Do we act as if we really believe that "the Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the word of God written?

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2000 by Grudem, Wayne

During the nineteenth century slavery was debated vigorously in theological journals. But on controversial matters today that affect the whole Church or the whole society, our academic journals in the evangelical world say very little and our exegetes are almost entirely silent. They are not silent in terms of treating one or two verses, but they are silent in trying to synthesize the teaching of the whole Bible and saying to the Church, "This is what we should believe," or "This is what we should do."

I could go on. The question of self defense-a topic that confronts every child in every school playground every year, and we tell pastors nothing. Education of children-Home school? Christian school? Public school? We have same writing on this topic, but much more could be done. Church discipline. Worship. Our use of the environment. Racial reconciliation. Spiritual warfare. And on and on. We could list every area in which there are widely differing viewpoints and substantial confusion in the Church as a whole.

Now you may have your own list of topics, and you may not think all of these need more treatment, but let me ask this question: When you look at your own church, or when you look at the churches in the evangelical world in general, do you complain, and do you criticize their weaknesses and confusion? Or do you help?

In fact, if the churches in the evangelical world are weak, we must. remember that we in this room have trained their pastors. Then who is to blame? But wait, you might say, we may not have articles, but we have books on many of these topics. Yes, there are some books on these topics. In fact, to gain some perspective on the kinds of books being published, I looked through the catalogs of two major evangelical publishers: Zondervan and InterVarsity Press. There is much really excellent material.

In the Zondervan catalog I counted 185 commentaries, Bible study tools, Biblical language books, and books on OT and NT. In fact, 79% of the academic books they publish are in Biblical studies or Biblical tools. By contrast, in systematic theology and ethics, Zondervan had 38 books or 1610 of their academic books (at least according to those that I could count in the catalog). These are helpful books, but several of them are what I would call teaching books, such as a book on the Holy Spirit, a book on the doctrine of God, and so forth-books that are not addressing any new problem or resolving an unsettled problem, but books useful to teach the Church what it has always believed.

Then there are nine books on "four views" of various topics. I am not going to criticize these "four views" books; in fact, I edited one myself,8 and they are important. But we should remember that they are useful steps in moving toward a consensus and toward a solution of a problem, but they are by definition not the solution. The Church of the fifth century nn could, I suppose, have had a book, "The Person of Christ-Four Views: The Apollinarian view, the Eutychian view, the Nestorian view, and some proto-Chalcedonian view"-but such a book would have led to Chalcedon. It would have been preparation for Chalcedon. It would not have been the final result to which the Holy Spirit was leading the Church. Or might you imagine the Chalcedonian Creed beginning this way: "We then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one of the following four views . . . "?