Lux Lucet

A few months back, Stephen Welch broke the story that Knox Seminary had hired John Armstrong and Peter Leithart as adjunct faculty members.  Apparently the public outcry got the better of the fine folks in Fort Lauderdale and the school dropped the names of Armstrong and Leithart from its website.  To this day I still don’t know either one is teaching there, and, in a way, it really doesn’t matter.  The school has tipped its hand as to its theological direction, and even if the dynamic duo of Leithart and Armstrong never set foot in the school, there’s every reason to believe that KTS will manage to dredge up someone else just as offensive in the near future, all the better to advance the cause of the school’s unique brand of “reformed” theology. 

But then, I do KTS too little honor.  For in fact, this very thing has already happened.    

While surfing the Knox website this evening I noticed something that I hadn’t seen before.  A new name on the Adjunct Faculty page:  Steve Carpenter.  “Steve Carpenter, Steve Carpenter,” I thought to myself, “why does that name sound familiar?”  Then, as if in a mystic vision, it dawned on me.  That guy!  He’s one of the fellows who helped Warren Gage develop his ideas on typology, the same ideas which Gage used in his doctoral dissertation, the same ideas which he repackaged as the John-Revelation Project, the same ideas which in 2007 blew Knox Seminary apart. 

Here are few things worth noting about Carpenter and his past involvement with Gage,

• Gage publically thanked Carpenter on the Acknowledgments page of his dissertation, writing, “Randy Beck and Steve Carpenter joined with me in this labor from the inception. Their encouragement and prayers were given to me at every step. Their insight and contributions are found on every page. What an adventure we have shared!”
• Several of the Study Papers that comprise the John-Revelation Project list Steve Carpenter as a copyright holder, see here, here and here for examples of this.
• Carpenter spoke at the both Unlocking Revelation conferences held by KTS. It was at these conferences, one in January 2004 and one in January 2006, that Gage – with a little help from his friends – presented his heretical typology to the general public.

“This is amazing stuff,” I thought. But then, after a little reflection, it occurred to me, “what if the Steve Carpenter on the Adjunct Faculty page is a different Steve Carpenter from the one who worked with Gage?” A little digging on the internet put that question to rest, for Steve Carpenter’s LinkedIn page identifies him as Executive Director of Word and Spirit Ministries and Adjunct Professor at Knox Seminary. From my research on Imaging a Vain Thing I know that the Steve Carpenter who helped Warren Gage write his dissertation is the same Steve Carpenter who’s with Word and Spirit Ministries, so this is for certain the same individual. Carpenter’s LinkedIn page also helped answer another question, How long has Carpenter been at Knox? According to the information posted there, Carpenter joined the faculty in 2010, so he’s a definite newbie at KTS.

None of this is really surprising. Warren Gage is nothing if not resourceful, energetic and focused. For several years now he’s had free rein to remake KTS in his own image, and the project is well on the way to completion. That being the case, there’s really nothing shocking about him bringing his posse on board. I can hardly wait to see his next move. Who knows, maybe a new and improved version of the John-Revelation Project is in the works. I can only imagine.