New JBMW is Here

We’re excited to announce the release of JBMW Spring 2016. You can download the entire journal as a PDF or each individual article. Subscribe here to receive your print copy of JBMW. Also, listen to what our editor Dr. Jason Duesing had to say in the editorial for this edition (see below).

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Hope Lives Till We Have Faces

Jason G. Duesing | Editor, Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Provost and Associate Professor of Historical Theology

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Kansas City, Missouri

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Sixty years ago C. S. Lewis published his last work of fiction—one that he considered “far and away the best that I have written.”^[1] Till We Have Faces is Lewis’ retelling of the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche, though with his own spin. He tells the story from the perspective of Psyche’s older sister Orual, who has grown jealous of her sister, as Psyche was taken away by the gods and received blessing and benefit from them. Yet, when Orual attempts to see the gods or the palace where Psyche lives, she can’t, and this sets her on a long term struggle against the gods. Lewis is using Orual as a picture of the struggling unbeliever who cannot believe in that which is invisible. Near the end of the story she comes to see that she cannot see the gods until she believes. For, as she says, “How can [the gods] meet us face to face till we have faces?”

Belief, trust, and even hope in the unseen is at the core of the Christian life, as Hebrews 11:1 reminds us, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And 1 Corinthians 13:12 adds, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 John 3:2 says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” We see in part now but won’t see fully till we have faces. Until that time, as the Apostle Peter reminds, we have been given a living hope to sustain us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3).

Writing at the end of his life to “cheer and strengthen” Christians undergoing trials, Peter begins his first letter reminding them that they have a living hope in a God who, in his mercy, has saved them and will strengthen and sustain them to the end, no matter what may come.^[2] And this is our reminder as well. In days of financial uncertainty, political turmoil, international danger, the Apostle Peter reminds us who God is, what he has done, and what he will do. He says that we have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection.” Paige Patterson explains that “Hope for the early believer was the opposite of fear of the future.”^[3] Thus, the hope we are to have in the world is alive to us, first, through our regeneration. Harkening back to the words of Christ to Nicodemus, “you must be born again,” Peter uses this phrase here and in verse 23 to anchor our hope in the work of Christ on our behalf in salvation. Second, this hope is given to us through the resurrection. As A. T. Robertson said, “Hope rose up with Christ from the dead.”^[4] As sure as the grave is empty, our hope is sure. Our hope is alive as Jesus.

With the reminder of the living hope that is ours in Christ Jesus despite the changing culture around us, this issue of JBMW begins with six essays. First, Dorothy Kelley Patterson, professor of Theology in Women’s Studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, writes on the contribution of Charles Ryrie (1925-2016) to complementarian studies through his book The Role of Women in the Church; Jim Hamilton, father of four and professor of Biblical Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, gives counsel to parents “Don’t Play Travel Ball: Stay in the Rec League”; Candi Finch, assistant professor of Theology in Women’s Studies at Southwestern Seminary, reflects on “David Bowie, Glam Rock, and Gender Rebellion”; David Schrock, pastor of Preaching and Theology at Occoquan Bible Church in Woodbridge, Virginia, offers a helpful study on a biblical theology of gender roles. David A. Croteau, professor of New Testament and Greek at Columbia International University, in Columbia, South Carolina, looks at Ephesians 5:26 and asks “Are husbands responsible for the spiritual maturation of their wives?” The final essay by T. Dale Johnson, assistant professor of Biblical Counseling at Southwestern Seminary, provides a timely review of the biblical development of marriage as a portrait of the Gospel.

This issue also contains five in-depth studies largely focused, like many of the essays, on the theme of marriage and family. Bruce A Ware, professor of Christian Theology at Southern Seminary, shares a poignant piece, “God as Father, God the Father, and Human Fathers.” Next, William M. Marsh, assistant professor of Theological Studies at Cedarville University, examines the command to “put on the new self” in Colossians 3 and its implications for husbands and wives. Matthew C. Millsap, assistant professor of Christian Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, sheds light on the ways advances in technology are used for evil in such a way that outpaces a family’s preparedness to resist and to flee. Jason S. DeRouchie, associate professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology at Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota examines Deutoronomy 22:5 and transgenderism, and John Delhousaye, associate professor of New Testament at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona takes a closer look at Mark 10:1-12 and the meaning of marriage.

Following the essays and studies, this issue contains a sermon, “Ordered Love: An Exposition of 1 Peter 3:1-7,” by CBMW President, Owen Strachan. The Journal concludes, finally, with several reviews by Louis Markos, Jeremy M. Kimble, Brian Neil Peterson, Megan Hill, Scott Corbin, and Craig Hurst. This issue marks a transition point for JBMW as it signals the conclusion of David Schrock’s reliable and industrious tenure as assistant editor. We are thankful for his faithful service and rejoice in his new ministry assignment that while the responsibilities therewith necessitate his stepping down from his formal role with the Journal, we remain thankful this will not remove his involvement entirely as evidenced by his contribution to this issue. As a testimony to the size of David’s contribution, it is my joy to introduce to readers of the Journal two new assistant editors who have started their time of service with this issue. Jeremy M. Kimble is assistant professor of Theological Studies at Cedarville University serving there after completing the PhD from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary writing on ecclesiology. Candi Finch is assistant professor of theology in Women’s Studies at Southwestern Seminary where she also completed her PhD writing on feminist theology. Please join me in thanking David and welcoming Jeremy and Candi.

At the end of C. S. Lewis’s novel, Till We Have Faces, the main character who has undergone her struggle of faith in the unseen comes to a telling conclusion. She says, “I now know, Lord, why you utter no answer. You yourself are the answer.”^[5] Even though we cannot see God, we love him, for he has given us living hope through his Word and Spirit. In days of financial uncertainty, political turmoil, international danger, we need this reminder of who God is, what he has done, and what he will do. Just as prophets of old living in a land of darkness were stabilized by their eager hope to see the advent of Messiah, so we in these days of lengthening cultural shadows should seek with the same eager hope, the return of the Messiah. 1 Corinthians 13:12 reminds us, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” We see what we need to see now, knowing that one day soon we will see Jesus. In this we can trust, for hope lives till we have faces.

^[1]  C. S. Lewis to Mrs. Anne Scott, 26 August 1960 in Letters of C. S. Lewis (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1966, 1988), 492.

^[2]  A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1960), 75.

^[3]  Paige Pattterson, The Pilgrim Priesthood (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2004), 31.

^[4]  Robertson, Word Pictures, 81.

^[5]  C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (London: Harcourt, 1956), 308.