The forced retirement of OT professor Doug Green at Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) should not require months and months of agonizing. I was reminded about this while reading the endless series of articles on arcane matters of hermeneutics at the Green Baggins site. See, for example, the seven consecutive articles starting with this one and going backwards in time. Though disguised under academic-sounding titles, it is obvious that the meta-narrative is to show why Green & Enns can’t teach at WTS. But if it comes down to such subtle and nuanced positioning, we are in trouble.

The reason Green & Enns are unacceptable as teachers at a confessional school can be stated very simply: on their hermeneutic, you could never deduce the Confession their school gathers around.  There it is, in one sentence.

I made this point six years ago in connection with the Enns affair. The point still holds.

It is not enough to “affirm the Confession.” If it turned out that someone wholeheartedly affirmed the Confession because one day fairies whispered in his ear that it was true, that would be worse than denying the Confession honestly.

We need people that affirm the Confession just because it is taught by the Word of God. And this cannot be done from the hermeneutic taught by Enns and Green.