Written by Carl R. Trueman |
Monday, November 27, 2023
A time of social upheaval and chaos such as ours is likely to send even the most devout Christians into despair unless they can place the terrifying flux of life in the earthly city against the unchanging reality of the sovereign God himself. It is the same with personal suffering. What patient suffering from cancer wants a doctor who has cancer too? They want a doctor who can overcome their illness. That is the God of classical theism. He does not need to suffer as God. He needs to take human flesh and overcome death in that flesh. 

Last Monday I had the pleasure of delivering the opening lecture for the newly-founded Center for Classical Theology. The brainchild of Matthew Barrett, of Midwestern Baptist Seminary, its aim is to reinvigorate Protestantism by reconnecting it to its historical and theological roots in the patristic and medieval periods. Unfortunately, much of modern evangelicalism sorely needs to recover “classical theology”—the term Barrett uses to describe orthodox Christian doctrines as set forth by the creeds, the Great Tradition of theology exemplified by the ancient ecumenical councils, and traditional Protestant confessions such as the Westminster Confession. 
Recent scholarship in both the ancient church and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Protestantism have exposed an unfortunate problem with large swathes of the conservative, and especially evangelical, Protestant world. Much good work was done over the last century in both articulating a high view of the authority of Scripture and developing more self-conscious and sophisticated theological approaches to biblical interpretation. But at the same time, many Protestants became disconnected from creedal and confessional teaching on the doctrine of God (and thus by inference, from Christology). Many conservative Protestants did not even notice that this was the case, as their understanding of what the creeds and confessions actually claimed was refracted through a biblicist lens that was detached from the history of doctrinal debate behind these documents. 
Hence, doctrines such as simplicity, immutability, and eternal generation have been redefined or have vanished altogether in certain Protestant communities, even as many who played a role in this maintained a verbal commitment to the Nicene Creed or the Westminster Confession of Faith. The conservative criticism of liberal Christians—that they use orthodox words but mean something different—somehow did not apply when the people doing so affirmed the historical resurrection but rejected the basic elements of the classical doctrine of God. 
A recovery of classical theology is thus long overdue for a variety of reasons. The language of confessional Protestantism and orthodox evangelicalism was historically rooted in these classical doctrines. The Reformers and their hearers took it for granted that theology is always to be done in careful dialogue with the past and, as much as possible, in continuity with it. But this is simply counter-intuitive to an evangelicalism shaped more by revivalism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the fundamentalist-modernist strife of the early twentieth. 
That points toward one of the reasons classical theology and classical theism now seem implausible to many. True to its roots, evangelical Christianity in our modern day is too often impatient with language that seems speculative and abstract and with doctrine that cannot be easily instrumentalized.
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“Conversion therapy bans prohibit Christian pastors and leaders from teaching a foundational part of discipleship— the Biblical definition of marriage and family, and the call to turn from any deviations of that definition,” said Joe Dallas, a Christian author and counselor who has spent three decades helping people overcome sexual addictions. “These bans won’t just apply to counselors or parachurch leaders, but to all pastors as well. We are the light of the world, but we’re now in danger of allowing the world to become the light of the church.”

Prominent California pastor John MacArthur is asking American pastors to join in solidarity Jan. 16 with their Canadian counterparts to preach a message on God’s plan for human sexuality.
MacArthur’s call, which includes a statement that pastors are encouraged to sign, went out via Twitter on Dec. 29 following a letter MacArthur received from a Canadian pastor lamenting Canada’s broad new law banning so-called conversion therapy. The language of bill C-4 potentially threatens parents and churches that proclaim the Gospel message, which includes the call to repent of sin and turn in faith to Jesus Christ as the first step of Christian discipleship.
In a statement titled “A Stand on Biblical Sexual Morality,” MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, calls attention to an “urgent matter in which the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is under attack.” In his statement, MacArthur describes communication he received from Pastor James Coates of GraceLife Church of Edmonton, Alberta, and Pastor Andrew DeBartolo of Encounter Church in Kingston, Ontario, warning of the impending law.
In writing to MacArthur, Coates said the new law “directly comes against parents and counsellors who would seek to offer biblical counsel with respect to sexual immorality and gender” and could “criminalize evangelism” if a person turns from homosexuality or transgenderism or is encouraged to do so.
DeBartolo wrote: “On January 16, 2022, faithful men across this country (and many in the United States as well) will be preaching on God’s design for marriage and a Biblical ethic of sexuality. We will be doing so illegally, declaring to the State that there is one God and one Lord over His church, and that Christ alone gets to both define marriage and dictate what is required in the pulpit.”
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One benefit of reading Joshua is to be encouraged by a rather unusual bright spot in biblical history of faithfulness to Yahweh. There are not many places in Scripture where an entire generation’s faithfulness is recorded, but we have such a recording in Joshua. 

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. (ESV) – Joshua 1:9
If the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) is conceived as a series on the life of Moses, then the book of Joshua is a spinoff. Joshua plays a prominent and positive role in the books of the Law. He serves alongside Caleb as one of the two faithful spies to Canaan and is Moses’s right-hand man.
Yahweh’s conversation with Joshua to kick off the book sets the tone for the rest of the book. The Book of Joshua records a mostly flawless history of Israelite success following the death of Moses. Joshua is a worthy successor. When read in light of Moses’s final pleas for faithfulness in the book of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel look to be off to a great start. Sadly, the book is in stark contrast to the stories that will follow in the book of Judges.
An Outline of Joshua
Joshua represents the story of how the first generation to enter the Promised Land fared as they went about conquering and settling in the land.
Chapters 1-6 record the miraculous crossing of the Jordan and the approach to the first city to be conquered: Jericho. Chapters 7-8 record the sin of Achan and the people’s initial defeat at the hands of Ai. Achan’s sin is discovered and punished before the people go on to defeat Ai handily. Chapters 9-12 describe in rapid fashion the large number of kings and territories defeated, with the Gibeonites excepted. Chapter 9 records how the Gibeonites pretend to be from a distant land and succeed in securing a covenant with Israel before Joshua consults Yahweh on the matter. As a result, Joshua is forced to come to their aid when they are threatened.
By chapter 13, Joshua is old and God tells him so (Josh. 13:1). Yahweh commands Joshua to divide the rest of the land among the remaining tribes. This apportioning is described all the way through chapter 21, and at the end of the chapter there is a summary statement of Yahweh’s faithfulness to the people in keeping every promise he made to them (Josh. 21:44-45).
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