Michael F. Bird, Evangelical Theology: A Biblical and Systematic Introduction, 2nd edition (Grand Rapids, Mich., 2020).
The heart of theology is the Gospel. It is the Good News about Jesus Christ. Michael F. Bird takes the Gospel as the organising principle of his systematic theology with the unusual result that eschatology is placed somewhere in the middle of his dogmatics. For Bird, theology is about the Good News. It teaches of a God who loves us and chose us from before the foundation of the world, a Saviour who came to rescue us from the dark paths of sin, and a loving Holy Spirit who came to apply the great work of redemption to our hearts and lives. Bird is an academic dean and lecturer in theology at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia. He comes from an eclectic theological or ecclesiastical background – first as a Baptist, then a presbyterian, and finally an Anglican. His thought is unified however by being evangelical, Reformed, and catholic.
Prolegomena
Bird defines theology as talk about God within the context
of the church and evangelical tradition. He begins with a discussion of
prolegomena or pretheology which he considers to be a way of discussing issues
of method, sources, and the meaning and purpose of theology. In terms of
method, Bird adopts an eclectic approach, bringing together multiple insights
from the Christian tradition, but ultimately adopting the Gospel as the chief
organising principle of dogmatics. With respect to sources, he views Scripture
as the ultimate norm for theology in accordance with the Reformed tradition of Sola
Scriptura, but he also sees a significant place for tradition in shaping
dogmatics. By tradition, he means the ecumenical creeds and teachings of the
church fathers, the insights of medieval divines such as Thomas Aquinas, the
confessions and catechisms of the Reformers, as well as the developments within
modern theology. Bird is somewhat suspicious of natural theology, though he
does see a cautious place for nature as a ‘theatre of revelation’. He sees
culture as the contemporary context in which theology is developed. Bird
suggests that theology should be a complex interaction between Scripture, the
Christian tradition, natural theology, and culture.
Theology
Bird sees the Gospel as supremely being a revelation of God.
He defines the Trinity in the light of the ecumenical creeds and Barth’s
revival of Trinitarian doctrine in the 20th century. He takes issue
with Calvin’s understanding of Christ and the Spirit as autotheos,
preferring to stick to a patristic doctrine of the Trinity. According to Bird,
there is only one God who exists in three co-equal, co-eternal persons who are
nonetheless identified by a certain particular order: the Father eternal and
unbegotten, the Son eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit
proceeding eternally from the Father and the Son. He is suspicious of both
social Trinitarianism and arguments for eternal functional subordination,
particularly as it applies to the issue of gender and authority in marriage.
Bird divides discussion of God’s attributes into the traditional Reformed
distinction between incommunicable and communicable attributes and holds to a
classical theistic position. He raises concerns regarding attempts by feminist
theologians to assign a feminine gender to God or to adopt the gender-neutral
nouns such as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. While he argues that God
transcends human concepts of gender and so is neither male or female as such,
he nonetheless maintains that in Scripture God is normally referred to by
masculine nouns and pronouns. God is described in Scripture as a Father. And Jesus,
of course, was a male human being. He does note some passages which attribute
feminine characteristics to God.
The background to God’s work in redemption is his work of
creation. Bird considers several defective accounts of God as creator. Deistic versions
of creation see God as transcendent but uninvolved in his creation, a distant
God, much unlike the God of Christianity who is involved by way of providence,
miracle, and redemption. Pantheism is the view that God is literally identical
with the universe; whereas panentheism views God as being greater than the
universe, but nonetheless including it within his own being. Christian theism,
however, maintains a Creator-creature distinction, ruling out philosophies
which say God is to be identified with everything. Henotheism (the belief in a
supreme God among a pantheon of lesser gods) and polytheism (the belief in
multiple gods) are both obviously incompatible with a Christian worldview which
insists that there is only one God who exists in three coequal persons.
Gnosticism is the belief that a demiurge created this universe and entrapped
souls in matter which is understood to be evil. Jesus Christ came to liberate
souls from the material universe and this is achieved through secret knowledge
or gnosis. Christian theology, however, does not differentiate the God
of creation from the God of redemption; they are one and the same God, Lord,
and Saviour. Salvation is freely offered to all publicly in Gospel, rather than
through any rites of secret knowledge.
Bird’s doctrine of creation is thoroughly Trinitarian in nature. The Son and
the Spirit were the two hands that the Father used in the formation of the
universe and to create life. Though God originally created everything good, sin
has left its mark on the world. This anticipates God’s plan to renew the
heavens and the earth according to his righteousness. This plan was inaugurated
with Jesus’ resurrection and the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost and will be
brought to consummation at Jesus’ return in glory. Bird also maintains the
classical doctrine of creatio ex nihilo and identifies several
implications of a creation out of nothing: 1) God existed before the universe
was made; 2) God and matter do not coexist and were not coeternal; 3) God did
not use pre-existent materials to create the universe; 4) God was not limited
by pre-existent materials; and 5) the universe had a definite beginning as
taught by Scripture and confirmed by science in terms of big bang cosmology. Bird
offers no assessment of human evolution at this point, but will take up this
theme in his discussion of the historicity of Adam and Eve in his section on
anthropology.
Bird also considers the subject of divine revelation which
he defines as ‘God’s free action whereby he communicates saving truth about
himself and the very presence of himself to humanity, especially through Jesus
Christ, who is the incarnate Word of God, as testified by the apostles and
attested by the Holy Scriptures and received by the community of believers’ (p.
292). There are three aspects to divine revelation: natural, special, and Christological.
God reveals himself in nature, particularly in terms of his eternal power and
divine nature as Paul teaches in Romans 1:20. However, this form of revelation
is obscured by sin. Bird thinks that Karl Barth overreacted to the problem of
natural theology by denying it altogether. He feels that there is a place for
natural theology, but one should not overestimate its capabilities. He
considers arguments for and against the traditional theistic proofs (the
ontological, teleological, cosmological, and moral arguments for God’s
existence). Like Barth, Cornelius Van Til firmly rejected these proofs as
having any meaningful value for apologetics, relying instead upon a
transcendental argument for the existence of God which Bird sees as being
hopelessly circular. Bird is more sympathetic to the arguments of Reformed
epistemologists like Alvin Plantinga who argue, on the basis of Calvin’s
doctrine of the sensus divinitatis, that belief in God is properly
basic. It is similar in other words, to our belief in the past, or that other
minds exist, or in the existence of the material universe. However, Bird
worries that Reformed epistemology may be nothing more than a sophisticated
form of fideism.
Bird defines special revelation as ‘God’s unique communication
of himself through history, proclamation, Scripture, and illumination’ (p.
292). God has revealed himself in the mighty acts of redemption history such as
in the Exodus or in the cross and resurrection of Christ. He revealed himself
through the inspiration of prophets, apostles, and messengers who proclaim the
Good News about Jesus Christ. And He reveals Himself by the Holy Spirit
speaking in Scripture. The ultimate revelation of God is found in the
incarnation of Jesus Christ, the God-man. Bird also considers what God’s
purpose or plan is for the universe. He argues that God had one purpose and one
plan: to glorify himself in redemption and to reconcile lost men and women to
himself. He observes that there have been three major schools of thought on
God’s plan and purpose as revealed in Scripture: dispensational, covenantal,
and Reformed Baptist theologies. Bird opts for a covenantal approach that
emphasises the covenant of grace and a plan which takes lost sinners from being
‘in Adam’ to being ‘in Christ’ as Paul teaches in Romans 5.
Eschatology
Bird’s Gospel centred approach leads him to place
eschatology in the middle of his dogmatics. This is because he believes
eschatology has a central place for understanding the Gospel message. He argues
that all theology is driven by eschatology – meaning that eschatology is the
plan or end to which all things are ultimately leading. He argues that Biblical
eschatology is inaugurated eschatology. In other words, the kingdom of God has ‘already’
and ‘not yet’ dimensions. It is already present in Christ and his church; it is
not yet consummated into the new heaven and new earth wherein righteousness
dwells. One day Jesus will return to earth and establish his kingdom forever.
His return will be physical and bodily – and so unmistakeable to all. The same
Jesus who lived and died outside the city walls of Jerusalem will return to
unveil the glory of his kingdom. He will be accompanied by the angels of heaven
and the departed saints. Paul argues that God will redeem all Israel which some
take to be those of physical Jewish descent; while others consider it to be an
expression for the church or spiritual Israel made up of Jews and Gentiles.
There will be a literal and physical resurrection of
believers into their glorified estate and Jesus will judge and subjugate all
our and his enemies. Bird identifies three major views on the millennial reign
of Christ: amillennial, postmillennial, and premillennial. Bizarrely Bird
dismisses postmillennialism without much argument even though it would fit his
missional and Gospel centred purpose perfectly. He argues that amillennialism
is a close second to premillennialism. He is critical of dispensational
premillennialism arguing that it is clearly unbiblical in the sharp separation
it posits between Israel and the church. He opts in the end for a variation of
historical premillennialism or chiliasm. He argues that the intermediate state
means going to be with Christ in paradise, but the final state for believers will
be a new heaven and a new earth in glorified bodily existence. Far from being a
place of holy boredom, the new creation will be a place of ‘peace and joy, activity,
art and action’ (p. 392). Unrepentant sinners will suffer eternally in the
outer darkness of hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Christology
Bird argues that Jesus is essential to our understanding of
Christian dogmatics. He should be the very centre and sum of our theology and
Gospel message. There can be no Christianity without Christ. With respect to
method in Christology, Bird considers the opposing approaches of Christology
‘from above’ and Christology ‘from below’. He concludes that we should try and
approach Christology from multiple perspectives:
Christology is not top down or
bottom up. Rather, we do Christology from behind, below, above, and before. We
look at Jesus from behind (the Old Testament), from below (the historical Jesus
and the Jesus professed in the historical development of the Church’s faith),
from above (the Jesus of divine discourse in Scripture), from the margins (the
Jesus of the poor and disempowered) and before us (the Jesus of creedal and
confessional testimonies) (p. 407).
This perspectival approach to Christology transcends debates
about the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith by embracing aspects of all
approaches. Bird follows the ecumenical creeds in affirming the life, ministry,
death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. He also considers the Old
Testament background in terms of prophecy, typology, Christophany, and
allegory. Bird considers the Virgin birth to be an essential doctrine of the
Christian faith and affirms Mary’s role as the mother of God (Theotokos).
Her role is likened to that of a new Eve, ‘Without Mary as a new Eve, we could
not have Jesus as a new Adam’ (p. 420). Bird devotes a chapter to the life and
ministry of Jesus, something which is often overlooked by systematic
theologians. Bird believes that Jesus’ public teaching and miracles are
essential to understanding the person and work of Christ.
In his chapter on the death of Jesus, Bird considers several
theories or models of the atonement including recapitulation, ransom, Christus
Victor, satisfaction, moral influence, exemplary, government, and penal substitution.
Bird also considers the argument of Stephen Chalke and Alan Mann that penal
substitution is ‘divine child abuse’. Bird considers this to be a defective
argument since the Father never stopped loving the Son throughout all his
sufferings and the Son as the second person of the Trinity voluntarily took
upon himself humiliation and death for the salvation of the world. Bird argues
that the most central theory of the atonement is the Christus Victor
model which sees Christ as triumphing over the devil and the forces of
darkness. This model is combined with the doctrine of penal substitution in
which Christ voluntarily assumes the penalty for sin in his own body. Bird observes
that there are merits to all the various models of the atonement. The problem
is not so much what they affirm, but what they leave out. On the question of
the extent of the atonement, Bird argues that the death of Christ is sufficient for
the whole world, but efficient only for the elect. Bird is closer to affirming
an Amyraldian view of the atonement than he is to affirming the traditional
Reformed doctrine of particular redemption or limited atonement. He also
affirms a literal descent of Christ into hell as the Apostles’ Creed suggests
and argues that hell should be translated as hades in this context. He seems to
reject Calvin’s suggestion that Christ suffered hell for us upon the cross.
Bird argues that the resurrection of Jesus is ‘indelibly
connected to the cross and marks the beginning of the new age bursting into our
current world’ (p. 547). His neologism ‘anastasity’, from the Greek word anastasis,
refers to the doctrine that believers are to live their Christian lives in the
light of the resurrection of Christ with hope and joy. Bird laments that the
ascension is a neglected doctrine in the Christian church and argues that it is
crucial to understanding Jesus’ heavenly reign and work of intercession. Bird
reminds us that Jesus is fully God, equal to the Father in authority, majesty,
and substance. Jesus existed as the second person of the Holy Trinity prior to
his incarnation. He shares eternity with the Father. Jesus assumed a human body
in order to carry out the work of redemption. As the Church Fathers would say,
‘What has not been assumed has not been healed’. In order to heal us completely,
Jesus had to assume our essential human identity and become a man of reasonable
body and soul. According to Bird, the doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches that
Jesus is fully God and fully man in one person. He has two natures: divine and
human. These natures are not mixed or confused together. Jesus is not a hybrid
or demigod. He is the God-man. These two natures are united in one remarkable
person – Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
Soteriology
Bird views the Gospel as central to any exposition of
soteriology. God’s plan of salvation is revealed supremely in Jesus Christ and
is received by faith and repentance. Salvation should not be expounded as mere
hell-fire insurance; rather, it should be viewed holistically as redeeming the
whole person, body and soul, from sin and death. According to Bird, ‘salvation
in the Bible … includes deliverance from many things, including enemies,
physical danger, death, disability, demonic powers, illness, poverty,
injustice, social exclusion, false accusation, shame, and of course from sin
and its consequences at the final judgement’ (p. 662). The outworking of God’s plan of salvation is
known as redemptive history (sometimes referred to as heilsgeschichte or
historia salutis in the scholarly literature). Bird sees this as
unfolding in several acts: Act 1: creation and the fall; Act 2: the history of
Israel and the stories of the Patriarchs; Act 3: the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ; Act 4: The giving of the Spirit and the emergence
and growth of the Church; Act 5: The final consummation and return of Christ to
establish his kingdom. Bird adopts a Pauline or Calvinistic conception of the
order of salvation (ordo salutis): predestination, calling,
regeneration, faith and repentance, justification, transformation or
sanctification, and glorification.
Bird is hesitant to adopt a particular view on the order of the divine decrees
on the basis that the mind of God is not disclosed to us in these matters which
must remain a mystery. He does however argue that the incarnation of Christ was
not afterthought. Bird proposes the following order of eternal decrees: God
from all eternity decreed the incarnation of the Son, then to create the world,
then to permit the fall, then to offer salvation in Christ, and then to redeem
the elect. He also explores the various ways in which Scripture speaks of
salvation including forgiveness of sin, redemption, rescue, reconciliation,
justification, peace, adoption, eternal life, theosis, and nearness to God and
access to his throne. He argues that the primary image for salvation in the
Scriptures is that of communion with God, union with Christ, and life in the
Spirit. Bird disagrees with those who posit various forms of universalism (the
belief that everyone will eventually be saved) and argues instead for a version
of exclusivism. He contends that there will be a final judgement in which the
elect will be justified, and the reprobate condemned for all eternity. He
rejects notions of universal salvation or annihilation for the non-elect. Bird
argues that true believers will be finally and fully kept by God and will
persevere in faith and holiness to the end. Those who fail to persevere in the
faith were never truly saved in the first place; but the warnings in Scripture
regarding apostasy should be taken seriously by those who belong outwardly to
the covenant of grace lest they fall away and make a shipwreck of their faith.
Pneumatology
Bird argues that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is
essential for a correct understanding of the Gospel. The gift of the Holy
Spirit is both ‘a part of the promise of the Gospel and also the power for
Gospel proclamation’ (p. 726). Pneumatology intersects with many other loci in
dogmatics such as the doctrine of the Trinity and the inspiration of Scripture.
According to Bird, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit must always be viewed in the
light of the Trinity: ‘The Holy Spirit is the person within the Godhead who
applies the work of Christ to us and enables us to personally encounter the
triune God’ (p. 669). God works through the Holy Spirit enabling our prayers,
worship, and ministry. The Spirit empowers and equips the Church for
evangelism, mission, service, and proclamation. The twentieth century witnessed
a great surge of interest in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (particularly with
respect to spiritual gifts and Spirit Baptism) with the emergence of
Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, especially in the Global South. Bird
argues that Western Christianity has tended towards patriarchy and an exclusive
focus on the person of Christ. The result has been a decidedly cerebral
theology. For Bird, ‘[A] responsible incorporation of the Holy Spirit will
yield a theology that is more egalitarian, Trinitarian, and experiential’ (p.
669).
Bird stresses the personal nature of the Holy Spirit as a much-needed
corrective to those who see the Holy Spirit as a kind of spiritual force or
ecstatic vibe. In fact, Bird argues that the Holy Spirit is a person equal in
power, glory, and dignity with the Father and Son. He laments the divisions
caused by the Filioque controversy and suggests that evangelicals should
consider dropping the phrase ‘and the Son’ altogether in order to foster
greater unity with Eastern Orthodoxy. However, he also sees the importance of
the phase for preserving the equal dignity and deity of the Son in relation to
the Father as a corrective against Arianism. This is a tricky issue. The
Eastern Orthodox Church rightly insists that the Son is eternally begotten of
the Father and that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Whereas the Western Church
rightly sees that the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. I would
suggest that evangelicals consider adopting the formulation which says that the
Holy Spirit proceeds ‘from the Father, through the Son’ as a compromise between
both views.
Bird argues that the gifts of the Holy Spirit (including tongues,
prophecy, and healing) continue today. He agrees with Pentecostals and
Charismatics on the importance of spiritual gifts but denies that the gift of tongues
is the distinguishing mark of baptism with the Holy Spirit. He argues that
Spirit Baptism happens at conversion and is essentially the same thing as
regeneration. However, he argues that subsequent fillings with the Holy Spirit
are possible post-conversion. With respect to the inspiration of Scripture by
the Holy Spirit, Bird argues for a dynamic view of the relation between the
divine and human authors and suggests that evangelicals should consider
‘veracity’ or ‘truthfulness’ as offering the best model for understanding the
infallibility of Scripture. He argues that the Bible is authoritative for
Christian doctrine and practice precisely because the Holy Spirit speaks to us
in and through the Scriptures. This remains true even in the light of higher
criticism. He does not appear to consider the Barthian view that the human
words of Scripture become the Word of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, whom
we encounter as we read the Scriptures.
Anthropology
Bird argues that God created humanity to share in his glory.
The Christian doctrine of anthropology provides an antidote to secular
materialistic accounts of humanity. Human life is meaningful and has purpose
because it stands in relation to God as creator. Bird accepts a theistic
evolutionary account of the origins of mankind especially in the light of
modern scientific evidence. The creation stories are mythical accounts that
contain theological truths. They remind us that God is the Creator and man is a
creature made after the image and likeness of a holy God. After considering
several approaches to the doctrine of the imago dei (including the image
as a rational ability, a relational capacity, or a human dominion), Bird argues
that the image of God in man is largely a regal or royal status. Humankind is
charged with the care and rule over creation as God’s royal vice regents. Bird
contends that the litmus test for a theology of the divine image is how it
relates to and portrays those who suffer with physical or mental disabilities. ‘If
a definition of the imago diminishes or denies the divine image for
disabled persons, then it is problematic and does not cohere with the arc of
Scripture that affirms the humanity of the disabled and demonstrates God’s
kindness and concern for the disabled’ (p. 752). Bird makes the case for
anthropological dichotomism or the belief that humans consist of body and soul.
Bird argues that this takes the form of a psychosomatic unity and that the soul
is designed to exist with the body – hence the resurrection and glorification
of the dead at the Parousia. One of the most challenging issues facing Christians
today is that of personal identity. Many argue that identity is fluid and
determined by the individual. For Bird, Christian identity is determined by our
relationship with Christ and the Christian story. ‘This theological conception
of Christian identity, determined by God’s story and by God-centred
relationships, is that we are known by God, baptised into Christ, and made
alive in the Spirit’ (p. 765).
Bird also considers the fundamental problem with humanity –
sin. Humanity, since the Fall, is condemned, alienated from God, trapped in
darkness, contaminated by moral impurity, enslaved to sin, and dead to God. The
doctrine of sin is known as hamartiology and is a subbranch of anthropology in
dogmatics. ‘The root of sin is the worship of the self in the place of the
worship of God’ (p. 769). Bird suggests that the word sin causes difficulties in
terms of explaining what has gone wrong with humanity. Sin is often seen by
society as something naughty, a guilty pleasure. Bird suggests that we should speak
of evil rather than sin since this is closer to the meaning of Scripture on the
matter. People can understand the meaning of the word evil especially in the
light of two world wars, the horror of Auschwitz, and the suffering caused by 9/11.
Genesis 6:5 captures the essence of what it means to belong to a fallen world: ‘The
Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all
the time’. Bird clearly affirms the Reformed doctrine of total depravity,
though he reminds us that this does not mean that we are all as bad as we can
possibly be in the light of God’s common grace; rather, it means that sin
‘totally permeates our intellect, wills, and hearts’ (p. 774). Bird believes
that we have all inherited the guilt and corruption of Adam who is best seen as
our federal head in the light of Romans 5 which presents Adam and Christ as
contrasting federal heads. ‘Either one belongs to Adam and is under the sentence
of death because of his disobedience, or else one belongs to Christ and is
assured of eternal life because of his faithfulness and obedience’ (p. 785). Bird
argues that the best theodicy or vindication of divine goodness is the Biblical
story of God’s triumph over sin, death, and hell in the cross and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
Ecclesiology
Evangelical churches have the Gospel at their heart. In the
words of Wolfhart Pannenberg, ‘The gospel thus takes precedent over the church.
Over and against the church it represents the authority of Jesus Christ, the
church’s Lord and Head. Though the gospel is proclaimed in the church and by
its office bearers, it is not a product of the church; rather, the gospel is
the source of the church’s existence’ (cited on p. 803). The Bible uses many words
and images for the Church including the people of God, the elect, the flock, a
priesthood, a remnant, the body of Christ, a temple of God, and a new creation.
The traditional marks of the church are its oneness or unity, holiness,
catholicity, and apostolicity. ‘The church is one because it shares a
single body, the body of Christ, the risen Lord. It is holy because it
is called by God and sanctified by Christ through the Spirit. It is catholic
because it is spread throughout the world and traverses geographic and ethnic
boundaries. It is apostolic because it holds to the apostles’ teachings
and is sent out by Christ into the world’ (p. 833). The apostolic church is
signified by the faithful preaching of the Word and the correct administration
of the sacraments (Baptism and Holy Eucharist). Bird argues that the main forms
of church government are the episcopal, presbyterian, and congregational
systems – as an Anglican, he naturally favours the episcopal system of Church
government. He also considers multisite churches (a more recent ecclesiastical
phenomenon) of church networks and parachurch organisations. Covid 19 has
raised interesting questions about the presence of Church online and what this
means for the future of the Church. As Bird points out, ‘It is now possible to
livestream worship, attend Bible studies by video chat, watch sermons online,
download podcasts by theologians, and get communion elements delivered to your
home’ (p. 857). Of course, none of these things should be a substitute for
actual fellowship with believing Christians, but their presence supplements ecclesiastical
practice and service in interesting ways especially in terms of reaching the
unchurched with the message of the Gospel.
Bird identifies several key purposes for the Church
including evangelism or mission, discipleship, the administration of the
sacraments, kingdom work, and evangelical worship. The sacraments include
baptism and the Lord’s supper or Holy Eucharist. The three main views of
baptism discussed by Bird are credobaptism or believer’s baptism, paedobaptism
or infant baptism, and dual-practice baptism. Bird argues that baptism plays ‘a
key part in the salvific drama and is integral to our faith, union with Christ,
and reception of the Spirit’ (p. 910). He takes the Reformed view on Holy
Eucharist which stresses the spiritual presence of Christ by the work of the
Holy Spirit. Other views mentioned are the Roman Catholic view of
transubstantiation, the Lutheran view of consubstantiation, and the Zwinglian
memorial view of the Lord’s supper. He argues that the most Biblical model for
Holy Eucharist is an open table – a table open to sinners who believe in Christ
for their salvation. This would include children of an appropriate age who have
been instructed concerning the significance of the meal by their parents and
who profess faith in Christ.
Conclusion
Bird offers an excellent introduction to systematic theology
in just over 900 pages. This book goes hand in hand with his video lectures
available on DVD which offer brief twenty-minute videos on the various subjects
of systematic theology. Bird writes with considerable wit and humour while also
maintaining a deep seriousness and reverence for God throughout. The placement
of eschatology in the middle of his dogmatics is somewhat unusual, perhaps
owing to his use of the Gospel as an organising principle. One gets the feeling
that Bird just wanted to do something differently to other systematic theologians.
Bird’s theology seems inconsistent with his eschatology. He argues for a
premillennial view where a postmillennial view would better suit the overall
emphasis on the success and centrality of the Gospel. Bird engages many
contemporary questions while also giving plenty of room to historical theology.
Despite being a Biblical theologian, Bird is actually at his strongest when
discussing matters of historical theology and church history. Bird could have
said more on the subject of theistic evolution as this is a matter of
considerable debate within evangelical circles. The same could be said for his
discussion of gender identity and human sexuality. Nonetheless, Bird’s
systematic theology remained gripping throughout and was usually thorough in
its treatment of every doctrine. Bird should be commended for his focus on the
Gospel as revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is
clear that Bird has a deep love for the Triune God of the Gospel. The emphasis
throughout his dogmatics is on the Father electing and sending his one and only
Son, the Son redeeming a people for himself by his death and resurrection from
the dead, and the Holy Spirit regenerating, sanctifying, and applying salvation
to the elect as history unfolds.