Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Systematic Theology

Sympathetic Evangelicalism

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Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 15–19 (numbering added):

[Th]e most strategic decision we ever make is the decision of what to emphasize.

Evangelicalism has always been concerned to underline certain elements of the Christian message.

  1. We have a lot to say about God’s revelation, but we emphasize the business end of it, where God’s voice is heard normatively: the Bible.
  2. We know that everything Jesus did has power for salvation in it, but we emphasize the one event that is literally crucial: the cross.
  3. We know that God is at work on his people through the full journey of their lives, from the earliest glimmers of awareness to the ups and downs of the spiritual life, but we emphasize the hinge of all spiritual experience: conversion.
  4. We know there are countless benefits that flow from being joined to Christ, but we emphasize the big one: heaven.

Bible, cross, conversion, heaven. These are the right things to emphasize. But in order to emphasize anything, you must presuppose a larger body of truth to select from. . . . [Read more…] about Sympathetic Evangelicalism

Why Drawing Lines Is Utterly Crucial

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D. A. Carson, “On Drawing Lines, When Drawing Lines Is Rude,” ch. 8 in The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 347–67 (numbering added):

[The point of this chapter is] to ponder briefly some of the reasons why drawing lines is utterly crucial at the moment.

  1. Truth demands it.
  2. The distinction between orthodoxy and heresy models it.
  3. The plurality of errors calls for it.
  4. The entailments of the gospel confront our culture—and must be lived out.

Irresistible Grace

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Kenneth J. Stewart, Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition (Downers Grove: IVP, 2011):

[T]he I in TULIP was actually a caricature of the position championed in the Synod of Dordt. Those who derided the Reformed idea of effectual calling or prevailing grace branded it “irresistible.”[n53] This is the kind of inside information that needs circulating. It should change popular Calvinism’s use of TULIP.

[n53] The “I” of the acronym T-U-L-I-P, far from encapsulating Dordt’s intended emphasis, actually relays the protest of the Dutch Remonstrants against early seventeenth-century Calvinism in a way dependent on Jesuit writers of that time. How is it possible that irresistible, a term intended to besmirch and caricature the concept of a grace that eventually prevails over all opposition, has been taken up and championed by those it was meant to portray unfavorably? See Anthony Hoekema, Saved by Grace (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), pp. 104–5.

“Irresistible” is not an unredeemable term (I love singing “Grace irresistible drew me“!), but it’s not my first choice because it is so easily misunderstood. [Read more…] about Irresistible Grace

John Owen’s Argument for Definite Atonement

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I took a PhD seminar from Graham Cole in spring 2007 entitled “Historical Theology: The Atonement.” I later updated one of my papers for that course, and The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology published it in March in an issue on Puritanism:

“John Owen’s Argument for Definite Atonement in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ: A Brief Summary and Evaluation.” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 14:4 (2010): 60–82.

Here’s the outline:

1. A Summary of Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ

1.1. Books 1–2: Arguments for Definite Atonement

1.1.1. The Ends and Means of the Atonement: Teleological Distinctions [Read more…] about John Owen’s Argument for Definite Atonement

Explaining the EFCA Doctrinal Statement

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This new book robustly explains the EFCA’s statement of faith:

Evangelical Convictions: A Theological Exposition of the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America. Minneapolis: Free Church, 2011. 276 pp.

Who wrote it? The foreword by the EFCA’s president thanks especially two people for “their tireless labor” (p. 17):

  • Greg Strand, EFCA’s Director of Biblical Theology and Credentialing
  • Bill Kynes

This book was drafted by members of the Spiritual Heritage Committee [i.e., Mike Andrus, Bill Jones, Bill Kynes, David V. Martin, Ruben Martinez, Greg Strand (Chair), and Greg Waybright], but its content was vetted by numerous EFCA pastors and others in various areas of EFCA leadership and ministry, including President William J. Hamel, members of the Board of Ministerial Standing (which includes District Superintendents and the Chair of the Ministerial Association), representatives of ReachGlobal and faculty from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. (p. 19n1)

I especially like how the book connects the gospel with each of the ten articles:

  1. God: God’s gospel originates in and expresses the wondrous perfections of the eternal, triune God.
  2. The Bible: God’s gospel is authoritatively revealed in the Scriptures.
  3. The Human Condition: God’s gospel alone addresses our deepest need.
  4. Jesus Christ: God’s gospel is made known supremely in the Person of Jesus Christ.
  5. The Work of Christ: God’s gospel is accomplished through the work of Christ.
  6. The Holy Spirit: God’s gospel is applied by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  7. The Church: God’s gospel is now embodied in the new community called the church
  8. Christian Living: God’s gospel compels us to Christ-like living and witness to the world.
  9. Christ’s Return: God’s gospel will be brought to fulfillment by the Lord Himself at the end of this age.
  10. Response and Eternal Destiny: God’s gospel requires a response that has eternal consequences.
Evangelical Convictions: A Theological Exposition of the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America

Theology on a Tightrope

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Ken Casillas, The Law and the Christian: God’s Light within God’s Limits (Biblical Discernment for Difficult Issues; Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2007), 1–2, 24:

It’s funny what you remember from your childhood. Personally, I find it difficult to recall specific conversations, events, and experiences. But of all the positive things I would like to remember from my years as a missionary child in Puerto Rico, for some reason the sad story of Karl Wallenda has stayed with me. Wallenda was a German entertainer who became famous for doing extremely dangerous tightrope stunts without a safety net. His family act was dubbed the Flying Wallendas, and their signature performance was a seven-person pyramid topped by a woman standing on a chair. The Wallendas performed internationally through the middle of the twentieth century. Though the group survived catastrophes such as the 1944 Hartford circus fire, in 1962 Karl lost his son-in-law and nephew in a major fall in Detroit. Overcoming a cracked pelvis, Karl continued his death-defying stunts. At sixty-five he traversed a distance of 1200 feet above Georgia’s Tallulah Falls Gorge, doing two headstands some 700 feet in the air.

Wallenda walked for the last time at the age of seventy-three. For a promotional event, a wire was strung about 120 feet high between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Some believe the problem was the high ocean winds. The family says that some guy ropes were misconnected. Whatever the case, Karl Wallenda plunged to his death on March 22, 1978. The entertainer once said, “Life is being on the wire; everything else is just waiting.” [Read more…] about Theology on a Tightrope

A Short Bibliography on the Church

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Timothy Savage, The Church: God’s New People (The Gospel Coalition Booklets; Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 27 (numbering added):

  1. Belcher, Jim. Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009.
  2. Calvin, John. “The External Means or Aims by Which God Invites Us Into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein.” Institutes of the Christian Religion. Book 4. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960.
  3. Carson, D. A. Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005.
  4. Chester, Tim, and Steve Timmis. Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.
  5. Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000.
  6. Dever, Mark, and Paul Alexander. The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005.
  7. DeYoung, Kevin, and Ted Kluck. Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. Chicago: Moody, 2009. [Cf. my review.]
  8. Edwards, Jonathan. “A Farewell Sermon.” In The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1979.
  9. Keller, Timothy. Gospel Christianity. Studies 7 and 8. New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003.
  10. Packer, J. I. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Chap. 3. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1991. [Cf. my summary.]
  11. Stott, John. The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2007.
  12. Strauch, Alexander. Biblical Eldership: Restoring the Eldership to Its Rightful Place in Church. Colorado Springs: Lewis and Roth, 1997.

Father, That Debt Is Paid

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Bryan Chapell, What Is the Gospel? (The Gospel Coalition Booklets; Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), p. 10:

Since the Son of God had no sin, his willingness to suffer on a cross and accept the penalty we deserve is far beyond any recompense that humanity could provide. Christ’s righteousness so overbalances our unrighteousness that his sacrifice is sufficient to compensate for the sin of the entire world and of all ages (Rom. 5:15–19; Heb. 9:26–28; 1 Pet. 3:18; 1 John 2:2). God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice as a substitute for our punishment (1 Pet. 2:24). He paid the debt to justice we could not pay (Ps. 47:7–9; Titus 2:11–14). His suffering atones for (covers) our wrongs (1 John 4:10). His death rescues us from the hell we deserve (Gal. 3:13–14).

For those of us who wrestle with guilt, Christ’s provision is amazingly good news. In prison my brother David cannot pay the debt for crimes he has committed any more than we who are guilty of sin can clear the debt we owe a holy God for our breaking his law. Yet because Jesus came to pay our spiritual debt despite our spiritual destitution, David and you and I can live with hearts free of shame.

Chapell weaves the story of his brother throughout the 30-page booklet.