Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Carl Trueman

The Past Is a Foreign Country

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“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” –L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between

Carl Trueman’s Histories and Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010) devotes chapter 3 to the problem of anachronism (pp. 109–40) and concludes the book with this useful insight:

One notable thing about immigrating to a foreign country is that the very difference of the culture to which one moves allows one to see both the idiosyncrasies of one’s new culture and of that from which one has departed. When one only ever lives in one culture, the assumption is that everything one sees and experiences is nature, the norm, and that everybody else, to the extent that they do not conform, is deviant, subnormal, etc. Cross-cultural experience is excellent for disabusing one of such instincts.

History can be like that . . . .

I have already mentioned my childhood antipathy to the Welsh rugby team, but many other things in my life, from taste in music to personal political convictions, are all more comprehensible in the light of wider historical factors. (pp. 172–74)

The Stain That Stays

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Carl Trueman wrote this in March 2010 after the Tiger Woods saga:

Some years ago I found the argument of John Armstrong’s excellent book The Stain That Stays utterly convincing: post-conversion adultery, unlike other sins, is the one which permanently excludes one from leadership or office-bearing in the church; of course, there is forgiveness and restoration to fellowship for those who repent and ask for such; but as far as leadership goes, it’s over. I still point to that book, especially the superb last chapter on avoiding sexual sin, as required reading for men going in for ministry.

I promptly added that book to my reading list, and I finally read it this week.

John H. Armstrong. The Stain That Stays: The Church’s Response to the Sexual Misconduct of Its Leaders. Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications; Reformation and Revival Ministries, 2000.

Since writing this book, John Armstrong has shifted towards a big-tent evangelicalism and away from the conservative evangelical circles he used to be a part of (hence the foreword by Kent Hughes and endorsements by Al Mohler, John MacArthur, and Tom Nettles).

The book’s style is a bit cumbersome, but it’s an edifying read about a deadly serious issue. Here are Armstrong’s eight suggested ways that pastors should plan to prevent sexual sin (pp. 174–81):

  1. “Understand the nature of sexual temptation.” “In two areas, traveling and counseling, a pastor must take precautions.”
  2. “Understand the power of the seductive woman.” “The pastor must be especially careful to guard himself when he detects the first mannerisms that indicate a woman may have feelings that are beyond those of a healthy and pure relationship.”
  3. “Guard your mind.” “The pastor must guard his mind by staying away from explicitly erotic material, as well as television programs and images that fuel the fires of lust. . . . Pornography surrounds us, acting as a poison that corrupts healthy sexuality.” [Cf. Joe Tyrpak, “Help for Fighting Lust: A Meditation Plan“; Mike Salvati, “The God of Truth and the Lies of Porn.”]
  4. “Cultivate and protect your own marriage.” “This seems to be the plainest meaning of the wisdom given in Proverbs 5:15–23: You must enjoy your wife physically and her alone.”
  5. “Take precautions as you minister.” “The wise pastor cannot be overly careful.” [Cf. Mark Minnick, “Maintaining Moral Purity in the Ministry.”]
  6. “Maintain relationships where accountability is real.” “Every pastor needs several relationships where he is mutually accountable for his actions and relationships with others.” [Cf. Phil Gons, Matthew Hoskinson, and Andy Naselli, “Accountability.”]
  7. “Cultivate your spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being.” “You must know yourself and take care of your body and soul to remain strong.”
  8. “Consider regularly the consequences of sexual sin.” “What will this sin mean to your wife? Your children? Your congregation? Your closest friends? Your future ministry? We need to do this because the outcome of this particular sin is so deceiving.” [Cf. Randy Alcorn’s “purity principle“: purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid.]

I don’t agree with Armstrong’s thesis, but his book rightly treats sexual sin soberly. I find D. A. Carson’s argument more compelling: “Do You Think That a Fallen Christian Leader Can Ever Be Restored? If Not, Why Not? But If So, under What Conditions?” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 4.4 (2000): 87–89.

Update: Cf. Andrew David Naselli, “Is Every Sin Outside the Body except Immoral Sex? Weighing Whether 1 Corinthians 6:18b Is Paul’s Statement or a Corinthian Slogan,” JBL 136 (2017): 969–87. In 1 Cor 6:18b–c, Paul writes, “Every sin, whatever a person commits, is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” My essay weighs whether 1 Cor 6:18b is Paul’s statement or whether Paul is quoting a Corinthian slogan, and it concludes that the second view is more plausible (contrary to how John Armstrong argues in the above book).

Three Books on Politics

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I grew up following politics more than the average kid because my Dad loved following politics. For example, he’s read just about every issue of National Review since the 1970s. He’s also one of the most brilliant people I know.

So it was a pleasure to coauthor this article with him for TGC: “Three Books on Politics: A Review Article” (14-page PDF). It summarizes and evaluates three recent evangelical books on politics:

  1. Wayne Grudem. Politics—According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010. 619 pp.
  2. Carl R. Trueman. Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010. xxvii + 110 pp.
  3. Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner. City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era. Edited by Timothy Keller and Collin Hansen. Cultural Renewal. Chicago: Moody, 2010. 140 pp.

The format of our review is similar to these review articles:

We review each book separately—tracing the argument and suggesting strengths and weaknesses—and conclude by briefly comparing the three books.

Pithy Quotes from Carl Trueman’s “Minority Report”

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Minority Report I recently reviewed Carl R. Trueman‘s Minority Report: Unpopular Thoughts on Everything from Ancient Christianity to Zen-Calvinism (Scotland: Mentor, 2008). (You may read the front front matter and introduction here.) This second volume of his collected essays follows in the train of his first: Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historic and Contemporary Evangelicalism (Scotland: Mentor, 2004). It’s typical Trueman: provocative, humorous, wry, clever, witty, engaging, thought-provoking, delightful, entertaining.

I didn’t have space in my review to share pithy quotes from Trueman’s twenty short essays in the volume, so I’ll share some here:

[Read more…] about Pithy Quotes from Carl Trueman’s “Minority Report”

Rick Phillips & Carl Trueman on BJU and Fundamentalism

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Here are links to some fascinating recent blog posts:

  1. Rick Phillips: “Fundamentalism, Christian Schooling, and the Antithesis”
  2. Rick Phillips: “The Price Is Not Right”
  3. Rick Phillips: clarification in comment 2 on my post “Rick Phillips on Bob Jones Academy and Fundamentalism“
  4. Rick Phillips: “More on Bob Jones”
  5. Carl Trueman: “Cheese in an Aerosol Can“
  6. Rick Phillips: “In Praise of Aerosol Cheese“
  7. Chris Anderson: “Wowzers. Rick Phillips Defends BJU, Fundamentalists“
  8. Sean Michael Lucas: “Cheese, Fundamentalism, and the Antithesis, no. 1“
  9. Sean Michael Lucas: “Cheese, Fundamentalism, and the Antithesis, no. 2“
  10. Bob Bixby: “The ‘Emerging Middle’“
  11. Rick Phillips: “Some Good Cheese“

The Wages of Spin by Carl Trueman

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Wages of SpinToday I took a break for a bit of pleasure reading and scanned a little volume that’s been on my reading list for months: Carl Trueman’s The Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historic and Contemporary Evangelicalism  (Mentor, 2004).

The more I hear and read Trueman, the more I like him. His sharp wit puts him in a class of his own. A couple of the short essays at the end are especially entertaining jabs: “Boring Ourselves to Life” (pp. 175-80) and “Evangelicalism Through the Looking Glass: A Fairy Tale” (pp. 187-90). Well done.

On a related note, Mark Dever discusses The Wages of Spin among other things in “A Sweeping Conversation with Carl Trueman” (Feb. 21, 2006).

Carl Trueman on “Evangelical”

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“[John] Owen’s theology is a salutary reminder that we should not allow the current decline in church attendance and status to turn a blind eye in our evangelical ecumenism to the real problems that exist with the evangelical world. I confess here that I am no longer entirely happy being called an evangelical. Where evangelicalism happens to coincide with biblical, historic Christianity, I do not repudiate the description; but in general consider it to be an unhelpful term, if not misleading and meaningless. That it now embraces those, who, for example, hold to positions on God’s knowledge of the future that are Socinian, it has ceased to be a distinctively Christian term.”

—Carl Trueman, “John Owen As a Theologian,” in John Owen: The Man and His Theology: Papers Read at the Conference of the John Owen Centre for Theological Study, September 2000 (ed. Robert W. Oliver; Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2002), 63.

Recommended: Trueman’s five-part lecture series on the life and theology of John Owen (available here).