Saturday, December 9, 2017

Reformed Scholar Engaging in Exegetical Fallacies


But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Cor 15:20-28, NIV)

Commenting on 1 Cor 15:20-28, D.A. Carson wrote:

The most natural reading of these verses is that the Son, the exalted God-man, remains, after the consummation, eternally subject to his Father, no longer the exclusive mediator of the Father’s sovereignty—though the final clause, “so that God [not the ‘Father’] may be all in all,” lays the emphasis on (the Trinitarian) God. (D.A. Carson, “John 5:26: Crux Interpretum for Eternal Generation” in Fred Sanders and Scott R. Swain, eds. Retrieving Eternal Generation [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2017], 79-97, here, p.95, emphasis added)

Carson shows that he is allowing a man-made dogma to pervert this thinking. After all, “God” in the New Testament never has a reference to the Tri-une being, and, furthermore, θεος is almost exclusively used of the Father (in a handful of cases, the Son, but never the “Tri-une being”—for a discussion, see Murray J. Harris, Jesus as God: The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus). Furthermore, Paul is engaging in a midrash-like expansion/interpretation of Psa 110:1 (LXX: 109:1), so “God” in 1 Cor 15:28 denotes the first Lord of this oracle, namely the Father, not the Tri-une being/three persons of the Godhead. For a discussion, see:


Such is a rather unfortunate happenstance, as Carson is a capable scholar. It does show, however, the negative effects of holding to a false theology—no matter how careful an exegete one wishes to be, one will be forced to engage in exegetical fallacies.





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