Thursday, April 29, 2010

Together for the Icons?

At the biennial Reformed gathering known as Together for the Gospel, Dr. J. Ligon Duncan asked Did the Fathers Know the Gospel? (hat tip: Justin). Rev. Duncan's answer was an emphatic Yes.  "These are our people," he asserted, proceeding to cite, nay, perform stirring passages of gospel witness from the ancient Church.  The following is a syllogism that seemed to spring naturally from this wonderful address.

Major Premise:  (in Rev. Duncan's words, starting at 29:33) "The Fathers were best in polemics...   When you read the fathers in any area which was a matter of dispute and debate in the church of their time, they almost always got it right, and gloriously so."

Minor Premise:  The Iconoclastic controversy was the final Patristic showdown, the last great "matter of dispute and debate in the church of their time."

Conclusion:  The Fathers were gloriously right on the matter of icons.

[cross posted at evangel]