The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, Wesleyanism, and Pentecostalism

I was raised in a Calvinist, Dispensationalist home (spent many years in Assembly of God congregations too) with parents who visited Israel and Jordan in the mid 1950s while my dad was stationed on the Island of Cyprus with the U.S. government. I am grateful that my folks headed me in right direction of faith in the Lord and holy living, or with today's smorgasbord of options I may never have found my way home. That fact has fueled my search for as much truth as I can understand to inform my already committed faith in the Lord. So convinced were my parents of the Darbyist/Disipensationalist view of the second coming, that they were determined to visit Petra, thinking it would be the place prepared for people to flee into the hills on the run from the Anti-Christ. Growing up I helped my mother present many of her slideshows on the holy land and her spurious but sincere views about the rapture etc. One of the things that attracted me to this work by Ben Witherington is my discomfort with each of the perspectives on the Christian faith he significantly works with is this volume. In the end I am closer to one perspective than the others, however I cannot stomach the continual deifying of the founders and their works. Each purveyor of these viewpoints cannot be categorically dismissed, because they were seriously searching for truth to undergird their faith, and were determined exegetes of the Scriptures. But once they had established a faulty foundation, they developed a theology that turned into the Leaning Tower of Pizza. Each group where my family worshiped seemed to have an abusive pressure to either demonstrate or affirm their understanding. Once we broke free from that, finding a place to worship where it was believed that the Gospel was for ALL people who would receive the Lord without extra "confirmative" signs, I was more free to study and discover Gospel truths that didn't try to press me into a mold. Don't get me wrong. There was still a mold in the new perspective to which I still cannot conform. So, this book is seriously valuable (as are the other works of Ben Witherington) in getting at the faulty foundations (not the resulting convolutions) that caused my life-long discomfort with the streaming pressures from ideas that ricocheted off the true foundations of faith. This book is a seriously good investment. It's not an easy read. So, don't just glance at it or read it through quickly. Take the time to investigate the material even in the footnotes, and read the specific Scripture texts referenced throughout.

Ben Witherington's examination of Romans 7 made me realize that I was reading Paul wrong. Paul was not describing the Christian life. It all makes sense after following the narrative in its rhetorical context. Even though I am not a Calvinist, his critique of Reformed Theology helped me better understand the concept of corporate election and predestination. I found his challenge to complementarianism compelling, though I already held to the view that the Spirit, not gender, determines ministry and gifting. Ben Witherington effectively makes the case that dispensationalism, a relatively modern formulation, is exegetically weak. For a more thorough treatment on dispensationalism, I highly recommend "Not Afraid of the Antichrist" by Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Craig Keener. That book was instrumental in my transition away from dispensationalism as it forced me to ask the hard questions and reconcile my views with Scripture. I appreciate that Ben Witherington, a cradle Methodist, critiques his own Wesleyan theology, particularly the concept of entire sanctification. I was especially informed by his discussion about the kingdom of God. Preferring to call it the "dominion of God", he defines it as "sometimes referring to God’s present saving activity breaking into human history, sometimes referring to a future realm that one may enter or inherit." As a Charismatic with a Pentecostal upbringing, I was intrigued by the section critiquing Pentecostalism. Through this critique and Gordon Fee's article cited, I was able to make sense of Spirit baptism and understand at what point it occurs. Recognizing that cessationism has no exegetical legs to stand on, Ben Witherington affirms that the charismatic gifts of the Spirit are for today. As he rightly put it: "Evangelical theology needs to include a robust dose of pneumatology, and while there has been some bad exegesis and some excesses that have come from the Charismatic wing of the Evangelical world, there has also been some bad exegesis and some quenching and grieving of the Spirit coming from other wings of the Evangelical community." We need both the Word and the Spirit! All in all, this is one of the most engaging and transforming theological books I have read. I have since reread parts of it and recommended it to others. Read and be challenged. Who knows, maybe you'll find yourself reconsidering some of your theology. Thank you, Ben Witherington for challenging me and shaping my theology!

Unfortunately, i started reading it late, and just recently i found the whole chapter on Pentecostalism is missing (pages are ripped off).

Really great book, well researched and presented. I have been giving copies of the book away to fellow ministers.

This is well researched, thorough, and well written. It's not a difficult read considering it's covering a pretty serious subject. Yes, it seemed a bit pricey to me for a paperback -- but then, I think I'm a bit of a dinosaur and I need to remember that paperbacks are only cheap at garage sales, lol !