“John Owen Today” Conference

The nine speakers are set for the John Owen Today conference, which will be held on 19–22 August 2008 at Westminster College in Cambridge.

• Willem van Asselt, Utrecht University, Holland
• Stephen R Holmes, St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, UK
• Michael S Horton, Westminster Seminary, California, USA
• George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, USA
• Kelly Kapic, Covenant College, Georgia, USA
• Suzanne MacDonald, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, USA
• Sebastian Rehnman, Johannelunds Theological Seminary, Sweden
• Alan Spence, United Reformed Church, London, UK
• Carl Trueman, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, USA

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More Thoughts on Regret

About two months ago I wrote a blog post on the subject of regret, in which I raised some questions about whether regret will be a part of the experience of the glorified in the new creation. I suggested with some uncertainty that I’m inclined to think that it will not be. My thoughts were in response to some of the things that Piper said in the second chapter of Life As a Vapor, “Suffering, Mercy, and Heavenly Regret.”

Recently, David Wayne, the JollyBlogger, picked up my post and expressed basic agreement with my concerns.

Just tonight Jon Bloom’s latest post at the Desiring God blog, 2 Kinds of Regret: Godless and Godly, caught my eye. Jon doesn’t address regret after this life, but some of his comments make me wonder if he’d agree with Piper. Here’s his conclusion:

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Gunton on Taxis in the Trinity

I know I’ve been doing a lot of quoting recently, but my blogging time is limited and quoting is easier than writing—not to mention that you’d probably rather read Gunton’s perspective on the Trinity than mine anyway.

I stumbled across this relevant bit from Colin Gunton in his The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, which I have as part of the Colin E. Gunton Theology Collection. (I sure do love having a digital library!)

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Barth on the Son’s Subordination to the Father

In Barth’s section on “God the Father” in volume one of his Church Dogmatics, he makes some interesting statements about the relationship between the Father and the Son.

He opens his discussion with this affirmation of the deity of the Son:

Who is the Lord and therefore the God to whom the Bible is referring? As we have seen already, it is typical of the Bible in both the Old Testament and the New that its answer to this question does not point us primarily to a sphere beyond human history but rather to the very centre of this history.

The answer is that at the climax of the biblical witness Jesus of Nazareth is the Kyrios. He is the One who approaches man in absolute superiority. He is the self-revealing God. (I, 1, 384)

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New NSBT Book on the Trinity

There’s a new book on the Trinity that I’m looking forward to picking up in a couple of months. Andres J. Köstenberger and Scott R. Swain have coauthored Father, Son and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s Gospel, volume 24 in the New Studies in Biblical Theology (NSBT) series, edited by D. A. Carson. It’s 224 pages and due to be released sometime in July.

Here’s how Köstenberger summarizes the book:

Part One situates John’s trinitarian teaching within the context of Second Temple Jewish monotheism. Part Two examines the Gospel narrative in order to trace the characterization of God as Father, Son and Spirit, followed by a brief synthesis. Part Three deals more fully with major trinitarian themes in the Fourth Gospel, including its account of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and mission. A final chapter discusses the significance of John’s Gospel for the church’s doctrine of the Trinity, and a brief conclusion summarizes some practical implications.

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Is the Trinity One “What” and Three “Who’s”?

James White summarizes the Christian doctrine of the Trinity this way:

Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (The Forgotten Trinity, 26)

He goes on to talk about how important it is that we distinguish Being from person.

Note immediately that we are not saying there are three Beings that are one Being, or three persons that are one person. Such would be self-contradictory. I emphasize this because, most often, this is the misrepresentation of the doctrine that is commonly found in the literature of various religions that deny the Trinity. (27)

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Moulton on 1 Corinthians 15:28

I just installed the new Moulton-Howard-Turner Greek Grammar Collection from Logos.

It comes with the four volumes of A Grammar of New Testament Greek:

• Vol. 1: Prolegomena by James H. Moulton
• Vol. 2: Accidence and Word-Formation by James H. Moulton and Wilbert F. Howard
• Vol. 3: Syntax by Nigel Turner
• Vol. 4: Style by Nigel Turner

It also includes Turner’s volume Grammatical Insights into the New Testament.

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Is There Regret in Heaven?

John Piper is one of my favorite living theologians. His writings and preaching have had a profound impact on my thinking, and he is regularly a means of great encouragement and motivation. I rarely find myself disagreeing with him.

I recently picked up the 24-volume John Piper Collection from Logos and have been enjoying working through Life As a Vapor. It’s composed of 31 chapters making it an ideal book to read for a month’s worth of devotional reading.

The second chapter is entitled “Suffering, Mercy, and Heavenly Regret,” in which Piper poses the question, “Is there regret in heaven?” He continues, “Can regret be part of the ever-increasing, unspeakable joy of the age to come, purchased by Jesus Christ (Romans 8:32)? My answer is yes” (19).

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John Frame on 1 Corinthians 15:28 and Eternal Subordination

In his section on the Trinity in The Doctrine of God,¹ Frame gives four lines of explanation for texts that teach that the Son is in some sense less than or subject to the Father. He is commenting specifically on John 14:28; and 1 Corinthians 11:3; and 15:28.

In his first comment, Frame offers what strikes me as a potentially helpful perspective on the issue of the eternal subordination of the Son to the Father. Complementarians and egalitarians agree that during the incarnation the Son was functionally subordinate to the Father. Where they disagree is (1) how long that subordination lasts and (2) on what basis it exists. Frame thinks it lasts eternally on the basis of His eternal humanity.

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1. Cf. the Logos John Frame Collection. [↩ Back]

American Theological Inquiry: A Biannual Journal of Theology, Culture, and History

A friend pointed me to a new journal: American Theological Inquiry, which is a biannual journal of theology, culture, and history. The first issue was released on January 15, and the next issue is due on July 15. ATI is available as a free PDF via email or from their website, http://www.atijournal.org/. You can subscribe to the list by sending an email to subscriptions@atijournal.org. ATI currently has more than 4200 subscribers. The journal can also be obtained in print through subscriptions@atijournal.org. ATI currently has more than 4200 subscribers. The journal can also be obtained in print through Wipf & Stock.

The general and associate editors are Gannon Murphy and Stephen Patrick, both of whom reside in St. Paul, MN.

The stated purpose of ATI is “to provide an inter-tradition forum for scholars who affirm the historic Ecumenical Creeds of Christendom (Apostles’, Athanasian, Nicæno-Constantinopolitan, and Chalcedonian) to constructively communicate contemporary theologies, developments, ideas, commentaries, insights, and affirmations pertaining to theology, culture, and history, toward reforming and elevating American Christianity.”

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Hierarchy Does Not Necessitate Opposition

I’m baffled when I read egalitarians who think that functional hierarchy presupposes disunity or the prospect of it.

Take, for example, this statement by Gilbert Bilezikian:

One of the weirdest heresies that has been generated in the last century pertains to the postulation of a hierarchical order within the members of the Trinity—as if there ever could exist a threat of discord or of misconduct that would require the exercise of authority within the oneness of the Godhead.¹

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1. Kevin Giles, Jesus and the Father (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 1, emphasis mine. [↩ Back]

Intratrinitarian Reconciliation?

Jenson, Robert W. “Reconciliation in God.” In Reconciliation in God.” In The Theology of Reconciliation, edited by Colin E. Gunton, 158–66. London: T&T Clark, 2003.¹

Jenson’s opening lines set the stage for his main thesis:

When I am invited to speak at a conference, I know I am supposed to indulge in the sort of trinitarian and christological speculation that skirts the edge of the sayable. So I have posed the question to myself: is there anything in God himself that might plausibly be called “reconciliation”? (158)

He goes on to argue that the traditional understanding of the Father begetting the Son and spirating the Spirit is inadequate because incomplete. He posits that the Spirit liberates the Father for the Son and reconciles the Son to the Father (158).

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1. Cf. Amazon. [↩ Back]

Dan Phillips on John Frame

Dan Phillips of Biblical Christianity (and TeamPyro) posted about his new appreciation for John Frame. One of Frame’s former students, Tom Chantry, a Reformed Baptist pastor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, chimed in with a lengthy appeal to “be very, very careful with John Frame.” I, of course, had to make a plug for the new Collected Works of John M. Frame, which I’m really looking forward to getting. But the interesting part was where John Frame responded to Tom. The exchange is worth a read.

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Accountability

By Philip R. Gons, Matthew C. Hoskinson, and Andrew David Naselli

(cross-posted at our respective blogs: Gons, Hoskinson, Naselli)

Christians will give an account to God for their lives, and wise Christians live in light of that sobering reality (Rom 14:12; 2 Cor 5:10). Consequently, we have covenanted to keep each other accountable in preparation for our future accounting. Since some of our friends have asked us about our method of accountability, we decided to co-author this article in order to glorify God by provoking other Christians to seek out a greater degree of accountability.

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Augustin on Postmodernism

Chapter 14.—Error of Those Who Think that There Is No Absolute Right and Wrong.

22. But when men unacquainted with other modes of life than their own meet with the record of such actions, unless they are restrained by authority, they look upon them as sins, and do not consider that their own customs either in regard to marriage, or feasts, or dress, or the other necessities and adornments of human life, appear sinful to the people of other nations and other times. Continue reading ‘Augustin on Postmodernism’