died January 6, 2008. I probably would have paid no attention if I had not received earlier this year an e-mail sent out by Larry Smith, with whom I worked for a couple of years in the 1990s at Heritage Baptist College and Seminary. Until I received Larry’s e-mail I do not believe I knew the name of Dr. Kempton. I was struck by one paragraph in particular about Dr. Kempton. Larry wrote this about him:

“I was in my office in Santiago, Chile beginning our second term of missionary service when I learned that our new president of ABWE was a man named Wendell Kempton. I did not know him or anything about him. I asked a missionary colleague who he was and he replied, “We call him Wendy—he’s a coach.”

“…As time passed, I was privileged to have Dr. Kempton “coach” me. I remember sitting in the airport in Santiago, Chile and listening intently to him as he coached me with words of wisdom on how to become a better missionary. As I approach retirement, I remember him telling me that “it is more important how you leave an organization than how you entered”.”

Those are wise words indeed.

Why Seek out the Fathers

A dear friend, John Clubine, recently passed along to me a couple of pages from The Berean Call, 23, No.3 (March 2008), an article by T.A. McMahon entitled “Ancient-Future Heresies.” There are a number of things in the article with which I would wholeheartedly agree. But at one point the following is stated: “…it takes very little scrutiny of men like Origen, Ireaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Justin Martyr, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine, and others, to see their flaws, let alone their heresies. For example, Origen taught that God would save everyone and that Mary was a perpetual virgin; Irenaeus believed that the bread and wine became the body and blood of Jesus when consecrated, as did John Chrysostom and Cyril of Jerusalem; Athanasius taught salvation through baptism; Tertullian became a supporter of the Montanist heresies, and a promoter of a New Testament clergy class, as did his disciple Cyprian; Augustine was the principal architect of Catholic dogma that included his support of purgatory, baptismal regeneration, and infant baptism, mortal and venial sins, prayers to the dead, penance for sins, absolution from a priest, the sinlessness of Mary, the Apocrypha as Scripture, etc. It’s not that these men got everything wrong; some on certain doctrines, upheld Scripture against the developing unbiblical dogmas of the roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, overall they are a heretical minefield. So why seek them out?” (p.4).

John Lukacs, a marvelous historian, has recently said that one of the reasons why we need to do history is that there is so much bad history out there. And this paragraph is a case in point! Much of what is said here is out and out erroneous, some of it needs nuancing and parts of it are right. It would take a book to respond adequately, and a blog is probably not the best place in engage in developing an adequate response.

But suffice it to say this: the paragraph ends with a very erroneous statement and a very important question. The deeply erroneous statement: “overall they are a heretical minefield.” Wow! There have been some in the past who argued thus, but they were usually ones who disagreed with the Reformation impulse and felt that the entire history of the church between the Apocalypse of John and the Reformation was an utter wasteland. Best to forget it all and start anew.

This was not the view of the Reformers, who felt that the Fathers of the Church could aid them in the Reformation needed in their day. Not that the Reformers believed everything that the Fathers wrote. They tested all against Holy Scripture. But they did believe that the Fathers more often supported them than they did their Roman Catholic opponents.

The question: “why seek them out?” Because the Reformers like Calvin and Cranmer and Knox believed that the Fathers were important witnesses to biblical truth and they bore witness to the grace of God at work in the Church.

The Error of the Federal Vision

In the Ancient Church a Christian was a person who turned from idols and embraced the living God as he had revealed himself definitively in the crucified and risen Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). What made him a Christian? Faith, which was rooted in the electing work of God (see Acts 11:18; 13:48; 15:7-9; 16:31). None of the early New Testament authors believed that the act of baptism alone saved anyone (thus Mark 16:16). Baptism is the way a person with a good conscience (to see what this is and how one obtains it, read Hebrews 9:14) responds to the saving work of God. Thus 1 Peter 3:21 means that the baptism which saves is that which is “the pledge of a good conscience toward God.”

These convictions must be asserted afresh today for the upholders of the so-called Federal Vision maintain that the baptism of infants makes them Christians—a position that is simply taking us back to the disastrous confusion of the medieval Church. As a Calvinistic Baptist I have deep admiration for many Reformed paedobaptist brothers, though I would disagree with their argument that infant baptism is a covenantal sign that must be affirmed later in life. But such brethren do not argue for trust for salvation in the baptismal rite. There must be conversion.

But this position is quite different from the affirmation that a human rite in itself and by itself saves. The Apostle clearly rejects this latter argument in 1 Corinthians 10:1-5. If participation in the ordinances saved, then surely those who followed Moses out of Egypt would have entered the Promised Land. But they did not—for baptism (and the Lord’s Table) do not save.

God will not give the glory of being the Saviour of his people to another person or thing!

Liam Goligher Lectures

This past Saturday morning, The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, now located at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (www.sbts.edu) , teamed up with Toronto Baptist Seminary (www.tbs.edu ) to present a mini-conference of two lectures by Dr Liam Goligher of Duke Street Church in Richmond-on-Thames, London (see www.dukestreetchurch.co.uk ). This conference had been planned before the move of the Andrew Fuller Center to Louisville, but it is hoped that the Center will be able to hold a similar event annually in southern Ontario. Dr Goligher superbly and succinctly analyzed the Emergent Church in his first lecture and then looked at the deviations from a solid biblical focus on penal, substitutionary atonement in his second talk. Coming from a position Goligher described as “Catholic [that is rooted in the patristic era], Protestant, Reformed, and Evangelical,” he examined Emergent thinking in relation to Scripture, humanity, Christ, salvation, ethics, and Christian orthodoxy. He urged his hearers that while we must be humble in the way we present the truth, we should not “be humble about the truth” itself. Truth can be known—though obviously not all the truth about any given topic. Insightfully he suggested that the opposite of humility today for many people—even Christians—is not pride, but conviction.

Goligher’s second lecture looked at the doctrine of the cross in the New and Old Testaments. He ably responded to Steve Chalke’s recent argument that viewing the cross as God’s judgment on sin is simply cosmic child abuse and rightly pointed out that the charge is not a new one. Goligher powerfully argued that the cross achieves propitiation, reconciliation, redemption, and victory over evil.

It was a morning well spent. We hope, DV, to have another set of lectures next year at roughly the same time. On that occasion, Dr Stephen Wellum of Southern will be with us lecturing on the person of Christ. Plan on joining us!

For another report of the lectures by Dr Goligher, see Kirk Wellum: Post Lecture Thoughts.

The audio of Dr Goligher's lectures can be found here on the Toronto Baptist website:

Lecture #1 The Emergent Church - Reinventing Liberalism

Lecture #2 - Preaching The Cross Today

Scripture for Hilary of Poitiers

Some great words from Hilary of Poitiers (c.315-367/8), whom I have long desired to study more and even write a biography of him: "The Apostle, who instructs us on many things, also teaches us that the Word of God must be treated with the greatest reverence, saying “whoever speaks, [let him speak] as uttering the oracles of God” [1 Peter 4:11]. For we ought not to treat Scripture with a vulgar familiarity, as we do in our ordinary speech; rather, when we speak of what we have learned and read we should give honor to the author by our care for the way we express ourselves… Preachers, then, must think that they are not speaking to a human audience, and hearers must know that it is not human words that are being offered to them, but that they are God’s words, God’s decrees, God’s laws. For both roles, the utmost reverence is fitting.” [Tractatus super Psalmum 13.1 (CCSL 61:76, ll.1-6, 21-24)].

The Poetic and Preaching

It seems so obvious that when a significant portion of Holy Scripture is poetic in form, poetry in genre, that preachers should take courses in understanding ancient poetry—and some instruction on how to interpret more modern forms of poetry would surely help as well. But the poetic is not in vogue in our culture (apart from modern music, and that is usually little better than nursery rhymes!), and we, and preaching, are the worse off. Is it no wonder that the Psalms, the poetic portions of the Prophets and other poetic portions of Holy Scripture are not regularly preached as much as the more didactic forms that appeal to the modern western mind-set?