This brief book is a collection of meditations on the theology of the gospel. The process of writing and editing this collection has been an exercise in preaching to myself. Many times I’ve stopped to beg God for eyes to see and savour these realities.

Publishing this book is not about money. It is about sending out one more beam of gospel light into a dark world. My prayer is that this beam will shine brightest in the hearts of bible-believing Christians. It is toward this audience that this beam is directed.

From the back cover

Now available in two formats!

Trade paperback (CreateSpace, Amazon)
Kindle eBook (Amazon Kindle Store)

I originally intended to offer it as an eBook on Google Play, but have decided to offer the eBook exclusively through the Kindle Store at least for now.

96 pages.

 ★★★★½ 

Carson addresses a topic which has been so poorly handled so many times that many would find it difficult to imagine it as a “difficult doctrine.” Before we will see God’s love as a difficult doctrine, we’ll need to ask questions like these:

• Does God love people who will go to hell?
• If so, how can they go to hell?
• If God loves people who will go to hell the same way he loves me, how can his love for me be seen as special and comforting?

Once we try to answer these questions with the bumper sticker theology of “Smile, God loves you,” we begin to see this doctrine as a difficult doctrine indeed.

Carson’s handling of this topic is precise, direct, scholarly, and warm-hearted. First, he describes five senses in which Scripture speaks of God’s love. Next, he addresses the definition of love as rooted in the character of God himself. The final two chapters address God’s love in relation first to his sovereignty, and then in relation to his wrath.

The ups

First, Carson is gifted as a thinker, theologian, and writer. You’d be hard pressed to find a more gifted scholar in Christianity in our day. The warmth of his love for God is therefore powerful and penetrating. I find reading him beneficial regardless of the topic simply as instruction in clear thinking, precise theology, calculated writing, and simple devotion to God.

Second, I was helped by Carson’s handling of this very difficult subject. He does not shy away from the fact that God cannot possibly love the unbeliever in the same way he loves his own and still be God. Yet, he is unashamed to proclaim God’s love to all people. This precision, yet balance, is much needed in our theological landscape in Australia.

Third, his typology of God’s love in chapter one is highly beneficial to biblical interpretation, especially in evangelistic contexts. Understanding that God speaks of love in different ways in different contexts, as we ourselves do in modern English, is crucial to exegetical/expositional precision. Carson is obdurate in his insistence on contextual interpretation.

The downs

I struggled to come to terms with Carson’s fifth category in chapter one. He argues “God’s love is sometimes said to be directed toward his own people in a provisional or conditional way—conditional, that is, on obedience” (p. 21). Considering the broadly supported error of sanctification by works, rather than by grace, in our day, I would have found a much more substantial explanation of this point very helpful.

Conclusion

This is a fairly brief book, but not a shallow or insignificant one. In one sense I’d encourage every believer to read it. In another sense, until one has reached a point in the development of their theology where the questions in the introduction are pressing, the value of this book will probably be felt to a limited degree.

Grace to you.

319 pages plus appendices.

 ★½☆☆☆ 

I picked up this book because I love the idea of being deliberate. Anything that can help me to live my life more deliberately is a worthwhile investment of time. Additionally, I’d read another one of Warren’s books and found it to be insightful in many areas.

I was profoundly disappointed.

Warren structures the book into forty chapters to fit the forty days of purpose campaign that was popular back when the book was released. The forty chapters are broken into six sections. A section of introduction is followed by sections covering Warren’s five purposes of life: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission (p. 310).

The ups

First, this book is a presentation of basic Christianity that is designed for a post-Christian world. Some authors write as if we in the modern Western world live in a Christian society, but Warren understands that we can’t assume that. While the book seems to have been designed for the churched Christian, it is definitely written for the biblically/theologically illiterate.

Second, Warren is clearly gifted in organising ideas and presenting them.

The downs

First, I found the book shallow, trite, and simplistic. Its cliché-to-page ratio must hold some sort of record. Seriously, this book makes clichés look original.

Second, this book is far less than Warren is capable of. In it, Warren is careless with words, sloppy with theology, and cute with Christianity. After trudging through 300+ pages of this stuff, I’ve earned the right to wail on it. This book is clearly the product of a lot of thought, but not careful, precise, expositional thought. The content of the book hardly merits its existence, let alone its length.

Third, Warren’s approach to God’s word is despicable. He repeatedly uses phrases like “the Bible says” and then gives a quotation. But references are almost always relegated to an endnote (not even a footnote) and the text is taken from any one of fifteen translations, only a few of which are credible-for-teaching, formal translations of God’s word. It’s not unusual to have two or more translations quoted in a given page. The net effect is that even if you are highly familiar with the text, you’re unlikely to be able to discern the context from the quotation given, and barring looking at the back of the book for the reference several hundred times, you are left with a disconnected string of words with little to no context which you must simply take the author’s word for being what God says (and don’t expect much explanation of the text itself). The result is that Warren’s assertions are cut off from Scripture authority. Warren is obviously accustomed to this criticism as he includes an apology for this practice as an appendix. The apology is embarrassing. As is the practice. More than that, it’s shameful.

Fourth, The Purpose Driven Life comes across as the big book of things to do. It’s a sort of Christianity that is unfortunate and burdensome on its fundamentalist home turf, and is no less so in this Evangelical reincarnation.

Conclusion

I have to think that this book was successful more because it was written than because of what it says. It’s a sort of theological Sunday School, but not in a good way.

I had hoped to glean some substantive thoughts on deliberate living from a gifted man I knew I didn’t see eye to eye with. And I did glean some helpful thoughts. But perhaps the most beneficial result of my taking the time to read this book is that you won’t.

Grace to you.

Cutting edge is good?

My approach to reading is based on the premise that newer does not equal better. In fact, I assume the opposite. I assume that of the thousands of books that are published in 2012, hundreds at best will be worth investing my time in reading.

I do not say that because I think the books aren’t valuable and full of knowledge worth having. I say that because of the following scary reality: Outside of my academic studies, I read 20 books in 2011.

A life is made up of only so many books

Twenty books is probably more than I’ve read in the average year previously. But taking that as an average, assuming a 70 year lifetime, and assuming the health to read until the day I die, I will read 800 more books in my life. Max. And only 400 of them will be before I’m 50.

That reality sobers me. There will probably be 400 books published this month alone. Yet I can think of dozens of books written before 1800 that I really should make the effort to read before I die.

So I feel that of the thousands of books that will be published in 2012, only a very few of them should be priority reading for me. I would much rather read the stand-out books from 2011 or 2000 or 1990 this year than to try to ride the wave of the cutting edge. After all, it will be difficult during 2012 to tell which 2012 books are really worth reading. But I suspect in 2022, it will be a lot clearer.

Reading representatively

So my approach to reading tends to be more representative. I want to read key books that represent key streams of thought. There is the odd topic that I want to read in depth. Very rarely I will be able to read almost exhaustively on a topic. But my goal is to read broadly and representatively.

Why read broadly? Well, there are many reasons. But one reason is that I don’t consider myself to really understand a view deeply until I’ve read proponents of that view. It’s no use reading Cessationists defending Cessationism and then seeking to address the major Continuationist lines of thinking in our day. One must actually read his opponents before he can credibly argue against them. This requires reading all sorts of books by all sorts of people.

So why review?

Why should I review a book that’s been out for twenty or thirty years? Well, since the blog phenomenon is a recent development, I suppose many older books would have a fairly limited store of online reviews. So my reviews are designed to help others judge which books might be beneficial to them.

Additionally, I will try to make it a habit to review books whether or not I appreciate them. My goal in this is not to be unnecessarily negative, but rather to provide a counterpoint to the mainstream thinking.

Grace to you.

142 pages.

 ★★★☆☆ 

While it is not explicitly stated, the intended audience of this book is the unsaved or those struggling in their faith. First published in 1958, this is a relatively brief apology for the Christian faith aimed at the average person.

Stott sets out the Christian faith starting with the person of Jesus Christ. He then moves to man’s sin which is followed by a section on Christ’s work at the cross, and finishes by addressing man’s response.

The ups

First, Stott presents an introduction to the Christian faith that is grounded in solid theology. While the book serves a similar function as C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Stott’s work focuses on history and theology in contradistinction to Lewis’ emphasis on philosophy and reason—and would probably for that reason be helpful to different kinds of people.

Second, the apologetic is built on the dilemma of Jesus Christ himself. In other words, the historical person, Jesus Christ, is presented as a reality which cannot be ignored by fair minded people. While Stott gives lip-service to a classical apologetic, in practice, this book follows a more presuppositional approach.

Third, the book is presented with a winsome kindliness which makes it ideal for those wrestling with their faith.

The downs

First, there are several points of concern in the area of theology. At several points, Stott seems to allude to a non-literal view of hell. Additionally, it is clear at several points that Stott does not hold to believer’s baptism. Finally, Stott’s approach to the atonement raises questions—questions which the book does not answer.

Second, chapter ten single-handedly took a full star off this review. The language of conversion is deeply reminiscent of Finneyistic decisionalism. This is topped off with a drawn out use of an interpretation of Revelation 3 (“I stand at the door and knock”) which is highly suspect.

Third, in chapter three, the presentation of Christ’s love blurs the line between love and codependence at the very least. “This utter disregard of self… is what the Bible calls love.” While his general point is on track, there would be benefit in a more precise enunciation of the point.

Conclusion

This book is a worthwhile read for the the apologist and will be helpful for a certain kind of unbeliever. It is also the sort of material which could be used to help young people who have grown up in the context of Christianity to ground themselves in the Christian faith personally.

Grace to you.

This book supplied for review through BookSneeze®.

308 pages plus workbook.

 ★★★★☆ 

John Maxwell has achieved guru status in the field of leadership—and rightly so. He’s authored a steady stream of leadership resources over the years and is represented best in his New York Times best-seller The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

This book is different because it focuses—not on leaders at the top—but on leaders in the middle of the organisation. In this book, Maxwell applies his leadership principles to the person who is not the leader and therein helps the average person in the organisation become the sort of person who can lead others whether they are below them, beside them, or above them in the hierarchy.

The ups

First, as always, Maxwell is clear and precise in his writing. He is easy to read and his logic is easy to follow.

Second, this book addresses a major gap in the literature. Anyone can read the books designed for the top leaders and try to apply their principles to their own place in the organisation, but in this work Maxwell specifically addresses the problem of how to lead from the middle.

Third, Maxwell understands leadership and breathes it in everything he writes. You cannot spend time with Maxwell without being pushed to grow as a leader. This work briefly reviews some of the material he’s covered in other books, but gives great insights on the challenges of leading in all directions.

The downs

First, as many would know, Maxwell used to be pastor of a large Evangelical church. If you read Maxwell as a pastor, you will no doubt be disappointed. He does not approach issues from a theological point of view (though he does approach them from a basically Christian point of view). His theology, from what one might deduce, is rather shallow. But as a specialist in the area of leadership, he is brilliant.

Second, this book is probably longer than it needs to be. I felt like the section on leading down was mostly rehashed from other books and could have been significantly abbreviated. That said, this is 300+ pages that fly by fairly quickly.

Third, there is a definite thread of ethnocentricity in many of Maxwell’s earlier books—the assumed audience is American. In this book, there are several places where it is clear that it has been edited for an international audience, but then there are other places where the earlier approach is still taken. Maxwell is a world-class author and I feel it would be appropriate to address it to an international audience.

Conclusion

This is the sort of book you can use to help develop the people who report to you in an organisation. If you want a church/business/organisation that is full of leaders, then you need 360° leaders and this book is worth reading. If you work under someone and find it difficult at times, then you will probably find this a helpful read as well.

Grace to you.

179 pages.

 ★★★★★ 

Every now and then, a book comes along that will dramatically enrich your life. This was one of those books for me.

When Piper says that God is the gospel, what he means is that “the highest, best, final, decisive good of the gospel, without which no other gift would be good, is the glory of God in the face of Christ revealed for our everlasting enjoyment” (p. 13). In other words, the point of the gospel is not just that we’re justified, but that justification allows us to be restored to fellowship with God! That the gift of justification (or redemption or imputation or expiation etc.) is ultimately the gift of being enabled to fellowship with God himself who is the giver of all gifts and without whom no gift would be good.

Piper exposes the man-centredness of a gospel which exists to elevate man; which brings joy in the gifts of the gospel while paying little attention to the gift of the gospel—God. “We are willing to be God-centred, it seems, as long as God is man-centred” (pp. 12, 13).

The ups

First, this book glows with God-centred, gospel-saturated, joy-filled theology. It’s not shallow or sappy. It is rich and deep; theological and accessible; practical and devotional.

Second, if you’re not familiar with Piper’s theology and writing, this is probably an ideal introduction to his ideas. Though Desiring God is probably his defining work, it is fairly long and heavy. This book is quite accessible to the average layperson and will, I feel, give the reader a fairly good idea of what Piper believes. Chapter eleven could be viewed as a brief primer on Christian hedonism.

Third, this book helped me see clearly that the gospel is not the end, but rather the means to the end of glorifying God. It therefore helped me to understand more clearly how God and his gospel relate to each other and how to avoid preaching Christ’s gospel without preaching the Christ of the gospel.

Fourth, Piper exposes the hypocrisy of those who preach that the cross proves the value of man. He quotes Jonathan Edwards: “They are pleased in the highest degree, in hearing how much God and Christ make of them. So that their joy is really a joy in themselves, and not in God” (p. 137). Piper rebuts this Hillsong-style gospel decisively.

I could give a dozen more…

The downs

Honestly, I have few concerns with this book at all, hence the five star rating. However, I’ll point out a few minor things that raised questions for me.

First, there seems to be some confusion on p. 155 surrounding man’s creation in the image of God and the effect of the curse on that image. Piper seems to suggest that our growth into the image of Christ in sanctification is directly related to our creation in the image of God in Genesis 1. This seems to me to confuse two separate issues.

Second, Piper suggests in reference to 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 that “The glory of God shone in the historical, bodily face of Jesus” (p. 70). I tend to think the term “face” here is synecdoche.

I’d be hard pressed to find even a minor third down. Those who know me well recognise this as little short of miraculous as I tend to be a very critical reader. But Piper is precise and he has laid out his words carefully.

Conclusion

After reading the introduction to this book, I scribbled the following: “Breath-taking! Sweet water to a thirsty soul. Amen! Amen! Amen… Amen… Amen.”

I read this book with tears of delight. I hope you will do the same.

Grace to you.

This book supplied for review through BookSneeze®.

263 pages plus appendices.

 ★★★★½ 

A renowned critic suggested that only Shakespeare’s prose “is capable of surviving comparison with Tyndale’s.” Yet Tyndale lived his life—and performed his art—in exile.

This is no mere biography. It is, rather, a scholarly exposition, an historical work. Drawing on the writings of Tyndale and those around him, Teems presents Tyndale in a way that leaves you less confident of the things you thought you knew about him, but more familiar with the substance of William Tyndale as a person.

Chapters are devoted to the various stages of Tyndale’s life as well as to his translation work and his other writings. Significant space is given to providing the historical context of Tyndale’s work and to introducing the men—both friend and foe—who impacted Tyndale most.

The ups

First, this book is a rich source of historical information on the Reformation era. Significant portions are devoted to men such as Martin Luther, Sir Thomas More, Oliver Cromwell, Anne Boleyn, Desiderius Erasmus, Henry VIII, Thomas Wolsey, and many other figures whose lives intersected with the translator’s. The reader will gain rich insights from these encounters.

Second, the reader will come away from this book having read first hand excerpts from many of the letters and documents that shaped the world in which we live.

Third, Teems devotes much space to Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament and the impact it had. There is a helpful discussion on Tyndale’s philosophy of translation and a wealth of information about the history of our English Bible stemming from Wycliffe’s work and progressing through Tyndale’s work to that of his companion, Myles Coverdale, and others.

Fourth, Teems digs into Tyndale’s writings to catch a glimpse of Tyndale that is deeper than the normal focus on his translation work. He seeks to understand his thinking, his philosophy, his theology, and his passion. One highlight for me was learning that even though Tyndale’s translation was considered no little crime, it was for his crime of defending the “heresy” of sola fide (justification by faith alone) that he was condemned to die.

The downs

First, though Teems’ subtle humour provided me with many a good chuckle, his thoroughness borders at times on tedium. Still, it is some of the more pleasurable tedium you’re likely to encounter.

Second, this work is more academic than devotional. At times it is obtuse.

Third, The relationship between the author as a Christian and the author as a scholar is awkward at times. The author is ambiguous about where he stands regarding the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformers. On a few occasions, theologically liberal views are hinted at such as denial of the supernatural.

Fourth, though there are some helpful appendices, there is no subject index. This is disappointingly inconvenient for a work of this nature.

Conclusion

An excellent work. Well worth the read. Enjoyable. Enriching. Edifying.

Grace to you.

165 pages including appendices.

 ★★☆☆☆ 

There is little in this book that sets it apart from how a moderate fundamentalist might handle the subject of worldliness and separation. That is both a compliment and a criticism.

R. Kent Hughes sets the stage for his book by pointing out that if we had only the Old Testament account of Lot’s life, we wouldn’t suspect he was truly a believer, yet the New Testament tells us that Lot was a righteous man and was distressed by the sin of Sodom. Hughes concludes “though Lot was revolted by Sodom, Sodom was in his soul. It is possible, then, for a believer to be distressed by the world while wilfully clinging to the world” (13). Hughes draws a direct link from here to Lot’s lack of spiritual influence on those around him and introduces his main point: “A worldly church cannot and will not reach the world. The church must be distinct from the world to reach the world. We must set ourselves apart to God if we hope to reach the world. In a word, the only hope for us and the lost world is a holy church” (17).

In the chapters following the introduction, Set Apart addresses a series of areas in which the author feels the modern church is prone to worldliness: materialism, hedonism, viewing sensuality, violence and voyeurism, sexual conduct, modesty, pluralism, marriage, and church and the Lord’s Day. The high points in this discussion, in my view, are the chapters on materialism and pluralism. I would consider the chapters on violence and voyeurism and church and the Lord’s Day to be the low points of the book.

Hughes closes the book by emphasising that Christianity is not primarily about saying no over and over again, but is rather an “unending yes” to God.

The ups

Probably the biggest win for this book is that it attempts to address worldliness at a heart level rather than simply addressing a set of cultural taboos. In other words, it tries to focus on what you love instead of on what you do. The degree to which it succeeds in this pursuit is a matter for debate, but the intention is clear and commendable.

Another significant win for this book is its repeated warnings against “bootstrap moralism.” The author constantly seeks to bring Jesus Christ and his gospel into the picture.

Application would be a strong point in this book as well. If you are a new believer and have difficulty applying biblical principles to the areas addressed in this book, you’ll get a lot of helpful insight on application.

Kudos to the publishers for including a general topic index at the back of the book and for using chapter endnotes. While I prefer footnotes to endnotes, chapter endnotes are much preferred to having to flip to the back of the book to find a note.

The downs

This book tends to read like a manual for the Moral Majority political movement in the United States. Not only is it very ethnocentric (even quoting a British minister as if he referred to an American context), but at times it feels more conservative than Christian. There were too many moments when the writing was reminiscent of an elderly fundamentalist preacher talking about how bad the world is becoming. While this may be true in the context of the United States in the last century (note: “may”), it tends to be blind to the broader world context and to the broader historical context.

Additionally, and related to the previous point, this book seems to spend a lot of time on specific cultural applications. This may be a plus as noted earlier for new believers and is perhaps more helpful to the broader evangelical audience the author had in mind, but for Fundamentalists, it may feel like beating a dead horse.

Finally, the amount of weak and invalid logic in this book is not what I would have expected from this author or this publisher.

Conclusion

R. Kent Hughes offers a clear and convicting call to personal holiness. While this book probably has less value for some, particularly in the fundamentalist stream, it will certainly be helpful to others. If you are a new believer just learning personal separation, if you are a young fundamentalist trying to discern legalism from licence, or if you have doubt that a new evangelical can take personal separation seriously, then I would encourage you to read this book.

On one side of John Bunyan’s tomb in London, there is a portrayal of the pilgrim Christian, struggling with his burden.  The other side of the tomb shows Christian kneeling at the cross, with the burden rolled away.

That scene captures (for me) the most memorable part of Pilgrim’s Progress, where Christian finds salvation from his sins at the cross.

“He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.”

Have you ever read Pilgrim’s Progress?  Charles Spurgeon remarked, “Next to the Bible, the book that I value most is John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.  I believe I have read it through at least a hundred times.”  I’ve never read any book a hundred times.  But in the handful of times I have read this book, I at least glimpse the value that Spurgeon understood.

Pilgrim’s Progress is valuable because the story is bursting with the Scriptures.  The overall tale reflects the Bible’s theme of God’s provision of salvation through Christ.  Characters like Evangelist and Interpreter explain and apply the Bible as Christian grows in faith, while enemies Giant Despair and Worldly Wiseman illustrate Christian’s struggle to persevere.  Objects and places reflect biblical teaching, such as the narrow gate, Christian’s sword of the Word, the key of Promise, Vanity Fair, and the Delectable Mountains.  The dialogue often includes direct quotations from Scripture, and there are helpful Bible references everywhere.

All of these elements serve to teach the Bible to our minds and to stir our emotions to treasure our lives in Christ all the more.

As a boy, I recall reading with fascination as Christian battled Apollyon.  I chuckled at some of his companions’ bumbling along the way.  I’ve pondered the insights from his conversations.  Perhaps you can remember similar experiences.

This story is accessible to all kinds of Christians, of all ages.  You can read it in the classic version, or a modern-language version, and in pictures.  (I’m currently looking for a good children’s edition.  Recommendations, anyone?)

I wince a little when Christians excitedly describe the Twilight books or latest movie or TV show, while being ignorant of a genuinely helpful classic like Pilgrim’s Progress.  If you haven’t read it yet, you should.  This is a book for your enjoyment and faith.