It is a glorious thing to be called of God to proclaim his gospel.  Yes indeed!  I am blessed to be able to serve my congregation as a teacher (in the OPC, a minister can serve as a pastor, teacher, or evangelist).  I am able to teach, preach, serve on the session and sit at presbytery (and at the GA when appointed).  I am also a PhD candidate chipping away at my dissertation at the pace of molasses rolling uphill in the wintertime.  I am also a son, husband, and a father.  I feel the weight of these responsibilities most of the time.  I am a sinner and am imperfect in all of these roles.  To echo the dying words of J. Gresham Machen, I am so grateful for the active obedience of Christ (and, of course, the passive obedience!).  You readers experience the challenge of many roles as well.

In addition to these things I have a job out in the “real world.”  It is nothing glamorous.  But it is a job, which is nothing to complain about in this day of tough economic times.  I have wrestled with working on top of all my other roles and I confess to not always appreciating the words of one of my wise professors, “Be thankful for a job in this economy.”  I would like to say that I am mature enough to handle all the problems that come my way.  But that would be untrue.  I struggle with how to do my job well to the glory of God.  I struggle with whether I should comment about some sinful behavior exhibited by a co-worker.  I wonder whether now is the right time to share the gospel.  Do I perform my job well enough to have earned a hearing from my co-workers?  Is it appropriate to witness on the job when I am getting paid to work at another task?  I wrestle with these kinds of questions and many others.  In God’s providence this is where he has placed me.  I suppose the same is true for you.  I have to believe that whatever value my ministry has will be enhanced by my experiences on the job, and in the home, as well as in the church.

The Lord has certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone.  Perhaps he has done the same with you?  That is the Lord’s prerogative is it not?  I will tell you this.  In all my frustration with myself, and there is plenty of that, the Lord has not abandoned me.  My struggles are puny compared to what other saints are experiencing out there in the real world.  But the Lord has provided a center to all the confusion of my life.  I do not know what I would do if the Triune God of Scripture were to let go of me.  Is it possible that God has ordained the struggle?  Is it possible that the mental, emotional, spiritual and perhaps physical anguish is part of our Lord’s plan?  Scripture leads me to think it is so.

My life is not unique.  You all go through similar circumstances.  I would remind you (as I remind myself) that Jesus Christ has to stand at the center of our lives.  He must be preeminent in all these things.  Speaking for myself, I am glad that he knows what he is doing.  I pray that my life and your lives will glorify the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the confusion and profusion of life.

Recently we at the Christ the Center internet audio program over at Reformed Forum interviewed the Rev. Dr. Chad Van Dixhoorn about his involvement in the Westminster Assembly project.  The WAP is a boon to us for the historical and theological understanding of the WS.  We look forward to the publication in the near future of the minutes of the assembly under Dr. Van Dixhoorn’s capable editorship.  Also coming from the WAP team is the recent publication of John Bower’s critical edition of the Westminster Larger Catechism which can be obtained here.  While the Westminster Shorter Catechism is by far the favorite learning tool in our circles, I hasten to encourage our readers to work your way through the Larger Catechism for your own spiritual edification.  If you are already familiar with the WSC, then the WLC will not feel strange.  The WLC offers not only more questions than the WSC but it offers more detailed answers to the questions it has in common with the WSC.  The WLC is not an afterthought.  As Dr. Van Dixhoorn noted in our interview with him, the WLC is the maturest expression of the assembly’s theology.  How could you not want to soak up such a wealth of theological and spiritual nourishment?  We want to thank Reformation Heritage Books for bringing this to the Christian public.

I love to read.  I hope you do too.  Reading keeps the mind active and the imagination fired up.  Some recent books that I have been dipping into are the following:  James White’s provocative Pulpit Crimes:  The Criminal Mishandling of God’s Word which can be found here.  Dr. White provides hard hitting commentary on common misuses of the Bible in the pulpit by ministers.  This is a must read for ministers of the Word and is brought to us by the good folks at Solid Ground Christian Books in Alabama.  I think you will find the selection of books at the SGCB website interesting and edifying too.  Don Kistler’s Northampton Press has also produced a lovely volume of Sermons on the Lord’s Supper by Jonathan Edwards which can be found here.  As with SGCB, I think you will find the offerings at the Northampton Press website very useful indeed.  Our good friends at Crossway Books have recently published a collection of writings by D. A. Carson on the topic of Scripture entitled (surprise, surprise) Collected Writings on Scripture which can be found here.  This collection includes essays and book reviews that have appeared in other places over the years and are now conveniently placed together in one place.  I would also highly recommend F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom as an antidote to much of the contemporary fondness for collectivism (i.e., socialism) and planned economies.  As you can see, there is no shortage of good books to read to keep our minds alert and feed the soul.

Our friend Jeff Downs has recently posted a series of lectures by Dr. Joseph Pipa and Dr. Richard Gaffin offered at a 1998  conference on Reformed hermeneutics and homiletics.  You can find it here.

Sometimes it seems as if I will never finish the book I am currently working through.  This is definitely the case with my bedtime reading.  But in the last few days I have concluded reading three different books that I would like to note.  Do not fret.  This is not my usual practice.  But these books deserve some sort of honorable mention.  The first item I want to mention is Phil Ryken’s first volume in his commentary on Luke in the Reformed Expository Commentary series.  you can find this book here.  This has been a delight to read as part of my personal devotions.  Dr. Ryken has consistently pointed me to Christ.  Whether the particular sermon (this commentary is based on sermons) was intended to encourage or convict, for me at least, he has regularly hit his target (my head and heart!).  What is true for Ryken’s exposition of Luke has been true for the other volumes in the series.  Tenth Presbyterian Church is losing a capable exegete and expositor.  Tenth’s loss is Wheaton’s gain.

Next I would like to note Dr. James Anderson’s Paradox in Christian Theology: An Analysis of Its Presence, Character, and Epistemic Status which can be found here.  We at Christ the Center over at Reformed Forum recently interviewed Dr. Anderson about this book, so be on the lookout for that within the next few weeks.  Dr. Anderson is a Van Tillian who has learned how to harvest the benefits of the work of Alvin Plantinga.  Anderson argues persuasively that merely apparent contradiction resulting from unarticulated equivocation (paradox) is part and parcel of Christian theology given the incomprehensibility of God and the finitude of human knowledge.  This was a challenging, yet most rewarding volume.

Finally, I want to commend to you all the volume The Law is Not of Faith:  Essays on Works and Grace in the Mosaic Covenant which can be obtained here.  This book is not without its detractors.  However I think the book is well worth your perusing and that it would be worth your effort wrestling with the idea of the republication thesis.  The republication thesis is the idea that the covenant of works is in some sense republished in the Mosaic administration.  As they say, the devil is in the details.  But this much should be recognized.  The idea of republication has been an element in Reformed theology from its earliest stages of development.  But my concern here is not to defend the republication idea but to commend the volume as a whole and the last two chapters in particular.  The chapter on natural law by David VanDrunen and the chapter on Christ’s active and passive obedience by Mike Horton are both worth the price of the whole book.  For my part, Horton ably exposits the biblical basis of the imputation of Christ’s active and passive obedience to the believer.  Especially intriguing for me in the VanDrunen essay is his recognition that an emphasis on the natural law in the covenant of works entails that the covenant of works arises with creation and is not an overlay over a neutral creation.  I do not have space to go into further detail.   But these essays and the others in this volume should be read with critical appreciation.

Now on to a new book.  For me that is F. A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom.  More about that when I finish reading it.

As I was reading through James Anderson’s intriguing volume Paradox in Christian Theology I came across this citation from Cyril of Alexandria that reminds me that the so-called “extra Calvinisticum” (the idea that the Son of God is not circumscribed by or limited to the human body of Jesus Christ) is not the property of the Reformed wing of the church but was the view of many before the time of John Calvin.

We confess that the Only begotten Word of God, begotten of the same substance of the Father, True God from True God, Light from Light, through Whom all things were made, the things in heaven and the things in the earth, coming down for our salvation, making him of no reputation, was incarnate and made man; that is, taking flesh of the holy Virgin, and having made it his own from the womb, he subjected himself to birth for us, and came forth man from a woman, without casting off that which he was; but although he assumed flesh and blood, he remained what he was, God in essence and in truth.  Neither do we say that his flesh was changed into the nature of divinity, nor that the ineffable nature of the Word of God has laid aside for the nature of flesh; for he is unchanged and absolutely unchangeable, being the same always, according to the Scriptures.  For although visible and a child in swaddling clothes, and even in the bosom of his Virgin Mother, he filled all creation as God, and was a fellow-ruler with him who begat him, for the Godhead is without quantity and dimension, and cannot have limits.*

Believe it or not this can preach.  In a sermon on Hebrews 1:1-3 I have done it.  The incarnation is mind-blowing.  Even more so, that the Son of God would die in the place of his sinful people staggers the imagination.  We worship a great God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is this God who has saved us and no other.  Soli Deo Gloria!

The citation from Cyril of Alexandria can be found in his Third Epistle to Nestorius in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series Two, vol. 14.  You can find the 38 volume Early Church Fathers set published by T&T Clark/Eerdmans and more recently by Hendrickson Publishers.  The citation is found in James Anderson, Paradox in Christian Theology:  An Analysis of Its Presence, Character, and Epistemic Status (Paternoster/Wipf & Stock:  Milton Keyes/Eugene, 2007), 86n66.

Andreas Kostenberger and Michael Kruger have presented to the Christian world a fascinating account, and rebuttal, of an old idea that seems to keep rearing its ugly head.  In The Heresy of Orthodoxy:  How Contemporary Culture’s Fascination with Diversity Has Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christianity the authors address the Bauer thesis and its more recent adoption by New Testament textal critic and media favorite Bart Ehrman.  The Bauer thesis, first articulated by Walter Bauer (the famed lexicographer) in the 1940s (and subsequently refuted), argued that early Christianity was originally a congeries of contradictory factions, and that what is now called orthodoxy arose later (in the church at Rome) and suppressed the original (and undoubtedly wonderfully diffuse and dynamic) diversity.  In other words, the early church included groups later labeled heretical (e.g., Gnostics) but that were not viewed as such initially.   Even though this thesis has been subjected to substantial criticism over the years, Ehrman has picked it up again, and–due to the pluralistic culture in which we live–the discredited theory has gained renewed traction.  Enter the new book.  This is certainly a book that scholars, ministers, church officers, and the interested layperson will want to examine.  You can buy a copy here.

I have been reading quite a lot lately about how the Bible is a story or narrative and not a book of propositions.   I have not found this a convincing reading of the situation.  It is, to put the matter bluntly, a false dilemma.  The Bible is both propositional and a story.  It is both factual and dramatic.  Let’s try a thought experiment.  Let’s ask ourselves two questions.  What is a proposition?  What is a narrative or story?  Here I’ll attempt to offer a non-scientific answer.

A proposition is a statement that refers to or points to a state of affairs beyond itself.  As such, propositions can be either true or false and can be formulated in different languages and in the same language in different ways.  The proposition “It is raining” in English can be expressed as “Es Regnet” in German.  It is the same proposition in different languages.  This proposition can also be expressed differently in English as “Drops of water are falling from the clouds.”  So a proposition takes note of a state of affairs (the way things are in God’s world).

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I have loved the study of doctrine since I came to faith in Christ.  I couldn’t help but eagerly seek to learn all about the faith I had come to embrace.  Yes, it is true.  I had been raised in a Christian home.  Indeed, in the home of a pastor.  I am a “pastor’s brat” as some like to say.  So for almost 27 years I have made the study of God’s Word and its teaching (i.e. its doctrine) my business.  This is as it should be.  In fact, all Christians ought to be theologians–regularly delving into God’s Word and theology.  Of course this is even more of an obligation for the church’s officers:  ministers, elders, and deacons.  But it is true that all Christians ought to love doctrine.

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Thanks to the heads up of our friend Jeff Downs of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Alpha and Omega Ministries, I am pleased to direct our readers’ attention to some new items by K. Scott Oliphint, professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.  The first item is actually two new papers that Dr. Oliphint has posted at his website which can be found here.  The first paper is entitled “Bavinck’s Realism, the Logos Principle, and Sola Scriptura” and the other is “Using Reason by Faith.”  Both of these will eventually appear in the pages of the Westminster Theological Journal.  The second item is a lecture given by Dr. Oliphint at the 2007 GPTS Spring Theology Conference on “The Reformed Worldview.”  You can find the Sermon Audio lecture here.  You can be assured that this material is well worth your time reading, hearing, and digesting.

Every once in a while it is good for veteran Christians to return to the basics of the faith to remind ourselves what it is we believe and why it is we live the way we do.  This is especially the case since we now live in a culture that provides little to no reinforcement of Christian doctrine or practice.  Greg Gilbert, currently on the pastoral staff at Capital Hill Baptist Church (and so a colleague of Mark Dever) has written this little gem of a book, What is the Gospel? which is part of the 9Marks series of books.  You can obtain the book here.  Readers may be interested in viewing a panel discussion Rev. Gilbert participated in at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary about the current trend toward having multi-site congregations.  You can view the video here.

This past Wednesday evening I had the awesome privilege of attending my daughter Suzannah’s high school graduation.  Thankfully the Lord held off the rain so that the commencement could be held out of doors.  I must confess to being a proud father on this occasion.  I, of course, was not alone in this sentiment.  Many fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, grandparents, and other family members and friends were on hand to salute the soon-to-be -graduates.

As you might imagine, this scene got me to reminiscing about past graduations of my own.  There was my own high school graduation back in 1982.  Has it really been 28 years since then?  Where has the time gone?  Then there was my college graduation to be followed many years later by my graduation from seminary.  Graduations are much like birthdays and anniversaries.  Indeed they might just be like a covenant renewal.  They give us the occasion to not only reminisce but also to recall the gracious care and blessings of God in Christ. They also give us the opportunity to renew our love and commitment to the Lord.

I am thankful for a lovely, loving, and godly wife and two daughters who love the Lord.  In fact, my eldest daughter has far surpassed me during these past few years in school.  Back in the fall my daughter was accepted into the National Honor Society and my family and I had the privilege to attend her induction.  Each inductee was given an opportunity to share about his or her past and about the hopes and dreams for the future.  My daughter opened her remarks with a declaration of thankfulness to Jesus Christ for redeeming her.  “Wow,”  I thought to myself, “what fortitude.”  I myself was not even a Christian in my senior year of high school.  Suzannah has reflected her Christian faith, by God’s grace, throughout her years of schooling.  I am most blessed.

Back at the commencement I was reminded of the real world we Christians inhabit.  During an otherwise momentous, albeit at times lighthearted faculty address, a speaker felt it necessary to ridicule Christians with comments about “feeling” evangelical but not religious and eliciting amens and testimonies.  I was irritated and disappointed.  Why did this speaker feel the need to insult Christians?  For an address calling these students to be open minded and non-ideological, it was ironically close-minded and most ideological.  Then I remembered that our Lord told us that the world hated him and so it would hate us.  I was also reminded recently that the life of the Christian is cruciform.  Whereas I might be tempted (indeed I was!) to demand my rights as an American citizen (and there are times when that is appropriate), I am reminded that I have no right to not be offended.  Paul tells us that we Christians are the fragrance of life to those who are being saved and the stench of death to those who are perishing.  Christians ought to  expect insults, derision, and even persecution and loss of life.  Did I experience that?  Not at all.  But the occasion reminded me that even though I am a citizen of this community, I am more importantly a citizen of heaven and a pilgrim down here for a little while.  Perhaps also if I responded to this teacher with irritation or frustration I would lose the opportunity of sharing the gospel.  After all, every opponent of Christianity (from our limited human perspective)  is a potential convert to Christ.  Remember that the apostle Paul was not always the apostle to the Gentiles.

It is amazing what happens at graduations.  I am grateful to God for a godly family (not a perfect family, but a redeemed family) and for the gift of salvation.  I am thankful even for the bracing swipe against Christians.  It reminded me to whom I belong  and to where I am going.  Another benefit of this experience is that my family was able to talk about this incident and what its significance is.

Oh yes, I did pay attention to what was going on at graduation too!

From time to time I would like to highlight secular books that I have found to be helpful.  As Christians we are called to exercise our minds and this book is one that does just that.  Recently I had the privilege of reading Dr. Matthew Spalding’s book We Still Hold These Truths.  You can obtain the book here.  Dr. Spalding, who works with the Heritage Foundation, has written a primer on the political principles that animated the founding fathers of the American nation.  These principles are in my opinion in real need of reintroduction to the American people and to others interested in political freedom.  In addition to a detailed discussion of the foundational principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Spalding details the rise of progressivism and the gradual rejection of the founding principles and the embrace of the so-called “living constitution.”

It is not necessary, I believe, in affirming the founding principles of the United States, to belittle other lands and peoples.  God is the Lord of all lands and not just Lord of the US.  And the Christian church is not limited to any land or people.  However, to recognize this is not the same as to say that there isn’t anything unique about the founding principles of our land.  If you doubt this, read this book.  You may not agree with the author, but you will at least be familiar with the issues.

Read on!

The Reverend Dr. Phil Ryken, senior minister at Tenth Presbyterian Church in center city Philadelphia and soon to be president of Wheaton College, has published another excellent preaching commentary.  The latest addition to the Preaching the Word series published by Crossway Books is Ecclesiastes:  Why Everything Matters.  You can find it here.  P&R Publishing has reissued two Ryken classics as well:  Written in Stone which can be found here and Discovering God available here.

Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham and pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, brings us lessons of grace from the book of Jonah.  Having just completed a Sunday School series on Jonah, it would have been great to have had this to use in my preparation.  Alas, better late than never.  Tchividjian draws out the gracious gospel from the fascinating narrative of Jonah in Surprised by Grace:  God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels.  You can buy a copy of this book here. Thank you Tullian, and thank you Crossway Books.  It thrills me to see how the book of Jonah points us to Christ and his gracious salvation.

Just because it is now 2010 is no reason to forget about John Calvin.  Thankfully David Hall will not let us do that.  Just released from P & R Publishing is the latest volume in the Calvin 500 series which includes some excellent studies.  Tributes to Calvin: A Celebration of His Quincentenary is a compilation of papers delivered at the celebration of the life and work of Calvin held last summer in Geneva.  It can be found here.  The list of contributors is a veritable treasure trove of Calvin scholarship.  The following have contributed:  Henri Blocher, Richard Burnett, R. Scott Clark, William Edgar, Richard C. Gamble, Isabelle Graessle, David Hall, Darryl Hart, Michael Horton, Terry Johnson, Douglas F. Kelly, Jae Suang Kim, Robert M. Kingdon, George W. Knight III, Anthony Lane, William McComish, Bruce McCormack, James McGoldrick, A. T. B. McGowan, Albert Mohler, Hughes Oliphant Old, Herman J. Selderhuis, and John Witte, Jr.  You can see pictures from the conference in Geneva here.  Interviews with attendees and participants of the celebration can be found here
as well.

Nick Batzig and I had the privilege of recording an episode of the Reformed Media Review recently and the topic of how to preach biblical imperatives came up for discussion.  As a preacher I am constantly aware that when I preach the commands of Scripture I need to couch them in the general context of grace and the specific context of union with Christ.  That is, biblical commands can only be fulfilled (in a limited and sinful way) by those who have trusted in Christ by faith and are united to him.  I ought never to assume grace.  It ought to be explicit.  For instance, Paul in Colossians 3:1-17 grounds his commands (put off sin and put love, etc) in the fact that his readers have been seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.  This is so for the Christian.

Of course when I preach I do not assume that everyone in the congregation is saved, although I do think with a judgment of charity.  However given the likelihood that someone within earshot of one of my sermons is unsaved I try to stress law in its capacity to make us accutely aware of our sinfulness and need of a Savior.  There is no holding back about the fact that the unsaved sinner is in a dreadful state.  It is not possible for the unbeliever to perfectly and perpetually keep the law.  The unsaved sinner is under God’s judgment and so faces an eternity in hell.  There is no doubt about it.

What does all this mean?  It means this.  I will preach the law in all its starkness to drive the sinner out of himself and into the arms of Christ (of course the Holy Spirit actually does this using the Word and not me), but I will not preach the law without concluding my message with reference to Jesus Christ.  For the unbeliever the law only condemns.  It does not offer life.  Only Christ does that.  For the Christian I will not preach the commands without recourse to the ground of the believer’s ability to endeavor after new obedience:  the work of Christ for us and the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

At the end of the day, we need to understand and appreciate the fact that Christ has perfectly kept the law for us and that he calls us to a life of obedience.  Because our best efforts at obedience are mixed with sin we will always need the objective work of Christ for us.  There is no point at which we outgrow our need for Christ’s righteousness.  But because we are united to the righteous Lord by faith (engendered by the Holy Spirit at work in us) we also will strive after a life of obedience to our living and loving Lord.  Our obedience does not earn for us acceptance with God but follows after.

In the end, the law drives us to Christ but it is Christ who saves.  Therefore, it is him we proclaim.

James Dennison has added a second volume to the already noteworthy Reformed Confessions set he has edited.  This set provides a wealth of confessional and creedal material from the 16th and 17th centuries.  You can obtain this volume here.  The first volume can be found here as well.  You may be surprised to see where the Reformed faith arose during these years.  We are already anticipating the third volume!

I just love the Westminster Standards.  They are so rich in biblical and theological insight (these, by the way, are not mutually exclusive).  I was rereading portions of the Larger Catechism when I happened upon Q & A 69 which happens to touch upon the vexing question of the relationship of justification to union with Christ.  The question and answer are not concerned with this relationship alone, but with the communion the saints have with their Savior and Lord.

WLC 69 Q:  What is the communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?

A:  The communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him.

Notice that all these blessings manifest the union of believers with the Mediator.  This must mean that justification occurs within and not outside and leading into union with Christ.  Of course, as I have already noted, all these redemptive benefits do this.  I also need to stress that it is faith in Jesus Christ that unites us to him.  This faith is an open-handed receptive faith (i.e., not faithfulness).

I recently read comments by a leading Reformed theologian who said he could not say that justification was the article of a standing or a falling church.  I was disappointed to read this.  I am one of those odd ducks that thinks union with Christ is central and so is justification.  If the redemptive blessings manifest union and union is central, then those multiple blessings must be central too.  But union with Christ does not obliterate the absolute importance of justification.

Years ago Philip Melanchthon said that to know Christ is to know his benefits.  That is the concern of those of us who stress union with Christ (or, if you prefer, being joined to Jesus).  We cannot experience redemption without being related to our Lord.

This is amazing grace!

Dr. Michael Horton has written an excellent piece about how the Reformed churches can relate to the broader Evangelical movement here.  He titles his column “The Hallway and the Rooms” and aims his comments particularly at the young, restless, and Reformed crowd.  Horton compellingly delineates some of the distinctives that distinguish “Evangelical Calvinists” (like Martyn Lloyd-Jones) from the Reformed and he does an excellent job.  However, while I agree with most of what Dr. Horton says, I must disagree with him about  conversionist and covenantal paradigms.  Horton suggests that these are mutually exclusive.  I am not quite convinced.  It seems to me that the church has to both nurture its children in the faith and to reach out to the unbelieving world with the gospel.  These ought not to be set against one another as if we are supposed to do the one and to avoid the other.  That is is in fact done is no doubt true.  But is is unfortunate.  My concern here is not about how the church is to evangelize.  That is another matter.  My concern is that we not create a false dichotomy.

The prolific Paul Helm has produced yet another substantial book on the thought of John Calvin.  Calvin at the Centre comes to us from Oxford University Press and can be obtained here.  In this volume Helm seeks to show how Calvin was not only a student of the Scriptures, but how he interacted with and was influenced by his own context.  This book is meant as a follow up to his John Calvin’s Ideas which can be obtained here.  Those of us steeped in the insights of Cornelius Van Til will not agree with everything Helm says about Calvin.  However, Helm is a must read on most topics and Van Tillians will do well to wrestle with him.  Interestingly enough, the cover art for both books was painted by Helm protege and analytical philosopher/theologian Oliver Crisp, who is himself worth reading.

On a related note, I recommend Michael Sudduth’s      new analytical philosophical consideration of three typical reasons why Reformed theologians reject natural theology.  Again, Van Tillians will be likely to question the conclusions of the book (it is, after all, liked by Paul Helm…), but as with Helm, this appears to be a must read.  The book is entitled The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology and can be found here.  The book is published by Ashgate Publishers and is part of the Ashgate Philosophy of Religion Series.

That is a good question.  And Reformed Christians disagree with one another about this.  If you want proof, look at all the fuss about two kingdoms theology.  Of course the question has been debated for many years and is not a new one.  Our friends at Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing have recently reissued this book originally published in 1989.  The title is God and Politics: Four Views on the Reformation of Civil Government which can be obtained here.  The book stems from a conference on the topic held at Geneva College in 1987.  The book takes a “four views” approach to the topic and includes interaction on various issues from a theonomic, principled pluralist, Christian American, and national confessionalist perspective.  All in all, there is much food for thought here.

As noted on the recent Christ the Center podcast, Anthony B. Bradley, visiting        professor of theology at the King’s College in New York and research fellow at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, has recently published through Crossway Books, Liberating Black Theology: The Bible and the Black Experience in America which can be obtained here.  Bradley provides a sympathetic, yet penetrating and critical assessment of Black liberation theology.

I recently completed reading Richard Gamble’s thought-provoking study of American liberal clergy’s support of the First World  War.  It was eye opening.  Just to be honest, this is not a true book review.  Rather, I am using this as an opportunity to think out loud.  Before I get to my comments I should say something about the book itself.  The title is The War for Righteousness:  Progressive Christianity, the Great War, and the Rise of the Messianic Nation.  You can obtain the book here.  The book chronicles the liberal clerical support of the “war to end all wars” built on the logic that America was a servant to the world in pursuing the spread of democracy around the globe.  In other words, America becomes not only an experiment in liberty, but committed to assisting the rest of the world in coming to the light.

What was especially troublesome to me about this was the confusion between America as a nation and the church, but more than that, the confusion of America with the role of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I suspect there was not a little Hegelian idealism in the background of that move, but that is a discussion for another day.  These clergy saw America as a Messiah and the soldiers’ dying on European battlefield’s somehow replicating or extending Christ’s own suffering and death on the cross.

The confusion of America with the church is, of course, not limited to Liberal Christianity.  It also occurs in conservative circles as well.  America is not the church.   America has not replaced Israel as God’s people.  What has in fact happened is that the Old Testament church, which was for the most part limited to ethnic Israel in the Old Testament, has now, since the coming of Christ, been expanded to include Gentiles, so that the church can no longer be limited to or associated with any one nation state.  The liberal clerical confusion of America with the church has a long lineage going back to the old world and Christendom.  We must get past this confusion.  America is not the church.  Israel is no longer the church.  No particular nation is the church.  Even if every last American citizen was a real Christian, America as a geopolitical entity would still not be the church.

Having said all that, I am not opposed to patriotism and love of my country nor do I think America is the same as all other lands.  I love my country, but I am a Christian first and foremost (by God’s grace).  Recognition of the Christian’s dual citizenship (in heaven and on earth as a citizen of a particular nation) does not necessitate the idea that America is not special in the common grace sphere.  God has blessed this land.  But that does not make America any different than other lands.  God has blessed many other nations over the years and undoubtedly will continue to do so until our Lord returns. Nor does recognition of the Christian;s dual citizenship undermine the idea of nation states.  Those who long for some kind of internationalism are naive.  Sin is sin and sin evidences itself in totalitarianism (and in other ways as well).  As Lord Acton put it, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  At the very least, the existence of nation states limits potentially destructive power.  Internationalism tends to deny or ignore the sin that is at the heart of all men and women.  The only internationalism that will succeed at the end of the day is that produced by God through salvation in Jesus Christ and that will not be achieved by mere human effort.

So is America special?  No and yes.  It is not special in any redemptive sense.  That is, God may providentially use the settlement of the new world as a means of spreading the gospel, but that is about the extent of it.  God appears to be using other nations of the world to spread the gospel in our own day.  May God be praised!  America is not the new Israel.  The church is.  And the church is spread abroad throughout the whole world.  As has been said by someone else, all lands are the fatherland for all lands are the Father’s (and the Son’s and the Spirit’s).  But I would suggest that America is unique in being founded on a series of ideas like “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  I believe in these ideals.  And I think other peoples would benefit from a similar approach to political ordering.  Does that mean America should go around the world creating democracies?  That is another question.

I could write endlessly about this.  But I have said enough.  So I hold to these two ideas:  America is not the church and America has been blessed by God in the common grace sphere.  Christians are called to be citizens of two worlds:  the heavenly realm and a particular earthly realm.

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 and the rise of National Socialism in Germany.

The second book is by Westminster Seminary California professor David VanDrunen and is entitled Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms:  A Study in the Development of Reformed Social Thought and is obtainable here.  Dr. VanDrunen seeks to explore the historical use of the two ideas within Reformed theology:  natural law and two kingdoms.  There is no doubt that both doctrines found a place within early stages of development in Reformed theological circles.  So how do the doctrines function?  If the idea of natural law is not merely a Roman Catholic or Enlightenment doctrine, how was the doctrine formulated and understood within Reformed circles?  What accounts for its falling out of favor with Reformed theologians?  The same kind of questions could be asked of the two kingdoms doctrine.  Is it not the quintessential Lutheran doctrine that undermines sovereign Lordship of Christ over all his creation?  Perhaps, perhaps not.

In questions like these readers need to distinguish the historical question from the theological question (this is not to argue for neutral history, but to not allow one’s theology to dictate what a particular historical person said or did not say).  We need to first ascertain just what given theologians held before we can make theological assessments or evaluations.  When a sound historical assessment of sources has been made we may have to reevaluate long and dearly held assumptions.  But we cannot and ought not to assume we can make theological evaluations until we have done our homework.  After all, the Reformed faith did not begin in the 19th or 20th century and it is not immediately obvious that later developments are necessarily improvements to earlier formulations.  Later developments may be improvements or they may be regressions or simply misunderstandings of previous theological formulations.  At the end of the day, readers do not have to agree with these authors, but they will need to give them serious consideration.

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 Marks and editor of the e-journal, the book is very engaging.

Insofar as the gospel presents the world with the most vivid picture of God’s love, and insofar as church membership and discipline are an implication of the gospel, local church membership and discipline in fact define God’s love for the world.  That, in one sentence, is the argument of this book.  Along the way we will observe that the very things that offend us about church membership root in the things we find offensive  about God’s love itself.

What’s striking, therefore, is how most evangelicals have pushed the question of church structure into the category of nonessential and therefore of nonimportance.  The gospel is important, even essential, we say.  Church structure is neither.  And since questions of  church structure only divide Christians…it’s best to leave it out of the conversation altogether.  Right?

What if that’s wrong?  What if God, in his wisdom, actually revealed both content and form, both a message and a medium, both a gospel and a polity, perfectly suited to one another?  Couldn’t pushing questions of church structure into the category of ‘what respectable evangelicals shouldn’t hold strong opinions about’ eventually undermine the gospel itself?  (From the introduction and back cover)

While we Presbyterians will no doubt differ on certain aspects of church polity with the author, it is a bracing tonic to read an author who actually thinks the church is not incidental to the progress of the gospel.  In this day and age of so-called “revolutions” it is encouraging to see such an important subject tackled with biblical conviction.

The book contains 376 pages and has a very helpful outline of the whole book as an appendix.  Remember that church discipline is another name for pastoral care and shepherding.  It is not an optional extra.

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 J. van Asselt, J. Martin Bac, and Roelf T. te Velde, the book has an excellent introduction explaining the recent growth in post-Reformation studies and the context of Reformed scholastic discussion of free choice.

The remainder of the book contains chapters of primary source material by Girolamo Zanchi, Franciscus Junius, Franciscus Gomarus, Gisbertus Voetius, Francis Turretin, and Bernardinus de Moor.  These were theological heavyweights in their day and we are the poorer for not having read them.  The book concludes with a helpful summary.

This is an excellent series and this volume in particular will add to our understanding of this contentious issue.  My own experience with reading Reformed scholastics is that you come away amazed at the comprehensiveness of their treatment of a subject.  One may not agree with them but one must reckon with their analysis.

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 Everything which can be found here.  Warnock draws upon Scripture and a wealth of scholarship, although the book is written for the layperson.  Readers will be interested in knowing that he draws upon and cites Richard Gaffin a few times in the book.  Warnock calls for us to consider not only the cross, but also the resurrection and what that means for both redemptive history and the application of redemption.

Keep your eyes peeled for full scale reviews of these books in the months ahead.

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 parts:  Part one addresses the historical setting of the assembly (including the historical circumstances leading up to it in the English Reformation and Civil War).  Part two deals with the assembly’s theological context (its English setting, the assembly’s theological sources, and the assembly’s connection to broader Reformed and Catholic contexts).  And part three provides an examination of the assembly’s theological context, including discussion of previous assessments of the assembly and its documents and a historically sensitive commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger Catechism.  It should be noted that Letham provides us with the first in-depth treatment of the assembly since the ground-breaking work of Chad Van Dixhoorn and Letham shows his awareness of this work and interacts with it throughout his study.

In part one of this book (11-44), Letham reminds us that the Westminster Assembly was an English body (the Scotch commissioners being advisors with no voting power) called to address issues in the English context.  While not Erastian documents per se, Letham reminds us that the assembly itself was an Erastian creature, summoned into existence at the behest of parliament and serving as an advisory body to it.  Related to this is the fact that the assembly was not a court of the church.  It is also important to note that initially the assembly was called to revise the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England.  Letham’s discussion of the historical setting of the assembly is helpful, especially if one believes, as this reviewer does, that authorial intent ought to guide one’s interpretation of a given document.  Historical circumstances often provide parameters within which to understand a specific text.  To put it another way, certain possible interpretations are often ruled out or conversely fortified by a familiarity with the historical contexts of texts.  We find this to be true with the Bible.  It is no less true with regard to non-divinely inspired texts as well.  Perhaps one irritating feature of this section, which carries over into part two of the book is the insistence that the assembly was an English body.  This is perhaps a needed corrective to previous treatments of the assembly the documents it produced, but it is not as if the Scottish commissioners had no persuasive power.  Besides, as Letham himself so clearly documents, the divines at the assembly were thoroughly conversant about the theological discussions occurring on the continent.

In part two of the book (47-98) the author helpfully discusses and demonstrates the connections between the documents of the assembly and previous confessional documents.  A close study is made of the connection between the theology of the Westminster Standards and that of the Thirty-Nine Articles and James Ussher’s Irish Articles.  It seems clear that the Westminster divines were not creating doctrine out of thin air.  Letham then examines the theologians and sources cited by the divines in various debates at the assembly and it becomes clear that these men could be said to be participants in a republic of theological letters.  Letham concludes part two of the book with a look at the assembly and its relation to the western (ie, Latin) theological tradition.

The author begins part three of the book with an examination of previous treatments of the assembly.  Here Letham notes with appreciation the revolutionary impact of the Muller school of church historiography.  Richard Muller has reversed the prevailing negative assessment of Protestant Scholasticism and has drawn many capable scholars after him.  Letham’s study clearly benefits from this revolution.  The author then provides a fairly lengthy discussion of the specific theology of the WCF and LC (120-367).  Letham provides a fairly helpful review.  This reviewer expected to find some authorial dissatisfaction with the confession’s beginning with Scripture rather than the Triune God of Scripture (121-122).  However Letham’s discussion was fairly even handed.  The two most interesting sections of this part of the book were the discussions of justification and the covenants.  Specifically, with justification, the question revolved around the presence of an affirmation of the imputation of Christ’s active obedience (250-267).  Letham is surely right that we cannot allow our theological commitments to run roughshod over the historical evidence (a point made quite clearly Muller and associates) and it is true that in some sense the Westminster Standards are consensus documents, however it seems quite clear to this writer that a proper reading of the WS requires an affirmation of the imputation of Christ’s passive and active obedience.

Closely related to this is the discussion of the covenants (224-241).  Letham affirms that the assembly held to a covenant of works and he has shown that some at the assembly allowed that the covenant of works (or covenant of life or covenant of nature) was, in some sense a gracious covenant.  The problem with the language of grace here is one of definition.  Augustine used to speak of God’s actions as gracious but this seems to empty the word grace of specific meaning.  If a given theologian means by “gracious” that the covenant of works was given benevolently by God, this would be true.  God’s entering into covenant with Adam was an act of condescension.  However, it seems that the language of grace should be reserved for the post-fall state.  In other words, it is the view of this writer that the language of grace ought to be reserved for God’s relation to man in the face of the fall into sin and rebellion.  Letham also provides an interesting discussion of the imputation of Adam’s sin and the development of covenant theology (201-223).  On the one hand, the assembly affirms that original sin is passed on to future generations from our first parents by ordinary generation.  But there is also discussion of a judicial imputation of Adam’s guilt to his posterity.  Realism and federalism do not appear to be exclusive but complementary angles for looking at the results of the fall.

Additionally, Letham notes his dissatisfaction with the language of a covenant of redemption.  However, he seems to affirm the intent of that formulation.  In other words, while Letham is critical of the use of the idea of a covenant to describe the ad intra relations of the three persons of the Trinity, he does not deny that creation and redemption were planned by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternity.  The use of the word or concept of covenant in this context tends toward tri-theism.  This writer is not sure this is the case.  Clearly it can lead in this direction if one is not careful.  It is not as if the three persons of the Godhead are at loggerheads with one another.  And there is no sense of subordination of the Son or the Spirit to the Father.  At least there does not have to be.  Of course this is meant to be a historical discussion.  It is meant to be a discussion of the theological rationale that was at work at the assembly and not what rationale this writer or any other writer who was not there thinks should have been at work.  In conjunction with this, Letham notes on more than one occasion that Old Princeton read into the confessional standards developed views not actually fully articulated (for instance, on the imputation of Adam’s sin).  This would be fodder for further research.

In conclusion, the author has provided us with a readable and historically sensitive commentary on the circumstances and theology of the Westminster Assembly.  It is certainly not the last word.  But it is a exceptionally helpful word nonetheless.  One thing this book does is whet our appetite for the multi-volume project of Chad Van Dixhoorn coming from Oxford University Press in the near future.  Another thing this book does is notify us that Letham has a forthcoming book on the subject of union with Christ.  We eagerly await these books.  Robert Letham has once again demonstrated his prodigious scholarly efforts and ability to digest a wealth of theology.  For that we can all be greatful.

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 Peterson of Covenant Seminary in St. Louis.  The second title is Our Secure Salvation: Preservation and Apostacy by Robert Peterson, which can be found here,  and the final title is The Elder: Today’s Ministry Rooted in All of Scripture, which can be found here, by Cornelis Van Dam, professor of Old Testament at Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario.

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 heavenly Father brings trials into our lives and exposes our brokenness in a variety of ways for exactly the right period of time.  He knows what challenges are necessary to move his work forward in our hearts, and for how long they need to be applied (p. 217).

He notes further,

The day is coming when Jesus Christ will ride out to conquer and to recreate, a day when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Rev. 11:15).  In the meantime, our task as martyrs is simply to testify to the Lord’s greatness and grace by our words and by our sufferings (p. 223).

There is much spiritual food in this commentary.  One can find similarly useful instruction in his other books which can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.  I am so thankful that the Lord has gifted his church with godly and learned (though fallible) pastors and teachers.

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 beautiful translucent diamond set against the backdrop of black velvet.

Dr. Beeke is the primary author of Living for God’s Glory, but he is by no means its only author.  He has brought other men on board to contribute in areas where they have experience and expertise.  The other writers involved in the production of this book include James Grier, Michael Haykin, Derek Thomas, Ray Lanning, Robert Oliver, Ray Pennings, Nelson Kloosterman, and Sinclair Ferguson.  These men provide the church with an intellectually stimulating and spiritually enlivening account of experimental (read “experiential”) Calvinism at its most sober and winsome best (which is no mean feat in itself).

Living for God’s Glory comes to us with six sections:  Calvinism in history, Calvinism in the mind, Calvinism in the heart, Calvinism in the church, Calvinism in practice, and Calvinism’s goal.  The first section surveys the Reformational origins of the Calvinistic faith and its creedal basis.  Readers are reminded of the medieval Roman Catholic context in which Prostestantism arose and it is noted that while John Calvin is perhaps the most significant of the Protestant Reformers in the Reformed wing of the Reformation, he is by no means the only contributor to the movement.   Beeke then discusses the growth of Calvinism and its differences with Lutheranism and he explores its position within the church today.  The second chapter within the first section gives brief summaries of several “living” Reformed confessions and catechisms indicating the vital importance that Calvinist denominations have attached to a clear and forthright articulation of the faith.

In the second section on Calvinism in the mind, the genius of Calvinism is highlighted with its emphasis on the sovereignty of God and it is well stated that Calvinism is Christianity at its best and most comprehensive.  It is in this section that the TULIP is given its appropriate exposition along with a discussion of the five “solas.”  This section is brought to a helpful conclusion with a consideration of Philosophical Calvinism.  The section on Calvinism in the heart focuses on the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the life of sanctification.  We learn here that Calvinistic piety is profoundly rooted in the believer’s mystical union with Christ, has a double bond with the Spirit and faith and involves justification and sanctification.

The Calvinism in the church section was extremely fascinating with its unfolding of what Calvinism has meant for the Reformation of the church.  Here we find that the heart of the Reformation of the church was the return to the centrality of the preached Word.  That Word is not only explained but also specifically applied to different types of hearers.  In this way the Spirit aims the Word at the head and heart of those who hear it proclaimed.  Especially useful here is the chapter on Calvin’s evangelism where several caricatures are debunked.  The most pernicious is that Calvin was not in any way interested in evangelism or missions.  The Puritan approach to evangelism through pulpit proclamation is explicated with clarity and cogency.

Calvinism in practice offers a pointed reminder that Christianity, while anchored in the corporate worship of the church, is not and ought not to be limited to what goes on within the four walls of a church building for a few hours on Sunday.  The Puritans would have scoffed at such an idea.  We are reminded that Calvinism offers a theology for all of life, including marriage, family life, work, politics, and ethics.  The closing chapter points us to the doxological character of Calvinism which is reflected in its biblical teaching, its singing, and in its Christian experience.

Each chapter has thought-provoking questions and endnotes for those who want to track down references and tackle further reading.  There are no surprises here.  This is a solid “meat and potatoes” introduction to the Reformed faith.  I thoroughly enjoyed my reading of this book.  My only criticism is that there is no discussion at all of the redemptive-historical or biblical theological contribution to the richness of Calvinism.  This is all the more surprising since the redemptive-historical approach was adumbrated by such Puritan stalwarts as John Owen and Jonathan Edwards.  While some may want to pit Puritanism or experimental Calvinism against redemptive-historical theology, this is neither necessary nor wise.  It is not necessary as I have already noted that the Puritans and the Reformed at their best were sensitive to themes in Scripture and theology that would later be developed by the likes of Geerhardus Vos.  Covenant theology itself is but biblical theology at its best.  And it is not wise to pit a proper view of Christian experience against redemptive history.  After all, redemptive history is the ground of our appropriation of grace and if an individual does not actually experience salvation, then he or she is merely playing the game of Christianity or church.  To ask which of these, redemptive-history or Christian experience, is more important is like asking which arm or leg is more important, the right or the left!  Quite frankly we need both.  Perhaps if another edition of Living for God’s Glory is produced it can bring out the necessity of the redemptive-historical for practical Christian experience.  This concern aside, this is the book to give unbelievers and friends and family, who may be believers, but who wonder why we are all so overwhelmed with God’s glorious beauty and sovereignty.  Joel Beeke has given us further evidence that Calvinism is Christianity come into its own.

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 with this 400 page book.  We can only benefit from such familiarity with the historical, theological, and political contexts in which the Westminster Standards were formulated.  The book is available here.  The companion volumes in the series can be found here and here.

Vern Sheridan Poythress, professor of mine and friend indeed, has authored a new book on a Christian approach to language entitled In the Beginning Was the Word:  Language:  A God-Centered Approach published by Crossway.  Poythress addresses the Trinitarian basis of language and deals with some of the contemporary challenges to the ability of language to communicate clearly and to refer to something beyond itself.  You can find the book here.

Finally, just in case you may have forgotten that this year marks the 500th birthday of John Calvin, let me just remind you of that fact.  David Hall and Matthew Burton have co-authored the latest in the Calvin 500 Series (David Hall, series editor) entitled Calvin and Commerce:  The Transforming Power of Calvinism in Market Economies published by P&R.  The thesis of the book is sure to create discussion.  You can find the book here.

Happy reading.  Remember, reading is fundamental.

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 in Lake Mary, Florida.  This volume contains 58 sermons on the text of Romans and promises to be a valuable addition to your library.  You can obtain the book here.

Another new title is the book edited by Anthony J. Carter, entitled Glory Road:  The Journey of Ten African Americans into Reformed Christianity. You can obtain the book here.  We ought to be praying for the Reformed gospel (really, the only gospel there is) to penetrate the African-American community and other communities as well.  Anthony Carter has written other worthwhile volumes as well.  See his Experiencing the Truth here and his On Being Black and Reformed here.

David VanDrunen, minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and professor of systematic theology and Christian ethics at Westminster Seminary in California, has written a timely book entitled Bioethics and the Christian Life which can be found here.  This is a book that deals with issues that effect everybody and is written from Dr. Van Drunen’s two kingdoms and natural law perspective.

Finally, the following volume is probably priced to steeply for most readers.  However, I would encourage our readers to suggest that their local library obtain the book for their patrons.  I am referring to Brian J. Lee’s new offering, Johannes Cocceius and the Exegetical Roots of Federal Theology:  Reformation Developments in the Interpretation of Hebrews 7-10. This volume is a revised form of Lee’s dissertaton done under the direction of Richard Muller at Calvin Theological Seminary.  Lee is a graduate of Westminster Seminary in California and currently serves as a URC church planter in Washington D. C.  The book is published by the German publisher Vandenhoek & Ruprecht and is available here.  I do want to note that there are two other volumes in this series (edited by Calvin scholar Herman J. Selderhuis) worthy of mention:  Mark Beach’s Christ and the Covenant:  Francis Turretin’s Federal Theology as a Defense of the Doctrine of Grace (found here) and Cornelis Venema’s Accepted and Renewed in Christ:  The “Twofold Grace of God” and the Interpretation of Calvin’s Theology (found here).   Both Beach and Venema serve on the faculty of Mid-America Reformed Seminary.

Enjoy reading and be edified by it.

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 worldwide Christian community has been plagued recently with several theological controversies.  We have the debate over penal substitutionary atonement, another about the emergent church, and another about the doctrine of justification.  Influential to some extent in each of these have been the writings (and sometimes the personal involvement) of Anglican bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright.  The present volume under review, The Future of justification, is well-known American pastor-theologian John Piper’s honest attempt to face head on the rising tide of dissatisfaction with the traditional Reformation doctrine of justification that can be seen broadly in the so-called “new perspective on Paul” and more particularly in the voluminous literary output of Wright.  Piper has published on the subject of justification before with his The Justification of God and more recently his Counted Righteous in Christ.  Piper has addressed several aspects of Wright’s reformulation of justification along ecclesiological rather than soteriological lines and has actually submitted the material in the book to Dr. Wright for his own feedback.  As Piper notes, Wright submitted an 11,000-word response to the book and so the book has doubled in size (10).

The Future of Justification does not make for light reading, but it will repay any reader who invests the time to wrestle with the detailed exegetical, biblico-theological and systematic concerns.  Wright, as representative of the broader NPP school, holds that the Reformation read Paul wrongly.  Paul did not think that second temple Judaism was a works oriented religion.  He thought it was narrow and bigoted.  Justification is not, Wright tells us, about how a sinner finds acceptance with a holy God based upon the imputed righteousness of Christ and forgiveness of sin though faith alone.  That is all wrong.  On the contrary, justification is about who is in the covenant community (i.e., the church).  Rather than circumcision, kosher dietary rules and Sabbath observance being the badges of membership, faith is now the badge.  Additionally, Wright speaks about two justifications.  There is the justification in history and then there is a justification at the last judgment for individual believers based upon the whole life lived (per Romans 2:6-11).

Piper interacts at a minute and detailed level with the arguments of bishop Wright in eleven chapters and six appendices.  Piper opens with a helpful reminder that not all biblical theology is worthy of the name.  One does not have to pit biblical theology against systematic theology as Wright does (annoyingly so from this reviewer’s viewpoint).  The sister disciplines mutually enrich and correct each other.  Or that is the way it should be.  Piper then addresses Wright’s handling of the law court imagery behind justification language in the NT in two successive chapters.  In chapter five Piper asks whether the news that Jesus is Lord would be “good” news for the unbeliever.  In the next chapter Piper deals with whether justification is about our standing before a holy God and in the next he wrestles with the place of works in the biblical scheme of justification.  Then the question is asked as to whether Wright is saying the same thing as the Reformers when he stresses union with Christ and dispenses with the imputation of the active obedience of Christ.  Truthfully, it is not one or the other.  It is both.  This is a basic defect in Wright and I am afraid it makes orthodox men frightened by any and all talk of union with Christ.  Piper then tackles the contentious issue of Paul’s place in the second temple Jewish milieu and follows that with a discussion of the Jewish ethnic boundary markers or badges  and concludes the body of the work in the eleventh chapter with a look at various imputation passages among which we find Philippians 3:9 and 1^st Corinthians 5:21.  There is a wealth of exegetical richness here.  Piper concludes the book with six appendices dealing with further matters related to the law, imputation, faith, and love.

While N. T. Wright has offered to the church some helpful scholarship (he has dispatched the silliness of the Jesus Seminar and the like with humor and abandon), and has rigorously offered arguments in favor of Christ’s resurrection, his work on justification comes up short and needs detailed correction.  John Piper has done just that.  The Future of Justification is must reading.

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 a hefty tome weighing in at over 1100 pages and is published by P&R and edited by John J. Hughes.  Frame is perhaps best known as critical follower of Cornelius Van Til and as the foremost formulator (along with Vern S. Poythress) of what is known as tri-perspectivalism.  What makes this festschrift unique is that it contains a fair bit of critical evaluation and interaction from the contributors.  You can obtain the book here.

The second book is a new edition of a historically significant volume within Reformed circles, especially Scottish Presbyterian circles.  The book is entitled The Marrow of Modern Divinity authored by Edward Fisher who is shrouded in some mystery, but was most likely a British barber, manuscript dealer, and lay theologian of no mean gifts.  The book became the center of controversy in Scotland when the book was republished and this dust-up is known as the Marrow Controversy.  This new edition published by Christian Focus has a forward by Philip Ryken,a history of the book and its author by William Vandoodewaard, and explanatory notes by Thomas Boston (one of the “Marrow Men”).  The book is available here.  You can find a helpful lecture series on the Marrow Controversy by Sinclair Ferguson here.

*  The reader should know that some books which I note and review have been provided gratis, which is the standard practice of publishers with reviews for academic journals and thoughtful periodicals.  Also note that following the links provides me with potential free books which will then in turn be reviewed.

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 expository fashion (lectio continua).   It was both challenging and invigorating.  Additionally, several years ago I published a series of articles by the title Spotlight on Romans.  Back then I was a Wesleyan-Arminian.  Now I am Reformed and would like to try my hand at it again.  My goal is to offer relatively brief (yes, really…) commentary on this tremendously significant book of the Bible.

In this introductory post I want to touch upon the historical significance of Paul’s letter.  Almost every reformation or renewal movement within the history of the church has had some connection with a rediscovery of the significance of the letter.  Three heroes of the faith who usually come in for mention when the profundity of Paul’s epistle to the Romans is considered are Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, and John Wesley.  Augustine was born to a Christian mother, Monica, who prayed regularly for him.  However, he was in his thirties when he came to faith in Christ.  Augustine was struggling with his sexual sin in the garden of a friends’ home when he heard children playing nearby who said, “Tolle lege, tolle lege,” “Take up, read.” With that he picked up a copy of Romans at hand and found freedom in Christ.  Martin Luther was as fastidious a monk as you could ever find.  Struggling with his fear of and anger with God, Luther came to see the centrality of justification by grace through faith in Christ in the pages of Romans and so the Protestant Reformation began.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was a dry and lifeless Anglican minister (not to mention failed missionary to Georgia) when came to faith in Christ through hearing the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans read aloud at a meeting at Aldersgate Street in London.  Now that is powerful.  Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed” when he heard about the gospel from the pen of Luther.  These and scores of other accounts retell the power of the gospel found in the words of Paul to the church at Rome.

The whole Bible is divinely inspired.  Of that there is no doubt.  And it is infallible, inerrant, and splendidly holy in all its parts.  But Romans has played such a significant role in the life of the church that another look at its contents is worth taking. Over the next few weeks I hope to touch upon what I believe to be the high points in this Pauline  treasure trove.   The truth of Romans 1:16-17 has been discovered over and over again in the life of the church. Won’t you rediscover it too?

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 the gospel, the church.  Like most of Horton’s books, this one will surely give us food for thought.

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 of assisting the editors with the production of the book prior to its submission to the publishers.  And we just finished work on what will be the second (and possibly the third) volume of the set.  Vol. 1 takes the reader from the New Testament right up to the cusp of the Reformation.  The book includes introductions to each of the authors included in the text and helpful overviews of the period and thoughtful diagnostic questions.  There really is nothing quite like this in the English language.

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 of Calvin’s personal servant/aide.  This is a page turner and was hard to put down.

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 the more convinced.  This is not to say that we can’t learn from other apologetic schools.  But at the end of the day, what truth we learn from the classical, evidential, cumulative case, and warrantist schools finds its true home in the presuppositional way.

Bahnsen’s manuscript was thought to be long lost but was recently found to have fallen behind a filing cabinet.  This book is actually only 2/3rds of the original manuscript.  The final third, an evaluation of the history of western philosophy, remains incomplete and plans have been made to complete the project with additional materials by other Van Tillian presuppositionalists.

What we have in this volume involves both a positive discussion of the presuppositional method and an evaluation of three apologists who have been considered presuppositionalists in the past.  Among the issues discussed in the first part of the book is the typical separation of metaphysics and epistemology.  This is an unfortunate separation which is artificial at best and detrimental at worst.  Additionally, God has no need of any higher authority to authenticate his Word.  This affirmation is often read as fideism, but this is only possible because of the forced separation between metaphysics and epistemology.

Bahnsen’s discussion of the Creator/creature distinction and the analogical nature of human knowledge (we are to think God’s thoughts after him in a human way) would have greatly benefited from recent historical studies of the likes of Richard Muller who has reminded us of the post-Reformation Reformed Scholastic doctrine of the archetype/ectype distinction which simply is Van Tils doctrine of analogy.  Such historical studies indicate denials and criticisms of Van Til’s doctrine of analogy place one outside the historical (read “biblical”) Reformed theological mainstream.

Banhsen also evaluates the three apologists Gordon Clark, Edward J. Carnell, and Francis Schaeffer.  Bahnsen is not without appreciation for the work of these men, but by the end of these chapters one wonders how these men could have ever been considered presuppositional in any sense of the term.  My own sense is that they held to modified forms of the classical method (this method uses rational arguments to demonstrate the existence of a “god” and then attempts empirical examination of the historical veracity of the Bible).

I conclude with the observation that the term “presuppositional” may have reached the end of its usefulness.  I am one of those who thinks a better designation may be “covenantal” apologetics.    Bahnsen does not discuss this at all.  But his book will be a must read for those seeking to understand presuppositionalism aright.

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 day who has been eclipsed in subsequent years.  The memory of Boyce and his Calvinistic ideals have not been lost.  The recent recovery of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY under the leadership of R. Albert Mohler was in many ways a return to the vision Boyce had for SBTS at the beginning.  Boyce was unusually gifted as a theologian, educator, and financier.  These were qualities he would use in spades in the early days of the establishment of the seminary.  The reader comes away wanting to be used of God is similar ways.

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 making history now so that someone can write the history later.  Until we have that history of WTS, Wills will be instructive.   The story of SBTS is a tale of the recapture of an institution for the glory of Christ.     Read 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 the Reformed tradition, are such things as limited government, representative government, the right of lesser magistrates to resist a tyrant, and the rejection of unfettered statism.  There is much food for thought here.  The other available volumes in the Calvin500 Series can be found here, here, and here.

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 virtue of our union and communion with Christ Jesus we are also communing with fellow believers.  What a glorious thing partaking in the Lord’s Supper is.

What is not so glorious is how feeble, imperfect ministers like me administer and explain the meaning and significance of the Supper.  Today my head was spinning and felt like it was stuffed with cotton.  And then the lid on the holder of the juice would not come loose so my ministerial colleague Jim Cassidy had to discretely come up and assist me in prying the lid off the container.  So much for decorum!  All worked out well though.

Thankfully the efficacy of the Lord’s Supper does not depend upon me or my finesse.  Today I was reminded of that truth.  In the Lord’s Supper the Holy Spirit lifts participants into the heavenlies by faith so that they may feed on Christ, sometimes even while the ministers are wrestling with recalcitrant paraphernalia.

We have a great, sympathetic, and gentle high priest in our Lord Jesus Christ.  To him, along with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all the praise!

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 chronological snobbery.  No, writers from other ages have their blind spots too.  The benefit of reading writers from previous generations is that they have different blind spots.  We can learn from them because we come from different eras with slightly different problems.

In the spirit of Jack Lewis, I want to recommend a book that I read over 12 years ago when it was first published by Inter Varsity Press.  I am very happy to see that it has been printed again.  What book am I referring to?  It is R. K. MacGregor Wright’s No Place for Sovereignty:  What’s Wrong with Free Will Theism.  This is one of those books that I thought to myself as I read it, “Self, I wish you had written this!”  It is an excellent critique of Open Theism and the ever changing, shape-shifting theology of Clark Pinnock.  I never liked Pinnock’s problematic theology when I was an Arminian and find it even less compelling today.  Wright writes with clarity and vigor.  You can find the book here.

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 future.

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 what worship is.  It is ascribing to God the glory that is due to him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But one may wonder how to go about this.  How does a man or woman, boy or girl, go about worshipping God?  This is a deep and significant question and I am not in a position to delve into it with any kind of exhaustive treatment.  One basic way to think about it is to say that worship involves coming to the Father, through the mediation of the Son, and by the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

My concern, however, is to note that there are three kinds of worship with which the average Christian ought to be involved.  Christians really ought to want to worship our great and awesome God alone in personal worship or devotions, in family worship, and in the public, corporate worship of a congregation.  I like to think of these as mutually reinforcing, interlocking components of Christian worship.  At the center of these three forms of worship ought to be the Word of God.  At the end of the day, we must worship God in conformity to his Word and with sincerity of heart.  Conformity and sincerity are complementary.  Our Lord told the woman at the well in Samaria that “God is  Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

So in the end, worship God alone, with your family, and with your church family.  And worship him in spirit and in truth.  Conform to the Word in all your worship and worship the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with all sincerity.

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 first is that Sweeney seems to be somewhat dismissive or satirical when he notes Edwards’ willingness to subscribe to the substance of the Westminster Confession and his preference for Presbyterian church government over his own home-grown Congregationalism (169).  Sweeney notes that Edwards’ comments have “thrilled the souls of Presbyterians everywhere.”  This may be a facetious statement on Sweeney’s part as he indicates his awareness of Presbyterians (like Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield of Old Princeton) who were selective in their use of Edwards.  Hodge and Warfield were appreciative of Edwards.  However, the problematic heirs of Edwards rightly dampened Old Princeton’s enthusiasm for Edwards.  And here is the source of my other concern with Sweeney’s book.  Actually it is not so much with this book as with another (and this one too).  Sweeney seems to have it as one of his goals to rehabilitate the reputations of theologians of the so-called New England theology.  Frankly, this indigenous American school of theology is better left in the dustbin of history.  Or so I think.  But I am inclined toward Old School Presbyterianism so I cannot be said to be unbaised.  Anyway, with these two caveats aside, this is a very useful introduction to the life and thought of Jonathan Edwards.

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 published.  Also included in this volume is a fascinating biographical chapter on the author by Thomas Peck.  This is must reading for men who aspire to the ministry in Presbyterian circles.