September

Books

Baker, Hunter. Political Thought: A Students Guide. Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition. Edited by David Dockery. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012.

Hunter Baker does a good job in a brief space of describing different approaches to government, key themes such as order, freedom, justice, and the Christian’s role in the political process. This is a good introduction to political thought from a Christian perspective.

Ware, Bruce A. The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ. Wheaton: Crossway, 2013.

Bruce Ware’s writing is characterized by a determination to be rigorously biblical, to dig in deep to what the Scripture says on a matter, and to communicate this rich, biblical theology in a clear, devotional manner. These are all characteristics of The Man Christ Jesus. The burden of this book is to cause Christians to glorify God for the incarnation. The Son taking flesh is part of God’s wise plan, and Ware probes what this means and why this is so. He invites his readers to consider that Jesus lived his life as a man empowered by the Spirit. This should encourage us in striving to live righteous lives. He discusses Jesus’s growth in wisdom, what this implies about his attitude toward Scripture, and how this should shape our attitude. He reminds us that Jesus didn’t obey God automatically. He strived for obedience through suffering as our pattern. Ware also has an insightful treatment of Jesus and temptation. Truly, as God Jesus could not sin. But Ware points out that this doesn’t mean that Jesus triumphed over temptation as God any more than someone who swam the English channel with a boat following behind achieved his goal because of the boat. Jesus could not sin as God, but he met temptation as a man. Ware of course discusses the need for Christ to be a man in order for him to be the substitutionary sacrifice in our place. Ware also picks up on some topics that are often neglected in discussions of Jesus’s humanity. Ware argues that Jesus not only needed to come as a human but that he also had to come as a male human. This was fitting because he is the eternal Son. But it was also necessary for Jesus to be the second Adam, to fulfill the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, to be a prophet like Moses, to be our High Priest, and to be the bridegroom of the church. Finally, Ware argues that Jesus had to be a man to fulfill his kingly reign. Of course Jesus is God and sovereign over all. But a number of texts speak of the Father giving Jesus authority to reign (Ps. 2:5-9; Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:20-23; Phil 2:9-11; 1 Cor. 15:27-28; Ps. 110:1-4; Dan 7:13-14; Heb. 1:1-3; 2:9; 1 Pet. 3:22). Tied into this are the bodily resurrection and the bodily return of Christ.

Dallinore, Arnold A. George Whitfield: God’s Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century. Crossway, 1990.

Dallimore writes devotional, but not uncritical, biographies of evangelical leaders. This brief biography is a condensation of his massive two-volume work on George Whitfield. It is warmly written. Dallimore conveys Whitefield’s zeal for the gospel. He also highlights Whitfield as a model for how to handle controversy by showing his grace and refusal to allow the Wesley’s attacks on Calvinism to cause a permanent breach that harmed their evangelistic work. His forbearance seems to have resulted in a reconciliation with the Wesley’s by the end of his life. Whitfield was not without flaws. Dallimore discusses his use of slave labor at his Gerogia orphanage. Whitfield also failed to support the Erskine’s in their separation from a corrupt church. But despite these flaws he was God’s faithful servant in spreading the Gospel in the British Isles and American colonies.

Speare, Elizabeth George. Sign of the Beaver. Houghton Mifflin, 1983.

Marsden, George. The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief. New York: Basic Books, 2014.

This brief book of 200 pages looks back to the 1950s and the changes that emerged from that decade in order to better understand our present situation, particularly as it relates to religion and public life.

In his first two chapters Marsden looks at the concerns that intellectuals of the 1950s had about American culture. One of the chief concerns was that mediums such as TV were not meditating high culture to a broader audience. Instead a new mass culture was created that was culturally degrading. Serious thought was needed in the modern world but was lacking in popular magazines and television shows. Another major concern was the preservation and expansion of freedom. This theme was, of course, developed against the backdrop of the totalitarianism that arose prior to World War II and continued as a threat in the Cold War. The danger to freedom that the public intellectuals focused on, however, was the danger posed by conformity to business procedure, suburban housing, and even child-raising methods. The themes of freedom and nonconformity were stated in moderate, academic tones in the 1950s but lived out by the counter-culture of the 1960s.

In chapter three Marsden focuses on the great public intellectual of the time, Walter Lippmann. Marsden notes that the intellectuals of the 1950s could champion freedom because they had a shared consensus about the common goods that freedom should be oriented towards. Lippmann pointed out that these intellectuals valued the consensus but “had dynamited the foundations on which those principles had been first established.” Lippmann proposed that natural law be the needed foundation for the common good. His proposal was roundly rejected. Most intellectuals saw no need for these foundations; they saw natural law as a threat to human autonomy. Lippmann’s proposal was roundly rejected. Ironically, Marsden notes, out was the Christian-based rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr. that best exemplified the consensus ideals of the 1950s liberals: liberty, justice, equality.

In chapter four Marsden argues that the two actual authorities in American life were the individual (existentialism) and science. These two came together in psychology. Marsden traces the debates between Skinner and Rogers as well as the influence of Dr. Spock. The result of this unstable dual authority was the 1960s.

In chapter five Marsden looks at the the influence of Henry Luce and Reinhold Niebuhr as exemplifying the surface religiosity of the 1950s. Luce promoted a civil religion. Niebuhr gave profound evaluations of the American situation but lacked in providing a way forward, in part because there was no shared authority.

In chapter six Marsden looks at how the consensus of the 1950s collapsed in the 1960s, and eventually gave rise to the Evangelical Right/Moral Majority of the 1980s. Marsden holds that the Christian right wanted the 1950s back with its embrace of a Christian civil religion. His major critique is that they set up a binary opposition between themselves and “secular humanism.” Secularists likewise claimed to be the heirs of the 1950s consensus with its emphasis on personal freedom and science. Thus the culture wars.

In his conclusion Marsden looks to Abraham Kuyper as pointing the way forward. He notes that Kuyper rightly recognized that there is ultimately no neutral, objective ground. Thus attempts since the 1960s to move religion to a purely private sphere will fail. Nor is it possible to make a religiously plural nation Christian. What is needed, Marsden argues, is a principled pluralism that gives all religious views a voice.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. New York: HarperCollins, 1983.

Lewis, C. S. The Horse and His Boy.

Kidner, Derek. The Message of Jeremiah: Against Wind and Tide. The Bible Speaks Today, ed. J. A. Motyer. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1987.

Derek Kinder has the rare talent of packing a great deal of pertinent observation into a small space. This commentary on Jeremiah succinctly captures the message of the book in a running exposition that is meant to be read through from cover to cover. Throughout Kidner makes brief but pointed applications to the present. In this way the book lives up to both its title—it gives us the message of Jeremiah—and its series title—it speaks that message to us today.

Articles

McKay, David. “From Popery to Principle: Covenanters and the Kingship of Christ.” In The Faith Once Delivered: Essays in Honor of Dr. Wayne R. Spear. Edited by Anthony T. Selvaggio. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2007.

McKay traces a shift in the view of Christ’s relationship as king over the nations in Scottish Presbyterianism. He notes that George Gillespie and Samuel Rutherford distinguished between Christ’s mediatorial reign over the Church and his reign as God over the nations. Erastians argued that since magistrates were under the mediatorial reign of Christ, magistrates may also rule over the church. Gillespie and Rutherford insist on the twofold kingdom otherwise, contrary to Scripture, infidels could not be legitimate rulers and magistrates would wrongly intrude on the church. They also wanted to keep the mediatorial offices of Christ unified. Christ was only mediatorial king over those who by faith had him as their mediatorial prophet and priest. Rutherford argued that it was popery to teach that Christ rules as mediator over the nations.

Positions began to shift in the eighteenth century. In 1733 the Erskine’s led a group to secede from the Church of Scotland. But the Seceders did not join with the Covenanters, who were already outside the church of Scotland because of differences over government. The Seceders taught that governments are raised up providentially by God and must be obeyed according to Romans 13:1-7. A good and moral ruler is good for the nation but morality on the part of the ruler is not necessary to legitimate his rule. The Covenanters said that the legitimacy of government rested on its conformity to the rules for government laid down in Scripture. The Seceders argued that this was pushing the Covenanters toward the position of Christ being mediatorial king over all nations. Though they denied this, by the early nineteenth century, that shift had indeed happened.

In 1803 Alexander McLeod, an American Presbyterian in a Covenanter denomination, wrote Messiah, Governor of the Nations of the Earth. In Scotland William Symington’s Messiah the Prince (1839) argues similarly. These authors point out that Christ’s authority over the nations is given to him by the Father and is not held eternally by virtue of his divine nature (Matt. 11:27; 28:18; Acts 10:26; etc.). Further this rule includes rule over the nations. (Ps. 2:10-12; Dan. 7:13-14; etc.).

By the twentieth century these sentiments make it into the official documents of churches that stand in the Covenanter tradition. Thus a view once denounced by Rutherford as popery has made it into the confessional statements of the churches of his heirs.

One of the difficulties in working through these issues is that there are exegetical, theological, and practical considerations all coming into play. Practical concerns sometimes shape the exegesis and theology and sometimes similar exegetical and theological positions are held with different practical conclusions drawn.

Warfield, B. B. “The Divine Messiah in the Old Testament.” Works. 3:3-39.

Warfield argues, primarily from Ps 45:6; Isa. 9:6; Dan. 7:13, that the Old Testament presents the Messiah as divine. He also argues on the basis that the OT speaks of Yahweh coming and the Messiah coming in the same terms.

Warfield, B. B. “Christless Christianity.” Works. 3:313-67.

Warfield recounts the persistence of Lessing’s idea that true religion is a matter of the “eternal truths of reason” rather than the “accidental truths of history.” Though only a few deny the historicity of Jesus altogether, many affirm that though they think the historical Jesus existed, his non-existence would make no difference to their religion. Warfield draws an analogy to Platonists and Plato. If Plato never existed that would make little difference to the Platonist as long as the ideas were valid.

Warfield holds that Christianity is different from Platonism. True Christianity must reckon with the problem of sin. Forgiveness of sin demands expiation, “and expiation, in its very nature, is not a principle but a fact, an event which takes place, if at all, in the conditions of time and space” (340). Christ does not merely point the way to salvation (making him dispensable); Christ is the Way.

In addition, Warfield finds Lessing’s confidence in science and doubt in history to be self-contradictory since the conclusions of science are based on observations that are historical once they have taken place.

Warfield also argues that we can be more confident of the great gospel events than we can be of some events of the present or of recent history. There is much we do not know of the present, but there is a great deal of evidence for the events of the Gospels.

Finally, Warfield anticipates Machen’s argument by insisting that Christianity is a redemptive religion. A Christless Christianity is therefore not Christianity.

Warfield, B. B. “The ‘ Two Natures’ and Recent Christological Speculation.” Works, 3:259-310.

Warfield argues in the first half of this article that all the NT writings teach and presuppose the doctrine of the two natures of Christ. He makes the case that neither Paul nor the Synoptics have a Christology any less high than John’s. He notes that even some of the critics concede this. But, the critics maintain, there is evidence that a more primitive view than the two natures doctrine can be detected at points in the NT writings. In the second part of the article Warfield demonstrates that the critics are simply reading their own preconceptions of what t this primitive doctrine must be into the texts. Thus affirmations that Jesus is human are taken as indications of an earlier view that Jesus was only human. But, Warfield points out, affirmations that a Jesus is human is a necessary part of the two natures doctrine and are not indications of anything else. Warfield demonstrates powerfully in this article that the critics, more than the orthodox have a dogma that they read into the Scripture.

Scott, R. B. Y. “Wisdom in Creation: The ’Āmôn of Proverbs VIII 30.” Vetus Testamentum 10, no. 2 (April 1, 1960): 213-223.

Scott surveys five possible meanings of אמון in Proverbs 8:30: skilled craftsman, child, guardian, binding, faithful. He opts for “binding” as the sense that can explain the rise of the other senses. The meaning is that “Wisdom was a link or bond between the Creator and his creation.”

October

Books

Gundry, Robert H. Jesus the Word According to John the Sectarian: A Paleofundamentalist Manifesto for Contemporary Evangelicalism, especially Its Elites, in North America. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

I found the exposition of Jesus the Word largely convincing. If at times Gundry may have stretched to show how the Logos theme runs throughout the book, the number of actual connections is substantial enough for his thesis to stand. Furthermore, I’m in agreement that Word refers to the revelatory aspect of Jesus’s ministry.

The exposition of John as sectarian I found less convincing. He pits the theology of John against the synoptics, and tries to mount an argument that John does not intend for Christians to love the world in any sense, John 3:16 notwithstanding. I have a hard time seeing fundamentalists, paleo or otherwise affirming an approach that sees diverse theologies among the Gospel writers.

I was of a mixed mind of his paelofundamentalist manifesto. As a fundamentalist, I found aspects of the critique, especially those aspects about theological assimilation and worldly living, pertinent. I resist the idea, however, that fundamentalism should is only about churchly and heavenly life and not about earthly life. Not least because at those points Gundry is setting different parts of Scripture against each other.

Witherington III, Ben. A Week in the Life of Corinth. Downers Grove, InterVarsity, 2012.

This book provides an entertaining way of picking up background knowledge about the world of the New Testament. The plot and characterization may be a bit thin at points, but that’s not the point of this book. The point is to learn about the world of the New Testament in an entertaining way. At that, this books succeeds.

Campbell, Iain D. and William M. Schweitzer, Engaging with Keller: Thinking Through the Theology of an Influential Evangelical. Grand Rapids: Evangelical Press, 2013.

This book is a model of critical engagement with a brother in Christ. Almost all of the authors are respectful and appreciative of Keller’s ministry. Most are not reticent to praise Keller even as they critique significant aspects of his ministry. The manuscript was also submitted to Keller for feedback.

I disagreed most with the chapter by Hart. This, no doubt, is because he was arguing for a Presbyterian ecclesiology while I am a Baptist. However, the other essays I found to be careful treatments of Keller’s teaching about sin, hell, perichoresis, the church’s mission, and evolution. Another chapter examines Keller’s hermeneutical methodology. One of the central concerns raised repeatedly is that Keller’s efforts to make biblical doctrine plausible in a today’s world sometimes subtly distorts the doctrines themselves. The authors are not opposed to finding new ways of talking about old truths, but they note that when this is attempted the church does need to be careful to ensure that the new ways of speaking are as faithful as the old ways.

Given the overall excellence in content and spirit of this book, I was disappointed to see a defensive review in Themelios. For instance, Kevin Bidwell has a perceptive critique of the use of the divine dance metaphor. The reviewer criticizes Bidwell for not treating Keller’s Trinitarian views more fully. But this is unfair. Bidwell notes at the beginning of his essay: “This is not a critique of everything that Keller ever said about the Trinity, but only his use of a particular imagery of questionable validity and having problematic implications.” Surely a friendly critic should be allowed to note that Keller is orthodox in his Trinitarian teaching but that a particular metaphor that he often uses is problematic. In addition the Themelios reviewer accused the authors of at times misrepresenting Keller, but I wonder if the reviewer misread the critiques, which were often not that Keller denied certain teachings but that they were minimized to the point that certain distortions arose. The response to that kind of critique cannot be, “but Keller teaches such and such here.” I would have been much more encouraged if the reviewer mixed his defense of Keller with acknowledgement of areas in which the authors had pointed up some real problems. The authors of Engaging with Keller clearly appreciate his work, and wrote their book to strengthen Keller’s ministry and the churches influenced by it. But that goal won’t be achieved if the readers are defensive.

Tolkein, J.R.R. Bilbo’s Last Song.

Articles

Vos, Geerhardus. “The Range of the Logos Title in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel.” In Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos. Edited by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1980.

Vos argues that the title Logos applies to the pre-incarnate as well as incarnate Christ, that Logos carries the meaning of Creator as well as Revealer, and that many of the statements about light in connection with life are references to general revelation.

Arnold, Matthew. “Thyrsis”

Snoeberger, Mark. “Weakness Or Wisdom? Fundamentalists And Romans 14.1– 15.13.” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 12 (2007): 29-48.

In this article Mark Snoeberger responds to the assertion that those with standards that are stricter than explicit biblical statements are by biblical definition weak. Snoeberger notes that such a position “implied that the most restrained and self-denying of believers are in fact the very weakest, and, contrarily, that the most libertine and self-indulgent of believers are actually the very strongest” (29). While Snoeberger is ready to grant that some Fundamentalists have wrongly developed strictures beyond those with biblical warrant. But he also notes Romans 14-15 is not about adiaphora or things about which the Scripture is silent. It has to do with Jewish believers who continued to think they had to obey the dietary laws and observe sacred days as a matter of sanctification (not justification). These people are wrong. They are weak in faith. As a result, Paul counsels the strong to restrict their liberty so that they do not destroy the weak. Snoeberger argues that Fundamentalists have often done well in the matter of restricting their liberty for the benefit of others.

November

Books

Bonar, Horatius. The Everlasting Righteousness.

Bonar presents the reader with solid meat regarding the Bible’s teaching about righteousness in Christ. The book focuses on the justification side of things, but sanctification is not neglected. But this book is no mere treatise. It is full of pastoral exhortation as well.

O’Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphins. Laurel Leaf, 1960.

O’Dell. Scott. Sing Down the Moon.

Challies, Tim and R. W. Glenn. Modest: Men and Women Clothed in the Gospel. Cruciform Press, 2012.

This book suffers from false dichotomies. The authors wrongly conflate concrete applications of Scripture with Paul’s warning in Colossians to beware of “self-made religion and asceticism.” Thus if a father tells his children, “‘only this low,’ ‘at least this long,’ ‘never in this combination,’ and ‘never so tight that ______ shows.'” he is not necessarily replacing “the gospel . . . with regulations.” He may simply be helping his son or daughter apply the Scripture to their lives in a concrete way. The same can be true of a local church or a Christian school. Such families, churches, and schools may be legalistic. They may think they’re earning God’s favor by adhering to their rules. They may look down on others who draw their guidelines differently. Or they may be a group of believers who really want to please God in all that they do—not to earn his favor but because they love their Savior and his church.

Jaeggli, Randy. Christians and Alcohol: A Scriptural Case for Abstinence. BJU Press, 2014.

I have long personally held an abstinence position with regard to beverage alcohol for the following reasons: (1) The Bible counsels strict moderation with regard to alcohol. (2) The alcohol content of alcoholic beverages today is so much higher than in biblical times that drinking them undiluted would seem to violate biblical teaching. (3) Given this, biblical comments about delighting in wine are not about experience the effects of the alcohol. This is confirmed because these passages also refer to rejoicing in bread and oil. Thus I can obey exhortations to rejoice in bread and wine by rejoicing in all manner of good food. (4) Paul warns Christians not to be brought under the power of anything. I do not trust myself to drink alcoholic beverages without being brought under their power. Putting one’s self to the test seems to me a position of Christian immaturity. (5) Even if drinking alcoholic beverages were my liberty (of which I am not convinced, given points 1 and 2), I willing restrict my liberty lest I be a stumbling block to my brothers and sisters in Christ who are tempted to drunkenness. (6) Any medicinal benefit that can be gained from drinking wine can be gained with less risk in other ways. For this reason articles that I read about these benefits always close by counseling people not to begin drinking if they don’t already do so.

I am therefore pleased to see Jaeggli develop his arguments along these lines and to provide cogent exegetical and theological reasons for holding them.

Horton, Ronald. Family: The Making and Remaking of a Christian Home. BJU Press, 2014.

This is a book of wise counsel from an older Christian who thinks carefully about the Christian life.

Bangs, Carl. Arminus: A Study in the Dutch Reformation. 1985; reprinted by Wipf & Stock, 1998.

Bangs’s biography has long been the standard biography of Arminius. He provides abundant historical background. He writes sympathetically. He should be read alongside more recent works such as those by Muller, McCall, and Stanglin.

Articles

Muller, Richard A. “Arminius and the Reformed Tradition,” Westminster Theological Journal 70 (2008):

Bangs has argued that the Dutch Reformed Church was a much broader church up to the time of Arminius, that Arminius was just as similar (and different) from Calvin as the Reformed disagreeing with him, and that therefore Arminius has just as much right to be identified as Reformed as his opponents.

Muller grants the second point. There are indeed many commonalities between Arminius’s overall theological positions and those of Calvin. Indeed, there are many similarities between he and his opponents. But, Muller notes, Arminius’s differences placed him outside the confessional boundaries. His opponents’ differences with Calvin do not. Muller does not grant the first point. He notes that Bangs is only able to find a broader Reformed church by excluding certain national synods on the grounds that they were held outside the country. But Muller notes that the fact that a national synod is held outside the country due to war does not invalidate the national character of the synod. Furthermore, through Arminius tried to insist that he remained within the confessions, his interpretations of the confessions on disputed points were contrary to the early commentaries on the confessions, one written by the confession’s author. Muller concludes that while Arminius could be called Reformed by virtue of the fact that he served as a Dutch Reformed pastor, his theology fell outside the already agreed upon confessional standards of the Dutch Reformed Church.

Stallard, Mike. “The Post-Trib and Amillennial Use Of 2 Thessalonians 1,” JMAT 6:2 (Fall 02): 59-80.

Post-tribulationists and Amillennialists typically argue that 2 Thessalonians 1 is incompatible with pre-tribulationalism because the promised relief to the Thessalonians was located, not at a pre-tribulational rapture but at the visible return of Christ. Stallard argues that the rest promised is not merely freedom from persecution. It is a fuller eschatological promise. Thus it is no problem for the Thessalonians to die or for some Christians to be ruptured prior the Second Coming and the rest that comes with it. Stellar not only demonstrates that this is a possible reading, but he shows, based on the structure of the text, that it is the most likely reading.

Henry, Carl F. H. God, Revelation, and Authority, III:248.303.

December

Books

Bartholomew, Craig and Michael Goheen. The Drama of Scripture: Finding our Place in the Biblical Story. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

The Bible is not just a collection of spiritual sayings from which Christians gather guidance for life. Any individual verse or passage must be understood within the context of the book in which it is written. But it is also important to see that the books themselves fit into an overall storyline as well. Explaining this storyline is the purpose of this book. It does this job well with three weaknesses. First, it excludes coverage of OT poetry. This is understandable in a book that covers the storyline of Scripture. But the authors did cover the NT epistles. Furthermore, Bartholomew is an expert on OT poetry and has elsewhere written about how it connects to the narrative portions of Scripture. Including some of that material in this book would have made it stronger. Second, the book fudged when it came to the evolution issue. But the fundamental goodness of Creation is essential to these authors’ (and the Bible’s) worldview, making this a significant weakness. Third, the authors quote from left-wing evangelicals enough that I would not want to use the book for an undergraduate class, which is the author’s target audience.

Barrett, Matthew and Ardel Caneday, eds. Four Views on the Historical Adam. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013.

The advantage of multiple views books is the quick survey they provide of controversial issues from multiple points of view. But these books have a danger as well. The best argued position is not necessarily the best position. I believe that is the case with this book.

The book begins with an introduction written by the editors. This is followed by the four views: Denis Lamoureux argues that there was no historical Adam. The other three contributors argue for a historical Adam but from three different perspectives. John Walton writes from his unique comparative studies approach. C. John Collins writes from an old earth perspective. William Barrick writes from a young earth perspective. The book closes with two essays about the implications of a historical Adam. Gregory Boyd argues that for some a historical Adam is an obstacle to faith whereas nothing is lost by denying a historical Adam. Philip Ryken, on the other hand, argues that core elements of Christian theology and worldview depend on a historical Adam.

I think that Barrick and Ryken hold the correct positions, but Walton and Ryken argued for their positions the best. Unfortunately, Barrick’s chapter was largely taken up with an exposition of Genesis 1-4. This mean that he spent a good deal of space on matters that were not directly under debate. I think his argument would have been better if it proceeded under two lines of argument: First, he could have argued that a historical Adam in a world without death or sin is theologically necessary. Some of the points that Ryken raised in favor of a historical Adam Barrick should have raised in support of his position. Second, he should have demonstrated at key points that a young-earth reading of the text is superior to the alternatives offered by the other authors. For instance,

Rosner, Brian S. Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God. New Studies in Biblical Theology, ed. D. A. Carson. Downers Grove, InterVarsity, 2013.

The issue of the Christian’s relation to the law of God is one of the most complicated issues in theology. Some New Testament passages seem to teach that the Christian is not under the law while others seem to demand obedience to the law. Rosner addresses this seeming contradiction by noting four ways in which the Christian relates to the law. First, the Christian is not under the Mosaic Law as his covenant. Second, the Christian is under the Law of Christ (or the law of faith or the law of the Spirit of life) instead of the Law of Moses. The Christian does not walk according to the law; he walks in the Spirit. Third, the Law is prophetic and the Christian uses the law as such. Fourth, the Christian should use the law as wisdom. Even the commands that are not repeated in the New Testament have a bearing for how the Christian lives his life.

Rosner’s approach accounts for the New Testament’s negative and positive statements about the law in a coherent manner. Other scholars, such as Frank Theilman, Douglas Moo, and Thomas Schreiner have written with similar perspectives. But Rosner’s book is longer than Moo’s brief article in the Four Views book on the law. It is less comprehensive than Theilman or Schreiner’s books. Rosner’s selectivity leads to clarity. This may now be the best book for the interested layperson on the topic of the Christian and the Law.

Articles

Naselli, Andrew David. “Three Reflections on Evangelical Academic Publishing,” Themelios (November 2014).

Andy uses two recent books, John D’Elia’s A Place at the Table and Stanley Porter’s Inking the Deal, as grist for reflections of academic publishing. The article is both written humbly and, in my estimation, wise in its assessments.

Waltke, Bruce K. “Psalm 110: An Exegetical and Canonical Approach” in Resurrection and Eschatology: Theology in Service of the Church: Essays in Honor of Richard B. Gaffin Jr. Edited by Lane G. Tipton and Jeffrey C. Waddington. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008.

Waltke exegetes Ps. 110. He also argues that the Psalm was written by David as a prophecy of the Messiah.

Munday, John C. “Creature Mortality: From Creation or the Fall?” JETS 35, no. 1 (March 1992): 51-68.

Munday’s position is that death has always been part of God’s creation rather than a result of the Fall. The article is weakly written. Many of the positions are asserted rather than argued. Oftentimes alternative explanations are not considered.

Psalm 110:2: “The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies” (ESV).

How do you harmonize the statement that this King is to sit at the right hand of God and is to be almighty God and Lord with the fact that He is always to have many enemies and to meet with resistance of various sorts? Indeed, He is to be surrounded by enemies, as David also says later on: “Rule in the midst of Thy enemies.” How is it possible to say this of such a powerful King and the Lord of all creation? Why should He endure those who thirst to fight Him and who show themselves as enemies?

Luther, Works, 13:246.

But Christians have no armor and weapons. They must become the victims of their enemies and allow themselves to be plagued and tortured, killed and massacred. The whole issue presents itself to our senses in such a way as though this Christ were able to do nothing at all against these enemies, but had to succumb and go to pieces, together with His flock and kingdom.

This exactly is the great offense. Here is where human reason and all the wisdom of the world are offended; for “if this Christ actually were the kind of king who sits at the right hand of God, He would not rule in such a fashion.” … Well, why does God act this way? Those smart alecks and critics of God and His Word and work will neither know nor understand this but become fools with their intelligence and wisdom (Rom. 1:22), deceiving themselves. But it is disclosed to Christians that they may learn the true, divine wisdom through which He wants to be recognized. The reason is that this kingdom is to be a kingdom of faith, in which God rules in a manner strange and different from what men are able to understand or conceive. Therefore His wisdom, authority, and power are hidden to all reason. In fact, He will demonstrate them precisely by the opposite, which is called foolishness, frailty, and nothing everywhere and by all men. Thus it may be known, as St. Paul says (1 Cor. 1:25), that what appears to be foolishness in His Word and work is wiser than all the wisdom and intelligence of men, and that what appears to be weakness in Him is stronger than all the strength and power of men. Therefore in this kingdom He does not want to be a God and Savior of the strong, mighty, wise, and holy—as human reason would like to see Him, and as it also pictures Him—who do not need such a God. He wants to be a God and Savior of the weak, the unwise, the insignificant, the miserable and afflicted poor sinners who certainly need such a God and Savior. This He does in order to make them strong while they are weak, righteous and joyful while they are convinced and frightened by sin, alive and blessed while they suffer and die; as He says (2 Cor. 12:9): “My power is made perfect in weakness.” He does this, and must do it, especially to thwart and vex both His enemies, the devil and the world, that they may experience in the end what His wisdom, authority, and power—which they judge to be impotent and V 13, p 254 nothing—really are and can do.

Luther, Works, 13:252-54.

To put it succinctly, the enemies are defeated and subdued by the divine power and miracle alone, without the resistance of the Christians or any physical power at all. “For I will do it Myself,” He means to say here, “and in such a way that Christians will need neither armor nor sword nor weapons. Let them remain quiet and do nothing but attend to their duty of preaching about this Lord and His kingdom, and tell how God has ordained Him King at the right hand of God and Lord of all creation. Let Me handle those who despise and reject this or oppose themselves to it and persecute the Christians for it. I will take care of revenge. I will put a damper on their power and might and will overthrow them. I have more than enough power and might to lift them out of their thrones and cast them under the feet of this Christ. Sufficient for Christians—and let this be their comfort—is My promise that their enemies shall not accomplish their designs; for I have ordained it and spoken the judgment that they shall and must become the footstool of this Christ, whether they like it or not.”

Luther, Works, 13:255-56.

The belief that homosexual acts are immoral is not the same kind of claim as the belief that black people are inferior because they are black. When we deem homosexual acts immoral, we are not stigmatizing a class of persons; we’re exercising our moral reason about the rightness and wrongness of actions. Unlike racism, principled opposition to homosexual rights has a firm basis. It’s normal to judge behavior, including (and perhaps especially) sexual behavior. That’s why describing homosexual acts as immoral is not at all like calling black men and women inferior. To merge sexual liberation into the civil-rights movement dramatically raised the stakes in public debate. The Selma analogy makes traditional views of sexual morality as noxious as racism, and in so doing encourages progressives to adopt something like a total-war doctrine. The implications is that people who hold such views should have no voice in American society and that homosexuality should be aggressively affirmed in our public and private institutions, while dissent is punished.

R. R. Reno, "The Selma Analogy," First Things (May 2012): 4-5.

In our defense of Christianity, as in the entirety of our Christian lives, we are to be a holy people. . . . It seems to me anecdotally, that this may be one of the most neglected aspects of Christian living currently. Someone whose ministry is focused exclusively on college-aged people recently said to me that the burning need among that age group of Christians is holiness. It may just be that the cultural pressures are winning a subtle victory in this regard. If that is true, then it is serious indeed. Scripture is clear that without holiness no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). In wanting to be ‘relevant’ to those who are not in Christ, we may be displaying more of a life ‘in Adam’ than we might think. This bodes ill for the art of persuasion in covenantal apologetics. If Christianity makes little difference in the way we walk and talk on a day-to-day basis, we should not think that there will be any obvious reason or others to want to consider a life in Christ.”

K. Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practice in Defense of Our Faith, kindle location 2737,

“That the Reformation rightly sought the key mark of the church in the Word of God cannot be doubted on the basis of Scripture. Without the Word of God, after all, there would be no church (Prov. 29:18; Isa. 8:20; Jer. 8:9; Hos. 4:6). Christ gathers his church (Matt. 28:29), which is built on the teaching of the apostles and prophets, by Word and sacrament (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20). By the Word he regenerates it (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23), engenders faith (Rom. 10:14; 1 Cor. 4:15), and cleanses and sanctifies [the church] (John 15:3; Eph. 5:26). And those who have thus been regenerated and renewed by the Word of God are called to confess Christ (Matt. 10:32; Rom. 10:9), to hear his voice (John 10:27), to keep his Word (John 8:31, 32; 14:23), to test the spirits (1 John 4:1), and to shun those who do not bring this doctrine (Gal. 1:8; Titus 3:10; 2 John 9). The Word is truly the soul of the church.”
Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4:312.

 

Grace also holds the Beatitudes together. The first three beatitudes describe a disciple’s knowledge of his spiritual need. The fourth states God’s promise to meet that need. The fifth through seventh describe the results of the fourth beatitude.

Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew 1-13, Reformed Expository Commentary, ed. Richard D. Phillips and Philip Graham Ryken (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 109.

Books

Gutjahr, Paul C. Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

This was an enjoyable book on many levels. Most theological books have minimal illustration, but this book opens with several pages of pen and ink sketches of the major people the reader will encounter in Hodge’s life. Accompanying each illustration is a brief biography. Paintings and photographs abound throughout the book. Once grown, Gutjahr divides the book into parts based on the decades of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of each section is a painting or photograph of Hodge from that decade. Hodge’s friends, family, colleagues, and interlocutors are also pictured throughout. The illustrations and their captions added to the quality of the book.

Of course the heart of the book is the text. It does a good job of explaining Hodge’s theological positions. Gutjahr, for the most part, does not engage in his own evaluation of Hodge’s views. Rather, he presents Hodge’s own justifications for them and places them in the intellectual context of Hodge’s time. At times Gutjahr defends Hodge from unjust characterizations. Finally, though Gutjahr does not place as much emphasis as Hoffecker on Hodge’s spiritual life, this aspect of Hodge is not neglected either.

Wenham, Gordon J. Psalms as Torah: Reading Biblical Song Ethically. Studies in Theological Interpretation. Edited by Craig G. Bartholomew, Joel B. Green, and Christopher R. Seitz. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012.

Wenham makes the case that the Psalter should play a greater role in Christian worship. He opens with a historical survey that demonstrates the Psalms played this important role during much of Jewish and Christian history. Wenham believes it is vital to the health of the church to recover this practice. He specifically argues that the Psalter was intended to be memorized and sung. From this foundation Wenham explores the ethical implications that singing the Psalms has. Singing the Psalms engages the worshipper in affirmations about God and commitments to his ways. This leads Wenham to examine the Psalter’s teaching about the law as well as the presence of law within the Psalter. This book is both thought provoking and is persuasive for giving the Psalms a greater role in our worship.

John W. O’Malley, Trent: What Happened at the Council. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2013.

O’Malley does a good job of placing Trent in its historical context, tracing the doctrinal and practical issues raised in the council, chronicling the political intrigue that shaped the council, and summarizing the effect of the council.

Anderson, Courtney. To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson. Judson Press, 1987.

This is an engaging biography of Judson. However it is not annotated, leaving the reader to wonder at times about the source for dialogue or the reporting of the thoughts of certain characters.

Nonetheless the broad outlines are accurate and general sources are provided. The book is devotional and spiritually challenging.

Piper, John. God’s Passion for His Glory. Wheaton: Crossway, 1998.

The great value of this book is the complete text of Jonathan Edwards’s The End for Which God Created the World. Edwards defends the logical coherence of and proves with copious examination of Scripture the thesis that the end for which God created the world was the exhibition of his glory so that he might receive back from the creatures praise and glory. This edition is nicely printed and provides helpful explanatory footnotes by Piper. The philosophical section can be difficult reading, but the scriptural section often verges into devotional exaltation. The introductory essays by Piper may be read of skipped depending on the reader’s interest in Piper’s evaluation of modern evangelicalism and his interest in Piper’s own history of reading Edwards.

Piper, John. Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ: The Cost of Bringing the Gospel to the Nations in the Lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton. Wheaton: Crossway, 2009.

Brief but well written devotional biographies of Tyndale, Judson, and Paton.

Articles

Warfield, B. B. "Agnosticism." Selected Shorter Writings . Edited by John E. Meeter. P&R, 2001.

"In effect, therefore, agnosticism impoverishes, and, in its application to religious truth, secularizes and to this degree degrades life. Felicitating itself on a peculiarly deep reverence for truth on the ground that it will admit into that category only what can make good its right to be so considered under the most stringent tests, it deprives itself of the enjoyment of this truth by leaving the category either entirely or in great part empty."

Warfield, B. B. "Atheism." Selected Shorter Writings. Edited by John E. Meeter. P&R, 2001.

Examines different kinds of atheism and investigates in what ways a person may be an atheist and in what ways it is impossible to be one.

Warfield, B. B. "God." Selected Shorter Writings. Edited by John E. Meeter. P&R, 2001.

He looks at what may be known through general revelation and what may be known through special. Under special revelation he considers God as redeemer and God as Triune. The section on the Trinity is an excellent, brief statement of the biblical basis of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Warfield, B. B. "Godhead." Selected Shorter Writings. Edited by John E. Meeter. P&R, 2001.

He looks at the historical development of this word in English. Argues that it not be replaced by the term Divinity.

Warfield, B. B. "The God of Israel." Selected Shorter Writings. Edited by John E. Meeter. P&R, 2001.

Warfield argues that the God is Israel is not the god of Israel’s imagining but the God revealed to Israel. The Bible may at points touch on false ideas that Israelites had of God, but this is not primarily the Bible’s teaching about God. Warfield then surveys the Old Testament’s teaching about God as the Person who makes his power known in establishing justice and redeeming Israel.

Warfield, B. B. "The Significance of the Confessional Doctrine of the Decree." Selected Shorter Writings. Edited by John E. Meeter. P&R, 2001.

A defense of the WCF’s teaching of the divine decree.

Warfield, B. B. "Some Thoughts on Predestination." Selected Shorter Writings. Edited by John E. Meeter. P&R, 2001.

If God creates a world he cannot control, he is not God. If God chooses to create beings who can do highly dangerous things and chooses to create them to be beyond his control, God does not act wisely and thus does not acts God.

Warfield, B. B. "God’s Providence Over All." Selected Shorter Writings. Edited by John E. Meeter. P&R, 2001.

Warfield notes that the human element of Scripture has come to receive move emphasis. Stress is placed on the distinctive styles of John, Peter, and Paul. But because of the Scripture teaching that God’s providence is over all, this new emphasis on the human aspect of Scripture authorship does not endanger its fully divine aspect. God not only choose the Scripture writers but he providentially guided their whole lives so that they would have the personalities and styles to write precisely what he breathed out.

Kuyper, Abraham. "Manuel Labor (1889)." In Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader. Edited by James D. Bratt. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

In this collection of newspaper articles Kuyper addresses challenges facing labor in a new industrialized economy comprised of larger corporations. He opposes the liberals’ laissez faire approach as having razed the traditional guilds and replaced them with nothing but the slogan of freedom. He agreed that the guilds needed reform, but he objects to destroying them and replacing them with nothing. He also objects that the structure created by the liberals privileges the bourgeois and enables him to abuse the laborer. On the other hand Kuyper objects to the plans of the social democrats. He says that they would simply tear down the liberal social structure (with whatever benefits it does have) and replace it with their own structure which would place the power of government in the hands of the masses, who would then exercise tyranny over the landed classes. Though Kuyper disagrees with the liberal laissez faire approach he does not wish overmuch government involvement due his vision of sphere sovereignty. Kuyper proposes government recognized, but independently run, chambers of labor that would represent the concerns of the laborer to employers and government. Kuyper’s chambers of labor would have differed from labor unions in that Kuyper objected to the antagonistic nature of strikes as being part of the problem. The chambers were mean to foster more harmony between laborer and manager.

Zaspel, Fred G. The Theology of B. B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010. [Read Chapter 5: Theology Proper]

Zaspel does an excellent job of directing the reader to all of Warfield’s writings on particular topics. His summaries of Warfield’s teaching are also well done. This chapter on theology proper focuses primarily on the Trinity and God’s sovereign decree.

David T. Tsumura, "Genesis and Ancient Near Eastern Stories of Creation and Flood: An Introduction Part II," 9, no. 2 Bible and Spade (Winter 1996): 37-38.

He takes ‘ed to "mean “high water” and refer to the water flooding out of the subterranean ocean."

Auden, W. H. "Jacob and the Angel." The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Prose, Vol. 2: 1939-1948 . Edited by Edward Mendelson. Princeton University Press, 2002.

A review of Walter de la Mare’s anthology, Behold This Dreamer. Discusses the emergence of Romanticism.

Auden, W. H. "The Guilty Vicarage: Notes on the Detective Story, by an Addict." The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Prose, Vol. 2: 1939-1948 . Edited by Edward Mendelson. Princeton University Press, 2002.

Interesting in that Auden clearly distinguishes between the art literature and escape literature and yet does a serious analysis of the latter.

Bowald, Mark. "A Generous Reformer: Kevin Vanhoozer’s Place in Evangelicalism." Southeastern Theological Review 4, no. 1 (Summer 2013): 3-9.

An introduction to a journal issue that reviews Vanhoozer’s Remythologizing Theology. Bowald highlights ways in which Vanhoozer is a committed evangelical (e.g., firm commitment to the absolute authority of Scripture) and ways in which he makes evangelicals nervous (e.g., building bridges out to non-evangelicals; ad hoc use of various interpretational methodologies; less emphasis on propositional truth).

Kidner, "Genesis 2:5, 6: Wet or Dry?" TynBul 17, no. 1 (1966): 109-113.

Kidner argues that the ‘ed in Genesis 2:6 are the waters that covered the earth on the first day of creation. Verse 5 is a kind of parenthesis that introduces the main themes of land and man as cultivator that follow in Genesis 2. Kidner rightly pinpoints the lack of rain as a reason for the absence of plants and shrubs in the land combined with the presence of the ‘ed watering the whole face of the ground as the interpretational conundrum that must be addressed, but his answer does not seem to be the most natural way of reading the text.

Harris, R. Laird. "The Mist, the Canopy, and the Rivers of Eden," Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society 11, no. 4 (Fall 1968): 178-79.

Rejects the views of Kline, Kidner, and Speiser on Gen. 2:4-7. Takes Genesis 2 to focus on the region of Eden. This region is not one that receives rain. He takes the ‘ed to be the rivers that flow through Eden. When there is inundation from the river, the land can be irrigated. Also rejects the canopy theory and the supposition of no rain at all before the Flood, though he endorses the worldwide extent of the Flood.

Augustine held that an omnipotent God did not need six days to create, that God created all things simultaneously (in a single moment), and that the revelation of God’s creative activity in terms of ‘six days’ was an accommodation to human understanding designed to convey certain logical or causal relationships among the creatures. See Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, vol. 1, trans. John Hammond Taylor, SJ (New York: Newman Press, 1982), 36-37, 154. Cf. Augustine, City of God, trans. Henry Bettenson (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1980), 435-36. Calvin disagreed, maintaining that divine accommodation does not always have to do with what God says but sometimes with what God does. That God too six (literal) days to complete his work was itself the divine pedagogy. See John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis (Edinburg: Calvin Translation Society, 1847), 78.

Bruce L. McCormack, "Introduction," in Mapping Modern Theology: A Thematic and Historical Introduction, eds. Kelly M. Kapic and Bruce L. McCormack (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012), 5.

There can be no doubt that Bavinck is far from poking fun, in the well-known manner (whether with supercilious arrogance of sardonic irony, from the vantage point of a real or imagined cultural superiority), at this Pietistic life style, as at an anachronistic curiosity. He is, rather, of the opinion that this Pietism hold up the mirror to ourselves and opens our eyes to the dangers of an unbridled and unbroken cultural optimism—dangers that Bavinck knew only too well were certainly not imaginary in the circles of his occasionally overzealous fellow-Calvinists. It was his conviction that ‘this movement [Pietism] gives evidence of an appreciation and concern for the one thing needful, which is only too often absent from us in the busy rush of contemporary life.’ Against the Pietists, nevertheless, he maintains the significance of the Christian religion may not be restricted to the redemption and salvation of a few souls. ‘The religious life does have its own content and an independent value. It remains the center, the heart, the hearth, out of which all his [i.e., the Christian’s] thought and action proceeds and from which it receives inspiration and warmth. There, in fellowship with God, he is strengthened for his labor and girds himself for the battle. But that hidden life of fellowship with God is not the whole of life. The prayer room is the inner chamber, but not the whole dwelling in which he lives and moves. The spiritual life does not exclude domestic and civic, social and political life, the life of art and scholarship. To be sure, it is distinct from these things. It also transcends them by far in value, but it does not constitute an irreconcilable opposition to them; rather, it is the power that enables us faithfully to fulfill our earthly vocation and makes all of life a serving of God.’

Jan Veenhof, Nature and Grace in Herman Bavinck, trans. Albert M. Wolters (Dordt College Press, 2006), 29-30.

If you go back to the Framers, there was nothing more brilliant and more daring that they did than reckoning that they could sustain freedom forever. No one had ever done it. They didn’t give the process a name, so my name for it is the golden triangle. (Alexis de Tocqueville called it ‘the habits of the heart.’) Again and again they said these three things: Freedom requires virtue, leg one. Virtue requires faith of some sort, leg two. Faith of any sort requires freedom—the third leg. Put those together: Freedom requires virtue, which requires faith, which requires freedom—ad infinitum, a recycling triangle, a brilliant daring suggestion as to how freedom can be sustained.

From an interview with Os Guinness about his book A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future (IVP, 2012). Marvin Olasky, "Aliens and Strangers," WORLD (June 29, 2013): 38

 

It seems to me that there is a great deal of insight in the above  statement. Nevertheless, Guinness’s statement raises a few questions / observations:

-Why enter the triangle at freedom? Why present preserving freedom as the primary goal? Rhetorically, this works well in appealing to Americans. But are not faith and virtue more important than freedom? It should exist for the sake of faith and virtue rather than faith and virtue existing for the sake of freedom. Virtue and faith are goods of themselves, not merely means to freedom.

-The weakest link in this triangle is the assumption that any faith will do. Guinness actually touches on this later in the interview when Olasky asks him to comment on Jefferson’s comment: "It does me no injury to say that there are twenty gods or no god; it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." Guinness responds: "I think Jefferson is dead wrong on that. He could say that because most people in his day were Christians; whereas today, some of the worldviews have no place for human dignity—and the notion that ideas don’t have consequences is utterly foolish."

-The wrong kind of faith leads to the wrong things being valued as virtues. And since a society that wishes to maintain virtue will have to limit someone’s freedom (e.g., anti-obscenity laws), the “wrong virtues” will result in the wrong freedoms being limited. In other words, freedom is not an absolute good. Moral judgment of some sort is inescapable when  a society is deciding on what to permit and what to forbid.