Calvin and the Later Reformation

268 Pages·2017·3.54 MB·English

UNION WITH CHRIST
Calvin and the
Later Reformation
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Vol. 3, No. 2 / October 2017
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFORMED THEOLOGY AND LIFE Editorial Board Members
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Editor in Chief: Paul Wells Kevin Woongsan Kang, Chongshin Theological Seminary, Seoul, Korea
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFORMED THEOLOGY AND LIFE
UNION WITH CHRIST
Vol. 3, No. 2 / October 2017
Calvin and the
Later Reformation
Published jointly by
Westminster International Reformed
Theological Seminary Evangelical Seminary
P.O. Box 27009 Reformed Millennium
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uals, and $20.00 for students. Single issues may be purchased at $14.00
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[email protected].
ISSN 2380-5412 (print)
ISSN 2473-8476 (online)
Copyright © 2017 International Reformed Evangelical Seminary and Westminster
Theological Seminary. All rights reserved. Unio cum Christo® is a registered
trademark of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.
Printed in the United States of America and Indonesia
CONTENTS
Calvin and the
Later Reformation
5 Preamble / PAUL WELLS
7 Editorial: A New Ninety-Five Theses on Scripture
/ PETER A. LILLBACK
17 In Memoriam: Won Sang Lee (1937–2016)
CALVIN, ASPECTS OF HIS WORK
19 Learning from Calvin’s Methodology of Biblical Interpretation
/ DAVID EUNG YUL RYOO
37 Calvin: Interpreter of the Prophets / BYRON G. CURTIS
53 From Exegesis to Preaching: Calvin’s Understanding and
Use of Ephesians 2:8–10 / JOHN V. FESKO
71 Calvin, Beza, and Perkins on Predestination / JOEL R. BEEKE
89 Vermigli, Calvin, and Aristotle’s Ethics / PAUL HELM
103 Discipline and Ignorance in Calvin’s Geneva / SCOTT M. MANETSCH
IN THE REFORMED TRADITION …
119 Bullinger on Islam: Theory and Practice / DANIËL TIMMERMAN
137 Bullinger’s The Old Faith (1537) as a Theological Tract / JOE MOCK
155 Reformation and Music / BILLY KRISTANTO
169 Whose Rebellion? Reformed Resistance Theory in America: Part I
/ SARAH MORGAN SMITH AND MARK DAVID HALL
185 Facing the Apologetic Challenges of Scientific Atheism
/ HENK (H. G.) STOKER
203 The Impact of Calvinist Teaching in Indonesia
/ AGUSTINUS M. L. BATLAJERY
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INTERVIEW
219 The Ninety-Five Theses Today: Interview with Drs. Timothy
Wengert and Carl R. Trueman / PETER A. LILLBACK
BOOK REVIEWS
233 John M. G. Barclay. Paul and the Gift / GERHARD H. VISSCHER
236 John V. Fesko. The Trinity and the Covenant of Redemption
/ JEONG KOO JEON
239 Diarmaid MacCulloch. All Things Made New: The Reformation and
Its Legacy / PAUL WELLS
242 Ashley Null and John W. Yates III, eds. Reformation Anglicanism:
A Vision for Today’s Global Communion / HARRISON PERKINS
244 Lyle D. Bierma. The Theology of the Heidelberg Catechism:
A Reformation Synthesis / BERNARD AUBERT
250 Christoph Stückelberger and Reinhold Bernhardt, eds.
Calvin Global: How Faith Influences Societies / AUDY SANTOSO
252 Christine Schirrmacher. “Let There Be No Compulsion in Religion”
(Sura 2:256): Apostasy from Islam as Judged by Contemporary
Theologians: Discourses on Apostasy, Religious Freedom and
Human Rights / PAUL WELLS
257 Contributors
Preamble
The celebration of Luther’s Reformation this year brings up
once again the question of sola Scriptura, and in particular the
problem of the role of tradition.
We tend to think that tradition is the hunting estate of the
Roman Catholic Church. However, Benjamin B. Warfield
reminded us that outside the Reformed faith, with its coherent doctrine of
revelation and inspiration, we fall into the snares of either mysticism or ra-
tionalism. We still face both today. The tradition of the Roman Church
tends towards mysticism, saints, and the numinously miraculous, while the
tradition of Enlightenment humanism is all around us in rationalism in its
postmodern forms, self-evident scientific truths, and politically correct
liberalism with its dogmas of tolerance and social constructionism.
But as Warfield remarked, not without a touch of humor,
The Mystic blows hot, the Rationalist blows cold. Warm up a Rationalist and you
inevitably get a Mystic; chill down a Mystic and you find yourselves with a Rational-
ist on your hands. The history of thought illustrates repeatedly the easy passage
from one to the other.1
One remarkable example of this passage in the twentieth century is found
in the works of the journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, who described his pil-
grimage from socialism to faith (and later to Catholicism) in his three-volume
autobiography, Chronicles of Wasted Time. I’ll never forget his description of
the bust of Marx—or was it Lenin? anyway, one of the heroes of dialectical
materialism—with a mystical aura of light falling on it in a “chapel” in the
house of Fabian socialists Sydney and Beatrice Webb in Surrey, the moneyed
garden of bourgeois England.
1 Benjamin B. Warfield, Critical Reviews (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), 366–67.
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So human tradition, human reasoning, the wisdom of the world, call it
what you like, is both mystical and rationalist, and it swings like a pendulum
from one extreme to the other. Mysticism and rationalism feed off each
other. The human psyche needs them both.
The best way we could honor brother Martin today would be to criticize
our inherent tendencies to both mysticism and rationalism and hold on to
the biblical gospel: grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone,
and to the glory of God alone. The gospel punctures both rationalism and
mysticism with the double-edged sword of the inspired truth of Scripture
and the immediate witness of the Spirit, God’s reason, and God’s mystery.
Peter Lillback had the masterly idea of writing A New Ninety-Five Theses
on Scripture. Canons to the right of him, canons to the left of him, he main-
tains sola Scriptura against both mysticism and rationalism, and human
traditions whether “spiritual” or “critical.”
As Reformed believers, we must constantly turn to Scripture as our foun-
dation and hope. This is the way forward: in faithfulness to revealed truth,
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The heart of our confession is not,
as in Roman Catholicism, Scripture plus tradition, or as in theological
liberalism, Scripture plus present rationality, but Scripture and the witness of
the Spirit. That makes the Reformed faith what it is, biblical truth come into
its own, as B. B. W. would have said!
PAUL WELLS
Editor in Chief, Unio cum Christo
EDITORIAL
A New Ninety-Five Theses
on Scripture
PETER A. LILLBACK
October 31, 2017
1. The church is always in need of reforming according to the Word of
God if it is to remain the Christian church.
2. A program for reforming the church requires a reaffirmation of sola
Scriptura.
3. The church’s way of reading and understanding Scripture must be
formed by Scripture itself, with Scripture interpreting Scripture.
4. Postmodern rejections of Scripture’s story line propose substitute narra-
tives based on an a priori rejection of the divine inspiration of Scripture.
5. Postmodern methods of biblical interpretation reject sola Scriptura and
replace it with a biblically alien system of hermeneutics.
6. The Scriptures offer assurance and confident hope, whereas postmod-
ern interpretations are self-focused, resulting in relativism, uncertainty,
and narcissism.
7. The interpretation of Scripture is not ultimately governed by the beliefs
of a community, but rather by Scripture interpreting Scripture. Without
this standard, the message of Scripture is relativized, resulting in ambi-
guity, and theological and spiritual chaos.
8. The rule of faith of Scripture compared with Scripture and Scripture
interpreting Scripture is an objective standard for truth claims, mean-
ingful discourse, and theological accountability.
9. Confessional orthodoxy is relevant and must be taken into account in
biblical and theological interpretation.
10. No church confession is infallible, as this is true of Scripture alone.
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11. Confessions should be read and subscribed to with a heart commit-
ment, while understanding that they are standards subordinate to the
Scriptures.
12. Confessional subscription is to be “as far as confessions are Scriptural”
and not “because they are Scriptural,” since no human document can
claim to equal the unique inerrant and authoritative character of the
inspired Word of God.
13. The church must reaffirm the foundational properties of Scripture as
revealed, inspired, inerrant, infallible, necessary, perspicuous, author-
itative, unified, self-authenticating, immutable, and canonical.
14. Scripture is known because God revealed himself and intended his
self-revelation to be preserved in writing.
15. These writings were given in the original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Greek), which are to be used as the basis for authoritative transla-
tion and interpretation.
16. While the Scriptures have been and must be translated into the vernac-
ulars used by Christians worldwide, the study of Scripture in the original
languages must be maintained, encouraged, and not considered super-
fluous for the life of the church.
17. The Scriptures are not merely human documents that become the
word of God when preached or when the Holy Spirit inspires the
hearts of believers with the living voice of the gospel.
18. The Scriptures are human documents that are inspired by God the
Holy Spirit and preserved by his providence. They are the living voice
of God (viva vox Dei), and fallible human preaching, enabled by the
regenerating and illuminating of the Spirit’s unction, is the living voice
of the gospel (viva vox evangelii).
19. The Scriptures in their original form (the autographs) no longer exist,
although they were given through the inspiration of the authors by the
Holy Spirit, so that the written words are infallible and without error.
20. Copies of the originals are so numerous and well preserved that the
essential form of the originals can be known, studied, and used author-
itatively for the well-being of the church.
21. Through the gospel and biblical teaching, the Scriptures created the
church, which by providence and the Spirit’s guidance has been enabled
to recognize the canonical Scriptures that have blessed it for nearly
two millennia.
22. The canon is not a construct the church has foisted on human docu-
ments, but it was inherent in the giving of the inspired divine Word
from Old Testament times, continuing into the New Testament era.