An International Journal for Students of Theological and ...

An International Journal for Students of Theological and Religious Studies

Volume 44 Issue 1 April 2019

EDITORIAL: Themelios Then and Now: The Journal's

1

Name, History, and Contribution by Brian J. Tabb

STRANGE TIMES: Sad Solo by Daniel Strange

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The Continuation of the Charismata by Andrew Wilson

16

A Response to Andrew Wilson by Thomas R. Schreiner

23

It All Depends Upon Prophecy: A Brief Case for

29

Nuanced Cessationism by Thomas R. Schreiner

A Response to Tom Schreiner by Andrew Wilson

36

Towards a Definition of New Testament Prophecy

41

by Richard M. Blaylock

The Boundaries of the Gift of Tongues: With

61

Implications for Cessationism and Continuationism

by Vern S. Poythress

Biblical Words and Theological Meanings:

70

Sanctification as Consecration for Transformation

by Ben C. Dunson

Finessing Independent Attestation:

89

A Study in Interdisciplinary Biblical Criticism

by Lydia McGrew

Disputation for Scholastic Theology: Engaging

105

Luther's 97 Theses by Michael Allen

Book Reviews

120

DESCRIPTION

Themelios is an international, evangelical, peer-reviewed theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. Themelios began in 1975 and was operated by RTSF/UCCF in the UK, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The editorial team draws participants from across the globe as editors, essayists, and reviewers. Themelios is published three times a year online at The Gospel Coalition website in PDF and HTML, and may be purchased in digital format with Logos Bible Software and in print with Wipf and Stock. Themelios is copyrighted by The Gospel Coalition. Readers are free to use it and circulate it in digital form without further permission, but they must acknowledge the source and may not change the content.

EDITORS

Editor: Brian Tabb Bethlehem College & Seminary 720 13th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA brian.tabb@

Contributing Editor and President: Donald A. Carson Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 2065 Half Day Road Deerfield, IL 60015, USA themelios@

Contributing Editor: Daniel Strange Oak Hill Theological College Chase Side, Southgate London, N14 4PS, UK daniels@oakhill.ac.uk

Administrator: Andy Naselli Bethlehem College & Seminary 720 13th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA themelios@

BOOK REVIEW EDITORS

Old Testament Peter Lau Malaysian Theological Seminary Seremban, Malaysia peter.lau@

New Testament David Starling Morling College 120 Herring Road Macquarie Park, NSW 2113, Australia david.starling@

History and Historical Theology Geoff Chang Hinson Baptist Church 1315 Southeast 20th Avenue Portland, OR 97214, USA geoff.chang@

Systematic Theology and Bioethics David Garner Westminster Theological Seminary 2960 Church Road Glenside, PA 19038, USA david.garner@

Ethics and Pastoralia Rob Smith Sydney Missionary and Bible College 43 Badminton Road Croydon NSW 2132, Australia rob.smith@

Mission and Culture Jackson Wu International Chinese Theological Seminary East Asia jackson.wu@

EDITORIAL BOARD

Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School; Hassell Bullock, Wheaton College; Lee Gatiss, Wales Evangelical School of Theology; Paul Helseth, University of Northwestern, St. Paul; Paul House, Beeson Divinity School; Hans Madueme, Covenant College; Ken Magnuson, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Gavin Ortlund, First Baptist Church, Ojai; Jonathan Pennington, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Mark D. Thompson, Moore Theological College; Paul Williamson, Moore Theological College; Mary Willson, Second Presbyterian Church; Stephen Witmer, Pepperell Christian Fellowship; Robert Yarbrough, Covenant Seminary.

ARTICLES

Themelios typically publishes articles that are 4,000 to 9,000 words (including footnotes). Prospective contributors should submit articles by email to the managing editor in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf ). Submissions should not include the author's name or institutional affiliation for blind peer-review. Articles should use clear, concise English and should consistently adopt either UK or USA spelling and punctuation conventions. Special characters (such as Greek and Hebrew) require a Unicode font. Abbreviations and bibliographic references should conform to The SBL Handbook of Style (2nd ed.), supplemented by The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). For examples of the the journal's style, consult the most recent Themelios issues and the contributor guidelines.

REVIEWS

The book review editors generally select individuals for book reviews, but potential reviewers may contact them about reviewing specific books. As part of arranging book reviews, the book review editors will supply book review guidelines to reviewers.

Themelios 44.1 (2019): 1?5

EDITORIAL

Themelios Then and Now: The Journal's Name, History, and

Contribution

-- Brian J. Tabb --

Brian Tabb is academic dean and associate professor of biblical studies at Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis and general editor of Themelios.

Frequently my computer or "smart" phone autocorrects Themelios to Themeless. The latter would make a rather unfortunate name for an international journal of theology! In this editorial, I will reflect on the journal's name, its history, and my hopes for its future contribution. We certainly wouldn't want Themelios to become "theme-less."

1. The Journal's Name

The journal's name transliterates the Greek term , which is typically rendered "foundation" in its fifteen NT occurrences. refers to the foundation on which a building rests. Jesus highlights the utter folly of constructing a house with no foundation (Luke 6:49)--a warning to those who would hear his words and not heed them. Likewise, he urges would-be disciples to count the cost lest their lives resemble an abandoned construction project with a foundation but no tower on it (Luke 14:27?30). Paul stresses that the church is "God's building" established on the secure foundation of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:9?11). The apostle identifies Jewish and Gentile believers together as "members of the household of God, built on the foundation [ ] of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (Eph 2:19?21).

2. The Journal's History

The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students first published the journal Themelios in October 1962.1 The initial volume featured articles by Howard Marshall, Donald Guthrie, Leon Morris, Francis Schaeffer, and others, as well as a fine exposition of Ephesians 2:20 by the Irish missionary theologian

1 This section reflects insights gleaned from personal correspondence in February 2019 with the following current and former editors and editorial board members of Themelios: Gerald Bray, D. A. Carson, Andy Naselli, Dan Strange, Carl Trueman, Stephen Williams, and Stephen Witmer.

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Themelios

R. J. McKelvey.2 McKelvey reasons that Isaiah 28:16 lies behind the NT authors' figurative references to Christ as the "cornerstone" and "foundation" laid in Zion. As the cornerstone (), Christ not only supports the superstructure of God's house but also serves to unify it as it is built ( in Eph 2:21). McKelvey argues that the difficult phrase "the foundation of the apostles and prophets" refers to the twelve apostles and the OT prophets as the foundation on whom membership in the church rests for Gentile and Jewish believers alike.

The journal's first editor, Andrew F. Walls, describes Themelios as an international and interdenominational journal "addressed to theological students, and all who are preparing for the Christian ministry, throughout the world."3 Appealing to Ephesians 2:20, Walls stresses that the journal is concerned with "the bed-rock foundation of the historic faith" and Christ, who holds the apostolic building together. He concludes:

The scope of THEMELIOS is the whole of Christian theology: the entire field of the Christian pastor and theologian. In this field, all the powers of the mind are called into service, and the journal will seek to provide information and to provoke thought ? sometimes about issues which today are often too lightly dismissed. A humble and a loving heart is also a requirement, and THEMELIOS will have failed if it does nothing to stir its readers to adoration and to devotion.4

In 1975, the Religious & Theological Students Fellowship, part of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship in the UK, took over publishing Themelios. At this time the journal merged with Theological Students Fellowship Bulletin, a periodical that began circulating in Autumn 1951 and published a total of seventy-two volumes featuring short articles by noted theologians like J. I. Packer, F. F. Bruce, and Howard Marshall. The first issue in the relaunched version of Themelios featured articles by J. I. Packer ("Hermeneutics and Biblical Authority"), the new journal's first editor R. T. France ("Inerrancy and New Testament Exegesis"), and Robert P. Gordon ("Preaching from the Patriarchs"). In January 1978, Robert Norris succeeded R. T. France as general editor and held the position until David Wenham took over in January 1982. Following Wenham, Themelios was edited by Christopher J. H. Wright (1990?1994), Stephen Williams (1995?1998), and Carl Trueman (1999?2007). The list of contributors to the journal during the RTSF/UCCF years include influential theologians and biblical scholars such as Richard Bauckham, G. K. Beale, Kwame Bediako, Craig Blomberg, Gerald Bray, D. A. Carson, John Goldingay, Paul Helm, Larry Hurtado, Tony Lane, Howard Marshall, Alister McGrath, Richard Mouw, John Webster, Gordon Wenham, and N. T. Wright.

In personal correspondence, former editor Stephen Williams explains that the key contribution of Themelios in the early days was to promote worthy evangelical scholarship to help theological students during a time when liberal theology dominated university departments and some seminaries. He recalls that efforts to increase global circulation proved challenging due in part to limited funds in many parts of the world for print journal subscriptions. In fact, Williams recounted that he once met with some European scholars in Germany where someone asked, "What is Themelios meant to be about?" Since

2 R. J. McKelvey, "Exposition," Them 1 (1962): 2?5, . He develops this work further in The New Temple: The Church in the New Testament, OTM (Oxford: OUP, 1969).

3 Andrew F. Walls, "Themelios ? a New Journal," Them 1 (1962): 1, .

4 Walls, "Themelios," 1.

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Editorial: The Changing Face of Words

the journal had recently published a series of articles dealing with language, nationhood, and Wales (Williams's home country),5 a French theologian who was present for the meeting without hesitation responded to the question: "Wales."

William's successor, Carl Trueman, explains that the journal provided "many good articles on important biblical, theological, historical, and ethical topics that had scholarly integrity but were also accessible to the nonspecialist." As editor Trueman sought to establish the UCCF Statement of Faith as the guiding doctrinal standard for the journal. Our consulting editor Daniel Strange began serving with Themelios during these years and worked closely with Trueman as the managing editor and systematic theology book review editor. Trueman reflected that during his tenure, the global reach of Themelios continued to be somewhat muted as it circulated primarily in the UK, Europe, and North America.

The long-standing aspirations for Themelios to have a worldwide impact took an important step forward in 2008 when The Gospel Coalition relaunched Themelios as a freely accessible online digital journal. D. A. Carson wrote in his first editorial, "The new Themelios aims to serve both theological/ religious studies students and pastors" while aspiring to "become increasingly international in representation."6 As the journal's longest serving general editor, Carson has contributed thirty-three editorials, such as his widely read pieces "Subtle Ways to Abandon the Authority of Scripture in Our Lives" and "On Disputable Matters."7

The decision to make Themelios a free digital journal hosted by TGC has dramatically expanded its global readership and impact. In 2018, Themelios had 694,355 page views, up from 630,165 in 2017 and 495,418 in 2016. Logos Bible Software users have downloaded over 62,000 free issues of the journal since 2013, and academic readers have accessed the journal's content tens of thousands of times using the ATLA Religion Database. Most Themelios readers live in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, but in 2018 readers in 223 countries accessed the journal online. (There are even 1,500 or so faithful Themelios readers in Wales, which may encourage my editorial predecessor.) The journal's editorial team includes Baptists, Presbyterians, and Anglicans who live in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, and Malaysia. In recent years we have published articles and reviews by authors from many countries on six continents. We have received requests to translate Themelios articles into German, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian.

3. The Journal's Contribution

There are an astonishing variety of theological journals published in English each year, and in recent years new journals have launched such as The Bulletin of Ecclesial Theology (2014), Primer (2015), Reformed Faith and Practice (2016), Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies (2016), and Didaktikos (2017). Many institutions, professional societies, and publishers continue to produce journals that cover various disciplines and sub-disciplines of theology and biblical studies.

5 See Stephen Williams, "Editorial: Gospel, Language, Nationhood," Them 21 (1996): 3. 6 D. A. Carson, "Editorial," Them 33 (2008): 1, . 7 D. A. Carson, "Subtle Ways to Abandon the Authority of Scripture in Our Lives," Them 42 (2017): 1?12, ; D. A. Carson, "On Disputable Matters," Them 40 (2015): 383?88, on-disputable-matters.

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