Author: Jouhoon Peter Lim
Lim, Jouhoon Peter, 2017 Martyn Lloyd-Jones' View of Evangelical Unity, Flinders University, School of Humanities and Creative Arts
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This thesis seeks to examine D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ view of Evangelical Unity. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ 1966 address at the British Evangelical Assembly was misunderstood and still is today and he was blamed by some people for dividing British Evangelicals at that time. This research starts from the point of blame, arguing that that is not sufficient understanding of his view for the correct interpretation and that the issue was not simple.
This thesis seeks to address what Martyn Lloyd-Jones said at the Assembly along with his view of Christian unity, through the analysis of his writings related to the topic in the 1950’s and 60’s and some of the early 1970's. It is an attempt to help understand his view on the topic more precisely. This thesis examines whether D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ view is his own and proposes that his view is based on the Protestant Reformation evangelical position.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones asked all British Evangelicals which is the proper way when considering Christian unity, ecumenical or evangelical. And he appealed for unity to follow the evangelical way as they are evangelicals, not the ecumenical way. For the sake of Evangelical Unity, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones initially asked What is a Christian? and he also defined the Church as the assembly of Christians, emphasising ‘the evangelical Christian’ What is an Evangelical?
By doing so, Martyn Lloyd-Jones took on the role of the representative of Protestant Evangelicalism. At that time many British Evangelicals seemed to regret the Protestant Reformation, regarding as a tragedy. Lloyd-Jones could not agree with the tendency and he took on the role of keeping Evangelicalism from the Roman Catholicism and he also aimed to prevent British Evangelicals from being united by the Liberals in the name of the Ecumenical Movement.
The movement did not ask the definition of a Christian clearly but D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones asked What is a Christian? To him, the question was vitally important because it is the matter of one’s salvation. He claimed the essentials of faith exclusively as the doctrines are also essential to salvation. So, as his wife said, this thesis also proposes Lloyd-Jones as an Evangelist, who cares one’s salvation primarily, is a key to understand his 1966 address and the view of Evangelical Unity.
‘No one will ever understand my husband until they realise that he is first of all a man of Prayer and then an evangelist’ - Bethan Lloyd-Jones
Keywords: Ecclesiology, Lloyd-Jones Unity, Lloyd-Jones Ecclesiology, Evangelical Unity, Unity in Truth, Essentials of Faith, Lloyd-Jones Address, What is a Christian, What is the Church, Evangelical Christianity, Protestant Evangelicalism, Protestant Reformation, IFES, British Evangelicals, Ecumenical or Evangelical, WCC Movement, Lloyd-Jones and Stott, Lloyd-Jones and Church of England, Evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism and Liberalism, Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics, Evangelicals and Liberals, Iain Murray and Catherwood, Ligonier Teachers, Logic on Fire, R.C Sproul
Subject: Theology thesis
Thesis type: Graduate Diploma
Completed: 2017
School: School of Humanities and Creative Arts
Supervisor: Jenny Hein