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The Gospel of Jesus: The Four Gospels in a Single Complete Narrative

• P&R Publishing
• WTSBooks.com
• Amazon

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The following is an interview with Robert Letham. He is the author of The Holy Spirit, The Holy Trinity, Union with Christ, The Westminster Assembly, and The Lord’s Supper.

1. What led you to write The Holy Spirit? How did you become interested in exploring the Bible’s teaching on this topic?

For decades I have considered that the central point of the Christian faith is to know God, to enjoy him, and to seek to glorify him. Since God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, on our part that entails a commitment of our life to that end. So when the publisher approached me to write on this, I had little difficulty agreeing.

2. What are the main things you learned from researching The Holy Spirit?

A lot, too many to number. One, which I mention in the introduction, is that it is far too much for one individual to write on the Trinity, and then on the three hypostases. The responsibility is overwhelming. Yet, at the same time, we can do so – since God has made himself known – and indeed, we must do so, even though at best we stammer and stutter, while the result cannot be anything less than inadequate to the reality of the one about whom we write.

3. How does The Holy Spirit relate to the other theology books you’ve written, for example, The Holy Trinity, and to other books you are working on for P&R?

It is one of a trilogy on the divine hypostases and is due to be followed by one on the Son and another on the Father.

4. What are some important truths that you would like readers to remember from reading The Holy Spirit?

• The indivisibility of the Trinity and the resulting inseparability of all the works of God. The Spirit does not go off on his own to do his own thing, for his particular work is undertaken in inseparable harmony with the Father and the Son. We cannot think of the Spirit’s activities in isolation.

• While the incarnation was for the immediate goal of securing the atoning death and resurrection of Christ, effecting our justification, its ultimate purpose, and that of the atonement too, was and is for the transformation of Christ’s people by the Spirit. In tandem with this, he effects the total renovation of the cosmos. We need to see the whole process of salvation in this light.

• The danger of reading the Bible in isolation from the history of interpretation expressed in the overall consensus fidelium. This, almost invariably, finally ends up in heresy. Paul tells us to submit to one another in the fear of Christ (Eph. 5:21). This doesn’t require agreeing with one another on everything but it does indicate that there are boundaries within which the consensus of the church has operated under the direction of the Spirit. We will be wise to recognize these and respect them. I see the task as inherently conservative, with a great stress onressourcement. Any advances, to be valid, should occur within that context.

5. What do you see as the purpose of The Holy Spirit?

To clarify our thinking, understand the biblical teaching on the Spirit in the light of how leading figures in the church have considered it down the years, and thereby to sharpen and focus our worship of the one who is life itself.

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THE HEART AND CORE OF OUR CONFESSION

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 28:19)

Basic to Christian faith is our belief in God as the divine Trinity. We confess one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe in one God in three persons. The Trinity is three distinct persons in the one divine being.

This belief emerged in the early Christian centuries. On the basis of the Old and New Testaments and consideration of the overall witness of the Scriptures, the church affirmed its faith in the triune God: God as three persons in unity. In the familiar Apostles’ Creed, we confess that we believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as the three persons of the one God. The Trinity revealed to us is identical with the Trinity that is the very nature of God. We trust this God; we surrender ourselves to this God. This is the God of our life and our salvation. The church baptizes Christians in the triune name (Matt. 28:16–20).

Bavinck maintained that “the Article of Faith of the Holy Trinity is the heart and core of our confession, the distinguishing mark of the Christian religion, the [praise] and the consolation of all true Christ- believers.” The doctrine of the Trinity is not abstract theological speculation. The Holy Trinity is the living God who is to be worshiped, adored, and served. The triune God is with us throughout our lives—in all situations—saving us, helping us, and bringing us comfort and hope. The three persons of the Trinity can be known; their work in the world, the church, and our lives can be recognized. God’s presence with us—as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is the deepest reality we know, in life and in death.

“Thus,” wrote Bavinck, “the confession of the Trinity is the core and the main element of the entire Christian religion. Without it, neither creation, nor redemption, nor sanctification can be purely maintained.” We cannot explain everything about the Trinity. But we can worship the triune God who is revealed as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. We praise “God in three persons, blessed Trinity”!

Reflection Point: Think of the three persons of the Trinity and what Scripture says about each of them. Contemplate the ways you are aware of the work of the Trinity in the world, the church, and your own life. 

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Cornelius Van Til and Presuppositional Apologetics at P&R

by John J. Hughes

As a young Christian and philosophy major at Vanderbilt University in the 1960s, I longed to lay my hands on biblically faithful, academically solid apologetics books, but all I knew at the time were C. S. Lewis’s books, for which I was and am grateful. During my senior year, at a weekly Campus Crusade for Christ meeting, two recent graduates of Westminster Theological Seminary passed out free copies of Francis Schaeffer’s Escape from Reason, in which they had stamped the name, address, and phone number of their new church. I devoured Schaeffer’s little book, and then called these men. If there was one book like this, maybe they knew of others!

The men told me about Cornelius Van Til and said that if I were to write to him and include $5 for postage, he would send me some of his books. I followed their advice, and Dr. Van Til sent me a whole library in four or five of the largest padded mailing envelopes I had ever seen! I dove in headfirst, and by the time I surfaced, I was dead set on going to WTS, which I did.

I soon learned that most of Dr. Van Til’s books had been published by Presbyterian and Reformed, now P&R Publishing, which subsequently became the publisher for John M. Frame’s large corpus, as well as for other apologists, such as Vern S. Poythress, William Edgar, K. Scott Oliphint, Richard L. Pratt Jr., Richard B. Ramsay, Greg L. Bahnsen, and Ronald H. Nash, many of whom are WTS graduates and professors. 

P&R is widely recognized for pioneering the publishing of books on presuppositional apologetics, all of which, to a greater or lesser extent, can trace their lineage to Van Til’s groundbreaking insights. We have updated these five most significant and helpful Van Til books by restoring the full text of their original editions and by annotating the volumes:

• Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed., edited by William Edgar.
• Christian Theistic Evidences, 2nd ed., edited by K. Scott Oliphint.
• Common Grace and the Gospel, 2nd ed., edited by K. Scott Oliphint.
• The Defense of the Faith, 4th ed., edited by K. Scott Oliphint.
• An Introduction to Systematic Theology, edited by William Edgar.

Van Til’s most famous student is John M. Frame, who taught at WTS, WSC, and RTS (Orlando), until his retirement. John’s best-known apologetics books are: 

• Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief, edited by Joseph E. Torres.
• No Other God: A Response to Open Theism.
• A History of Western Philosophy and Theology, which won the 2017 ECPA Gold Medallion Award in the Bible Reference Works category.

Other noteworthy P&R publications on apologetics include:

• Vern S. Poythress, Philosophy, Science, and the Sovereignty of God.
• William Edgar, Reasons of the Heart: Recovering Christian Persuasion.
• K. Scott Oliphint, Reasons for Faith: Philosophy in the Service of Theology.
• Richard L. Pratt Jr., Every Thought Captive: A Study Manual for the Defense of the Truth.
• Richard B. Ramsay, The Certainty of the Faith: Apologetics in an Uncertain World.
• Ronald H. Nash, The Word of God and the Mind of Man.
• Greg L. Bahnsen, Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis.

P&R’s apologetics books have fostered presuppositionalism, and this has had a deeply formative intellectual influence on Christians throughout the world. Presuppositionalism is a self-conscious recognition of God’s lordship in the area of human epistemology. It is, as John Frame has written, “a basic commitment of the heart to bring all reasoning under the lordship of Christ” (Systematic Theology, 1134).

Because he is Lord, God necessarily speaks with absolute authority. His words are trustworthy and true; they are not to be doubted. His written Word should be the basic presupposition for everyone who wishes to know him and his world. No other words should take precedence over his Word. To grant any other words greater authority than the Lord’s words is a form of unfaithfulness. His Word is the word we should use to judge all truth claims. Thus, a distinctively Christian epistemology is grounded in God’s lordship and his revelation of himself in Scripture. Reasoning autonomously is antithetical to a true Christian epistemology. 

When I was a student at WTS, I was privileged to study under Dr. Van Til and to help edit one of his books. Dr. Van Til had a great sense of humor, a deep compassion for people, and a razor-sharp mind. In 1971, P&R published Dr. Van Til’s Festschrift, Jerusalem and Athens: Critical Discussions on the Theology and Apologetics of Cornelius Van Til. This was a big event at WTS, and we students eagerly started reading it. One of the most helpful chapters was written by Dr. Van Til himself and is called “My Credo.” This basic, non-philosophical introduction to his thought is one of the best summaries available, and I encourage anyone interested in Van Til and in presuppositional apologetics to read it.

Now thank we all our God

With heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom his world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms,

Hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours today.

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O may this bounteous God

Through all our life be near us,

With ever-joyful hearts

And blessed peace to cheer us;

And keep us in his grace,

And guide us when perplexed,

And free us from all ills

In this world and the next.

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All praise and thanks to God

The Father now be given,

The Son, and him who reigns

With them in highest heaven—

The one eternal God,

Whom earth and heav’n adore;

For thus it was, is now,

And shall be evermore.

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This hymn was translated into English by Catherine Winkworth, who claimed that her calling was to translate German hymns for English Christians. The first step toward gaining an understanding of the poem is to reconstruct the historical context in which it was written. As were many great hymns, this one was forged in the crucible of terrible suffering.

The author was a Lutheran pastor in Eilenburg, Saxony, during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). Martin Rinkart arrived to begin his pastorate in the city the year before the war broke out and died the year after it ended. The walled city of Eilenburg not only was overrun three times by hostile armies but was also subject to famine and epidemic illness. During his pastorate in the besieged city, Rinkart presided over more than four thousand burials—including that of his wife.

Knowing this context is important to our experience of this poem in two ways. First, it dispels any suspicion that the extreme sentiments expressed in the poem are facile or glib. Second, it shows us that we can be grateful to God even amid terrible deprivation and misery.

If we ask what makes this hymn the “signature” Thanksgiving hymn, an obvious answer is its magical opening line, which strikes the authentic thanksgiving note. At the beginning of a Thanksgiving service, members of the congregation are of one mind and expectation. They are “all” there to “thank .  .  . our God,” and they are primed to do it “now.” The opening line of the poem captures all of that. To add to this exuberant spirit, the second line claims that this thanks is springing forth from heart, hands, and voices. All the organ stops are pulled out. The triad of heart, hands, and voices foreshadows a technique used throughout the poem of enumerating two, three, or more items—as though one on its own is totally inadequate to express the heightened feelings of the occasion.

The remainder of the opening stanza is a short catalog of blessings for which the thanks in the first line is being expressed—a catalog that ranges from an all-inclusive wondrous things to personal blessings beginning back in our earliest infancy in our mothers’ arms to an expansive countless gifts of love.

The second stanza shifts from a corporate giving of thanks to a corporate prayer or wish. The rhetoric of exuberance continues to explode with an ongoing list of things that the poet wishes for—four of which follow his initial request and are all introduced with “and.” It is as though once the poet started thinking about his subject, his thoughts kept tumbling out one after another. To clinch this expansive burst, the last line speaks of both this world and the next. This poem “thinks big.”

After this middle stanza of prayer, the poem’s final stanza returns to the mode of giving corporate thanks to God. The high style continues unabated in this stanza. Its opening line expresses not simply thanks but praise and thanks. The recipient of this praise is identified not in a general sense as God but as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (the latter of whom is given the exalted epithet him who reigns with them in highest heaven). This eternal God is adored both on earth and in heaven and praised in the past, the present, and the future.

This poem goes “all out” in its exuberant expression of thanks. It exudes energy because its lines are mainly run-on, meaning that a thought keeps flowing at the end of a line instead of stopping. In this and other ways, it perfectly expresses the excitement of a Thanksgiving church service.

Any attempt to link this poem to Bible verses yields the proverbial embarrassment of riches—hymn websites list dozens of examples. One of the passages is the prayer David offered in the assembly of Israel when the people brought contributions for the building of the Temple. After extolling God’s greatness, David prayed,

And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. (1 Chron. 29:13)

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