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Ware elected ETS vice president, will serve as president in ’09


WASHINGTON (BP)–In November 2009 Bruce Ware will become the first faculty member from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to serve as president of the Evangelical Theological Society.

Ware was elected vice president by a unanimous vote of fellow scholars at ETS’ 58th annual at the Washington Hilton in mid-October. He will serve as vice president for a year and then as president-elect for a year before assuming the ETS presidency. ETS officers comprise the organization’s executive committee.

“I am humbled and grateful for the honor of serving in this capacity,” Ware said. “I consider it a real privilege to receive this recognition from my colleagues and peers in the evangelical academic field. I trust the Lord will be honored in how we serve in this capacity.”

Ware has labored on the front lines of upholding biblical truth in evangelicalism for the past decade. In 2000, he authored “God’s Lesser Glory,” a work defending the historic orthodox doctrine of God in the face of attacks by open theism — a position which argues, among other things, that God does not know perfectly what will happen in the future.

In 2004, Ware wrote a companion volume titled “God’s Greater Glory” in which he positively asserted the classical doctrine of God from Scripture and church history.

He has also been active in the gender debate, arguing in favor of the complementary roles of men and women in the church and home as set forth in Scripture. In his 2005 book “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance,” Ware demonstrated the significance of the roles played by each person of the Godhead in redemption as a model for gender roles in the home and church as contrasted to egalitarian arguments to the contrary.

Ware said his service on ETS’ executive committee will provide an opportunity to continue asserting orthodox, biblical Christianity. Ware has written numerous other books, is a member of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and he serves as an elder at Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.

“As far as the significance of it [his role as an ETS officer], I think it really depends on the issues that come up during the years that I serve on the executive committee,” he said.

“Only God knows and He does know what those issues might be, and as they come, if they come I certainly want to be faithful to the Lord in representing His Word and giving leadership and making decisions that would be honoring to Him and that would be faithful to Scripture.”

Russell D. Moore, dean of the school of theology and senior vice president of academic administration at Southern Seminary, said Ware is an ideal leader who brings a pastor’s heart and a scholar’s mind to ETS.

“Bruce Ware’s election by the Evangelical Theological Society is a recognition by his peers of Dr. Ware’s status as one of the preeminent theologians of the contemporary era. Dr. Ware has served the church with insight but also with courage,” Moore said.

“When faced with error, such as the move toward the so-called ‘openness of God’ on the part of some evangelical theologians, Dr. Ware stood in the role of Athanasius, warning us of the danger of that path. Bruce Ware will bring to the leadership of the ETS the kind of vision and conviction he has shown throughout his entire ministry. We at Southern Seminary are thrilled by this development,” Moore said.
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  • Jeff Robinson

    Jeff Robinson is director of news and information at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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