Themelios 16:3

by The Gospel Coalition

Publisher:

Gospel Coalition

, 1991

Overview

Themelios is an international evangelical theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. It was formerly a print journal operated by RTSF/UCCF in the United Kingdom, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The new editorial team, led by D.A. Carson, seeks to preserve representation, in both essayists and reviewers, from both sides of the Atlantic. Each issue contains articles on important theological themes, as well as book reviews and discussion—from the most important evangelical voices of our time.

• Sternberg on Biblical Narrative: A Review Article, by R.W.L. Moberly
• Green Theology and Deep Ecology: New Age or New Creation? by Steve Bishop
• Purpose in Pain? Teleology and the Problem of Evil, by Melvin Tinker
• God, GUTs and Gurus: the New Physics and New Age Ideology, by Ernest C. Lucas

Contents

Top Highlights

“‘Evil is a problem for the theist in that a contradiction is involved in the fact of evil, on the one hand, and the belief in the omnipotence of God on the other’.” (Page 15)

“If the key to the mystery of suffering is to be found anywhere, then it is to be found here where we come face to face with the ‘God who is hidden in suffering’ (Luther); the God who in Christ Jesus absorbs the evil of the world, disarms the principalities and powers and reacts re-creatively to transform the evil into a greater good.²⁵ Furthermore, it is at the cross that we are presented with the paradox running throughout the mysterious relationship between the evil of suffering and God’s good purposes, for from one point of view, the cross was the worst thing that could have happened (the murder of the divine Son), but from another perspective it was also the best thing that could ever happen (the means of man’s salvation).” (Page 17)

“Sometimes ‘cause’ and ‘purpose’ in suffering are displayed before the sufferer on the cosmic canvas, as in the Apocalypse of John. At other times, suffering itself is seen as an instrumental means whereby God in his sovereignty creates ‘goods’ in the life of the believer, some of which may be seen in this life, others only to be revealed in the next.²⁰ But wherever this theme is touched upon—God working good out of evil—the theological basis remains the same, namely the empty cross of Jesus Christ.²¹ It is at Calvary and the empty tomb that the NT’s theodicy is writ large.” (Page 17)

“The overriding concern of the NT writers is the pastoral one of enabling God’s people to see that the suffering and persecution which they may be undergoing or are likely to face, when considered against the backcloth of God’s eternal purpose, have a creative significance.” (Pages 16–17)

Product Details

• Title: Themelios: Volume 16, No. 3, April/May 1991
• Author: The Gospel Coalition
• Edition: 3
• Series: Themelios
• Volume: 16
• Publisher: Gospel Coalition
• Print Publication Date: 1991
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Pages: 32
• Era: era:Contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Religious studies › Periodicals
• Resource ID: LLS:THEMELIOS16_3
• Resource Type: Journal
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-08T05:43:11Z

About The Gospel Coalition

Brian J. Tabb (PhD, London Theological Seminary) is academic dean at Bethlehem College & Seminary and an elder of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also serves as managing editor for Themelios, published by the Gospel Coalition, and is the author of Suffering in Ancient Worldview.

D.A. Carson is a research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1978. Carson came to Trinity from the faculty of Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also served for two years as academic dean. He has served as an assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Carson received a bachelor of science in chemistry from McGill University, the master of divinity from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, and the doctor of philosophy in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world. He holds membership on the Council for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Carson has also written many books that have garnered international acclaim, including his award-winning title The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism.

Daniel Strange is academic vice president and lecturer in culture, religion, and public theology at Oak Hill College, London. He is the author or coauthor of several other books, including The Possibility of Salvation Among the Unevangelised: An Analysis of Inclusivism in Recent Evangelical Theology.