At the biennial Reformed gathering known as Together for the Gospel, Dr. J. Ligon Duncan asked Did the Fathers Know the Gospel? (hat tip: Justin). Rev. Duncan’s answer was an emphatic Yes. “These are our people,” he asserted, proceeding to cite, nay, perform stirring passages of gospel witness from the ancient Church. The following is a syllogism that seemed to spring naturally from this wonderful address.
Major Premise: (in Rev. Duncan’s words, starting at 29:33) “The Fathers were best in polemics… When you read the Fathers in any area which was a matter of dispute and debate in the church of their time, they almost always got it right, and gloriously so.”
Minor Premise: The Iconoclastic controversy was the final Patristic showdown, the last great “matter of dispute and debate in the church of their time.”
Conclusion: The Fathers were gloriously right on the matter of icons.
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