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The Doctrine of God (A Theology of Lordship)

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John Frame has delivered us a very big book addressing an infinitely bigger topic - the Doctrine of God. It is a book that is thorough in its coverage, clear in its language and thought, and organized in its presentation. All of this is important since Frame's methodology is unconventional to the point where some academic controversy has ensued - though most readers, I suspect, will not notice one way or the other. It is a heady read in spots, but is a book that is much needed and worthy of serious perusal.

Frame properly mentions early on that the Protestant Reformation did not really touch on the area of Theology Proper that much. The Reformation focused on other theological loci such as soteriology and ecclesiology, but left much of the medieval understanding of Theology Proper fairly intact. Therefore, Frame's book, along with some other books that have come out recently, really represent the first serious attempt to apply Semper Reformanda to the Doctrine of God, and it is an effort that is long overdue. Frame's considerable interaction with non-evangelical views of God in this book amplify the fact that evangelical Protestantism has, for way too long, failed to develop a distinctly Protestant understanding of God that sets a reliable standard against heterodoxy.

In this book, Frame emphasizes the concept of God as covenant Lord, and develops much of the book in accordance with this organizing principle. While Frame is careful to note that covenant Lordship is not the only legitimate way to organize a Theology Proper, it is nonetheless a compelling approach given its constant theme throughout Scripture. In fact, Frame convincingly argues that many heterodox attempts to develop a theology of God deliberately avoid this theme because of its obvious threat to the autonomizing of man that so many modern day theologies try to stress. In this vain, Frame's systematic critique of libertarian free-will and the notion of divine middle knowledge are extremely good. Frame's sustained focus on the Biblical names of God is quite refreshing in showing how His names are themselves a form of revelation that teach us more about Him. Frame's discussion of transcendence and immanence draws heavily from Van Til, but is a presentation that is most helpful, and most needed. Lastly, Frame's interaction with the gender-neutral and 'maleness of God' controversy is both very relevant and substantive. Frame takes a conservative view on this question, but the reader is comforted by the fact that Frame's presentation is respectfully Biblical in its emphasis, rather than reaking of the kind of hysteria that is typically employed by folks on all sides of this issue who tend to have axes to grind. Those looking for solid critiques of Barth, Moltmann, Pinnock, McFague and others will find much to chew on here.

Readers who are familiar with Frame's perspectivalism may find some of the early chapters to be a bit redundant, but these chapters are very helpful for those are just beginning to get exposed to Frame's approach. In addition, those who are well versed in many of Frame's other works will find a bit of duplication here. Lastly, while many of the appendices are good, a number of them seem off-topic and make an already big book unnecessarily larger.

But overall, this is a very important book that makes significant in-roads in developing a Protestant and strongly Reformed Doctrine of God. It is a book that forges a careful path of sound theology where God is concerned amidst a forest of competing theological constructions that often leave much to be desired. Frame has provided the church with a valuable service here.

The Doctrine of God may very well be the best book ever written on the doctrine of God. John Frame expounds God's covenant lordship in a way that causes one to worship God in spirit and truth. His biblically-grounded methodology yields many fresh insights into the control, authority, and presence of our covenant Lord in the context of his acts, descriptions, and Trinitiarian presence. I highly commend this deeply profound and persuasive book. I am confident that it will be worth the investment of time, money, and labor to digest its contents.

--Justin Taylor
Director of Theological Resources & Education
Desiring God Ministries

I found this book to be incredible. I sincerely appreciated Frame's balanced and kind-hearted approach to theology. He handled issues that have many people up in arms with love and respect. I have yet to see such a readable, comprehensive, and profound book that so easily defends the Reformed faith. I particularly enjoyed the portion on the immutability of God. Frame handles this masterfully! This section alone is worth the price of the book. John Frame is to be commended for his achievment in this book. I am anxiously anticipating the future books in this series. This book needs to be in every serious believer's library.

John Frame has done an outstanding job of taking a very complex topic and put it in a very simple and engaging languague for all those who truly seek to know God. This book changed my relationship with God. It is so comprehensive that I keep it next to my Bible. I have referred to it so many times since I first read it. I strongly recommend it to all serious students of the Bible.

Several times after reading portions of this book, I reflected on the awesome glory of God with fresh insight. Frame commands your attention with concisce and clear ideas. He presents his "multi-prespective" approach, which parenthetically includes the Lordship of God. Frame tackles the difficult issues without compromising the nature of God. Among others, he covers the attributes, the Trinity, and the problem of evil. Get it!

Introduction

The popularity of J.I. Packer's classic book, Knowing God (1973), is evidence to the widespread desire in today's church to reclaim the center of Christianity in the knowledge of God. In recent times, the need to understand why major disasters and calamities have occurred underscores the yearning of the society at large to understand who God is and why He does what He does, why He would allow so much suffering to occur if He is truly good. More recently, in response to 9/11 or the bridge collapse in Minnesota, many Christians are even questioning whether or not God truly had control of the events. Some have argued that God allows and uses suffering in the world to amplify the dire need in people to repent of their sins, including unbelief, and to put their trust in the atoning work of Christ on the cross. In spite of this, many still are left dumbfounded by life's circumstances about the will of God in all these things.

This pervasive rejection of the God of Scripture in secularism and alternative spirituality and religions compels us as Christ's ambassadors to call unbelievers to be reconciled with God (2 Cor 5:20). What this undeniably implies is that we actually know this God of whom we confess, so that we would be ready in season and out of season, to give a biblical defense for the hope we have in Jesus Christ (2 Tim 4:2; 1Pet 3:15). While postmodern epistemology may be accurate to assert that we cannot exhaustively know everything about God, we can however know with certainty everything that God has explicitly revealed about himself in Scripture. In "The Doctrine of God", John Frame, professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, provides a concise exposition of theology proper as defined in Scripture.

I. Summary

John Frame expounds his doctrine of God from the foundation of Sola Scriptura which forms the basis of all biblical doctrine. Through an analysis of the major themes about God found in Scripture, Frame explains that there may be other ways to understand our relationship with God, like marriage, sonship, and friendship (34). However, it is visibly evident that upon an examination of the relationship between God and His created people throughout biblical history that covenant Lordship is the central motif of the Bible, and thus, it is the central theme of Frame's book. Frame also notes that while other themes such as community, hope and liberation are present within Scripture, they should be included within this central motif of covenant Lordship for they are most accurately understood for their wonderful redemptive unity through this lens. Just as the author argues, "The central motif of this book is that God is the Lord of the covenant. Since God chose the name Lord for himself, since it is found thousands of time in Scripture, and since it is the heart of the fundamental confession of faith of God's people..." (12)

Frame's methodology is regulated by God's special revelation in Scripture, and as a result, it is a "theology from above" (14). In seeking to show that the acts, attributes and personal distinctions of God that are all expressions of his Lordship, the author sets forth a theological triad to help the reader understand the Lord of the Bible--the lordship attributes of control, authority, and presence. The structure of his book is thus organized around this triad and correspondingly are related to how God has chosen to reveal himself in Scripture--by a narrative of His acts (control), by authoritative descriptions of his nature (authority), and by revealing the Trinitarian persons (presence). Although these elements of the doctrine of God are dealt with in an unconventional order, Frame asserts that there is some pedagogical difference and appropriately clarifies why he has chosen to discuss God's nature in a method that is inverted from traditional Reformed theologies (14).

The body of the book is divided into six parts which, when read, flow logically from one chapter to the next. Frame first outlines the foundational element for the rest of the book by explicating with significant biblical support "Yahweh the Lord" (21-25) in terms of the Lordship attributes of control, authority and presence; the conclusion of this first section provides a helpful distinction between the transcendence and the immanence of God in a manner that borrows heavily from the work of Cornelius Van Til (112-115). In part two, Frame defends his theology proper against the "problem areas" of human responsibility and freedom (119) and the problem of evil (160). As will be noted later, these two chapters of part two alone are worth the price of this book, since the author contends in detail for a high view of the sovereignty of God's Lordship in a postmodern culture which questions all forms of authority and control. In section three, the philosophy of Lordship is explained in terms of ethics (185), epistemology (199), and metaphysics (214), but is done so in a way that sees Christian philosophy as an application of Scripture to philosophical questions. Frame asserts that Scripture has much to say concerning these philosophical matters and confronts them with a biblical worldview that is consistent with the premise of sola Scriptura.

Parts four through six could very well be considered the meat of this book where John Frame expounds heavily on the covenantal framework he has provided in the first three sections. He surveys Scripture broadly to explain the control, authority and presence of God that correspondingly relate to the acts of the Lord, the biblical descriptions of God and the triune names of God. As Frame writes, "The narrative of God's actions shows us how God controls the situation to accomplish his sovereign purposes... It presents authoritative descriptions of God, exhibiting in them God's own authority. And it also presents to us, not only an account of God's involvement in our history, but also some glimpses of God's own inner life" (242).

Upon reading completely this heavy volume on Theology Proper, one is provided with a multi-faceted, fully orbed view of the covenantal Lord that is first and foremost based upon the foundation of Scripture. This brief summary pales in light of the intricate details of God's character and work in the world that is presented in this book.

II. Evaluation

A. Strengths
The major strength of John Frame's presentation of the doctrine of God is that it is undoubtedly Reformed in its theology. He notes in the introductory chapter that the doctrine of God has not been sufficiently covered in modern evangelical scholarship, especially from a perspective that is Reformed (9-10). Medieval "scholastic" theologians such as Thomas Aquinas heavily emphasized theology proper but depended heavily on a philosophical framework that had its roots in Greek philosophy and ancient Gnosticism (3-4). On the other hand, Protestant Reformers like John Calvin focused heavily on soteriology and ecclesiology rather than the doctrine of God, but consequently had little philosophical influence (4-5). Post-Reformation scholasticism, Frame argues, has been speculative, philosophical and still irrelevant to the practical Christian life (5). Thus, the author submits a doctrine of God that presents "what Scripture says about God, applying that teaching to the questions of our time" (10). This book is hence a Reformed elucidation of theology proper that seeks to maintain sola Scriptura as its foundational core and thus a doctrine of God that stands over and against philosophical imperialism and traditionalism.

Additionally, John Frame stresses that the Lordship of God in his holy character is deserving of a proper response from God's people in obedience and worship--implicitly declaring that God alone should receive all the glory that is due to him (soli Deo Gloria). The monergistic view of the God's efficacious control of the entire universe (51-52) is certainly a portrayal of the Calvinistic understanding of God's sovereignty in all of creation. Following the emphasis of Reformed on soteriology, Frame saturates each section with a biblical-theological relationship to salvation in Christ alone (solus Christus), although he does not devote one individual section on God's redemptive work in Christ. Subsequently, the doctrines of election and predestination, as well as the doctrines of effectual calling and regeneration (sola gratia and sola fide) are explained in terms of covenant Lordship within a Calvinistic framework that defends itself against Arminian theology (72-74). As previously noted, the Reformed doctrine of sola Scriptura is itself flows directly from the biblical teaching that God's authority is given to mankind through his Word alone. As Frame submits, "No other authority may compete with God's words. No words may be added to God's or be put on the same level of authority. ... Only the Word of God has the ultimate authority" (88-89).

Secondly, Frame's book responds to current questions related to the doctrine of God in significant detail and with sufficient biblical support. For example, in chapter 9 on "The Problem of Evil", Frame confronts the issues head on by trying to answer whether God authors (174), causes (175), or permits sin (177), and he does so in a Reformed vernacular against Arminian positions. The author thus presents a solution to the problem of evil in author-story model (179-180) and potter-clay model (181) that is logical, biblical and Reformed. He explains in simple terms how God can bring about sin for the greater good (169-173) and without sinning himself (174-182). As Frame admits, "God certainly does will evil for a good purpose. The good he intends will be so great, so wonderful, so beautiful, that it will make present evils seem small" (173).

Moreover, many contemporary attacks on the doctrine of God are also addressed in appropriate detail--Libertarianism/libertarian free-will (137-145), God's "middle-knowledge" (150-152), and open-theism (485-486). Frame responds to these modern theological attacks humbly and respectfully with plain biblical support (e.g., 487).

B. Weaknesses
Few weaknesses could be found in Frame's exhaustively detailed survey of the doctrine of God. Due to the long length of this book, criticisms can be made about the effectiveness of such a long volume to convey the doctrine of God to a non-academic audience like that of regular church members. The body of this book lies at 742 pages, add to that over 100 pages of appendixes, bibliography and indexes, and thus it is likely a book that a lay person will not pick up simply due to its frightening length. While many of the appendixes (743-806) are good for expanding on ideas and articles quoted in the book, many of them appear off topic and gratuitously extend an already lengthy book.

As a supposed "Reformed" theology of the doctrine of God, I wish Frame had included separate subsections within his volume addressing the Reformed loci of soteriology and ecclesiology. While a theology of salvation is prevalent throughout this book, it seems that Frame neglected to rightfully apply his theology proper to the (post-)modern church and how such a personal knowledge of the covenant Lord would impact how we should do church. Lastly, Frame seemed to have neglected to make a clear delineation between the name of God (LORD in all capitals, representing Yahweh) and the authoritative title of God (Lord, representing adonai/kurios). While it is true that from the LORD's name come the attributes of his authoritative Lordship, Psalm 8:1 would however require a proper differentiation.

III. Remaining Questions & Conclusion

Frame leaves few questions unanswered, theological or practical. If there is any aspect of doctrine within his book that seems to be missing, it may very well be outside the scope of theology proper and excluded for that very reason. Any questions regarding responses to current critical issues may be derived from Frame's first-rate assessment of human responsibility and freedom (chapter 8 ) and the problem of evil (chapter 9), if not from his ostentatious survey of Lordship attributes of control, authority and presence (part one). By and large, "The Doctrine of God" is the best Reformed volume on theology proper in recent times, as a result, it is bound to be a reference text that would serve the church well for a long time. I heartily recommend it to any Christian seeking an explanation of the doctrine of God.

This is an excellent work that carefully and maticulously answers many questions that believers and non-believers alike face. John Frame organizes the book in a way that makes finding responses to particular questions easy and also well organized for those who wish to read it cover to cover. This is a must have for any religious library.

Professor Frame has done the Christian Church a great service. His Doctrine of God is rigorous, readable,reformed and throughly up-do-date; above all it is biblical. I am already finding it my first source of reference.

This with Grudem's warm Systematic Theology should on every student's library.

It is an uncommon thing to witness erudition and clarity in one book, but John Frame has provided the Church with just such an accomplishment. "The Doctrine of God" is undoubtedly a five-star book, even if you don't share the Calvinistic persuasion. It is contemporary, detailed, delicious and not cumbersome. The book is well constructed, the footnotes are at the bottom of the page and the choice of font size is good also.

You will see solid interaction with feminism, Open Theism, Libertarian free-willism and a host of other spurious constructs that deny Biblical truth. I would venture to say that his discussion on God's sovereignty in relation to human volition is particularly strong. I should add that the author has an irenic tone and is quite fair with those whom he disagrees with. He doesn't slap people around with his pen. But make no mistake, this book wasn't written to combat heresy, though it certainly accomplishes that task; rather, the author seeks to explicate what the Scriptures teach. The focus is on what the text of Scripture asserts.

Bottom line is this: You could go out and purchase excellent systematic theologies that discuss theology proper, and they will prove beneficial, but if you want a vast array of subjects explored with a good bit of interaction and meditation, then buy this volume.

John Frame's ` The Doctrine of God' (DG) examines the nature of God from a Calvinist perspective. John Frame is a long-time Westminster Theological Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) professor. Published in 2002 this is the second installment it what is envisioned to be a four-volume series also including; The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, The Doctrine of the Christian Life, and a forthcoming volume The Doctrine of the Word of God.

I am familiar with Frame through RTS (some of his courses are still available thru itunes u), and some of his other writing. He has always struck me as a thoughtful, sincere and capable thinker - a rare individual who combines solid biblical exegesis with rigorous philosophical thought. DG is characteristic of his thorough work, and, while I agree with Frame on many points, he is most interesting in the areas where we disagree such as the Calvinist denial of human freedom.

A radical denial of human freedom underwrites much Calvinist theology such as, double predestination, wherein some, are predestined to eternal damnation independent of their actions, and, total depravity, where, post-fall humans are unable to perform any `good' acts of their own accord- not even acceptance of the call to faith. This view of free will appears in part to be motivated by an attempt to protect God's omniscience and sovereignty. This move, however, does not seem necessary. With regard to omniscience, Frame appears to conflate foreknowledge with a strong view of foreordination, that is, if God knows something it is because he has determined it to be so. This deterministic view seems avoidable regardless of God's relationship with time. If God is outside of time He would see all of time at once, and, be aware of the free actions taken by individuals without out having to foreordain them. While if God is in time, middle knowledge would allow Him to remain omniscient by his knowledge of all future counterfactuals (how individual would behave in all possible situations).

While with regard to God's sovereignty - it is not clear why libertarian freedom would compromise his power - if anything, it seems to make God and creation all that much more majestic. As Frame notes, the denial of free will is not popular amongst Christian philosophers - that is not surprising since it is difficult to understand how agents could be held responsible, and subject to punishment, by an all-good God for actions and beliefs that God predetermined? While an understanding of God's motives are beyond our knowledge, the Calvinist position seems to compromise the goodness of God. While, I agree with Frame that portions of the Bible can be read in a combatablist sense - a natural reading of the Bible as a whole, strongly implies some degree of human choice - the repeated call to repent and belief would seem empty without it. The mainstream Christian view (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Arminian) that humans possess some degree of free will seems more logical and Biblical.

On a more mundane point, I agree with earlier reviewers that the multiple appendices were ill-fitted for this text and needlessly added to an already lengthy book. Overall, while solid, I was a bit disappointed (my expectations were extremely high; I had saved it for my annual fishing trip). Perhaps I was unduly swayed by my disagreements with Calvinism, or my modest fishing success - it is still worth a look for fans of Frame