Leighton Flowers offers a Baptist and Provisionist perspective on C.S. Lewis.
S5E35: “Baptist Lewis” – After Hours with Dr. Leighton Flowers (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Quote-of-the-week
“The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book II, Chapter 3)
Biographical Information
Dr. Leighton Flowers earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Theology from Hardin-Simmons University He received a Masters of Divinity with Biblical Languages from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary And completed his Doctorate at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Leighton served as a pastor in the local church for over 10 years. He is the host of the Soteriology 101 podcast.
He served as the Director of Youth Evangelism for Texas Baptists for 13 years and, in 2018, was named the Director of Evangelism and Apologetics. Leighton regularly travels to churches of all sizes to conduct seminars that specialize in evangelism and apologetics.
Together with his wife Laura, they have four children and live just outside of Dallas where he also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Theology for Trinity Seminary.
Biographical Information of Leighton Flowers
Chit-Chat
I had been trying to understand Calvinist theology, so I had been listening to Dr. James White on The Dividing Line and I noticed that he mentioned you rather a lot! Later I discovered Braxton Hunter and became an avid listener to Trinity Radio and heard you mentioned there too, but in a rather more favourable light! When we decided to do an Ecumenism Month on Pints With Jack, I wanted to make sure we had Calvinism represented. Douglas Wilson, who records the Sweater-Vest Dialogues with Dr. White, had just brought out a book on Lewis, so he was an obvious choice. He was actually one of the first interviews I recorded this season, long before Ecumenism Month, but as I started to record more of these episodes, I thought it might be good to have a counterpoint from a non-Calvinist who also loves Lewis and after listening to some of your Soteriology 101 podcast, you seemed like the obvious choice, representing another denomination, being a Baptist, and also a former Calvinist.
Beverage and Toast
- Lagunitas Daytime
- Toasted Patreon supporter, Vince Obsitnik.
Discussion
1. “Background”
- Could you please tell us a little bit more about yourself and a little bit about your faith journey?
2. “Encountering Lewis”
- When did you first encounter C.S. Lewis and what role has he played in your spiritual life?
- Do you have a favourite among Lewis’ works?
3. “Baptists”
- I didn’t have any personal interactions with any baptists until my mid-twenties. So, for other people who have similarly been living under a rock, would you mind giving us a quick overview of the Baptist denomination and some distinctives when it comes to Christian belief and practice?
- I’ve noticed that Lewis tends to be more popular among certain denominations. For example, I keep coming across Presbyterians who absolutely love him. How would you say he fares among Baptists?
4. “Compatible Theology?”
- What areas of Jack’s theology would you say align well with Baptist theology?
5. “Infant Baptism”
What about difficulties? Are there parts of Lewis’ thought which don’t gel so well with Baptist theology?
6. “The Lord’s Supper”
Lewis speaks about the Lord’s Supper as a means of receiving the divine life. What’s the Baptist understanding of it?
7. “Teeltotalism”
Lewis enjoyed a drink. Why is common for Baptists to abstain entirely?
8. “Lewis’ TULIPs”
- As we’re nearing the end of our time together, I wanted to turn to your work with Soteriology 101, where you respond to the claims of Calvinism. I asked Douglas Wilson the same question I’m going to ask you now: was C.S. Lewis a Calvinist?
- Total Depravity
- Unconditional Election
- Limited Atonement
- Irresistible Grace
- Perseverance of the Saints
Any consideration of the goodness of God at once threatens us with the following dilemma.
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (Chapter 3)
On the one hand, if God is wiser than we His judgement must differ from ours on many things, and not least on good and evil. What seems to us good may therefore not be good in His eyes, and what seems to us evil may not be evil.
On the other hand, if God’s moral judgement differs from ours so that our “black” may be His “white”, we can mean nothing by calling Him good; for to say “God is good,” while asserting that His goodness is wholly other than ours, is really only to say “God is we know not what”. And an utterly unknown quality in God cannot give us moral grounds for loving or obeying Him. If He is not (in our sense) “good” we shall obey, if at all, only through fear — and should be equally ready to obey an omnipotent Fiend. The doctrine of Total Depravity — when the consequence is drawn that, since we are totally depraved, our idea of good is worth simply nothing — may thus turn Christianity into a form of devil-worship.
9. “It’s a mystery?”
- In The Great Divorce, our protagonist’s spiritual guide says: “Ye cannot fully understand the relations of choice and Time till you are beyond both.” What do you make of that? Are we unable to grasp the intricacies of the debates around Calvinism because we are mortal creatures in time?
10. “Always Saved?”
- Could you integrate Susan’s apostasy into the Baptist theological framework?
More Information
The day after David interviewed Dr. Flowers, he posted the following video in response to Pastor Wilson’s presentation at a Desiring God conference:
