Justin Taylor's Blog, page 202

Complementarianism for Dummies

Mary Kassian:

Last week a reporter asked me to define “complementarianism.”  She didn’t know what it meant. And that’s not entirely surprising.

“Complementarity” is a word that doesn’t appear in the Bible, but is used by people to summarize a biblical concept. It’s like the word “Trinity.” The Bible never uses the word “Trinity.” But it’s undeniable that it points to a Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Though the concept of male-female complementarity is present from Genesis through Revelation, the label “complementarian” has only been in use for about 25 years. It was coined by a group of scholars who got together to try and come up with a word to describe someone who ascribes to the historic, biblical idea that male and female are equal, but different. The need for such a label arose in response to the proposition that equality means role-interchangeability (egalitarianism)—a concept that was first forwarded and popularized in Evangelical circles in the 1970s and 80s by “Biblical Feminists.”

I’ve read several posts on the internet lately from people who misunderstand and/or misrepresent the complementarian view.  I was at the meeting, 25 years ago, where the word “complementarian” was chosen.  So I think I have a good grasp on the word’s definition.

In this post I want to boil it down for you. In emulation of the popular “for Dummies” series of instructional books, I’ll give you a “Complementarianism for Dummies” primer on the intended meaning of the word.

You can read the whole thing here.

Blurbing the Classics: On Augustine’s “Confessions”

I believe in blurbs. The vast majority of books these days contain a number of endorsements, commendations, (or more colloquially) blurbs. They range from a sentence to a full paragraph, written by an expert or authority of some kind, explaining what the book is, why it’s important, and why you should consider reading it.

But virtually all of the blurbs you see today—on blogs, in publisher’s catalogs, on the back of books—are about new books just coming out.

I was recently thinking that there my be some value to the church if I were to be a sort of midwife in helping to collect some commendations on selected theological classics that you should seriously consider.

We’ll see if this proves to be helpful or not, but I decided to start with a no-brainer: Augustine’s Confessions.

“If you took a list of the greatest books of western civilization and whittled it down to the top five, Augustine’s Confessions would still have a secure spot on that list. It might even make the cut and stay on the top three list; it’s that much of a classic. In this carefully-crafted book, Augustine does theology by listening to his life, and then listening even more carefully and passionately to the words of God. We hear him ask all the right questions and most of the wrong ones. We hear him finding the truth and saying it in his own words. Or rather, we overhear him, because from beginning to end the Confessions is one sustained prayer to the God who alone can give the soul what it needs.”

—Fred Sanders

“The Confessions is a masterpiece not only of Christian literature but of literature in general. It possesses that most important characteristic of a great literary work of art: every time one reads it, one sees something new and one comes away with a deeper understanding of oneself. From the psychology of sin to the nature of youthful peer pressure, to the connection of violence and the visual, it penetrates the human mind and its arcane inner workings like no other work before it. And it is also a remarkable testimony to a journey away from and back to God, both on the individual and cosmic levels.”

—Carl R. Trueman

“Don’t imagine that the Confessions are a tawdry tell-all! Actually, Augustine is not really the subject of this book; God is. Augustine was (only) forty-three when he began writing. He was now looking back over eleven years since he had become a Christian. Weak, erring, and foolish as he had once been, he had found—or should we say, been found by?—the grace of God. It is to this grace that Augustine traces all the good in his life. And in so doing, he holds up a mirror in which we also can see ourselves, different though our circumstances are, and see the greatness, the grandness, of God’s redemptive purposes. It is a profound book and though its language can be a little complex at times it is one of those books that repays, many times over, the effort we put into reading it.”

—David F. Wells

“Augustine’s Confessions need no commendation. No western person deserves to be called ‘educated’ unless he or she has digested these personal reflections of one of the most significant and influential thinkers of the past two millennia. The fact that both John Owen and B.B. Warfield (arguably our two greatest theologians in the English speaking reformed tradition) wrote extended essays on him should serve as an echo of the words Augustine himself first heard—”Tolle lege”—Pick it up, and read it!

—Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Few Christian classics are still on the required reading lists of every serious Western literature course. Augustine’s Confessions tops most lists. Among the accolades is that it pioneered the psychological biography, contributing significantly to the self-reflective soul that became commonplace in modern writing. One of the marks of a classic is that anyone can read it, young and old, casual reader and specialist, finding a new passageway in each new reading. Here the great theologian so formative in our understanding of the Trinity, original sin, and grace becomes a fellow pilgrim, tracing God’s path of judgment and grace in his own life through prayer and meditation. Reading the Confessions, we are exposed not only to Augustine’s soul but discover the headwaters of Latin spirituality that flow through the Middle Ages and carve the massive tributaries of Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Puritan and High Church pieties, alike. So there are many motives for reading Augustine’s Confessions, but the one that the Bishop of Hippo would have singled out is expressed in his own best-known prayer in the book: ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.’”

—Michael S. Horton

“I first read Augustine’s Confessions not long after my conversion in February of 1974, and found them so edifying to my soul that I have gone back to them time and again for spiritual insight and Christian nurture. But the work is assuredly a strange work, for the book is one long sustained conversation with God. No human audience is directly addressed. It is for God’s eyes only. This is why the book cannot be considered an autobiography, but must be seen as an act of praise and worship—one of the key meanings of the Latin verb confessio. And, as Augustine scholar James O’Donnell rightly notes, one comes away from such a reading of the Confessions convinced that whatever else we have learned about the man, “we have seen Augustine at prayer” and in worship. And his fiery hunger for God is the very thing we need in our gray and tepid day.”

—Michael A. G. Haykin

“The Confessions of Augustine is a book that has been a friend for many years. Parts of it I have given a good bit of attention to. But I have come to expect that every time I read it there’ll be something new. Something I had not noticed before, or some new slant on what I thought I knew. Augustine has the facility to change gear in an instant, from matters which are intensely personal—his fears, his friends, his conversion—to discussions of general significance—time , memory, the creation. His style is wonderfully transparent. His feelings and thoughts, his agonies of conscience and of the intellect, tumble out on to the page. Perhaps it is this which gives the Confessions such a modern feel.

—Paul Helm

“In his Confessions, Augustine invented the genre of theological autobiography. For the first time, a believer laid his soul before the church, his feelings as well as his ideas, his sins as well as his growth in grace. Not every spiritual autobiography is worth our time. But Augustine was an extraordinary thinker and, for all his sins, an exemplary man. His life with God has blessed the church for centuries and blesses us yet today.”

—John Frame

At the risk of oversimplification, here is a snapshot of some basics about the book:

Who? Augustine of Hippo. Here is a helpful timeline of his life.

What? A God-centered theological memoir and theological exploration in the form of an extended prayer.

When? Written between AD 397 and 398. He was born in 354 and was converted to Christianity in 386. So he was about 43 years old when this was written and had been a believer for around 11 years.

Where? Locations include Northern Africa (he was born in Thagaste and ended up in Hippo—both in modern-day Algeria). He studied and taught in Italy (Rome and Milan).

Why? As Craig Troxel says in thoughtful discussion of the purpose and genre, “Augustine used his life history as a means to give glory to God for his providential work of mercy and grace.”

How? There are thirteen “books.” Augustine recounts his early years, his relationship with his parents, his conversion, and theological reflections on topics like sin, Genesis, time, and the Trinity.

There are several English translations of the Latin text. Online for free are the translations by Pusey (1838) and Outler (1955).

Some standard print translations, with notes, would include those by Henry Chadwick (2008) and Maria Boulding (1998).

Tolle lege!

Apocryphal Quote from C.S. Lewis on the Soul and the Body

It can be discouraging to discover that some of our favorite quotes attributed to some of our favorite theologians were not actually said by them. One example that comes to mind is Luther’s statement:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

Except he probably didn’t say or write that.

The most-abused apocryphal-theological quote is probably St. Francis of Assis’s  “Preach the gospel; use words if necessary”—as Mark Galli points out, the quote is fine, other than being unbiblical and not something that Francis said, believed, or practiced!

It can be enjoyable and edifying to track down the originals, which are often fairly close and which have also been uttered by less famous people—as is the case with Bunyan’s “Run, John, Run” poem or Luther’s statement about the church standing or falling on the doctrine of justification or the original form of the TULIP acronym.

At the Mere Orthodoxy blog, they look today at the origin of the saying, “”You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” It turns out this actually comes from the pen of George MacDonald, not C. S. Lewis.

At its worst, this quote could be used in defense of what Randy Alcorn has called Christoplatonism, with its suspicion of the body. However, I think the quote could be defensible, insofar as the soul can survive without the body (in the intermediate state which longs for the consummation and the reunion of soul and body), but the body cannot survive without the soul.

Matt Anderson has a good nuanced response to all of this:

We should be careful not to simply be reactionary against uncareful statements like the above.  Theology is ever in danger of reductionism, and it’s ever possible that our own contemporary reaction against the concept of the soul is too deflationary an account of human persons.

That said, out of context-which is how the legions of people who pass it around Facebook and Twitter generally see it-the quote really does express a stunted vision of the human person in light of the resurrection.  My own intuition is to say something along the lines of, “You are a body.  But you’re a soul too.  And your human flourishing is contingent upon being a soul-bodied thing.”

All of Us Need a Friend Like Martin Luther Once in a While

All of us need a Martin Luther in our lives now and then—a friend who is not afraid to stand on gospel promises and get in our face with gospel truth when we would rather wallow in self-pity.

Here is a portion of a letter from Luther to his friend Philip Melachnton (June 27, 1530):

Those great cares by which you say you are consumed I vehemently hate; they rule your heart not on account of the greatness of the cause but by reason of the greatness of your unbelief. . . .

If our cause is great, its author and champion is great also, for it is not ours. Why are you therefore always tormenting yourself?

If our cause is false, let us recant; if it is true, why should we make him a liar who commands us to be of untroubled heart?

Cast your burden on the Lord, he says. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him with a broken heart. Does he speak in vain or to beasts? . . .

What good can you do by your vain anxiety?

What can the devil do more than slay us? What after that?

I beg you, so pugnacious in all else, fight against yourself, your own worst enemy, who furnish Satan with arms against yourself. . . .

I pray for you earnestly and am deeply pained that you keep sucking up cares like a leech and thus rendering my prayers vain.

Christ knows whether it is stupidity or bravery, but I am not much disturbed, rather of better courage than I had hoped.

God who is able to raise the dead is also able to uphold a falling cause, or to raise a fallen one and make it strong.

If we are not worthy instruments to accomplish his purpose, he will find others.

If we are not strengthened by his promises, to whom else in all the world can they pertain?

But saying more would be pouring water into the sea.

Why Patriotism Is a Good Thing

A very thoughtful and helpful piece by Brett McCracken, connecting love of one’s country and place with the Grand Story and the longing for More.

On Being Caricatured and Being a Victim: The Example of N. T. Wright

Dane Ortlund, looking at an unbecoming paragraph or two from an essay by N. T. Wright, offers several observations:

1. On the spectrum of conservatives who engage with Wright, I would place myself quite far on the ‘appreciative’ side of that spectrum. I have quoted him positively several times on this blog, such as here. Tons of wisdom and clarity in his stuff. Puts the whole Bible together in amazingly helpful ways. Etc etc etc. Much more to be said here.

2. Wright is unfairly caricatured. And I too am ready to see it stop. I come from the world of conservative American Presbyterianism, and the blogs are scathing. Downright mean. Methinks that when Jesus said that ‘on the day of judgment people will give an account for every careless word they speak’ he didn’t mean ‘every careless word except those typed out on blogs’ (Matt 12:36-37).

3. And yet there is a deep irony is Wright’s last paragraph in the quote above. He grieves over his critics lumping him together with other New Perspective advocates. Yet in doing so Wright himself lumps together all his critics in just as unfairly a fashion. Like a dad yelling at his kid to never yell.

4. The impugning of motives in that last paragraph is horrid. What an awful example for younger scholars.

5. Either you believe God is one day going to vindicate you publicly before all your accusers, a la many of the psalms or 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, or you do not. If you do, you will not feel the need to preemptively get a head start on that vindication process. Wright’s immature complaining in passages like the above is a reminder to us all that when publicly misrepresented it is always the way of wisdom to err on the side of silence. Gentle correction of some publicly stated untruth about us may indeed at times be called for. But when we do so let us do it calmly, without exaggeration, soothing rather than stoking the flames of controversy and emotions, and without a tone of licking our wounds.

6. On a strictly pragmatic level, Wright’s bemoaning is counterproductive. It makes his overall writing programme [sic!] less compelling and convincing, not more. He had the same victim tone in his 2010 ETS lecture on justification.

7. I continue to benefit from Wright’s work and I eagerly anticipate much more, as the Lord gives him strength.

You can see the whole post here.

World Magazine’s Book/s of the Year

In the recent “Book Issue” of World Magazine, Marvin Olasky names Rodney Stark’s The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion (HarperOne) World’s Book of the Year.

Here are his two runner-ups:

Robert Lupton, Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help—And How to Reverse It (HarperOne)
Lawrence Mead, From Prophecy to Charity: How to Help the Poor (AEI)

And here are the other six books rounding up Olasky’s top 10 (click on the date for his articles where the books are mentioned and discussed):

D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Eerdmans); May 5
Christian History Project, Volume 10, We the People: A.D. 1600 to 1800 (SEARCH); June 16
Kevin DeYoung & Greg Gilbert, What Is the Mission of the Church? (Crossway); June 16
William Farley,  Gospel-Powered Humility (P&R); May 5
Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master’s Son: A Novel (Random House); June 30
Phillip Simpson, A Life of Gospel Peace: A Biography of Jeremiah Burroughs (Reformation Heritage Books); April 21

How Do You Evangelize If You Don’t Ask Someone to “Pray the Sinner’s Prayer?”

David Platt does not think it is wrong to pray or to encourage someone to pray the “sinner’s prayer.” He voted for the revised resolution at the recent SBC annual convention meeting. But he does explain some of the dangers he has seen:

A specific “sinner’s prayer” like we often think of today is not found in Scripture or even in much of church history. Without question, Scripture tells us to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and to call on the name of the Lord and be saved. At the same time, we never see anyone in Scripture saying, “Bow your head, close your eyes, and repeat after me,” followed by a specific “sinner’s prayer.”


The use of a “sinner’s prayer” can potentially come across as unhealthily formulaic. I talk with people all the time who are looking for a “box to check off” in order to be right with God and safe for eternity. But there is no box. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Such saving faith is the anti-work (i.e., “not by works, so that no one can boast” in Ephesians 2:8-9), and I want to be careful never to communicate that someone’s work (or words) can merit salvation before God.


I have seen the “sinner’s prayer” abused across the contemporary Christian landscape as people “pray the prayer” apart from a biblical understanding of the gospel or “pray the prayer” on multiple occasions to ensure their salvation or “pray the prayer” without ever counting the cost of following Christ. I have experienced this abuse in my own life: I can remember laying in my bed at night as a child/teenager, wondering about whether or not I’m really saved, and then thinking, “Well, I just need to pray that prayer again…and really mean it this time . . . and then I’ll know I’m saved.” I have seen this abuse in a variety of evangelistic settings (here and overseas, among children, youth, and adults) where people have been called upon to “pray the prayer” and “raise their hand” in ways that, despite good intentions, were theologically man-centered and practically manipulative. And I have seen this abuse in the lives of many people I pastor who prayed the “sinner’s prayer” at a point in their life and later came to realize that they were not truly saved. Consequently, on both a personal and pastoral level, I have cautions about potential abuses associated with the “sinner’s prayer.”


It seems that “praying the prayer” is often used in a worship service or an evangelistic conversation to “cement a decision” or “close the deal” regarding someone’s salvation. People are often told immediately, “If you prayed that prayer, you can always know that you are saved for eternity.” Now I certainly believe that justification before God happens at a point in time (i.e., people don’t ooze into the kingdom of God), and it’s helpful (though not entirely necessary) for someone to be able to identify the point at which they were saved. Ultimately, however, I don’t want people to look to me or even to a “prayer they prayed” for assurance of salvation. I want them to look to Christ for this. Assurance of salvation is always based on His work, not ours. Objectively, we look to Christ’s past work on the cross; subjectively, we look to Christ’s present work in our lives; and supremely, we look to Christ’s unshakeable promises regarding our future. This is where books like 1 John biblically ground our assurance as believers. Assurance of salvation is not found in a prayer we prayed or a decision we made however many years ago as much as it is found in trusting in the sacrifice of Christ for us, experiencing the Spirit of Christ in us, obeying the commands of Christ to us, and expressing the love of Christ to others. I want to be careful not to give a person blanket assurance regarding their eternal destiny apart from the fruit of biblical faith, repentance, obedience, and love.

So how does he train people to lead others to Christ? Here is what he teaches his people:

Share the gospel clearly . . . and call people to count the cost of following Christ. Make sure that the person you are talking with has a biblical understanding of the glorious reality that the just and gracious Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful men and women in their rebellion and He has sent His Son, God in the flesh, to bear His wrath against sin on the cross and to show His power over sin in the resurrection so that everyone who repents and believes in Him will be reconciled to God forever. Make sure this gospel is clear. Tell them following Jesus will cost them their life . . . and tell them Jesus is worth it!


If you are in a personal conversation with someone (and this could be applied in a small group, as well), ask them if they have any questions about the gospel. Ask them if they have ever repented and believed in Jesus (i.e., turned from their sin and themselves to trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord). Ask them if they would like to repent of sin and believe in Christ.


Invite them to call on the Lord and be saved. If they see God for who He is, their sin for what it is, themselves for who they are, and Christ for who He is and what He has done, then by the grace of God through the Spirit of God they are more than able to call out in repentance and faith…so let them do so. You don’t necessarily need to tell them the exact words to say at that point. You have shared the gospel and the Spirit has opened their eyes to the love and lordship of Christ, so urge them to call out for His mercy and submit to His majesty.


At the same time, be willing to let them be alone with God, if that is best. In some circumstances, it probably is best to encourage them to be alone with God in order that you might not unknowingly, unintentionally, or unhelpfully manipulate a decision, circumstance, or situation. As you call them to submit to the person of Christ, you can trust the Spirit of Christ to bring them to salvation.


Most importantly, once someone repents and believes in Christ, be willing to lead that person as a new follower of Christ. Remember, our goal is not to count decisions; our goal is to make disciples.

You can read his whole piece—part 1 and part 2—online.

Finally Revealed: Definitive Proof that the “Last Days” Are Upon Us

In the New Testament there is a distinction between “the last day” (that is, the coming day of salvation and wrath; see 1 Thess. 5:1-11) and the “last days” (the period of time we are now in, between Christ’s death/resurrection/ascension and his second appearing).

In addition to “last days” this present-day category can also be called “the last time/s” (Jude 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:20) or “the last hour” (1 John 2:18).

You can see the references below:

“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18)

“He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you. . . .” (1 Pet. 1:20)

“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” (1 Cor. 10:11)

“But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Heb. 1:2)



“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.” (2 Tim. 3:1)

“In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” (Jude 1:18)

“. . . scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.” (2 Pet. 3:3)

“Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.” (James 5:3)

“And in the last days it shall be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

and your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)

Mark Dever and John Piper Conversation on the Gospel and Race

You can listen to it here.