It pleased (jod, in the

mystel)' of His providence, to

raise up a doubly-gifted man, in
the person of (jreg L Bahnsen,
for the benefit of His people in
this generation. That same
mysterious providence also
purposed to call that servant
home at an early age. "The
Lord gives, and the Lord takes
away, blessed be the name of
the Lord." Robert E. Lee, a
man acquainted with such
mysteries, o!Jserved: "The truth
is this; The march of
Providence is so slow
and our desires so
impatient, the work of
progress is so
been my teacher, colleague and
friend. He has, at times, been
a pastor to me and at other
times I have been a pastor to
him. In this brief article,
however, I will focus on Dr.
Bahnsen as a man who made
disciples for Christ. He was
never happier than when he
was helping a student learn
more about qod's Word--how
to think more clearly and
biblically.
In patience, he took his
students wherever they were
high expectations pushed us to
levels we wpuld otherwise
have never reached. And
while few could ever match his
intellectual abilities, he
nevertheless enabled many of
us to discover abilities anti gifts
that would have remained
forever dormant.
Men of lesser character are
threatened by hard
questions--legitimate inquiJy
and debate are off limits.
While going through some of
my own theological struggles,
Dr. Bahnsen never
Dr. Ba hnsen/'"C, ,. ,C. ::;:rd
immense and our
means of aiding is ,so
feeble; the life of
humanity is so long,
that of the individual
so brief, that we often
. "'"Th "., '.,,'e'i,"'.','" .'
.. .. . . . . . ;;'.:.
. .;'
particular things I
tend to see only the ebb of the
advancing war and are
discouraged. It is histol)' that
teaches us to hope."
Any discussion of the
contribution of Dr. Bahnsen
must be set in the context of the
work and grace of (jod--Dr.
Bahnsen would have had it no
other way. While'we do not
exalt the man apart from
Christ, we do give thanks to
qod for the man as a servant of
Christ's kingdom. His impact
of the world has been both
positive and great, and we
expect to see his influence
expanded in the days ahead.
My relationship with qreg
has been multi-facete!!. He has
and led them to greater depths
and greater heights. He was
generous with praise when the
work was good but he never
settled for anything less than , '
the best efforts from his
students. He worked with
young and old, pastors and
laymen, men and
women--Ieading, pushing,
exhorting. His ministl)'
transcended denomination'll
lines as he freely labored with
any sincere believer. In fact, he
often found some of the
warmest receptions from those
outside his own denomination.
Dr. Bahnsen took many, like
myself, and taught us to be
more diligent and careful
students of (jod's Word. His
have learned from
Dr. Bahnsen. But the one
lesson I will be eternally
grateful to him for is this; he
taught me not to fear
faithfulness to (jod's Word.
Follow it wherever it
leads--even when it leads you
into unknown and frightening
territol)'--you will never be
soT!)' you did.
Such teaching came not only
by Dr. Bahnsen's words, but
also by his example. His
master's thesis, published as:
Theonomy in Christian
Ethics, much like Luther's
Ninety-Five Thesis, has
positively shaken the world.
No one was any more
surprised by this storm than Dr,
Bahnsen. More than 20 years
Jannary! February, 1996 THE COUNSEL of Cbalcedon IS
after the writing of this'book it
stands as a monument of
faithfulness to God's law. A
obad stigma may tty to beat a
good dogma, but in the end
God's truth shall triumph.
Theonomists and covert
theonomistsare
everywhere--even the
opponents of theonomy have
adopted many of its positions.
In spite of many unjust and
ignorant attacks, threats and
slanders, Dr. Bahnsen did not
return such insults nor
did he retreat from
holding fast the faithful
Word. LikeSpurgeon
in the Down-Grade
Controversy, Bahnsen
never retreated-when
biblical principle was at
stake. I think
Spurgeon's observation
is applicable to Dr.
Bahnsen:
We must never hide our '
colors. h e r ~ are times wh'en .
we must dash to the front ana'
court'the encounter, whenwe
see out Captain's honor .
demands it. Let us n e v ~ r either
be ashamed or afraid ...
Everybody admires a Luther!
Yes, yes; but ypu do not want
any one else to do the same
today. ' When you go to the
zoological Gardens you all
admire the bear; but how
would you like the bear at
home, or a bear wandering
loose about the streeH ...
So, we admire a man who
Was firm in the faith, say four
. hundred years agOt the past
ages are a sort of bear-pit or iron
cage for him; but such a rnan
today is a nuisance, and must
be put down. Call him a '
narrow-minded bigot, or give
him a worse name if you can
think of one. Yet imagine that
in those ages past, Luther,
Zwingle, Calvin, and their
compeers had said, 'The world
is out of order; but if We try to
set it right we shall only make
a great row, and get ourselves
into disgrace. Let us go to our
chambers, put on our
night-caps, and sleep over the
bad times, and when we wake
up things will have grown
better."
I admire such bears as Dr.
Bahnsen. He also trained his
cubs to follow in such
faithfulness. There is now
special meaning to the. words of
our Lord that, "whosoever shall
do and teach [even the least
commandments], he shall be
called great in the kingdom of
heaven" (Matt. 5:19).
Dr. Bahnsen's teaching
ministry has stretched to the
four comers of the earth by
way of conferences, books,
articles, debates, and thousands
and thousands of audio and
video tapes. Covenant Tape
16 t THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 'I January/ February, 1996
MinistrY has grown in twelve
years from Dr. Bahnsen's
parents beginning in their
home. making a few copies of
tapes on the weekend to the
place where two full-time men
send close to 2,000 tapes per
month all over the world.
People from the Vnited States,
Canada, JapaJi, South Africa,
Greece, Scotland, England, .
Russia, Poland, Austria,
Switzerland, and many other
countries have. benefited from
the lectures and
sermons of Dr.
Bahnsen.
As King David
said of Abner's
death, we, can now
Say of Dr. Bahrisen's,
"Do you not know
that aprince and a
great man has fallen
this day in Israel!" (2
Sam. 3:38). A question' have
heard asked many times since
Dr. Bahnsen's death is, 'Who is
going to fill his shoesl" The
ansWer is simple: all those
who have been discipled by
him will fill his shoes. Who
filled our Lord's shoes! His
disciples. Who. filled the
apostle's shoes! Their disciples.
No one p,etson, but.all of us
together, applying what we
have learned carry forth Dr.
Bahnsen's legacy; much like he
and others have carried on Dr.
Van Til's legacy. God has
given Dr. Bahnsen a much
needed rest. Now we must
take the baton for the next lap.
We are not completely
without Dr. Bahnsen. He has
left us a mountain of material
to work with. I trust that
others will assist the Covenant
Media Foundation in
preserving and expanding Dr.
Bahnsen's works and influence,
realizing that the ideas he
articulated so well must be
passed on to the next
generation. As the apostle
Paul prepared to leave this
world there was no talk of
quitting when he gave his
parting instructions to his
spiritual son, Timothy. I
believe his words are very
appropriate for us now: "And
the things which you have
heard from me in the presence
of many witnesses, these
entrust to faithful men, who
will be able to teach others
also" (2 Tim. 2:2).
The reality of Dr. Bahnsen's
departure has barely begun to
sink in. Nevertheless, the
faithfulness of our qod and
Savior, who promised never to
leave us or forsake us, who
comforts us and gives us a
peace that passes
understanding, sustains us in
the darkest moments. This is
the faith that Dr. Bahnsen
defended. It is not only a
reasonable faith, it is a living
faith that provides the certainty
and assurance of help in the
time of need. The unbeliever
not only cannot make sense of
logic, science and ethics (using
his worldviewL neither can he
make sense of personal crises,
tragedies or joys. These are
only bumps in the void which
lead to nowhere.
We will certainly miss our
friend and teacher. May we
continue, as he did, to faithfully
disciple men to the glory of
qod. We will meet you in the
morning.
*******
Robert R. [Randy] Booth is a
pastor of qrace Covenant
Church in Texarkana, AR, the
program coordinator for the
Southern California Center for
Christian Studies, manager of
Covenant Tape Ministry and
the new director of the
Covenant Media Foundation:
434 qreenwood Ave" Nash,
TX 75569,1-800/553-3938.
lStZ
PUBLISHING
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January! February, 1996 ~ TilE COUNSEL of Chalcedon t 17