What I'm Reading - October 19, 2010

This Sunday we will be discussing the Immutability of God.  It should be a fascinating time of discussion and preaching.  As a result, much of what I will be engulfed in will reflect that.  In addition I am still taking a class on the Doctrine of Scripture. 




















































Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (RE: Lit) by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears
Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth  by Charles Ryrie
Systematic Theology - 3 Volume Set  by Charles Hodge
Abstract of Systematic Theology by James Boyce
God and Creation by Thomas Aquinas
Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine by Wayne Grudem
Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, God/Creation by Norman Geisler

My Top 5 Essential Works of Theology of the Past 25 Years

There has been a lot of talk about posting one's five most significant theological books of the past 25 years.  Therefore, I decided to play.  What follows is my initial list of books that I consider must reads for all Christians who want to take theology seriously.  These are central reads.  I am avoiding systematic theology works and focusing just on single books focused on a particular issue (most of them have to deal with the gospel).  Though more could be added to this list, I believe this is an excellent read that will keep you busy and bless you in the process.


Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything by Adrian Warnock - Few are righting on the theological aspect of the resurrection.  There are plenty of books on the cross and its significance, but few are written on the resurrection and what it has to do with our salvation.  Warnock offers one of the best books I've read on the subject.  The resurrection is salvific and practical.  The author walks the reader through how the resurrection benefits us and also gives the standard development of proof of the resurrection and so forth.  As a Reformed Christian/pastor I found myself greatly influenced by this book.  Many know a lot about the cross but few have thought much, unfortunately, about the resurrection.

For a fuller review, click here.




Death by Love: Letters from the Cross (Re:Lit) by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears - How does the cross apply to all of us?  Pastor Mark Driscoll and theologian Gerry Breshears offer a book applying the cross, and its various aspects, to real life issues.  Each chapter is a letter written by the authors to real life people in real life situations in which the authors apply the cross.  This book has really shaped by pastoral approach.  Now when I enter a home or deal with the many struggles of life, I offer hope and answers through the cross, not self-help Bibleisms.  "Preach Christ," we are told in the New Testament, and Driscoll and Breshears show us how.

For a fuller review, click here.




The Sovereignty Of God by Arthur W. Pink - A. W. Pink is a writer of classic works and I consider his book on the Sovereignty of God to be among his finest.  Pink forces us to be more balanced in our approach to studying the doctrine of God and especially when studying His Sovereignty.  Pink is very quotable and writes like no one else.  Pink offers a more Calvinistic understanding of the doctrine, but don't caricature the book based on that information.  What Pink writes is Biblical and should be taken seriously.  He uplifts God, putting Him on His throne, in does not write in an arrogant, academic style.  This book blew me away and will certainly be available on my bookshelf for I plan on returning to it. Have your pen or pencil reading when you do read it.

I know its over 25 years old, but I couldn't resist.  Its that important!  For a fuller review, click here.

The Gospel According to Jesus: What Is Authentic Faith? by John MacArthur - When John MacArthur wrote The Gospel According to Jesus the evangelical world was rocked with controversy.  The controversy centers on the Lordship debate and in response, MacArthur penned one of his most popular and important books.  What is important about this book isn't just the context in which it is written, but what it promotes.  The title is adequate:  the book is about the gospel as proclaimed by Jesus Christ.  The newer addition includes at least one new chapter and other additions and is a must read for Christians.  We must recover the gospel as proclaimed by the New Testament writers and personalities.  The gospel isn't unclear.  The gospel according to Jesus isn't unclear.  Therefore, let us proclaim the gospel as it is without offer our own interpretations or trying to fit it into our current beliefs or culture.  If you read one book among MacArthur, start with this one.  It is a classic in its own right.




Knowing God (HARDCOVER) by J. I. Packer -  Packer needs no introduction.  His influence among theologians today is immense.  His most popular book is Knowing God and for good reason.  It too is a classic.  The book does what the title suggests:  the author seeks to guide the reader into understanding who God is.  Knowing God is the beginning of everything.  Knowing who God is is central to all that we are and believe.  Get God wrong, and everything else will be wrong.  Theology Proper is ignored today and that is to our own shame.  Evangelicalism looks weak because they know little to nothing about their Creator.  Packer offers a deeply theological book that is immensely practical.  For those wanting to know more about God, click here.

For a fuller review, click here.


NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN READS:

Their God Is Too Small: Open Theism and the Undermining of Confidence in God by Bruce A. Ware
Gripped by the Greatness of God by James MacDonald
Ancient Word, Changing Worlds: The Doctrine of Scripture in a Modern Age by Stephen J. Nichols
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance by Bruce A. Ware
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Ivp Classics) by J. I. Packer
A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God  by John Piper


For more:
Christian Century - Essential Theology Books of the Past 25 Years  
First Things (David Mills) - Essential Theological Books 
Reviews - My Top 5 Must Reads  

"The Sovereignty of God"

In all of the books available believers at the average Christian bookstore virtually nothing is said about God.  No deep practical theology proper is really offered.  Sure a few theology books here and there, but at the end of the day we insult the intelligence of the average believer.  Assuming that Christians can't understand theology, especially theology proper, we ignore the subject all together.  This week I am reading and studying the Sovereignty of God in preparation for a sermon on the subject.  Thankfully, I found a book that neither insults my intelligence and at the same time met me where I am at.

The book I am talking about is Arthur W. Pink's classic book The Sovereignty Of God and it is a must read for all Christians.  Everyone must deal with this doctrine.  Not just on an intellectual or academic level, but on a practical, every-day-life level.  This is not a book for academics in ivory towers, but for Christians suffering, struggling, and exploring.  Who is God is the most important question we can ask and after reading this book, the reader will be closer to understanding our Creator as He has revealed Himself.

The sovereignty of God is central to our understanding of God.

Pink is very quotable and I am tempted to fill up a lot of space dedicated to long quotes (even entire chapters!).  Consider the following:

Present-day conditions call loudly for a new examination and new presentation of God’s omnipotence, God’s sufficiency, God’s sovereignty.  From every pulpit in the land it needs to be thundered forth that God still lives, that God still observes, that God still reigns.  (15)

If this were true in the early to mid 20th Century, then it is certainly true today.  There is a famine of God in our churches and it is time we feed ourselves on our Creator and Redeemer.

Pink also takes the time to remind us of the dangers of isolating and only studying one aspect of a doctrine.  The danger, he tells us, of just studying the sovereignty of God (and ignoring the anthropormorphic aspect of the issue) is dangerous.  The author writes:

It has often been pointed out that a fundamental requirement in expounding the Word of God is the need of preserving the balance of truth.  Two things are beyond dispute: God is Sovereign, man is responsible. In this book we have sought to expound the former; in our other works we have frequently pressed the latter. That there is real danger of over-emphasizing the one and ignoring the other, we readily admit; yea, history furnishes numerous examples of cases of each. To emphasize the Sovereignty of God without also maintaining the accountability of the creature tends to fatalism; to be so concerned in maintaining the responsibility of man as to lose sight of the Sovereignty of God is to exalt the creature and dishonor the Creator.

Almost all doctrinal error is really, Truth perverted, Truth wrongfully divided, Truth disproportionately held and taught. The fairest face on earth, with the most comely features, would soon become ugly and unsightly if one member continued growing while the others remained undeveloped. Beauty is, primarily, a matter of proportion. Thus it is with the Word of God: its beauty and blessedness are best perceived when its manifold wisdom is exhibited in its true proportions. Here is where so many have failed in the past. A single phase of God’s Truth has so impressed this man or that he has concentrated his attention upon it, almost to the exclusion of everything else. Some portion of God's Word has been made a ‘pet doctrine,’ and often this has become the distinctive badge of some party. But it is the duty of each servant of God to ‘declare all the counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27).  (9)

He's right.  As one who has studied the two most popular sides of this debate - Calvinism (and Arthur is a Calvinist) and Arminianism - it is easy to either issue (God's Sovereignty or Man's Responsibility) and run with it almost completely ignoring the other.  Pink is right, God is completely and fully sovereign and at the same time man is completely and fully responsible.

Pink offers a high (read Calvinist) view of sovereignty.  He sums Divine Sovereignty as:

The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. His government is exercised over inanimate matter, over the brute beasts, over the children of men, over angels good and evil, and over Satan himself. No revolving world, no shining of star, no storm, no creature moves, no actions of men, no errands of angels, no deeds of Devil-nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed. Here is a foundation of faith. Here is a resting place for the intellect. Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory.
        ‘Ten thousand ages ere the skies
        Were into motion brought;
        All the long years and worlds to come,
        Stood present to His thought:
        There's not a sparrow nor a worm,
        But's found in His decrees,
        He raises monarchs to their thrones
        And sings as He may please.” (Isaac Watts)  (43-44)

All of that is essential to correctly understanding Divine Sovereignty.  Compromise, deny, or ignore any of that and we shrink God to a more convenient size.  Scripture (and the gospel) will not allow us to do such a thing.

But is such a doctrine practical?  It certainly is.  When we pray, when we cry, when we are confused, when we look into the sky, when we worry about our future, the direction of the world, apparent chaos and confusion of our lives, when we watch the news, find ourselves lonely, or facing death we are confronted with the Sovereignty of God.  As a pastor I take great comfort in this.  Whether I am comforting a family struck at the lost of a dear loved one or in a hospital celebrating the birth of a new child, I am confronted with the Sovereignty of God.  For if God is not completely and fully sovereign, then the universe is against us and we live in a world of chance.  If we live in such a world and God is not sovereign, do not go to sleep tonight!  Pink put it this way:

Alternatives confront us, and between them we are obliged to choose: either God governs, or He is governed; either God rules, or He is ruled; either God has His way, or men have theirs.  (38-39)

I cannot emphasize this book enough.  Though you may disagree with some of the arguments laid out here (such as with election), read it anyways.  The God presented here is the God missing in many of our churches.  Let us return to the God of the gospel and of Scripture, not the God of modern evangelicalism.

Why is it that, today, the masses are so utterly unconcerned about spiritual and eternal things, and that they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? Why is it that even on the battlefields multitudes were so indifferent to their soul's welfare? Why is it that defiance of Heaven is becoming more open, more blatant, more daring? The answer is, Because ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes’ (Rom. 3:18). Again; why is it that the authority of the Scriptures has been lowered so sadly of late? Why is it that even among those who profess to be the Lord's people there is so little real subjection to His Word, and that its precepts are so lightly esteemed and so readily set aside? Ah! what needs to be stressed today is that God is a God to be feared.
 
‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge’ (Prov. 1:7). Happy the soul that has been awed by a view of God's majesty, that has had a vision of God's awful greatness, His ineffable holiness, His perfect righteousness, His irresistible power, His Sovereign grace. Does someone say, ‘But it is only the unsaved, those outside of Christ, who need to fear God’? Then the sufficient answer is that the saved, those who are in Christ, are admonished to work out their own salvation with ‘fear and trembling.’ Time was when it was the general custom to speak of a believer as a ‘God-fearing man’ – that such an appellation has become nearly extinct only serves to show whither we have drifted. Nevertheless, it still stands written ‘Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him" (Psa. 103:13)!

When we speak of godly fear, of course, we do not mean a servile fear, such as prevails among the heathen in connection with their gods. No; we mean that spirit which Jehovah is pledged to bless, that spirit to which the prophet referred when he said ‘To this man will I (the Lord) look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word’ (Isa. 66:2). It was this the Apostle had in view when he wrote, ‘Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king’ (1 Peter 2:17). And nothing will foster this godly fear like a recognition of the Sovereign Majesty of God.  (125-126)

What I'm Reading - October 5, 2010

This week will be discussing the Sovereignty of God and thus much of what I will be reading in preparation for that is on that subject.  And I continue to study for my class on the Doctrine of Scripture this semester so much of what follows will reflect that.











































































Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (RE: Lit) by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears
Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth  by Charles Ryrie
Systematic Theology - 3 Volume Set  by Charles Hodge
Abstract of Systematic Theology by James Boyce
God and Creation by Thomas Aquinas
Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine by Wayne Grudem
Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, God/Creation by Norman Geisler