The Christians For Biblical Equality conference in Seattle this weekend brought sad news of the death of evangelical theologian, pastor, and statesman John R. W. Stott, whose writings have encouraged millions of people throughout the world.
Stott was a celibate, an egalitarian, and an annihilationist; I have referred to his beliefs about women in Church leadership many times, and he made my understanding and eventual embrace of annihilationism more comfortable, but no less challenging.
Annihilationism is the belief — borne, I conclude, from the testimony of Scripture — that the unsaved will be annihilated at the consummation of the eschaton. In rejecting late in life the doctrine of eternal conscious torment, Stott found himself on the receiving end of tremendous vilification from others in the evangelical community, who apparently forgot not only his immense contributions to the furtherance of the Kingdom of God but also their own responsibility to engage in charity while critiquing the beliefs of a man universally described as gentle, reasonable, and sober in thought and in action.
Stott was not the most fiery defender of egalitarianism, but he argued from the Word that woman should be allowed, as the gifts of the Spirit enable them, to serve the Church as elders and pastors. He clung to a conservative view of male headship in the home, but even his “soft complementarianism” in the arena of home and hearth brought him criticism from more traditional Christians.
Yet he continued to serve, and his passing last week ought to steer us all toward re-immersion in his writings — all of which steer the Spirit-guided reader toward Jesus. Everything in Stott’s life indicates that that was his sole purpose in serving Christ, and I pray that it becomes ours as well.