Interview with Dr. Daniel Akin

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Well, this morning I'm going to be talking to Dr. Danny Akin, and it's a pleasure today to have you,
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Dr. Akin, here in the study for our first interview on Bethlehem Bible Church's online. Thank you for taking the time for the interview.
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Well, I'm honored to do it, Mike. It was a great conference this morning, speaking about marriage and the family, and we'll get those things up online very soon.
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Well, I had a great time with your people. Just a quick story on how I met Dr. Akin. I was at Southern Seminary for a
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DMIN cohort, and he walked in, I believe it was the first day we were talking about pastoral integrity.
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I don't know if you remember the actual setting, but the topic of pastoral integrity. We had to shut off all the tape recorders, close the doors, and then you talked to us about being men of God.
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Do you remember that? Yes, and it's been a passion of mine, because over the recent history of evangelicalism, we've seen a real deterioration in this area.
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Too many of our men are developing a mindset or a spirit of entitlement, and they're compromising in little areas that eventually leads to compromise in big areas, and the church is so damaged when someone in a leadership position falls due to moral failure.
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And so I remind myself, Mike, that that's something, again and again, we need to be bringing ourselves back to and keeping before our mind's eye, because we too are vulnerable if we're not careful.
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Well, it's difficult to be a man of integrity in the pulpit, and then somehow just live a lifestyle that's wild outside the pulpit.
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In other words... You can't do it forever. You might fake it for a while, but God won't allow it.
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God eventually will bring judgment, and He'll also expose you, and rightly so. That's right. I think about fidelity to the
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Word and exposition, and just dealing with the text and trying to find out what does God intend for us to know, so I can proclaim it to the people, but the whole time living a life that's hypocritical.
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It's difficult. Dr. Aiken, I love you because you're an expositor. Well, I love expository preaching.
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I don't think there's any other way. That's right, and when I first walked in, I didn't know what to think of. I was a Master's Seminary graduate, and didn't know this whole
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Southern Seminary deal back in Louisville when we met. Of course, now you're the president of Southeastern, but meeting you at Southern, I was just wondering and leery, and I didn't know who
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Lottie Moon was. I had no idea of the Southern Baptist culture or heritage, and you came in the first day and were talking about men that you respected, and what expository preaching was, and Dr.
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John MacArthur. As I listened to you, and then you shared with us your notes, I began to think, he believes in expository preaching just like I do, just like we do, and from there off,
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I thought, I love Dr. Danny Aiken because he wants to give God's intention of the text, and he wants to proclaim that to the people.
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Is that how you'd explain expository preaching, or describe it, at least that's a component of it? Well, I would, in the simplest term, would say expository preaching is text -driven preaching, where you are indeed honoring the authorial intent of the text, and I remind my students today,
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Mike, that ultimately, the author of the text is the Holy Spirit, and therefore, if you don't honor the intent of the text, you're basically dissing the
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Holy Spirit, and you're, in essence, saying, you know, this could have been put together better than the way you did it.
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This could have been expounded better than the way that you have given it, and I'm just not going to do that.
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I find, in one sense, it's arrogant to do that, and another sense, it would be utterly foolish to do that, and so, because the author of Scripture is the
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Spirit, both in terms of substance and structure, I want to honor what he has deposited, and you know, we both know there are a lot of men out there today that would call themselves expositors, but unless you're using a really strange definition, they're not expositors.
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They're not explaining the text in its context, honoring the grammar, honoring the syntax, honoring again the authorially intended meaning given by the
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Spirit of God through a human author, and so, I'm still as adamantly committed to that as ever.
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I believe it's the only way that we will grow long -term healthy, viable New Testament churches.
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Amen. I couldn't have said it better. Dr. Aiken, I have to ask you, what was it like at Southern Seminary when everything was happening?
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I have that video, Battle for the Minds, by Stephen Lipscomb, I believe. This is named the PBS Screwtape Letters kind of video.
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I remember Dr. York showed it to us in the very beginning of the video. You see Southern Seminary's campus from a helicopter and REM, the pop band, singing
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Losing My Religion. What was it like in those days? Well, actually, in my life, I was at two different institutions on the turn of the school from liberal to conservative.
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I was at Southeastern from 92 to 96, then came to Southern in 96, and at both instances, a large majority of the more liberal professors were on their way out, so I could see the turn coming.
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But it was very volatile. It was very tense. There was a lot of confusion on the campus.
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You had to be careful in terms of your back, but at the same time, it motivated us to walk as circumspectly and above reproach as we possibly could.
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We should be doing that anyway, but it was even a greater motivation to do so. But it was interesting.
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Some of the professors, I loved them. I tried to be their friend to the best of my ability.
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But when you're sitting down and talking to men that do not believe in absolute truth, that question the veracity of the virgin birth, put a question mark by the resurrection, you are concerned about their conversion, their regeneration.
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And then you're concerned about what kind of influence and impact they have on students who are very vulnerable, very malleable, very impressionable.
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And so it was an interesting time. I can still remember when the turn took place at both institutions.
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And that turn was when we had a majority of conservative faculty so that you knew any issue the president brought to the table would be affirmed because a majority of the professors now that were on the faculty affirmed the
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Baptist faith and message, the abstracted principles. They were committed to the full truthfulness of Scripture.
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And at that point, you saw even a more rapid exodus of the remaining professors who simply did not want to be a part of that.
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It's interesting. At neither institution did we have to fire anyone. We were on the verge of doing that.
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But without any firings, these persons just moved on and went to either retirement or institutions where their particular approach to theology and ministry was more suited to their liberal theology.
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Well, it's just amazing to me that the Lord would take places that were on the decline or the downgrade, as Spurgeon would call it, and then resurrect them to proclaim the gospel.
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It's an act of His sovereign grace. We could have never planned it or orchestrated it. It has to be the gracious hand of God.
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I pulled up on the internet an article, Once There Was a Camelot, Women Doctrinal Graduates of the
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Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1982 -92. Some of the quotes, you know, no masculine pronouns for God, profanity, lesbian lifestyles.
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An acknowledgment that a number of them were practicing lesbians while they were students at the seminary, as well as an acknowledgment that some of the professors that used to be there hit on some of them.
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And you're thinking, my goodness, now I want to be fair. There were men there that did not have our concerted theology, but they were morally upright men.
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They were not pedophiles. They were not adulterers. I suspect that that was the exception rather than the rule.
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But again, such a quagmire of theological and moral sadness, error, it grieves one to think that there was a seminary like that, that had been founded by a group of men that were absolutely committed to reformational theology, committed to world evangelism, committed to faithful gospel proclamation.
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How did it happen? Well, it's happened, as you and I know, across America at virtually every divinity school, every seminary, and that Southern, Southeastern, and several other
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Southern Baptist seminaries turned around is actually unprecedented in our history.
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And again, if you say, how did it happen, well, God raised up some wonderful men to facilitate it, but it was, again, we weren't that smart.
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We're not that creative. If God had not orchestrated it, it would not have occurred. Amen. Well, tell me a little bit about Southeastern.
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Certainly, it was not in the shape that Southern was in when you first got there, and then now going to be the president of Southeastern, following Paige Patterson.
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What kind of personal emphasis are you putting on the seminary, or how are you influencing it? It must follow you to some degree.
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So tell me a little bit about the school. I don't know much. And then, kind of, how are you putting your expository preaching mark on it, if you will?
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Well, Southeastern is one of the six Southern Baptist seminaries, and it has experienced remarkable growth along the same lines as Southern.
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When I went there in 1992, there were about 580 students. Today, there are more than 2 ,600.
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So it's experienced a tremendous amount of growth. In terms of its orientation, it is probably more like Southern than any of our other seminaries, though there is a difference.
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Southern is very much a part of what is known as the Charleston tradition. Southeastern is very much a part of what is known as the
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Sandy Creek tradition. Both of them were thoroughly rooted in a Reformed Reformational theology.
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But Charleston tended to be a bit more high church, with a Presbyterian influence. Sandy Creek tended to be more revivalistic.
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And that's carried over so that the spirit of the campus is a bit more revivalistic, a bit more heart -oriented.
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Yet, at the same time, the two schools are very strong, both of them, in terms of their theology, in terms of their missions and evangelism.
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I would remind folks, Southern Seminary has the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth. It would be one of the 15 largest seminaries in America, standing on its own.
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And so there is a sense in which there's a difference in emphasis, but not a difference in terms of real content, mission, and passion.
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And so I was equally at home at both. I am equally at home at both.
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I love my eight years at Southern. I've loved my time at Southeastern. I guess maybe if I were giving a commercial,
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I would say, I have two sons that are students at Southern, I have two sons that are students at Southeastern. I'm happy for all four.
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I don't need to say anything more than that. But we do have, though, a strong emphasis on expository preaching.
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We also, Mike, are very missions -oriented. We have a major, major component of our school that is committed to getting the gospel to the nations.
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So I often say this, Southern does missions well, but they do theology really well.
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We do theology well, but we do missions really well.
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And so it's simply a difference of emphasis, not a difference in, like, well, this school is completely oriented in this way, the other school is completely oriented in a different way.
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No. Dr. Mullen and I many times talk about the fact that of the six seminaries, the two of us are the most akin as sister institutions.
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And we have a great relationship with the faculty and friends at Southern to this day.
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And in fact, last week, I had Russell Moore in chapel. We've had Al down. He's had me up. So there's a regular interchange that still continues between the two institutions.
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Great. Well, I have Russell Moore's signature on my diploma. And I like that. He's a great guy. But I would have probably rather had yours.
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Well, you're sweet. I know you personally. You're sweet. Tell me about your relationship with Al, Dr. Muller. How did you meet him and how did that relationship forge itself during the difficult times?
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Well, he's one of my very best friends. And actually, many people thought he was bringing one of his best friends to be his dean.
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That's not true. He and I had only had maybe two conversations in our entire life. So that when he called
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Paige Patterson to ask for permission to talk with me, I was surprised.
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And in fact, initially said to Dr. Patterson, well, that's easy. Tell him no. I'm happy here.
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I don't have any interest in going anywhere else. Dr. Patterson, who really does have a kingdom perspective, said, well,
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I need to say a couple of things. One, I don't want you to leave Southeastern, but two, Al is going through a tough time.
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That is the mother seminary. It needs to be righted. And if it's in God's plan for you to go there,
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I'm not going to get in the way of that. And so I did go up and meet with him. To my surprise and his, our hearts were instantly knitted.
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And I knew within a few days this was what God was going to direct.
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So I went there, served there for eight years, eight wonderful years. I do consider he and Charlotte and I, my wife, would consider he and Mary to be two of our very best friends in all the world.
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We love each other. We miss each other enormously. Every time we're together, we just about weep because we're reminded of the sweet eight years we had and that we don't have that same proximity any longer.
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I would say, Mike, I think he's one of the greatest gifts to evangelicalism. He is the smartest person
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I've ever met. Now, there may be someone smarter than him. I just don't know them. He has an incredible mind.
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He has an incredible energy. He has an ability to analyze and process things.
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He's the most widely read person I've ever met, excluding the area of sports where he doesn't have an athletic bone in his body.
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But he is just an incredible gift to the church and tremendously shaped my life.
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In fact, to come back real quickly to a question you asked earlier, people have often said, well, it's southeastern now.
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What are you trying to do? And I've said, well, I'm trying to maintain the best that was there with Paige Patterson, which there was a lot.
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And I'm trying to bring the best from Southern Seminary, of which there's a lot. So if you were to say, so you're trying to kind of merge a
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Paige Patterson, Al Mohler kind of mindset or merge that into one stream, yeah, that's exactly what
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I've tried to do. And so far, I think the Lord has been very gracious to bless that.
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Well, great. I remember the day that you took us to not only your house downstairs, I believe, when you lived in Louisville and you were working on your
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First John Commentary, and you had about 40 First John Commentaries out. Yes. And so I was amazed to just see your library and walk around.
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And then the next day you took us to Dr. Mohler's presidential home and then downstairs to the library.
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And as much as I like your library... There's not a library on the planet like Al Mohler's library, and you have to see it to appreciate it.
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Even then, you can't hardly get your arms around it. It's so incredible. Well, you said to us, just say to Dr.
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Mohler, this particular book here in the title, what do you think about that book? And he would say, well, on page 483,
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Grudem said such and such. It's amazing. It really is. If he says he has read it, he has read it, and he can tell you what's in it.
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Wow. Let's talk just a little bit about the Southern Baptist Convention. Two things. Let's do the first one, the
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Founders Movement and Calvinism, and then get on to this charismatic issue that's happening at Southwestern.
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Okay. When I read the abstract principles, when I think of some of the men,
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Broadus and others, it seemed like they were, I hate to throw out the word reformed all the time or Calvinistic, but they were
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Calvinistic men. They were five -point Calvinists for the most part, weren't they? Yes. Broadus was probably a four -pointer, but Boyce, Manley, and Williams, the other three of the four founding professors at Southern were all clearly five -point
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Calvinists, thoroughly reformed in their theology. In fact, Boyce had gone to Princeton and studied there with the
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Princetonian theologians of that day. The abstract clearly, clearly articulates at least three of the five points of Calvinism.
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Some would even argue that a fourth point, that being effectual calling, if not clearly there is certainly strongly implied.
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I would agree with that. In fact, Al and I had both talked about the fact that it would be impossible for someone to sign the abstract that could not with enthusiasm affirm at least three, depravity, unconditional election, and perseverance with the issue of effectual calling being right there added.
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It doesn't address the extent of the atonement. That's why someone like myself, who is an
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Amaraldian, a four -pointer, could easily and delightfully sign the abstract and work wonderfully well with someone like Al Mohler, who was a five -pointer.
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It's interesting, Mike, in all the years I was there, we never once asked a prospective faculty member, are you a five -point
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Calvinist? We did ask them, do you affirm without any hesitation or reservation the abstract of the principles and the
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Baptist faith and message? It's a little bit looser than the abstract, hence some of our sister seminaries only to affirm the abstract,
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Southeastern and Southern. It would be the case that the others could be a little bit more loose, although even the
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Baptist faith and message is grounded in the New Hampshire Confession. It is a modified
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Calvinism or a modified Reformed document. So sometimes when people talk about Southern Baptists being all over the map, that wasn't really true in our beginnings.
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Was everyone a five -point Calvinist? No. But was everyone, for the most part, Reformed? Yes. Certainly God is sovereign in salvation.
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Absolutely. Absolutely. And all the Solas affirmed without any hesitation. There was no...
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General Baptist died out. They became Unitarians. Now it revived later in a different sort of a form, but really you don't find this type of stream in Southern Baptist life until after World War I with the rise of liberalism, with the fact that unfortunately we bought into the idea that real scholars came from Europe.
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We sent a bunch of men over to Europe. They came back bringing the historical critical method as well as imbibing what would eventually after World War II be new orthodoxy.
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And then later comes along the strand of the early stages of post -modernism and anyone that thinks it only reared its ugly head in the 90s or today is badly mistaken.
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The roots... Francis Schaeffer saw it coming back in the 60s. Well, it's man -centered. It starts with a man -centered gospel and theology as opposed to a
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God -centered... And by the way, Emil Brunner said that the right starting point for doing theology was man. Well, if you start with man, you're going to end up differently than you will if you start with God.
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And so Southern Baptists right now are trying to kind of find their way in all of this. And we're having some healthy conversations, but we're also having some rather unhealthy rhetoric that's being bantered about.
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I'm doing my best along with people like Dr. Mohler to bring some reason, some sanity, some grace, and some good, hard theological thinking to the issue.
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And I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful. But, you know, we have been so steeped in a kind of watered -down theology in our churches for a long time,
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Southern Baptist churches are struggling in this area right now. And to be fair, some men don't understand what's going on.
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Some men understand that they're going into churches with the wrong spirit. And they feel like if they go into a church that is semi -Pelagian, that they are obligated to fix it in three months.
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Well, pastorally speaking, you and I both know that would be a very foolish thing to do. They didn't get there in three months.
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You're not going to get them where they need to be in three months either. Therefore, you've got to be committed to the long haul. And as John MacArthur said to me on a number of occasions, you've got to have people going to those situations who love the people in that church.
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And they love them enough to be patient with them. And that's what you have to do. Well, it goes right along with expository preaching.
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Absolutely. The next text, and the next text, and the next text. It was a funny story. Somebody left the church some time ago for good reasons, and I ran into them.
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And they said, well, I just want you to know, Mike, I never believed in election. You preached election, but I never believed it.
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And I said, that's okay. I love you, and we're brothers and sisters in Christ, and I miss you. And I said,
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I just have one question. When Paul said in Ephesians chapter 1 that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we might be holy and blameless, what would
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Paul mean when he said that? And then she just smiled. Well, I've had some friends that have said,
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I don't believe in predestination or election, to which I quickly respond, do you realize that what you're saying is you don't believe the
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Bible? Those things are in there. Now, we have to then discern what they mean, but please don't make such a shallow, superficial, nonsensical, inappropriate statement that you don't believe those things because I believe them.
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Now, I've got to then work through what they mean, but goodness, do not say you don't believe things that are clearly taught and affirmed by the very words themselves in Scripture.
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That's right. Well, I see two different sides. One side is you have people who just become reformed in their thinking, 4 .5
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point, and they want to immaturely ram it down everybody's throats. That becomes their new gospel and their new motive for evangelism.
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And they don't believe actually what they, they don't act like what they believe. No. That is to say, if God has sovereignly revealed this truth to their minds through the
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Spirit's illumination, then it must be through the same method to these other people, not man -centered method.
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Absolutely. And then on the flip side, I see people who would say a 5 point Calvinist is a hyper -Calvinist.
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No. And they wouldn't say, well, he doesn't pray, he doesn't evangelize, and he sees no love of God for the non -elect, and just going back and forth.
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Well, one of the blessings for us who are Baptists is the wonderful example of Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon was the greatest preacher probably of the 19th century.
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He filled the Metropolitan Tabernacle week after week. His sermons were sent out the next day all over the world.
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He was a 5 point Calvinist who was a fervent, fervent personal evangelist.
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And so there's your model. And you can hold the two, both God's sovereignty and human responsibility in a healthy tension that ultimately is resolved in the mysterious ways and mind of God.
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I know my responsibility is to preach a faithful gospel knowing that he has promised to bless the preaching of his word and that I therefore, and I don't know the elect.
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So my responsibility is not to call out or to pick out or to identify the elect. That's God's business.
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My responsibility is to be faithful, to share the gospel, and see that it's extended to the ends of the earth, and that a sovereign
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God will bless those efforts. Well, that's why we're having you here at the church this week. Well, thank you. And I'm delighted to be here, too.
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All right. Just as we wrap up, just a couple more things. I have in front of me the Crosswalk published article,
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Seminary President Defends Ban on Charismatic Practices, Agape Press. And it's the whole
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McKissick Cornerstone Baptist issue, newly appointed trustee at the seminary at Southwestern.
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I remember Professor back at Master's, Dr. Thomas, who happens to be a four -pointer as well, and a man who
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I really respect. Really? I did not know that. His commentary, two -volume on Revelation is phenomenal.
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It's superb, isn't it? And so Dr. Thomas said that if you let charismatic influences in at the leadership of a local church, pretty much turn out the lights.
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That is to say, allow charismatics to come to the church. Certainly not everyone has to arrive at the church theologically set, but when you open up the subjective door at leadership level,
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God speaks somehow outside of his objective, written, black -and -white word, that it will creep in to the very depths of the church and ultimately unravel it.
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I wonder how similar that philosophy is at Southwestern, and in fact, is that why
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Page said something interesting to me. He said, we do believe in absolute religious liberty, but we also believe that if you're going to be a
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New York Yankee, you shouldn't wear a New York Mets uniform, right? And he said, certainly I'm not a charismatic, but we just believe
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God reveals himself in his word. It is closed canon. It is sufficient and it is authoritative thoughts.
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Well, Dr. Patterson was my father in ministry, and when it comes to the charismatic issues, he's been badly misrepresented in some ways on this.
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He, like me, is what we would call open but cautious.
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In other words, he's not a cessationist. When he's been accused of a cessationist view, that's not true. He simply believes that any manifestation or practice of the gifts has to follow the clear teachings of scripture.
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So if you take tongues, for example, it has to follow the teachings of First Corinthians 14. Two, no more than three, always with an interpreter, one at a time.
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Women don't do it. And he believes, as I do, that it will be a known language that one has previously not studied.
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He also believes that First Corinthians 14 is not talking at just two different verses about prayer tongues.
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But actually, Paul is being sarcastic and is saying when it says, well, I'll pray with the spirit, then the next verse says, no,
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I pray with the spirit in the mind. I find nothing in the Bible that would indicate there's ever time for us to put our mind in neutral or shut it down.
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We're to love God with our mind. If I'm praying in a tongue that I don't understand, then
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I'm not praying to God with my mind. That has been ruled out. Furthermore, the gifts clearly there's a constant theme through all of First Corinthians 12 and 14 that the purpose of gifts is to edify and build up the body.
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A private prayer tongue cannot accomplish that. Now they will say, well, it's for self edification.
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That is not the purpose of gifts. Gifts are not for the purpose of self edification. They are for the purpose of building up the body.
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Furthermore, if prayer tongues happens to be and I don't believe that it is, but happens to be legitimate, then there's the one gift that isn't for the benefit of the body.
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And I have a hard time believing that God said all these gifts are for the body. Oh, I'm sorry. One gift is just for you.
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That is so wrongheaded in terms of the clear teachings of Scripture. So I cannot agree with Dr. Thomas more at my school.
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Would I put someone in a leadership position that is an advocate of this? No, I wouldn't. Now, can we have students that are there?
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Yes, certainly. Could I potentially have a faculty member that thinks this is something they have, but it's not an agenda item.
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They don't push it. They don't press it. They don't advocate it. They don't evangelize it. I probably could.
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But the reason would be I would never ask them and I'd never know about it. My good friend Al Mohler, when interviewed by The New York Times, was asked, how do you feel about this private prayer language?
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He said, I don't know what you're talking about. And they said, you haven't heard about this controversy. He said,
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I've heard about the controversy, but if it's private, why would I know anything about it? Private means private.
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Nobody knows about it. And The New York Times author said, you know, that is a good point. He said, I think it's a decisive point.
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And it is for me, too. Excellent. I was looking at your resume, Dr. Aiken, and it talked about your
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Ph .D. dissertation. And I had to reread it because I thought I need to know more about that.
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Bernardo Clairvaux. Yes, his view of soteriology. What is his view of soteriology? He's an evangelical.
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My major professor was a Roman Catholic Cistercian priest. I got interested in Bernardo at Arlington, got interested and found out that he is quoted in Calvin, second only to Augustine.
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He is quoted in Luther. He is quoted in John Gill. He is quoted in John Owen.
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He is quoted in Charles Spurgeon. So I then went back. And is he an evangelical in the same ilk that you and I know?
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But was he a theologian preacher who is committed to grace, committed to that salvation was by grace through faith alone, who believed in a substitutionary atonement, though he also, unfortunately, still bought a little bit into the ransom to Satan theory that was dying out at that time.
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But was he a theologian of grace who did not have a view of the sacraments that you find in Roman Catholicism today?
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Yes, he was not there. And so even my major Catholic professor said, I would concur that Father Bernard was most certainly an evangelical, very much akin to the theology that you espouse.
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Well, I find that interesting and helpful because, Oh, Sacred Head and I Wounded, that song was attributed to him.
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And Jesus, the very thought of thee. Jesus saw joy of loving hearts. Luther called him the best monk that ever lived, whom
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I admire beyond all the rest put together. So you got to at least sing those telling you.
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I am the disclaimer and just don't buy into his hermeneutic because he wrote almost 90 sermons on the
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Song of Solomon and only got through Chapter two. Wow. And he certainly saw it as a love relationship.
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They're beautiful. They're magnificent. They tell you a lot about his theology. But he saw them as a allegory of Christ and the believer and develops it at some length.
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I wish he hadn't died. I've been interested to see what he did with all eight chapters. But though I might not commit his hermeneutic, for the most part, it's theology one could warmly embrace.
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Well, speaking of the Song of Solomon, I have to ask you, although our time is up, your book, God on Sex, what prompted you to write that?
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There's just not that much written these days. Well, I had been studying and teaching off and on the
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Song of Solomon for almost 15 years. Went through it myself three different times in three different churches and just decided, you know,
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I do a lot of stuff on marriage and family. Well, this is kind of God's manual. And I understand there are different ways it can be approached in terms of interpretation.
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But I still think at the heart of it, God is telling us here is my design for marriage and the way a man and a woman ought to relate.
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And my title is a bit misleading because when I say God on Sex, you say, well, Song of Solomon is all about sex.
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No, it's not. Sex is there. But you find out from the Song of Solomon that what you do outside the bedroom is crucial to what takes place inside the bedroom.
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And I just became fascinated with the arguments that are there and the wisdom for building healthy marriages is just there.
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And so I went through it several times, got motivated then to put a book together.
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And it was a lot of fun to both preach through it and to write the book. Good. Are you writing any books now? Well, interestingly, come
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April, I will be the editor of a 1200 page theology entitled
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The Theology for the Church. The difference is that it has multiple contributors, but it all felt sort of like what happened in Carson, Moo and Morris's New Testament intro.
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Right. Every chapter follows the same pattern. What does the Bible say? What does the church always believe?
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How does it fit together? What is its contemporary relevance? Contributors include
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Al Mohler, Russ Moore, Mark Dever, myself, Paige Patterson, Timothy George, Ken Keithley, Greg Thornberry, Peter Shim and David Nelson, really wonderful Baptist thinkers.
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And I'm real pleased with it and in the editing process right now. And so that will come out.
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It's entitled Theology for the Church. And we do believe that theology is not for the academy primarily.
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It is for the church. It'll be written that way and it'll be taught in that context. And hopefully
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God might use this to accomplish that. Great. Well, thank you, Dr. Rankin, for coming today, for setting in on this interview.
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We have to part now and go take our wives over to Elizabeth Louise May Alcott's house, a little women's house, and that'll be good.
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Next time, maybe we'll take you up to the George Whitfield sites for the Reformation Relics. Well, today, we'll honor the heart of our wives as we ought to.