When I went to theological college in 2006, I went against the backdrop of three major theological controversies that had been brewing in Evangelical circles. I was familiar with two of them, Open Theism and the controversy surrounding Steve Chalke and Penal Substitution. However, I was completely unaware of the third. Apparently, a few years earlier, some US Presbyterians had sparked controversy around something that they had termed “Federal vision.” It had something, I discovered, to do with particularly robust views on paedobaptism, post millennial eschatology and strong leanings towards “theonomism”, the view that the law of the land should be shaped by the Old Testament Law, in other words, nations like the UK and US should be Christian nations.
Well, the controversy well and truly erupted whilst I was at Oak Hill. One of the lecturers had become highly sympathetic to this form of theology and built up close connections with one of its proponents, Douglas Wilson his church and liberal arts college in Moscow Idaho. Wilson was invited to Oak Hill to speak to students and answer questions on things like classical Christian education (there were a cluster of staff and students passionately committed to alternatives to state education whether through Christian schools or home schooling), eschatology and baptism. I must admit that having attended one such meeting I came away less than impressed with both tone and content. Wilson is also a proponent of cutting satire and I remember coming away with the sense that there was a dismissiveness towards any who did not buy into his agenda. I should say that for all the differences I might have with the specific lecturer and whatever went on (more shortly), I found the specific Oak Hill lecturer, David Field, to be generous and warm hearted in his dealings with others.
As I was coming to the end of my time at Oak Hill, the storm broke. I remember the Thursday at College, David Field preached at the communion service and then he just walked out, in the middle of the service, before we broke bread together. He was joined by other tutors and then we witnessed a boycotting of chapel services by staff. It was a rather bewildering time and it fell to a few of us students to challenge tutors on what was happening. We realised that people we had looked up to could be a bit unwise in their actions, just like we all can.
However, the troubles did not finish there. It emerged that David Field had been investigated relating to questions concerning employment law. He was later suspended and eventually dismissed. This is an on the record matter. However, the principal at the time, Mike Ovey, was very clear that this meant that there was a level of confidentiality about what could and couldn’t be said. Of course this did not prevent rumours and speculation. I’ve also, since, heard people who were not there at the time and so have at best third or fourth hand knowledge, confidently state what their beliefs about what happened. I think it is fair to say that Field’s dismissal was not directly because of a theological difference but that this could not really be untangled from the employment matters. Beyond that, I don’t think we can speculate.
In the aftermath of this, a significant number of the teaching staff departed for pastures new. Some left reasonably quietly. One tutor used their leaving speech to make pointed remarks. Others stayed at Oak Hill and continued the work there. The chapter closed, though I do think it would still be beneficial for those involved at the time to publicly acknowledge what happened and its impact.
All of this pushed me to investigate a bit more into Federal Vision and the people involved. I came to the conclusion that whether or not you conclude that it had crossed the boundary into false teaching, this movement for a number of reasons was an unhealthy and unwelcome influence on UK conservative Evangelicalism.
What I have also found in the years since is that when the subject comes up, people are quick to try and reassure. The reassurance goes along the following lines that it was just one rogue lecturer at one Theological College with minimal influence. It was all dealt with. It probably isn’t that bad after all and we can learn to distinguish between the bits we think are unhelpful and the positive contributions from that stable.
However, I am not so sure that we can dismiss concerns so quickly. Here are some things I’ve seen over recent years.
- Articles like this one in Evangelical Times asking why people are paying attention to Wilson. Why are evangelicals listening to Douglas Wilson? In some circles, it seems that his influence is gaining rather than waning.
- I’ve picked up on the recent developments in education from primary through to Higher Education levels with schools and colleges being founded that either have institutional links to Federal Vision institutions or seem to follow similar models and ways of thinking.
- Increased prominence of similar ethical, cultural and political positions that we have heard from those quarters.
- Uk Evangelical involvement with the Theophilus Institute, founded and presided over by Peter Leithart who has been one of the key proponents of Federal Vision thinking.
- Recognition that numerous people went through Oak Hill as students and were exposed to the same concerning teaching. These are now leaders in the UK church and UK churches but at no point have we really stepped back and analysed what we picked up.
- Linked to this, I all too frequently hear the same kind of hermeneutic and the same kind of rhetoric coming from UK evangelicals as I encountered when engaging Federal Vision.
What are we to make of this? Well, I’m not into conspiracy theories and I have enough confidence in the Lord not to be fearful of some kind of imminent take over of the UK church. I also recognise that the influence of this movement remains fairly small over all. Many haven’t heard the names. However, I think we can understate it, especially when aspects of the thinking are disseminated through books, magazines and journals. Further, I think that there is something about small churches and church plants which leaves them vulnerable to what sounds exciting and exotic.
For those reasons, I’m not suggesting we need to panic but I would encourage alertness and I think we need to make sure that we are well informed about the issues with this kind of thinking and its resulting culture. I will hopefully return to the subject again in future articles.
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You can find my previous articles on Federal Vision here https://faithroot.com/tag/federal-vision/
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