In This Issue

Reformed Faith & Practice completes its first year of publication with a collection of historical and theological essays by RTS faculty, written in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the seminary.  Also featured is an extended review article by Dr. Gregory Lanier on two recently published New Testament Greek grammars. Because of the length of these articles, we do not include book reviews in this issue, but they will return in future issues.

This Jubilee year for Reformed Theological Seminary is also a time of transition, as we say farewell to two senior members of our faculty, John M. Frame and Douglas J. Kelly. We dedicate this issue of Reformed Faith & Practice to them in gratitude for their years of service and leadership on the faculty, and we are pleased to include tributes by two former students and colleagues.

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The Real Deal

Mark D. Futato

John Frame – the real deal. That’s probably not what you would expect as the opening line of a tribute for a well-known scholar. But it’s the truth.

John has been my theology professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, my colleague at Westminster in California and Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, and a fellow elder on the session of a local church. Over a span of 30 years I have watched John raise children, teach students, encourage colleagues, and care for people in the local church. John is the real deal.

John is faithfully there – Monday morning prayers, Wednesday morning chapel. He is faithfully there – his office door cracked open, as if to say, “Though I may be busily writing my next book, I am always here for you. Just knock and have a seat.” He is faithfully there – responding to emails from laity and clergy and fellow academicians, and not with a perfunctory reply but with thoroughness and thoughtfulness and care. John is the real deal.

John does not say a lot in meetings. But when he speaks, he does so with a clarity and charity that reveal a man who is both wise and humble. Those who know John have learned as much if not more from how he says as from what he says. John is the real deal.

John’s wife, an angel, Mary Frame, has certainly been used by God to shape John into the man that he has become. And John has certainly been used by God to shape us into the people that we are. His influence is deep and wide through countless lectures given and multiple books written. His legacy is lasting through who he is, John Frame – the real deal.

Common Meter for an Uncommon Man

D. Blair Smith

Reader of the hallowed Classics—
first the Greeks and Latins,
then the Fathers and Reformers.
Preacher of the Scriptures—

through tongues both Gaelic and Anglo,
in pulpits high and low.
Professor of Divinity—
to a generation’s

ministers and missionaries,
who studied under him
in the holy seminary.
Stormer of Heaven—on

his knees for his family and
friends, for his nation and
church, the beloved Bride of Christ.
He has poured out his life

as a living sacrifice to
the Holy Trinity,
and Christo et Ecclesiae
has ordered his labors.

I give thanks to God that in him,
Dr. Douglas Kelly,
I’ve taken in the sweet smelling
aroma of heaven.