Don Carson – Gospel Coalition regional conference Reality church LA nov. 6, 2010

Session 1:What is the Gospel and how does it work from John 3

Here are a few scribbles from my day in Hollywood with Don Carson.  All from my perspective – what stood out and what disappointed for what it’s worth.  First session was basically an exegesis of John 3 – consequently you can find most of what he said here in his commentary on John (Baker Exegetical Series)

“Gospel’ is announcement! (I like thisJ)  News about who Jesus is and what he’s done

As far as we know Jesus was the first one to use the term “born again” (Nic. Had never heard of it)

Nicodemus was called “the Teacher of Israel.”  To attain such a prestigious position in Israel, DA says he would have had to memorize the entire OT as well as a body of oral tradition that was probably twice as long.

John writes with certain themes that he comes back to over and over again such as ‘light v. darkness’ or ‘night v day.’  When he says here that Nic came to Jesus by night he wasn’t simply commenting on the historical time of day (although this was true too), but rather he was commenting on the spiritual condition of Nic.

Nic says: “we know you’re from God.”   Essentially he was saying here in a sort of pompous way ‘we have observed you and have calculated and concluded that you are indeed one sent from God and we have also 

calculated that because of your miracles and power we can see the kingdom of God beginning to break in.”

Jesus responds basically by saying “you don’t see a thing!”  Further, the kingdom of God is not marked by a new power (at least not yet) but rather a new people.

*Here I think Carson makes an outstanding point.  People are always looking for something external to come and change the circumstances but no one is ever looking for new internal people.  Then it was the Jews looking for a new power to liberate them from the Roman oppression.  Today I think it is people hoping for a new political power or a new boss or a new job or a new community or a new church, salary, house, friends or whatever but nobody ever looks within!  Nobody says the problem with ____ is people – ME INCLUDED!  I guess Jesus was pretty radical then and today too we need to experience the new birth so we have new people more than we need new circumstances or new power (of course this is coming as well)

Nic replies :  You can’t just start over dude.  People are who they are and they can’t just be born all over again.  (obviously as teacher of Israel Nic is familiar with metaphors so he is simply returning his argument within the metaphor.  He understands Jesus is talking metaphorically – not a stupid guy!)

For those of you interested Jesus’ comment about being born of water and the spirit is taken from Ez. 36 and refers to one new spiritual birth.

When Jesus comments on the wind he is saying just this: you may not be able to explain the mechanics of the new birth as far as when it starts or where it comes from but you certainly cannot deny its effects!  So it is with EVERYONE that is born of the Spirit!!  Effects are truly undeniable!

So don’t insult the magnitude of this by unscrupulously passing out the label “Christian” or “born again.”

I think this was def. the best session of the day – Carson does a great job with historically contextualizing John 3.

Session 2: What is the Gospel and how does it work from Romans 3:21-26

Some statements by carson here regarding justification:

1.       The OT looks forward to the righteousness of God being disclosed in Christ.

a.       Through Passover

b.      Through many other pictures also.       

2.     From Romans 3 – the righteousness of God is available to all without distinction of race – on condition of faith.

The perspective of a Christian should be:

I’m not what I ought to be, not what I want to be, not what I will be, but I’m not what I used to be.

Carson had some comments later in the day concerning NT Wright that I will get to eventually but here is a crucial passage on justification issues and he alluded to the controversies that have existed for a while, yet I was fairly disappointed that he did not even allude to Any of Wright’s emphasis at all in this passage – for instance the emphasis on Jew/Gentile union and the substitution of faith for the OT law.  Even if he thinks Wright is mistaken he didn’t address it.  Actually I get the feeling that Carson is really not too familiar with Wright’s work which further adds to my disappointment concerning his analysis and remarks later.

Session 3: what is the ministry and mission of the local church from Pastoral Epistles

Only one thought here, although it was good: be willing to suffer for the gospel

Ok one more thought, but this was actually Carson quoting Tim Keller

“For the Christian, optimism is naïve, but pessimism is atheistic”

Session 4: Q and A

Sorry I didn’t really take notes here b/c most of the questions they picked were crap questions that didn’t really have any answers even – they were basically just saying “hey Carson, look at us – we think it’s cool to use the term ‘Gospel-Centered.’  Aren’t we cool?”

One decent question though asking him his thoughts of NT Wright.

Basically Carson said that he knew Wright when they were both doing the PhD work in England and that he’s had lunch with him many times and that whatever he says now Wright knows he says and he considers Wright a good friend but then went on to basically mock Wright and get the whole place laughing.  Which is all cool……. If Carson had represented him fairly.  Get this, Carson even said “Wright often complains about people not representing him accurately or taking the time to understand him” and then went on to caricature him and mock him as one who basically thinks everyone else in the world is wrong except for himself – of course everyone was laughing b/c Carson is a funny guy sometimes…..unfortunately I don’t think Carson ever even addressed the issues at all!

Here’s what he did say in a very generalizing way:

-Wright was just plain wrong 20 years ago but has been continuously modifying his position since then so that now it’s not so much that he’s wrong but rather that he backgrounds what should be foregrounded and foregrounds what should be backgrounded.  In doing this Carson makes it sound like he’s been a steady unchanging bastion of truth for the last 20 years while Wright has been stubbornly drug closer and closer to the ‘right theology.’  I have much admiration for a person who is constantly searching and seeking and modifying!  If you ever listen to Wright you know he’s not an unstable mind being thrown all over the place.  Wright unashamedly tells his readers/students that he will make mistakes in what he is telling them (even to 20% of what he says I think he mentioned); perhaps Carson would do well to take this more humble approach.

-Wright is very divisive – he forces young people to either be for him or against him.  Here again – Carson just makes this opinion statement without any factual information at all. 

Just disappointed with Carson’s Caricatured and sloppy critique of Wright.  Pretty much have to agree with Wright that his opponents (at least Carson) have not taken the time to really understand his positions.

Session 4: what is the gospel and how does it work from Rev. 21:1-22:5

Sorry I was tired so I didn’t have much written for this session but it was a good one – Carson does an excellent job of explaining the metaphorical language in Rev.  Had some great thoughts on the metaphors of lamb and lion and how they overlap in thought but certainly could not overlap in a picture – thus the Rev. metaphors are saying things about the OT predictions really.  For instance the new city is a cube – only cube in the Bible….except for…….the Holy of Holies!  You can draw the implications.

Think also of the theme of God finally coming to dwell among his people.

Carson also says that the new heaven and earth will be a place of righteousness.

Also that your heart will follow what you value the most.  Thus ‘lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.’  It’s good to think about this – to treasure something is at least partly an act of the will. 

That’s all – really enjoyed the conference for the sake of fellowship and worship……randomly sat down next Aaron Snell who graduated from Berea High a year after me……. conference was held in the high school where Glee was filmed…weather was amazing (writing this on the plane heading back to Scranton hurray)