Prophetic from the Center

by D.A. Carson

"It is easy to sound prophetic from the margins; what we urgently need is to be prophetic from the center." Despite its centrality to the Christian faith, it s easy to overlook the gospel and instead speak out on more peripheral issues. This is a far cry from the New Testament emphasis on the gospel as the foundation of everything we believe. In this passionate cry for gospel reform, D. A. Carson argues that if secondary issues consume our passions, then we re in danger of sidelining the gospel. We may be able to make compelling arguments for how we should live, but if these are not rooted in the gospel then we aren t speaking God s truth. Carson shows us that if the gospel is centralized, prioritized, and pondered, it powerfully directs us on how to think about everything else. In fact, the best way to speak God s truth on secondary issues is to stand firm on the gospel.

Genres: Theology, Christian

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Donald A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1978. Carson came to Trinity from the faculty of Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also served for two years as academic dean. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Carson received the Bachelor of Science in chemistry from McGill University, the Master of Divinity from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, and the Doctor of Philosophy in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world. He has written or edited about sixty books. He is a founding member and currently president of The Gospel Coalition. Carson and his wife, Joy, reside in Libertyville, Illinois. They have two adult children.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise and compelling. Every believer needs this mental architecture. Perfectly suited to read and discuss with someone you’re discipling.

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

DA Carson is one of my favorite Bible teachers. His Gospel of John Commentary is highly considered to be nearly a perfect commentary on that intense and amazing book! In this little book Carson eyes just 19 verses in 1 Corinthians 15 and boy is it amazing! I am so jealous of the countless students who have sat under his teaching and long for more books like this. Insightful, clear and so very precise in it’s presentation of the Gospel! Highest recommendation

[David Couch · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is easy to sound prophetic form the margins; what we urgently need is to be prophetic from the center

Don Carson’s latest book, from 10ofThose publishing, is a call for all Christians to get back to the gospel. Rather than standing at the margins, we need to get right back to the center of the faith, and stand on its foundations.

At a time when modern society is going through major upheaval, and the core convictions of previous generations are being thrown under the bus, Carson reminds us that the gospel really has power. To do this, he walks us through 1 Corinthians 15 – a place where Paul clearly states the gospel he preaches and stands on. He does this with 8 summarising words, 5 clarifying sentences, and one evocative summary. And they indeed are!

Don echoes Paul’s call, of how the gospel changes everything, and aims to reorientate our thinking about speaking into today’s society. It is easy, he says, to sound prophetic from the margins – from the periphery – but it downplays the gospel. What is it that we get fired up about when speaking to others? That question is one that got under my skin. Another reminder (among many in this short book) was that ‘we are not saved by theological ideas about Christ… we are saved by Christ himself’ (page 31). As I study the Bible for college, and for preaching, I need to constantly remember this. The power of the gospel is not in facts, but in who the facts are about. May I never forget that.

I recommend this book to all Christians, young or old. It is a very short, but powerful read, at only 54 pages (you can actually read it in one sitting!). We desperately need to move back to the center of the faith – back to the foundation of the gospel – back to Christ crucified. It is that gospel that has the power to save, and to change. So let’s get back to the center and be prophetic from there.

[Jonathan Downing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short work packs a powerful punch - the clear expositional reminder of the gospel that you never knew you needed, Carson's summary is well-written and a great resource for Christians to remind themselves of the truth they proclaim. I'll be using some of these summaries in conversations with seekers for months to come.

[Phil Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful summary of the Gospel from 1 Corinthians 15.

[Kyle Willey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this because it's a little booklet and I've heard good things about Carson.

Nothing in this book is bad per se. It's decently well-written.

But the question is: who is it written to? It's not clear who the target audience is. It's clearly written to Christians, and nothing is super-basic, so I'd assume it's aimed at believers who want to go deeper in their understanding of the Gospel.

To this extent, it's actually quite helpful, though in some cases it seems to be going after problems to solve (though I don't necessarily have the same experiences as Carson, who I take it is an instructor and who I know writes and edits several different sorts of things, including a well-received study Bible). Maybe these misconceptions are more common than I think–and some of them are definitely common–but it often feels like drawing distinctions for the sake of drawing distinctions.

The downside of this is that by the time you actually get to the meat, this is a very short book. The full length is maybe fifty pages, and you could probably cut it to thirty.

And then we get back to the audience target. I had to look up the word "aseity," and going to a dictionary to look up a word hasn't been something I've encountered in a while, so any layperson without the internet or a good dictionary on hand is probably going to get hit, especially because I don't think it was either critical to the point at hand or something that couldn't have been spelled out for plain language.

The actual highly condensed elucidations of the Gospel, once Carson gets into them, are quite good, but the presentation is a little confused. Rather than building, it seems to present three parallel ways of thinking, and I would have gone in the opposite order, starting with the most condensed summary which Carson ends the book with (or rather probably a part of it), and then breaking it into its points.

Still possible to recommend given its brief length, but its asking price is high for what it is (especially because the $6 asking price in paperback seems far too high–I got my copy on clearance for $1) and it just seems confused about what it's supposed to be. There's good stuff here, but one of the questions I ask about a book is who I'd recommend it to. A seminary student who grew up in the church and never thought about what the Gospel was? I'm not passing this out as an outreach material between the price and the relatively difficult presentation, but it's not so profound that I'm going to be shoving it in someone's face and telling them they have to read it.

That said, I want to point out that I do feel spiritually edified by some of the content here, so despite my harsh(ish) review of the book, I don't think Carson presented anything that would lead anyone astray and there is some good stuff in here. It's just a question of whether it does it better than the alternatives.

[Thomas Creedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Carson is a theological giant in the world of evangelicalism, and his books and teaching have been very important to me personally in my growth as a Christian. With a few reservations, Prophetic from the Center (apologies for the American spelling, but then he is Canadian!) is a very helpful primer on the Gospel and it’s implications, that echoes much of what Carson has said and written before. The premise of the book is that it is quite easy to sound prophetic when speaking from the margins, but actually it is keeping the Gospel central and continually teaching it and returning to it that will ultimately be powerful.


https://www.thomascreedy.co.uk/book-r...

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does what a work of theology should. It makes the reader rejoice at God has done through Christ in the Gospel.

It speaks a necessary word to the church and those of us entrusted with the preaching of the gospel. However, it is not just a book for preachers but to the "ordinary" Christian as well

This little book is one of the more important works I have read in a long time.

[Thomas Sprague · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accurate but Dull

This booklet is a stereotypical example of good scholarship attempting the crossover to popular appeal. It is a capable summary of orthodox Christianity and its rooting in history and scripture. But, sadly, the delivery is lifeless. Those who agree will find nothing new; those who don't, no reason to change their minds.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, succinct, superb.

[Wesley Caldwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A smart, quick reminder of why the Gospel should be the center of our lives, and the numerous ways we forget that it can be applied. A short book, with a large impact.

[Greg Savage · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very concise overview of the Gospel from 1 Corinthians 15.