Conclusion of the Dr. Wayne Grudem interview

After 9 installments, Adrian Warnock has finally reached the end of his interview of Dr. Wayne Grudem. Adrian also includes his own personal reflections and highlights of each part of the interview.

I think the posts of this interview have been very interesting and thought-provoking (this interview certainly sparked the greatest number of comments, to date, that I have had on this blog). If you've been following along, I hope you have enjoyed it, as I have.

As I stated in an earlier post, I have great respect for Dr. Grudem. I had the privilege of sitting under his teaching over 14 years ago, during the brief time I was a student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. The impression I had then was of a sincerely humble and godly man, with a very high view of God's word, combined with a deep reverence and love for God Himself. I remember Dr. Grudem's classes as being part lecture and part worship. I think you can see the same practice in his Systematic Theology, where each chapter ends with questions for personal reflection, a Scripture memory passage and a hymn. My impression as a student was that, in Dr. Grudem's classes, theology should lead to doxology or worship.

If I might stray off topic a bit, I want to mention another reason I appreciate Dr. Grudem. When I was in seminary, I heard that Dr. Grudem's was open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I will tell you, I have never been a cessationist; to me, that view always seemed to go against common sense, as well as Scripture. I mean, if God is God, He can do anything He wants to do! Partly due to my cultural/religious background, and partly based on certain spiritual experiences during the first few years of my Christian life, I was convinced of the present ministry of the Holy Spirit. At the time that I was in seminary, the fact that Dr. Grudem was open to the gifts of the Spirit was reason enough to pay attention to the man! I think my views have matured and moderated a bit since those days, but I still hold in high regard theologians who haven't become so "educated" that they have rationalized away the present work and ministry and gifting of the Holy Spirit (that, by the way, is just one reason I have an equally high regard for Dr. John Piper). I fully understand where cessationists are coming from. Several years ago, out of sheer frustration with the utter lack of biblical discernment (and lack of good sense!) that I encountered with some "neo-pentecostals" in my former denomination, I was sorely tempted to join the cessationist camp, but I couldn't let the ignorance of a few cause me to deny clear Bible teaching (e.g., 1 Corinthians 14:1; Luke 11:13).

Back to the topic: If you missed the previous parts of Adrian's interview of Dr. Grudem, here are Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.