No 79 AUTUMN 2020 Contents Editorial 1 1 EditorialDonald John MacLean Stephen Clark APleasing Biblical the Theology Impassible of Worship God 73 Lee Gatiss, Director, Church Society Mark Johnston Minister, Bethel Presbyterian Church, Cardiff (Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales) Complementarianism, Quo Vadis? 14 WhenSarah Allen, You RegionalCome Together: Director, Flourish, Gathered London Worship Seminary in the New Testament 34 The Apologetics and Theology of Cornelius Van Til 32 David R. Owen Kirk LecturerFilson, Pastor in New of Testament Theology Studies, and Discipleship, Highland Theological College; minister, Free Church of Scotland Christ Presbyterian Academy, Nashville WhatAbraham is Sweeter Kuyper: to Cultural us is Clearer: Transformer The Aesthetics 60 ofSteve Worship Bishop, –Lecturer, A Historical City of SurveyBristol College 61 Robert Letham Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, UnionSamuel School Rutherford’s of Theology Doctrine of Sanctification and TuningSeventeenth the Heart: Century A Historical Antinomianism Survey of the 77 AffectionsSong-En Poon, in Pastor, Corporate Reformed Worship Bible Presbyterian Church, Singapore84 Pastor, Grace Church, Cambridge; Director, GrahamBook Reviews: Beynon 91 Independent Ministry Training, Oak Hill Theological College The Ascension of Christ: Recovering a neglected doctrine WorshipPatrick Schreiner Today: (Nathan Maintaining Pomeroy) Continuity with theJazz, PastBlues, and and Spirituals:Across the The WorldOrigins and Spirituality of Black Music110 in Raythe UnitedEvans StatesLead Minister, Grace Community Church, Bedford and ChurchHans Rookmaaker Leadership ( AndrewConsultant, McKenna FIEC) Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: How the Church WorshipNeeds to Rediscover Today: HerContemporary Purpose Expression of WorshipAimee Byrd in (Sarah One’s Allen Own) Culture(s) 131 Stephen Clark Pastor, Freeschool Court Evangelical Church, Bridgend,Bavinck: A Director,Critical Biography EMW Theological Training Course and Lecturer inJames Systematic Eglinton Theology, (Steve Bishop London) Seminary Christian Worldview ReviewHerman Bavinck Article: (Steve Outside Bishop )In - Margins of Islam: MinistryGod in Himself: in Diverse Scripture, Muslim Metaphysics Contexts and the Task of Christian Theology162 MarkSteven Pickett Duby ( BenedictUFM Worldwide Bird) BookWho God Review Says Yous Are: A Christian Understanding of Identity 178 Klyne R. Snodgrass (Thomas Creedy) Foundations Foundations is an international ministry. Its particular focus The views expressed in the journal of evangelical theology is the theology of evangelical articles published in Foundations published in the United churches which are committed do not necessarily represent the Kingdom. Its aim is to cover to biblical truth and evangelical views of Affinity or its partners contemporary theological ecumenism. It has been although all content must be issues by articles and reviews, published by Affinity (formerly within the bounds of the Affinity taking in exegesis, biblical The British Evangelical Council) Doctrinal Basis. theology, church history and from its inception as a print apologetics, and to indicate journal. It became a digital their relevance to pastoral journal in April 2011. Foundations is Editor published twice Donald John MacLean each year online at www.affinity.org.uk Book Review Editor Matthew Evans It is offered in two [email protected] formats: Associate Editors PDF (for citing pagination) Bob Fyall and HTML (for greater Cornhill Training Course (Scotland) accessibility, usability, and infiltration in search engines). Jamie A. Grant Vice-Principal (Academic), Highland Theological College Foundations is copyrighted by Affinity. Readers are free to use David McKay it and circulate it in digital form Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland without further permission (any print use requires further Dan Strange written permission), but they Oak Hill College, London must acknowledge the source Ted Turnau and, of course, not change the Anglo-American University, Prague & Union School of Theology content. Keith Walker Foundations is published by International Strategic Development Director, SIM International Affinity Paul Wells PO Box 1958 Emeritus Professor, Faculté Jean Calvin, Aix-en-Provence, France Bristol BS37 0DH Telephone: 07989 773043 Garry Williams Website: www.affinity.org.uk The John Owen Centre, London Seminary Email: [email protected] Facebook: www.facebook.com/ Peter Williams Tyndale House, Cambridge affinitytalks Twitter: @affinitytalks Alistair Wilson Charity no. 258924 Edinburgh Theological Seminary Foundations 79 (November 2020): 1-2 EDITORIAL Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. (Ps 124:8, NKJV) It is my pleasure to introduce another edition of Foundations. Again, this edition appears in difficult and troubling times, so I am particularly grateful for those who have made the time to write and to seek to enrich the Church despite the constraints and pressures we are living with. The first article in this edition is from Affinity council member Lee Gatiss. Lee reflects so very helpfully and pastorally on what can often be a difficult concept to get our heads around: the impassibility of God. Perhaps we struggle to relate the language of Scripture (God being grieved over sin, or angry and distressed over our actions) with the theological conviction that God is unchangeably blessed and happy (or as Lee says, God “is not vulnerable to bouts of unhappiness, despair, or depression because we have been naughty or cruel or unfaithful”). It may even be that the former causes us to deny and question the latter and reject what has become known as “classical theism” (a helpful term, which should not however be used to flatten out genuine diversity within an overarching unity). If we have puzzled over these matters then we will find Lee a faithful guide. The next article tackles what is an increasingly controversial area, the current debates and varying practices within what is known as “complementarianism”. I am very grateful to Sarah Allen for the work she has done to describe the current lie of the land in broadly complementarian churches. This is an area where further theological reflection and discussion is needed. Without this we will either increasingly simply drift with society, or potentially react against this drift by unthinkingly preserving the cultural norms of the church culture we grew up in. Sarah’s article raises a number of important questions, and I hope authors (reflecting the breadth of views in our ecclesiastical circles) will take up the challenge to write further in this area for Foundations. Needed areas of reflection range from the nature of gathered Lord’s Day worship through to the kind of complementarity there is between men and women (i.e. the question of ontology). Following Sarah’s article is a piece by David Filson of Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville and Westminster Theological Seminary on the apologetics and theology of Cornelius Van Til. Van Til and the orbit of Westminster Theological Seminary had a profound influence on apologetic practice in reformed and evangelical churches in the twentieth century. To help us understand Van Til, Filson takes us to a controversy over apologetic method in the mid-twentieth century, unpacking what Van Til meant by a 2 Editorial presuppositional apologetics and how the idea of “paradox” features in his theology. There have been a number of recent criticisms of Van Til’s methodology. It is good, in response, to pause and reflect on Van Til’s teachings in the hands of a pastor and academic like Filson. Two more historical studies make up the remaining two articles. The first is a paper by Steve Bishop on Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian, politician, academic and all-round polymath. At the one hundredth anni- versary of his death it is good to be able to reflect on Kuyper’s legacy. The final article is on Samuel Rutherford and antinomianism by Song-En Poon. This was initially suggested for publication by William MacKenzie, and I am grateful for his recommendation. Seventeenth-century debates may seem far removed to us, but this one touches on issues of our relation to the law of God and the nature of faith and assurance. These are perpetually important matters. What I hope is evident in these articles is a breadth of interest, ranging as they do from theology with a pastoral edge, to current church practice, to apologetics, to historical theology. My desire for Foundations is that it will be used by members of Affinity and the broader evangelical circles in which we move to reflect on all these kinds of areas that together we might “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). Dr Donald John MacLean Editor of Foundations Elder, Cambridge Presbyterian Church and Trustee, The Banner of Truth October 2020 Foundations 79 (November 2020): 3-13 PLEASING THE IMPASSIBLE GOD Lee Gatiss* The Bible says, “find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10). But is God not already perfectly happy, and therefore not susceptible to changeable emotional reactions as we so often are? This article unpacks issues of accommodation in divine speech, anthropopathism, and the doctrines of immutability and impassibility (the idea that God is “without passions” as some confessions put it), in order to understand better the scriptural metaphor of pleasing or displeasing God. If God followed you on social media, what would he