4303 SBJT Winter 04.4.Indd

The SBJT Forum: Testimonies to a Theologian Editor’s Note: Readers should be aware of the forum’s format. D. A. Carson, Timothy George, Harold O. J. Brown, C. Ben Mitchell, Carl Trueman, Mark Dever and Hutz H. Hertzberg have been asked specifi c questions to which they have provided written responses. These writers are not responding to one another. The journal’s goal for the Forum is to provide signifi cant thinkers’ views on topics of interest without requiring lengthy articles from these heavily-committed individuals. Their answers are presented in an order that hopefully makes the forum read as much like a unifi ed presentation as possible. SBJT: We know that during the last chatting them up with real interest and quarter-century you developed a close without a trace of condescension. My friendship with Carl F. H. Henry and daughter’s fi rst exposure to Carl came his wife Helga. Would you share any when he was preaching one Sunday personal reminiscences? evening at Eden Baptist Church, Cam- D. A. Carson: Although my wife and I are bridge. Our daughter, then fi ve years old more than a generation younger than Carl and beginning to read and write, chose and Helga Henry, that would never have that evening to follow, for the fi rst time, deterred them from friendship. The reason what she had observed in her parents: was threefold: fi rst, they made common she decided to take notes of the sermon. cause with anyone who was passionate The great Carl Henry delivered his soul about the gospel, and age had nothing to on Ecclesiastes 12: “Remember your do with it; second, as they became more Creator in the days of your youth, before infi rm, they learned, however reluctantly, the days of trouble come, and the years to accept help from those willing to give it, approach when you will say, ‘I fi nd no precisely because they were never proud; pleasure in them’”—followed by colorful D. A. Carson is Research Professor and third, and most important, Carl and biblical description of physical decay: of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Helga were never inclined to dwell only the grinders cease because they are few Divinity School in Deerfi eld, Illinois. He in the past. They were always looking (i.e., one’s teeth fall out), the doors to the is the author of numerous commentar- ahead to the future—and that meant they street are closed and the sound of grind- ies and monographs, and is one of this welcomed younger friends. ing fades (we become deaf), the daylight country’s foremost New Testament A few paragraphs cannot do jus- fades as our eyes grow dim, and we are scholars. Among his many books are tice to the shape of the friendship we so arthritic that we drag ourselves around Divine Sovereignty and Human Re- forged, especially during the last twenty like crippled grasshoppers, clumsy and sponsibility (John Knox Press, 1981; years—and in any case, some matters inept. The silver cord is fi nally severed reprint, Baker, 1994), The Gagging of should remain private. Nevertheless, it is (our spinal column falls apart). The dust God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism easy to recall things that should be shared. returns to the ground it came from. So (Zondervan, 1996), and Love in Hard Occasional meals at our home would fi nd remember your Creator in the days of Places (Crossway, 2002). both Carl and Helga quizzing our kids, your youth. Our daughter wrote, “Grass- 82 hoppers are good. Silver cords break. The world leaders had become intoxicated by ground is dusty.” Carl, Carl, you may not his own signifi cance, if a man who had have got through to our fi ve-year-old on confronted deep disappointment and that Sunday evening, but your whole life excruciating bereavement in his family preached Ecclesiastes 12. had become bitter. It would, I say, have Carl and Helga traveled all over the been understandable. But the grace of God world, preaching and lecturing. But was strong in this man. He remained a although they could tell a prodigious theological thinker to the very end, but number of interesting stories, some of without a trace of pretension. On one them evocative or even funny, their over- memorable occasion about ten years ago, riding concern was the advance of the when one of our students picked Carl gospel. As I started traveling a bit more up from O’Hare and drove him onto our myself, Carl wanted more than updates campus so that he could teach a modular of esoteric places: he wanted to know course, the student, more than a little how the gospel of Jesus Christ was far- in awe of the great man, pointed to the ing in each place. In his declining years, large extension to the Rolfi ng Library, and even when Carl was largely confined asked, “What does it feel like to have your to a wheel chair or a bed and his mind name on a great building?” Carl replied, was somewhat dulled by pain-killers, “It feels like I should be dead!” our visits up to Watertown could fi nd One of my favorite memories springs us talking about our respective families, from something we organized at Trinity places we had visited, books we had read, more than a decade and a half ago. We the ups and downs of theological educa- invited both Carl Henry and Kenneth tion—but invariably, invariably, those Kantzer, then in their seventies, to lecture discussions ended up looking forward, on the previous half-century of evan- not backward. Invariably, invariably, that gelicalism in America and beyond. These forward-look stance had a worldwide lectures, delivered to the entire student fl avor. Some senior Christians only look body, were videotaped. The next day, I backward; not Carl, not Helga, not ever. was charged with interviewing the two Some senior Christians become cranky men. I did not tell them in advance what whiners; not Carl, not Helga. Increased questions I would ask. Inevitably I probed infi rmity sometimes made them home- their thinking about many individu- sick for heaven, but not once did we fi nd als (e.g., Billy Graham) and movements ingratitude or bitterness in them. And in (even the SBC!). Invariably they replied private moments, as my wife and I took with careful understanding, including our leave, Carl and Helga would sing, in some astute observations. Then, toward now wavering voices, one of their Chris- the end of the session, I asked a question tian choruses, a life-long habit springing along the following lines: “Many old men from more than sixty years of Christian begin to tear down what they built. They service and faithful marriage. become jealous of younger leaders coming I suppose it would be understandable along, or they focus on peripheral mat- if a man who had written forty infl uen- ters and lose their passion for the gospel. tial books had become arrogant, if a man They frequently become arrogant and who had walked with Christian and defensive. But both of you are gospel- 83 centered, and given to encouraging a new vision for the Berlin Congress on World generation. Despite your vast infl uence in Evangelism, and much more. He thought many quarters, you do not come across as strategically, and sought to bring about arrogant. How have you managed that? the goals he clearly envisaged. And do not simply say, ‘By the grace of (2) Carl developed what I call a pro- God.’ That is true, of course—but I want phetic voice from the center. That is an to know how this grace has worked out extraordinarily difficult achievement, in your lives.” Both of them sputtered for but one of the most important. While a bit, and then Carl blurted out, “How serving as editor of Christianity Today, he can anyone be arrogant when he stands strove to make the “thought magazine” beside the cross?” It was the best moment (as he called it) as broad as confessional on the videotape. evangelicalism, and broader still in its Carl understood, as well as any of us, reporting, while preserving a stance that that the grace that saves us is the grace focused on the central things, the non-nego- that sustains us and enables us to bear tiables, the common truths and realities: he fruit. From this perspective, we are all, was prophetic from the center. This is a at best, unprofitable servants—even far cry from many would-be “prophetic” Carl F. H. Henry. Still, that same grace is voices today that almost always focus on heard when the trumpets sound, and a something at the periphery as if it were Carl Henry enters eternity, and hears the at the center. Carl was too faithful a Bible voice of the Master saying, “Well done, reader for that. good and faithful servant. You have been (3) Because of this prophetic stance faithful over a few things. I will make you from the center, he could call the church ruler over many things. Enter into the joy to reformation along very different lines, of your Lord.” We rejoice with you, Carl, depending on what he saw going on, what as with one who has fought the good fi ght weaknesses seemed to be prevailing at of the faith; we rejoice with you, and we that point. Yes, he could defend propo- miss you more than we can say. sitional revelation (though his stance on If I had to list a few items for which this matter is today more often parodied Carl should be remembered—a few items, than understood and appreciated), but he I say, from what could be a very long could also call the church back to massive list—they might include the following: social engagement, as in his enormously (1) In some ways Carl reminds us that infl uential 1947 volume, The Uneasy Con- God gifts certain people in peculiar ways science of Modern Fundamentalism.

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