Justin Taylor's Blog, page 293

Two Recommended Movies

Both dealing with grim reality, hope, forgivness, and redemption:

To End All Wars (2004; based on Ernest Gordon's memoir). [Some coarse language in the film.]

Saints and Soldiers (2005):

You can watch this one on Hulu.com for free.

A Christian Guide to Reading Books

Tony Reinke recently wrote a helpful post asking the question, "Should You Read My New Book?"

Here are Leland Ryken and Randy Alcorn's answers to his question:

"There is so much to commend about this book that it is hard to know where to start. The most obvious virtue of the book is its scope. On the subject of reading, Reinke covers every possible topic. Each topic, in turn, is broken into all of its important subpoints. With a lesser writer, this could produce a tedious book, but the opposite is true of this book. Reinke says just enough, but not too much. The effect is like seeing a prism turned in the light. There is never a dull moment in this book.

"Once I sensed that Reinke was going to cover all the important topics, and with unfailing good sense and Christian insight, I could hardly put the book down. What will Reinke say about THAT topic? I found myself asking. But to add yet another twist, Reinke has read so widely in scholarly and religious sources that I do not hesitate to call the book a triumph of scholarship. Reinke writes with an infectious and winsome enthusiasm. It is hard to imagine a reader of this book who would not catch the spark for reading after encountering Reinke's excitement about reading and his carefully reasoned defense of it."

—Leland Ryken, professor of English, Wheaton College

"I read many books, but seldom do I enjoy one more than I did Tony Reinke's Lit!. Many of my greatest childhood adventures, and much of my growth after I was converted as a teenager, came through reading imagination-expanding and life-changing books. Tony's writing is thoughtful, perceptive, concise, and God-honoring. He upholds biblical authority, and offers helpful guidance, while allowing for a range of tastes. Lit! rings true to my own lifetime of reading experience. As a reader and writer of both nonfiction and fiction, I appreciate the breadth of Tony's treatment, which includes a variety of genres. For book lovers, this is a treasure and delight. For those who aren't book lovers, it makes a great case for becoming one."

—Randy Alcorn, founder, Eternal Perspective Ministries

Walking in the Ancient Paths

"There is rugged terrain ahead for those who are constitutionally incapable of referring to the paths marked out by wise and spirit-filled cartographers over the centuries."

—Larry Woiwode, Acts (New York: HarperCollins, 1993).

"It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others."

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1876), 1.

"Tradition is the fruit of the Spirit's teaching activity from the ages as God's people have sought understanding of Scripture. It is not infallible, but neither is it negligible, and we impoverish ourselves if we disregard it."

—J.I. Packer, "Upholding the Unity of Scripture Today," JETS 25 (1982): 414.

Thus says the LORD:

"Stand by the roads, and look,

and ask for the ancient paths,

where the good way is; and walk in it,

and find rest for your souls.

But they said, "We will not walk in it."

—Jeremiah 6:16

John Updike's Six Rules for Reviewing Books

John Updike, who reviewed "nearly every major writer of the 20th century and some 19th-century authors," gave some guidance on book reviews in the foreword to his 1975 collection of essays, Picked-up Pieces:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation—at least one extended passage—of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending. (How astounded and indignant was I, when innocent, to find reviewers blabbing, and with the sublime inaccuracy of drunken lords reporting on a peasants' revolt, all the turns of my suspenseful and surpriseful narrative! Most ironically, the only readers who approach a book as the author intends, unpolluted by pre-knowledge of the plot, are the detested reviewers themselves. And then, years later, the blessed fool who picks the volume at random from a library shelf.)

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's ouevre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.

Do not accept for review a book you are predisposed to dislike, or committed by friendship to like.

Do not imagine yourself a caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in an idealogical battle, a corrections officer of any kind.

Never, never (John Aldridge, Norman Podhoretz) try to put the author "in his place," making him a pawn in a contest with other reviewers.

Review the book, not the reputation.

Submit to whatever spell, weak or strong, is being cast.

Better to praise and share than blame and ban.

The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.

Seeing Jesus in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job

Doug O'Donnell's new book is now available: The Beginning and End of Wisdom: Preaching Christ from the First and Last Chapters of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job (Crossway, 2011), with a foreword by Sidney Greidanus.

You can read the introduction and first chapter online for free.

TGC now has a page set up providing resources for pastors on preaching from Wisdom Literature, and today they interview O'Donnell on his book.

Here is one exchange:

How would you explain the unique message of each OT wisdom book as it anticipates Jesus?

I hope these Christological summaries below don't come off as too simplistic. The book shows, I hope, some of the complexities as to the connections I made.

Proverbs: For our own good and the glory of God, the book of Proverbs invites and instructs God's covenant people—especially young men—to embrace wisdom. For Christians, such wisdom comes through fearing God's beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:21), and walking in his wisdom.

Ecclesiastes: Ecclesiastes is about finding the goodness of God while living within the vanity of this world. Such goodness or "wisdom" is found only through a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This relationship involves trusting in Christ and heeding his commands, which brings rest, justice, and joy.

Job: The book of Job prefigures the purposeful sufferings of Christ. That is, the story of God's servant Job prepares us for the story of Jesus, the suffering servant, who in his passion and death shows how innocent suffering can show forth the justice of God.

On Not Evading the Charges of "Bibliclism" and "Pervasive Interpretive Pluralism"

There has been some interesting dialogue thus far about Christian Smith's new book The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture. Three negative reviews in particular stand out:

Kevin DeYoung, "Christian Smith Makes the Bible Impossible"
Peter Leithart, "A Cheer and a Half for Biblicism" (First Things, "On the Square")
Robert Gundry, "Smithereens!" (Books & Culture)

Scot McKnight and Christian Smith—in his reply to DeYoung, and his reply to Leithart—have expressed dismay and exasperation at the reviewers' "evasive tricks" and "baffling conversation" and other labels. As DeYoung says in his latest post:

As often as Calvinists are charged with being rhetorically strident (and sometimes they are), it is worth noticing that for Smith and McKnight their objectors in this case are not just mistaken. We are guilty of evasion and sabotage. Those who agree with us are simply circling the wagons and hunkering down. While those who dare to disagree with Smith must conjure up magic or take a leave of reality to do so. It seems we are the Gollums of the evangelical world—wicked, tricksy, and false.

You can read Kevin's long entry where he goes into more detail in answering the charges of (1) biblicism and (2) pervasive interpretive pluralism.

I agree with this piece by Andrew Wilson on his main point in this piece: "The Biggest Theological Debate of the Next Twenty Years." This is an important discussion worth having.

Can God's Warnings and Our Response Be Genuine If He Is Absolutely Sovereign?

The shipwreck story of Acts 27 is a fascinating paradigmatic story illustrating the compatibility of divine sovereignty, human responsibility, and the role of promise and warning to achieve God's ends.

In a nutshell, here are the three key elements at work in this regard:

The situation on the ship: "All hope of our being saved was at last abandoned" (v. 20).

A word to Paul from the Lord: "There will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship" (v. 22). "God has granted you all those who sail with you" (v. 24). "Not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you" (v. 34).

Paul's warning to the centurion and the soldiers on the ship: "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved" (v. 31).

Tom Schreiner explains:

The storm struck with such fury that all aboard despaired of living (Acts 27:13-19). Paul, however, received a word from the Lord that every single person on the ship would be saved, i.e., every single person's life would be preserved (Acts 27:20-26).

The word that all aboard the ship would live was a divine promise, pledging safety for all. Some of us might be inclined to relax and "take it easy" after receiving such a promise. Paul, on the other hand, did not think that such a promise ruled out the need for admonitions and warnings. This is clear as we read on in the narrative. The sailors feigned that they were merely lowering anchors, when actually they intended to lower the lifeboat and escape the ship (Acts 27:29-32). Paul responded by warning the centurion that if the sailors left the ship the lives of those on board would not be preserved.

Why would Paul even bother to admonish the centurion about the scheme of the sailors? After all, he already had received a promise from an angel that everyone on the boat would escape with their lives. Paul did not reason the way many of us do today, "God has promised that the lives of all will be saved, therefore, any warning is superfluous." No, the urgent warning was the very means by which the promise was secured. The promise did not come to pass apart from the warning but through it.

This same approach should be applied to the promises and threats in the scriptures regarding our salvation. It is by means of taking the warnings seriously that the promise of our salvation is secured.

An accessible elaboration of Schreiner's perspective on the warning passages of Scripture and the doctrine of perseverance can be found in his book Run to Win the Prize: Perseverance in the New Testament.

Indwelling, Union, and Unity

Thomas Boston once wrote that "the gospel is a doctrine of mysteries," the result of which is that we are a mystery to the world and even a mystery to ourselves:

O what mysteries are here!

The Head in heaven, the members on earth, yet really united!

Christ in the believer, living in him, walking in him: and the believer dwelling in God, putting on the Lord Jesus, eating His flesh and drinking His blood!

—Thomas Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State (reprint, Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 257. HT: Marcus Johnson

One of the best places to see these multiple indwellings—including within the Trinity—can be found in Jesus' high priestly prayer of John 17.

The Father is in the Son (John 17:21, 23)
The Son is in the Father (John 17:21)
Believers are in the Father and the Son (John 17:21)
The Son is in believers (John 17:23, 26)

Sketch it out and it looks something like this:

This prayer alone is worth a lifetime of reflection.

A Gospel Without Propitiation at Its Heart

J.I. Packer, from "The Heart of the Gospel" in Knowing God (also in In My Place Condemned He Stood, p. 32):

Has the word propitiation any place in your Christianity?

In the faith of the New Testament it is central.

The love of God [1 John 4:8-10], the taking of human form by the Son [Heb. 2:17], the meaning of the cross [Rom. 3:21-26], Christ's heavenly intercession [1 John 2:1-2], the way of salvation—all are to be explained in terms of it, as the passages quoted show, and any explanation from which the thought of propitiation is missing will be incomplete, and indeed actually misleading, by New Testament standards.

In saying this, we swim against the stream of much modern teaching and condemn at a stroke the views of a great number of distinguished church leaders today, but we cannot help that. Paul wrote, "Even if we or an angel from heaven"—let alone a minister, a bishop, college lecturer, university professor, or noted author—"should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" ("accursed" KJV and RSV; "outcast" NEB; "damned" Phillips—Gal. 1:8). And a gospel without propitiation at is heart is another gospel than that which Paul preached.

The implications of this must not be evaded.

Pride Comes Before the Fall