The dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University hopes the 2001 doctrine study on grace will encourage lay people to focus on their roles in evangelism.
Far from an academic dissertation, Timothy George said the study, “Amazing Grace: God’s Initiative — Our Response,” is written at a “basic level” for lay people. He said the Southern Baptist Convention study is more devotional than academic.
“I believe that a proper understanding of the doctrine of grace will encourage Christians to be involved in evangelism and missions,” George said. “Because (God’s) sovereign, He uses instruments like human beings. We have a role to play in the drama of redemption.”
By addressing grace, George said he is focusing “on one of the most basic themes of the Christian faith.”
“Grace us the great theme of the Bible from first to last,” George said in the study’s preface. “We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.”
George said grace has also prompted some of “the most heated controversies in the history of the Christian church.” Specifically, George examines the issue of Calvinism.
Predestination question
“Many Christians ask, ‘How can God be sovereign and (still) … predestine individuals for salvation?’” he said. “Sometimes, I think the church has gone from one extreme to another (with the issue).
“I do want to emphasize that God is sovereign,” George said. “I tried to do a balanced study on this controversial topic.
“We can differ on how we perceive this topic and yet retain our fellowship in Christ,” he said. “We can work together in evangelism, even if we disagree on some of the points of theology.”
Because we will never be able to fully explain “the mystery of divine grace this side of heaven,” George said the question arises of why Christians should discuss issues such as predestination.
“There are two answers to this question,” he said. “It is right to study this doctrine because it is biblically significant and because it is pastorally relevant.
“This is an effort to look at it in a balanced, biblical way,” he said.
The professor said in the study that it is possible to get out of “theological balance” by overemphasizing either the human role in conversion or the divine initiative in salvation.
George’s study also examines the work of “two great Baptist heroes of the past” — William Carey and Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
“God used both of these men in their own day to deliver Baptists (and other Christians) from the clutches of a dismal, self-focused theology,” George said.
“They still have much to teach us,” he noted.
Share with others: