A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Ryan M. McGraw
Ecclesiology and eschatology work together as friends with common goals. The entire system of doctrine comes together from beginning to end when we consider the end, or the last things, and the church is where we form everlasting relationships with God and his people. At the end, Christ brings his perfected bride, the church, into his Father’s glorious presence once the Spirit has made believers echo the Son’s character in a creaturely way, both in body and in soul. On the way to glory, the church is both a home and a waystation for God’s family, which is often weary travelling through this world. The church we belong to now is our permanent home, dwelling with a perfect God in a slowly perfected society. This fourth and final long-anticipated volume covers the doctrine of the church and the last things, comprising parts six and seven of the entire project. In what is the largest volume, capping off an excellent set, Beeke and Smally bring Reformed Systematic Theology to its climactic conclusion. Though this volume is filled with excellent devotional reflection on Christian theology, like David’s mighty men, some of it does not measure up to the first three. Concluding with a robust eschatology marks a strong landing, but the section on Ecclesiology falters in flight a little, in terms of precision, clarity, and key omissions. After summarizing the book’s content briefly, this review highlights some useful features, followed by listing some tensions and omissions, concluding with the author’s captivating summary of the entire system of doctrine.
Given the size of the book, it is easier to show the logical flow of major sections than to summarize individual chapters. Ecclesiology and Eschatology divide the work neatly into two large-scale sections, Ecclesiology comprising just over half of the material. In three sections, part six moves from the general to the particular, including seven chapters on the nature of the church, eight chapters on her authority and work, and nine chapters on her means of grace. The remaining two sections (chapters 26-42), constituting part seven, divide Eschatology into “preliminary and special issues” and final “hope in Christ alone.” Reflecting sound reasoning, the book’s logical flow progresses through what the church is, into what it does, to how it achieves its goals (primarily through word, sacrament, and prayer), towards the end of the final judgment, the resurrection of the dead, and the beatific vision. As those familiar with the preceding volumes would expect, the material synthesizes the teaching of Scripture, in conversation with a broad range of historical sources, concluding each chapter with ample practical application.
At least two helpful additional characteristics stand out in this work. First, Trinitarian theology continues to appear rhythmically throughout the chapters. For instance, the authors supply a clear Trinitarian definition of the church, writing, “the church consists of the assembly of God’s people in his special presence through his Son by his Spirit” (118). From beginning to end, Beeke and Smalley keep readers mindful that theology is studying God and all things in relation to God, both seeing in through God’s light and viewing everything else in light of him. Second, including contemporary issues continues the trend in these volumes of applying classic Reformed thought to modern problems. Their sections on the prosperity gospel and the church in relation to the Jewish people showcase this fact. Contrary to the false teaching that God wants all Christians to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous, they retort, “Faith is not a hand to grab gold; it is a hand to receive Christ and, in him, the promise of the age to come” (763). Also, since eternal life consists in knowing God through Jesus Christ, they conclude, “Perhaps its greatest insult to Christ is neglecting him as the believer’s chief treasure” (774). Similarly, in light of a recent resurgence of antisemitism, they include sound arguments against this attitude toward the Jews, merged with solid counsel on loving and evangelizing the Jewish people humbly and prayerfully (893-896). Such examples give readers a sense of the up-to-date feel of the text, tackling questions facing Christians today.
Minor issues related to precision, clarity, and even some theological tensions arise in the Ecclesiology section. One peculiar challenge the authors face is that one of them is a Baptist while the other is not. Without desiring to magnify the differences between Reformed Baptists and the rest of the Reformed world, most theological differences between the two come to the surface in connection to church and sacraments. To obviate this difficulty (19), they present Beeke’s paedobaptist position in the main text (chapter 20, co-authored with Jonathon Beeke), pushing Smalley’s defense of his Baptist views into an appendix (1153-1183). Besides offering two alternative viewpoints, however, it appears to this reviewer that mixing Baptist and more broadly Reformed views of church and sacraments proves more challenging than the authors let on. For instance, in chapter nineteen on baptism, they relegate the OT background of baptism to a paragraph, hastening to NT revelation (513). Yet Hebrews 9:10, among other places, points to a broader OT theology of “various baptisms” by applying the term to a range of OT ceremonial washings, including sprinkling with blood. While Baptists tend to root a theology of baptism predominantly in the NT, a broader OT trajectory is pivotal for paedobaptist theology, which includes John’s baptism as the last OT washing ritual as part of the ministry of the last and greatest OT prophet. Moreover, asserting that Paul referred to baptism only in eight passages (516) is highly debatable, reflecting a potentially Baptist assumption that only sees water baptism where the term baptizo appears in the text. This precludes indirect references to baptism, such as the “washing of regeneration” in Titus 3:5, which the Christian church has almost always connected to baptism in some respect. Another Baptist tendency is to exclude the external sign when the thing signified is in view, even where the term “baptism” is in the text. The most overt example of this is the authors’ assertion that 1 Corinthians 12:13 (“For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body… and have all been made to drink into one Spirit”) does not refer to water baptism (519). Yet Reformed theology has ordinarily upheld a “sacramental union” between the sign and the thing signified, so that Scripture often speaks of the one in place of the other, because the sacraments are instruments of grace and salvation to those who receive Christ through them by faith (they mention “sacramental union” on pg. 601, but do not explain its relation to biblical sacramental language). Reformed theology presses us rightly to receive the thing signified through the sign, though not apart from faith in Christ, and not necessarily tied to the time of administration (WCF 28.6). Beeke and Smalley, by contrast, lead readers to see far fewer allusions to both sacraments in the NT than most Christians have usually seen.
This weakness in loosening the spiritual union between sign and thing signified spills into their treatment of Christ’s presence in the Lord’s Supper as well. The authors pit a “real” bodily presence in the Supper against Christ’s real spiritual presence (584, 588). However, in light of the Reformed tradition, this is not quite the right way of putting things. For instance, WLC 170 teaches a real spiritual presence of Christ’s physical body and blood, asserting, “the body and blood of Christ…are spiritual present to the faith of the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses…” so that they “feed upon the body and blood of Christ…in a spiritual manner; yet truly and really…” If these words do not convey a real bodily presence, though “not corporally or carnally,” but by the Holy Spirit bringing union and communion with the God-man through faith, then it is hard to find better words to convey such an idea. Traditionally, one point uniting Lutherans and Reformed about the Supper was that we either receive the whole Christ or no Christ. Yet the ascended Christ is fully God and fully man, and we must receive him in both natures. Where we differ from Lutherans is that union with Christ in the Spirit transcends space, so that we can really feed on Christ’s body and blood without transporting his humanity physically into the elements. Again, the sacraments are not signs parallel to receiving Christ by faith, but actual means or instruments through which we receive him and where he meets us by the Spirit.
A sharper need for clarity and precision, obviating tensions, marks their general ecclesiology as well. In relation to the Nicene Creed’s assertion that the church is “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, Beeke and Smalley veer towards the church’s invisible aspects to the neglect of its visible ones. For instance, regarding the holiness of the church, they appear to make the oneness and holiness of the church merely internal rather than external (164-167). In fact, they add that all four attributes of the church in the Creed reflect the invisible church, while the traditional marks of the church (word, sacraments, and discipline) respect its visibility. This is problematic for a number of reasons. Reformed theologians have regularly treated all four attributes of the church, including holiness, as both external and internal. Internally, the church is one due to common union with Christ, yet she must pursue outward visible unity under a common confession as a result. The church is externally holy as a society set apart to God, even if not all her members have inward holiness (1 Jn. 2:19). Westminster Confession 25.1-2 likewise assigns catholicity, or universality, to both the invisible and visible aspects of the church. Lastly, the visible aspect of the church is apostolic by open procession of the doctrine of the apostles and prophets, grounded in Christ (Eph. 2:20), even if not all members believe the apostolic faith from the heart. Upholding internal and external viewpoints on each attribute of the church in the Creed makes sense of biblical statements like the Israelites having God as Father even though some were not his children (Deut. 32:5-6; Rom. 9:4), apostates “denying the Lord who bought them” (2 Pet. 2:1), and the same group trampling Christ and covenant underfoot even though they “were sanctified” by his blood outwardly (Heb. 10:29). Baptist ecclesiology internalizes and absolutizes all benefits of the new covenant, as the Credobaptist appendix at the close of the volume shows (1170), teaching that all who are in the covenant are of the covenant. Standard Reformed ecclesiology does not make this move, retaining an external covenant administration distinct from its internal saving essence. Though other examples are possible, this one shows one way how merging Baptist and with more standard Reformed ecclesiology and sacramental theology is not as straightforward as the authors hope.
Several omissions mark the work too, though one stands out. Though they could have included extraordinary officers of the church alongside ordinary ones, singled out the exercise of church power clearly as its own topic, and a few other things, the most surprising omission, especially considering the work’s size, is the authors’ scant attention to paedocommunion, or the practice of admitting infants to the Lord’s Supper, allegedly on grounds of covenant membership parallel to those offered for infant baptism. Beeke and Smalley note the problematic tendency for some paedobaptists to slide in this direction (598, 1157). Yet they devote only about two sentences to it, which amounts to asserting that they reject the practice, without seriously engaging arguments for and against paedocommunion. Though paedocommunion is, historically, an eccentric and unusual view in the Western church, with good reason, it is nonetheless a live issue, requiring more than a couple of lines denying its legitimacy. Readers will likely expect a more thorough treatment of questions like these in such a large work.
Rather than leaving this review on a potentially negative note, concluding with the authors’ conclusion to the entire set should leave readers on a positive note, leading readers to sing the praises of the Triune God. Beeke and Smalley say rightly, “It is fitting that systematic theology ends with eschatology, for all theology, indeed all the Christian life, looks forward to the everlasting glory of God in Christ” (1141). Leaning heavily on Wilhelmus a Brakel, they appropriately summarize all four volumes through an eschatological lens. First, if Scripture is divine revelation, then we should “read the Holy Scriptures seeking supernatural hope in God” (1142). Second, the divine attributes show us the God with whom we will dwell eternally, and the Trinity invites us into communion with the divine persons, driving us to eternal life in God. Third, our knowledge of God is rooted in the divine decree, leading us back to the eternal God’s plan unfolding into a glorious future (1143). Fourth, anthropology reminds us of man’s created purpose of knowing and reflecting God, despite sin, whose end is restored in glory (1144). Fifth, Christ is Immanuel, bringing God’s covenant to fruition in this life and the next (1145). Sixth, “Through regeneration by the Spirit, the kingdom of grace has come to us so that we will most certainly come to the kingdom of glory” (1146). We experience the aftereffects of such blessings in union with Christ in the entire application of redemption, leading to perfect glory. Seventh, “The biblical descriptions of the church are infused with hope,” a complete, spotless church being the goal of salvation (1147). Eighth, pulling lastly into eschatology, they remind us, “The greatest longing of Christians is for Christ himself.” In summary, going back to the beginnings of Reformed Systematic Theology, they remind readers, “theology is the doctrine of living unto God through Christ, which is the heart of hope” (1149).
Despite some bumps at the end of the road, these books lead us on a clear path, starting a journey to heaven with God, walking with God in the church, and arriving at the beatific vision of God at the end of our pilgrimage. Though much to read, these volumes are not hard reading, and every Christian will find the time and effort put into them rewarding.
Ryan McGraw
Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary