by John B. Carpenter

Josh Buice’s elders at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church must have faced a mighty temptation. The popularity of their G3 conference and the prominence of their church seemed to rely, to some extent, on Pastor Buice, yet they had caught him in unfaithfulness and deception. Not the sexual kind of unfaithfulness. That would have been an easy call. We all know that sexual sin warrants church discipline. However, disciplining someone for broken promises, lies, and cover-ups, is less commonly recognized. The temptation was to make excuses for it. A little devil could have whispered into their ears: some biblical books are anonymous, so what’s wrong with pseudonymous X accounts? There were a myriad of ways they could have rationalized Buice’s on-line conduct. The easiest would have been to ignore it altogether. Perhaps the news would never have surfaced, or, if it did, most editors might have dismissed it as a non-story. After all, there was no sex or embezzlement. Just pretend it’s no big deal, and many would likely have agreed. But the Pray’s Mill elders resisted those temptations. They deserve commendation. They did the right thing. When Buice is restored, it will be through their faithfulness.

Now, what about the scandal at The Gospel Coalition’s (TGC) Themelios? You haven’t heard about it yet because, so far, no one at TGC has been as principled as Buice’s elders. On June 3, 2024, the general editor, Brian Tabb, promised Dr. Contributor, “I’m pleased to accept your article … for publication in Themelios.” Sounds like a done deal, iron-clad. Echoing the same promise, the managing elder of Themelios, JV Fesko, assured Dr. Contributor, his article “will appear in the … journal.” “Will” is unequivocal. He had some suggestions to make the article “as good as it can be,” but the deal was done. Take it to the bank. After all, the Bible tells us that we’re to be such people of our word that even if our promise turns out “to our own hurt,” we do “not change” (Psalm 15:6). The Lord Jesus said, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’…” (Mt. 5:37). He meant that one should be so dependable there is no need for make oath or to sign a contract. James repeats the Lord Jesus’ “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ command, adding that we should follow it “above all” (James 5:12). Above all the commands, James says—most importantly—be a person of integrity, a promise-keeper. Even our culture knows this. Or used to. Such sayings as “A man’s word is his bond,” “You’re only as good as your word,” used to be common. Those principles shaped our culture so much that in law, there are “verbal contracts” that can be enforced in court. Even by the standards of our secular society, Themelios’ editors’ broken promises are scandalous.

Yes, the editors had their reasons – or excuses – such as claiming that Martin Luther didn’t teach baptismal regeneration. But he did. Just read Luther’s catechism on baptism. (I disagree with him, but that’s what he taught, as any Lutheran professor will confirm.) Further, they seriously argued that church discipline was not practiced before the Reformation (insert Trump gif leaning into the mic saying “wrong!”) and that church discipline has been regularly practiced since (re-insert same gif). This, they claimed, proves that the doctrine of regeneration has changed, or something like that. If that sounds nonsensical to you, it’s because you’re thinking. They even seriously suggested that R. C. Sproul, when informal, is not a good spokesman for Reformed theology. I’m not kidding.

Dr. Contributor appealed to Themelios’ board. He got some sympathy but no action. He then appealed to TGC, which oversees Themelios. He didn’t even get any sympathy. So far, TGC has shown less integrity the Pray’s Mill elders. They gave in to the temptations the Pray’s Mill elders rejected.

The broken promises made to Dr. Contributor are not the only scandal here. TGC holds up Themelios as its “peer-reviewed” journal. They love the prestige that comes from having a “peer-reviewed” journal. That’s a big deal in academia. “Peer reviewed” — rather than editor-curated — is the gold standard in academic publishing. It means that the articles are reviewed by an expert scholar who doesn’t know the authorship of the article. That way, the article is approved or rejected on its merits, not because the author is a big name and so click-bait, or because the article caters to the biases of the editor. The expert reviewer gave Dr. Contributor’s article a thumbs up. That should settle the matter of its publication in any real “peer-reviewed” journal. But the editors decided to never-mind the expert reviewer. On other occasions, an expert source at Themelios revealed that the editors “sometimes published essays which I rated poorly.” That is, Themelios disregards the expert reviewers while touting it to be “peer-reviewed.” Besides cheating contributors like Dr. Contributor, they are cheating the academic world by representing their editor-curated magazine as if it were a “peer-reviewed journal.”

G3 chose not to cheat its attendees by pretending nothing was awry. G3 could have concocted excuses to sweep everything under the rug and keep the conference gravy train rolling. To their immense credit, they did not. TGC looked at Themelios’ editors’ broken commitments, their lame excuses, and, so far, has not shown G3’s backbone. Maybe the embarrassment of this article will finally move them.

John B. Carpenter (@CovenantReform2), aka “Dr. Contributor,” is pastor of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church and the author of Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church (Wipf & Stock, 2022) and the Covenant Caswell substack.