The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Confusion! Please help

I am at present reading Poythress' "God Centered Biblical Interpretation". On the back cover of the book is a recommendation by DA Carson. Also, somewhere on this site I also read that Monergism Books is recommended and when you read how they select their books then you get the impression that they sell books from trustworthy authors in the reformed tradition. So, one of the books is DA Carson's "Exegetical Fallacies" which is highly commended on Monergism Books. However, when searching the web for DA Carson you also come across negative criticism about DA Carson. See for example

http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/bewareof-da-carson.html

For example, the following is said:


and


The book refered to above is not "Exegetical Fallacies" but "The Inclusive Language Debate".

This is rather confusing. Can anyone shed some light for me on DA Carson in particular but also more generally on which authors are really trustworthy in the sense that they really
follow the reformed tradition.

Johan

PS to my question: It seems to me that I should also have asked who David W Cloud is, ie. the person criticizing DA Carson.

Johan

Johan,

1) Vern Poythress: I studied under Dr. Poythress when I was a WTS. At that time, he was quite solid in regard to Reformed Theology. But that was about 26 years ago. As you know much has changed over the past 20+ years. I haven't kept in touch with him so I have no idea where he stands now theologically. But my sincere hopes is that he hasn't "gone over" to NPP/FV as some of my other profs have. His older books are excellent.

2) D.A. Carson: IMHO, Dr. Carson is a "mixed bag". Much of what I've read by him is quite good. But some other things have not been so good. As with any man's writings, you have to read with discernment. We are all fallible.

3) David Cloud: Oy vey... Rank Fundamentalist who has a very strong aversion to anything that is even a shadow of Calvinism. Generally speaking what he writes is worth little, IMHO, since he holds to semi-Pelagianism and classic Dispensationalism. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/rolleyes2.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,

The Way of Life site was one of the first sites I found when I got online. And I did read it for a while. Then I found where the man had several dozen sermons online at SermonAudio.com. I stopped paying attention to the man after I heard his sermon where he announced: Every man who doesn't wear their hair as short as he does is going to hell.

I also recall he had a big bone to pick with contemporary music. And not for any biblical reason, that I recall. I can at least respect a person when they say, "Contemporary Christian music is too man-centered and not enough God-centered". But his criticism was more on technical grounds, he didn't like the choice of instruments, or the musical style (he doesn't like drums because they're "pagan".) I figure if you're going to denounce something, do it on biblical grounds, not on personal preferences that fall more under the heading of Christian liberty.

It's been a while so I could be wrong, but I also believe he's KJV-only. I don't recall him pronouncing anyone to hell for reading the NASB or anything else, but he sure encourages you to read the KJV. I recall he even wrote a book defining the more archaic words in the KJV so you wouldn't have an excuse to not read it.

And even his criticism of Carson that you quoted sounded right up his alley... apparently we determine who we should and should not listen to, based upon what organizations they are a member of? I sure hope that wasn't the sole argument in his article!

The man just seems to have a rather unforgiving spirit, and is calling things sinful that I don't see the Bible saying is a sin. There's my 2-cents.

And by rank you mean that he smells. The man doesn't know his history, gives credence to questionable sources and makes ignorance look like a good thing. He is absolutely one of the reasons IFB get such a bad rap.

Well, thanks for the feedback so far.

Two things: (1) I have made a mistake to say that DA Carson wrote a recommendation on the backcover of Poythress' book. He wrote the foreword in Mark Dever's "The deliberate church". John Frame wrote the recommendation on the backcover of Poythress' book. (2) Pilgrim, you were uncertain at Poythress' position today. I have now read the book once (a second reading is necessary for me) and I would say that you don't need to worry. I think it is worth reading.

Johan