I read a statement today to the effect that back in the 1970s Martyn Lloyd-Jones referred to Norman Shepherd's teaching as "another Gospel." (Gary L.W. Johnson, "Raising the Foundations," in Martin Downes, Risking the Truth, p.138.) I know that more recently Shepherd's critics have used the term "another Gospel," but I was a student at Westminster during the Shepherd controversy and don't recall ever hearing that terminology, even from his harshest critics.

Is anyone familiar with such a statement by Lloyd-Jones? Can anyone point me to a reference where I can read the actual wording in context? Did he actually reference Shepherd by name, as opposed to labeling certain beliefs as "another Gospel" which some readers felt could be applied to Shepherd?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

__________________
Mark Hettler
PCA
Central NJ

God answers prayers in one of two ways: "Yes," or "I have something better."

Lloyd-Jones did reply to a request to review some of Professor Shepherd's writings. Others replied as well, including Wm. Hendrickson. Here is the list of documents from that time period:

9 October 1979 - List of 13 Documents sent by Members of the Special Board-Faculty "Justification" Committee, to Representative Outside Colleagues. [MS 53]
20 October 1979 - Hendricksen, William, Letter of response regarding Shepherd’s views, 1 pg.
3 November 1979 - Nicole, Roger, Letter of response regarding Shepherd’s views, 5 pp.
9 November 1979 - Klooster, Fred, Letter of response regarding Shepherd’s views, 4 pp.
12 December 1979 - Sproul, R.C., Letter of response regarding Shepherd’s views, 7 pp.

1980
14 January 1980 - Murray, Iain H., Letter of response addressed to Drs. O. Palmer Robertson and Paul G. Settle, regarding Shepherd's views, 3pp. [xg, MS 13]
2 February 1980 - Hendricksen, William, Letter of response regarding Shepherd’s views [1 pg.]
13 February, 1980 - Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn, Letter of response regarding Shepherd’s views [2 pp.]

[from http://www.pcahistory.org/documents/...fication.html]

So the Lloyd-Jones letter was basically the last reply received. I can provide you with the text of the Lloyd-Jones letter later this week, if it is not long.

__________________
Wayne Sparkman, Th.M.
Director, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO
Blogs: The Continuing Story and PCA History Blog

Wayne,
It's pretty cool having you here, ya know?

Yea, dey see how we rollin', dey hatin'.

__________________
Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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Bruce:

Thank you.

But without trying to be partisan, I just figure the truth will win out if all the cards are on the table.

Wayne - If you can, I'd appeciate it. I can't access your link. I was able to access pcahistory.org but couldn't find anything relevant via a Site Search.

Mark:

The text of the Lloyd-Jones letter isn't there anyway.

But for old times sake, here again is that link:

PCA Historical Center: The Justification Controversy

ROFL!

__________________
Andrew C.
IFB
LBCF 1689

Ian Murray refers to Lloyd-Jones letter critiquing Shepherd in his The Fight of Faith. Don't have the page reference to hand but it can be found by looking up Westminster Seminary in the index.

__________________
In Christ's love and service

Mr. Tim Cunningham,
BMus. (Trombone Performance), University of Toronto
Dip. CS, Regent College, Vancouver
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC
------------
"I once sat in darkness, and waited for the moon to rise.
I once sat in darkness, and waited for the son to shine.
I once sat in darkness, when all the light I'd waited for was gone.
Then Jesus came, and now the only true light, ever, shines in me."
– John Deacon -

We have that book. Wife ("Lynnie" here on PuritanBoard) has been reading it, but I was able to pry it away long enough to check out all the references to Westminster Seminary in the index, and reading through the last few chapters dealing with the 1970's to the end of his life, and couldn't find a reference to the letter critiquing Shepherd.

Whoops, my bad, your comment tweaked my memory. Shepherd was the unnamed American professor who was dismissed from an unnamed seminary in the last few years of MLJ's life. The incident is mentioned in the chapter where the controversy with RT Kendall is discussed.

Does anyone know if there is a copy of D M L-J's letter that can be accessed on the web?

__________________
William
Christ Covenant Church, Member
Matthews, NC

OK, thanks. I do remember the mention of Kendall, and I'll go back and read that part again.

I spent hours searching and couldn't find it.

However, if you google "Westminster Seminary Shepherd letter," the first item that comes up is an online preview of a biography of W. Stanford Reid by A. Donald MacLeod. There are a few pages missing from the preview, but most of it is there. W. Stanford Reid: an evangelical ... - Google Books

Chapter 15 (pages 257-279) is devoted to the Shepherd controversy at Westminster, and page 269 includes direct quotations from the Lloyd-Jones letter, including the reference to "another Gospel." Unfortunately the format does not allow copying and pasting.

It's p. 721.

Gentlemen:

If you will send me an email [archivist AT pcahistory DOT org], I will reply with a file attachment containing the text of the DMLJ letter. My understanding would be that copyright is retained by the Lloyd-Jones family, so it would be inappropriate to simply post the content to the web. Copies of a transcription of the letter can be provided for research purposes, and you can freely quote from that document just as with anything similar.