Author: Radmacher, Earl
Genre: Theology - Ecclesiology
Tags: Church
Series:
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
Earl Radmacher (1931-2014) was president of Western (Conservative) Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon from 1965 to 1990. This book published by the seminary in 1972, with a second printing by Moody Press in 1978. The current copy was published by Schoettle Publishing Company in 1996. I found my copy of the book in the bottom of a box where I had forgotten it. Upon discovery, I read it cover to cover. There are so many good things in the book that would have been useful to me throughout my teaching, writing, and pastoring years. The book contains six sections. 1) Introduction, with a history of Catholic and Protestant ecumenicity and theological reaction. 2) The History of the Doctrine, from the patristic period through the Reformation years. 3) The usage of ekklesia, containing Hebrew and Greek etymologies. 4) Considerations of the universal church, defending the biblical ideaa 5) Doctrine of the nature of the universal church, with a great study on the metaphors of Body, Bride, Building, Priesthood, Flock, and Branches. 6) Doctrine of the local church, showing the relationship between the universal and local aspects.
Radmacher believed in the primacy of the local church. He saw the local church as an earthly representation of the universal church, yet containing earthly requirements which could only be found in a earthly, physical church. This, no doubt, was a great text on the church in his day.