Theopedia

Millard Erickson

Millard J. Erickson is an American Baptist theologian best known for his three-volume, later single-volume, systematic theology, first published in 1983 and now in its third edition.1 A dissertation on Trinitarian theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary calls it, alongside Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, one of “the two most widely used baptistic systematic theologies today.”2

Theological Contribution

Order of salvation

Erickson’s Christian Theology proposes an order of salvation that combines elements of both Calvinist and Arminian soteriology. He writes:

Salvation consists of three steps: effectual calling, conversion, and regeneration. Through the Holy Spirit, God calls the unbeliever to salvation. The human response to that call involves turning from sin to faith in Christ. Faith also includes belief. God responds by regenerating the person to new life in Christ.3

Matthew Barrett’s dissertation on effectual calling and regeneration describes this as a “tertium quid” that borrows from both traditions.4 Erickson places an effectual, particular call before conversion, agreeing with Calvinism against a merely general gospel call; he then places regeneration after conversion rather than before it, agreeing with Arminianism against the traditional Reformed order. He acknowledges the tension this creates with total depravity, conceding that “to say that conversion is prior to regeneration would seem to be a denial of total depravity,” but argues that passages such as Acts 2:38 and Acts 16:31 present conversion as preceding regeneration.5 His resolution is to treat the effectual call as partial rather than total: an “intensive and effectual working by the Holy Spirit” that renders conversion certain without itself completing the transformation regeneration accomplishes.5 Erickson likens this effectual call to the Arminian doctrine of prevenient grace, differing only in that his version is limited to the elect and secures a positive response rather than remaining resistible.6 Barrett’s own introduction to the same dissertation calls Erickson’s proposal “the modified position which has gained perhaps the most popularity and momentum among contemporary evangelicals.”7

The Trinity and divine simplicity

Daniel Scheiderer’s dissertation on the pactum salutis summarizes Erickson’s Trinitarian doctrine as resting on six claims: that the unity of God is basic, that the deity of each of the three persons must be affirmed, that the threeness and oneness of God are not in the same respect, that the Trinity is eternal, that one person’s function may for a time be subordinate to the others’, and that the Trinity is incomprehensible.2 Erickson departs from the classical doctrine of divine simplicity that theologians such as James Dolezal have defended in recent years, writing of simplicity in its classical form that “it appears that simplicity, in its classical formulation, is at best a problematic attribute, and perhaps not an attribute at all.”2 In place of simplicity, Erickson has compared the unity of God to “the unity of a husband and wife.”8

Historical Significance

Christian Theology is still assigned in Baptist and evangelical seminary teaching decades after its first edition.2 Erickson’s modified order of salvation has also drawn sustained attention from Reformed critics, who group it with similar proposals by Gordon Lewis and Bruce Demarest as attempts to hold Calvinist and Arminian soteriology together in a single ordo salutis.4

Related Doctrines

References

  1. Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), quoted in Daniel David Scheiderer, “Introduction,” in “Eternal Covenant: The Trinitarian Shape of an Historic Baptist Doctrine” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2022), 15. ↩

  2. Daniel David Scheiderer, “Introduction,” in “Eternal Covenant: The Trinitarian Shape of an Historic Baptist Doctrine” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2022), 15: “the two most widely used baptistic systematic theologies today are those by Millard Erickson and Wayne Grudem.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 941, quoted in Matthew Michael Barrett, “The Tertium Quid: The Failure of Recent Attempts at a Via Media,” in “Reclaiming Monergism: The Case for Sovereign Grace in Effectual Calling and Regeneration” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2011), 358. ↩

  4. Barrett, “The Tertium Quid,” 356. ↩ ↩2

  5. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed., 944-45, quoted in Barrett, “The Tertium Quid,” 359-60. ↩ ↩2

  6. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed., quoted in Barrett, “The Tertium Quid,” 360-61. ↩

  7. Matthew Michael Barrett, “Introduction,” in “Reclaiming Monergism: The Case for Sovereign Grace in Effectual Calling and Regeneration” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2011), 15. ↩

  8. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed., quoted in Daniel David Scheiderer, “Trinity and an Eternal Covenant,” in “Eternal Covenant” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2022), 122. ↩