In this post, Toby Sumpter distances himself from Peter Leithart, James Jordan, Biblical Horizons, and Jeff Meyers—especially regarding certain topics.
It seems like a healthy move and a helpful post.
(And by the way, thank you @jonswerens for the good question to Jeff Meyers in the comments.)
Thank you for posting this. Very helpful perspective. We appreciate your candor.
Yes, very helpful article.
The issue of hermeneutics is one of the ongoing debates with a friend in my church who is on staff, how much types and shadows should we read into scripture.
Since our church is largely McArthur styled dispensationalism they hold pretty firmly to Literal-Historical-Grammatical, but I just can’t shake my Reformed tendency that resonates with consistent Biblical Theology and how interconnected it all is.
But seeing these PCA men perform this ugly eisegesis to support clearly unbiblical and abominable practices makes me a bit embarrassed when talking with my dispy friends.
A much needed post. Over the past few years I have really found reading the writings of these men to be extremely eye opening and edifying. I think the most attractive thing about their writing is that it is not dry and dull. They write with passion and they right well. They make studying Scripture a pleasant experience. They also write boldly (for good or for worse). This is attractive in a reformed church culture that regular puts out dry, weak, and often just as questionable milk.
I also noticed the way in which typology is, as Pastor Toby notes, done for the sake of entertainment. Typology for typology’s sake. This along with the odd conclusions that are often arrived at - denying perseverance, the regeneration of our natures, etc. makes me slow to recommend their writings.
Are there any other authors/books that anyone on the board can recommend that make the Bible a joy to study but aren’t filled with leaps and bounds of questionable conclusions?
I appreciate this from Toby, he’s a good brother.
One thing I’m not sure about is his take on Sam Alberry. There are rumours Alberry is in the process of dissociating himself from the LivingOut website (that he founded?), though I’d think he needs to say/do something clearer than this. As of just now the website has its own chosen title ‘Christian and gay’ via the Google search return:
I think it’s a bit like “I’m hoping Alberry is in play, so I don’t want to prejudge.”
Anything by G.K. Beale. His works are intimidating, however. I can barely lift most of them.
So far, Pastor Jeff Meyers’ responses have been … less than charitable. Certainly not winsome. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was.
I think the stuff that’s come out of Theopolis close after this has been pretty solid on the whole gay Christian thing, and it does not look like it was coming out in response to Toby.
Jeff has never been a man I trust, but this is a new low. Here are a couple screenshots demonstrating his foundational dishonesty and belligerence. Have nothing to do with such a schismatic:
My response is simply to observe that I do know about Missouri Presbytery and the committee and the process and Jeff utterly failed throughout. He should be ashamed of himself. Love,
New Warhorn Media post by Andrew Dionne:
His first comment about putting “a couple of guys familiar with Revoice” onto this committee tells us he isn’t willing to have an honest conversation. Five out of eight is not “a couple.”
And someone can correct me if I’m wrong (I want to be wrong) but I don’t think the Revoice connections of these 5 were disclosed - at least not in the report. It was up to people to do their own research (or stumble across it on Warhorn as I did) to find out about these connections.
Respected elders of Presbyterian Churches (since if them PCA) are seriously asking these questions with deep concerns regarding the purity of Christ’s church on display before the world and he says he doesn’t have time for these “little games.”
It seems he misunderstands the meaning of “above reproach.”
When I heard the Jeff Meyers appointed the committee, my first thought was that he had to do as the presbytery pleased, because he was already compromised due to his FV positions. There was no way he was going to appoint anyone openly opposed to Revoice. But that was just my impression, which, this article alludes might be a possibility.
I find his responses quite sad. It is like many ‘conversations’ on other social media. The one who cannot offer a cogent response gets surly. I’d expect more from a pastor.
