Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
My Christological Journey (Part 4 of 12)

My Christological Journey (Part 4 of 12)

Last updated on: March 25, 2023 at 3:28 pm by Kermit Zarley

My Christological Journey (Part 4 of 12) 2023-03-25T15:28:11-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dr. S. Lewis Johnson Writes the Foreword in my First Book

The situation was quite the opposite with my dear friend Professor S. Lewis Johnson. But I did not talk to him about whether or not Jesus is God until I had studied it a few more years and then I felt prepared somewhat to discuss it with him.

I met Dr. S. Lewis Johnson in 1969 when I attended Believers’ Chapel while playing in the PGA Tour’s Dallas Open. He was then 53 years old, thus 25 years older than me. He was a fairly handsome man who stood erect at just over six feet tall. At about 180-190 pounds, he was in reasonably good shape. He had a rather deep voice with a distinctly southern accent. Lewis Johnson was a gentleman if ever there was one. And he was an avid golfer with a good golf swing. I felt privileged that Dr. S. Lewis Johnson eventually became my dear friend. (This photo of him was taken from the website sljinstitute.net.)

S. Lewis Johnson died in 2008 at age 88. The eulogy read at his funeral by Fred G. Zaspel includes the following paragraphs:

“Dr. Johnson was born in Birmingham, AL, and grew up in Charleston, SC. He was always quick to assure everyone that his smooth, dignified, and pleasant southern accent was actually ‘English in its pure form.’ He graduated from the College of Charleston with a B.A. degree in 1937 and was converted [to Christ] through the teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse while in the insurance business in Birmingham. He left the insurance business in 1943 to enter Dallas Theological Seminary, from which he received the Th.M (1946) and Th.D (1949) degrees. He completed further graduate work at the University of Edinburgh, Southern Methodist University, and in the University of Basel. Remaining at Dallas Seminary Dr. Johnson was Professor of New Testament from 1950 to 1972 and Professor of Systematic Theology from 1972 to 1977. He later served as Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Divinity School in Deerfield, IL, and as Visiting Professor of Systematic Theology at Tyndale Theological Seminary, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dr. Johnson preached and lectured in many places, large and small, taught countless home Bible studies, and was involved in starting several churches. In 1963 he and others planted Believers’ Chapel in Dallas, and it is from the Chapel that so many thousands of his tapes have gone to the benefit of countless people.

“He was in many ways a man to emulate. He was a true gentleman. He was always personable and a great delight in conversation. His humor was always good, and his wit was always quick. He was a careful student of the Scriptures with unusually superior abilities as an exegete and theologian. His abilities with the original languages were clearly superior, and when discussion began he would always lead from his Greek and Hebrew text.”

The SLJ Institute is dedicated solely to providing teachings of Dr. S. Lewis Johnson by means of its website sljinstitute.net. It now has 1,500 audio sermons delivered by Dr. Johnson between 1960 and 1990 at Believers Chapel Dallas. This website has a quote by John F. MacArthur, one of America’s most influential church pastors. He is known mostly for his radio program “Grace to You,” 150 authored books, The MacArthur Study Bible, and being president of The Masters University and The Masters Seminary, both in Southern California. MacArthur states, “Through the years I have listened to the preaching of S. Lewis Johnson far more than any other preacher.”

Lewis Johnson was Bob Thieme’s closest friend in the academy. Johnson sort of took the place of Thieme in my life. I came to regard Lewis as a mentor of mine even though I have never been theologically a Calvinist. Starting in 1970, I listened to hundreds of hours of electronic tapes of Dr. Johnson’s Bible teaching delivered at Believers Chapel. It included 120 hours of his systematic theology from a Calvinistic perspective. My views on ecclesiology have been much influenced by listening to Lewis’ messages on this subject. Due to his teaching on this, some people have thought he was a Plymouth Brethren, which is untrue. My favorite sermons I have ever heard were a series delivered by S. Lewis Johnson at Believers’ Chapel which he entitled, “Leading Figures in the Drama of Golgotha.” I still have those tapes.

Two years during the 1970s, I got Lewis to be the sole lecturer at our annual, three-day, Bible conference of the PGA Tour Bible Study. I always thought Lewis was not as known as much as he could have been. Bible scholars and theologians like S. Lewis Johnson gain notoriety by publishing. I once asked him why he had not published much. I was surprised when he said he didn’t believe much in it.

But I did. In about 1983, I mentioned to Lewis my idea about writing a book, which I had never done before. And it wasn’t going to be about golf. I was thinking of joining together all four NT gospels as a single-narrative or composite harmony. It is different from the well-known four-column harmony. Hopefully, it would be in a popular version of the Bible and I could get it published. This concept had first been tried by Christian apologist Tatian of Rome in 160 A.D. Titled The Diatessaron, it was quite popular for two centuries. Then a Catholic bishop in Syria strongly opposed it–wrongly alleging that one of Tatian’s purposes was to supplant the four gospels–by collecting and burning over 200 copies of The Diatessaron. While that largely led to its demise, translations and adaptations of it survived for many centuries.

Lewis thought it was a good idea, and he encouraged me to proceed. Yet I had very little education in writing. He even helped me by critiquing some of the drafts. Due to something about the first draft, he said, “this reads like you’re an amateur playing golf.” He got my attention. I learned some stuff from Lewis about writing. When the book was published by Scripture Press, in 1987, Lewis wrote the foreword in it. And both Evangelist Billy Graham and Pastor Dick Halverson, then chaplain to the U.S. Senate, wrote endorsements that went on the back cover. I was elated that these three men of such great stature as Christians were recommending my first book like this.

My Christological Journey (Part 5 of 12)

……………..

To see a list of titles of 130+ posts (2-3 pages) that are about Jesus not being God in the Bible, with a few about God not being a Trinity, at Kermit Zarley Blog click “Chistology” in the header bar. Most are condensations of my book, The Restitution of Jesus Christ. See my website servetustheevangelical.com, which is all about this book, with reviews, etc. Learn about my books and purchase them at kermitzarley.com. My books are: The Gospels Interwoven (1987); Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia (1990); The Third Day Bible Code (2006); The Restitution of Jesus Christ (2008); Warrior from Heaven (2009); Solving the Samaritan Riddle: Peter’s Kingdom Keys Explain Early Spirit Baptism (2015).

Education and Religion

Christology

Dr. S. Lewis Johnson

Evangelist Billy Graham

Tatian

U.S. Chaplain Dick Halverson

Previous Post

October 24, 2018

My Christological Journey (Part 3 of 12)

Next Post

October 26, 2018 My Christological Journey (Part 5 of 12)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many minor prophets are in the Old Testament?

Select your answer to see how you score.

12 10 14 16

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »