| | Back in the day, the University of Alberta had a used book store in HUB mall. I'd often wander in there between classes, mostly just to browse and occasionally to buy something worthwhile. One book that caught my eye in the religion section was a paperback entitled, The Book of J. I found this fascinating and every time I was in the store, I'd browse through it. It was intriguing because around the same time I discovered the very scholarly series of International Critical Commentaries. I learned from those commentaries that things are not always what they seem in the Old Testament. In fact, Moses didn't really write the first five books of the Bible. Rather, it was four authors, the Jahwist (J), the Elohist (E), the Deuteronomist (D), and the Priestly author (P). The Book of J took things one step further and I learned that the Jahwist was actually a woman. This JEDP theory was neat stuff for an undergrad just cutting his teeth in theology.
I was pretty excited about these new insights and I mentioned them one time to my pastor. I was surprised that he was less than excited, dismayed in fact. He solemnly told me to disregard anything that smacks of JEDP and that I'd learn more about all of this at seminary. Meanwhile, I found a copy of Oswald T. Allis' The Five Books of Moses in another used book store in Edmonton and I discovered that I'd been hoodwinked. I learned a valuable lesson through this.
A short while later I was at seminary and I learned more about JEDP -- the so-called documentary hypothesis. Our Old Testament professor exposed this as the fruit of unbelieving Bible scholarship. We were encouraged to read stuff by solid Reformed scholars like O.T. Allis and E.J. Young. Dr. Van Dam made it very clear to us that any author who adopts the language of JEDP has gone off the reservation of orthodoxy.
I mention all of this because of a recent appointment to the Theological University in Kampen of Dr. Stefan Paas. Paas wrote a dissertation at the University of Utrecht, Creation and Judgment: Creation Texts in Some Eighth Century Prophets. You can find most of it on-line here. In his dissertation, Paas uses the language of JEDP without reservation. Dr. Paas will be teaching at the institution which trains men for the ministry in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. I bring this to your attention simply because the gospel is at stake. When the Word of God is not taken seriously on its own terms, nothing but trouble can result. For heterodoxy to prevail, all it takes is for us to say nothing and do nothing. As a Reformed minister, I vowed to speak up when the stakes are this high.
First there was the appointment of George Harinck and now Stefan Paas. These developments should be deeply troubling to all churches which have ecumenical relations with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands: CanRC, OPC, URC, FRCA, FCS.
There is more information here at this blog and John Van Popta offers his thoughts here.
February 24, 2009 edit: The reference to emergent has been dropped.
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| | Posted 2/11/2009 10:01 AM - 342 Views - 10 eProps - 6 comments
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