Dr. Bruce Ware on Fundamentalism, Gender Issues and Contemporary Issues

Enjoyed listening to these interviews and getting a sense of where this influential conservative evangelical stands on many current issues. It kills me, however, to see someone committed to the inerrancy/authority of Scripture and biblical hermeneutics completely miss it on creationism.

The textual arguments he gives, while perhaps worth considering, are so outweighed by the other (clearer) testimony of Scripture, it amazes me that he can firmly hold to such a position. This just smacks of isogetical analysis to me. What is the purpose of arguing “long days” if not to conform it on some level with evolutionary theory?Such a position raises numerous theological problems which cannot be answered by a conservative form of hermeneutic to which he firmly adheres! Would he argue some unknown position that there were “longer” days, but still exclude an evolutionary model???

Anyway, it was still an informative listen, and the way he described some of his positions helped me make some clearer distinctions between common “2nd tier” doctrines (covenant/dispensationalism/progressive dispensationalism, etc).

Love David Crabb. Went to school with him, and he had some great questions.

Also I find non-literal 24 hour day types largely ignore the problem of “and the evening and the morning were the first day” language of Gen 1. Ware wasn’t called on that, and I wish he was.

I viewed only one segment—the one on fundamentalism and evangelicalism. I didn’t find it particularly helpful, though.

IIRC (it’s been a couple of weeks since I saw it), Dr. Ware was told of some of Dr. Bauder’s criticisms of conservative evangelicalism. But it seemed that he had not read anything that Dr. Bauder wrote on the subject (I assume the interviewer was referring to the series “Now about Those Differences” or, perhaps, the Four Views book).

[Edited for clarity]

Watching an evangelical comment on fundamentalism is a little bit like watching a Yankees fan explain what he thinks the Red Sox need to do to win the Series this fall. :)

The most striking moment, for me, what Crabb’s assertion that fundamentalists are changing their views on worldliness. I think he’s right in his observation, though I’m saddened by that.

Matt

Bruce Ware comments that he is open to non-cessationism and holds to deep time. These are troubling positions for me. On the other hand, he has fought valiantly against the idea of open theism.