Justin Taylor's Blog, page 350

Praying for Japan

Tim Challies has collected a few pieces on Japan and a biblical response, and I thought I'd simply reproduce them here. Some video, followed by a prayer from John Piper:

Father in heaven, you are the absolute Sovereign over the shaking of the earth, the rising of the sea, and the raging of the waves. We tremble at your power and bow before your unsearchable judgments and inscrutable ways. We cover our faces and kiss your omnipotent hand. We fall helpless to the floor in prayer and feel how fragile the very ground is beneath our knees.

O God, we humble ourselves under your holy majesty and repent. In a moment—in the twinkling of an eye—we too could be swept away. We are not more deserving of firm ground than our fellowmen in Japan. We too are flesh. We have bodies and homes and cars and family and precious places. We know that if we were treated according to our sins, who could stand? All of it would be gone in a moment. So in this dark hour we turn against our sins, not against you.

And we cry for mercy for Japan. Mercy, Father. Not for what they or we deserve. But mercy.

Have you not encouraged us in this? Have we not heard a hundred times in your Word the riches of your kindness, forbearance, and patience? Do you not a thousand times withhold your judgments, leading your rebellious world toward repentance? Yes, Lord. For your ways are not our ways, and your thoughts are not our thoughts.

Grant, O God, that the wicked will forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Grant us, your sinful creatures, to return to you, that you may have compassion. For surely you will abundantly pardon. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus, your beloved Son, will be saved.

May every heart-breaking loss—millions upon millions of losses—be healed by the wounded hands of the risen Christ. You are not unacquainted with your creatures' pain. You did not spare your own Son, but gave him up for us all.

In Jesus you tasted loss. In Jesus you shared the overwhelming flood of our sorrows and suffering. In Jesus you are a sympathetic Priest in the midst of our pain.

Deal tenderly now, Father, with this fragile people. Woo them. Win them. Save them.

And may the floods they so much dread make blessings break upon their head.

O let them not judge you with feeble sense, but trust you for your grace. And so behind this providence, soon find a smiling face.

In Jesus' merciful name, Amen.

Grudem's "Systematic Theology" in New Formats

Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology has served a great number of people—including me—in introducing the doctrines of the Christian faith. In my opinion, it belongs as a reference tool in every Christian's library, even if you don't agree with everything Dr. Grudem concludes.

There have been two shorter versions of the work produced. Jeff Purswell edited the book down to a medium-sized book called Bible Doctrine, and Elliot Grudem produced a pocket-sized version that covered the bare essentials, entitled Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know.

All of these are still available, but now Zondervan has done something that should be warmly welcomed. They have taken the entire big book and broken it out into seven paperbacks, as follows:

Making Sense of the Bible
Making Sense of Who God Is
Making Sense of Man and Sin
Making Sense of Christ and the Spirit
Making Sense of Salvation
Making Sense of the Church
Making Sense of the Future

If you click any of the titles above you can read a description and download some samples.

These could make excellent books for classroom or individual or small group study, without having to work through the whole Systematic Theology.

There is also now a DVD set available of Wayne Grudem delivering the following lectures to a group in England:

What is the Bible?
What is God like?
What is the Trinity?
What is creation?
What is prayer?
What are angels and demons?
What is man?
What is sin?
Who is Christ?
What is the atonement?
What is the resurrection?
What is election (or predestination)?
What does it mean to become a Christian?
What are justification and adoption?
What are sanctification and perseverance?
What is death?
What is the church?
What will happen when Christ returns?
What is the final judgment?
What is heaven?

Each talk is 40 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A.

Why Christians Need to Debate

John Stott, on what Christians should do when they disagree with each other:

The proper activity of professing Christians who disagree with one another is neither to ignore, nor to conceal, nor even to minimize their differences, but to debate them. (p. 22)

On why we should speak the truth in love, not being truthless in love or loveless in truth:

We seem in our generation to have moved a long way from this vehement zeal for the truth which Christ and his apostles displayed.

But if we loved the glory of God more, and if we cared more for the eternal good of the souls of men, we would not refuse to engage in necessary controversy, when the truth of the gospel is at stake.

The apostolic command is clear. We are "to maintain the truth in love," being neither truthless in our love, nor loveless in our truth, but holding the two in balance. (p. 19)

On the difference between a "tolerant mind" and a "tolerant spirit":

We need to distinguish between the tolerant mind and the tolerant spirit.

Tolerant in spirit a Christian should always be, loving, understanding, forgiving and forbearing others, making allowances for them, and giving them the benefit of the doubt, for true love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" [1 Cor. 13:7].

But how can we be tolerant in mind of what God has plainly revealed to be either evil or erroneous? (p. 8)

—From John Stott, Christ the Controversialist (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1970).

Tempted and Tried: Temptations and the Triumph of Christ

Russell Moore has emerged as one of evangelicalism's finest writers. I highly recommend his new book, due out this month from Crossway: Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ.

Tony Reinke points us to his favorite excerpt from the book. It's worth reading slowly.

TGC also published an excerpt.

Josh Harris recently wrote:

Some people are incredible writers but have little to say. Others have great substance but are boring as all get out to read. Russell Moore is that rare author whose skills as a writer are matched by his theological and biblical substance. He both engages your imagination and stretches you intellectually. This man knows the Bible and he teaches it in a way that pierces the heart. Russell will not only make you think, he will make you think more biblically—an activity that is more dangerous and subversive than you would imagine. If you're struggling with sin in some form, you might assume that reading a book called Tempted and Tried would be a depressing reminder of all your failings. But that is not what this book is. It is realistic and honest about sin and evil, but more than anything it gloriously sets forth Jesus as the devil-smashing Victor that he is. It will give you hope. It will give you courage to press on. It will stir your heart to keep battling temptation in the confidence of Christ's victory. I highly recommend it.

You can read the table of contents and first chapter online for free.

Pray for the People of Japan

Here is an early picture on Twitter from a woman in Japan. The 8.9 magnitude earthquake is the fifth largest on record since 1900.

HT: Andrew Sullivan

More pictures here.

Tim Challies: "The Next Story"

The Next Story is a book Tim Challies was born to write. Here's a blurb I wrote for it:

All of us today—whether digital immigrants or digital natives—are living in the aftershock of the digital explosion. Though our world has radically changed, the fundamental question remains the same: Will we be found faithful? Tim Challies proves to be a faithful navigator, though humble enough to admit that he identifies with the rest of us as a fellow struggler. The result of his labors is an accessible guide full of wise reflection and practical counsel. What hath technology to do with the biblical worldview? Come and see.

For more endorsements, go here.

You can read the table of contents, introduction, and first chapter online for free.

If you are an e-Book reader, they have set up an interesting system. For every 200 copies of the eBook that are pre-ordered, the price drops by $1 (and everyone gets charged the lowest amount). It's currently at $8.99. The more that are ordered, the lower the price. So it could get down as low as $2.99.

And for those who want a nice review of the book before deciding whether to buy it, see this helpful take by Michael Krahn.

Booklets from The Gospel Coalition

Until March 16 Westminster Bookstore is selling the just-published set of TGC booklets for 45% off. Order five or more of the same booklet and you get an extra 10% off. After March 16 the booklets will revert to the standard discount.

The series is edited by D. A. Carson and Tim Keller. You can read their blog post here about why they did this series and what they hope it accomplishes.

One of the booklets is being made available online for free download: The Restoration of All Things by Sam Storms. Dr. Storms covers the inaugural coming and ultimate consummation, resurrection, judgment, hell, eternal punishment, and heaven on earth.

This would be a helpful series to make available on the bookrack at your church.

Bible Memory App

The "Fighter Verse" Scripture memory program is now available as both an iPhone® / iPad® app and as an Android® app.

"Learn more about Bible memory at FighterVerses.com, where you can see weekly verses and subscribe to the devotional blog. You can also find Bible memory helps, review tools, downloadable resources, songs, audio, and tips for launching a church-wide memory program."

Rob Bell on Martin Luther and Salvation in Hell

One of the surprising points in Rob Bell's Love Wins is that Martin Luther is cited as being open to second-chance salvation after death. Bell writes:

And then there are others who can live with two destinations, two realities after death, but insist that there must be some kind of "second chance" for those who don't believe in Jesus in this lifetime. In a letter Martin Luther, one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, wrote to Hans von Rechenberg in 1522 he considered the possibility that people could turn to God after death, asking: "Who would doubt God's ability to do that?"

Again, a good question.

And so space is created in this "who would doubt God's ability to do that?" perspective for all kinds of people—fifteen-year-old atheists, people from other religions, and people who rejected Jesus because the only Jesus they ever saw was an oppressive figure who did anything but show God's love.

This is a good illustration of the difficulty that will face reviewers of this book. It's easy to make a claim, but it takes time and effort to explain why the claim is wrong and to demonstrate the actual truth of the matter. To be sure, Bell's misuse of Luther is relatively minor compared with, say, his handing of Scripture (which is among the worst I have ever seen in a published book). But it's still instructive to work through even an offhand claim like this.

So let me point you to Carl Trueman's careful analysis that shows Luther did not believe what Bell implies. Even if you are not interested in Bell's book, it's still a helpful post on basic historical methodology and integrity.

Here is Trueman's conclusion, which focuses on why Bell's method of argument is actually bad for having a constructive conversation, and also on the perils of using theological soundbites:

Popular books written for popular consumption are vital in the church; and Bell is to be commended for seeing that need. Further, when such books simply put forth an unexceptionable position, there is no real necessity for any scholarly apparatus; but when they self-consciously present themselves as arguing for significant or controversial paradigm shifts, the author really does need to cite sources. This is crucial because such citation allows the reader to engage in a conversation with the matter at hand. Indeed, the failure to do so actually prevents the reader from checking such for herself. In short, such an author does theology by fiat, adopting a dictatorial and high-handed approach which precludes constructive dialogue, whatever "conversational" rhetoric the author may use to describe his intentions. The message is not one of dialogue; it is rather 'Trust me: everyone else is wrong, though I am not going to give you the means to judge their arguments for yourselves.' That kind of approach lacks any real critical or dialogical integrity.

Building arguments on theological soundbites, especially from the works of prolific and sophisticated theologians such as Luther, is surely very tempting in today's instant internet age. We all want our fifteen minutes of fame but none of us want to spend any more than fifteen seconds doing the grunt work necessary to achieve it. Yet, like a lady of easy virtue, such an approach may have immediately seductive charms but ultimately proves a rather cruel mistress for the would-be historian. It also says much (and none of it flattering) about the competence of the editors at Harper, that they did not seize on this elementary error and correct it. Checking sources, especially when they seem to say something unexpected, is surely the most basic task of both author and editor.

The book will, of course, sell many copies, far more than anything I will ever write, I am sure. But then so did Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code; and that was a book with which, from the safely controversial content to the sloppy historiography, Rob Bell's latest offering would appear to have much in common.

A Vision for Tough and Tender Pastors in Controversy

John Piper:

It seems to me that we are always falling off the horse on one side or the other in this matter of being tough and tender—wimping out on truth when we ought to be lion-hearted, or wrangling with anger when we ought to be weeping. . . .

Oh how rare are the pastors who speak with a tender heart and have a theological backbone of steel.

I dream of such pastors. I would like to be one someday.

A pastor whose might in the truth is matched by his meekness.

Whose theological acumen is matched by his manifest contrition.

Whose heights of intellect are matched by his depths of humility.

Yes, and the other way around!

A pastor whose relational warmth is matched by his rigor of study, whose bent toward mercy is matched by the vigilance of his biblical discernment, and whose sense of humor is exceeded by the seriousness of his calling.

I dream of great defenders of true doctrine who are mainly known for the delight they have in God and the joy in God that they bring to the people of God—who enter controversy, when necessary, not because they love ideas and arguments, but because they love Christ and the church. . . .

[Acts 15:1-3] is my vision: The great debaters on their way to a life-and-death show down of doctrinal controversy, so thrilled by the mercy and power of God in the gospel, that they are spreading joy everywhere they go.

Oh how many there are today who tell us that controversy only kills joy and ruins the church; and oh how many others there are who, on their way to the controversy, feel no joy and spread no joy in the preciousness of Christ and his salvation.