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At the biennial Reformed gathering known as Together for the Gospel, Dr. J. Ligon Duncan asked Did the Fathers Know the Gospel? (hat tip: Justin). Rev. Duncan’s answer was an emphatic Yes.  “These are our people,” he asserted, proceeding to cite, nay, perform stirring passages of gospel witness from the ancient Church.  The following is a syllogism that seemed to spring naturally from this wonderful address.

Major Premise:  (in Rev. Duncan’s words, starting at 29:33) “The Fathers were best in polemics...   When you read the Fathers in any area which was a matter of dispute and debate in the church of their time, they almost always got it right, and gloriously so.”

Minor Premise:  The Iconoclastic controversy was the final Patristic showdown, the last great “matter of dispute and debate in the church of their time.”

Conclusion:  The Fathers were gloriously right on the matter of icons.


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