August–September 2025 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. I once vowed to follow Plato’s idea in The Republic that rulers should be at least fifty years old, following through on it by waiting until that age to do substantial writing. I did write many reviews and a few articles before that age, but the bulk of my writing came after that age. My first book was published at age fifty-two, and I became editor of Ordained Servant at age fifty-six. Now twenty years later, I have decided to offer short essays like “Seeing Red” (OS Online May 2024) for my Servant Thoughts. “‘Me and Her’ Must Go” is this month’s offering. It is especially important that church officers cultivate good manners in thought, word, and deed—God’s people are watching and listening.

I must come across half a dozen new articles on Artificial Intelligence (AI) daily, so I thought Bill Edgar’s reflections worthy of our consideration in this quickly developing technological environment, with his “Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence.” Then I will conclude my three-part series “Going Peopleless” with some practical implications of AI in the October issue.

Danny Olinger continues the series “Jesus, Stab Me in the Heart! Flannery O’Connor at 100” with an analysis of the O’Connor short story “Good Country People.” Each month Olinger will be reflecting on a sample of O’Connor’s short stories (I recommend O’Connor: Collected Works, The Library of America, 1988). O’Connor is unique among the greatest fiction writers of the twentieth century. “O’Connor’s one overarching theme is Jesus Christ and the scandal of the Christian religion.”[1] This short story is my favorite so far, perhaps because I was a philosophy major and can say that by the grace of God I did not become a nihilist.

Daniel Tan reviews a new book by Teresa Morgan on the essential element of trust in Paul’s theology of the atonement. Tan reminds us of the centrality of the substitutionary aspect of the atonement in Paul, which is neglected by Morgan, who focuses on the relational dimensions of trust between God and humanity, while minimizing sin. This is also a good reminder of the importance of the forensic character of the atonement, a perennial emphasis in Reformed theology and preaching, and one that must be preserved and preached.

D. Scott Meadows reviews A Treatise on True Theology with the Life of Franciscus Junius. Meadows provides a full summary of this foundational post-Reformation work of prolegomena, explaining the nature and origin of true theology. Both the summary and Junius’s work are masterful.

Ryan M. McGraw reviews What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always Reforming Church, by Gavin Ortlund. “What it Means to be Protestant reminds readers that, in many cases, what people are rejecting is not historic Protestantism, but a hollowed-out form of it detached from its historically core convictions.” Darryl Hart has also sounded a similar note in Still Protesting: Why the Reformation Still Matters (Reformation Heritage, 2018); and The Lost Soul of American Protestantism (Bowman & Littlefield, 2002).

Our poem this month is the powerful John Donne (1572–1631) “Holy Sonnet #4.” As a man who knew he was a sinner, but then as a Christian and a clergyman, he cries out in the face of death, “Oh my black soul!” His anguish and fear are only alleviated by bathing in the blood of Christ.

Our cover is a photo taken in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, through a stained-glass window, focusing on old technology in contrast with AI.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

FROM THE ARCHIVES “ATONEMENT, PROTESTANT, CONFESSION”
https://opc.org/OS/pdf/Subject_Index.pdf

• “Unlimited Atonement.” (G. I. Williamson) 4:3 (Jul. 1995): 71–72.
• “Courageous Protestantism? Some Reflections on David Wells’s Analysis of the Contemporary Church.” (Carl Trueman) 18 (2009): 114–21.
• “David Wells’s Response to Carl Trueman’s Review of His Five Books.” (David F. Wells) 18 (2009): 121–22.
• “On Being a Confessional Church.” (Gregory E. Reynolds) 13:1 (Jan. 2004): 11–13.

Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God-glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders, and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high-quality editorials, articles, and book reviews, we will endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic, confessional Presbyterianism.

[1] Danny Olinger, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Ordained Servant Online (March 2025).