LTS Conference 6 Hywel Jones

Former LTS Principal Hywel Jones gave the closing paper. He began with the phrase "ministry to the whole person" and spoke of the two parts of that phrase.

1. Ministry has had a long history (The cure of souls, being physicians of souls) from Chrysostom and Gregory through Bucer and Van Maastricht to today. It is important to keep theology central in ministry not psychology, etc.

2. As for the whole person there has been an increased emphasis on the oneness of the human person. Dr Jones noted the impact of science here and then noted several influential books including J A T Robinson The body and Berkouwer Man the image of God which attempts to re-focus on man as the image of God in concrete terms. Also Anthony Hoekema Created in God's Image who helpfully prefers to speak of "sides" rather than dichotomies or trichotomies in man. In his Systematic Theology Robert Reymond says Berkouwer is talking nonsense and reverts to more traditional terms.

There is the possibility that the contrast between parts and the whole person is being exaggerated. In the end it is man in the presence of God that needs to be considered. He went on to argue, following Gordon Wenham,  for a difference between being in the image and like the image. This is like P E Hughes (1989) who said that man and the divine image are not identical. John Murray and Sinclair Ferguson are similar. Murray says man is a body not that he has a body.

All this is relevant because if we over-emphasise the parts over the whole person in a wrong way it will make a difference as will the opposite error. We must preach that in Christ the image of God is seen perfectly and that every man who is in Christ is being restored to the image.

In conclusion he suggested an alternative approach, that advocated in 2 Corinthians 4:16, preaching to the conscience. This was a welcome emphasis as the conscience is a subject we had pretty much avoided throughout the conference. There was a lot more but if you weren't one of the fifty or sixty at this conference then you need to get hold of the recording from the John Owen Centre.