Themelios
An International Journal for Students of Theological and Religious Studies
Volume 39
Issue 2
July 2014
Content
EDITORIAL: What Are Gospel Issues?
D. A. Carson
Michael J. Ovey
Editor’s Note: Engaging with Edwards: Essays on America’s Theologian
Brian J. Tabb
A Critical Examination of Jonathan Edwards’s Doctrine of the Trinity
Ralph Cunnington
Jonathan Edwards and God’s Inner Life: A Response to Kyle Strobel
Gerald McDermott
That Their Souls May Be Saved: The Theology and Practice of Jonathan Edwards on Church Discipline
Jeremy M. Kimble
John Henry Newman (1801–1890) in His Second Century
Kenneth J. Stewart
PASTORAL PENSÉES: Laboring in Hopeless Hope: Encouragement for Christians from Ecclesiastes
Eric Ortlund
What Are Gospel Issues?
—D. A. Carson—
D. A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. |
Today it is very common to hear that such-and-such a topic is “a gospel issue.” We must hold to the eternal generation of the Son: it is a gospel issue. We must defend inerrancy: it is a gospel issue. We must espouse complementarianism: it is a gospel issue. We must be sabbatarians: it is a gospel issue. We must hold to a specific eschatological vision: it is a gospel issue. We must hold to substitutionary penal atonement: it is a gospel issue. Alternatively, the weight of some doctrines may be diminished by our pronouncements if we declare that something or other is not a gospel issue. We then hear statements like these: Inerrancy may be important, but it is not a gospel issue. I disagree with your understanding of the role of the nation of Israel in the history of redemption, but that’s all right: it’s not a gospel issue. Why do you make such a fuss over complementarianism? After all, it’s not a gospel issue.
Not only do we not agree on what things are gospel issues, I suspect that sometimes we do not agree on what “gospel issue” means. The following reflections provide the merest introduction to some of the factors that strike me as relevant:
(1) The statement “X is a gospel issue” is simultaneously (a) a truth claim and (b) a polemical assertion attempting to establish relative importance. The latter clearly depends on the former. Both parts bear thinking about. The statement is a truth claim in that it asserts that something either is true about X, namely, that it is “a gospel issue.” The claim is either valid (if X really is a gospel issue) or invalid (if X is really not a gospel issue). But as used by most people, “X is a gospel issue” is more than a truth claim. If the truth claim is valid, the statement implicitly asserts that X is a more important topic than others that are not gospel issues: it is designed to establish the importance of X relative to other topics that are not understood to be gospel issues. What is presupposed in the ...
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About Themelios: Volume 39, No. 2, July 2014Themelios is an international evangelical theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. It was formerly a print journal operated by RTSF/UCCF in the United Kingdom, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The new editorial team, led by D. A. Carson, seeks to preserve representation, in both essayists and reviewers, from both sides of the Atlantic. Each issue contains articles on important theological themes, as well as book reviews and discussion—from the most important evangelical voices of our time. • EDITORIAL: What Are Gospel Issues? by D. A. Carson • OFF THE RECORD: Projection Atheism: Why Reductionist Accounts of Humanity Can Lead to Reductionist Accounts of God by Michael J. Ovey • Editor’s Note: Engaging with Edwards: Essays on America’s Theologian by Brian J. Tabb • A Critical Examination of Jonathan Edwards’s Doctrine of the Trinity by Ralph Cunnington • Jonathan Edwards and God’s Inner Life: A Response to Kyle Strobel by Gerald McDermott • That Their Souls May Be Saved: The Theology and Practice of Jonathan Edwards on Church Discipline by Jeremy M. Kimble • John Henry Newman (1801–1890) in His Second Century by Kenneth J. Stewart • PASTORAL PENSÉES: Laboring in Hopeless Hope: Encouragement for Christians from Ecclesiastes by Eric Ortlund |
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