Why Is BP Ware's Consistent With The Evangelical Tradition

BP Ware’s book is largely consistent with the evangelical tradition, even though he intermittently provokes the evangelical tradition. In conversing of God as the creator, Ware states that God created ex nihilo, or “out of nothing” (44). In accordance with the evangelical tradition and John 1:3, God created the world from nothing, and He is the reason for its continuing existence. The implications of this statement, while nuanced, mean “God created the universe by an act of his free will [as] nothing compelled him to create” (44). While this distinction resembles the evangelical tradition, Ware states that some people retain knowledge of God and “can enter by grace into communion with him,” like “Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and Moses” (62). Ware is likely referring to Hebrews 11, which mentions each of these figures, who testify to the coming Messiah through their faith, even though they never met Jesus Christ.

This is in contradiction with evangelical tradition and Acts 4:12, which states, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Believers after the time of Christ are saved through their knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ, while the men and women in Hebrews 11 are saved through the promise of the Messiah. To espouse that a pagan man with no knowledge of YHWH or Jesus Christ, despite his intellectual stupor, belongs amidst the church patriarchs and matriarchs is quite thought provoking for the