Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Systematic Theology

Fly by the Instruments

by

I flew for the first time yesterday. I’ve flown as a passenger in commercial airplanes countless times, but this was my first time to fly as a pilot in the captain’s seat.

Skip Goss, president of Skill Aviation, graciously offered to take me up. (He was in my group at Exploring Christianity earlier this year, and we have some mutual friends who are learning to fly at his prestigious flight school.)

We started off in Waukegan going south along Lake Michigan, circled Trinity’s campus a few times, and then continued south along Lake Michigan. We circled various parts of downtown Chicago and flew next to the Sears Tower. Viewing Chicago aerially from such a low elevation was amazing. We stopped for lunch at the Schaumburg airport, and we circled over Trinity’s campus again on our way back to Waukegan. This time I called Jenni at our campus apartment from a cell phone, and we waved at each other! My favorite part was flying about 150 mph just above the surface of Lake Michigan and seeing the massive lake-front homes.

Skip is a master-teacher, and since he invited questions about aircraft and flying, I pelted him with questions. Among other things, I confirmed that spatial disorientation is a relatively rare condition but one that every pilot must be prepared for. I keep thinking about a penetrating analogy that Jon Bloom shared on the Desiring God blog in December 2007: “What I Learned in a Spiritual Storm.”

  • Bloom explains that when a pilot experiences spatial disorientation in a storm, he must fly by the instruments. He must trust the instruments.
  • When we experience spatial disorientation in a spiritual storm, we too must fly by the instruments (i.e., God’s word). We must trust the instruments. The right response to evil and suffering is to affirm what God says in the Bible—even if we can’t exhaustively explain every facet of it—and trust him.

Read the whole thing.

Related: The Logical and Emotional Problems of Evil

What Is Hell?

by

I’ve been studying the doctrine of hell recently to prepare to write a short article on the topic, and this is the finest overview of this difficult doctrine that I’ve read:

Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson. What Is Hell? Basics of the Faith Series. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010. 36 pp. [Amazon | WTS Books]

Here’s an outline of this little book:

1. Would a loving God really send good people to hell?

Answer: That’s “the wrong question, and it leads people to wrong answers. The right question, the one that Paul answers in Romans, is, ‘How can a loving and just God declare the guilty to be right with him?’ Or, ‘How can those who deserve hell go to heaven?'” (p. 10).

2. What does the Bible teach about hell?

Preface

by

Here is my preface to Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology.

* * * * * * *

It is not much of a recommendation when all you can say is that this teaching may help you if you do not take its details too seriously. It is utterly damning to have to say, as in this case I think we must, that if you do take its details seriously, it will tend not to help you but to destroy you.

That’s what J. I. Packer wrote about a teaching that has destroyed many people and continues to destroy more today. It nearly destroyed me.

Trying to “Let Go and Let God” in High School and Bible College

When I shared my Christian “testimony” in my high school and early college years, I would say something like this: “I was saved when I was eight years old, and I surrendered to Christ when I was thirteen.” By “saved,” I meant that Jesus became my Savior and that I became a Christian. By “surrendered,” I meant that I finally gave full control of my life to Jesus as my Master and yielded to do whatever he wanted me to do. [Read more…] about Preface

Tom Schreiner’s Foreword

by

Here is Tom Schreiner’s foreword to Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology.

* * * * * * *

I became a Christian when I was seventeen years old, and the first theology I knew was Keswick theology. I read many books and heard numerous sermons that exhorted me to “let go and let God,” to live the victorious Christian life, to surrender absolutely and completely to the Lord, to live in unbroken victory for significant periods of time, to live as a spiritual Christian instead of a carnal Christian. I read Hannah Whitall Smith, Charles Trumbull, Andrew Murray, Watchmen Nee, Major Ian Thomas, John Hunter, etc. My youth pastor, who discipled me and taught me the rudiments of the Christian faith, gave a steady diet of Keswick teaching as well. When I attended seminary, at my youth pastor’s suggestion, I attended a church that promulgated Keswick theology because I was convinced that those who did not share such a theology were less biblical.

Let me be quick to say how much I learned from Keswick theology. It upholds the Scriptures as the authoritative and inerrant word of God. It highlights the majesty and beauty of Christ. It embraces and rejoices in orthodox Christian theology. Most important, it takes the Holy Spirit seriously. Christians can and should live in a way that pleases God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a theological cipher; his presence is vital and energizing so that believers can triumph over the flesh.
[Read more…] about Tom Schreiner’s Foreword

Keswick Endorsements

by

Here are twenty-one endorsements for Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology.

* * * * * * *

Forty years ago, as a brand new Christian, I devoured Keswick theology, which had great appeal to me as a vibrant and dynamic faith. I wrote “Let go and let God” inside my Bible. But the more I studied Scripture and looked at my own life, the more I saw that much of this theology didn’t ring true. As a former insider, I found Andy Naselli’s critique to be fair, accurate, theologically sound, and biblically persuasive. Andy’s book offers the bonus of serving as an insightful study of the doctrine of sanctification. I highly recommend it.

Randy Alcorn
Founder and Director of Eternal Perspective Ministries
Sandy, Oregon

This book packs an extraordinary amount of useful summary, critical analysis, and pastoral reflection into short compass. One does not have to agree with every opinion to recognize that this is a comprehensive and penetrating analysis of Keswick theology down to 1920. The book will do the most good, however, if it encourages readers in a more faithful way to pursue that holiness without which we will not see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

D. A. Carson
Research Professor of New Testament
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Deerfield, Illinois

[Read more…] about Keswick Endorsements

Interview on Keswick Theology

by

I recently answered these questions from Kevin DeYoung after he read my book on Keswick theology:

  1. Give us a brief history of the Keswick movement.
  2. Who were some of the significant people involved with Keswick, both those who influenced it and those influenced by it?
  3. I really like how you explain Keswick theology by going through a typical Keswick conference. Would you explain the conference and theology for us?
  4. What are the chief problems with the Keswick view of sanctification?
  5. Where do we still see Keswick’s influence today? Is their’s a common error that resurfaces often in the church? If so, what makes its so attractive?
  6. What projects are you currently working on, either for yourself or for Dr. Carson?

—from “Andy Naselli on Why ‘Let Go and Let God’ Is a Bad Idea”

Related: Let God and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology

Update on 8/23/2017: My latest book attempts to survey and analyze “let go and let God” theology:

No Quick Fix

Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology

by

That’s the title of my first solo book.

The publisher is Lexham Press, which is a division of Faithlife. (Logos Bible Software is also a division of Faithlife.)

You can read the book’s front matter in this 31-page PDF, which includes twenty-one endorsements, the table of contents, Tom Schreiner’s foreword, and my preface.

From the preface:

This book’s thesis is simple: Keswick theology is not biblically sound. It demonstrates this by answering three basic questions:

  1. Where did Keswick theology come from (chap. 2)?
  2. What exactly is it (chap. 3)?
  3. And why is this second-blessing theology not a blessing (chap. 4)?

If you’ve encountered some aspect of second-blessing theology, you’ll be fascinated to see how it fits in the story in chapters 2–3. And you’ll be challenged to consider its serious flaws in chapter 4. My goal is not to make you an arrogant know-it-all who pugnaciously goes on a second-blessing witch-hunt. My goal is to edify you by warning and equipping you. I’ll consider this book a success if it helps you understand second-blessing theology better, see why it’s not a blessing at all, and follow a better—more biblical—way in your Christian walk.

Related:

  1. Keswick Theology (March 24, 2008)
  2. Other posts on Logos Bible Software
  3. Interview on Keswick Theology (with Kevin DeYoung)
  4. Endorsements
  5. Tom Schreiner’s Foreword
  6. Preface
  7. Lectures on Keswick Theology
  8. Interview on Keswick Theology (with Alex Chediak)
  9. Will your book be available in print?
  10. Four guest posts on Kevin DeYoung’s blog:
    1. Pietistic Goofiness
    2. What Do You Do When a Good Hymn Goes Bad?
    3. Two Clarifications about Keswick Theology
    4. Hannah Whitall Smith’s Unhappy Life
  11. Three Recent Interviews
  12. “Why ‘Let Go and Let God’ Is a Bad Idea,” Tabletalk (August 2011): 74–75.

Update on 8/23/2017: My latest book attempts to survey and analyze “let go and let God” theology more accessibly:

No Quick Fix

https://andynaselli.com/keswick-theology

The Glory of God

by

Coming June 30, 2010:

Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, eds. The Glory of God. Theology in Community. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010. 255 pp. [Amazon | WTS Books | Crossway]

I just surveyed it, and it looks excellent.

Contents

  • Introduction
  • 1. Stephen J. Nichols, “The Glory of God Present and Past”
  • 2. Tremper Longman III, “The Glory of God in the Old Testament”
  • 3. Richard R. Melick Jr., “The Glory of God in the Synoptic Gospels, Acts, and the General Epistles”
  • 4. Andreas J. Köstenberger, “The Glory of God in John’s Gospel and Revelation”
  • 5. Richard B. Gaffin Jr., “The Glory of God in Paul’s Epistles”
  • 6. Christopher W. Morgan, “Toward a Theology of the Glory of God”
  • 7. Bryan Chapell, “A Pastoral Theology of the Glory of God”
  • 8. J. Nelson Jennings, “A Missional Theology of the Glory of God”

Endorsements

“The glory of God, celebrated by angels, but often lost on the church today, is here restored to our vision. This is a serious engagement with biblical truth and it asks the reader to engage with it seriously, too. When we climb a mountain, we know that however long is the ascent, it is all made worthwhile by the view from the top. So it is here.”
—David F. Wells, Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

[Read more…] about The Glory of God