Category: Controversies

Videos from the THINK Conference on the Future of Complementarity

~ Alastair Roberts ~ 2 Comments

A couple of months ago, I spoke at the THINK Conference on the Future of Complementarity, along with Andrew Wilson and Hannah Anderson. It was a wonderful few days of Christian fellowship, stimulating conversation, and shared worship. I thoroughly appreciated the change to meet both Andrew and Hannah for the second times; they have been such great friends and interlocutors (and in Andrew’s case a co-author!) for me online and it is always great to bring such friendships into the concreteness of the physical world. I also enjoyed the chance to make many new friends over the course of the conference.

All of the videos of the main sessions have been published now. We all prepared our talks independently and didn’t hear what each other had to say until the day itself. In my talks I am sharing my own judgment of matters, not necessarily viewpoints that are shared by the other participants. The same is true of Hannah and Andrew’s talks. Also, either Hannah’s or my talks can be taken by themselves, or alongside the other’s. The videos of the talks are posted in order below. I delivered the third, fifth, and seventh.

Enjoy!

Session 1: Introduction (Andrew Wilson and Livy Gibbs)

 

Session 2: Society, History, and Culture (Hannah Anderson)

 

Session 3: Creation (Alastair Roberts)

 

Session 4: Anthropology (Hannah Anderson)

 

Session 5: Redemption (Alastair Roberts)

 

Session 6: Ecclesiology (Hannah Anderson)

 

Session 7: Sexuality, Marriage, and Singleness (Alastair Roberts)

 

Session 8: Summary and Conclusion (Andrew Wilson)

Transcript of Video on Jeremiah’s New Covenant

~ Alastair Roberts ~ Leave a comment

I wanted to experiment with producing a transcript of my talks, to see how much effort it would take. The following is my first attempt, a transcript (somewhat polished up in places) of my recent video on Jeremiah 31.

All of these videos are produced without any notes whatsoever, pretty much off the top of my head. Consequently, there is a fair amount of rambling and the transcript isn’t anywhere near as tight as it would be if I were giving a prepared presentation.

If people really want transcripts, I would be prepared to produce them if I had more Patreon support. As things stand, however, it is a task that is costly in time and effort and neither a very wise nor economic use of my time.

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Why is Lot Called ‘Righteous’ Even Though He Offered His Daughters to the Men of Sodom?

~ Alastair Roberts ~ 3 Comments

How are we to interpret Lot’s offering of his two virgin daughters to the men of Sodom when they surround his house and demand that he brings out his guests so that they may have sex with them in Genesis 19? Was it such an unthinkable breach of hospitaility to let his guests be molested in this way that he desperately resorted to a lesser of two evils? Or was the offer simply a stalling tactic as he knew that the men of Sodom would not accept it anyway? How does 2 Peter 2:7 control our interpretation of the passage and of Lot’s life in general?

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What Should We Make of Jeremiah’s Prophecy of a New Covenant?

~ Alastair Roberts ~ Leave a comment

As a paedobaptist, I am curious how would you respond to the credobaptist argument from the nature of the new covenant as described in Jer 31:31–34. They argue that Jeremiah pictures the newness of the new covenant consisting in its being made with an entirely regenerate/forgiven/saved community. Credobaptists then would argue that this change in the nature of the covenant people implies a change in the administration of the covenant sign as well, such that it should now only be applied to those who evidence themselves to be regenerate by means of a credible profession of faith. In addressing this question, I would love to hear your basic view of how the various covenants in Scripture relate to one another and develop over time.

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Trinity and Modalism

~ Alastair Roberts ~ 5 Comments

I follow what you are saying about the error of saying that there are three ‘centers of consciousness’ in God’s Triune nature, and how that would involve a denial of the unity and simplicity of the Divine Being and ultimately involve tritheism. However, isn’t that different from affirming three subsistent consciousnesses, or three self-conscious Persons within the nature of God? Would not a denial of that involve the opposite error of modalism? I am concerned that in our right concern to flee from tritheism, we are not seeing an implicit embrace of modalism.

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