Notes
Notes
Preface
1. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876; Penguin, 1986), p. 37.
2. From the Epilogue to From Gore to Temple 1889–1939 by A. M. Ramsey (Longmans, 1960), p. 166.
3. John Habgood, Confessions of a Conservative Liberal (SPCK, 1988), pp. 2–3.
4. S. C. Neill, Anglicanism (1958; Penguin, 1982), p. 190.
5. From his 1980 Presidential Address to the Sydney Synod.
Introduction: Evangelical Essentials
1. Patrick Johnstone, Operation World (OM Publishing, 1996 edition), p. 35.
2. John S. Peart-Binns, Wand of London (Mowbray, 1987), p. 29.
3. Michael Saward, Evangelicals on the Move (Mowbray, 1987), p. 1.
4. David Hare, Racing Demon (Faber, 1990), p. 59.
5. Culture Wars (HarperCollins, 1991), p. 144.
6. Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (James Clarke, 1953), p. 53.
7. Hugh Latimer, Works, vol. 1, pp. 30–31.
8. John Jewel, Works, vol. 2, p. 1034.
9. The Character of a Methodist (1742), p. 10.
10. Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (HarperZondervan, 1997), p. 160.
11. Carl F. H. Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (Eerdmans, 1947), p. 26.
12. See Fundamentalism by James Barr (SCM, 1966) and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by John S. Spong (Harper, 1991). Harriet A. Harries considers James Barr’s critique valid, and develops it. She distinguishes three meanings of the word ‘fundamentalism’: (1) ‘a historical movement of the 1920s’ (in opposition, that is, to ‘modernism’), (2) ‘an identity still assumed by old-style separatist fundamentalists, politicized neo-fundamentalists and occasionally also by evangelicals’, and (3) ‘a mentality which has affected much of mainstream evangelicalism’ (Fundamentalism and Evangelicals, OUP, 1998, p. 313). It is clearly important to distinguish between the history, the identity and the mentality, and Harriet Harries’s thorough study deserves careful evaluation. But evangelicals will resist the continuing attempt to identify them with fundamentalists or to accuse them of having ‘a rationalistic, fundamentalist mind-set’ (e.g. pp. 11–15).
13. C. F. H. Henry, op cit., pp. 36–37.
14. Rowland Croucher, Recent Trends among Evangelicals (Albatross-Marc, 1986), p. 7.
15. Clive Calver and Rob Warner, Together We Stand (Hodder and Stoughton, 1996), pp. 128–130.
16. From a chapter entitled ‘Lausanne Between Berlin and Geneva’ in Reich Gottes oder Weltgemeinschaft, ed. W. Künneth and P. Beyerhaus (Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, 1975), pp. 307–308.
17. The Evangelical Anglican Identity Problem: An Analysis, by J. I. Packer (Latimer House, Oxford, 1978), pp. 15–23. Dr Alister McGrath adopted and expounded these six ‘fundamental’ or ‘controlling’ principles in his book Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity (Hodder and Stoughton, 1994), pp. 49–88.
18. D. W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1930s to the 1980s (Unwin Hyman, 1989), p. 3. Dr Bebbington elaborates these four characteristics, with many historical examples, on pp. 3–19. They have been widely accepted. Clive Calver and Rob Warner adopted them in their book Together We Stand, although Rob Warner added two further characteristics, namely ‘Christocentric’ and ‘longing for revival’ (see pp. 94–105). Dr Bebbington’s quadrilateral is also quoted by John Martin in Gospel People? (SPCK, 1997), pp. 9 and 13, although he changed the order and added ‘the search for holiness’.
19. Derek J. Tidball, Who Are the Evangelicals? (Marshall Pickering, 1994), p. 14.
20. D. W. Bebbington, op. cit., p. 276.
21. Ibid., p. 4.
22. In The Radical Evangelical: Seeking a Place to Stand Nigel Wright also writes of the primacy of the Trinity in evangelical religion (SPCK, 1996).
Chapter 1: The Revelation of God
1. Cf. Acts 14:17; 17:24–5.
2. Quoted by D. W. Bebbington, op cit., p. 86.
3. Alec Motyer, Look to the Rock: An Old Testament Background to our Understanding of Christ (IVP, 1996), p. 182.
4. Diogenes Allen, Christian Belief in a Post-modern World: The Full Wealth of Conviction (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), pp. 1–9. Several other books published in the 1990s have examined the interaction between evangelicalism and postmodernism. Among them are the following: Revisioning Evangelical Theology: A Fresh Agenda for the 21st Century by Stanley J. Grenz (IVP, Downers Grove, 1993); The Post-Evangelical by Dave Tomlinson (SPCK, 1995); Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Post-modern Age by J. Richard Middleton and Brian J. Walsh (SPCK, 1995); and Picking up the Pieces: Can Evangelicals Adapt to Contemporary Culture? by David Hilborn (Hodder and Stoughton, 1997). The Evangelical Left: Encountering Post-conservative Evangelical Theology by Millard J. Erickson (Baker, 1997) offers a fair evaluation, both positive and negative, of North American ‘post-conservatives’.
5. Os Guinness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do about it (Baker, 1994), p. 105.
6. Peter Cotterell in The London Bible College Review (1989).
7. Some modern versions read that ‘all inspired Scripture is useful’, implying that some Scripture is not inspired and therefore not useful. But (a) the concept of ‘uninspired Scripture’ would have been a contradiction in terms, and (b) the inclusion in the Greek text of kai (‘and’) indicates that Paul is making two statements, first that Scripture is God-breathed, and secondly that it is useful. The essay by B. B. Warfield on the ‘expiration’ of Scripture, and on the meaning and implications of this text has never been either bettered or refuted. See his The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1951), ch. 3.
8. J. I. Packer, ‘Fundamentalism’ and the Word of God (IVF, 1958), pp. 81–82. Dr Packer supplies the references.
9. Ibid., p. 81.
10. Ibid., p. 82.
11. Richard Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1593–7), Book V. 8. 11.
12. Note that in the six antitheses of the Sermon on the Mount, ‘you have heard that it was said, but I say to you’, Jesus was not contradicting what was ‘written’ (Scripture) but what was ‘said’ (oral tradition).
13. The Lambeth Conference 1958 (SPCK), part 2, p. 5.
14. Alister McGrath, To Know and Serve God: A Biography of J. I. Packer (Hodder and Stoughton, 1997), pp. 201–202.
15. Kenneth S. Kantzer and Carl F. H. Henry (eds.), Evangelical Affirmations (Academie Books, Zondervan, 1990), pp. 32, 38.
16. E. D. Hirsch, Validity in Interpretation (Yale University Press, 1967), p. 1.
17. Ibid., p. 5.
18. John Stott (ed.), Making Christ Known: Historic Mission Documents from the Lausanne Movement 1974–1989 (Paternoster, 1997), pp. 13–14. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) elaborated the Lausanne Covenant clause, saying that Scripture ‘is to be believed as God’s instruction in all that it affirms; obeyed as God’s command in all that it requires; and embraced as God’s pledge in all that it promises’.
Chapter 2: The Cross of Christ
1. J. C. Ryle, Home Truths (Thynne, n.d.), pp. 19–20.
2. P. T. Forsyth, The Cruciality of the Cross (Hodder and Stoughton, 1909), pp. 44–45.
3. P. T. Forsyth, The Work of Christ (Hodder and Stoughton, 1910), p. 53.
4. Leon Morris, The Cross in the New Testament (Paternoster, 1965), p. 365.
5. J. C. Ryle, op. cit., p. 4.
6. Catholicity: A Study in the Conflict of Christian Traditions in the West (Dacre Press, 1947).
7. Ibid., pp. 21–23.
8. The Fulness of Christ: The Church’s Growth into Catholicity (SPCK, 1950), pp. 17, 23.
9. See Jer. 6:14; 8:11; Ezek. 13:10ff.
10. Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings (ET Faber, 1964), especially pp. 128–129.
11. Charles Smyth, Cyril Forster Garbett, Archbishop of York (Hodder and Stoughton, 1959), p. 424.
12. Hilton C. Oswald (ed.), Luther’s Works, vol. 25 (Concordia, 1972), pp. 291, 345.
13. Emil Brunner, The Mediator (ET Westminster Press, 1947), p. 141.
14. Emil Brunner, Man in Revolt (1937; ET Lutterworth, 1939), p. 129.
15. Emil Brunner, Dogmatics, vol. 2, pp. 92–93.
16. Swami Vivekananda, Speeches and Writings, 3rd edition (G. A. Natesan, Madras), pp. 38–39.
17. Ibid., p. 125.
18. Alister McGrath, To Know and Serve God: A Biography of James I. Packer (Hodder and Stoughton, 1997), p. 205.
19. Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535; James Clarke, 1953), p. 143, cf. p. 101.
20. First Book of Homilies (1547) from Homilies and Canons (SPCK, 1914), pp. 25–26.
21. R. T. Beckwith, G. E. Duffield and J. I. Packer, Across the Divide (Marcham Manor Press, 1977), p. 58. It is true that other contemporary scholars challenge both the centrality of justification in Paul’s theology and its traditional interpretation which, they suggest, owes more to Luther’s dramatic experience than to New Testament teaching. See, for example, What St Paul Really Said by Tom Wright (Lion, 1997). Certainly we agree that justification is only one Pauline metaphor of atonement and salvation. But I have not myself been convinced by this ‘new perspective on Paul’. We must surely hold on to the truth that justification is a gift of God’s grace, which on account of the cross is free and undeserved (e.g. Rom. 3:24; 5:15–17; 6:23).
22. See, e.g., Rom. 3:28; 5:1; Gal. 2:16; Phil. 3:9.
23. From Richard Hooker’s ‘Definition of Justification’, being ch. 33 of his Ecclesiastical Polity (1593–7).
24. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (1937), pp. 8, 73.
25. William Temple, Nature, Man and God (Macmillan, 1934), p. 401.
26. The Guardian Weekly, 30 August 1979.
Chapter 3: The Ministry of the Holy Spirit
1. Council of Trent, Session 7, Canon 8.
2. Ecclesiastical Polity, V, p. 67.
3. James Ussher, The Body of Divinity, ch. 42.
4. J. C. Ryle, Knots Untied (1877; Thynne ‘people’s edition’, 1900), p. 6.
5. It is because of our doctrine of assurance that evangelicals have always opposed the practice of praying for the Christian departed. Of course we continue to remember them; it would be very odd, not to say inhuman, to allow death suddenly to erase them from our memory. And we also thank God for them. Why then do we not pray for them? For two reasons. First, although on innumerable occasions in the New Testament we are exhorted to pray for the living, there is no single New Testament text which bids us pray for the dead. So the practice lacks biblical warrant. Secondly, we are assured that having been justified by faith, ‘we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 5:1). In addition, Paul told the Colossians to give thanks to the Father ‘who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light’ (Col. 1:12–14). How then can we pray (using the traditional phraseology) that the souls of the departed may ‘rest in peace’ and that ‘light perpetual may shine upon them’, when we have been specifically assured that God’s redeemed people already enjoy ‘peace’ and ‘light’? To pray that they may be given what we are told they already have is derogatory to the work of Christ and incompatible with Christian assurance.
6. See 1 John 2:3, 5; 3:14, 19; 4:13; 5:19.
7. The Prayer of Consecration in the Communion service.
8. D. M. Lloyd-Jones, The New Man: An Exposition of Romans 6 (Banner of Truth, 1972), p. 264.
9. Handley Moule, Thoughts on Christian Sanctity (Seeley, 1888), pp. 13–15.
10. Ibid., p. 16.
11. See Truth, Error and Discipline (Vine Books, 1978), a pamphlet produced by and for the Church of England Evangelical Council.
12. Fourth edition, revised 1900.
13. In 1981 Dr J. I. Packer picked up Ryle’s memorable phrase and wrote A Kind of Noah’s Ark? The Anglican Commitment to Comprehensiveness, as a companion piece to his earlier study The Evangelical Anglican Identity Problem: An Analysis (Latimer House, Oxford, 1978).
14. The Fulness of Christ: The Church’s Growth into Catholicity, being a report presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury (SPCK, 1960), pp. 7–8.
15. Alec Vidler, Essays in Liberality (SCM, 1957), p. 166.
16. From his essay ‘Taking Stock in Theology’ in Evangelicals Today, ed. John C. King (Lutterworth, 1973), p. 17.
17. John V. Taylor, The Go-Between God (SCM, 1972), p. 3.
18. John Stott (ed.), Making Christ Known: Historic Mission Documents from the Lausanne Movement, 1974–1989 (Paternoster and Eerdmans, 1996), p. 238.
19. William Temple, Readings in St. John’s Gospel (1945; Macmillan, 1955), p. 130.
20. Harry R. Boer, Pentecost and Missions (Lutterworth, 1961), p. 210.
21. In John Stott (ed.), op. cit., pp. 181–182.
22. John Wimber, Power Evangelism (Hodder and Stoughton, 1985), p. 117.
23. Ibid., p. 117.
24. E.g. Exod. 4:1–9; 1 Kgs. 17 – 18; Acts 2:22; 2 Cor. 12:12.
25. John Wimber, op. cit., p. 102.
26. John Stott (ed.), op. cit., p. 238.
27. It will be clear from this definition of ‘revival’ as a supernatural and sovereign visitation of God, that I am not alluding to ‘organizing a revival’ (i.e. an evangelistic mission), a very man-created expression still in use in some southern states of the USA.
28. Johannes Blauw, The Missionary Nature of the Church (1962; Eerdmans, 1974), p. 89.
Conclusion: The Challenge of the Evangelical Faith
1. The Letter to Diognetus, V. 5. 8.
2. Eph. 4:1; Luke 3:8; Matt. 10:37; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12.
3. Rob Warner enlarges on some of these, and on others, in his chapter entitled ‘Fracture Points’ in Together We Stand by Clive Calver and Rob Warner (Hodder and Stoughton, 1996), pp. 60–93.
4. So John T. Wilkinson in his introductory essay to The Reformed Pastor (Epworth ed., 1939), p. 31. The original Latin version of the proverb was in necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in omnibus caritas.
5. Church of England Newspaper, 17 April 1998.
6. R. P. Martin, Philippians, Tyndale New Testament Commentary (IVP and Eerdmans, 1959), p. 86.
7. A full account of the ten martyrs is given in Andrew Chandler (ed.), The Terrible Alternative (Cassell, 1998).