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

Enjoying God - R. C. Sproul

R.C. Sproul's book, Enjoying God: Finding Hope in the Attributes of God is meant to draw the Christian's attention to the greatness of the God we serve.  How awesome, powerful and yet how loving and merciful He is toward His own.  As Sproul points out,  "Worship is the duty of every creature.  But any kind of worship is not enough, God commands us to worship in a proper manner."  And part of that worship is knowing God accurately.

Sadly, there were many things in this book that bothered me about this book.  First, I had thought that it was going to focus more on the attributes of God and how those affect how we live.  But, it didn't go into that as much as I thought it would.  I felt like it focused too much on questions like, "Does God's immutability, His unchangeableness, mean that He doesn't move around?" Or, "Can God limit His power?"  "If God did something bad would it really be bad?" I guess I just thought the book would focus more on God's attributes as presented in the Bible and how we live in light of them rather than on superfluous questions.  It just seems as though it would be more edifying if it didn't delve into those types of questions, they do not build one's faith or one's hope.

And then Sproul made some surprising and very unnecessary statements.  When discussing Christ's ability to not know something, like the day or the hour of His return, Sproul makes the statement, "I doubt if the human Jesus knew that the earth was round." Where did that come from? How is that biblical? Why does His not knowing the day or the hour make one think that He didn't know the shape of the earth He created?

And here's another one that took me off guard: speaking of Mary's response to Gabriel's news that she would give birth to the Messiah he says, "This response of the mother of God may be the most profound…"  I would be very wary of using the term "mother of God' to refer to Mary.   For one thing, it can give the impression that Mary was Christ's mother from eternity, and she was not;  Or it can elevate her in people's minds to the status of a 'goddess', which she was not, she was a sinful human being.   And for another, it disregards the Trinity.  Yes, yes, I know that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One, and "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"(Col 2:9) but biblically we still need to differentiate between them at times.  God the Father sent His Son into the world to be born of a woman (Galatians 4:4).  That statement is just too dangerous to use, in my opinion, and it's not a biblical term and it's not a necessary term. 

There were good things in this book, but not enough for me to want to recommend it. 

Many thanks to the folks at Baker Books Bloggers for sending me a free review copy of this book! (My review did not have to be favorable)

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

Short Answers to Big Questions about God, the Bible and Christianity - by Clinton E. Arnold and Jeff Arnold

Short Answers to Big Questions about God, the Bible and Christianity by Clinton E. Arnold and Jeff Arnold is just what its title declares it to be, it is an endeavor to answer, in only a few pages, many questions new Christians, or unbelievers, have about God, the Bible or Christianity.  The book is not as good as I had hoped it would be.  My main problem with it is its presentation of the relationship/interaction between God and mankind. 

 First, its discussions of the love of God toward people are presented too much like the modern concept of "falling in love", an uncontrolled, "couldn't help it" type of thing.  Here are a few quotes to demonstrate what I mean:  "God isn't just loving, he is love……And he isn't just a loving person 'in theory'; he literally, at this very moment, is aware of his deep love for you. "and, "he loves you because he created  you…If  you have a child,  you have felt this love before; you don't love your child because of what they've accomplished; you love them because they are your child.  This is how God sees you. …"  I don't remember anywhere in the Bible where God's love is declared to have been bestowed on us simply because we are His creations.  God created Satan too but He doesn't love him even though he is His creation. "The problem of sin created a serious dilemma for God…It is his nature to hate sin….yet he earnestly wants a relationship with his people…..", "In his perfect purity, holiness, and righteousness, God is deeply offended by our sin.  Yet he longs to have a close relationship with us.  Since he cannot simply overlook our offenses, he devised a merciful and loving plan to deal with this problem…"  To me, this makes God's love come across as a human loving a pitiable sickly little child, but God's love isn't generally presented that way (unless you count the picture of God's love towards Israel, but even then, it was His choice), it's more like God choosing to love a corpse, or a zombie…those dead in their sins and yet using their decaying faculties to rage against God and His attributes and desires. God CHOSE to have pity on us, God CHOSE to love us detestable creatures, creatures who naturally choose to despise Him and His laws in favor of their own selves and desires.  He chose to make us New Creations, breathing spiritual life into us. 

Second, in answering the question "Why Bad things happen to good people", part of the explanation is given like this, "God gave us the free will to make our own decisions.  Without this freedom, we would be unable to truly love God - or each other, for that matter; we would simply be robots following commands.  So when we ask how an all-powerful God could allow someone else to wrong us, the problem with what we're asking is that God's power has nothing to do with it;….God could, if he wished, end all pain on this earth right now.  He could step in and directly control everyone's actions, thoughts, and feelings in order to keep anyone from doing anything that causes harm.  But imagine the cost:  an entire world full of people who move around like puppets, never saying or doing anything that wasn't controlled for them.  No one wants that." So will we be robots in Heaven, not able to choose evil?  When God makes us into New Creations, Christians, does that make us puppets?  Is it really more loving for God to let a person choose to make choices that will lead to condemnation for eternity than it is for Him to change their dispositions to desire the right and accept Him so that they will live in the New Heaven and the New earth for eternity?  That logic doesn't come from the Bible.  That logic doesn't even make sense when it comes to parents with their children, it would not be loving for a parent to let their child slap their brothers and sisters around and then also give them the option to choose to stick their finger into a light-socket.  The loving thing to do would be to stop them from doing both of those things, not giving them a choice in the matter, even if they aren't happy in the process of being stopped.  "…without this freedom, we would be unable to truly love God.." really? Where does the Bible say that?  True love comes from God (see 1 John), it doesn't originate with human beings.  God defines love, and we learn in the Bible that true love is selfless.  So to rephrase the above statement, "Without the freedom to be selfish, we wouldn't be able to truly be selfless?"  As you can see, I don't believe that question about why bad things happen to good people was answered biblically in this book. 

Things like the above really bothered me.  This is not to say that there weren't good things in the book, there were.  I just don't think that this book would necessarily be the best to give an unbeliever or an immature Christian because some of the answers given do not match up with what the Bible says.  I really liked their section on why we don't always sense the presence of God. That chapter contains many statements that I really like, actually, I think they're excellent! So I'll end on a positive note with my favorite excerpt from the book:

 
Soon after I stopped feeling this intense love and presence of God, I started grasping for things that normally brought that passion back.  I would drive almost an hour away to find churches with great worship bands and speakers……I knew on some level that there was something off about the way I was approaching this, but I felt like I needed to do whatever it took to get that feeling back.  And then one day it struck me:  my faith had stopped being about God and had become about how I felt.  That was really selfish of me.  It shouldn't have mattered how I felt if I trusted that God was real.  At that point the best thing for someone like me was to remove those feelings so that my faith would once again become about God, not myself. ….the end result was that I began learning how  to center my life around God with or without the feelings that I once had…….To make Christianity purely about feelings is to make it about ourselves rather than God.  God doesn't promise to constantly flood us with intense emotion…From the earliest days of the church, Christians have based their closeness to God on theology - on what they knew about God from Scripture - rather than feelings.  Many of the first Christians shed blood for believing in God.  If anyone had the right to feel distant from God, wouldn’t it be the people suffering for his sake? Instead, the early disciples rejoiced at the chance to suffer for Christ (Acts 5:41)."


I received a free review copy of this book from the Baker Books Blogger Program and my review did not have to be favorable.

 

The Ten Commandments: Ethics For the Twenty-First Century - By Mark Rooker

The Ten Commandments: Ethics for the twenty-first century by Mark Rooker is a good and quite concise look at the meaning of each of the ten commandments, comparing them to the laws of other nations, looking at the repetition(or the significance of their non-repetition) in the New Testament, their application in the lives of Christians and their significance, or comparison to our modern culture.

Have you ever wondered about the statement some people make, that other nations had laws similar to the ten commandments before the ten commandments were given out to Moses and Israel? I really liked Rooker's point about how the how the Ten commandments express God's eternal will, and how "This is known by the conviction of the human conscience but more explicitly by the ancient pagan law codes discovered in the Near East. Many of these law codes contain statutes similar to the Ten commandments which indicate their recognition of basic intrinsic moral values. Indeed, the law sin the Decalogue are not entirely new to Israel. The Bible presupposes a moral code long before the theophany on Mount Sinai. This is indicated in earlier biblical events such as the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain(Gen 4)…." This is also supported by Romans 2:15.

The rather intricate looks at each individual commandment were quite insightful, here are a couple of comments to demonstrate this: In his section on the 2nd commandment he comments: "Idolatry has never been connected to ethical behavior……Wrong thoughts about God lead to wrong behavior." And looking at the 3rd, taking the Lord's name in vain he states that, "This commandment addresses any insincere reference to the Lord, as His name is the revelation of His person. This would include offering praise or singing to God out of routine without any thought to what one is singing or praying."

Also, I really appreciate Rooker's explanation of how the ten commandments function in the lives of Christians, "It could be said that the law illuminates sanctification. It provides a guide for the believer to what is pleasing in God's sight."He explains that they functioned in a similar manner in the old testament, "Works have never been the instrument of salvation; they are the evidence of salvation. Obedience to the laws should be placed in the domain of sanctification rather than justification wherein by adherence to these laws a social distinction was maintained between the Israelites and the rest of the world."

There were some statements that I didn't quite agree with, but overall I liked it. It is interesting, well written and is a good overview of the moral law of God.

Many thanks to B&H publishing group for sending me a free review copy of this book. (My review did not have to be favorable)

This book may be purchased at Amazon

D. L. Moody - Kevin Belmonte

Can a biography be focused too much on its subject?  This may sound odd, but I think it can.  As Christians, we know that our faith comes from God, and we know that He has ordained whatever good works we do in our service for Him.  We are also not after the praise of men, nor do we consider it a great compliment to be praised by them.  We try to do our good works as unnoticed by people as possible, seeking the praise of God alone.   

Knowing all of this, it seems quite strange for this biography of D. L. Moody to begin with telling how Moody was praised by three U. S. Presidents, and that he, "gained an immortality only presidents can bestow: their genuine respect".  You'd think that as a Christian Moody would resent the praise of the 'great' people of the world. 

Kevin Belmonte made too much of the man. One statement in particular makes it seem as though God was dependent on him. "Consider as well how history would have been different had Moody not resolved to step away from his business career.  The Northfield schools , Moody Bible Institute, millions of conversions throughout Britain, Canada, and America - none of these things would ever have happened.  Of course, Moody knew nothing of these things.  They lay in the future.  But we may, with hindsight, see all that hinged on his decision…."    The Father is the One who gives people to the Son(John 10:29), and all of the people given to the Son will come to Him(John 6:37).  God will not lose any of His people, all of them would have been converted with or without Moody.  

I also didn't like the flow of the book very much, it moved backwards and forwards in time too much.  It didn't seem like a smooth flow, rather it seemed choppy, but that's just my opinion.   

Finally, I wasn't really encouraged by what I learned of Moody himself.  The things that stick in my head about him are not of the type that produce admiration.  For one thing, I learned that Moody didn't want to discuss disputed passages of scripture.  I don't consider that a thing to emulate. He also made the statement, "Men will listen to a story when they won't listen to Scripture" and evidentially put that statement into practice.  Stories are not the power of God unto salvation, the Gospel is, and if God's Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, I'm pretty sure its more powerful than storytelling(Heb. 4:12).  As Christians who read God's Word, we already know that the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, and we are not told to change the message to make it less foolish to them, or less convicting.  Moody was apparently ecumenical as well, and he seemed to believe that Catholicism is a saving religion.  Apparently he stated that, "Catholics have the same Savior as the Protestants - One Shepherd, one Christ".    But a true Catholic does not believe that Christ is the only savior, they also have saviors/mediators in Mary, the Apostles and other saints.  But the Scriptures say, "For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, " (1 Tim 2:5)  Moody ought to have been loving towards Catholics in correcting them, not encouraging them in a false gospel that will not save. 

Overall the biography was rather discouraging.  Yes, he did a lot of works to help people out practically and materially, but it was his reluctance to delve any deeper into God's Word that is discouraging.  I still think that Moody was probably Christian, based on his banking the salvation of his soul on Christ alone, but he didn't seem to grow spiritually as much as he could have, and seemed too unconcerned about false gospels by his not wanting to define salvation much beyond it's being a profession of faith in Christ.  I think he was leaving the door open for false professions by not being more specific about what the Bible says of the Gospel.  He wasn't fond of creeds, "God does not ask you to believe a creed, but a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.", but we need a creed, or at least a basic set of truths from the Bible beyond mere belief in someone called "Jesus Christ", as it is possible to preach about a false Christ. The Apostle Paul rebukes the Corinthians for listening to a false presentation of Jesus Christ:  "For if someone comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or should you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you are all too willing to listen. "(2Co 11:4 ISV)    And He also warns the Galatians, "To be sure, there are certain people who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel about the Messiah. "(Gal 1:7 ISV) And he goes on to state, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that person be condemned! (verse 8) 

 Sounds rather serious, doesn't it?  It is possible to preach about Christ and yet be preaching a false Gospel.  The Epistles are full of warnings about false teachers masquerading as messengers of the true Gospel, and we are to watch out for them.  How will we do that if we do not study in detail what the Bible has to say about the Gospel?

 

Thanks to Moody Publishers for sending me a free review copy of this book(My review did not have to be favorable).

God In the Whirlwind - David Wells

  "However it happened, the external God has now disappeared and has been replaced by the internal God.  Transcendence has been swallowed up by immanence.  God is to be found only within the self.  And once that happened, the boundary between right and wrong - at least as we had thought about these things - went down like a row of falling skittles.  Evil and redemption came to be seen as the two sides of the same coin, not the two alternatives in life."  Or as he also put it, "We want God's love without his holiness…"   Wells addresses this erroneous viewpoint by explaining who God really is, and what His love is really like.  I really liked his critique of our culture, how it has a 'therapeutic vision'.  As Wells indicates, sadly, the 'church' has been going this way as well, following the spirit of the age they adapt the gospel to be about the fulfillment of our needs, our self-promotion and about our happiness now.  The church needs to actually live like a community of 'aliens' and 'strangers' not assimilating the cultures of this world but living as citizens of Heaven, proclaiming God's Word accurately.  We are to live as sanctified people, not worldly ones, as Wells puts it, we are to "work out what God, in his grace, has worked in" us, living as citizens of Heaven.   
God in the Whirlwind by David Wells is an explanation of God's holy love, how God is so different, even opposite, from how our society has imagined Him to be.

I'm sorry to say that there are several things in the books that prevent me from giving this book a higher rating.  First, the author's view of Israel and covenant theology, or reformed theology bothered me too much, .  I have read books before where I have disagreed with the author's 'Reformed' eschatology and yet have still liked the book, but that was not the case with this one.  Here are a couple of instances, first, his statement that"…Paul argued that being a 'Jew' was no longer a matter of ethnicity….'is one inwardly…(Romans 2:29)' The logic here is inescapable.  Those who have been justified on the basis of Christ's work, be they Jew or Gentile, constitute the one 'Israel of God'(Gal. 6:16)"   Yes, being a Jew was not JUST a matter of ethnicity but it includes ethnicity, the true remnant of Israel is the elect descendants of Israel, the Israel of God.  But Israel never becomes Jews and Gentiles.  The Bible does not teach this.  Jews and Gentiles do not cease to become ethnically Jews and Gentiles before God and on this earth just because they are united in salvation.  Just as men and women do not cease to be men and women before God and on this earth because they are united in salvation.  God saves Jews, Gentiles, men and women indiscriminately, He has not chosen to save only one people group, like the Jews, or one sex, or only people who are not slaves, He saves all kinds of people Galatians 3:28. 

Another instance is the author's view of types….for example, he thinks that the Exodus of Israel from Egypt is a type of Christ and  his work.  I just don't see that connection made in the Bible, rather if there is any pictorial connection, I see the event mentioned in support of the view that God will one day bring all of the physical descendants of Israel back to their land(Jeremiah 16:14-15) and that they will be able to stay there because, unlike the first exodus of Israel and the Mosaic covenant God made with them, God will make their hearts new, will make the new covenant with them(Jer. 31:31-35,Ezek. 36:22-38).   So when this mass exodus(initiated by God) from the countries where they have been scattered happens, they will return to their land for good(Amos 9: 14-15)because they will then be righteous, which was the requirement for their staying in the land.(Ezek. 36:22-38).

Besides the eschatology/Reformed typological view that kept clouding things, it was also mentioned three times that Abraham stumbled over the promises of God.  This view is blatantly contradicted by Romans 4:20-21, speaking of Abraham, "yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform." Even in the event with Hagar, God's word does not say that that was a wavering of belief on Abraham's part.  Of course, he was mistaken in how God would give him an heir, but it does not seem as though he struggled with unbelief of the promise. 

To sum this up, these things, especially the typological views, just bothered me too much and were too distracting so I can only give this book three stars. 

I'll end with one of the quotes/points that I Iiked, here he is critiquing recent and modern society, "When God was displaced from the center of life, revelation was replaced by natural reason, salvation by psychology and eschatology by social progress.  However, even as this worldview was becoming dominant, it also began to disintegrate……What has lingered on is the substitution of psychology for salvation, and therefore the main thread of continuity across these decades, the thread that links the older modernist culture and our current postmodern culture, is the autonomous self.  This is the self, the person in his or her inner being who is unrestrained by the past, by any authority, or social convention, or community, or any truth as something other than his or her own private opinion.  They are not restrained by any God external to themselves.  This is what our culture is validating all the time." 

Many thanks to Crossway for sending me a free review ebook(My review did not have to be favorable).

 

This book may also be purchased at Amazon.com

 

 

Exploring Christian Theology

Exploring ChristianTheology is  a part of a series of books summarizing the main  theologies of the Christian Church, and summarizing their differences. The general editors of this book are Nathan D. Holsteen and Michael J. Sviegel. The volume gives an overview of the main views of The Church, Spiritual Growth and the end times. 

 I gave this book three stars because I did not like the first section(By, or edited by Nathan Holsteen) on the Church and spiritual growth.  My dislike began when the beginning of the book, in the short overview chapter entitled, 'The Christian Story in Four Acts', started out with a detailed description of the plot of Star Wars.  I simply did not see that coming.  Yes Star Wars was only used as an example of a so called 'hero cycle' but I don't think the illustration was warranted.  Actually, I found it extremely unfitting for, and distracting from, the subject matter about to be dealt with.  It didn't stop there, other, in my view, inappropriate movie/novel illustrations were used as well. 

There were some good things in the first part, for instance I liked the statement, "…often the church has tended to sacrifice holiness for the sake of unity…"  But I just couldn't get past the distracting illustrations.  Also, at the end of the section where quotes by the people of the early church are given, it is mentioned that it is a blessing to be able to consider the 'heroes' of the faith, "...What an honor to be able to read the works of Augustine, to contend with the insights of Martin Luther, to marvel at the brilliance of Anselm.  Taking regular advantage of this privilege can serve in keeping us grounded…'standing on the shoulders of giants…So what have these giants said about ecclesiology and sanctification?..."  They are not giants of the faith, nor would I expect that they would consider themselves as such.  Jesus was the Author and Perfector of their faith, they were not the originators of it.  God was working in them, and we give glory to Him, not to His instruments(who were flawed by the way).  When they stand before God won't they say, "… We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do."(Luk 17:10 ASV)  And yet we almost make it seem like they went over and above the good works God had ordained for them to do(Eph. 2:10)

 

I'm sorry, I just had to get that out.  Now, on the other hand, the second part of the book(By or edited by Michael Sviegel) was what I had expected of the whole book.  This section was an overview of Eschatology.  The points of agreement amongst Christians, and the points of disagreement.  I was pleased that the Premillennial view was admitted to have been perhaps the earliest view, and that Amillennialism started 'taking over' later on. I wasn't in complete agreement with the author's critique of those who watch world events for signs of the end, "Some nuanced treatments said things like 'So-and-so could be the Antichrist' or 'This technology may be used in the tribulation as the mark of the beast'…Besides looking foolish, sign-seekers can do damage to people's faith and to the cause of Christ."  I agree that it can be taken too far, if one is dogmatic, but if one is just curious, and simply on the lookout for these events/persons I don't see that it is wrong.   

To sum this up, I liked the second part more than the first, it was what I expected of the whole. And here's a quote from the second part to end this review,  "…we should live sober lives as citizens of that coming kingdom rather than allowing the wickedness of this age to intoxicate us with its appealing but destructive power. "

Many thanks to Bethany House Publishers for the free review copy of this book(My review did not have to be favorable)

This book may also be purchased at Amazon.com