by Andy Naselli
This new article is available as a PDF:
D. A. Carson, “Excerpts From A Sermon: The Call of the Prophet in Declining Time: Ezekiel 1–3,” The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal (Fall 2007).
Highlights:
“Now what is vital for us, in the opening chapters, is the nature of God’s call on Ezekiel’s life. For God does not call all prophets in exactly the same way.”
by Andy Naselli
I just stumbled across a convicting quotation by Dr. Carson that I wrote down during one of his class lectures last March:
“Most people go through life concerned that others will think too little of them. Paul was concerned that others would think too much of him.“
He made this comment while exegeting verse 6 in 2 Cor 12:1–10:
by Andy Naselli
This is a humbling reminder:
[I]t was his [i.e, Paul’s] conversion on the Damascus road that enabled him to see many things in a new perspective. . . . Even though he knows full well that he came to his Christian understanding via the Damascus road experience, and not in classes on exegesis, he also argues that what he, as a Christian and an apostle, finds in the Scriptures is actually there, and the reason unconverted Jews do not see it is because “to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it take [sic] away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts” (2 Cor 3:14–15). In other words, as far as Paul is concerned, conversion to Christ removes the veil to enable the reader to see what is actually there. Judging by his passionate handling of Scripture in Galatians, and in his slightly less passionate but scarcely less intense handling of Scripture in Romans, Paul is concerned to show that the gospel he preaches has in fact actually been announced by what we now refer to as the Old Testament: the δικαιοσύνη [i.e., righteousness] he announces is that “to which the Law and the Prophets testify” (Rom 3:21).
–D. A. Carson, “Mystery and Fulfillment: Toward a More Comprehensive Paradigm of Paul’s Understanding of the Old and New,” in The Paradoxes of Paul. Vol. 2 of Justification and Variegated Nomism (ed. D. A. Carson, Peter T. O’Brien, and Mark A. Seifrid; Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 181; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), pp. 410–11.
by Andy Naselli
The September/October 2007 9Marks eJournal includes D. A. Carson‘s “Five Steps for Racial Reconciliation on Sunday at 11 a.m.,” which is excerpted from chapter 4 of Love in Hard Places.
by Andy Naselli
In 2000, Tony Payne, publishing director for Matthias Media, interviewed D. A. Carson on worship. Follow-up email correspondence occurs at the end.
Update: Graeme Goldsworthy, in his Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2006), appears to agree with Tony Payne (contra D. A. Carson) when he asserts, “In modern evangelicalism we could mention current usage of the words that are quite far removed from their main function in the New Testament. One classic example is the use of the word ‘worship’ to refer either to what we do in church, or to that part of the weekly congregational meeting given over to the singing, often repetitiously, of popular ‘spiritual’ choruses and songs. [fn. 20: “David Peterson, Engaging with God (Leicester: Apollos, 1992), shows how far the popular use of the term has strayed from its biblical sense.”] The problem is that lazy exegesis and unreflective usage end up by obscuring the gospel-based significance of worship. Other problems arise when a hermeneutical approach exalts doctrinal categories by muting the dynamics of biblical theology” (p. 180).
by Andy Naselli
“Know Your Roots: Evangelicalism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” (1991) is a video that was professionally recorded on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. It consists of four parts that are about thirty minutes each:
Many thanks to The Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding for making this 120-minute video available digitally!
Aside: I wish this would have been available earlier! I wanted to watch these videos last year, but they were available only in VHS format. And since Jenni and I live in the twenty-first century, we don’t own a VHS player. So I checked out the VHS videos from the TEDS library during Christmas break and brought them with us on our visit to Greenville where family members have VHS. It was worth it—not least to compare and contrast how Drs. Carson and Woodbridge look and sound today!
D. A. Carson recounts one of the video’s highlights in Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), p. 58 (19:23–21:21 in video 4):
Several years ago I was asked to interview Dr. Carl F. H. Henry and Dr. Kenneth S. Kantzer for a videotaping. These two American theologians have been at the heart of much of the evangelical renaissance in the Western world, especially, but not exclusively, in America. Each was about eighty years of age at the time of the videotaping. One [i.e., Henry] has written many books; the other [i.e., Kantzer] brought to birth and nurtured one of the most influential seminaries in the Western world. They both have been connected with Billy Graham, the Lausanne movement, the assorted congresses on evangelism, the influential magazine Christianity Today, and much more. The influence of these Christian leaders extends to the countless numbers of younger pastors and scholars whom they have helped to shape not only by their publications and public teaching but by the personal encouragement at which both have excelled. Both men gave lectures for the video cameras before several hundred theological students, and then I interviewed them. Toward the end of that discussion, I asked them a question more or less in these terms: “You two men have been extraordinarily influential for almost half a century. Without wanting to indulge in cheap flattery, I must say that what is attractive about your ministries is that you have retained integrity. Both of you are strong, yet neither of you is egotistical. You have not succumbed to eccentricity in doctrine, nor to individualistic empire-building. In God’s good grace, what has been instrumental in preserving you in these areas?”
Both spluttered in deep embarrassment. And then one of them [i.e., Henry] ventured, with a kind of gentle outrage, “How on earth can anyone be arrogant when standing beside the cross?”
That was a great moment, not least because it was so spontaneous. These men had retained their integrity precisely because they knew their attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:5). They knew that they had been called not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him. If their Master had viewed equality with God not as something to be exploited for personal advantage but as the basis for the humiliating path to the cross, how could they view influential posts of Christian leadership as something they should exploit for personal advantage?
by Andy Naselli
Chris Anderson‘s “Lost Lessons and Preserved Passions” is exactly right. Since the gospel of Jesus the Messiah is central, it must be central in our passions.
Carson wrote a communion hymn entitled “A Shocking Thing” that includes these convicting words:
A shocking thing, this, that we should forget
The Savior who gave up his life—
To turn from the cross, indifferent, and let
Our minds veer toward self-love and strife.
This Table, this rite, is habit—and yet
Christ’s words pierce our shame like a knife:
While breaking the bread, the Lord Jesus said,
“Do this in remembrance of me.”
Enamored with power, surrounded by praise
We set out ecclesial plans.
Efficiency hums, and we spend our days
Defending, promoting our stands.
Techniques multiply, our structures amaze—
The gospel slips out of our hands.
by Andy Naselli
An edited manuscript of D. A. Carson‘s “The Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-19)” is now available at The Gospel Coalition site. Carson preached this message in May at The Gospel Coalition’s first conference: video | audio.
Other resources at TGC site: articles (including an RSS feed for new articles), audio & video (including interviews), foundational documents.