Christ: Chronological

This book,"Christ: Chronological" is a sort of chronological parallel Bible.  Using the Christian Standard Bible translation the Gospel accounts, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are arranged in a chronological order and they are placed alongside each other in parallel columns when dealing with the same account. The text from each Gospel is in a different color, blue for Matthew, Green for Mark, a reddish color for Luke and purple for John.  Along the very bottom of each page is a 'color code' key as it were, reminding you which color represents each Gospel.

Very nicely bound (a hardcover book, and wider than a typical Bible - it's in a square shape), the book lies quite flat when opened, so you can easily lay it down on a table while reading it without keeping one hand on it to make sure that the pages won't turn on their own.   The font is easy to read, a good size, and also, despite the font being various colors, they are bold colors and so stand out on the page.

The book is divided into a sort of chapter format, though they are not called chapters and are not numbered.  The 'chapters' have main titles like "Jesus Turns His Focus Toward Judea". Within each 'chapter' are many 'sections' some of which have descriptive headings for sections within the 'chapters', and above each section are the chapter and verse references for the Scriptures within them. There are many short introductory notes that begin parts that have parallel accounts.  These notes comment on apparent differences between the accounts and offer suggestions as to how they are actually complementary.  The font size of these notes is small enough that you can just glance over them, if you'd like, and continue reading the Scriptural account of the life of Christ. The flow of the Gospel account is a bit choppy, with the many section headings throughout and then single columns breaking off into four columns of varying lengths and then back again to one…etc. It is still very readable though, and serves its purpose well. 

 It is always interesting to compare the Gospel accounts, to see how they complement one another, how some of the accounts give more detail than others who focus more on particular details. All in all they form quite the picture of our Lord's sacrificial life, His teachings, His death and His resurrection.  This book is a nice way to read all of the accounts together.

Many thanks to the folks at B&H publishing for sending me a free review copy of this Bible (My review did not have to be favorable)!

My Rating: Five out of Five Stars

 *****

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com and Christianbook.com

God With Us - By Glenn r. Kreider

I was talking with one of my uncles some months ago and he was lamenting the lack of good Christian books out there, pointing out that the only good 'Christian' books are the ones that lead you to read the Bible itself instead of more books about the Bible. God with Us: Exploring God's Personal Interactions with His People Throughout the Bible by Glenn R. Kreider is one such book.  I don't believe that I had heard of this book before, or at least if I had it didn't catch my attention at the time.  A friend gave it to me and I ended up being very pleased with it.

In the book, Kreider focuses upon the humility of God.  He goes through the different periods of Biblical history pointing out many instances of God's graciousness towards mankind.  I'll list some particular snippets that I found fascinating:

First, in his section on Abraham Kreider points out that God could have responded in anger for Abraham's asking how he would know that he will gain possession of the land (instead of just accepting that it would happen), but He didn't, "God's response is compassionate, gracious and kind.  He cuts a covenant with Abram.…..The covenant does not make the promises of God more secure, but it does give Abram something he knows and understands." God didn't have to make a covenant at all, but He graciously did so.  And despite Abraham's flaws, God condescends to be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (who also were very flawed).

 Later on, in His call to Moses God condescends to answer Moses' objections to being chosen to lead his people out of Egypt, and has already provided a helper for Moses in the person of Aaron - This made me realize too that God could have made Aaron the leader of His people.  But even though Moses objected so much, God graciously still used Moses. 

And then of course, the amazing condescension of God to send His Son to earth as a human being….and as an infant, not an adult. Kreider says that for a while he had a hard time with the account given by Luke of when Jesus was 12 years old and deliberately stays behind in Jerusalem when His parents leave for home - in particular, Mary's apparently frustrated response towards Him, "My Son, Why have you treated us like this?..."   How could she dare do that seeing that she had been told beforehand that Jesus was "the Son of God"? And then he explains that his conclusion, " "Anyone who was in the presence of God in the flesh would recognize his deity, I thought.  I Now believe that this story reveals to us that Jesus' deity was well concealed.  Apparently, the difference between Jesus and her other children was not as obvious to Mary as I had thought.  Jesus never sinned, never rebelled against her; he never behaved in a depraved way."  He goes on to explain that, in a way, Jesus was, as it were, 'immature'(not meaning to indicate that Christ's action in staying behind was immature).  In other words, He still grew in wisdom, as that chapter points out, though in the process of growing in wisdom/'maturing'  He never sinned. And so Mary apparently had trouble perceiving His divinity because of this, despite having seen His perfect goodness.  I thought that was an interesting point. 

I also loved the concept that God has condescended to have His Son be in human form forever, "he humbles himself by adding to his complete deity complete humanity, not temporarily but permanently."  And not only this, but that Christ will be with His people forever on the new earth,  "The hope of redeemed humanity is not heaven but earth.  Heaven is a temporary home until the day of resurrection, when heaven will come down to earth and the God of heaven will make the earth his home (Rev. 21:3).  When the work of redemption is completed, the triune God will condescend to dwell eternally on this planet."

All in all I thought that it was quite thought provoking.  There were some things (as in any book other than the Bible) that bothered me a bit: such as Kreider's stating that, ""Although sin and rebellion will continue, God promises never to respond as harshly as he did in the flood." - I guess that he doesn't think that the future judgments to come upon the earth are not that bad? That confused me - especially as he says that he is premillennial.  And then he says that "Since the Scriptures testify about Jesus, any reading that fails to hear Jesus, any interpretation that fails to elevate Jesus, and any bible study that fails to focus on Jesus is incorrect and worthy of judgment." But what if certain passages elevate God the Father? What if they focus upon Him and not upon Christ…or what if they focus upon the Trinity as a whole? * Sigh*….. 

But I still liked the book.  Kreider does a good job of pointing out this other attribute of God, humility, that we ought to emulate, and that we will emulate because we have God- The Holy Spirit living inside of us.  It makes you want to take another look at the Bible with, not necessarily a new perspective, but with a heightened desire to notice God's condescension and humility towards humanity  that is revealed therein.  

Some of the websites where this book may be purchased are Christianbook.com and Amazon.com

My Rating:  5 out of 5 Stars *****

From Heaven - A. W. Tozer

From Heaven:  A 28-day Advent Devotional with excerpts from the works of A.W. Tozer, is one of the strangest devotionals I have ever encountered (though I haven't looked at or read many).  Strange in a good way though.  When I think of devotionals, I think of generally light portions of readings per day, with a verse of Scripture that is contemplated at a high level and that is then meant to be applied to oneself in an extremely personal way.  Tozer's devotional, like any devotional, has a small reading for any given day, but the content of the reading is anything but small and goes much further than provoking one to mere introspection, it provokes one to contemplate the true awesomeness of our God and His love and grace.

There are things in this devotional that I was delightfully surprised to see in a Christmas devotional (or any devotional for that matter), like, "Put the emphasis where the Bible puts it, on the Christ at the right hand of God, not on the babe in the manger."  And, "Among the harmful abuses of the Christmas season in America is the substitution of Santa Clause for Christ as the chief object of popular interest, especially among the children.  The morality of Mother Goose stories and fairy tales has been questioned by serious -minded Christian parents, but my opinion is that these are relatively harmless because they are told as fiction and the child is fully aware that they are imaginary.    With Santa Claus it is not so.   The child is taught falsehood as sober truth and is thus grossly deceived during the most sensitive and formative period of his life."  

This devotional will get you into the true Christmas spirit (and I'm not saying this sarcastically).  You will contemplate with awe the fact that God sent Christ to come at all, "What would be the logical mission upon which God would send His Son to the world?  We know what our nature is and we know that God knows all about us and He is sending His Son to face us…..Our own hearts-sin and darkness and deception and moral disease- tell us what His mission should be.   The sin we cannot deny tells us that He might have come to judge the world!" You will dwell upon the wonder of the work of God in salvation in sending His own Son to save us, and that this Son is God Himself in the flesh, come to bring us His righteousness and come not just to dwell among His people for a short time, but Who dwells IN His people.  You will also contemplate Christ's second coming and be shocked that you do not long for it as you ought, "Another reason for the absence of real yearning for Christ's return is that Christians are so comfortable in this world that they have little desire to leave it……….We want to reserve the hope of heaven as a kind of insurance against the day of death, but as long as, we are healthy and comfortable, why change a familiar good for something about which we actually know very little?...  Again, in these times religion has become jolly good fun right here in this present world, and what's the hurry about heaven anyway?   Christianity, contrary to what some had thought is another and higher form of entertainment.   Christ has done all the suffering.   He has shed all the tears and carried all the crosses; we have but to enjoy the benefits of His heartbreak in the form of religious pleasures modeled after the world but carried on in the name of Jesus.  So say the same people who claim to believe in Christ's second coming."

All in all, though there were a few statements I did not agree with (like the parts where Tozer describes God's love for us as COMPELLING Him to do certain things rather than God being in complete control of His own love), but for the most part I really liked this devotional, and highly recommend it.  As I mentioned earlier, it will get you into the true Christmas spirit!

Many thanks to MoodyPublishers for sending me a free review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable)

One of the places where you may purchase this book is at the Christian Book Distributors website

The Forgotten Father

Recently there seems to have been a trend towards a Christocentric hermeneutic, and  an overall focus on Christ altogether in Christian circles.  It has been frustrating to see, as the focus of the Bible is not on Christ, but on the Father.  Christ Himself points to the Father!   When I saw the title of this book, it intrigued me…that's exactly what I and my dad(a pastor) have been talking about: people forgetting about God the Father.  As Mr. Smail writes, "God the Father "has been regularly and ritually confessed, but his being and work as Father has been out of the centre of concern.  It is of course true that in recent years there has been a great deal of concentration on God.  It has, however, been a mainly apologetic concern, about the basis, possibility and meaning of speaking about God at all, rather than a properly dogmatic discussion with in the Christian family on the basis of shared faith about the nature and character of the God who in Christ has revealed himself to his people as Father, as well as Son and spirit.  The question about God that people have been asking has been whether he exists rather than who he is. " 

This Christocentric focus, or even Pneumacentric focus is evidenced in who people are praying to,  again, quoting Mr. Smail:  "There is a type of protestant prayer that concentrates in an unhealthy way on Jesus, and that can easily become familiar and sentimental, because it has forgotten who Jesus is - the only Son of and the only way to the Father.  There is a Jesuology that can lavish an all too human love on an all too human Jesus and banish God to such remote transcendence, that we are back with the idea that we have to cling to a loving Jesus to keep us  right with a remote and probably angry God.  There is equally a prayer that concentrates on the Holy Spirit and the gifts and blessings he can bestow in a way that forgets that these things matter only when we use them to witness to the Son and to serve the Father in amore effective obedience.  To pray TO Jesus rather than THROUGH him, TO the Spirit rather than IN him, as the established habit of our prayer, is to betray a doubt about our relationship to the Father." 

Smail does a good job at addressing this issue, reminding us that the Spirit points us to Christ, and Christ opens the way for us to know the Father, to directly know the Father.  Again, pulling up some of the author's statements on prayer, "Prayer is through Christ….in John 16…'I do not say I will ask the Father on your behalf.'  He will not go instead of us, we are to come ourselves because the way is open.  Yet it is immediately clear that our ability to do so is entirely dependent on Christ and our relationship to him.  We do not come by ourselves, but it is we ourselves who come through him.  The same idea of mediation is implied in Hebrews 4:16.  Because he has gone into the holiest of all as High Priest we can

'approach the throne of grace with confidence'…….It was into all this that Christ initiated his disciples when he said, 'When you pray, say Abba,'…" Christ's death did not just save us spiritually, it gives us access to the Father!

He makes the case that you don't know the true God if you do not believe in the Deity of Christ, you do not know the true Gospel if you do not believe in the Trinity.  Knowing about the trinity, the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost  is important.  He asks, "what is the significance, status and nature of the Father/Son relationship? Is it the MEANS of revelation and salvation or, more than that, is it the CONTENT of revelation and salvation?.......The doctrine of the Trinity does not lay an irreverent philosophical mystery on top of a simple scriptural gospel; it simply makes explicit what is implicit in the biblical gospel…….How can the act of atonement on the cross be reconciling, effective, creative and of universal importance for all men, unless the agent of it is himself God?.....It takes the Trinity to make sense of the atonement…….The cross is atoning and saving precisely because on it God offers to God the obedience that is appropriate to us……"  And then… "In the new Testament, as understood in the mainstream of Christian tradition, we meet the same God three times.  First of all we meet him in the Father, whom Jesus prayed to and obeyed, at whose bidding he came, lived, suffered and died, by whose hand he was raised from the dead.  But in Jesus Christ himself, we encounter the same divine love and power appearing personally among us as our fellowman.  God is now not only exalted in heaven but made man on earth.  The acts of Jesus are the acts of God, the words of Jesus are the words of God, the suffering of Jesus is the self-sacrifice of God, the person of Jesus is the person of God, so that the confession of the Church echoes the confession of Thomas (John 20:28) and addresses not the Father in heaven but the risen human Jesus, 'My Lord and my God'.  But with Jesus ascended there comes according to his promise allos Parakletos, 'Another of the same kind of Advocate Counselor.'  The Holy Spirit who keeps on relating Christians to Christ and the Father, and then to one another, is himself God, God at work in and among men.  He does not hand us over to another, but in this other he keeps on coming to us himself." 

He doesn't focus on the Christocentric Hermeneutics issue, but he didn't need as his biblically based plea for us to learn more about the Father deals with the issue itself.   All in all he does a good job.   It might surprise you, as it surprised me, to learn that Mr. Smail is a charismatic.  His leanings show up more towards the end of the book, so be watching out for that.  But even his this is not so 'bad', as he is critical of the movement, desiring it to focused on the Father, not on the Spirit, to be biblical rather than emotionally/needs based(focused on miracles, speaking in tongues).   Speaking of which he says, "If the charismatic renewal is to continue and deepen... It must cease to fabricate a distorted Christ who says, 'Come and I will give you whatever you want,' and face up to the real Christ who says, 'Come and I will send you wherever I choose.'"  And again, "There are those who think that renewal has nothing to do with theology and will find too much theology in this book.  They have to learn that there is no such thing as a renewal without a theology but only a renewal with a bad theology or a renewal with a good one.  I have tried to suggest that the right theology for renewal is not a testimony-based teaching about experiences and gifts, but the classical Trinitarian theology that has its roots in the New Testament and that centre in the incarnation, death and resurrection of the only Son the Father as the focal point of all creation and recreation……"

Sorry this review is so long, but I wanted to give you more of an idea of what this book is about, as the main thing that I had to go off of was the Title(I asked for it for Christmas), so I'm trying to give others a bit more to go off of. 

I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from the book, which is also a good summary of it:  ""…we have had in recent years a Jesus movement and a charismatic movement.  The one has almost disappeared and the other is threatening to run out of steam, perhaps because each is in a different way inadequate to the gospel, which his basically a Father movement.   It is not first a Jesuology (a doctrine about Jesus) or a pneumatology (a doctrine about the Spirit) but it is a theology or even a patrology - a doctrine about God the Father.  It starts not with the cross of Jesus or with the gift of the Spirit, but with the Father who so loved the World that he gave his Son in his Spirit."