The Buzz on Beckwith

The evangelical blogosphere is abuzz on Beckwith, so I thought I would throw in a word or two.  As you may know by now, Frank Beckwith, Professor at Baylor University and current president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), has announced his return to the Roman Catholic church of his youth and consequently tendered his resignation as ETS president.

He was apparently outed last Thursday on James White’s Blog where several related posts may be found.  Beckwith made his own blog announcement on Saturday HERE, which now has over 200 comments.

He has indicated that he will remain a member of ETS, but resigned his presidency to prevent disorder in the continuing work of the society.   I guess it is not surprising that the ETS which allows adherents of Open Theism in its ranks should now be home for Roman Catholics.  Comments from some scholar/members relate this phenomenon to the grossly inadequate ETS statement of faith:

“The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.”

There you have it, folks, the ETS SOF in its entirety.  Beckwith, on behalf of Romanism, and the likes of Clark Pinnock, on behalf of Open Theism, have no qualms signing this SOF.  Therein lies the problem with the ETS — an inadequate basis for self governance.

NEWS FLASH: Monday afternoon on his Blog, Frank Beckwith announced the additional step that he will also resign his membership in the ETS.  I commend him for this step, which came as the result of prayerful consideration on his part, as he explains.  I have no doubt that Beckwith is a fine man and an admirable scholar.  I will leave it to others to evaluate the theological judgements that led him in this direction.  Though he seeks a “conversation” between evangelicalisn and the “Great Tradition” (Rome), I remain convinced that critical differences between Romanism and Protestantism, especially regarding Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura, cannot be attributed to semantics as he seems to wish.