Ernest Kevan Leader in twentieth century British Evangelicalism, by Paul E. Brown

Ernest Kevan: Leader in twentieth century British Evangelicalism,

 Paul E. Brown, Banner of Truth Trust, 2012, 294pp

Ernest Kevan is best known as the founding principal of London Bible College, or London School of Theology as it is now called. He was also the author of a significant work on the Puritan theology of the law, entitled, The Grace of Law. Beyond those two facts, I don’t suppose many readers will know much about the subject of this first-rate biography. I certainly didn’t. Paul Brown has done the Christian world a service in rescuing Ernest Kevan from a measure of undeserved obscurity. The author studied at the London Bible College under Kevan.

Brown delves into his family history and charts the spiritual influences that by God’s grace helped to make him the man he was. Before becoming principal of London Bible College, Kevan was a Strict Baptist pastor. The Lord’s blessing was evident in the churches where he preached. Kevan was keen to engage the communities that surrounded the churches he served, offering practical help to those in need as well as proclaiming the gospel. Although he and his wife, Jennie were not blessed with children, Ernest head a great heart for little ones and his children’s talks were legendary for their clarity and winsomeness.

Kevan was an important figure in the resurgence of Evangelical and Reformed Christianity in the post-war period. What Martyn Lloyd-Jones was doing in his Westminster Chapel pulpit, Kevan was doing from his London Bible College lectern. Both men exposed a new generation to the riches of Puritan and Reformed theology. That’s not to say that Kevan and Lloyd-Jones always agreed. The former was more comfortable working with the theologically mixed denominations that the latter. Lloyd-Jones was critical of London Bible College offering the London University approved BD degree. The Westminster Chapel preacher would have nothing to do with the Billy Graham Crusades of the 1950’s. Despite Kevan’s misgivings concerning the Evangelist’s appeals for people to come forward and make a profession of faith, he penned some useful booklets that helped to ground new converts in the faith. While the ‘Doctor’ declined invitations to speak at the Keswick Conference due to its adherence to a faulty doctrine of sanctification, Kevan spoke there on a number of occasions. His addresses on Romans encouraged the conference to move away from its traditional ‘Higher Life’ teachings. It is interesting to ponder whether Kevan's "in it to win it" or Lloyd-Jones' "They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them." approach proved more effective. 

At Kevan’s memorial service John Stott remarked on his ‘strength and gentleness’, two qualities that are not always found in the same person. Kevan was a scholar with a pastor’s heart, the best kind of man to lead a Bible College. At a time when Evangelical scholarship was virtually regarded as a contradiction in terms he showed that it is possible to be theologically conservative and intellectually rigorous. He was indeed a key leader in twentieth century British Evangelicalism. He bold, yet gracious witness to the truth should not be forgotten.

Reviewed for Protestant Truth. 

The Grace of Law by Ernest F. Kevan

The Grace of Law: A Study in Puritan Theology,

Ernest F. Kevan, Soli Deo Gloria, 1993, 294pp.

A confession. I'm something of a chronological snob. Not a full blown one, mind you. I count Augustine, Calvin, Owen and Bavinck among my favourite authors. But I'm a chronological snob none the less. Unless it's stuff that's over, say, a hundred years old, I have difficulty in reading anything other than recent publications.  This year's titles and last year's, yes. The year before that, maybe. But anything before 2009 is so out of date. It's an unfortunate quirk, I know, but there we are.

What to do, then with a book originally published in the 1960's and reprinted in 1993. That's neither decently old or fresh and up to date. Best leave it gathering dust on the shelf. But then I was sent a copy of the author's biography to review, Ernest Kevan: Leader in Twentieth Century Evangelicals, by Paul E. Brown (Banner of Truth, 2012) . How could I do a proper review of the subject's life  if I wasn't acquainted with his key book? Time to crucify my chronological snobbery, swallow hard and dust off The Grace of Law. Glad I did too. 

In their historical context the Puritans had to engage with three divergent, yet erroneous views on law of God.  They had to avoid the Scylla of the legalists, who taught salvation by law and the Charybdis of the antinomians, who rejected the law as a rule of life for believers. To make things more complicated, they also had to resist the Siren voices of the neonomians, who turned the gospel into a new, easier-to-keep version of the law. That all sounds very seventeenth century. But like the poor, legalists and antinomians are always with us in one form or another. And there is more than a passing resemblance between Richard Baxter's neonomian conception of the law and the position advocated by Tom Wright and his 'new perspective' fellow-travellers. The Puritans provide us with the theological resources to respond to contemporary versions of  the heterodox views on the law with which they had to battle.

Kevan ransacked the works of the Puritans in order to recover their thinking on the law of God. He provides a richly  detailed and nuanced study of the Puritan view of the law as an expression of God's commanding authority. Amongst other things he discuses the law and sin, the place of the law in the covenant purposes of God, the law and justification, and grace-enabled Christian law keeping. The Puritans did not regard the law of God as a burden on the believer. Rather, they taught that the joyful keeping of  the law is the authentic expression of  Christian liberty from the bondage of sin. In the words of William Perkins, "The more we are bound to obedience, the freer we are: because the service of God is not bondage, but perfect libertie." (Cited on p. 247-248). 

The Grace of Law, Kevan's Phd thesis makes for a demanding, yet rewarding read. If nothing else, his work has helped liberate me from my chronological snobbery against books that either aren't new enough or old enough to warrant my usual attention. Now I'm ready to make a start on the author's biography.