The fiery comments keep coming in response to Reggie’s post. My friend and fellow cigar smoker John Muether wrote a clarifying comment when he said:
At some point before the comments reach triple digits it might be helpful to remind readers that your views do not represent the faculty at RTS Orlando, some of whom may still consider themselves to be Machen’s warriors.
Muether is correct. RTS/Orlando has rarely made absolute statements concerning Reformed debates. In fact, many were irate to find out that RTS/Orlando did not make an official statement concerning Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Sproul and others were not very happy as you can imagine. Nevertheless, RTS is what it is. It does not claim to be strictly confessional, in the sense that exceptions are not allowed, 1 however, all faculty must annually sign a pledge of fidelity to the Westminster Confession and Catechisms as containing the system of doctrine found in Scripture.2 RTS is undoubtedly committed to the proclamation of the Reformed faith throughout the world as Richard Pratt3 has so strongly defended. In fact, I remember clearly when he told us in class that the hope of the world is in and through Reformed theology.
This is not, however, a truncated Reformed faith based on particularities of infra or supra-lapsarian debate or even the typical Puritanesque (not meant pejoratively) regulative form of worship, though we do have our small TR guys around. You can always identify them on campus smoking their expensive cigars. I certainly do not speak for the faculty, but only give you my perspective as a student after attending RTS for over three years. I have seen much and know much; after all, I have lived inside that library more so than my own home.
The reason RTS/Orlando does not have a position on every debate under the sun is because every professor is highly aware of the nuances and the catholicism of the Reformed tradition. We have closet Postmillenarians and your typical Vosian Amillenialist; we have low-church types and high-church types; we have cigar smokers and those who think cigar-smokers are a threat to the church; we have Jack Miller guys (Steve Brown, are you reading this?) and we have those quasi-theonomists (I am not naming any names here); we have the political lefts (for those from WTS California, you may need to do a google search on what the word “politics” mean) and political rights; we have baby baptizers and those credo-baptists (who, by the way, only teach preaching classes). We invite D.A. Carson one year to teach a one- week class, then we invite J.I Packer to comfort us with Puritan dreams. We have Tony Campollo one year and then we have David Wells another. Is this diverse enough for you? Reggie understands this diversity and he lives in light of this diversity. This is why his circle of friends go beyond Presbyterian pals.
In the end of the day, RTS/Orlando (with a few exceptions) cherishes diversity. This is not a wishy-washy diversity; it is a diversity committed to the three words this blog stands for: Orthodoxy, Catholicity, and Lordship. This is how I want it and how I like it. You mess with Reggie, you mess with me.
Footnotes
- As far as I know this is the position at Joseph Pipa’s seminary [↩ back]
- Thanks to John Muether for the clarifying statement [↩ back]
- See Third Millennium Ministries [↩ back]
