Evangelical Theological Society's Proposed Doctrinal Statement

ETS has basically two points that members must affirm: the Trinity and inerrancy. These are hardly enough to distinguish evangelical Christians from non-Evangelicals, prompting some people to urge a new statement of faith, which can be found here. Here are my thoughts....

FIRST, It seems that the proposed change is doomed to fail because 1) the executive committee opposes it; and 2) a super-supermajority of 80% is needed to pass it; 3) there were few big names on their list of supporters--I recognised only seven.

SECOND, let's talk about item 9 which reads, "The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners, enabling them to turn to God from their sin and to trust in Jesus Christ."

The afore-linked webpage includes as one of its FAQ's a question in regard to C-A issues. The FAQ reads: "9. Is the reference to the Holy Spirit’s enabling work slanted towards Calvinism?" They reply, "We believe the statement on the Holy Spirit’s work in regeneration can accommodate the Calvinist view as well as Wesleyan/ Arminian notions of prevenient grace. Because the statement already unites Calvinist, Wesleyan, and Arminian evangelicals in England, we think that we have good reason not to interpret it as slanted towards either Calvinism or Arminianism. We have corresponded with at least one non-Calvinist long time member of the Tyndale Fellowship who has said he has never had a problem with this description of the Holy Spirit’s work."

Actually, upon a very, very close reading of the item, I have encountered a problem with this item. The participial phrase (enabling them to turn...and to trust) is ambiguous, and--as with all modifying participles, we are unsure of it being causal, temporal, sequential, etc. Here are the possibilities

• temporal: The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners at the same time that he enables them to turn to God from their sin....
• telic: The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners for the purpose of enabling them to turn to God from their sin...
• causal: The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners because he enables them to turn to God from their sin...
• instrumental: The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners by enabling them to turn to God from their sin...
• circumstantial: The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners while he enables them to turn to God from their sin...
• sequential: The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners then he enables them to turn to God from their sin...
• resultative: The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners resulting in them being enabled them to turn to God from their sin...

No doubt, English is much less ambiguous with its participles than Greek, and one or two or three of these possibilities is more probable than others.

However, after staring at these options for the last 30 minutes, I'm not sure which reading is more natural. One thing I'm sure of is that Arminians won't like some of them. For example we would reject the telic, sequential, and resultative interpretations. If pressed, Arminians would interpret the phrase instrumentally: The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners by enabling them to turn to God from their sin....

Perhaps the ambiguity is deliberate and helpful, enabling both Calvinists and Arminians to interpret it in whatever way they wish.

THIRD, perhaps of equal interest is the item which reads, "The Holy Spirit lives in all those he has regenerated...." Hey, this is good for Arminians, but bad for some Calvinists. I would assume that this might make a few Calvinists twinge, especially those who think that there can be some time gap from the point of regeneration to the point of faith. I keep on hearing Calvinists claiming this insanity that a person may not actually believe until years after his regeneration. Calvinists who believe this insanity are faced then with accepting the notion not only that unbelievers can be regenerate, but that unbelievers can be indwelt by the Spirit. This being the case, perhaps we ought to adopt the amendment, and then go on a witch hunt to throw out a bunch of Calvinists from ETS. :)