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Adapting Westminster Standards’ moral law motif to integrate systematic theology, apologetics and pastoral practice T. P Yates 31568734 orcid.org/0000-0002-8202-2603 Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Philosophia Doctor in Apologetics at the North-West University Promoter: Prof HG Stoker Co-promoter: Dr JA De Macedo Date of submission: April 1, 2021 (Feb 21, 2021 revisions) (CC BY-SA 4.0) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You are free to: CC: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. CC: Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. Under the following terms: BY: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. SA: ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. PREFACE The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. Isaiah 42:21 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my promoter Dr. Henk Stoker and co-promoter Dr. Jonatas de Macedo for their friendship and support in the collegial effort to produce a thesis that contributes to theological education, and for their valuable content supervision and format corrections throughout the long process of thesis writing and chapter by chapter editing. Also I wish to thank Dr. Vern Poythress of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadephia, USA for his long-term influence on my teaching and writing through his books and articles on perspectivalism and his generous engagement with my first four chapters, especially on God’s attribute names developed in chapter 3 (as footnoted in the text), suggestions related to simplification of the overall lex Christi-DRL6R’s model, ideas for how to use it to influence the biblical counselling movement and his personal adaptations of some of these ideas to use in his own systematic theology teaching. I would like to thank Dr. Tim Conkling, my friend and colleague in East Asia missions, for his perseverance in reading through an earlier draft of the thesis in December 2020 and providing constructive input on improving readability, greater clarity with Gospel integration, directing me to review the Romans 7 interpretive debates (see chapter 9), as well as connecting me to Michael Graham’s dissertation on Dr. C. John “Jack” Miller (Graham, 2019) as well as the adapted popular version in Cheer Up (Graham, 2020) to compare this thesis with a modern-day Reformed evangelist, apologete and preacher (see chapter 8). I would especially like to thank my students at China Reformed Theological Seminary, Taipei, Taiwan, for their patience, enthusiastic engagement and their own counselling, research and thesis applications of my ever-refining Westminster Standards’ based model for integrating theology with biblical counselling, proving again the value of the motto, Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda! (the Reformed church should continually be reforming). In the case of the purpose of this thesis, that reformation is a call to Reformed Presbyterians to re-focus on our Westminster Standards and consider how to adapt not only its well-defined, biblically informed content, but also its structural forms, for the challenges of theological formulation and application in our own day. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Barbara for her sacrifices and support to enable my theological research and writing over the past three years in this distance Apologetics PhD program at NorthWest University, South Africa, while carrying on my regular ministry load in seminary teaching, local church preaching and missionary reporting. ABSTRACT Current loci of Reformed systematic theology and applications to pastoral practice are fragmented from each other creating a dualism between faith (what is believed) and life (how we should live) that impacts pastoral practice at all levels. For example, Reformed biblical counsellors’ dual use counselling-apologetic motif for pastoral practice (exposit truth, negate error, capture reinterpreted extra-biblical knowledge) refined by Powlison is highly generalized, ii requiring more explicit integration with the controlling beliefs of Reformed systematic theology, better clarification of derivative epistemic foundations and new formulations of taxonomic specificity to prevent mixing theology and psychology as equals. While the doctrines of Reformed systematic theology are fairly stable, believers do not quickly grasp their inter-relatedness or their practical importance, particularly with reference to God’s attributes. Reformed authors with various practical theology specialties propose myriads of partial frameworks and practical principles based on smaller sets of biblical data that believers can quickly appreciate and apply, but lack vital connectivity with the full scope of Reformed doctrines. The Westminster Standards’ motif of righteousness as defined by the moral law, also called the Decalogue, integrates its systematic theology and pastoral practice. This thesis will adapt that motif to create a memorable summary phrase of the law of Christ (Latin: lex Christi) with 6 engagement verbs that begin with the letter “R”, derived from ways that the Lord’s covenant-relation attributes engage humanity, that can help us build a Grand Unifying Theory (GUT), called the Lex Christi Dominion of the Righteous Lord (lex Christi-DRL6R’s) together with a new definition of practical theology that helps readers see the interrelationships. This adapted Westminster lex Christi model, proposes a decalogical perspective to integrate systematic theology loci, with a particular contribution to reorganizing and renaming God’s attributes that make more obvious God’s parallel reflections in the moral law, then seeing other integrating connections in the doctrine of Scripture, Christ and man. Lex Christi will be used to integrate other systematic theology loci such as creation-fall (Gen. 1-3), consummation (Rev. 21-22), Wisdom literature and apologetics (Acts 17:22-31). Lex Christi- DRL6R’s will be used to integrate pastoral practice for parent training. In relation to extra-biblical knowledge, lex Christi-DRL6R’s will be used as way to engage worldviews, particularly topics related to trauma and the conscience in the psychologies. This adapted motif also challenges believers as well as those who teach biblical truth to all ages and levels of maturity to consider the Westminster Larger Catechism 101-151 as a micro-scalable, supra-pedagogical perspective structured under the rubric of Exodus 20:1-17, giving an example of how to reorganize the truths of Reformed systematic theology and practical principles of pastoral practice under its perspectival rubric. Key terms Westminster Standards, Westminster Confession of Faith, Westminster Larger Catechism, metanarrative, redemptive history, unified-morality perspective, supra-morality perspective, symphonic lex Christi motif, supra-pedagogical perspective, integration of Christianity and psychology, biblical counselling, fragmentation, integration of Reformed theology, systematic theology, practical theology, pastoral practice, moral law, law of Christ (lex Christi), doctrine of God, doctrine of Scripture, taxonomy, hermeneutics, God’s attributes, worldview, neo-Calvinism, iii Abraham Kuyper, David Powlison, common grace, general revelation, sin, righteousness, seminary curriculum, Genesis 1-3; Revelation 21-22, presuppositional apologetics, evangelism of Gentiles, missions, Romans 1-2, Acts 17, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Psalms, parenting, conscience, Ten Commandments, law of Moses, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, sexual orientation, gender identity New lex Christi taxonomy for God’s supremacy attributes: (all the attributes are unified in one Lord, indivisible from each other) The Lord is supremely . determinate, faithful, present, mysterious, powerful, independent, eternal, perfect, knowing, boundless, (these called supra- valency attributes), and reveals his righteousness by 1stC superior, 2ndC holy, 3rdC blessed, 4thC dynamic, 5thC harmonious, 6thC living, 7thC beautiful, 8thC sufficient, 9thC truthful, 10thC contented (these called supra-lex Christi attributes that cohere with the moral law), and engages with the world and the creatures by loving//hating, gracious//jealous, merciful//wrathful, patient to save//patient to judge, good//just, forgiving//condemning, rewarding//penalizing, self- controlled//angry, disciplining//abandoning, rejoicing//grieving (these called ten pairs of covenant- relational attributes, depending on the creature’s relationship to covenant, the first word of the pairs for those in covenant, the second for those outside covenant). New lex Christi taxonomy for man’s likeness to God: 1st pro-LORD, 2nd pro-covenantal, 3rd pro- blessing, 4th pro-theosynchrony, 5th pro-harmony, 6th pro-life, 7th pro-marriage, 8th pro- stewardship, 9th pro-truthful, 10th pro-contentment iv OPSOMMING En sleutelterme v ABBREVIATIONS 4th a C, 4th b C Divides the 4th commandment into (a) Sabbath rest and (b) six days of labour portions BC Biblical
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