Justin Taylor's Blog, page 13
December 11, 2020
Is He Worthy / We Fall Down / Agnus Dei
Chandler Moore and Nate Moore combine Andrew Peterson’s 2018 “Is He Worthy?” Chris Tomlin’s 2001 “We Fall Down,” and Michael W. Smith’s 1990 “Agnus Dei.”
November 24, 2020
November Books from Crossway
Here is a list of the new and notable resources releasing from Crossway this month.
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution
Modern culture is obsessed with identity. Since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trends—yet no historical phenomenon is its own cause. From Augustine to Marx, various views and perspectives have contributed to the modern understanding of the self.
In this timely book, Carl Trueman analyzes the development of the sexual revolution as a symptom—rather than the cause—of the human search for identity. Trueman surveys the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives guidance for the future as Christians navigate the culture in humanity’s ever-changing quest for identity.
“The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is perhaps the most significant analysis and evaluation of Western culture written by a Protestant during the past fifty years. If you want to understand the social, cultural, and political convulsions we are now experiencing, buy this book, and read it for all it is worth. Highly recommended.”
—Bruce Riley Ashford, coauthor, The Gospel of Our King
Reformed Systematic Theology: Volume 2: Man and Christ
Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley
This four-volume work combines rigorous historical and theological scholarship with application and practicality—characterized by an accessible, Reformed, and experiential approach.
In this volume, Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley unpack the doctrine of humanity (anthropology) and the doctrine of Christ (Christology), revealing to us what the Bible says about who we are, who Jesus is, and how we should live in light of that knowledge.
“In volume 2 of Reformed Systematic Theology, Joel Beeke and his theological Barnabas, Paul Smalley, continue their massive exposition of Christian doctrine. A model of clarity, it will promote doxology, maturity, and further inquiry. Here is catechesis at its best, instructing the student of theology, providing pastors with a sermon-enriching manual, and giving growing Christians a resource book that will both inform and nourish them, as well as provide endless theological enjoyment!”
—Sinclair B. Ferguson, Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary; Teaching Fellow, Ligonier Ministries
The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer
We’ve all heard this story: the hero fights a dragon in an epic battle, and just as it appears the dragon is going to prevail, the hero saves the day. Best-selling novels and blockbuster movies are filled with this type of story, but did you know that this is the main theme of the Bible too?
Tracing the theme of serpents and dragons through both Testaments, trusted scholar Andrew David Naselli demonstrates that these stories reflect our desire to know the ultimate story—the struggle between God’s offspring and the offspring of the serpent. As we come to experience this captivating, unifying narrative, we will rejoice in the ultimate victory of Jesus—the serpent slayer—over the devouring dragon in Revelation.
“Knowing our enemy is important. Read this if you want to understand the schemes of the serpent seen throughout Scripture. But even more importantly, we must know the serpent slayer. Read this if you want to see how Jesus defeats the dragon and rescues his bride. What a Savior!”
—Abigail Dodds, author, (A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole, and Called in Christ
True Spirituality
As one of the greatest Christian philosophers of the 20th century, Francis Schaeffer made it his mission to relate Christianity to the surrounding culture’s worldview. To Schaeffer true spirituality is not a mechanical process like some sort of to-do list, but an active experience—informed by the truth of what God has said in his word. Through the pages of this book, a new generation of readers will uncover what true spirituality is and how to experience it in their own lives—moment-by-moment communion with God himself, grounded upon Christ’s finished work on the cross.
“It was my privilege to live with Francis Schaeffer for three years. Again and again, he said that of all his many books, this was his favorite. It dealt with the bedrock reality of his faith. In a day when the church is weakened by shallowness, compromise, and worldliness, reality is our issue too. No book is more relevant.”
—Os Guinness, author, The Call
November 19, 2020
Packer and Ryle Team Up to Ask: Do You Read the Bible as You Ought?
“Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.”
—Psalm 119:105
J. I. Packer:
See the psalmist’s picture.
He has to travel.
(Scripture regularly pictures life as a journey.)
He was in the dark, unable to see the way to go and bound to get lost and hurt if he advanced blindly.
(This pictures our natural ignorance of God’s will for our lives, our inability to guess it and the certainty in practice of our missing it.)
But a lamp (think of a flashlight) has been handed to him. Now he can pick out the path before him, step by step, and stick to it, though darkness still surrounds him.
(This pictures what God’s word does for us, showing us how to live.)
The psalmist’s cry is one of praise, thanks, admonition, testimony and confidence—
praise that God glorifies his grace by giving men so precious a gift as his word;
thanks because he knows how much he himself needed it, and how lost he was without it;
admonition to himself and any who might read his psalm always to value God’s word at its true worth and to make full use of it for the purpose for which it was given;
testimony to the fact that already in his experience it had proved its power; and
confidence that this would continue.
The psalmist would have committed to memory the Pentateuch, the law of Moses in its narrative context, and in his meditations would be working from that. We are privileged to have the entire Bible available to us in printed form.
How well do we know it?
How much do we love it?
Happy are we if we have learned, in defiance of modern skepticism, to make the psalmist’s words and meaning our own.
Some 170 of the psalm’s 176 verses celebrate the ministry of God’s revealed word in the godly man’s life as his source of guidance, hope, strength, correction, humility, purity and joy. Psalm 19:7-14 and 2 Timothy 3:15-17 more briefly do the same thing. Do we know anything of what Paul and the psalmists knew of the power of Scripture to reshape, redirect and renew disordered lives?
Why does contact with God’s scriptural word transform some people while leaving others cold?
First, some let the written word lead them to the living Word, Jesus Christ, to whom it constantly points us; others don’t.
Second, not all come to the Bible hungry and expectant, conscious of daily need to hear God speak.
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it,” says God (Psa 81:10).
The open mouth is a gesture of hunger and dependence.
“With open mouth I pant, because I long for thy commandments,” says the psalmist (Psa 119:131).
Desire for God, springing from a sense of our need of him, is the factor that decides how much or how little impact Scripture will make upon us. Bible reader check your heart!
Packer then quotes a tract on “Bible-Reading”) by Bishop J. C. Ryle written in the late 1800s:
You live in a world where your soul is in constant danger. Enemies are round you on every side. Your own heart is deceitful. Bad examples are numerous. Satan is always laboring to lead you astray. Above all false doctrine and false teachers of every kind abound. This is your great danger.
To be safe you must be well armed. You must provide yourself with the weapons which God has given you for your help. You must store your mind with Holy Scripture. This is to be well armed.
Arm yourself with a thorough knowledge of the written word of God. Read your Bible regularly. Become familiar with your Bible. . . . Neglect your Bible and nothing that I know of can prevent you from error if a plausible advocate of false teaching shall happen to meet you. Make it a rule to believe nothing except it can be proved from Scripture. The Bible alone is infallible. . . . Do you really use your Bible as much as you ought?
There are many today, who believe the Bible, yet read it very little. Does your conscience tell you that you are one of these persons?
If so, you are the man that is likely to get little help from the Bible in time of need. Trial is a sifting experience. . . . Your store of Bible consolations may one day run very low.
If so, you are the man that is unlikely to become established in the truth. I shall not be surprised to hear that you are troubled with doubts and questions about assurance, grace, faith, perseverance, etc. The devil is an old and cunning enemy. He can quote Scripture readily enough when he pleases. Now you are not sufficiently ready with your weapons to fight a good fight with him. . . . Your sword is held loosely in your hand.
If so, you are the man that is likely to make mistakes in life. I shall not wonder if I am told that you have problems in your marriage, problems with your children, problems about the conduct of your family and about the company you keep. The world you steer through is full of rocks, shoals and sandbanks. You are not sufficiently familiar either with lighthouses or charts.
If so, you are the man who is likely to be carried away by some false teacher for a time. It will not surprise me if I hear that one of these clever eloquent men who can make a convincing presentation is leading you into error. You are in need of ballast (truth); no wonder if you are tossed to and fro like a cork on the waves.
All these are uncomfortable situations. I want you to escape them all. Take the advice I offer you today. Do not merely read your Bible a little—but read it a great deal. . . . Remember your many enemies. Be armed!
—J. I. Packer, 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know (reprint, Christian Focus, 2005), pp. 39–41.
November 18, 2020
Carl Trueman on the Makers of the Modern Revolution
Carl Trueman’s new book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2020), has been called by Bruce Ashford “perhaps the most significant analysis and evaluation of Western culture written by a Protestant during the past fifty years.” Colin Hansen says he thinks it is “the best book of 2020.” Tim Challies wrote, “I don’t think there will be a better-researched or more fascinating book in all of 2020.” Francis Beckwith suggests that “Carl Trueman has given us what is undoubtedly the most accessible and informed account of the modern self and how it has shaped and informed the cultural battles of the first quarter of the twenty-first century.”
The videos below—produced by Grove City College, where Professor Trueman teaches—won’t replace reading this thorough and brilliant book, but they can serve as an appetizer for the main themes and perhaps also be helpful to use in small groups and Sunday School classes or other discipling relationships.
1. Asking the Right Questions
expressive individualism
psychologized happiness and selfhood
the collapse of the transcendent and the need to justify everything in an immanent frame
the sexual revolution.
2. The Search for Authenticity: Rousseau and the Romantics
Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1788)
An interest in human psychology.
A rejection of the artificiality of society and a correlative confidence in nature.
A belief in the artist as one who can connect people to this reality.
3. Killing God: Karl Marx
Marx (1818–1883) is interested not so much in arguments for or against God but in the reason why people believe.
Religious belief indicates some kind of inadequacy, some lack of development in the individual. It’s a sign of social sickness.
Religion needs to be debunked and abolished in true political freedom is to be achieved.
There is no transcendent reality or intrinsic meaning to nature. The world can be adequately explained in material, immanent terms. The supernatural and the transcendent are simply mystifications of material conditions and relationship here on earth.
4. Killing God: Friedrich Nietzche
Nietzche (1844–1900), a German philosopher, argued:
God is dead.
Morality is something we invent.
The greatest human is the one who rises to the challenge. He is the self-creator, the one who defies convention and lives by his own rules, for whom life is one long performance whereby he becomes precisely who he decides to be.
Psychological man and the expressive individual are god.
5. When Aesthetics Became Ethics: Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), Irish poet and playwright, emphasized three things:
Life (identity) as a public performance.
The prominence of art of art’s sake and the focus on beauty.
The aestheticization of ethics.
6. Civilized Discontent: Sigmund Freud
Freud (1856–1937), the Viennese founder of psychoanalysis, gave us
the sexualizing of psychology
the sexualizing of the self
a theory of culture that puts sexual codes at the very heart of what it means to be civilized.
He argued:
Sex and sexuality are the fundamental dimensions of what it means to be human and to be happy. Sex thus becomes identity.
Humans are driven by desire, not by utility. We are fundamentally irrational.
Morality is driven by taste.
7. Wilhelm Reich: Fusing Marx and Freud
Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), a junior colleague of Freud in Vienna—whom even Freud came to consider too extreme—saw Freud as helpful when it comes to psychological fear/respect for father/authority figure.
But Reich brought Freud’s approach under the critical lens of Marx’s understanding of social/economic construction of reality.
If Freud’s point was that sex is who we are, Reich’s argument was that sexual codes as they currently exists are designed to maintain the current oppressive structure of society. Political freedom is therefore sexual freedom.
8. Where Does All of This Leave Us?
1. Anarchic sexuality
Anthony Kennedy:
liberty is defined as self-determination
meaning is defined by the individual
notions of authenticity and psychological happiness trump everything
2. The ethics of death
Peter Singer:
rejects human exceptionalism
makes personal happiness the key to whether an unborn or a newborn should be allowed to live
3. The opposition to free speech
Traditional Western liberal order assumed the free exchange of ideas, for which free speech is the necessary condition, was a good.
Now speech is deemed oppressive and hurtful, and speech codes are enforced. Because in a world where psychological happiness is the key to the good life, then speech which hurts is seen as a vice, not a virtue.
TGC’s Collin Hansen recently sat down for an hour-long interview with Professor Trueman about the book, which you can watch below:
November 11, 2020
Have You Ever Fasted for Abortion to End?
I would like to encourage readers of this blog to consider taking a fast with regard to abortion.
You may have voted. You may have tweeted. You may have donated. You may have volunteered. But have you fasted and prayed?
I am not calling for a public fasting Sunday. I am not encouraging you to sign a petition or to post a video of yourself praying about this issue. I am gently suggesting that perhaps, in the quietness of your own place, you can abstain from food (for a meal or for a day) in order to devote time to beseeching the Lord on behalf of the human race’s smallest, most defenseless, voiceless members who are susceptible to life-ending violence.
The best thing I have read on this is the chapter “Fasting for the Little Ones: Abortion and the Sovereignty of God over False Worldviews” from John Piper’s A Hunger for God.
Piper is not against activism (he spent a night in jail for peacefully protesting at an abortion clinic). And he is not against worldview engagement. But, he writes:
I wonder if . . . [we] need to hear a balancing word about the power of prayer and fasting, not as an alternative to thinking and acting, but as a radical foundation that says, “The victory belongs to the Lord, even if the horse (of scholarship and politics) is made ready for the day of battle” (see Proverbs 21:31). . . .
Is there a sense . . . that the root issues are so intractable to human suasion that the call for fasting and prayer would not only be fitting but desperately needed?
I am commending such a call.
He offers one way to pray.
Fasting comes in alongside prayer with all its hunger for God and says,
“We are not able in ourselves to win this battle.
We are not able to change hearts or minds.
We are not able to change worldviews and transform culture and save 1.6 million children.
We are not able to reform the judiciary or embolden the legislature or mobilize the slumbering population.
We are not able to heal the endless wounds of godless ideologies and their bloody deeds.
But, O God, you are able!
And we turn from reliance on ourselves to you.
And we cry out to you and plead that for the sake of your name, and for the sake of your glory, and for the advancement of your saving purpose in the world, and for the demonstration of your wisdom and your power and your authority over all things, and for the sway of your Truth and the relief of the poor and the helpless, act, O God.
This much we hunger for the revelation of your power. With all our thinking and all our writing and all our doing, we pray and we fast.
Come.
Manifest your glory.”
Piper also writes:
I appeal to you to seek the Lord with me concerning the place of fasting and prayer in breaking through the darkened mind that engulfs the modern world, in regard to abortion and a hundred other ills.
This is not a call for a collective tantrum that screams at the bad people, “Give me back my country.”
It is a call to aliens and exiles in the earth, whose citizenship is in heaven and who await the appearance of their King, to “do business” until he comes (Luke 19:13). And the great business of the Christian is to “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31), and to pray that God’s name be hallowed and his kingdom come and his will be done in the earth (Matthew 6:9-10). And to yearn and work and pray and fast not only for the final revelation of the Son of Man, but in the meantime, for the demonstration of his Spirit and power in the reaching of every people, and the rescuing of the perishing, and the purifying of the church, and the putting right of as many wrongs as God will grant.
I join Piper in commending this practice to you. What is utterly foolish to the world may be pleasing to God.
October 28, 2020
A Trinitarian Glossary
Scott Swain’s new book, The Trinity: An Introduction, is now available from Crossway—an entry in the relatively new series Short Studies in Systematic Theology, edited by Oren Martin and Graham Cole.
The following is adapted from his glossary. These can sound a bit technical, but they are worth reading and rereading and absorbing to learn the language and grammar of classical Trinitarian theology. Seriously—read these over and over again until the categories are fixed in your mind.
Kevin Vanhoozer writes: “This is a wonderful primer to the grammar of ‘Trinitarian discourse,’ a grammar that is needed not simply to talk theological shop with the professionals but, more importantly, to read the Bible fluently, to name God correctly, to discern the true triune God from idols, and to praise the name of the one who invites us into the fellowship of the Father and the Son through the Spirit.”
person. In Trinitarian theology, this term identifies that which distinguishes the Father, the Son, and the Spirit from each other.
Though the term has various secular uses in the ancient and modern worlds, its use in Trinitarian theology likely originates in the practice of prosopological exegesis.
(Prosopological exegesis is an ancient reading strategy commonly employed by Greco-Roman readers, New Testament authors, and the church fathers. This strategy involves clarifying the otherwise ambiguous identity of speech agents in conversations recorded in a sacred text. Prosopological exegesis addresses questions such as Who is speaking in this text? and To whom is the speaker speaking in this text?)
According to Boethius’s influential definition, a person is “an individual substance of a rational nature.” In other words, a person is not merely an individual something; a person is a certain kind of individual, an individual someone, characterized by and worthy of knowledge and love.
Because that which individuates the persons of the Trinity is each person’s relation of origin, Thomas Aquinas defines a Trinitarian person as a “subsisting relation.”
relation(s) of origin. That (and that alone) which distinguishes one person of the Trinity from other persons of the Trinity is the manner in which he is eternally related to another person of the Trinity as his personal principle or source.
The Father has no eternal personal principle or source.
The Father is the eternal personal principle or source of the Son through begetting the Son.
The Father and the Son are the eternal personal principle or source of the Holy Spirit through breathing the Holy Spirit.
personal property. The unique identifying feature of each person of the Trinity that distinguishes him from the other two.
The Father’s personal property is paternity.
The Son’s personal property is filiation.
The Spirit’s personal property is passive spiration.
paternity. The personal property of the Father that identifies him as the divine person who eternally begets the person of the Son. While the Father eternally begets the Son (and, with the Son, eternally breathes out the Spirit), the Father himself has no relation of origin.
filiation. The personal property of the Son that identifies him as the divine person eternally begotten by the person of the Father. Filiation names the Son’s distinctive personal relation of origin.
passive spiration. The personal property of the Holy Spirit that identifies him as the divine person eternally breathed out by the person of the Father and the person of the Son. Passive spiration names the Spirit’s distinctive personal relation of origin
(active spiration. Though not a personal property in the strict sense of the term, because it is held in common by the person of the Father and the person of the Son, active spiration identifies the Father and the Son as the persons who eternally breathe out the person of the Holy Spirit.)
mission. In Trinitarian theology, this term refers to one divine person “sending” another divine person in time to accomplish God’s undivided work of salvation:
The Father sends the Son to become our incarnate Redeemer and Lord.
The Father and the Son send the Spirit to indwell, enliven, and sanctify us.
In the missions of the Trinity, the eternal relations of origin are extended to creatures in time:
The Father who eternally begets the Son sends his Son to us in order that we might receive the gift of adoption.
The Father and the Son who eternally breathe out the Holy Spirit send the Holy Spirit to us in order that we might be sanctified for fellowship with the triune God.
October 27, 2020
New Books and Bibles from Crossway This Month
Below is a list of the new and notable resources releasing from Crossway this month.
40 Days of Grace
New from popular author and speaker Paul David Tripp, this series of short devotionals encourages Christians to experience the life-giving message of the gospel every day. Each book contains 40 daily readings curated from the best-selling devotional New Morning Mercies and is focused on a particular theme essential to the Christian life. Short enough to read in 5 minutes or less, each meditation will encourage readers to treasure the life-changing truths of God’s word more fully.
There is nothing anyone can do to earn God’s favor—it is his gift of grace. In this addition to the series, Tripp explores the role grace plays in a Christian’s everyday life. Through 40 daily meditations, Tripp reminds readers that God, in his infinite mercy, can radically transform even the weakest people by the life-changing power of his grace.
40 Days of Faith
New from popular author and speaker Paul David Tripp, this series of short devotionals encourages Christians to experience the life-giving message of the gospel every day. Each book contains 40 daily readings curated from the best-selling devotional New Morning Mercies and is focused on a particular theme essential to the Christian life. Short enough to read in 5 minutes or less, each meditation will encourage readers to treasure the life-changing truths of God’s word more fully.
Faith is a gift from God. In this addition to the series, Tripp explores how this deep-seated trust in God and his word radically alters not only the way Christians think, but also the way they live. Through 40 daily meditations, Tripp urges readers not to rely on their own wisdom, experience, and strength—but to ask God to transform them into people who live by faith with a radical, God-centered perspective
Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives
Edited by Guy Prentiss Waters, J. Nicholas Reid and John R. Muether.
This book forms an overview of the biblical teaching on covenant as well as the practical significance of covenant for the Christian life. A host of 26 scholars shows how covenant is not only clearly taught from Scripture, but also that it lays the foundation for other key doctrines of salvation. The contributors, who engage variously in biblical, systematic, and historical theology, present covenant theology not as a theological abstract imposed on the Bible but as a doctrine that is organically presented throughout the biblical narrative. As students, pastors, and church leaders come to see the centrality of covenant to the Christian faith, the more the church will be strengthened with faith in the covenant-keeping God and encouraged in their understanding of the joy of covenant life.
“It has been said that Reformed theology is covenant theology, for covenant is not merely a doctrine or theme in the Bible but is the principle that structures all its revelation. Robert Rollock said, ‘God speaks nothing to man without the covenant.’ Therefore, it is a delight to see this amazing scholarly collaboration by the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary, which will surely prove to be a sourcebook for future studies of Reformed covenant theology. Here is a gold mine of biblical and historical studies by trusted pastor-theologians of Christ’s church.”
—Joel R. Beeke, President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; author, Reformed Preaching; coauthor, Reformed Systematic Theology
The Trinity: An Introduction
The Trinity is one of the most essential doctrines of the Christian faith, as it reveals a magnificent truth about God—that he is one God eternally existing as three distinct persons. While Christians often struggle to find the right words to describe the union of Father, Son, and Spirit, the Bible gives clarity concerning the triune God’s activity in nature (creation), grace (redemption), and glory (reward). In the second installment of the Short Studies in Systematic Theology series, theologian Scott Swain examines the Trinity, presenting its biblical foundations, systematic–theological structure, and practical relevance for the church today.
“What a powerful instrument this little book is, meeting the need of our moment for clear and precise teaching on this most important subject. Would you rather read a book on the Trinity that invites you into the worship of God and gives profound insight into his ways, or a book that is guaranteed to provide safe, reliable, responsible instruction? There is no need to choose: this book does it all, and in admirably brief compass.”
—Fred Sanders, Professor of Theology, Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University; author, The Deep Things of God
God’s Design for the Church: A Guide for African Pastors and Ministry Leaders
The church in Africa is growing rapidly, but its growth has come at the expense of depth and maturity. Because of this, there is a dire need for a biblical understanding of what the church should be. Drawing from over 30 years of pastoral experience in Lusaka, Zambia, Conrad Mbewe details what a biblical church looks like in a way that is relatable to African contexts, by focusing on relevant topics such as family and tribal ties, the influence of African traditional religion, and more. Mbewe uses African illustrations to bring home vital truths touching on some of the most pressing issues facing the church in Africa.
“This book is Conrad Mbewe’s equivalent of Paul’s pastoral letters. It is the wisdom of the Scriptures steeped in decades of personal experience. It is delivered in fresh African illustrations and applications that help even this North American pastor understand God’s Word better. Having known Mbewe for a quarter of a century, having been in his church and he in mine, I could not think of a better person to write such a volume. This book well reflects the teaching of the Bible in ways that both encourage and challenge today’s readers. Mbewe’s writing is clear and simple, elegant and gospel-celebrating. This book is delightful. Enjoy and be edified. The last chapter is gold.”
—Mark Dever, Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, DC
Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God
The concept of blessing pervades the everyday life of Christians—from testimonies recounting God’s provision, to praise songs, to wishing someone well. In fact, the term has been so integrated into Christian language that it is rarely considered thoughtfully. In the pages of Scripture, blessing seems to be either physical or spiritual, but a fuller biblical-theological approach reveals that God’s blessing has always been both spiritual and physical.
In Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God, William Osborne traces the theme of blessing throughout Scripture as he guides readers into a deeper understanding of how God’s gracious benevolence impacts the everyday lives of Christians.
“There can be no greater experience than to be blessed by God. Yet Christians often have little appreciation of what this means in practice. Thankfully, Osborne brings clarity to this subject by providing an excellent overview of the biblical teaching on blessing. He skillfully and accessibly navigates the topic, avoiding pitfalls and helpfully highlighting pastoral implications.”
—T. Desmond Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Director of Postgraduate Studies, Union Theological College; author, The City of God and the Goal of Creation and From Eden to the New Jerusalem
Encouragement for the Depressed
For those who are struggling in their daily walk with God, or living in the dark of night waiting for the light of day, there is hope. Encouragement for the Depressed, by esteemed 19th-century pastor Charles Spurgeon, is a gracious reminder that little faith is still saving faith. Spurgeon himself was not unfamiliar with depression, having dealt with it for most of his life. With personal experience and pastoral care, Spurgeon encourages both the new believer struggling to grasp the tenets of the faith and the experienced Christian struggling to enjoy the truths they once cherished to hold fast, for God is faithful.
The Expulsive Power of a New Affection
Thomas Chalmers was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who served most of his life at St. John’s parish in Glasgow—a congregation that was both the largest and the poorest congregation in the city. Known for his extensive charitable work in caring for the poor and downtrodden, Chalmers was also an astute theologian. One of his most notable works is The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, in which Chalmers inspires his readers to remove the tangles of sin through the expulsive power of a new affection—desiring God. As a result of the fall, human feelings of love are often misplaced on the creation rather than the Creator. This classic work of the faith reorients our affections toward him.
Heaven Is a World of Love
Of the many good gifts the Lord has given his church on earth, none exceeds that of his love. The things of this earth are temporary, but “love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:8)—it is a present taste of future glory, made available through communion with the Holy Spirit. In this classic work, Heaven Is a World of Love, New England pastor Jonathan Edwards encourages Christians struggling through the imperfect life here on earth to experience the perfect love of God through an exposition of the biblical foundations for the cause of God’s love, the objects of God’s love, the enjoyment of God’s love, and the fruits of God’s love. Each page of pastoral insight will leave readers hungry to experience more of God.
How Can Our Church Find a Faithful Pastor?
Many new believers have questions about what it means to live as a Christian in the context of a local church, and pastors are looking for resources to pass along to their congregations to help them think biblically about the Christian life. Church Questions is a series by 9Marks that seeks to provide Christians with sound and accessible biblical teaching by answering common questions about church life. Each booklet offers biblical answers and practical applications with the goal of nurturing healthy church practice and commitment.
Each volume offers biblical answers and practical applications with the goal of nurturing healthy church practice and commitment. In this concise booklet, best-selling author Mark Dever offers clear biblical insight to churches in search of new leadership by providing 6 characteristics to look for in a new pastor, along with 11 suggestions of strategies to implement during the process.
Is It Loving to Practice Church Discipline?
In this concise booklet, Jonathan Leeman presents succinct biblical answers to various questions posited about the nature and application of church discipline, conveying that Scripture presents church discipline as both loving and necessary for yielding life, health, holiness, and growth in the local church body.
“Sincere questions deserve thoughtful answers. If you’re not sure where to start in answering these questions, let this series serve as a diving board into the pool. These mini-books are winsomely to-the-point and great to read together with one friend or one hundred friends.”
—Gloria Furman, author, Missional Motherhood and The Pastor’s Wife
Why Should I Be Baptized?
This booklet unpacks Scripture’s teaching on the importance of baptism in the local church by responding to 7 reasons that baptism is often neglected as well as answering 3 common questions about baptism.
“As a pastor, I get asked lots of questions. I’m approached by unbelievers seeking to understand the gospel, new believers unsure about next steps, and maturing believers wanting help answering questions from their Christian family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers. It’s in these moments that I wish I had a book to give them that was brief, answered their questions, and pointed them in the right direction for further study. Church Questions is a series that provides just that. Each booklet tackles one question in a biblical, brief, and practical manner. The series may be called Church Questions, but it could be called ‘Church Answers.’ I intend to pick these up by the dozens and give them away regularly. You should too.”
—Juan R. Sanchez, Senior Pastor, High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin, Texas
ESV Illuminated Bible, Art Journaling Edition (Cloth over Board, Eggplant)
The ESV Illuminated Bible places the full ESV text alongside over 500 elegantly hand-lettered gold ink illustrations by renowned artist Dana Tanamachi. Printed on thick cream-colored paper, the Bible’s single-column text setting and wide margins provide generous space for additional notes, prayers, and designs—inviting readers to creatively engage with and reflect on the beauty of God’s Word.
ESV Study Bible (TruTone, Olive, Celtic Cross Design, Indexed and TruTone, Burgundy/Red, Timeless Design, Indexed)
The ESV Study Bible was designed to help you understand the Bible in a deeper way. Created by a diverse team of 95 leading Bible scholars and teachers—from 9 countries, nearly 20 denominations, and 50 seminaries, colleges, and universities—the ESV Study Bible features a wide array of study tools, making it a valuable resource for serious readers, students, and teachers of God’s word.
ESV Bible with Creeds and Confessions (TruTone, Burgundy)
Creeds and confessions have been used throughout Christian history to summarize the Bible’s teaching, distilling the key truths of Scripture into concise and succinct propositions. The ESV Bible with Creeds and Confessions contains 13 important creeds and confessions from church history placed after the complete ESV text, including the Apostles’ Creed, the Belgic Confession, and the Heidelberg Catechism. Introductions written by theologian Chad Van Dixhoorn explain the history and original purpose of each—helping modern Christians see how these historic documents were designed to faithfully teach the truths of Scripture—truths aimed at shaping and motivating the lives of all who follow Christ.
October 26, 2020
The Rise of Gospel-Centered Documentaries
A few years ago, after watching the rise of Christian filmmaking, I wondered why something similar had not yet happened with documentaries. A historic religion that emphasizes teaching would seem ripe for the medium.
Thankfully, several such high-quality films have now been produced. The one above is the latest from Media Gratiae. (You can order the whole curriculum that goes along with it here.)
Stephen McCaskell has directed several documentaries now, often focused on figures from church history with particular relevance for today. I’ve embedded the trailers below.
I’ve also included the two parts of the American Gospel film (Christ Alone and Christ Crucified). Our kids have been watching the American Gospel films in their youth group, and it has sparked a lot of interest and discussion from them.
At the end are also some missionary documentaries that are incredibly enlightening and encouraging.
See also the missionary series, Dispatches from the Front.
October 22, 2020
Bavinck on Our Strange World Where Judgment and Mercy Are Intermingled
Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God (1909; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 2019), 28–29:
When we have our attention fixed upon the richness of the grace which God has given in His special revelation, we sometimes become so enamored of it that the general revelation loses its whole significance and worth for us.
And when, at another time, we reflect on the good, and true, and beautiful that is to be found by virtue of God’s general revelation in nature and in the human world, then it can happen that the special grace, manifested to us in the person and work of Christ, loses its glory and appeal for the eye of our soul.
This danger, to stray off either to the right or to the left, has always existed in the Christian church, and, each in turn, the general and the special revelation have been ignored or denied. . . .
We must be on guard against both of these one-sidednesses; and we shall be best advised if, in the light of Holy Scripture, we take a look at the history of mankind and let it teach us what people owe to general revelation. It will then become apparent to us that although, in the light of this revelation, men have in some directions achieved a great deal, their knowledge and ability in other ways have been limited by unavoidable boundaries.
When the first man and woman have transgressed the commandment of God in Paradise, their punishment does not follow immediately nor in full force. They do not die on the self-same day they have sinned, but remain alive; they are not sent into hell, but instead find themselves entrusted with a task on earth; their line does not perish: they receive the promise of the seed of the woman. In short, a condition now sets in which God had known and which God had established, but which man had not been able to anticipate.
It is a condition which has a very special character. It is one in which wrath and grace, punishment and blessing, judgment and long-suffering are mingled with each other. It is the condition which still exists in nature and among men and one which comprehends the sharpest of contrasts within itself.
We live in a strange world, a world which presents us with tremendous contrasts.
The high and the low, the great and the small, the sublime and the ridiculous, the beautiful and the ugly, the tragic and the comic, the good and the evil, the truth and the lie, these all are heaped up in unfathomable interrelationship.
The gravity and the vanity of life seize on us in turn.
Now we are prompted to optimism, then to pessimism.
Man weeping is constantly giving way to man laughing.
The whole world stands in the sign of humor, which has been well described as a laugh in a tear.
The deepest cause of this present state of the world is this: because of the sin of man, God is continually manifesting His wrath and yet, by reason of His own good pleasure, is always again revealing His grace also. We are consumed by His anger and yet in the morning we are satisfied by His mercy (Ps. 90:7, 14). His anger endures but a moment, in His favor is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Ps. 30:6). Curse and blessing are so singularly interdependent that the one sometimes seems to become the other. Work in the sweat of the brow is curse and blessing at once. Both point to the cross which at one and the same time is the highest judgment and the richest grace. And that is why the cross is the mid-point of history and the reconciliation of all antitheses.
October 19, 2020
Mark Dever on Politics and the Local Church
Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., recently gave a talk (video above) to his congregation on politics and the local church.
Here is the broad outline:
Things feel tense.
We are united.
We have differences.
We’ll be fine.
He enumerated three levels of unity in the church:
Salvific matters: unity around the Gospel (matters of salvation; necessary moral entailments of the gospel—church attendance, adultery, abortion)
Church matters: unity around those things needed to have a church (who are the subjects of baptism, when and how will we meet on the Lord’s Day).
Disputable matters: areas in which we can both differ and yet be covenanted together in a local church, persevering peacefully and edifyingly even through our differences (meat sacrificed to idols, drinking alcohol, the American Revolution, the ultimate hope for Israel).
He lists four reasons challenges to thinking well on these issues:
Sin is so deceptive.
Christians disagree.
Action sometimes precedes agreement.
We can be paralyzed for fear of being epically wrong!
He then helps the congregation think through questions like:
How important are our differences?
Are the political differences we are experiencing today like slavery was? Do they rise to the level of salvation?
If our differences are not at the level of salvation, are our political differences at the level of those things we must agree on in order to have a church (subjects of baptism, when and how we will meet)?
Or are they matters about which we can sustain disagreement (
At which level are various political differences best understood?
Some recommended resources:
9Marks Journal, “Pastoring through Political Turmoil“
Greg Gilbert and Kevin DeYoung, What Is the Mission of the Church?
Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age
Andy Naselli and J. D. Crowley, Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ
Andy Naselli and Jonathan Leeman, How Can I Love Church Members with Different Politics?
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