Philadelphia Reformed Theological Conference - Grand Rapids, MI
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Q&A section
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Ligon Duncan: The role of historical context in Biblical interpretation
- Our suppositions about the context should not dominate the text itself. The Word is clear.
Carson: What is a good book on the life of John Newton
There is not a great one out, but a new book is coming out, associate pastor at Reformed Baptist church of Little Rock, Todd Murray. The letters of John Newton.
Carson: regarding Matthew 11:11 doesn’t it say that Moses and John the Baptist are equal, not that John is greater.
No. It SAYS none are greater than John the Baptist.
Dever: The role of extrabiblical archaelogical evidence in the reliability of Scripture.
Not dependent on that, but claims are made in space and time. Historical events are historical.
Carson: Does it not suggest that God’s Word is not entire propositional, shouldn’t we change our epistemological assumptions?
Lengthy answer, you cannot pit one locus of revelation against another. You cannot marginalize propositional truth against experience.(Review of Biblical Literature) Don’t devalue propositions
Duncan: Isn’t it a circular argument to say you believe in the Bible because of what the Bible says?
No. The Bible has a unique quality, it is self-authenticating. The Bible authenticates it’s own truthfulness to those who read it. Let the Bible authenticate itself, pick it up and read it. (Carson: two types, a vicious circular argument: self-defeating and a circular argument, which ultimately all human reasoning falls into)
Carson: Discuss God’s contingent knowledge, how would could have been impacts our preordination.
Contingent knowledge, or middle knowledge. God’s knowledge is so exhaustive that He knows all that has and will happen, but also what Sodom would have done if the miracles of Christ had been done in that city. Good is always creditable to Him, evil never is. No event falls out of the purview of His sovereignty. Stick that in your sovereignty pipe and smoke it. (Dever the God we worship has suffered in the man Christ Jesus, He has involved Himself in a remarkable way) Read Jesus in Matthew 23, Jesus was not a tolerant man.
Dever: Can you say more on the role of postmodern relativism in the emergent church market?
Gracefully passes on to Don Carson…The label emerging church is increasingly covering more and more churches. Used to be VERY post-modern, that is less true now. Includes Openness Theology, New Perspectives on Paul. Anything moving away from confessional Christianity is labeled emerging. Don’t make postmodernism the whipping boy. Thoughtful Christian should be neither modernist or postmodernists. Postmodernism itself is shifting. New generation of soft post-modernism. (Dever I would largely agree with Don)
Carson: Does McLaren turn the Gospel of Jesus Christ on it’s head,
Newest book focuses on the teachings of Jesus, not on the atonement or cross of Chris (The Secret Teachings of Jesus) Theologians trying to be creative, and not anchored. Earliest days, not “the Gospel of Matthew” they were called “the Gospel according to Matthew”. The canonical Gospels are really passion narratives with extended introductions. Recommends Peter Bolt, “The Cross from a Distance” Pseudoepigraphical Gospels have no passion. (Crossway, Only One Way, the Sermon on the Mount cannot be rightly understood in the absence of the cross)
Duncan: The Old Testament is God’s Word, but not all of it’s commandments are upheld today. i.e. homosexuality
Old testament law for New Covenant Christians (Christopher J.H. Wright). Sexual ethics are clear and consistent throughout the Bible. Paul uses the Septuagint to argue against homosexuality. (Carson Why is the Bible consistent in some areas (sexuality) and less so in other areas. Categories of sexuality cannot be dumped into food laws)
Ligon: Can you tell us a good commentary from a postmil perspective.
Uses Hoekema’s four views on Revelation. How do you approach the whole book of Revelation (idealist, historicist, futurist William Henderson More than conquerors, Clouse The Meaning of the Millennium Four Views) The Puritans wrote more on the book of Revelation than any other New testament book. Most puritans were postmillennial. Greg Beale, hermeneutics of Revelation.
Dever: Working inside the Beltway how do you deal with people who are wired, reading newspapers of the importance of the Bible. Serious about preaching sermons to adult. Speed and volume of information does not speak to the truth of that information. I
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