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Encouragement for Christians from Ecclesiastes

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Encouragement for Christians from Ecclesiastes An International Journal for Students of Theological and Religious Studies Volume 39 Issue 2 July 2014 EDITORIAL: What Are Gospel Issues? 215 D. A. Carson OFF THE RECORD: Projection Atheism: 220 Why Reductionist Accounts of Humanity Can Lead to Reductionist Accounts of God Michael J. Ovey Editor’s Note: Engaging with Edwards: 223 Essays on America’s Theologian Brian J. Tabb A Critical Examination of Jonathan Edwards’s 224 Doctrine of the Trinity Ralph Cunnington Jonathan Edwards and God’s Inner Life: 241 A Response to Kyle Strobel Gerald McDermott That Their Souls May Be Saved: The Theology and 251 Practice of Jonathan Edwards on Church Discipline Jeremy M. Kimble John Henry Newman (1801–1890) in His Second Century 268 Kenneth J. Stewart PASTORAL PENSÉES: Laboring in Hopeless Hope: 281 Encouragement for Christians from Ecclesiastes Eric Ortlund Book Reviews 290 DESCRIPTION Themelios is an international evangelical theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. It was formerly a print journal operated by RTSF/UCCF in the UK, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The editorial team draws participants from across the globe as editors, essayists, and reviewers. Themelios is published three times a year online at www.theGospelCoalition.org. It is presented in three formats: PDF (for downloading and printing), Logos edition (for searchability and mobile access), and HTML (for greater accessibility, usability, and infiltration in search engines). Themelios is copyrighted by The Gospel Coalition. Readers are free to use it and circulate it in digital form without further permission (any print use requires further written permission), but they must acknowledge the source and, of course, not change the content. EDITORS BOOK REVIEW EDITORS Systematic Theology and Bioethics Hans Madueme General Editor: D. A. Carson Old Testament Covenant College Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Jerry Hwang 14049 Scenic Highway 2065 Half Day Road Singapore Bible College Lookout Mountain, GA 30750, USA Deerfield, IL 60015, USA 9-15 Adam Road [email protected] [email protected] Singapore 289886 [email protected] Ethics (but not Bioethics) and Pastoralia Managing Editor: Brian Tabb Dane Ortlund Bethlehem College and Seminary New Testament Crossway 720 13th Avenue South Alan Thompson 1300 Crescent Street Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA Sydney Missionary & Bible College Wheaton, IL 60187, USA [email protected] PO Box 83 [email protected] Croydon, NSW 2132, Australia Contributing Editor: Michael J. Ovey [email protected] Mission and Culture Oak Hill Theological College Jason S. Sexton Chase Side, Southgate History and Historical Theology Golden Gate Baptist Seminary London, N14 4PS, UK Nathan A. Finn 251 S. Randolph Avenue (Suite A) [email protected] Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Brea, CA 92821, USA P. O. Box 1889 Administrator: Andy Naselli [email protected] Wake Forest, NC 27588, USA Bethlehem College and Seminary [email protected] 720 13th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA [email protected] EDITORIAL BOARD Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School; Lee Gatiss, Wales Evangelical School of Theology; Paul Helseth, University of Northwestern, St. Paul; Paul House, Beeson Divinity School; Ken Magnuson, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Jonathan Pennington, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; James Robson, Wycliffe Hall; Mark D. Thompson, Moore Theological College; Paul Williamson, Moore Theological College; Stephen Witmer, Pepperell Christian Fellowship; Robert Yarbrough, Covenant Seminary. ARTICLES Articles should generally be about 4,000 to 7,000 words (including footnotes) and should be submitted to the Managing Editor of Themelios, which is peer-reviewed. Articles should use clear, concise English, following The SBL Handbook of Style (esp. for abbreviations), supplemented by The Chicago Manual of Style. They should consistently use either UK or USA spelling and punctuation, and they should be submitted electronically as an email attachment using Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx extensions) or Rich Text Format (.rtf extension). Special characters should use a Unicode font. REVIEWS The book review editors generally select individuals for book reviews, but potential reviewers may contact them about reviewing specific books. As part of arranging book reviews, the book review editors will supply book review guidelines to reviewers. Themelios 39.2 (2014): 215–19 EDITORIAL What Are Gospel Issues? — D. A. Carson — D. A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. oday it is very common to hear that such-and-such a topic is “a gospel issue.” We must hold to the eternal generation of the Son: it is a gospel issue. We must defend inerrancy: it is a gospel issue. We must espouse complementarianism: it is a gospel issue. We must be sabbatarians: it Tis a gospel issue. We must hold to a specific eschatological vision: it is a gospel issue. We must hold to substitutionary penal atonement: it is a gospel issue. Alternatively, the weight of some doctrines may be diminished by our pronouncements if we declare that something or other is not a gospel issue. We then hear statements like these: Inerrancy may be important, but it is not a gospel issue. I disagree with your understanding of the role of the nation of Israel in the history of redemption, but that’s all right: it’s not a gospel issue. Why do you make such a fuss over complementarianism? After all, it’s not a gospel issue. Not only do we not agree on what things are gospel issues, I suspect that sometimes we do not agree on what “gospel issue” means. The following reflections provide the merest introduction to some of the factors that strike me as relevant: (1) The statement “X is a gospel issue” is simultaneously (a) a truth claim and (b) a polemical assertion attempting to establish relative importance. The latter clearly depends on the former. Both parts bear thinking about. The statement is a truth claim in that it asserts that something either is true about X, namely, that it is “a gospel issue.” The claim is either valid (if X really is a gospel issue) or invalid (if X is really not a gospel issue). But as used by most people, “X is a gospel issue” is more than a truth claim. If the truth claim is valid, the statement implicitly asserts that X is a more important topic than others that are not gospel issues: it is designed to establish the importance of X relative to other topics that are not understood to be gospel issues. What is presupposed in the statement, of course, is that the gospel has a very high level of importance, perhaps supreme importance, such that if X is a gospel issue, it too is similarly elevated in importance. It follows, then, that to abandon X, when X is a gospel issue, is somehow to diminish or threaten the gospel. These initial observations may seem a bit theoretical, but we must see that they carry significant practical consequences. Many people use statements of the sort “X is a gospel issue” in order to establish the boundaries of Christian fellowship. We may not want to admit Bob to the leadership of our local church or our Christian group because he denies X and X is a gospel issue. We may decide to admit Rosamund to something or other, because although she disbelieves Y, in this case Y is not a gospel issue, so the topic is not properly used as a criterion of admission or exclusion. (2) What we mean by “gospel issue” needs clarification. 215 Themelios On the one hand, because of the complex entanglements of theology, with a little imagination one might argue that almost any topic is a gospel issue. At one level or another, everything in any theology that is worth the name is tied to everything else, so it is possible to tie everything to the gospel. In that sense, well-nigh everything is a gospel issue. “In the gospel, Jesus saves us from sin. Sin is comprehensively given clarity by the Ten Commandments. To ignore the Sabbath law is to ignore one of the Ten Commandments. To ignore it or annul it is therefore to break the moral law of God, and such a stance surely demonstrates that one is not seriously confronting sin, the sin from which the gospel saves us. If one claims to be a Christian but does not fight against sin, the ostensible gospel in which we believe is really no gospel at all. So observance of the Sabbath is a gospel issue.” “Our generation is notable for the clever hermeneutical dodges it invents to sidestep what Scripture clearly says. Scripture clearly teaches complementarianism, a conclusion that can be ducked only by the hermeneutical tricks that betray a heart far removed from confessing that Jesus is Lord, which is part of what it means to confess the gospel. To confess Jesus is Lord and not bow to his Word is to deny the gospel. Complementarianism is a gospel issue.” “The filioque phrase is necessary to preserve the truth that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Without that confessional point, our understanding of the Trinity is adversely affected, and sooner or later that in turn affects our understanding of the work of the persons of the Godhead in redemption itself. Is it any wonder that Eastern Orthodoxy, which repudiates the filioque clause, puts far more weight on Jesus’ incarnation and resurrection than on his atoning work on the cross, despite the apostle Paul’s insistence that the cross is central? Thus the filioque clause is a gospel issue.” I am not arguing that any of these three arguments is necessarily valid.
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