I just received this e-mail from the Trinity Foundation:
"Dear Friends,
John William Robbins (1948-2008) died at his home in Unicoi County, Tennessee on Thursday, August, 14. He was 59.
The youngest child of Seamon L. and Edith S. Robbins of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, Dr. Robbins is survived by his wife of 35 years, Linda; his three daughters, Juley Grady of Georgia, Laura Juodaitis of Tennessee, and Meri Robbins of the home; two sons-in-law, six grandchildren, two brothers, a sister, a brother-in-law, sister-in-law, five nephews, and a niece; and an uncle and aunt. He was preceded in death by his parents and several other aunts and uncles.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to either Reformation Church of Unicoi or to The Trinity Foundation, which Dr. Robbins founded and presided over for more than 30 years. The mailing address is Post Office Box 68, Unicoi, Tennessee 37692."
I met Robbins a few years ago at an ETS conference and secured several of Clark's books at a significant discount. My brief encounter with him was cordial, and I explained to him how Clark had unsettled me just like Hume had awakened Kant from his dogmatic slumbers. The church has endured a loss for his passing, but as with all the great servants of Christ, though he is dead, yet he still speaks-that is in his myriad of writings.
Robbins stood for the truth in a truth-hating society, and urged the church to defend truth in a religious world more interested in feelings, intuitions and the latest secular fads. As a Baptist, I do not share Robbins' entire advocacy of the Westminster Confession, but he was a stalwart defender of reformed theology of the best kind. He never shied away from naming names and exposing error, wherever he found it. In this regard, I believe the works that will be treasured by future generations of readers will include the co-authored (with Sean Gerety) "Not Reformed at All," and "The Companion to The Current Justification Controversy," both of which deal with error in the church. If you have not read Robbins, nor read anything from Gordon H. Clark, whose writings Robbins championed, you are missing out on a unique perspective. I urge you to get on the mailing list of the Trinity Foundation and visit their website to read many of Robbins's essays and to listen to his lectures. www.trinityfoundation.org
I'm saddened to hear of Robbins' passing. Although I criticized him a recent blog post of my own, he was on-the-money right about clericalism in the PCA, as well as the other fads and foibles that afflict what has become more a Laodicean affinity group than a church.
And although I criticized what he failed to say, I am still thinking about what he did say.
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8/17/08 8:11 AM
