is there an answer here?

On another blog, a discussion is ongoing regarding the Mark Dever – Mark Minnick interview. I, along with some others, contend that our friend Mark Minnick didn’t answer the last question Dever asked. Others say that he did answer. I have taken the trouble to transcribe the last six or seven minutes of the interview, hopefully accurately, so that you can analyze what was said and come to your own conclusions.

Here is the transcript, beginning at about 1:01:35 of the interview:

1:01:35 Dever: “What would we have to do to change for you to be free to preach here?”

[Read more…]

when you wish more was said…

Frank Sansone alerts us that the 9Marks interview with Mark Minnick by Mark Dever is now available. I stayed up late to listen to it because, as you know, this is my main topic.

Frank heard about it from Andy Naselli and I see that Greg Linscott is linking to it as well over at his site. I expect this to immediately be the topic du jour in the fundamentalist blogosphere.

Why would that be? Because as Minnick points out very well in the interview: “Associations matter.”

This interview matters because associations matter. I think I understand what Pastor Minnick is trying to do in having communication with Pastor Dever, but even this low-level public association matters (though it is certainly not the same thing as sitting on a platform in a cooperative effort or appearing on the platform of Capital Hill BC, for example).

This interview, I predict will be the buzz this next week because associations matter.

But, oh, how I wish a little more had been said!

[Read more…]

an evangelical really gets it

John Mark Reynolds, professor at Biola, writes in response to the Evangelical Manifesto on the Washington Post On Faith site I mentioned the other day. His article, Reasonable Evangelicals contains a number of very interesting statements, but this one particularly caught my eye.

An Evangelical is moderate, fundamentally opposed to fundamentalism. They believe in truth and that God has spoken to humankind, but know that understanding that truth is difficult. They are willing to walk the hard road of Socratic persuasion and of cultural engagement. Sometimes they do this badly, but modern American Evangelicals historically came into being through a rejection of any narrow intolerance that refuses to consider competing points of view.

I would describe this as the Canadian approach to self-definition.

[Read more…]

Newsweek-WaPo site ‘on faith’

Some very interesting responses to the Evangelical Manifesto can be found on the Washington Post’s site, “On Faith“. The list of contributors is a potpourri of the broadest kind of ecumenicalism.

Among others, Deepak Chopra(!) comments on what he calls  a “new evangelicalism”.

In light of recent discussions regarding the social activism of some, one of his comments is interesting.

[Read more…]

decision decision

I mentioned my recent visit to the BG Library and picking up Decision magazine while there. One item of note is the author of one of the articles. Check out the byline on an article entitled “The Starting Point for Change“. I think Bob Bixby will be disappointed again. But he shouldn’t be surprised. It’s what new-evangelicals do.

don_sig2

a couple of evangelical editorials worth pondering

First, one from Paige Patterson on the current state of the SBC with some interesting insights for fundamentalists — Of grinches, goblins, gremlins and ghosts, from the May 6 Baptist Press.

Second, one from Alan Jacobs, professor of English at Wheaton, taking a slap at the so-called “Evangelical Manifesto” — Come On, You Call This a Manifesto?, appearing in the Wall Street Journal.

A few thoughts and quotes below:

[Read more…]

they sound like young fundies

“All too often we have attacked the evils and injustices of others,” they wrote, “while we have condoned our own sins.” They write, “we must reform our own behavior.”

Read the CT blog here. Usual disclaimers apply.

don_sig2

stages in the history of visible church unity

I’d like to resume my notes from Church History class. I am taking a break from my break from blogging – largely related to working out my taxes… I hate doing taxes. Reality is so depressing! Far better to live in the imprecise haze of not knowing exactly where one stands! In Canada, our tax day is Apr 30, so we have a bit longer to dither than our USA friends. (Of course, if you don’t have to pay, they are in no hurry for you to get your refund!)

So a little R & R… blogging!

The lecture I am entering today comes under a header entitled:

The Ecumenical Movement

Next comes a quote – may not be exact words, but something was said that struck me:

Be aware of the difference between my will, Satan’s wiles, and the Spirit’s wooing.

Now for the main lecture:

[Read more…]

discerning and eschewing new evangelicalism

In my Church History notes folder I have the reprint of an article written by Dr. Panosian in 1963 for the Nov/Dec issue of Voice of the Alumni, the news-magazine for BJU alumni. The article has a picture of a very young Dr. P. It was written a bare six or seven years from the Billy Graham 1957 New York crusade, the moment when lines were starkly drawn and personal decisions for or against the new evangelicalism had to be made.

Dr. P summarizes the definitions of other men for the (then) new movement. Among those cited are William E. Ashbrook, Harold J. Ockenga, Charles Woodbridge, Bob Jones, Jr., and Robert C. Brien. From these, Dr. P distills this definition:

So Neo-Evangelicalism is a movement, an approach, a group, a theological position, a practice, an attitude, a method and a mood. It prefers positivism without negativism, liberalism to fundamentalism, infiltration to separation, results to principles, scholarship to Revelation, ‘Preaching the Gospel’ without contending for the faith, ‘love’ to Truth, and ‘unity’ to loyalty to the Word of God. Ignoring the injunctions of the Epistles, concerning the believers’ reaction to error, infidelity, and apostasy — mark them, avoid them, rebuke them, have no fellowship with them, reprove, exhort, receive not, try them, from such turn away — the Neo-Evangelical has already been judged by God’s Word. He needs no other judgement.

A few thoughts flow from this…

[Read more…]

new evangelicalism – course and consequences

I’ve been blogging my old Church History class notes [minus the doodles] for a little while now. The next two sections concern new evangelicalism:

The Course of Neo-Evangelicalism

  1. Sellout of schools: Fuller Theological Seminary and Wheaton College [as examples]
  2. Emergence of honoured leaders:
    Harold Ockenga
    Carl Henry
    Edward Carnell
    Donald Ray Barnhouse
    Vernon Grounds
    Bernard Ramm
    Alan Redpath
  3. Emergence of Propaganda Vehicles
    Christianity Today (an answer to the liberal Christian Century)
    Christian Life
    Eternity

As I think about this section, I must not have fully understood the lecture, or else ‘sellout’ is my term. Fuller was created for the purpose of advancing the neo-evangelical cause. It has always been committed to a course of compromise, whereas Wheaton turned away from a more militant beginning to the position it holds today.

[Read more…]