Essential Evangelicalism by Matthew Hall

Author:Matthew Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crossway

THE HOPE OF GLORY: HENRY’S THEOLOGICAL MOTIVE

Some may question the assertion that Carl Henry was a hopeful man. After all, many of his later writings sound alarms about the death of Western civilization facilitated by the decline of Christian commitment and church vitality.8 He also makes critical statements about modern theology in God, Revelation, and Authority and, in his autobiography and other writings, about evangelicalism.

His sober statements actually help make the point. Henry saw very clearly what could lie ahead, but he did not see darkness as inevitable. Therefore, he worked on (and on), believing God in his mercy could remake secular and secularized modern and postmodern minds into Christian minds. He warned and worked in love, always fueled by a confident assurance of his own salvation by God’s grace alone and the certainty that history will culminate in Christ’s victory over Satan, sin, and death. I once asked him about the most important thing to teach seminarians. He responded, “Never let them forget the glory of a soul saved.”

Henry certainly never forgot the glory of his soul saved. As his autobiography recounts, he grew up on Long Island.9 His parents had an uneven marriage and eventually separated. His father was a hard worker but also a regular drinker with a violent streak. The Henry children attended Sunday school at the local Episcopal church, but Henry was not a believer in Christ. Coming of age during the Great Depression, he earned money in high school by becoming a newspaper reporter.

After high school he advanced in the newspaper business, becoming an editor by 1933. Henry learned to love words. As he recalled, “Writing had now become, as it were, not only my bread and butter, but my very being.”10 This love of words never faded, which provides key background information for some of his theological positions, especially those on the authority and inspiration of the Bible. His passion for journalism never diminished either, which helps explain some of his later career decisions and his writing style.11 But at age twenty he had not yet come to love Jesus, and his general unfamiliarity with God’s words at this time allowed him to experience firsthand many truths he expressed later in detailed theological studies.

For instance, during the summer of 1933 Henry professed faith in Jesus through the efforts of a godly woman and a young man affiliated with the Oxford Group, which stressed the trustworthiness of the Bible, evangelism, and seeking God’s guidance in Christian living.12 Henry knew very little about the Christian life. Basically, everything about Christianity came to him as an unfolding revelation for some time. By 1935 Henry decided to go to Wheaton College. But just before time to depart for Illinois, he came down with acute appendicitis. Doctors recommended surgery, but the procedure would delay his entry into college. He prayed for guidance, and to the doctor’s surprise Henry got better immediately. Henry thereafter believed that God had healed him and sent him to Wheaton on schedule.13

It is interesting

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