Category: Tolle Lege

Readability:  2

Length: 240

Author: Tim Keller

The Reason for Godis a contender for one of the top 5 books I have read this year. Keller is a master at gracious, intelligent apologetics. This book will both give you some excellent ways to converse with non-believers and help generate a kind disposition toward them. In the first half of the book Keller responds to the most popular objections he has head in his pastorate of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Here he answers statements like, “There can’t be just one true religion,” and “How could a good God allow suffering?” In the second half of the book he offers evidence for Christianity. I am defiantly going to reread the book several times hoping that Keller’s loving, patience, intelligent, conversational disposition towards unbelievers and doubters will infect me.

Most people who assert the equality of religions have in mind the major world faiths, not splinter sects. This was the form of the objection I got from the student the night I was on the panel. He contended that the doctrinal differences between Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism were superficial and insignificant, that they all believed in the same God. But when I asked him who that God was, he described him as an all-loving Spirit in the universe. The problem with this position is its inconsistency. It insists that doctrine is unimportant, but at the same time assumes doctrinal beliefs about the nature of God that are at loggerheads with those of all the major faiths. Buddhism doesn’t believe in a personal God at all. Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in a God who holds people accountable for their beliefs and practices, and whose attributes could not be all reduced to love. Ironically, the insistence that doctrines do not matter is really a doctrine itself. It holds a specific view of God, which is touted as more superior and more enlightened that the beliefs of most the major religions. So the proponents of this view do the very thing they forbid others.

We say we desire it, but what is it?  It sounds attractive but once we really try to describe it we realize how nebulous our idea of it is.  For years my definition of revival was a lame as thinking that it consisted of being as excited about church things as I was about other things. 

Iain Murray excels as he demonstrates the transition of revival ideology from Samuel Davies to Charles Finney.  Up to and for some time after Davies revivals were regarded as wonderful surprises and yet as nothing new.  A revival consisted of God doing what He does every day, i.e. saving and sanctifying souls, but to an unusual degree such as we see in the early chapters of the books of Acts, the Protestant Reformation, and The Great Awakenings.  It is something we long for; it is not something we can work up on our own strength.  With Finney this changed, he thought he had the secret formula to begin a revival that turned out to be the death of revivals.  The counterfeit though initially appetizing came to be disdained, and with that disdain many lost their longing for the true article as well.  If you too suffer from an enigmatic idea of revival, this history of American revival and revivalism from 1750 to 1858 will help solidify the difference between the true and the false.

I have somewhere met the remark, that ‘the chariot of the gospel never has free course, but the devil tries to be charioteer’.  There is nothing he is so much afraid of as the power of the Holy Ghost.  Where he cannot arrest the showers of blessing, it has ever been one of his devices to dilute or poison the streams… With the obvious signs of the times in view, who does not see that this awful foe would enjoy his malignant triumph, if he could prejudice the minds of good men against all revivals of religion?  This he does, not so much by opposing them, as by counterfeiting the genuine coin, and by getting up revivals that are spurious and to his liking.  Revivals are always spurious when they are got up by man’s device, and not brought down by the Spirit of God.  – Gardner Spring

I was never fit to say a word to a sinner, except when I had a broken heart myself, when I was subdued and melted into penitence, and felt as though I had just received pardon to my own soul, and when my heart was full of tenderness and pity.  – Edward Payson

It may be that a generation of freshly-anointed preachers is already being prepared. Whether that is so or not, when such men are sent forth by Christ we can be sure of certain things. They will not be identical in all points with the men of the past, but there will be a fundamental resemblance. They will be hard students of Scripture. They will prize a great spiritual heritage. They will see the danger of ‘unsanctified learning’. While they will not be afraid of controversy, nor of being called hyper-orthodox, they will fear to spend their days in controversy. They will believe with John Rice that ‘the church is not purified by controversy, but by holy love’. They will not forget that the wise, who will shine ‘as the stars forever and ever’, are those who ‘turn many to righteousness’ (Dan. 12.2). They will covet the wisdom which Scripture attributes to the one ‘that winneth souls’ (Prov. 11.30). But their cheerfulness will have a higher source than their work. To know God himself will be their supreme concern and joy. They will therefore not be strangers to humility. And their experience will not be without trials and discouragements, not least because they fall so far short of their aspirations. If they are spared to live as long as John Leland they will be ready to say with him at last: ‘I have been unwearedly trying to preach Jesus, but have not yet risen to that state of holy zeal and evangelical knowledge, that I have been longing after’. Whether their days will be bright or dark they will learn to say with Nettleton that ‘the milk and honey lie beyond this wilderness world’.

More than any other subject I love to read books about the atonement.  Upon thinking of such books I pray my heart always be tenderly and freshly affected by such teaching.  I beg that I retain much of the truth presented, that it become the fondest treasure to me, and I never forsake it.  In My Place Condemned He Stood is such a book, a book of solid teaching from a solid teacher whom it is great to figuratively sit under and learn from.  Still I struggle with commending it to the average layman.  The best two chapters (of 4 total) can be found within J.I. Packer’s Knowing God and A Quest for Godliness.  These are great classics; everyone should read Knowing God, and if you have any interest in the Puritans A Quest for Godliness is a great introductory work.

Outside these two chapters it is fun to read Duncan, Mohler, Dever, and Mahaney’s brief introductory thoughts for those who are fans or theirs, but the reason why I would most recommend buying it even if you have the two previously mentioned books is Ligon Duncan’s annotated bibliography of books on the cross in the back.  Wondering what your next read on the cross should be, this is the place to go (and like Mahaney I think you should read at least 1 new book on the atonement [to you] and reread a great old one every year).

And this is righteous anger – the right reaction of moral perfection in the Creator toward moral perversity in the creature.  So far from the manifestation of God’s wrath in punishing sin being morally doubtful, the thing that would be morally doubtful would be for him not to show his wrath in this way.  God is not just – that is, he does not act in the way that is right, he does not do what is proper to a judge – unless he inflicts upon all sin and wrongdoing the penalty it deserves.

We who have believed have died – painlessly and invisibly, we might say – in solidarity with him because he died, painfully and publicly, in substitution for us.

Sometimes it’s nice to read a book when you leave unimpressed with the writing style and creativity of the author. I don’t think Ware a person personally devoid of creativity; I think he was very purposeful in his writing style. While many are looking for creative and innovative ways of expressing the Trinity (The Shack) it is refreshing to read a simple, biblical, historical, traditional, and creedal expression of the Trinity. Ware’s Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is written such that the ordinary layman will have no problems digesting it.

And the three members of the Godhead work together in harmony. Not in unison, but in harmony. “Unison” expresses a form of unity, yet it has no texture and richness. “Harmony,” however, communicates the idea of unified expression but only through differing yet complementary parts. You have different voices in different pitches. One carries the melody, but just one. Others carry the strains of harmony to fill out and complement the melody. If you think that only one part matters, you are sorely mistaken. For again, to achieve the kind of textured and rich unity that harmony accomplishes, all the parts are important. Yet each part has to be an expression of the same score, the same composition, expressing the mind of the composer.

The beauty of harmony is a beauty of diversity without discord, of distinctiveness without disarray, of complexity without cacophony.

So it is with the Trinity: it is God’s unified nature expressed richly and beautifully in the three equal and full possessions and manifestations of that one nature, with each “voice” contributing variously, yet with complete unity and identity of nature or essence. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not identical Persons, but they are harmonious in accomplishing the one undivided purpose, one undivided goal, one common work, since they each possess fully the one, undivided divine essence. So, unity and difference, identity and distinction-this marks the triune nature of God most centrally. Just how this identity and distinction gets worked out among the Persons of the Godhead, and what this means to the lives of us who are made in his image-these questions are what will occupy us through the remaining chapters of our study.

To insist on egalitarian relationships where God has designs structures of authority and submission is to indicate, even implicitly, that we just don’t like the very authority-submission structures that characterize who God is, and that characterize his good and wise created design for us. But when we see that this structure of authority-submission pictures God himself – that the members of the Trinity exist eternally as equal in their essence but distinct in the taxis that marks their distinct roles – then we realize that what we have chafed at is, at heart, the very nature of God himself.

We are images of God in order to image God…

No competition, no jealousy, no bitterness, and no dispute exist among these Persons. Here in the Trinity, rather, we see hierarchy without hubris, authority with no oppression, submission that is not servile, and love that pervades ever aspect of the divine life. Unity and diversity, identity and distinction, sameness and difference, melody and harmony – these are the qualities that mark the rich texture of the life of the one God who is three.

Carl Trueman is the Dean of Faculty and professor of historical theology and church history at Westminster Theological Seminary. He blogs at Reformation 21. His book Minority Report is a collection of various articles and blog posts. As a foreign national he offers some great critiques of American culture; this alongside his pleas for a healthy love of church history make the book a good read. I would recommend you read his blog first to sample. If you buy the book I would advise you to read section 2 first as I think it he more enjoyable and accessible part of the book.

Yet evangelicals in our anti-historical mode seem prone to one of the two tendencies noted above: an idolatry of the new and the novel, with the concomitant disrespect for anything traditional; or nostalgia for the past which is little more than an idolatry of the old and the traditional. Both are disempowering: the first leaves the church as a free-floating, anarchic entity which is doomed to reinvent Christianity anew every Sunday, and prone to being subverted and taken over by any charismatic (in the non-theological sense!) leader of group which cares to flex its muscle; the second leaves the church bound to its past as its leaders care to write that past and thus unable to engage critically with her own tradition. Humble and critical engagement with history is thus imperative for history, and we would be arrogant simply to ignore the past as irrelevant; critical, because history has been made by sinful, fallen, and thus deeply fallible human beings, and thus is no pure and straightforward revelation of God. It is this balance of humility and criticism that we must strike if we are to truly benefit from history.

I am going to start a new category of posts identified by “[b:]” in their title. This will be a humble attempt to share and refresh my memory of books that I have recently read that were spiritually nourishing. They will not function as reviews as I am not qualified and lack the time. My comments will be few and the quotes many.

John Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides

John Paton was born on May 24, 18:64 and died January 28, 1907 at 82 years of age. He was a missionary to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu, think Survivor 2004) where he first ministered courageously on the cannibal, warring island of Tanna. He saw little fruit there in his lifetime, however mighty seeds were planted. There he lost his wife, fellow missionaries, assistants, and his few earthly possessions. He then labored on the small island of Aniwa where He saw the mighty arm of God’s salvation in many souls. I highly recommend the book; although the 500 pages can be intimidating, know that missionary biographies function as the “action thrillers” of Christian biography, and they don’t get much better than this.

Here are some snippets:

Recollecting his Sunday experiences as a child: They went to church, full of beautiful expectancy of spirit – their souls were on the outlook for God; they returned from the church, ready and even anxious to exchange ideas as to what they had heard and received of the things of life. I have to bear my testimony that religion was presented to us with a great deal of intellectual freshness, and that it did not repel us, but kindled our spiritual interest. The talks we heard were, however, genuine; not the make-believe of religious conversation, but the sincere outcome of their own personalities. That, perhaps, makes all the difference betwixt talk that attracts and talk that drives away.

While sitting in a coconut tree evading murderous natives: Being entirely at the mercy of such doubtful and vacillating friends, I, though perplexed, felt it best to obey. I climbed into the tree and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but of yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the Savages. Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe as in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among those chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone! If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Savior’s spiritual presence, to enjoy His consoling fellowship. If thus thrown back upon your own soul, alone, all alone, in the midnight, in the bush, in the very embrace of death itself, have you a Friend that will not fail you then?

On his Scottish Christian heritage: I am more proud that the blood of Martyrs is in my veins, and their truths in my heart, than other men can be of noble pedigree or royal names.

Oh that I had my life to begin again! I would consecrate it anew to Jesus in seeking the conversion of the remaining Cannibals on the New Hebrides. But since that may not be, may He help me to use every moment and every power still left to me to carry forward to the utmost that beloved work…. And should the record of my poor and broken life lead any one to consecrate himself to Mission work at Home or Abroad that he may win souls for Jesus, or should it even deepen the Missionary spirit in those who already know and serve the Redeemer of us all – for this also, and for all through which He has led me by His loving and gracious guidance, I shall, unto the endless ages of Eternity, bless and adore my beloved Master and Savior and Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

I also highly recommend John Piper’s biographical message on John Paton.

That I might preach error is a terror to me, a terror I rejoice to carry with me into the study.  I pray daily that I not stray into error, and thank God that I do so, believing it to be some of the good He brought out of my bad.   I praise God that a movement that once looked so attractive to me now deeply saddens me.  I am speaking of the emergent conversation.  If you are clueless, good for you, but if you have ever wondered about Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell, Donald Miller, Spencer Burke, or Dan Kimball I highly recommend you read Why We’re Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck.  If you were going to read a book on the emerging church, read this one.  Here is a sampling:

This is maybe the biggest difference between emergent Christianity and historic evangelical Christianity.  Being a Christian – for Burke, for McLaren, for Bell, for Jones, and for many others in the emerging conversation – is less about faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as the only access to God the Father and the only atonement for sins before a wrathful God, and more about living a life that Jesus lived and walking in His way.

Remember spoiling the gospel?

Parents (I pray some of you read this blog),

I am so excited and scared about this parenting gig I am about to take up. I immediately began looking for books from trusted sources to disciple me in the task. I was overjoyed when I saw that Voddie had written a book on the family. I first heard Voddie at One Day 2000. The message from Isaiah 1 powerfully stuck in my head, I can still remember parts of it, and made sure to purchase the DVD so I could listen to it again. I have grown to respect him more, and exponentially so after reading his book Family Driven Faith. I would highly recommend it to all parents, not because I am an expert, but because I was deeply nourished. Voddie is a biblically convicted man with a biblically convicting message. He is humbling because he is humble as he expounds the word, revealing his own faults and failures. He knows how to make the word of God both sting and sing. Here are a few excerpts from the introduction to give you a feel for the direction of the book.

Our children are not falling away because the church is doing a poor job-although that is undoubtedly a factor. Our children are falling away because we are asking the church to do what God designed the family to accomplish. Discipleship and multi-generational faithfulness begins and ends at home. At best, the church is to play a supporting role as it “equips the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12, esv).

This book is an effort to put the ball back in the family’s court and to motivate, correct, encourage, and equip families to do what God commands concerning the next generation.