The General Assembly is the yearly gathering of our denomination’s ministers and ruling elders. It’s at this meeting that the denomination business is carried out. This year it was in Louisville, Kentucky and I attended along with Pastor Rochester. Among the necessary and benign items there were four controversial matters at hand.

1.     Theistic Evolution. In the last year a couple of men in our denomination, including Tim Keller, have gotten some attention because of the way they were saying things about creation and evolution. As a result, some presbyteries wanted the denomination to affirm a declaration that we are opposed to theistic evolution. I was opposed to this. Not because I believe in theistic evolution. Of course not. Rather, I was opposed to this because I believe our confessional standards are clear on this subject and that any … Read More »

The church calendar tells us that today is the third Sunday after Pentecost. Hallmark tells us today is Father’s Day. Which one we will pause and celebrate together as a Christian church is palpable. For some, though, it’s not so obvious. For example, this morning Tim Tebow is at Qualcomm stadium for an “event” hosted by a large local church. This, of course, should make us laugh—hard—because Tebow is neither a trained and ordained minister nor a father. He lacks all of the credentials required to be a spokesman for God to his church. No worries, though, he can throw a football and garner a crowd. That pretty much qualifies him to speak on any subject. If you can do that, you can be a veritable success in the ministry. Someone should really tell our seminary students about this because … Read More »

Thus far Kruger has been sketching for us the various ways groups—liberals, Catholics, evangelicals, etc.—go about defining and defending the canon. When we come to chapter three of his book we come to his thesis and what is rightly regarded as a unique contribution. I say unique for two reasons. One, because although he uses the reformers as a launching pad, he clearly goes beyond their arguments and thus presents something genuinely new: “Thus, for the purposes of this study, we shall be using the phrase self-authenticating in a broader fashion than was typical for the Reformers” (91). The second reason is more pejorative; and thus I intend to communicate that I am not convinced by his arguments and additions, and more than this, I think he actually gives away the farm.

The chapter is entitled, Canon as Self-Authenticating. And the … Read More »

John underscores the basis of religious authority in the text for this morning’s New Testament reading: If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater… (1 John 5:9). Although not citing this verse, Kruger applies its teaching when he raises the question of religious authority as it relates to the canon.

After, all, who has the authority to tell us what constitutes a divine book? Only God himself. And where would God tell us such a thing? In the Scriptures (Canon Revisited, 85).

 

Kruger’s approach is correct. Ultimate authority is God’s and his testimony is greater than the testimony of men. Evangelicals have tended to reject this approach when it comes to determining what books are to be in the Bible. Rather than being content with the testimony of God they have appealed to the testimony … Read More »