Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 23:3 (Fall 2019)
Article: Editorial: Expectations And Responsibilities For The Church Until Jesus Comes
Author: Stephen J. Wellum

SBJT 23:3 (Fall 2019) p. 3

Editorial: Expectations And Responsibilities For The Church Until Jesus Comes

Stephen J. Wellum

Stephen J. Wellum is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and editor of Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. He received his PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and he is the author of numerous essays and articles and the co-author with Peter Gentry of Kingdom through Covenant, 2nd edition (Crossway, 2012, 2018) and God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (Crossway, 2015); the co-editor of Progressive Covenantalism (B&H, 2016); the author of God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of the Person of Christ (Crossway, 2016) and Christ Alone—The Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior (Zondervan, 2017); and the co-author of Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ (Zondervan, 2018).

The beginning of the year 2020 has certainly brought about some unanticipated changes, to say the least. The world finds itself in the midst of a global pandemic of COVID-19 which has resulted in all kinds of panic and tumultuous changes. One lesson we have learned so far: all human prognosticators have been wrong. So-called “scientific” models have led nations to make draconian decisions to shut down entire economies to save lives, but so far, most, if not all, of these models have been shown to be false. To be fair, for models to be accurate, they require a huge amount of correct data, which, at present, we simply do not have. At best, scientists, medical professionals, and government officials can only make educated guesses based on incomplete knowledge; hence the diversity of opinions, and decisions being made based on data that fluctuates every day.

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For Christians, this should not surprise us. Humans, both finite and fallen, do not have exhaustive knowledge, and the knowledge that we have is often misinterpreted or even distorted to promote our own agendas. The only objective ground for truth is in God himself who knows and plans all things. This is why Christians must be careful following the “wisdom” of this age, since unless it is grounded in God’s Word, it inevitably will end up flawed and unreliable. For it is only our triune God who has exhaustive and complete knowledge, and thus it is only if he chooses to reveal himself to us and to disclose his purposes and plan, that we have a sure foundation and warrant for our knowledge, and ground for hope. To use a phrase from Francis Schaeffer, apart from the “God who is there” and the “God who does not remain silent,” humans only know in part, and even our best, educated hypotheses fall short....