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Saturday, August 10, 2019

Born again

"What Does ‘Born of Water and the Spirit’ Mean in John 3:5?" by Don Carson.

13 comments:

  1. Carson's commentary on John is excellent. I think it was The first NT commentary I'd ever read!
    Can't wait for more from him Lord willing.

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    1. Definitely! :) I look forward to his 1-3 John and Revelation. That'll complete his Johannine commentaries series. I expect them to be great, with some reservations. For example, I think Steve has well-criticized Carson on 1 Jn 2:2 (i.e. κόσμου or kosmou or cosmos). Not to mention Carson is a historic premil whereas I'm amil.

      I think he also has a commentary on Hebrews in the works.

      I think he's given lectures on all these commentaries which I suppose is what most scholars do as they work toward publication. They should be available on YouTube.

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    2. Are you sure Carson is HP? I thought he was Amil.

      His work in the NT use of the OT was fantastic ( especially on James, he has one of the better treatments on James 2 that I've read).

      Among what you've mentioned above, I believe he's also doing Galatians in Pntc. (or atleast, one can hope!).

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    3. I believe he works at a seminary which requires premil profession as a condition of employment. That's in the statement of faith.

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    4. I think in these lectures Carson notes he's premil. That said, I think he acknowledges there are issues with the premil position, and I think he's sympathetic to the amil position.

      However, as Steve mentions, I guess Carson works for a seminary that requires a premil profession, so maybe there's more to the story than what Carson has said publicly.

      Also, to be fair, there's lectures are from 2005 so it's possible Carson has changed his mind. For example, I think Schreiner (who is also Reformed Baptist) has gone back and forth with historic premil and amil.

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    5. As a former student of both Dr Carson and TEDS it is worth pointing out for the record that though TEDS has premil in the statement of faith, it is the one area they openly allow faculty to take exception to. OT prof emeritus, Willem VanGemeren being one prominent example. Although Carson is retired now so it is a moot point.

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    6. Thanks, JeremiahZ! That's good to know.

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  2. In either case, his statements on inaugurated eschatology tended to lean towards Amil in his commentary on John, atleast in my perception, though one can certainly hold to inaugurated eschatology and be HP (James Hamilton comes to mind). I thought Carson was retired from teaching at TEDS (I believe he's a professor Emeritus)

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    1. Thanks, Swrath! JeremiahZ mentions he is a former student of Carson's and also noted the same above.

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  3. I remember sometime in 1984-1985, in seminary, in 2nd year Greek, one of our textbooks was D. A. Carson's "Exegetical Fallacies" - and on page 41-42, how is blew apart the amniotic fluid view of "born of water" and showed how it is referring back to Ezekiel 36:25-27.

    I learned a lot from that book.

    The article you linked to seems to be based off of his work in Exegetical Fallacies, pp. 41-42. (1984 Edition)

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    1. Thanks, Ken! That's interesting to know.

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  4. how is blew apart

    should have been

    how it blew apart the amniotic fluid view . . .

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    1. "blew apart the amniotic fluid"

      Thanks for the mental imagery that got lodged in my cortex.

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