Some of you
are very familiar with one of the most reliable and creative scholars of the Hebrew Old
Testament extant today, Dr Palmer Robertson. But others of you don’t know a
thing about him. Allow me to let you into our relationship. Palmer and I met in
September 1961 at Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia. I was beginning the three-year
course there, while Palmer was the senior student and completing his studies.
He was chairing the welcome meeting for us freshmen as the new term began. That
is the first time I was to hear his beautiful Mississippi accent that I have
come to consider the Number One accent in the USA.
We were to meet
18 years later in 1979 when we were speakers at the Pensacola Institute of
Theology in Florida. We both had three girls and the six got on well together
as did our wives. Subsequently Palmer, on his sabbatical years from teaching at
various USA Presbyterian seminaries, came to Cambridge generally to write his
helpful books and it was in that university city we also met on a number of
occasions. For example, I preached at the university CU Christmas carol
service, not very well, but Palmer encouraged me afterwards. He has also spoken
at an Aberystwyth Conference weekend and at Banner of Truth Ministers’
conferences.
When his lovely
wife died he subsequently married the delightful Joanna. He honoured me by
inviting me to be best man. God subsequently gave them three sons, Murray,
Daniel and Elliot. Palmer spent many years teaching in a couple of East African
countries. We even met there! But now he has retired to Winston Salem in North
Carolina and his oldest son Murray has just got married to Hannah.
Last year
came the great test for Palmer and family. Early in the year he was ill and
upon examination was told that he had rectal cancer. He says, “The doctor’s
words didn’t arouse fear, terror, hopelessness, but instead a complete
calmness. God knows what he is doing. We will wait on Him. Then came the
surgery, and I was told, ‘for several weeks you will not feel like doing
anything. You will not be able to concentrate. You will hardly be able to move
about.’ Then after some months came the post-operative analysis and the medics’
conclusion was this, ‘You are perfectly cleared of all cancer. You have no need
of chemotherapy.’ Hallelujah!
“Then followed
the months of recovery. At first I could not walk from one end of the house to
the other without panting for breath. Then gradually I could walk a block to
the end of the street. Finally I would walk 15 minutes, and then a half-hour,
then a full hour. Praise the LORD! Glory to Him for his healing grace. As the
psalmist says, He heals all your diseases, either in this life or in the
life to come.”
All this made a memorable 2021 for Palmer and Joanna,
but more was to come that same year. Palmer has been on an eight-year writing
project entitled The Christ of the Consummation. A New Testament Biblical Theology.
Volume 1: The Testimony of the Four Gospels. Off the Robertsons went again
to Cambridge, ileostomy bag and all! Palmer spent a month in Tyndale House to
do the final research under the eye of the publisher’s editor, and in the
opening days of this year that project was done and dusted. Incredible . . . but why should we be surprised at the
mountains of achievement that men of God climb – Luther, Wesley, Chalmers, Spurgeon,
Bavinck, Lloyd-Jones, MacArthur, Mohler. Even we mere Christians too can do all
things through the Christ who gives us strength and enables us, certainly achieving
much more than we are doing now. Palmer has written at least fifteen books
including Christ of The Covenants, Final Word, The Israel of God: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, Covenants: God's way with his people, The Christ of the Prophets. I fondly think of him as the Alec Motyer of the USA.
The pastor of the International Presbyterian Church in London (that was founded by the late Francis Schaeffer), Paul Levi, asked me to speak at three consecutive Tuesday lunch time meetings at their church this month of May at 1.05 p.m. I decided I would give three messages of one of the offices of Christ, that is, the fact of his being a prophet. So, I asked the question what were the people referring to when they agreed that no man every spoke as he spoke. The first morning I answered it by speaking of the authority with which he spoke and I broke it down into three categories.
Firstly, the independence of thought and
originality with which he spoke. He never quoted the ancient rabbis and hid his
opinions behind their statements. He said, “Very verily I say unto you,” and on
the basis of his own authority spoke out on oaths, divorce, the sabbath and
Scripture itself, constantly and simply in his own name. Even demons recognized
his authority,
Secondly, he had this tremendous cogency, how
beautifully compellingly he spoke, though constantly provocative and controversial.
He commanded attention in whatever he said.
Thirdly, the Lord Jesus had the deepest confidence in what he was saying, that it was utterly relevant to every single one of his hearers. Are you building your life on the teaching of Christ? Then you are like the man He spoke about who built his home on a rock and so it was able to withstand all the pressures and storms of a hostile world. Christ’s teaching accepted and practised makes you a survivor, but better still, even “more than a conqueror.”
Geoff Thomas
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