Comments on: Scripture vs. Tradition at Westminster

By: ReformedSinner (DC)

ReformedSinner (DC) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:20:01 +0000

Sorry dopderbeck but there are only superficial similarities between Enns and Calvin. Calvin speaks of accomodation but at the end his insistant that even the “accomodations” must be understood from the Bible’s own interpretion on them, and the Bible should never based on “humanities”

Also, incarnational analogy is never used within the Reformed Tradition as a viable way to describe Scripture. Many have tried and has been declared one form or another “heterodoxical.” The latest to attempt that incarnational analogy was C.A. Briggs and we know what happened to him.

B.B. Warfield has written many against the use of incarnational analogy in his book “Biblical Authority and Inspiration”

By: jason

jason — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:15:40 +0000

Justin:

It doesn’t clarify the discussion at all. Longman told that anecdote this year. He is, in fact, referring to someone who is no longer on faculty, as #4 accurately said: “no present WTS faculty member would EVER say such a thing.”

By: dopderbeck

dopderbeck — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:07:24 +0000

The really sad thing is that Enns’ thesis is thoroughly witin the Reformed tradition. It harkens back to Calvin in particular. Whether Enns goes to far is debateable (I don’t think so), but I don’t think it can seriously be argued that he is outside the Reformed tradition in general.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:02:56 +0000

In response to rizla, comment #4…
Comment #2, which you disagreed with so vehemently, was (I believe) referring to former WTS professor Tremper Longman’s anecdote, which Dr. Longman repeated when he signed the saveourseminary.com petition.
(he was signer #51.) His signature, which is worth reading in full if you have a chance, included the following statement about why he no longer felt able to teach at WTS:
“However one of the reasons why I left in 1998 was my perception that the seminary was beginning to change from the deeply Reformed but outward facing institution that it was from the time that I first knew it in the 1970’s to a more inward defensive institution. I remember talking to one colleague, for instance, who told me that if I felt the Bible taught something that the Confession did not that I had to side with the Confession. That’s not the Reformed approach to the study of the Bible that I know and love.”
Does that clarify this discussion?

By: Enns, bloggers, and explosions « Random Bloggings

Enns, bloggers, and explosions « Random Bloggings — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:56:07 +0000

[…] over the issue of Peter Enns’ suspension (I’m sorry, I ran out of adjectives or other ways to lengthen my already over long […]

By: rizla

rizla — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:25:31 +0000

you wrote:
“Enns has been suspended not because he has put forth an interpretation of the Bible which is unfaithful to the Scriptures, but because he has put forth an interpretation that is unfaithful to the Reformed tradition.”

Really? Is this according to WTS? What tradition does WTS say Enns was unfaithful to while admitting he remains faithful to the Bible on that same point?

Getz said:
“A few years back at a WTS faculty meeting one professor actually states that when the Bible disagrees with the Westminster confession, the Bible is wrong.”

Oh, please. Prove it!
The fact is, no present WTS faculty member would EVER say such a thing.

Your shallow analysis is laughable.

By: art

art — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 05:16:25 +0000

Very well said.

By: Jim Getz

Jim Getz — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:02:38 +0000

You’re dead on in your assessment.

A good indicator of the relationship between Scripture and Tradition came to me via an anecdote from a former faculty member. A few years back at a WTS faculty meeting one professor actually states that when the Bible disagrees with the Westminster confession, the Bible is wrong.

I find the whole situation highly instructive.

By: Peter Enns Round-Up « Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

Peter Enns Round-Up « Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:49:29 +0000

[…] Wilson rounds things out with a post on Scripture vs. Tradition at Westminster, in which he notes the irony that: “Enns has been suspended not because he has put forth an […]