Here is Ligon Duncan’s Foreword to Divided We Fall: Overcoming a History of Christian Disunity by Luder G. Whitlock Jr.
FORE
WORD
AS I HAVE grown older and served longer as a minister in the church, I’ve come to believe that one of the blind spots in the recent history of my own denominational tradition has been a failure to devote as much attention and effort to promoting godly, biblical church unity as to preserving godly, biblical doctrinal fidelity. Few are good at both. Often those who are interested in doctrinal purity care little about church unity, and those concerned for church unity are prepared to sacrifice doctrinal fidelity for it. But this should not be the case.
For the last twenty years or so, I have been involved in a friendship that turned into a pastors’ conference (the aim of which is to foster pan-Reformed pastoral friendships) called “Together for the Gospel.” One of the things that we are trying to do is to foster both godly unity and doctrinal fidelity. The twentieth century has seen a number of failed strategies to promote unity among evangelical Christians. One is to unite around a mission and make theology a secondary matter. But the message and mission of the church are irreducibly theological, and so what eventually happens when this strategy is used is that the gospel itself gets thinned and diminished—or, worse, elastic.
Another failed strategy has been to try to unite around a few core theology affirmations and declare everything else secondary. For instance, “we all believe in the atonement, and so our differences on baptism shouldn’t matter.” But this view underplays the practical importance of much Bible truth in the everyday life of the church, and tends to promote an ambivalence about things on which we should be emphatic. It also fails to reckon with the fact that the Bible’s theology is systematic (whether people want to admit that or not!) and that truths are therefore interconnected with other truths. There are other reasons why Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Catholics believe what they believe about baptism, so you can’t just isolate their beliefs about baptism and declare them inconsequential when they entail other important theological assertions.
My friends in “Together for the Gospel” have tried to go a different direction in promoting unity. We have candidly acknowledged our theological differences, and have not attempted to downplay the importance of those disagreements, while at the same time celebrating the significance of the very important things to which we share mutual theological commitments. We are agreed on the gospel, and not a scaled-down gospel, but a robust, biblical, full depiction of the saving work of God in Christ. We are also committed to historic, orthodox Christianity and to Protestant, confessional, Reformed doctrine. Yet there remain major differences—differences that have separated ecclesiastical traditions and denominations for centuries. We don’t try to paper over those or pretend that they don’t matter. We both celebrate what we share in common and celebrate that we still care about our differences, because those principled differences are the result of the fact that we all believe in truth and its importance for the life and mission of the church (my friend Al Mohler often jokes that we are among the last people on earth who can have an honest disagreement because we still believe that truth matters!). And we also deliberately pursue friendship and cooperation, consistent with our theological convictions, for the sake of the gospel and the glory of Christ in the unity of his people, his body.
I’m not claiming that we’ve arrived, or figured this out, but we are trying. That is one reason why I am so thankful for this book and its author. Much of what I know in this area I’ve learned from him. Not just from what he says, but from how he lives and what he does.
The important (and difficult) topic that Dr. Luder Whitlock tackles in this book is not simply one that he has researched. He speaks from conviction and experience. He has not merely thought about the unity of the church, or studied the unity of the church, but spent a lifetime promoting and cultivating the unity of the church in a fractured and fragmented world. I have had the privilege of watching him do so for over three decades.
If you are a Christian leader, this book will push you hard and make you think. I have been reflecting a good bit of late on the contributions of Sam Patterson (founding president of Reformed Theological Seminary) and Luder Whitlock (his successor and the longest-serving president in the history of RTS) to the pandenominational Reformed resurgence that has been slowly building over the last fifty years (both men played a major role, though often unappreciated). Two things about both men were key to their ability to foster a movement as well as to promote unity across denominational lines: (1) their unwavering commitment to truth and (2) their convictional kindness in dealing with others.
Dr. Whitlock has put this twofold principle into practice in serving in a number of influential positions in graduate theological education and international ecclesiastical cooperation. We could learn a thing or two about the pursuit of unity and community in the church from such a man. I was challenged and edified by reading Divided We Fall. I think you will be, too.
Ligon Duncan
Chancellor/CEO, Reformed Theological Seminary
John E. Richards Professor of Systematic Theology, RTS Jackson
Past Moderator, General Assembly, Presbyterian Church in America
Here is the full list of endorsers (listed in alphabetic order) for Luder G. Whitlock Jr.’s book.
- Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals
- John H. Armstrong, President, ACT3 Network
- Jim Belcher, President, Providence Christian College
- Steve Brown, Radio broadcaster; author, A Scandalous Freedom: The Radical Nature of the Gospel; founder, Key Life Network
- Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics and Public Policy Center
- David S. Dockery, President, Trinity International University
- William Edgar, John Boyer Chair of Evangelism and Culture, Professor of Apologetics, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
- John M. Frame, J. D. Trimble Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy, Reformed Theological Seminary
- Timothy George, Founding Dean, Professor of Divinity History and Doctrine, Beeson Divinity School
- Jeffrey J. Jeremiah, Stated Clerk, Evangelical Presbyterian Church
- Dennis E. Johnson, Professor of Practical Theology, Westminster Seminary California
- Timothy Keller, Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City
- Carmen Fowler LaBerge, President, Presbyterian Lay Committee; Host, The Reconnect radio show
- Peter A. Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
- Samuel T. Logan Jr., Professor of Church History, Biblical Theological Seminary; Former President, Westminster Theological Seminary
- Wilfred M. McClay, G. T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty, University of Oklahoma
- Russell Moore, President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
- Richard J. Mouw, President Emeritus and Professor of Faith and Public Life, Fuller Theological Seminary
- Mark A. Noll, Research Professor of History, Regent College
- David D. Swanson, Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Orlando
- Don Sweeting, President, Colorado Christian University
- L. Roy Taylor, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America
- Michael Wear, Founder, Public Square Strategies LLC
- Parker T. Williamson, Editor Emeritus, Presbyterian Layman
- John D. Woodbridge, Research Professor of Church History and the History of Christian Thought, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
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