There has been a fair bit of discussion about the so-called “two kingdoms” doctrine in Reformed circles of late.  Two books have recently been released that get at the topic from a (theologically informed) historical vantage point.  The first is by University of Chattanooga history professor William J. Wright and is entitled Martin Luther’s Understanding of God’s Two Kingdoms:  A Response to the Challenge of Skepticism and can be found here.  Professor Wright seeks to untangle Luther’s doctrine from its associations with Christian passivity in the face of Hitler …

Readers will likely be familiar with the ministry of Dr. Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Dr. Dever has also established an outreach designed to reinvigorate the local church, namely 9 Marks.  9 Marks sponsors a journal and a series of books.  The latest book is entitled The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love:  Reintroducing the Doctrine of Church Membership and Discipline.  The book can be obtained here.  Authored by Jonathan Leeman, an elder at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, director of communications for 9 …

Many of our readers will already be familiar with the Texts and Studies of Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought series ably edited by Richard A. Muller.  This is a valuable series that has contributed greatly to a better understanding and appreciation of the details of Reformation era theology and theologians and the profound riches of the Reformed Scholastic era as well.
The latest addition to this august series is Reformed Thought on Freedom:  The Concept of Free Choice in Early Modern Reformed Theology. You can find the book here.  Co-edited by Willem …

Our friends at Crossway Books have published two new books worthy of our attention.  The first is John Piper’s A Sweet & Bitter Providence:  Sex, Race, and The Sovereignty of God which is available here.  This book stems from Piper’s regular preaching ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Specifically, Piper exposits these issues as they arise in the book of Ruth.
The second title I would like to draw to your attention to is British blogger, medical doctor, and preacher Adrian Warnock’s Raised with Christ:  How the Resurrection Changes …

The Westminster Assembly:  Reading Its Theology In Historical Context by Robert Letham.  The Westminster Assembly and the Reformed Faith Series, Carl Trueman, ed.  Phillipsburg:  Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 2009.  This book can be obtained here.
Robert Letham, senior lecturer in systematic and historical theology at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology and former senior minister of Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, brings us a fascinating treatment of the Westminster Assembly, its times and its theology.  The Westminster Assembly: Reading Its Theology in Historical Context presents its material in three …

In case you have not seen it, there is a review of Iain Murray’s Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace over at Reformation21.  You can find the book here.  Additionally, our friends at Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing have just released three new volumes that you should check out:  The first is Small Things, Big Things:  Inspiring Stories of Everyday Grace by Dr. Michael Milton who is president of the RTS campuses in Charlotte and Orlando.  The second and third volumes are additions to the Explorations in Biblical Theology series edited by Robert …

I just completed reading through Iain Duguid’s volume on Daniel in the Reformed Expository Commentary series as part of my personal worship.  You can find the book here.  Duguid embodies what I consider to be the ideal preacher and commentator.  The series is excellent on the whole and Duguid may be the best of the contributors.  His treatment of Daniel is both redemptive historical and applicatory.  There is no pitting the one over against the other.
Discussing trials which Christians face in this fallen world, Duguid says,
In the same way, our …

Joel R. Beeke, president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI, has provided the church with a well-researched and beautifully written introduction to Calvinism which can be obtained here.  The genius of this book is that it goes beyond the typical introduction to the Reformed faith with its focus on the TULIP by stressing that Calvinism is a comprehensive world and life view.  TULIP does come in for a thorough exposition, but it is placed within its proper setting like a …

With the holiday season soon approaching, publishing houses are eager to release new tomes to engage our minds afresh.  Three new volumes I wish to bring to your attention are these:
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing has just released the latest addition to the The Westminster Assembly and the Reformed Faith (Carl Trueman, series editor) in Robert Letham’s The Wesminster Assembly:  Reading Its Theology in Historical Context. Dr. Letham, whom I have had the privilege studying under at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, brings the historical setting of the assembly to life …

I wanted to bring to your attention a few new books that have come out in recent days that you may want to add to your reading list (perhaps even your birthday and Christmas wish lists!).  The first book I want to note is the first entree of a new preaching commentary by R. C Sproul entitled the St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary series.  Sproul has published a commentary on Romans before (which can be found here), but this is a new treatment based upon his preaching at St. Andrew’s Chapel …

The following is a review of John Piper’s book The Future of Justification which I have written for the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology.  It is posted here with the approval of the editor of the SBET, Rev. Dr. Iain Campbell.  You can obtain the book here.  Bishop Wright has written a book in some sense in response to Dr. Piper’s book and it can be found here.
The Future of Justification:  A Response to N. T. Wright
John Piper
Inter Varsity Press, Nottingham, 2008; 240pp; £9.99; ISBN  978 1 84474 250 9
The …

I wanted to point our readers to two new books that have recently been published.  Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise, I will have reviews of these books sometime in the future.  The first book I want to mention is a festschrift (“celebratory writing”) for Professor John Frame.  Frame, former professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and Westminster Seminary California, now teaches at the Orlando campus of Reformed Theological Seminary.  This volume, Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John Frame is …

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.   For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV)
For the longest time now I have been captured by the majesty of Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Romans is the only book of the Bible which I have attempted to preach through in consecutive …

Michael Horton has followed up his study of the problem with contemporary American evangelical religion, Christless Christianity, with this new release from Baker Books entitled The Gospel Driven Life, which can be obtained here.  In this sequel Horton discusses the answer to the problem diagnosed in Christless Christianity.  The problem, religion that is a mere “moralistic therapeutic deism” (an expression first coined by Christian Smith in his book Soul Searching) can only be answered with the proclamation of the gospel and a consideration of the community that is birthed by …

I know this may come across as a shameless plug, but I want to encourage our readers to check out this rich new resource of apologetics texts from the whole history of the Christian church.  The first volume of a multi-volume set has been released from Crossway Books and is entitled Christian Apologetics: Past & Present and can be found here.  The handsome and useful volume has been ably edited by William Edgar and Scott Oliphint, esteemed professors of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.  I had the privilege …

I do not ordinarily read many novels, but I have just finished reading a marvelous fictional account of the life of John Calvin by Christian novelist Douglas Bond entitled The Betrayal.  The book can be found here.  I do not want to give away all the twists and turns of this well-told tale.  While this is a fictional account, it is historical fiction interweaved with a lot of historical truth.  The book has the merit of bringing the story of Calvin to life.  The account is told from the perspective …

American Vision Press and Covenant Media Press have teamed up to publish a long missing manuscript of the late Greg L. Bahnsen.  Presuppositional Apologetics:  Stated and Defended is a helpful systematic presentation of the apologetic method first articulated by Cornelius Van Til.  It is available here.  I would argue that this method of defending the Christian faith is the apologetic method most consistent with the Scriptures and the Reformed confessions.  That is a controversial statement, but one which I would stand by.  And after reading this volume, I am all …

Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing has continued to build its fascinating series American Reformed Biographies with the latest addition, Dr. Tom Nettles’ James Petigru Boyce:  A Southern Baptist Statesman.  This outstanding volume is available here.  For a Presbyterian such as myself this volume was not only informative, but also inspiring.  While I would differ from Boyce on baptism and ecclesiology, we would be of one mind about the biblical nature of Calvinism.  Nettles provides for the reader an entree into the life of a well-known theologian and educator in his own …

I am excited to tell you about a new history of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY by church historian and professor of church history Greg Wills.  It is called Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 1859-2009.  Wills does for SBTS what George Marsden did for Fuller Theological Seminary in Reforming Fundamentalism. Wills’ book is published by Oxford University Press and comes to over 500 pages.  Now if we could only get a similar history of Westminster Seminary.  However, as I have been recently told, folks at Westminster are focusing on …

I recently finished reading David W. Hall’s Calvin in the Public Square:  Liberal Democracies, Rights, and Civil Liberties, which is part of the eight volume Calvin 500 Series published by P&R and available here.  Dr. Hall, who is senior pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Powder Springs, Georgia and editor of the Calvin 500 Series, has produced a fascinating read about the source of republican democratic political philosophy in Calvinistic theological circles.  Among the ideas that stem from the thought of John Calvin and which have developed further in …

Today I had the glorious privilege of administering the Lord’s Supper in my congregation.  The bread and the fruit of the vine point us to the body and blood of Christ.  I read from 1st Corinthians 11:23-29 and noted that in partaking of the Lord’s Supper we are commemorating Christ’s atoning, sacrificial death.  But more than that, since our Lord did not remain in the tomb, when we partake of the elements, by faith we are communing with (indeed, spiritually feeding upon) the living, risen, and reigning Lord.  And, by …

Clive Staples Lewis once noted the problem of chronological snobbery.  This is the temptation to think the lastest is greatest and that the newer is truer.  With Lewis I agree that one should read old books as well as new ones.  In fact, Lewis argued for reading more old books than new ones.  He said that the fresh, bracing sea-breezes of the ages blow through our minds when we read writers from other eras.  Lewis was not suggesting that older authors were infallible.  That would be a form of reverse …

I am pleased to announce that a long lost manuscript by the late Rev. Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen has been published by American Vision and Covenant Media Press.  It is entitled Presuppostional Apologetics:  Stated and Defended and can be obtained here.  This is a systematic treatment of the Van Tillian method of defending the faith and includes assessments of Gordon Clark, Edward J. Carnell, and Francis Schaeffer.  This volume provides a nice complement to this, this, and this.  Be on the lookout for a full review sometime in the near …

As I have had the privilege of teaching a Sunday school class on the life of John Calvin I have come to see how important the worship of the one, true and Triune God was to him.  It was the contention of the Reformed wing of the Reformation that the true worship of God had been compromised in the decades and centuries leading up to the Reformation.  It was the restoration of true worship that was the goal of much of Calvin’s reforming efforts.  This has led me to consider …

I am finally pleased to report back on Douglas A. Sweeney’s book Jonathan Edwards and the Ministry of the Word: A Model of Faith and Thought. This is a delightful book that is engagingly written for the non-specialist.  This book has the merit of being written for Christians so that the true place of the Scriptures in the life and thought of Edwards is not only not ignored or denied or explained away, but is put on display for all to see.  I only have two gripes.  The …

I am pleased to share with our readers that a classic of Presbyterian polity is finally back in print.  Originally published in 1858, Stuart Robinson’s The Church of God: An Essential Element of the Gospel has just been reissued with a new cover and typesetting and introduction by Rev. Dr. A. Craig Troxel.  The Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has produced a beautiful edition.  Robinson was professor of church government and pastoral theology at Danville Theological Seminary in Kentucky when the book was originally …

Richard C. Gamble, former OPC and present RPCNA minister and professor of systematic theology at Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh and senior pastor of College Hill Reformed Presbyterian Church in Beaver Falls, has authored the first of a three volume set that brings together the riches of biblical, historical, and systematic theology.  The Whole Counsel of God: Vol. 1/God’s Mighty Acts in the Old Testament has been much anticipated.  Dr. Gamble does theology as it ought to be done.  He brings the various disciplines of the theological …

Within the last few days a long standing member of the congregation I have the privilege of serving went home to be with the Lord.  She was promoted from the church militant to the church triumphant.  In God’s providence, I and other members of the session and congregation had been with this member last Sunday in order to pay a visit and administer the Lord’s Supper.  It was a privilege to be able to read from Revelation 21 and 22.  We noted that the Lord’s Supper is a looking back …

I am really excited about the recently released book Heralds of the King: Christ-Centered Sermons in the Tradition of Edmund P. Clowney. Edited by Dennis Johnson, professor of practical theology at Westminster Seminary California and author of such classics as Let’s Study Acts , Triumph of the Lamb , Him We Proclaim , and The Message of Acts in Redemptive History , this book serves as a tribute to the late Edmund Prosper Clowney of Westminster Theological Seminaries East and West. Eleven preachers, …

Christ the Center recently interviewed Michael Haykin of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary about the value of studying the early church fathers. If there was an area where Reformed scholars have failed to give a subject its due attention it is here. The Reformers and the Post-Reformation Reformed Scholastics knew their church fathers and we would do well to follow their example. Fortunately some recent books from InterVarsity Press have made that more likely. The first set I would like to commend has actually been around for …