Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 20:39 (Autumn 2007)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

---

JOTGES 20:39 (Autumn 2007) p. 79

Book Reviews

By The Members Of The Grace Evangelical Society

Who Will Be Saved? Defending the Biblical Understanding of God, Salvation, & Evangelism. Paul R. House and Gregory A. Thornbury, Editors. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000. 239 pp. Paper, $19.99.

This multi-author book should be of particular interest to JOTGES readers for two reasons. First, the authors are dealing with views such as open theism that have crept into Evangelism in recent years. Second, the authors make some candid comments on the need for Evangelicals to get along, despite significant soteriological differences, and not to anathematize one another.

Part one of the book is entitled, “Who Saves?” (pp. 13-74). This section concerns a proper view of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Part two of the book is entitled, “Who Will Be Saved?” (pp. 75-160), and is the heart of the book, sharing the book’s title.

Much of part two concerns the issue of inclusivism and whether people who’ve never heard of Jesus can be born again without faith in Him. There is an interesting chapter in which Clark Pinnock, who advocates that view, interacts with Doug Geivett, who does not.

Part three is entitled, “How Shall They Hear the Gospel?” (pp. 161-224). This, in my estimation, is the most fascinating section for JOTGES readers.

One of the editors, Gregory Thornbury, writes a fascinating chapter in this section. It is entitled, “The Proper Subject of Theology: Giving Voice to the Doctrine of Salvation in a New Century” (pp. 209-224). This chapter is worth the price of the book.

In a section within that chapter entitled, “Potential Dangers from Certain Sectors of Reformed Evangelicalism,” Thornbury cites Reformed apologist Michael Horton as saying, “If we are really convinced of the justice in the Reformation’s critique of medieval Rome, we can no longer…regard Arminianism within Protestant circles as any more acceptable” (p. 216).

JOTGES 20:39 (Autumn 2007) p. 80

For years many Reformed theologians have been calling Arminians, those who don’t believe in justification by faith alone, brothers and sisters in Christ. I find it refreshing to see Horton rejecting that conclusion. However, Thornbury cites Timothy George as criticizing this position: “We should not draw the evangelical circle too tightly lest, like Jesus’ cliquish disciples we exclude those who are earnestly doing the Lord’s work because they ‘are not one of us’” (p. 217). Thornbury agrees with George, saying that we “must avoid the temptation of theological hubris and of excluding true brothers and si...

visitor : : uid: ()