Reading and Readers

Duty. A word that was full of meaning 200 years ago. Less so today. Can an author from 200 years ago tell us to do our duty? And tell it to today's young Christians? Find out in today's book review.

Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Every month I review a book from Faithlife's Free Book of the Month and while waiting for the next free book I review a book of my choice. And my choice for today is "The Young Christian; Or a Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian Duty" by Jacob Abbott. Now I was looking for a book on Christian duty. I searched online for Christian duty or duty of a Christian, but I couldn't find any promising books written in the last 100 years with that title. If I missed a book, you can let me know.

According to Google. The word 'duty' was popular in the 1800s but its usage fell after the 1900s. Now, what happened in the 1800s? Well, there was the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 where Admiral Nelson sent a signal: "England expects that every man will do his duty". And the British did do their duty and they won that day. 100 years later, nearly one million British men did their duty and died in World War I. The mood of the country is best captured by the Oxford Union's motion stating, "This house will under no circumstances fight for its king and country". There is no more talk of duty. And so we can chart the high point of duty in Nelson's "England expects every man will do his duty" to fall in use with Oxford Union's, "This house will under no circumstances fight for its king and country". Do you see the high point and the low point?

And just like that Christians have lost a good word. Today we are losing many other good words like virginity, marriage and family. There was a time when these words were commonly understood and were aspirational, noble and good.

You see duty is not the same as responsibility. You can be responsible for evil, for a crime, but you cannot have a duty to do evil. Duty is a good thing that is expected of you from society, church or family. Now, that expectation, like any expectation, can be overbearing, but we manage the expectation not remove it completely.

As I said, there was a time that duty was commonly understood and was aspirational, noble and good. Today let us go to those times, we go to the 1800s. Let me read from a biographical sketch on today's author:

The man responsible for writing the first fictional series for children, for introducing many of the key types and techniques of series books, for popularizing the genre virtually single-handedly, and for writing some of the earliest American juveniles deserving of the term "children's literature" was the multi-talented Jacob Abbott.

Now, in my research, Jacob Abbott was born in 1803, 2 years before the Battle of Trafalgar. he became a Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy and later a pastor. He and his brother founded Mount Vernon School, a high school for girls. In his lifetime, he wrote more than 200 books, one of which is "The Young Christian; Or a Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian Duty", which we now go to.

In the opening sentence of this book, it reads:

This book is intended to explain and illustrate, in a simple manner, the principles of Christian duty; and is intended, not for children, nor exclusively for the young, but for all who are just commencing a religious life, and who feel desirous of receiving a familiar explanation of the first principles of piety.

He then explains that it's easier for someone to understand illustrations from their youth than it is to understand illustrations from their future which they have not experienced yet. So that's why his illustrations are mostly on the youth side. Now, I want to remind you that this is a man who started high school and pioneered children's literature, so when he offers a non-apology, like what I'm about to read, I just smiled. I quote:

I have made no effort to simplify the language. It is not necessary to do this even for children. They, will understand the language of maturity easily enough, if the logic and rhetoric are theirs.

Meaning: if they can think, you don't have to baby talk them. All right, so let me quote again, he continues:

It is a great but a very common error, to suppose that merely to simplify diction, is the way to gain access to the young. Hence a sermon for children is seldom any thing more than a sermon for men, with easy words substituted for the hard ones. This goes on the supposition that the great difficulty is, to make children understand religious truth. Whereas there is no difficulty at all in this. The difficulty is in interesting them in it. They will understand readily enough, if they are interested in the form and manner in which the subject comes before them.

I read this and I was just hooked. Okay, you got me at this part because I teach the youth and I have been advised not to use hard theological words because it pushes the young people away. And my response is: when people need money, they can understand the word employment. Similarly, if people need God, they can understand atonement. If the country can teach the importance of vaccination, the church can teach the importance of sanctification, and if the school can teach genetics, we can teach apologetics. The young can understand. They really can. And like Abbott, I believe the difficulty is not in making them understand, the difficulty is making them interested in it. Because they understand many difficult things from school and in life.

Now, if you were to write a book to explain Christian duty to the young, how would you begin that book? Would you start with God? With goodness, his grace and mercy? Or would you start with the spiritual disciplines? Like reading the bible, praying or you know, songs and worship to God? Or would you start with young Samuel, David or Daniel. Then from their good examples gently lead the reader to how a young Christian is to live today.

One of the best things about reading all old books is that their minds work differently from ours: The words they use, the way they structure their sentences and also their ideas. Abbott begins with a chapter on confession.

In this chapter, the first chapter, he tells a story of two brothers and their father. The brothers wanted to go ice skating with their friends. The father said, "Yes, but you must not go past the bend for the ice might crack beyond the bend." The brothers said yes and they went. After some time, their friends wanted to explore beyond the bend.

The brothers hesitated, remembering their father's instruction, but they thought there would be no harm to follow their friends up to the bend. There was unfortunately no line to show where the band starts or ends. So before long the brothers realized they were past the bend and they just went off with their friends, forgetting their father's instruction.

At this point in the story, I thought the ice would crack. They would fall in, their father would rescue them and the boys would learn an important lesson. But no. The boys had their fun. They returned safely. They returned home on time. The family did not suspect anything. They asked how was the fun day? And the boys were evasive. They could not sleep at night. The guilt of disobeying their father was heavy in their heart.

Soon in the story, the younger brother confessed to his father how he disobeyed, and the father said, "I saw you were troubled, but I thought best to leave you to ponder." So the father was sensitive to the conscience that has been pricked. After confessing, the boy's conscience was clear. And the rest of the chapter developed the need for confession, exploring what happened in that story that he just told.

Now reading this, I thought this was a very quaint idea and today do children feel bad for this obeying their parents? They should, shouldn't they? Would they feel bad until they cannot sleep and they must confess to unburden their guilt. You see, I don't think handling confession is something that is taught in today's parenting class. The modern parenting approach does a very good job telling parents that we are not gods, but they don't tell us that parents are appointed by God. This book is written with that view. The parents in this book, the fathers and the mothers are not overbearing. There are positive role models. They are not know-at-alls. Even this view is refreshing.

Consider the movies you watch. How often is the father absent or messed up or a bumbling clown while the children get him out of trouble? Where is the father figure? The wiseman, compassionate, strong, a father that the children can look up to. This book is kind to both children and parents.

There are 12 chapters and let me list them first. Then later I'll explain what those chapters contain. First is what we have just read is the Confession. Next is the Friend. Then prayer, consequences of neglecting duty, Almost a Christian, difficulties in religion and evidences of Christianity. Then you have the practical aspects of Christian duty which is a study of the bible, the Sabbath, trial and discipline and personal improvement. Then the whole book closes with a conclusion.

So in the chapter on the Friend, there are a lot of goodies in each chapter, but I because of time, I can only describe parts briefly. In the second chapter he describes Jesus and he writes:

Inquirers after the path of piety are very slow to learn that the Savior is the friend of sinners. They will not learn that he comes to help us while we are in our trials and difficulties, not after we get out of them. How many say in their hearts, I must overcome this sin, or free myself from that temptation, and then I will come to the Savior. I must have clearer views of my own sins, or deeper penitence, or awaken true love to God in my heart, and then, but not till then, can I expect Christ to be my friend. What! do you suppose that it is the office of Jesus Christ to stand aloof from the struggling sinner until he has, by his own unaided strength, and, without assistance or sympathy, finished the contest, and then only to come and offer his congratulations after the victory is won? Is this such a Savior as you imagine the Bible to describe?

There is more but I just want to tell you that you will love the Jesus, whom Abbott describes here, who would be a great comfort and assurance to all.

The next chapter is on prayer. And let me give you the problem scenario that I think I face, and many Christians face. If someone is sick, and if I pray, "God let your will be done." Someone might say that I have no faith that I should pray more confidence that God will heal the person. But if I pray, "I proclaim God's healing on you." Someone might say I'm being presumptuous of God's will because it may not be God's will for him to be healed. Abbott gives an illustrative prayer from a ship caught in a storm. It is a long prayer. I'm going to quote it at length. This is a prayer from 200 years ago, which I think is very instructive. I quote:

Grant, Holy Spirit, that all of us who are now present, exposed to this danger, may come with our whole hearts to thee. When in health and safety we break thy commands and neglect our duty, and then when danger comes, and no arm but thine can help, we are ashamed and afraid to come to thee. But O, our Father, let not one of us hesitate now. We thank thee for teaching us, by so irresistible a proof, how dependent we are upon thee. May we all be willing to learn the lesson, and may we bow humbly before thee now, even if we have never bowed before. "We come to ask that thou wilt protect us in this danger, and bring us safely to our homes. Thou canst protect from greater dangers than these. Wilt thou protect us. Save us from finding our watery grave here in the deep, and save our beloved parents and brothers, and sisters, at home, from the anxiety they must even now feel, and from the anguish such tidings of our destruction must give. Almighty Father, save us, we pray thee.

It doesn't end here. He continues:

Nevertheless, not our will but thine be done. We see but a part, and thou see st the whole. If thou see st it to be best that we should go down here to a watery grave, we would acquiesce in thy will. We have solemnly given ourselves to thee, and chosen thee for our portion. We have, if we love thee at all, committed ourselves to thy care and to thy disposal. We have rejoiced in this dependence upon thee when we have been in health and safety, and we will not shrink from our covenant to be thine, now we are in danger. Do with us as good in thy sight, only give to us all a calm and happy acquiescence in thy will. Pardon our sins, so that we may be at peace with thee; and whether we are to live or die, may our hearts be thine, through Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.

That was a lovely prayer.

The next chapter is the Consequences of Neglecting Duty. And he writes:
Reader, is your name on the sad catalogue of those who read religious books and listen to religious instruction merely to bring the question of duty again and again before your minds, only to decide that you will not do it?

The whole book always asks this question. Do you hear but not obey? Do you hear the duty but you still reject it? And what follows in the consequences of neglecting duty is a retelling of Louisa. A true story. Also a horror story. I don't want to reveal the ending or the story itself because it ruins the reading. But knowing that many will not read this book, I will convey the warning.

Don't think you can repent anytime you want. Knowing the truth of God does not mean you can repent and come to God repent when you can. Now and turn to God. Now. Don't delay. The moment may pass and never return.

And in the next chapter, he follows up on the warning, he describes a young man who decides he wants God but finds it difficult to change his circumstances, his friends and his habits. So this young man decides that he will be religious once he enters college. But at college he finds there's so much work and so he vows to be religious when he returns home for the holidays. And this goes on. He never becomes religious. Abbott pinpoints one reason why a man is almost a Christian. That's the title of this chapter. Almost a Christian. And one reason is because the man is never willing to say, "I am willing to be a Christian now." In this same chapter he describes two other reasons why a man is almost a Christian: a love of the world and a fear of the world. Almost a Christian, a very terrible and scary phrase.

The next chapter is dealing with the difficulties in religion. And I'm going to read another long quote because it's so relevant not just to religious questions, but also every other question that faces us today. And Abbott here offers much needed wisdom. He writes:

It is characteristic of the human mind not to be willing to wait long in suspense, on any question presented to it for decision. When any new question or new subject comes before us, we grasp hastily at the little information in regard to it within our immediate reach, and then hurry to a decision. We are not often willing to wait to consider whether the subject is fairly within the grasp of our powers, and whether all the facts which are important to a proper consideration of it are before us. We decide at once. It is not pleasant to be in suspense. Suspense implies ignorance, and to admit ignorance, is humiliating.

I think that describes a lot of people on Twitter and everywhere else. With that background, he addresses questions like: Why suffering? What about human accountability? What caused God and so on?

But he makes this very wise point. He looks past these questions and points out that the inquirer is sometimes not sincere. After describing how a person tries to find a loophole in the Bible instead of dutifully loving and serving God, Abbott writes:

you strive to perplex your minister, or your Sabbath school teacher, or your parent, and thus find a momentary respite from the reproaches of a wounded spirit by carrying the war away from your own conscience, which is the proper field, into your pastor's or your parent's intellect. While the argument is going on here, your sense of guilt subsides, conscience is seared, and you fall back to coldness and hardness of heart.

I love that sentence. It's long. I understand it's long. But it says that sometimes people ask questions because they don't want to deal with the heart problem, the conviction of sin and so on. Instead they want to ask about evolution. They want to ask about homosexuality. They want to ask about about contradictions, apparent contradictions in the Bible. So bringing the war out from the heart and into the minds of the pastor, into the minds of the parent. I think this is a very keen observation, very good observation here.

Now the next one is again trying to deal with the mind. The title is evidences of Christianity to convince the reader that Christianity is valid, there is proof for it. And this is the worst chapter of the book. This book is 400 pages long and this chapter is nearly 100 pages. As I read through this chapter, I nearly gave up because today you have better written, more up to date books to present the evidence of Christianity. I recommend Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ". Other popular books are Josh McDowell's "Evidence that Demands a Verdict" and J. Warner Wallace's "Cold case Christianity". So I'd just recommended three books and I would say that you could skip this chapter. It is a long and difficult chapter. Abbott makes a good point though that everyone should pay attention. Young Christians need to know the evidences of Christianity. It's not just about doing good or having lots of Bible knowledge, you also need to be able to defend the faith. I think that is true 200 years ago and true I think more so today.

So in the last part you have four chapters on the study of the bible, the Sabbath, trial and discipline and personal improvement. This is all very practical. They're very good. They're very useful. He gives examples after examples so that the young person can actually follow and do. And he gives reasons.

For example, on the Sabbath, a person may ask why do the Sabbath, how do I do the Sabbath? Is there flexibility? And he explains why it's unreasonable to insist on strict starting and ending time. He explains that what happens to the sea captain? How does he do the Sabbath? He departs from the UK for example in one time zone but ends in the US, in another time zone. Which time zone does he follow? So he makes very good arguments of this type of form. Very practical. Not very theoretical, abstract sort of thing, but just like how are we going to practice the suburbs when we are in two different time zones as we travel?

Yet he also gives very pastoral type of advice. He also says that a flexible understanding of when the Sabbath starts and ends should not be a license to break the Sabbath in the local church. So very biblical, very practical, very well explained. I think these four chapters is all like that and I have learned new things as well from the way he describes these disciplines.

In the conclusion, he writes this:

I shall say nothing; in these few concluding paragraphs, to those who have read without coming in heart to the Savior. If they have not been persuaded ere this to do it, they would not be persuaded by any thing which I have time and space now to say. I have however, before ending this volume, a few parting words for those who have accompanied me thus far, with at least some attempt at self-application—some desire to cherish the feelings which I have endeavored to portray—some penitence for sin, and resolutions to perform the duties which I have from time to time pressed upon them.

So he ends his book by appealing once more for for the reader to do their duty. He ends the book with a plea to the reader and with some emotion, a plea to parents. He writes:

Your religious influence over your children will depend far more on your example, than upon your efforts to procure for them good religious instruction.

So saying to parents, don't just buy books and tell them to read. You have to be an example, do your duty O Parent!

Now there are some criticisms for this whole book.

One, many of you guys will not read it because the typesetting is awful. I don't know whether there is a better copy in Amazon, but I can tell you that the one I have, the headings are inserted in the middle of paragraphs, hyperlinks are wrong, words are misspelled because they scan it and some words cannot be recognized. So sometimes some words you have to guess. Okay, so type setting is absolutely awful.

Next point is the author is a product of his time. Jacob Abbott is overly optimistic of the Christian redeeming society. There is one section, lengthy section on him on the story of bringing bibles and religious teachings to the prisons and he writes with such great hope of what this will do that I find it tragic reading this misplaced optimism 200 years later.

Also Jacob Abbott, as a product of his time, he uses words that might get him in trouble, not might, he will get in trouble today. For example, he describes efforts by Christians to make savages civilized. I just want to say savages as understood then and as should be understood today is not referring to race or religion but behaviour. Every so-called advanced civilization, whether Greek or Chinese has a word to describe savages and whites can be savages too as so famously shown in William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" or the TV series "Walking Dead". I can say more but I'm not going to say more. If you're sensitive to words like savages as understood by people of earlier times, then please don't read this book. I don't want this book to get banned.

Another criticism is that the target audience, the youth will not appreciate this 400 page book. It takes a bit of effort to read the long sentences and sometimes overly long illustrations. I really hope that a publisher will modernize and reprint because this book, "The Young Christian" can be a good gateway book for many Christians as they journey through, maybe eventually through the Puritans: Spurgeon, Bunyan and maybe even Calvin or Luther because this is a very nice easy way to go into that time and culture and way of thinking.

And if there is a reprint I would gladly buy this and pass it off to my children and to my friends' children because it is, it can be a very good book. The youth should recognize and appreciate the honesty on the religious instruction. Let me just quote some more things from Abbott. He describes a useless way of reading, I quote:

she reads the chapter on confession, and understands what I mean by full confession of all sins to God, and forms the vague and indefinite resolution to confess her sins more minutely than she has done; but she does not, in the spirit of that chapter, explore fully all her heart, and scrutinize with an impartial eye all her conduct, that every thing which is wrong may be brought to light, and frankly confessed and abandoned.

In the whole book he says he wants us to do, not just read. And he continues in the conclusion chapter:

Now there is no question that many Young Christians will read this book in the manner I have above described; that is, they throw themselves as it were passively before it, allowing it to exert all the influence it will by its own power, but doing very little in the way of vigorous effort to obtain good from it. They seem to satisfy themselves by giving the book an opportunity to do'them good, but do little to draw from it, by their own efforts, the advantages which it might afford.

Now, isn't that a problem with many of us readers? We read many books and do very little of the instructions. So he makes a very good observation there.

I have hope in the young that I think that maybe some of the young will enjoy this book because they want truth boldly told and this book, if you can overcome the typesetting can help you.

As for parents, you will find a sympathetic and encouraging tone in this book. The modern parenting movement, as I said, is very good at telling us that we are not gods, that our children are individuals with have their own journey to walk and moral compasses to navigate. Well, this book from 200 years ago will tell you that parents are appointed by God to help the young learn what is their Christian duty before God.

And may we all do our Christian duty before God.

This is a Reading and Readers review of "The Young Christian; Or a Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian Duty" by Jacob Abbott.

England expects that every man will do his duty. Can I say, podcasters expects that every listener will do his or her duty to subscribe, share and review? No, I think that's stretching the word duty too much. So let me just make that as a request.

And another request is if you have read any of Jacob Abbott's books, can you get in touch with me? I am curious to know how did you come across his books and what do you think of his writings? Any of it, not just this particular one, but any of Jacob Abbott's books. And maybe you can make a recommendation to me to read and to introduce to my children. And if anyone has thoughts on the book, my review, or on the Christian duty, please email me. My contact details are at www.reading andreaders.com. That's www.readingandreaders.com. Thank you for listening

Book List
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Amazon. Faithlife.
Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. Amazon. Faithlife.
Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace. Amazon. Faithlife.

Reference
https://readseries.com/auth-a/ab-bio.html

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Are you tired of a religious life that only begins and ends on that one day in the week? Do you yearn to live out a Christian life Monday to Sunday as God had originally intended? Do you want to experience All Things New? Keep listening!

Hi, my name is Terence and I’m your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Every month I review a book from Faithlife’s Free Book of the Month. And for the month of June that free book is All Things New: Joining God’s Story of Re-Creation by Pete Hughes.

All Things New Can Mean Many Things
If you search for the title “All Things New” in Amazon you may be surprised to see many other books titled All Things New. All Things New: Rethinking Sin, Salvation, and Everything in Between by Fiona and Terryl Givens. All Things New: Bible Study Book: A Study on 2 Corinthians by Kelly Minter. All Things New: Heaven, Earth, and the Restoration of Everything You Love by John Eldredge. All Things New: Revelation as Canonical Capstone by Brian J. Tabb. Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken by David Powlison. Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life by Henri Nouwen. And there are more! One reason for mentioning all those titles is to make sure you get the right book. Another reason is to show that the phrase All Things New can mean many things to many people.

And for Pete Hughes All Things New is about Re-Creation. In the beginning, there was Creation. Because of Adam we have de-creation, which is also known as the Fall. Because of Jesus, we have re-creation, as in we re-create, re-store, re-new what was originally intended. So Creation, De-Creation and Re-Creation are the three points that make a V-shape.

As Christians we are agents of Re-Creation. When we know who God is and what God is doing, we know who we are and what we are to do.

Re-Creation By Your New Best Friend
He could say we are agents of Re-Creation and write a book based on, “Be the light of the world, salt of the earth” or other similar passages. Instead what Hughes does is he argues from the Grand Narrative, the Big Story of the Bible. To Re-Create, we must look to what was in the beginning. And that begins the first of six parts in the book, where each part is 3-4 chapters. He has fancier titles but I summarise it like so:

The first part is Creation. Second, Israel. Third, Jesus: His incarnation and ministry. Fourth, Jesus: His Death and Resurrection. Fifth the Church. Sixth Heaven and Hell. The six parts roll out a vision of what Re-Creation is.

But this book is not a sermon series or a classroom lesson on the grand narrative of Scripture. We are getting a kitchen table with your new best friend. He tells you how he and his wife, Bee, met, it’s a really funny story. He shares the traumatic events when his first child was born, the excitement of starting King’s Cross Church and more. A entertaining story teller, you will enjoy reading of his fears, doubts, hopes and joys of his church, family and life and like any good teacher, he lands the stories to a point he wants to make. For example, in telling how he and his wife met, he shows how their children are curious on the origin of their family. In the same way, we too want to know the origin of our family of faith. And thus to know Israel. And that’s how the chapter on Israel begins.

He doesn’t have a preach-y tone. He has a young, I don’t know all the answers, I’m trying to figure things out just like you are but let’s walk through life together tone. This probably appeals to young millennials and the unchurched who are suspicious of authority figures. Many churches struggle to attract this group but King’s Cross Church does it well. And maybe it’s the tone and also Hughes’ understanding of this difficult to reach group.

According to Hughes, "Millennials are increasingly dissatisfied, though, with a spirituality that doesn’t really work from Monday to Friday. But if the end goal is the renewal of all things, then our careers are incredibly important. As followers of Jesus we are tasked to be agents of renewal to every sector of society. We partner with Christ in the renewal of politics, education, business, entertainment and the arts. The full glory of that renewal awaits Jesus’ return, but every endeavour in line with this vision now will last for eternity."

Hughes says the problem is we offer a truncated, shortened, reduced, story.

He writes: "The danger of a truncated story is that it leads to a truncated understanding of mission. A more holistic understanding of mission still emphasises the need to proclaim the message of the cross and call people to repentance, whilst equally emphasising the church’s role to alleviate the poverty and suffering that rob people of life, to steward the creation we have been entrusted to look after and to work towards the renewal of the culture we are embedded within."

These are all good reminders and Christians can get behind the broad strokes of his argument. Perhaps the differences is in how we get there. How do we steward Creation? How do we do renewal in politics? Is he calling for environmental activism? Political activism?

He writes: “If there is a strategy for cultural renewal, community transformation and kingdom ministry present in the gospels and book of Acts, it would have two solid foundations: become more like Jesus and follow the leading of the Spirit. Everything else is built on this.”

Does anybody disagree with becoming more like Jesus? And following the leading of the Spirit? It all sounds good.

The Build Up Reaches A Creative Climax
Throughout the book he builds up this anticipation. In this Grand Narrative, he explains what it means to be human, how idolatry lead to De-Creation. Chapter by chapter we read of Israel and Jesus, his life, death and resurrection. In Jesus we have at long last Re-Creation. Because of him, we are agents of renewal. We want to know how does this look like. Then it comes. The chapter is titled: Disciples shaped by the Story of God. In this chapter, Hughes tells us how the churches got it wrong. It’s not knowing stuff about Jesus. It’s not Being Good. It’s not Doing Good. It’s so much more. Come on, tell me what it is.

And then he writes: If we are to follow the way of Jesus, who fulfils the whole narrative of Scripture through his life, death and resurrection, then the shape of his life must inevitably become the shape of our lives.

Did you get that? The Big Story of the Bible: Creation, De-Creation and Re-Creation corresponds to the Big Story of Jesus: Life, Death and Resurrection. If we are to follow Jesus, then the Big Story of Jesus must shape our lives.

The Big Story of Jesus is his life, death and resurrection. These three points are the V-shape of Creation, De-Creation and Re-Creation. Moving downward from Creation to De-Creation is incarnation. In the Incarnation, Jesus was compassionate. Exodus 34:6-7 “God is compassionate”, Matthew 9, Matthew 14 “Jesus had compassion”, Colossians 3:12 “we must clothe ourselves with compassion”. Therefore, we need to be compassionate disciples.

The second point is De-Creation. Here we have the cross. Jesus was courageous. Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the Gospel”, 1 Corinthians 1:18, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’ Matthew 16:24, whoever follows me must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Therefore, we are to be courageous disciples.

Moving from De-Creation to Re-Creation is the Resurrection. The creme de la crème of book, or at least it should be. After all, Hughes’ thesis has built up to this point. All Creation is moving towards Re-Creation and we must let the Resurrection of Jesus shape us.

He writes: “Filled with resurrection hope and the Spirit of God’s new creation, we begin to creatively engage with the surrounding culture and partner in God’s mission to make all things new.”

He quotes Picasso, ‘We are all born as artists. The challenge is to remain an artist.’ He quotes Ken Robinson, we are ‘educating people out of creativity.’ He quotes no Scripture in support.

The earlier sections was longer and can be traced to the Bible. We need to be compassionate like Christ. Courageous like Christ. But does the Bible really say be creative like Christ? Or that Christ calls us to be creative?

He writes: "As we freely receive his restoration, we might more freely give, and therefore journey towards the kind of creativity that renews culture. This calling is both our history and our destiny. It was the creation mandate given to Adam and Eve to establish culture and extend it throughout the earth. It is also our Re-creation mandate, to redeem culture and extend God’s redemption throughout the earth. Creativity is a non-negotiable for such a task."

I get the Re-Creation mandate. I think that was done very well. I just don’t see Creativity is the non-negotiable part. Hughes asserts it. But we could just as easily assert Perseverance is non-negotiable or Obedience is non-negotiable or Faith is non-negotiable. And they are all true. But to say that the big lesson from the Resurrection is we are to be Creative based on scanty evidence is a big let down.

At The Brink of Apostasy, Without Much Assurance
And so we come to my criticism of All Things New. He asserts these new ideas or claims but doesn’t always support them. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't.

In the foreword to this book, Pete Grieg writes: “it brought me to the brink of apostasy several times before reassuring me that, in fact, its message is orthodox to the very core.”

Grieg mentions apostasy to show how edgy, how dangerous this book is. He is right. I was brought to the brink of apostasy several times. Unlike Grieg, I was not reassured.

I was not reassured. I give you three examples. According to Hughes:
1. We are God’s living statues.
2. Solomon was an oppressive slave master.
3. Jesus was a revolutionary.

We are God's Living Statues
According to Hughes, other religions have temples and in their temples they have statues or idols but Yahweh does not have statues in his temple because we are his living statues.

He writes: “God has made each of us to be his living statues in the world. The man-made replicas are an offence; they have no life in them. They can’t love their Maker and enter into relationship with him. But we can. As God’s living statues, we are created to be God’s real presence in the world, filling the earth with the glory and presence of God.”

So that sounds good because you have by God, for God, to God. So it looks good.

But when I read this I immediately thought of Romans 1 on idolatry. And to my delight and surprise, in the next chapter, he quotes Romans 1 and describes and condemns idolatry. At this point, I know I am supposed to be reassured that his Living Statues statement is orthodox because he condemns idolatry.

But call me old-fashion but I don’t see any benefit to speak of us as living statues. In the Bible, statues are always bad. Statue of Nebuchadnezzar. Statue of golden calf. Yes, sure the Hebrew word for statue is the same word used for image of God. It’s more straightforward to see that God does not have a statue in his temple because God directs us to worship the Creator and not Created Things. So the empty temple is not because we fill up that gap, but because we are not to worship something instead of God. Introducing the idea of living statues can distract us from that simple and straightforward teaching.

To use statues to describe image of God is like using prostitution to describe marriage. If people only understand prostitution, then we are forced to describe marriage in those terms. But I suggest we can understand the image of God without looking at ourselves as living statues because statues is too close to idolatry.

Solomon Was An Oppressive Slave Master
Next, did you know that Solomon was an oppressive slave master?

He writes: The same people rescued from forced labour in Egypt enslaved others to build a temple for their God. The irony is tragic. The people of God became so blind that they couldn’t spot the problem of using slaves to build a temple for the God who liberates slaves.

In Deuteronomy 17:16 states the king must not acquire great number of horses for himself, which Solomon violated. 1 Kings 11:4 states that Solomon’s wives turned his heart after other gods, thus Solomon violated the main commandment from God. Hughes quotes these passages as evidence of Solomon’s fall. And so I am suppose to be reassured of his orthodoxy. But I’m not. I think when he says that Solomon is an oppressive slave master he is using a modern day lens.

Today people can be drafted to fight national wars. Maybe a 100 years in the future, people will say this is barbaric. In ancient times, people were drafted to build national buildings. Was there another way? Perhaps a historian can tell us. But I don’t think the Bible condemns how Solomon built the Temple. I could be wrong but Hughes does need to give more evidence to prove his case.

Because, you see, God denied David’s request to build the Temple because David shed blood. So God can stop people from building the Temple. And before the horses and chariots, before the wives and concubines, Solomon built the Temple to God’s explicit approval. His Presence, the Shekinah glory manifested in that Temple. And in 1 Kings 9, after the dedication of the Temple, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, to affirm that God heard his prayers and God is faithful to his covenant to David.

And the Bible has many other passages in the Old Testament about slavery, which neither Hughes nor myself have time to write or to comment on. The point is the idea that Solomon was an oppressive slave master needs more evidence and he needs to deal with the counter arguments to better make the case because I think it's not a simple one to make.

Jesus Was A Revolutionary
Next, did you know that Jesus was a Revolutionary?

He writes: "So why did Jesus die? There are two questions involved here: the historical question (why did the Romans kill him?) and the theological question (what did his death accomplish?)."

He later continues: “whatever theological answer we provide, it has to be consistent with the historical answer that Jesus died as a revolutionary inaugurating a new kingdom.”

Did the Romans crucify Jesus because he was, he really was, a revolutionary? Do we ignore the fact that Jesus rejected the crowd who wanted him to their revolutionary leader. Ignore the fact that the Jewish leaders wanted him dead for any reason they could find. Ignore the fact that the judge, Pilate, did not believe Jesus to be a revolutionary and literally washed his hands. Ignore the fact that Jesus himself said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” To me, it’s as clear as day that Jesus was not leading a revolt against Rome or the social order of the day. A revolt against Sin and Death and Satan, yes, but that would be the theological answer not the historical answer.

According to Hughes, our theological understanding of Jesus should be consistent with the historical answer. And I’m supposed to be reassured because he doesn’t dismiss the theological answer, he merely enriches our understanding. But that understanding is wrong. He says, the Romans killed Jesus on the charge that he was a revolutionary therefore he must be one. But if the Romans had killed Jesus because he was a pirate or a thief, should we consider the historical answer even if the charges was false? By calling Jesus a revolutionary, it just makes it easier to make Christians social revolutionaries but that’s not what Hughes is calling for, is he? But he brings us to that brink and doesn’t reassure us enough that he has not gone past that brink.

So, Hughes has brought me to the brink of apostasy without reassuring me:
1. We are living statues. Am I committing idolatry when I think of myself that way?
2. Solomon was a slave master. But God so clearly approved of Solomon’s Temple does that mean God approves of oppression?
3. Jesus was a revolutionary. Paul says, “Follow me as I follow Christ”. Was Paul a revolutionary? Am I supposed to be one?

Making The Case for Annihilationism
I know he doesn’t have time to elaborate on these ideas because remember his big idea is the grand narrative that shows Creation, De-Creation and Re-Creation and how we are agents of renewal. But isn’t he aware that these things he mentions are explosive? At the very least, he should include some footnotes.

And you say, “Terence, Terence. Footnote? He is a foot soldier, not a scholar or theologian. He is in the frontline reaching out to the lost. He can't give you footnotes.”

I beg to differ. Hughes has this chapter titled, “Rethinking Hell: Throwing the Serpent out of the Garden City”. He argues for annihilationism. He claims that according to the Bible, believers will enjoy eternal life in Heaven but Non-believers will not have eternal torment in Hell. Instead they will die and no longer exist.

He knows this is controversial. So he presents bible passage after bible passage, he cites books, he addresses the possible counter-argument. I am not convinced but I like the ground work. I appreciate the argument for annihilationism even when I disagree with the doctrine and his conclusions.

Who should read this book?
There is this genre called business biographies where the book tells the origin story of Subway, IBM, Google and so on. You could think of this book as a biography of Pete Hughes and King’s Cross Church, their journey set in the narrative of Scripture. If you attend or want to attend King’s Cross Church, this book will tell you much about the pastor’s personality, life and theology and how the church began and where it’s going.

But if you are looking for a big idea book, the book title says more than it intended to say. The title is All Things New. I thought it merely meant the restoration of God’s original purpose, the pristine original purpose of Eden towards the New Earth. I didn’t know I was getting in this book:

A new way of looking at ourselves. A new way of looking at Solomon. A new way of looking at Jesus, Sin, and Hell. A new word to describe the fall, De-Creation. A new word to describe renewal, Re-Creation. And new outline to the book of Matthew. A new this and new that. Not that Hughes originated or created these new ideas. It’s new in the sense the average Christian may not have heard of these ideas before. So he brings all these new things to you, the Bible seems fresh and exciting with new insights. You are sitting at the Hughes kitchen table and he is telling you all these things and you go wow. I never knew that. Wow. I never read it that way.

Now new or old doesn’t mean right or wrong. But because it’s new it does require more evidence to persuade us away from the old understanding. Evidence which I have explained he sometimes gives and sometimes doesn’t.

So how should we read it?
We read it the way he wants us to take it. The places he goes light, we go light. The places he goes heavy, we go heavy. It’s like a brainstorming session. Ideas get thrown out and not all ideas make sense or are valid. But the ones which stick get fleshed out more.

Take him as he wants us to take him. Don’t see him as an authority figure. I don’t mean any disrespect but I think that’s how he likes it. He doesn’t have all the answers. In his journey, these ideas resonated with him and he is sharing them. He may not have put them together properly but he is sharing what he has. I think if we take him and his book at that level, then this book will not sink from our expectations.

The irony is the big idea he has, the big idea that the Christian life does not start with Sin and end with the atonement, that there is the wider narrative of Creation, the Fall, Redemption and Renewal which is necessary for the full Christian life and that we must, must live out that life. That big idea? It’s not new.

Image of God, Church and Culture
If you want to understand the image of God in the Big Story of Scripture, I recommend you read Created in God’s Image by Anthony A. Hoekema. His explains us as the Image of God in four parts the Original image, Perverted Image, Renewed Image, and Perfected Image. You will not look at yourself in the mirror the same way.

If you want to go beyond the Man and look at society and culture, I like Center Church by Tim Keller. I read the three volume version which is 886 pages long. All Things New is 336 pages. Let me quote from Keller:

" When the institutional church gives attention to cultural engagement — the fourth and final ministry front — it does so primarily by discipling a community of believers who work as the church organic. By teaching the Christian doctrine of vocation, the goodness of creation, the importance of culture, and the practice of Sabbath, it should be inspiring and encouraging its members to go into the various channels of culture. It equips its filmmaker members, for example, to be distinctively Christian in their art and work through solid Christian instruction."

I appreciate survey he did on how the different schools of thought have grappled with how the church relates with or, sometimes, against culture. It was also Keller who introduced me to Abraham Kuyper.

Pro Rege by Abraham Kuyper is not for the faint of heart. There are three volumes, 500 pages each. Remember, in All Things New, Hughes wants to see agents of Re-Creation in every sector of society: politics, education, business, entertainment and the arts. Kuyper says: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

So read Keller and Kuyper if you want the big idea of cultural renewal set on very firm foundations. And yes, I know one is 900 pages and the other is 1500 pages which is why I was hoping All Things New would say the same things in a shorter book to reach a wider audience. He tries to but in my opinion the main message is lost in the newness of many other things.

Conclusion
All Things New is against a truncated narrative of Scripture and a truncated mission of the Church. The Christian life does not start with sin and end with atonement. It is wider. It is more. His stories and new ideas which stretches from Creation to Heaven will excite readers. The set up is good but the pay off was flat. It’s not convincing that the Big Re-Creation message, the Big Jesus Story in the Resurrection is that disciples are to be Creative. He needs to write another book. Re-Creation: The Creative Spark of Life to make that argument in full.

In All Things New, he says so many new things that forced me to stop and think. Which is good. I suggest every reader to weigh what he says and not just blindly accept them. I’m sure he agrees. I appreciate his zeal for God and reaching out to the lost and sharing his ideas with a wider audience, although I hope he will re-think some of what he wrote. Not all that glitters is gold, not all that is new is true.

This is a Reading and Readers Review of All Things New: Joining God’s Story of Re-Creation by Pete Hughes.

Let me try saying something new. Instead of ending the podcast by asking you to review, or share, or visit the site. I want to say thank you. Thank you for listening to this tenth episode. And especially thank you to Esther from Boston. Esther was kind enough to buy me coffee! If you visit the website, there’s a button. You click on it, and you put in an amount. The idea is to buy me coffee as a show of appreciation. Esther wrote that the reviews helped her buy two books. If you want to know more visit: www.readingandreaders.com. That’s www.readingandreaders.com. Thanks Esther. And thanks everyone for listening. Have a blessed day!

Book List
All Things New by Pete Hughes. Amazon. FaithLife.
Created in God's Image by Anthony A. Hoekema. Amazon. FaithLife.
Center Church by Tim Keller. Amazon.
Pro Rege by Abraham Kuyper. Amazon. FaithLife.

A fault line emerges in the church. Critical Race Theory is a danger to the church and society. How should Christians speak on racial justice and reconciliation? All this and more in today’s review.

Hi, my name is Terence and I’m your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Every month I review a book from Faithlife’s Free Book of the Month. And while waiting for the free book for the month of June, I review a book of my choice. For today, make that three books.

Listening to Three Reviews Side-by-side
Today’s review is inspired by my experience shopping for a microphone. The microphone reviewer would set up three mics side by side. Listening to them side by side gives us a perspective that a solo review would not.

So today, in the same way, I’m going to review three books side by side, so that you get a perspective that you would not get from a solo review.

I chose the first book after I saw a meme of Voddie Baucham walking away from an explosion labeled Critical Race Theory. What caused that explosion? His book Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming Catastrophe released in April this year at 270 pages. In his book, Baucham cites James Lindsay, an atheist. Curious, I looked him up and discovered that Lindsay is a co-author, together with Helen Pluckrose, of the book: Cynical Theories How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody.

Now I have two books to review. After reading them, I figured that I have a good grip on how Critical Race Theory harms the church and everybody else. And wouldn’t you know it, up comes a book on racial reconciliation, Ministers of Reconciliation: Preaching on Race and the Gospel. It is a collection of 13 essays, edited by Daniel Darling. It was just published this month. I couldn’t resist checking how pastors would speak on racial justice and reconciliation. So this would be my third book to review. Will they employ woke language? Keep listening to find out.

Fault Lines is Personal (in a good way)
Now to the first book review. Fault Lines is a personal book written by Voddie Baucham. Personal because he shares about himself and his dear friends.

The first two chapters is titled A Black Man and A Black Christian. His father was left when he was young. He owes everything to his mother. She protected, sacrificed, advocated and disciplined him. Once, taking a shortcut home, a man shoved a gun in Baucham’s face. Soon after that, young Baucham and his mother moved away.

You can see from his life that Baucham personally experienced the need for a father, for a good education and to run away from crime. He came out relatively well and he has advocated the tried and tested ways of doing well, which is strong families and education saying no to crime and saying no to victimhood.

It’s a personal book because he speaks of his dear friends. He charges that some of his friends, highly influential Christian leaders, are turning to wokeism, to Critical Theory. He quotes them. And while those quotations do look bad in terms of this Critical Theory, I wouldn’t call them proof. There is a difference when John Piper says, “My God” and when Richard Dawkins says, “My God”. One is a believer, the other is speaking the language of a culture.

Why does he name names? I quote: "My goal is not to destroy, but to expose, warn, and correct in hopes that, “they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will”. And yes, I do mean to call these ideologies demonic.

Critical Race Theory is a Religion
One of the most useful parts is chapters 4, 5 and 6, where he describes Critical Race Theory as a new religion.

This religion’s understanding of the universe is Critical Race Theory or Intersectionality. Original sin is racism. The law is antiracism. The Gospel is racial reconciliation. Instead of Levites as priests, it has oppressed minorities. The way to atone is through reparations. The way to be born again is to be woke.

He writes: ”In case you’re wondering about its soteriology, there isn’t one. Antiracism offers no salvation—only perpetual penance in an effort to battle an incurable disease.”

The Situation is Fluid
In the book Baucham brings up what happened with the “Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel” as well as the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)’s Resolution 9 on Critical Race Theory. He cites these incidences as evidence of the fault line and the documents, the Dallas Statement and Resolution 9 are in the appendixes of this book.

There is an important footnote related to the SBC that you might miss, which is, I quote: “As this book was on its way to press, the Council of Seminary Presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention released a statement on November 30, 2020, that is nothing short of a complete repudiation of CRT as well as Resolution 9. While the organization condemns “racism in any form,” the seminaries agree that “affirmation of Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality and any version of Critical Theory is incompatible with the Baptist Faith & Message.”

So he says here that this was this footnote was included in this book, “as this book was on its way to press” shows that this is an ongoing and developing issue in the SBC.

Threat to the Church and Everyone Else
If you are bewildered by how everyone has gone woke, this book helps to orientate the disoriented and assures you that you are of sound mind. Baucham clearly explains how and why Critical Theory is a threat to the church.

The next book I’m reviewing explains how and why Critical Theory is a threat to everybody else. It’s not just a church squabble, Critical Theory is an existential threat to all of society.

Speaking of threat. Sometimes I tell people that doctrine, some doctrine is a potential threat to the church and sometimes people would tell me that I’m over reacting. Debates on doctrines like the trinity or incarnation is limited to the academics. They stay in the seminaries and has no relevance or impact to evangelism, missions or the everyday Christian life.

Sadly, history and current events have shown that what happens in universities or seminaries do not always stay there.

Critical Theory is Cynical Theory
Cynical Theories How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay was published in August last year.

In chapter one of Cynical Theories, we read that postmodernism was limited to political theorists, philosophers and artists. They say that there is no objective truth. Everything is meaningless. It’s all doom and gloom. If postmodernism stayed limited to those few, all would be well. But it did not. It jumped out.

In chapter two, the authors write: We therefore might think of postmodernism as a kind of fast-evolving virus. Its original and purest form was unsustainable: it tore its hosts apart and destroyed itself. It could not spread from the academy to the general population because it was so difficult to grasp and so seemingly removed from social realities. In its evolved form, it spread, leaping the “species” gap from academics to activists to everyday people, as it became increasingly graspable and actionable and therefore more contagious.

Postmodern Principles
The most helpful part of the book is the two postmodern principles and to a lesser extent, the four key themes. They introduce the two postmodern principles in the first chapter, and in the second chapter show how postmodernism evolved and is now applied. In the next five chapters we read how it’s applied in postcolonial theory, queer theory, critical race theory and intersectionality, chapter six is feminisms and gender studies, and chapter seven is disability and fat studies.

So how can we understand this post modern principles? Let me explain the two postmodern principles using fat studies because I think this can still shock people. It’s scary how what used to be shocking is now normal: science is oppressive, gender is fluid, only whites can be racist. I think, or I hope, people can still be shocked by what Critical Theory says about obesity. But maybe what is shocking today will be normal tomorrow. That’s how fast the virus spreads.

The first principle is the postmodern knowledge principle. It is a: “Radical skepticism about whether objective knowledge or truth is obtainable and a commitment to cultural constructivism.”

Alright, What does this mean? You have heard it said that obesity is unhealthy according to science. According to postmodern knowledge principle, science is not value neutral and there is no objective truth that being fat is bad or obesity is unhealthy. It is just what science says. But there are other voices that are equally true that say obesity can be healthy.

The second principle is the postmodern political principle. It is: “A belief that society is formed of systems of power and hierarchies, which decide what can be known and how.”

You have heard it said that obesity is unhealthy. You heard it because that’s what the systems of powers and hierarchies want you to hear. They oppress fat people. They discriminate against fat people. Fat is bad, not because it’s unhealthy, but because thin people don’t like fat people.

The solution is not diet and exercise. The solution is to change society’s hatred for fat people.

Can you follow that? That is the postmodern political principle.

And so, in summary the two postmodern principles are:
1. There is no truth.
2. Truth is decided by the powers that be.

Isn't this scary? It’s been said before and it’s worth saying again. We are living in George Orwell’s 1984.
If you haven't read that novel, you should go and grab it. You will see scary similarities between today and that book.

Theme of Losing My Individuality
Cynical Theories describes four major themes in postmodernism, namely:
1. The Blurring of Boundaries
2. The Power of Language
3. Cultural Relativism
4. The Loss of the Individual and the Universal

Just like the two principles, the themes help us detect the smell of Critical Theory in other fields.

Let me describe one of them, the loss of the individual. In chapter 5 on Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality, the authors write: "…, there is nothing complex about the overarching idea of intersectionality, or the Theories upon which it is built. Nothing could be simpler. It does the same thing over and over again: look for the power imbalances, bigotry, and biases that it assumes must be present and pick at them. It reduces everything to one single variable, one single topic of conversation, one single focus and interpretation: prejudice, as understood under the power dynamics asserted by Theory."

What does Intersectionality look for? Prejudice. We don’t check whether it exists. We just need to find out where it exists. It’s kind of like you don’t check whether your husband or wife is having an affair. You assume it’s true. And you filter everything he or she does, no matter how innocent it may be, under the assumption of guilt. You are guilty! I just need to find out how you are guilty. And everybody is supposed to think that way.

This is the loss of the individual that Pluckrose and Lindsay writes: Even if a person were a unique mix of marginalized identities, thus intersectionally a unique individual, she would be understood through each and all of those group identities, with the details to be filled in by Theory. She would not be understood as an individual.” If you are a black lesbian, you are supposed to think like a black, like a woman, like a homosexual. These three identities intersect, you are supposed to think like everybody else in those three groups, but you are not supposed to think as an individual."

What it's saying here is that if you are a black lesbian, you are supposed to think like a black person, like a woman person and like a homosexual person. Okay, so you're thinking in three groups, these three identities intersect, but you're supposed to think like everybody else in those three groups, you're not supposed to think as an individual. Because if you say you're black and you say that you don't believe that whites are racist, then you are not following the group identity.

Voddie Baucham describes this thing as Ethnic Gnosticism. Ethnic Gnosticism is where all blacks think alike. If you don't think alike, you are broken, you are not black or not black enough.

Comparing Fault Lines and Cynical Theories
So when we look at Fault Lines and the book Cynical Theories, both books are helpful in describing Critical Theory and its danger. Baucham to explain for the church. Pluckrose and Lindsay for society in general.

Both books rise the alarm by presenting case studies and evidences so that the reader goes “Ah hah! So that explains it. So this explain what I'm seeing in the newspaper - does anybody still read the newspaper? - reading the news and watching on Youtube and listening to all these politicians and professors. I finally understand what is going on in the world.” So that is useful.

However, there are crucial differences between the two books. Fault Lines is easier to read. Yes, it's a shorter book, plenty of stories and relatable. Cynical Theories is harder to read. You can get loss in the technical names, history and connections. It’s written for a popular audience, it's not scholarly, but because Critical Race Theory is so alien, it sometimes feels very surreal. You don't really understand how did these people can come to think in that way.

More importantly, the most important difference is Fault Lines is written by a Christian arguing for the Gospel. Cynical Theories is written by atheists arguing for liberalism. Pluckrose and Linday’s saviour is liberalism. Baucham’s saviour is Jesus Christ. His solution to racism is the gospel, which leads us to our third book.

Ministers of Reconciliation
Ministers of Reconciliation: Preaching on Race and the Gospel”, a collection of 13 essays, edited by Daniel Darling.

Russell Moore, wrote the foreword: "This book includes reflections from many who have taught and preached on these matters, and these essays may well spark within you ideas for how to stand for Christ on these issues in your church or family or community."

These matters, what he's referring to, is racial justice and reconciliation.

Let me remind you of how I came to this book. After reading Fault Lines and Cynical Theories, the idea is to see whether do these 13 essays on racial justice and reconciliation, do they refer to Critical Theory?

Now, I want to strongly emphasize here. Whatever we read in the essay does not prove or disprove the author’s position on Critical Race Theory. They were not writing about that topic. And so, they may have a nuanced position which is not communicated in their essay. These are Christian pastors writing on racial justice and reconciliation for Christians in difficult times.

I think it's important for me to emphasize this because I don't want people to think that I encourage a woke hunt. You're just looking for things that is woke.

I just want to demonstrate with this book how understanding critical race theory can be helpful in in reading and listening to what other people say around us.

The Bible on Racism in 60 seconds
To understand how this book, Ministers of Reconciliation is structured, try to imagine this:

You step into an elevator. The other guy in the elevator is a world famous professor on Christian ethics. You ask him about racial justice and reconciliation. He only has 60 seconds to answer you on such a complex and inflammatory topic. What can he say?

He could say: You should read Genesis 1:27 “created in the image of God”, Psalm 139 on the God who sees. Jeremiah 38,39 the African who rescued Jeremiah. Don’t forget the words “go and make disciples of every nation” in the Great Commission. Pick up on the racial themes between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, between Peter and Cornelius, and between the Jews and Gentiles in Romans 15. Also study the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12 and the Ministry of Reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5:19. Paul speaking on Peter’s hypocrisy in Galatians, Jesus breaking the dividing wall in Ephesians 2:11-18, the chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation and people of God’s possession in 1 Peter 2:9 and Revelation 5:9-10 which says, “By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Read all that and you will have a good idea of what the Bible says on racial justice and reconciliation.

Sixty seconds pass, the elevator door opens, he walks out and you are left with 13 rich and meaningful bible passages to read and savor.

And if you want to hear 13 different pastors expound on these 13 bible passages, you get this book: Ministers of Reconciliation.

Does This Lean Woke?
This is a side-by-side book review, so I pick up on two examples from this book. One example hints at woke language, the other decisively does not.

In the book’s first essay, Matthew D. Kim gives a definition of racism from Scott B. Rae and Jemar Tisby. As you read, as you listen, do you hear anything woke. He writes:

Racial prejudice has been defined by Scott B. Rae as “negative stereotyping on the basis of race and/or belief that particular races/ethnicities are inferior to others. Racism is the combination of racial prejudice and the institutions of power in any given culture that enable a group to perpetuate patterns of discrimination.… (pause. There are ellipses here which means he removed a sentence, I will pick up on this.) However, no one’s race exempts them from holding immoral racial prejudices.”

Similarly, in The Color of Compromise, Jemar Tisby writes, “Racism can operate through impersonal systems and not simply through the malicious words and actions of individuals. Another definition explains racism as prejudice plus power. It is not only personal bigotry toward someone of a different race that constitutes racism; rather, racism includes the imposition of bigoted ideas on groups of people.”

This is the outline of what I just read: Rae defines racism. Kim says similarly. Tisby defines racism. You have two definitions which Kim connects by the word similarly. After reading Fault Lines and Cynical Theories, I have become woke on woke.

First, there are two important sentences missing from Rae’s definition. His definition begins like this: “it is helpful to distinguish between racism and racial prejudice, since they are two somewhat different things.” Remember the ellipse? The sentence that was removed reads: “This distinction is part of the reason why some groups insist that minorities cannot be racist, since they don’t have the power necessary to enforce racial preferences.” and then Rae contrasts: “However, no one’s race exempts them from holding immoral racial prejudices.”

Did you miss it? Let me just repeat it. Rae's definition: “Some groups insist that minorities cannot be racist… However (see where contrast kicks in?) However no one’s race exempts them from holding immoral racial prejudices. Rae is saying minorities can be racists or hold immoral racial prejudices.

Okay, so that is Rae's definition of racism. Now we compare Rae's definition with Tisby's. Now, before I continue, Baucham is very critical of Tisby. So when Tisby’s name showed up in this essay, I read it again.
He mentions it quite a few times in his book.

Tisby says: “Another definition explains racism as prejudice plus power.” Prejudice plus power?

Hey, I read that in Cynical Theories. I checked and this is what Pluckrose and Lindsay writes, “We are told that racism is prejudice plus power,' therefore, only white people can be racist.” Because only white people, according to Critical Theory, have power, only white people can be racist. Blacks don’t have power, so they can’t be racist. And therefore you see that this definition is different.

The missing sentence from Scott B Rae is important for context. Rae says minorities can be racist or hold immoral racial prejudices. Jemar Tisby says minorities cannot because racism is prejudice plus power. No power, no racism.

Not here that the meaning of racism has changed. We all speak English, but some speak a different English. So when someone tells you, asks you the question, "Do you think racism is wrong? And you say, "Yes". "Racism is wrong? Do you want to fix racism? If you see racism, you want to solve it?" And you say, "Yes, I would like to be a part of that. I don't want racism to happen." And then they said, "All right, so let's support reparation. Let's go and be an activist." You say "No, I don't want to be an activist. I don't want to. I'm not supporting reparations." And then they say you are a racist because you are complicit in the activities of the dominant culture, which you're not willing to speak against. So, therefore you are a racist. And you're like, what the heck just happened? The meaning of racism has changed. So when you agree to whatever Critical Theory says, you have to be very careful.

Similarly Or In Contrast?
I’m making much of this one paragraph in this one essay to reveal the bigger picture. Those who lean woke say “similarly” but those who are against woke say “in contrast”. The former want to highlight how Christianity can co-exist with Critical Race Theory methods. The latter say any similarity is superficial and is far outweighed by the vast differences in worldview.

Hear the argument. Baucham is not saying that Christian leaders have left the Christian faith to knowingly adopt the new religion of Critical Theory. They don't say that. Baucham is not saying that. He is saying they don’t know that Critical Theory is a religion. They think it can be a useful tool.

One says similarly. The other says in contrast. Like night and day. Like light and darkness. Like God and another religion. You cannot worship both God and Critical Theory. People didn’t know. So with his book, Baucham is saying, “Now you know. You have no excuse.”

If you are following my arguments so far, then you will immediately grasp the significance of the next example.

This Is Not Woke
Another essay ,this one written by Bryan Loritts starts like this:

On the evening of March 13, 2006, a group of Duke University lacrosse students paid two African American women to strip for them at a party they were throwing. Five minutes into the festivities, one of the strippers abruptly quit and ultimately accused three of the men of rape."

I skip to one paragraph later: "The DNA evidence didn’t match any of the lacrosse players, and the woman who cried “rape” was ultimately revealed to have fabricated the whole thing. We had all been had, hoodwinked, bamboozled. Race can be quite the con artist, aiding and abetting our deepest presuppositions, seducing us to add or subtract value simply by the color of a person’s skin. Try as we may, race has attached itself not only to our skin, but to our minds, casting an ever-present shadow and coloring our perceptions. We just cannot seem to get rid of this demonic system predicated on appearances…"

This is an attention grabbing introduction, he writes well. And parts of his experience cuts to the heart.
He writes: “On cool mornings, I will throw on my hoodie and venture outside. As I walk, it’s common to see people, who happen to be white, go to the other side of the street to avoid me. Right or wrong, my assumption is that this is because I am a large black man in a hoodie with his hands in his pockets and walking briskly. I find myself at times chuckling at the irony: while they are walking to the other side of the street, I’m reciting Scripture and praying for things like the multiethnic church to become the new normal in our world.”

So you see, even though in the beginning of the essay, he says that that the charge of racism against the African women was wrong, was found to be wrong. At the same time he shows us that racism is alive and kicking in his world. And not only that, after explaining further about how he experienced racism, Loritts confesses the sin of racism. I quote:

"A few years later, God called me to go to a predominantly white, wealthy church on the other side of town. I walked into that church like Jonah walked into Nineveh. People were helped by my preaching, and many came to Christ, but my heart was bitter.

Then the chapter expounds on Acts 10. And you see how this man of God reflects on his sin of racism and thrusts himself upon the word of God. How does this sinner overcome his sin? Let me quote:

"As you know, our adversary has sought to make race a political or merely sociological issue. But when the preacher comes to texts such as ours and carefully excavates the ancient narrative in such a way as to show the congregation that the agenda is not being driven by CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC, but by the heart and mouth of a holy God, we now position them to deal with God. This truth should give us both courage and great sleep at night. Expository preaching—letting the text set the agenda for the message—is the preacher’s best friend, especially when dealing with inflammatory topics such as racism.B

Bravo! Bravo! I mean, even his essay is something that you can preach from. You see the conviction of the Gospel, of the power of the Gospel to cure and heal and restore the sinner's heart, the racist heart. Oh this is just wonderful!

Who Is Woke? Who Knows?
In the final analysis, I don’t know where any of these writers stand on Critical Race Theory. This book was not designed to be read after Fault Lines and Cynical Theories. This book is not a sample given to students to sniff for woke teachings. I don’t want anyone to get that impression. This book stands by itself.

It is a book that aims to heal and recover a biblical vision of racial justice and reconciliation. Matthew D. Kim had far, far more to say on Genesis than citing Rae’s and Tisby’s definition of justice. Bryan Loritts had far, far more to say on Acts than his experience of racism. Every essay is an exposition of a bible passage but I couldn’t elaborate on them because I’m reviewing the book side by side with Fault Lines and Cynical Theories. You have 13 pastors writing from their heart on what breaks their heart namely racial injustice. And the only thing that can heal that heart is Jesus Christ.

Bible's Power, not Woke's Power
My biggest take away from this book is you can speak powerfully on racial justice and reconciliation without using woke language. If you say “power, privilege, white supremacy”, you have to define them because the meaning has been muddied by Critical Race Theory. People in the pews they don't know what you're talking about because they may agree, but don't realize what they're agreeing on.

So some try. I believe some try to use woke language as a bridge to Scripture. Thinking that, "If I speak your language, I am successfully contextualizing the message so that you can hear God speaking through His Word." Okay, that's the idea. And I don't think it works.

I fear that eventually, if you go down this road, eventually Scripture will be used as a bridge to wokeness. Scripture will be used as a bridge to Critical Theory. Because in trying to package Scripture to appeal or appease the Woke crowd, you will sacrifice truth.

Now remember Critical Theory’s two principles: 1. There is no truth. 2. Truth is what the Powers that Be say it is. If pastors normalise woke language, the pew will eventually hear from outside the church, you speak woke, the outside world also speaks woke, but outside they will hear that there is no truth and they will eventually come to the conclusion that you are saying what you saying because you, as the Christian group, the dominant group in the culture, want power over me. They will interpret every interaction in terms of power and privilege. Because that is what you've been telling them from the pulpit. Power and privilege. So don't do that. Don't use work language.

Sin is Universal, Thank God so is the Solution
My final thought: Guys. Racism was around long before America was founded. Inter-generational racism is not unique to America. It’s everywhere. Name me a country with no racists? England? France? Turkey? Iran? China? Japan? Malaysia? Zambia? Nigeria? Cuba? Racism is everywhere. Sin is in every person's heart. When you limit the racial conversation to whiteness, white supremacy, and white fragility, what you are doing is you take away the Gospel’s universal power to identify and kill the sin of racism.

What if an Israeli family and a Palestinian family wants to reconcile and they come to you Christian because they have heard of the Power of Jesus to reconcile Jews and Gentiles, to remove the dividing wall, to enable hate-filled people to forgive all sins. What will you say? Are you going to say dominant culture, systemic racism? Give me a list of people killed in the past? And the solution for proper reconciliation is reparations?

Haven't you read the story of Corrie ten Boom and the Ravensbruck guard? She could not forgive him. Read the story. She obeyed God. She knew what Jesus said. And she chose to forgive and the Holy Spirit filled her. Holy Spirit work is what we want to see between Israel and Palestine, between blacks and whites, between husbands and wives, between brothers and sisters. That's what we want to see. Not Critical Race Theory.

Comparing Fault Lines, Cynical Theories and Ministers of Reconciliation
And that’s what the best of Fault Lines and Ministers of Reconciliation has to offer: God. In contrast, Cynical Theories’ solution is: Liberalism. But Fault Lines and Ministers of Reconciliation, written by Christian authors, Christian pastors, they are offering God as a solution.

In this side-by-side review, we see that Fault Line and Cynical Theories describe the danger of Critical Theory to the church and to society. After reading these two books, we can detect wokeness in what we read and hear.

The best of Ministers of Reconciliation and Fault Lines shows that the way forward is to speak loudly and clearly that what the world needs is not a better philosophy or sociology or political activism, what the world needs is God the Father, Jesus and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Only through God, can we see an end to the sin of racism once and for all. The problem is man reject God’s solution. And reading all these three books just shows ever more clearly what is the right path ahead of us.

This is a Reading and Readers side-by-side review of Fault Lines by Voddie Baucham, Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay and Ministers of Reconciliation, a collection of 13 essays, edited by Daniel Darling.

Send Me a Review
How did you like the side-by-side review? Did you find it helpful or not? Let me know your thoughts. I would also like to request your write a review. This is the ninth episode. It’s early days and your reviews helps to keep the fire in me going. You don’t have to do it via a podcast player, you can just go to the website and submit the review in the contact form or email me direct. The website address is www.readingandreaders.com. That’s www.readingandreaders.com. Thank you for listening to Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. God bless!

Book List
Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming Catastrophe by Voddie Baucham. Amazon.
Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay. Amazon.
Ministers of Reconciliation: Preaching on Race and the Gospel, edited by Daniel Darling. Amazon. Logos.

The Impossible Doctrine
Can a book explain the most impossible doctrine that has confounded all Christians everywhere, the Trinity. Can a book prove that the Trinity is in the Bible? Can a book written by a Pentecostal be affirmed by a Reformed? Find out in today's book review.

Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers podcast where I review Christian books for you. Every month I review a book from Faithlife's Free Book of the Month. The free book for May is "The Trinity, Practically Speaking" by Frank D. Macchia. Macchia is the Associate Director of the Center for Pentecostal and charismatic studies at Bangor University UK. He is also the Professor of Christian Theology at Vanguard University, U. S. A.

Macchia was the President of the Society for Pentecostal Studies and editor, for more than a decade, of the Dociety's journal Pneuma. Now if Pentecostals or Charismatics scare you, don't be scared. He has written a book to be read and enjoyed for all Christians and he does not push Pentecostalism in this book.

Defending the Trinity
Now for a book on the Trinity, there is surprisingly little mention of Arius or any mention of the Council of Nicaea. Arius denied Jesus was God, which led to the Council of Nicaea to condemn him and thus formulating our understanding of the Trinity. And there is no mention of either Arius or the Council of Nicaea because Macchia is only interested in showing you that the Trinity is in the Bible.

Okay, Christian, here's a challenge. How would you defend the Trinity? Someone asks you, "What is this three in one? Can't you Christians decide whether your God is three or one? Did you fail Math? And isn't it true that the Trinity is a man made concept, since the Bible never uses the term?"

How would you answer?

Well, I would answer it this way. God is one, Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God, The Lord is One.” God is three. The three appear in the baptism of Jesus Christ. God the Father spoke, Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended. Another place where the three appear is in the Great Commission, where Jesus said to baptize the disciples "in the name of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. And another way I would put my argument is that all three are divine. God the Father is obviously divine. Jesus is God and divine from Scripture. We can show that. And the Holy Spirit is also divine, so God is one. So we conclude that God is a Trinity.

The Inevitable Train Ride
Now in this book, Macchia does make the same points that I made but he structures and presents his argument differently. Let me outline the book, which at the same time would show the outline of his argument.

In the prologue, he explains why understanding the Trinity is a practical necessity. We should not think of it as a puzzle to solve. It is necessary to Christian life. The prologue presents the drive, the motivation, to read the rest of the book.

In chapter one, he outlines his approach. First, only God can save. God the Father saves. Jesus the son saves. The Holy Spirit saves. Because only God can save, therefore God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit is God. That is the approach outlined in chapter one, which is then fully developed in the whole book.

Throughout the book, Macchia effectively uses a train metaphor. By boarding a train in the first station, "Only God can save". We continue down the track and inevitably reach the end station, "God is a Trinity". You will be satisfied in the neatness of his logic and the steady progression through each chapter's overwhelming Biblical evidence.

In chapter two, he convinces the reader that the Bible is the ground to knowing God. So we will only know who God is through the Bible. And this leads nicely to the beginning of the argument in the next chapter.

Chapter three, God the Father saves. The Old Testament makes this very clear.

Chapter four, Jesus the Son saves. The New Testament describes only Jesus fulfills the salvation prophecies and only Jesus saves us from our sins.

Chapter five the Holy Spirit saves. the Bible clearly shows that only the Holy Spirit works justification, sanctification and glorification in us. And those are the three aspects of salvation.

And chapter six, because only God can save and God the Father saves, Jesus saves and the Holy Spirit saves, therefore God is three persons in one. God is a Trinity, And chapter six deals with the ways on thinking about this conclusion. Is it tritheism? Three gods. Is it subordinationism? Is Jesus a lesser god? Or is it modalism? Does God wear three hats. Macchia, wisely doesn't attempt to explain how the Trinity works. Instead, he asked us to reassess our ability to understand. Just as how a dog doesn't understand how a human thinks so why should we think we can understand an infinite and eternal God?

Practically Speaking
The last two chapters, chapter seven and eight, presents the practical necessity of the Trinity. Chapter seven describes the communal God and trinitarian salvation, Macchia writes:

The doctrine of the Trinity enriches our understanding of salvation. It shows us that salvation is not primarily about escaping hell or having our guilt relieved. Salvation is being rescued and healed by the loving embrace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Salvation is about deliverance from the alienation of sin and death for communion with God and all of the blessings that go with this.

In short, salvation is not just about saving us from something, it's also saving us for something. In chapter eight, the last chapter, he links this communal God, this trinitarian salvation to our worship, witness, ethics and hope. The chapter ends with hope, and thus the whole book ends with hope.

End of Part One
This is a book that all Christians can read. To follow the logic is like taking a train from A to B. The train just follows the track. There are no distractions, no detours. You begin with "Only God can save" and you end up with "God is a Trinity".

And that ends part one of today's review. Today's review is different. I have divided it into two parts. The first part is for the general reader. If you want to know what is the Trinity, what the Bible says of the Trinity and why and how it's important in your Christian life, Macchia's book does a great job in 180 pages.

The next part, Part two is a bit different. It's for Reformed or Pentecostals or those interested in those two theologies and/or ecumenism. Now, why did I mention Reformed or Pentecostals specifically? Because I smell them in some parts of the book.

Now I want to make this very clear before I go into part two. Macchia has clearly put a lot of effort to make this book for all Christians. But if you are from either Pentecostal or Reformed, I would like to show you what to look out for when you read this book. And I will do this through my criticisms and commendations. So listen carefully, because then you can tell me whether my points are on target or off.

Bible as Privileged Voice?
The first criticism is more like a question, what is Macchia's take on the sole, only, authority of the Bible. In chapter two, which if you remember, he makes the case that the Bible is the source of God's revelation, but he has this section and I quote:

Moreover, I don’t deny that other texts besides the Bible have some truth in them and can be used of the Spirit to create a thirst for God and (implicitly) for Christ.

Other texts besides the Bible has some truth in them. I think that we can agree, kind of, here because we can interpret it to say that common grace, general revelation. Yes, so we say that people and unbelievers can write things, create things that reflect the glory of God without necessarily knowing what is the truth behind them. Behind the words and behind the creation, so we can still follow and agree.

Then he continues, he says that:

That some valid experience of God is possible outside of the Bible cannot be denied, even if it is not entirely accurately explained by those who have had it. My point is not that the Bible is the only avenue of the Spirit’s voice; I mean that, validated by the risen Christ, the Bible is the privileged voice of the Spirit that functions as the standard for judging all other experiences.

Now, for me, that sentence is problematic. I would have written that the Bible is the only avenue, it is the only voice of the Spirit because I would just put it as separate from all other texts and all other works. But Macchia explicitly, so it's not even implicit, he puts very clearly up front that the Bible is not the only avenue for the Spirit to speak and that the Bible is the privileged voice.

Now, I hope you can see why that sentence can make it very problematic. Alright, but he doesn't develop it in the way that will make you worried. I'm still giving Macchia the benefit of the doubt because he overwhelmingly refers to scripture. For that chapter and for the whole book, he never never refers to any extra-biblical revelation. He never says, "Jesus told me in a dream, the Spirit impressed upon my heart, an apostle prophesied this message to me, I saw an angel who told me". He never alarms me with such pronouncements.

So I'm thinking that the sentences that I read just now, I'm thinking he means general revelation or if you want to accommodate what he said, it's kind of like how Nabeel Qureshi, a former Muslim had visions and dreams that led him to the Christian God. Now, careful Christians will be wary, careful, of denying a miracle or any vision or dreams because it may be from God. But at the same time the careful Christian would also not make much of it, meaning we do not build our faith on anyone's experience miracle, including our own. We build our faith on the word.

Can We Pray to the Holy Spirit?
Now, the second criticism is the way he answers the question, "Can we pray to the Holy Spirit?" He rightly explains:

The reason that the Holy Spirit is not addressed in prayer in the Scripture is that the Spirit functions as the person of the Godhead who empowers prayer from within us.

That's right. It's the Spirit that allows us to pray. We cannot pray if we do not have the Holy Spirit. Macchia describes the Holy Spirit as the shyest person of the Trinity. But then in that same page or same section, he also writes:

Yet, though it is not generally natural to pray to the Holy Spirit, given the Spirit’s role as the divine power from which we pray, there is nothing in Scripture against this practice or that would in principle discourage us from doing this.

Again, he writes:

It may not be the natural thing to do, given the tendency to simply pray by the power or agency of the Holy Spirit. But doing something that might seem a bit awkward does not make it wrong.

The Pentecostals' theological strength has always been the Holy Spirit. But this strength has sometimes been distorted by individuals such that the Holy Spirit outstages God the Father and Jesus the Son. So when Macchia says things like I quote:

In glorifying Christ or the heavenly Father through Christ, we implicitly glorify the Holy Spirit anyway. We might as well make that explicit on occasion and mention this in prayer and in worship.

Now for me, there is nothing objectionable per se. My issue is he doesn't say enough to regulate the Holy Spirit-focus excesses that is sometimes seen in charismatic circles where there's too much attention on the Holy Spirit. So he doesn't give enough guard rails to make sure that it doesn't become too much.

Idols are Nothing
Since we are talking about the Holy Spirit and Pentecostalism or Charismatic, let's do this exercise. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say charismatic? All right now, give me another thing that comes to mind. Now, give me a third. Now what came to your mind? I would guess that when you heard charismatic or Pentecostal, you would have thought of speaking in tongues, baptism in the Holy Spirit, faith healing and maybe spiritual warfare.

Macchia doesn't bring up speaking in tongues, but he did make passing remarks on spiritual warfare and faith healing, which I'll go into now. In a section on idols, instead of describing demons, evil spirits or territorial spirits, which sometimes I read in charismatic literature, Macchia writes:

These idols are in themselves nothing more than empty material.

Again, he writes:

The gods that legitimated these idols were nonexistent and powerless, to be sure. But the human lust for power that fueled the making of religious systems of idols and rituals was real.

Okay, that's interesting. This remark over here shows a very different view of what I would think most people think all charismatics believe, which is the very supernatural spiritual warfare type of thing.

No Guarantee of Wealth or Health
In the chapter of the Holy Spirit, Macchia lightly touches on faith healing. He says this, he writes:

Faith effects wholeness of life-producing shalom, or well-being in God, in all. I don’t refer here to a guarantee of wealth or perfect health, but I do believe that the life of the Spirit leads to a deep sense of wholeness and strengthening of body and soul to fulfill the will of the Lord.

So there is no you know that preaching that goes like this, "God wants you to be wealthy, God wants you to be healthy. All you need is to have faith. If you have faith and then..." they carry on. The reason why you are not rich or healthy is because you have no faith. And what did Macchia write? "I don't refer here to a guarantee of wealth." So that goes counter against what some faith healers preach and proclaim.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit, Never Mentioned
Now, if Macchia, can put aside charismatic theologies which he does not affirm. Can he put aside charismatic theologies which he does affirm. Can he put aside a precious doctrine, like the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Macchia did write the book, "Baptized in the Holy Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology".

In the Holy Spirit chapter, after explaining how the Holy Spirit is the down payment today of a future fullness (Ephesians 1:13-14). He writes this:

This is what water baptism signifies, namely a dying to self (as we are buried with Christ in the water) and a rising again to a new life centered on Christ (coming up out of the water; see Romans 6:3–5). This new birth is what happens when the Spirit comes into us at the moment of our faith in Christ; we are born anew from above (John 1:12–13). The Holy Spirit binds us to Christ and indwells us at the moment of our initial faith in Christ and brings us into right relation with Christ (which is our justification).

I like this one because sometimes talking to charismatics they make me feel like I don't have the Holy Spirit. They say things, they may not say directly, but imply that the spirit is not in me or is indwelling in me. He says very clearly that in our justification, the Holy Spirit comes in and in dwells now.

The point here is that you would expect him as a Pentecostal, having mentioned water baptism, that he would follow up very, very naturally with Baptism in the Holy Spirit, but he doesn't. Honestly at this point, I'm more impressed by what he does not say than what he does.

The rest of the chapter is describing the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification with fully agreeable statements like this:

The Holy Spirit turns our deepest affections and yearnings into Christ-like desires.

Who would deny that? Who would have a problem that? "The Holy Spirit turns our deepest affections and yearnings into Christ-like desires."

So Macchia does this thing where given opportunities to write more on spiritual warfare, faith healing. Baptism in the Holy Spirit or spiritual gifts, he doesn't. Macchia has much to say, but he doesn't say it. As a card-carrying Pentecostal, this book does nothing to defend or promote Pentecostalism. And I think that is interesting and I salute him for his discipline in writing this book.

Do I Smell Reformed?
Now, my next commendation is that he says more than he needs to say on Reformed. For my Reformed listeners, I want you to be the judge because I think this sounds like Reformed theology, but maybe my senses may be a bit off. Listen to this, Macchia writes:

Though we must be obedient to the Holy Spirit to grow, even this obedience is empowered by God. Nothing is earned by us or due fundamentally to our doing. It is all by God’s grace, his undeserved favor.

I can hear a Reformed preacher preach this. Does that sound Reformed to you? Maybe it's for all Christians. But when I read it, I looked at it again because it sounds like Reformed. Now let me give you some more. Listen to this:

True, we must freely cooperate with God’s grace to be saved, but the freedom to cooperate is by the very Spirit of God.

The word cooperate makes it sound like synergism. Two agents are involved in our conversion. But the condition for cooperation, the necessary precursor to cooperation is the Holy Spirit. The freedom to cooperate, or can I say the freedom to choose, comes after the Holy Spirit comes in, or can I say regenerate? That's monergism, right? You tell me. Now, maybe you need a bit more evidence because I'm giving you a or two sentences here and there. Well, he has more, he has more, but I'll give you a final one, a long one.

Now pay attention because when I say works, I find that works is a favorite word among Reformed. In this paragraph, Macchia explains how faith and repentance leads to conversion. Macchia writes:

It is important to see faith and repentance as inseparable and integral aspects of one larger act of turning to God. If we do not do this, it will be possible to see repentance as the separate and necessary requirement before we can have faith. Repentance then becomes a requirement that we have to adequately fulfill before we are worthy of faith, making works the requirement for faith.

Did you catch what he said? He's talking about the sequencing. Yes, another favorite thing that Reformed people like to talk about the sequence our conversion. And he says that if we are not careful, can I say that if you're not careful, repentance becomes works which disqualifies faith. Now let me read again:

The convicting power of the Holy Spirit allows the word of God to come alive in us as a source of grace in converting to God, for the Scriptures are “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:15–16).

Now, in that one, what I just quoted, if I want to summarize that, it says that the Holy Spirit convicts us to repentance. It smells very Reformed to me now. Perhaps I'm seeing things that are not there. Spooky. Everywhere I go I see dead people, I mean, sorry, Reformed Theology.

Mystery Solved
Anyways after I completed the book, I looked up on this Pentecostal author. And I managed to find one piece of the puzzle that solves the mystery.

You see, Professor Frank D. Macchia is an ecumenical theologian. He was the chair for six year dialogue between Trinitarian and Oneness Pentecostal. Okay, so that explains maybe why this book is out here.

He was also in an international dialogue between Pentecostals and - guess who? - Reformed. Mystery solved. That's why this book written by a Pentecostal, to me, sometimes smells Reformed.

Recommending Packer
Now let's go to some book recommendations. Maybe I have stirred up some interest in Pentecostal or Charismatic. Now there is this book and I recommend it. It's J. I. Packer's book, "Keep in step with the Spirit". And I'll quote for you, one of the passage, it is Packer giving a positive aspect. He writes positive and negative aspect of Pentecostals. Let me quote to you the positive aspect. Packer writes:

Charismatic books and songs show that whatever may be true of this or that individual, the mainstream of the renewal is robustly Trinitarian, and the stress on the Holy Spirit’s ministry does not displace the Lord Jesus from his rightful place as Head of the body, Lord and Savior of each human limb in it, and the constant focus of affection and adoration in the worship of his and our Father.

So Packer could have written those words - robust trinitarian - in a review of Macchia's book.

Recommending Reeves
If you want to know about other books on the Trinity from perhaps a Reformed perspective, there is this book "Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith" by Michael Reeves. Reeves has written a biography on Spurgeon and contributed to the book, "Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary".

I have not read this book, but the guys at another Christian book review podcast has. If you search for "A Good Book Review" you can find a review of Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves.

Readers Pentecostal, Reformed and All
Now to my concluding thoughts. Despite my criticisms of the book, I think the general Christian reader will not pick up on those Pentecostal, Reformed issues. Most may not see it or smell it. The Scripture is given so much emphasis here that nobody will ever think Macchia gives any credence to extra-biblical sources.

I want to commend Macchia because he has managed to keep his Pentecostalism in check, even though he is a card-carrying Pentecostal. I really respect him for that because there were so many opportunities where someone less discipline would have just gone into it and just explain about spiritual gifts and so on and why those other charismatics are wrong and so on. He doesn't. So I want to give him a full credit for restraint.

As for the Reformed smell I get, maybe if I reread the book, I would pick up on more such hints. And it would be like rewatching Shutter Island or Sixth Sense. But if you're not sensitive to such things, the general reader won't notice them.

I repeat my conclusion from part one. This is a book that all Christians can read to follow. The logic of the Trinity is like taking a train from A to B. The train just follows the tracks, there is no distraction, no detours. You begin with, "Only God can save". You end up with, "God is a Trinity". It's a very satisfying train ride.

If you are Pentecostal or Charismatic, I really hope you will read this book because I have read some charismatic literature and it’s page after page of personal visions and dreams, apostolic and prophetic announcements and really questionable, I dare say distorted, biblical interpretations.

I would say to you, my Pentecostal and Charismatic brothers and sisters,consider reading Macchia or Gordon Fee or Ben Witherington or Craig Keener, just to name a few. Just read these Pentecostals, Charismatics than the earlier guys.

Because, allow me a minute of personal observation, I've noticed this and I describe it in this way. Imagine two conferences. Held side by side. In one conference, the speaker is able to explain everything the Bible says on the prophet Jeremiah. He is an expert on the prophet Jeremiah. God has given him this gift. Now in the other conference, the speaker is Prophet Bill who claims he can prophesy directly to you what God wants for you in your life today. Which one would you go to? Would you go to the conference where you will learn what Prophet Jeremiah has to say? Or would you go to the conference where Prophet Bill will claim that this is what God is speaking to you right now.

I suggest that in today's times, Prophet Bill would have far more attendees and that is not a good thing, which is why to my Reformed listeners, I think you should read the book. See whether you get any alarm bells ringing. I don't think there is. I think, and I have to be very careful here, this might be a Pentecostal book that John MacArthur could endorse - with some minor edits. Overall, it is a Biblical exposition on the Trinity.

And it's this biblical foundation that could help some Reformed readers to appreciate that the charismatic movement is not completely overrun by scandals, super-supernaturalism, and "I don't need a Bible because I have the Holy Spirit in me". This book will help you see Charismatics in a different light. And hopefully help some Charismatics see themselves in a different light.

God is a Trinity
In conclusion, unlike Macchia, I have gone off the tracks in this book review. His book is just about the Trinity, nothing about Pentecostalism or Reformed. And I've been highlighting that for the past 10, 15 minutes and my aim, dear listener, is to show why this book is unique compared to other books on the Trinity and it is worth reading if you know what to look for.

For all readers, if you read this book, you will follow the logic of scripture. Only God can save, Jesus saves, the Holy Spirit saves. Because only God can save, therefore God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit is God in three persons. God is a Trinity. And our Trinitarian salvation is a practical necessity. It changes how we look at God and how we live for God.

This is a Reading and Readers review of "The Trinity, Practically Explained" by Frank D. Macchia. Free in Faithlife for May and $16.49 in Amazon Kindle as of today. So get it if you can.

Speaking of Practical Necessity
Before you go, I have three requests of a practical necessity. One, please subscribe. Two, please share with a friend, Pentecostal, Reformed or otherwise. And three, review the podcast. This is the 8th episode of the podcast and I'm really hoping to get some reviews by the 10th episode. While I do enjoy reading the books that I review for you, I also look forward to enjoying reading the reviews that you review for me. All right, so I hope you can review this podcast. Stay bless and keep reading. Thank you.

Book List
The Trinity, Practically Speaking by Frank D. Macchia. Amazon. FaithLife.
Keep in Step with the Spirit by J. I. Packer. Amazon. Logos.
Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves. Amazon.

SFX by www.zapsplat.com

(Edited Transcript of Podcast)

Providence Starts Here
John Piper drops a 752 page book titled Providence. 752 pages! This must be an author who trusts that God himself will bring readers to read this book. Readers who can commit the time to see and savor the providence of God. Are you that reader? Listen to today's review.

Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Every month I review a book from Faithlife’s Free Book of the Month. And while waiting for the free book for the month of May, I review a book of my choice. And my choice for today is Providence by John Piper.

Piper and I Go Way Back
Who doesn't know John Piper? For one thing young Christians or perhaps Christians who swim in different waters from mine. For a start, I can tell you that Pastor John Piper is a respected preacher and teacher. And that is an understatement. Instead of reading his resume, let me share with you what Pastor John Piper means to me. In doing so, I declare any biases I may have in reviewing this book. And at the same time, you will know Piper and myself a bit better.

One of my greatest joys or crowning achievement in life, was completing Piper’s sermon series on Romans. That’s 225 sermons, preached chapter by chapter, verse by verse, over many years. After that I started and completed his sermon series on Hebrews, which was only 52 sermons long.

Since then, I have not followed or watched or listened to his teaching on a regular basis. A lot of his work comes to me as articles or YouTube videos that were recommended by the people around me.

I have never read the book that made him famous, which became the name of his ministry: Desiring God. I never read it because from his sermons, he had already fleshed out this Christian Hedonism that he became famous for. God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in him.

I admit my theology has been influenced by Piper’s teaching. So can I be unbiased in reviewing this great man’s work? This is an important question to me because I want to be impartial on the books I review.

So I asked myself this question, what is the worst thing I can say about Providence by John Piper? And here it goes: This book is a mishmash bundle of previous books with clever marketing that was published in order for 75 year old John Piper to cash in on his influence before he retires.

If true, could I say that? Because that was quite nasty. I think I can, but in a more tender and less offensive way. But to say that would be a lie. I am pleased to say that this book is worth all the praises it has received and more praises to come. Also, Piper can't cash in on this book because this book is available for free in desiringgod.org. Let me repeat: This book is available for free in www.desiringgod.org. Also Piper can't cash in when people are not paying money for it.

Four Invitations To Read
Knowing that it is free, would you read it? Well, it depends on what it's about, right? It's 30 years of John Piper's ministry put together in one book, but it's not using materials scavenged from other works. It's a new work built from the ground up on the theme of providence or purposeful sovereignty. Providence in reference to God means, and I quote, "the act of purpose, fully providing for or sustaining and governing the world."

In the introduction, Piper extends four invitations to the reader. Now hear this and decide whether you want to accept his invitation.

First, he invites you into a biblical world of counterintuitive wonders. Okay, he brings you into the Bible. He says, I will argue that these wonders are not illogical or contradictory, but they are different from our usual ways of seeing the world—so different that our first reaction is often to say, “That can’t be.” But the “can’t” is in our minds, not in reality.

Second, he invites you to penetrate through words into reality. He writes, "The issue is this: Is the reality that I see in the Bible, and call providence, really there?" Later he continues: "The all-important truth is whether there is a reality in the Bible that corresponds to my description of the goal, nature, and extent of God’s purposeful sovereignty."

He wants you to see that the words he is a putting forth describes reality, describes what is happening in the world.

Third, he invites you into a, I quote, "God-entranced world. Jesus said to look at the birds because God feeds them (Matt. 6:26) and to consider the lilies because God clothes them (Matt. 6:28–30). Jesus’s aim was not aesthetic. His aim was to free his people from anxiety."

And if you read Providence, you can be free from anxiety.

Fourth, and finally, he invites you to know, I quote, "maybe as you never have known, the God whose involvement in his children’s lives and in the world is so pervasive, so all-embracing, and so powerful that nothing can befall them but what he designs for their glorification in him and his glorification in them (2 Thess. 1:12)."

Ultimate Goal of Providence
If you accept his invitation, the rest of the book is divided into three parts plus a conclusion.

Part 1 defines providence and answers the question: "When God glorifies himself is that arrogance?" and the answer is no. Part 2 is titled "The Ultimate Goal of Providence". This is divided into three sections, beginning with Creation, actually before creation, and continuing with Israel from Abraham to Exile. And lastly, the last section, the third section is the New Covenant. What is this ultimate goal? Piper writes in the third section, "What we have seen in all the stages of providence—before creation, through the works of creation, and in the election of Israel, the exodus, the conquest of the promised land, the period of the judges, the monarchy, and the exile and its reversal—is that the ultimate purpose of God’s providence is that God be known and enjoyed and praised for who he really is: “You shall know that I am the Lord.”

That is the ultimate goal of providence. And he describes it in different ways throughout the whole three sections.

Is God in Control Over Everything?
Those three sections help us to understand Part 3. Part 3 is titled, "The Nature and Extent of Providence". This has nine sections which encompasses 30 chapters. Did I mention that this is a 750 page book? Nearly 500 pages is in Part 3. In these chapters, God's providence is over or God is in control over nature, satan and demons, kings and nations, life and death, Sin, conversion and Christian living.

The last chapter is the conclusion where he summarizes Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. And he ends the book with 10 effects of seeing and savoring this providence. The 10 effects end this book nicely. I feel like a kid at the toy shop where the generous owner gives me this and gives me that and this and that. The 10 effects is fills my hands and I leave the shop with my hands full of praise to God. That is a wonderful way to end this book.

Stopping the Mouth of the Reader
Now you understand the whole structure, but how does it actually read? It is like reading the last chapters of Job but instead of God appearing, Paul appears. Let me try to explain. Do you know the story of Job? Job experiences suffering, his friends come to comfort him. They talk a lot and finally God answers in thunder. He stops everyone's mouths. Job literally says in Job 40:4, "I lay my hand on my mouth" and so the key here I want to give you is that people could not say anything anymore because their mouth was stopped by what God has revealed.

And so in Providence by Piper it's kind of like this: Mankind experiences suffering and Christians and non-Christians talk a lot and in Job God thunders, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" So God is arguing from nature. But instead in Providence we have Paul arguing from Scripture, but the result is the same. God is God, who are you to speak and we get our mouths are stopped.

So that's what I hope you understand. It feels like the last chapter of Job, but instead of God appearing, Paul appears and everyone's mouth is stopped. Everyone is just fully convinced of Providence as stated clearly in the Bible.

Now, I'm not saying Piper is Paul or Providence is the Book of Job, I'm just trying to convey to you the sense as I read it, this book is thunders with biblical convictions.

Too Many Bible Verses
Let's look into the writing. Modern writing tends to go very heavy on anecdotes and how-tos. There's nothing wrong with anecdotes. Jesus told many short stories or parables. There are some personal stories in this book, but it's not really a memoir. It's not meant to be full of John Piper's life and ministry.

Many books also have the writer explain applications: 5 ways to do this, 10 ways to do that, 3 ways to do this. When I read Providence, in every chapter, you are really only asked to do one thing: to be satisfied in God. That's the feeling I get. So there is not much of 5 ways to do this and that except perhaps the 10 effects of seeing and savoring. Even then, those are really the effects rather than what we should do.

Now, there is one thing that this book is very heavy with and that is Bible verses there are too many, at least, that's what I thought when I first Piper promote his book. There are 3000 Bible verses in 700 odd pages. I once heard a sermon by a first timer preaching for a special occasion. So the person never preached before and someone must have told the person that you can't go wrong with Bible verses because that's basically what I got. I got a lot of Bible verses that day, I couldn't see how they were linked, some were taken out of context and I don't remember the main message. I only remember that there were too many Bible verses. I was worried that I would get the same feeling reading 3000 verses in 700 pages.

But thankfully, no, if Bible verses are spices and herbs, John Piper has skilfully served a dish with 3000 spices and herbs on a perfect plate. Or if Bible verses were gems or jewels, Piper is showing the reader diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and he puts them all in a very nice crown, a beautiful crown for the king of kings. The Bible verses are treated very respectfully by John Piper and he presents them to the reader and invites us to taste, to admire God's revealed word.

Piper Unleashes His Inner Puritan
Some have told me before that Piper is hard to read. Yes and no. He is a gifted communicator. His preaching and writing are very successful global ministries. He has made complicated theology easy to understand for many people.

But at the same time I think he secretly wished that he was born 300 years ago during the time of the Puritans: Owen, Sibbes or Edwards. And just to support what I just said, the Puritans have long book titles. I give you an example from John Owen: The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalance of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers together with The Ways of its Working and Means of Prevention, Opened, Evinced, and Applied with a Resolution of Various Cases of Conscience Pertaining to It.

Don't worry if you don't understand what I just read because I'm not too sure I understand it either. But it is a very, very long title. Then you wonder what am I talking about? Because John Piper's Providence. The title is one word. So why do I say that John Piper wants to be a Puritan? Because he must have restrained himself. By the time he reached the 700th page he just unleashed his inner Puritan. In the conclusion chapter, the 10 effects. All the subheadings are long. Long as in it stretches across my 24 inch monitor. Let me read to you the longest. It's the 9th effect. Remember this is supposed to be a subheading. It's supposed to be a title. He writes:

Seeing and savoring this providence shows us that evangelism and missions are absolutely essential for people to be converted to christ, because God makes them the means of his work in creating saving faith.

Now, that's a long title and your english teacher will tell you to shorten it. But Piper is Piper. I want to explain that because we were talking about whether his writing is difficult to read. In a way. He writes many chunks of thought in one sentence. You have many chunks, many words coming in, but each of those words have meaning. He's careful in putting those words together. He's a poet as well. This is the way Piper thinks. Piper has shared in a sermon that when he realized that the Bible can be read as a reasoned argument rather than bumper sticker quotes, a light bulb went on.

Reading Sin In The Middle
So if you want to know how to read John Piper, you have to understand that there is a chain of thought and this comes across in his writings. And if what I'm saying is true, which I think it is, you have to follow him from the start and it's no good if you read from the middle, which is why I don't suggest you take Piper's advice on one way of reading this book. Piper says that this book can be read as a reference and he has written it in a way to help people read it from the middle.

Let me read to you from one of the most controversial sections in this book. It has eight chapters and it is on God's Providence over Sin. Does God author Sin because that's a common accusation against Calvinism or Reformed Theology. So reading from the opening lines of this section. Let me read what Piper says:

In the preceding chapters of this book, we have seen so many instances of God’s governing the details of nature’s events, Satan’s action, the deeds of kings, the movements of nations, and the moments of life and death that we are led naturally to think of God’s providence as all-encompassing, all-pervasive. In other words, after seeing the extent and nature of God’s providence portrayed in chapters 16–25, our expectation is that there is no sphere of life — no matter how ordinary or seemingly insignificant — where providence is suspended or limited in its ultimate and decisive dominion.

Did you hear that? The earlier chapters lead naturally to think of God's providence as all-encompassing, all-pervasive. Again, he writes, after seeing the extent of nature of God's providence portrayed in chapters 16-25. So if he read from the middle having not read those chapters, you are just taking Piper's word for it. Why should you take Piper's word that what he says is true? Because in those earlier chapters, Piper shows you scripture after scripture, arguing that God himself says His providence is all-encompassing, all-pervasive.

Piper puts you in a position where you content not with Piper but with God. Which is where we should be. We should wrestle with God. Is this true? Is what the Bible here says, true? And if true, then the end result is our mouths are stopped and we marvel at God's Providence.

But we can't do that if we skip chapters. So, yes, that means if you read this book, to fully gain from it, you should read this from beginning to end. And if so, you will appreciate Piper's frequent recaps. Like a grandfather holding his grandchild's hand to cross the road, he holds you, even though you think you are big enough to cross the road by yourself. What I mean is he tends to repeat his points in the beginning of every section or every chapter, but this is only to make sure you follow his long chain of thought to fully expound on God's Providence.

Slay The Real Calvinist Dragon, Not The Cartoon One
Let me ask who should read this. Most of the people who read a book like this are people who are not intimidated by thick books and probably agree with Piper because it's kind of hard to read a book on something you disagree with. What more when it's two or three times longer than your usual fare at least that's my own experience.

But I think if you disagree with Piper, you should read this book. If you have any, you know, problems with Reformed Thought or with Calvinism then if you want to escape the cardboard Calvinist or the cartoon Calvinist, you should read this book. We all have experienced the Calvinist, who is a terror to his non-Calvinist friends. Maybe he ends up not having any friends left. You see, the Reformed Thought is so neat and structured that sometimes, sometimes, people fall in love with the Reformed System rather than the Bible and they end up arguing from systems when they really should be arguing from the Bible and sometimes they end up just arguing and arguing.

So from your life experience, you may get this impression that Calvinists are always angry people, always arguing people and thus it is good for you to read Providence just so that you know what Calvinists like John Piper actually believe and teach. If you want to slay the dragon that is Calvinism you need to know the real dragon, not the wooden stage prop. You need to go beyond the arguments that you may have heard and you may have heard caricatured. The arguments are so reduced and simplified that they don't really express the system. So go ahead and surprise your Calvinist's friends by reading John Piper's Providence.

My second point to those who might be be willing to be persuaded to read this is that Piper deals with opposing thoughts with some tenderness. Obviously he's a man of convictions but he doesn't demean, instead he pleads for us to look at the problems from a biblical perspective. Like I said, the most controversial section is the one on God's Providence over Sin. In that section, there is a chapter title, "Things We Know and Things We Don't Need To Know". In that chapter he deals with the Libertarian Free Will argument and after describing some possible explanation, he writes:

Which of these possible explanations is, in fact, true is not decided by assuming the texts can mean only that man’s will is decisive in the moment of conversion. To assume one explanation or the other from the texts alone would be reading into the text the assumptions we already have, not reading out of them what is really there.

Now, this is a controversial topic and maybe there's a bit more background that you dear Listener is not familiar with but let me just carry on and I'll explain what the point I'm trying to get. Piper continues:

It is a mistake to assume that ultimate human self-determination is a feature of biblical thinking. Ultimate self-determination, as a trait of man’s will, might be taught in Scripture, or it might not be. That needs to be decided from the teaching of Scripture, not from philosophical assumptions we bring to the text. This book is about what the Bible teaches. In the present chapter (as well as chapters 28–33), we ask, What does it teach about God’s providence over the sinful human will? I am arguing that it teaches that God, in his infinite wisdom and goodness and holiness and justice, knows how to govern the good and evil choices of all humans without himself sinning and without turning human preferences and choices into morally irrelevant, robot-like actions.

Let me just pause here for a moment. The last part, did you hear that? So he's making this statement which is the one of the main contentions in this God's sovereignty and human responsibility debate. He's asking us to not argue based on philosophy or what we think should or should not be. But what does the Bible say? And I think everybody should be able or Christians should be able to agree with what he says here. So he is inviting us to consider his arguments from Scripture. So even if you disagree with him, it's good for you to know what what he thinks of how the Bible presents that God can govern the good and evil choices of all humans without God being a sinner and without turning humans into robots. So let me continue. Okay, just a bit more. Piper writes:

Therefore, in what follows, we should make every effort not to assume that ultimate, divine control over evil makes God evil or strips man of moral accountability. The question we should be asking is, What does the text teach about reality? Let us not bring to the text our philosophical assumptions that dictate what God’s wisdom and goodness and justice must do.

Like I said, this is the most, to me, the most controversial aspect of this whole Calvinism or Reformed System. And I'm not going to talk about that here, but I just want to say that I think it's well explained in this book and it's something for you to consider. I see it being put forward in a pastoral tone and not so much on a debating tone. I hope you can take it that way. And if you cannot agree with the conclusions, at least agree with the method and if you can do that, you can gain from this book and go beyond the cartoon Calvinist thinking or arguments.

Be Free From The Trivializing Effects Of Netflix
Now that is for those who disagree with Piper and can take a 700 page book. Now I want to talk to another group of people and there are people who can agree with Piper, who can read thick books but have been distracted by Netflix and other shallow entertainment.

Am I being too harsh? Have you listened to Paul Washer? He makes me feel like I'm wasting my life because I'm not planting churches in Peru. Compared to him, all I'm asking is that you read a book. But anyway I'm jest.

I believe the church needs people who can follow a sustained argument. I didn't say argue a lot. I said follow a sustained chain of thought from what the Bible says to what the church teaches doctrine. Your watching sports or Netflix can be good relaxation. I'm not saying they are sin, but what I am saying is it's quite difficult to see how Netflix helps build up the church. I'm sure you can make that argument but perhaps we can follow the argument in Providence rather than your argument from Netflix.

According to Piper, the fourth effect of seeing and savoring this providence is it helps protect us from the trivializing effects of culture and from trifling with divine things. And here is the chicken and egg situation. If you read this book, you will look at the serious things of God seriously and you will take lightly the things that the world takes seriously. The problem is some of us are taking the things of the world's seriously and the things of God lightly. And it is this group of people who will not read this book. So the ones who really need to read this book are the ones who often times do not. So I ask that you consider, if not this book then another book, but stretch your mind, your heart, your spirit a bit more and try to feel the weight of divine things. That's my plea to you.

700 Pages? Can I Have More?
Do I have any criticisms of this book? Yes, the book is too short. There should be Volume 2. The 10 effects are too brief. They come out like a machine gun at the end of the conclusion and I think that more can be said. But maybe Piper's publishers said their printer could not take any more pages.

What can be in Volume Two? Well, you could have how this providence helps us in the day to day things. Not the heavier parts that Piper has explained. He has bridged into our world. So I'm not saying it's all theological, scholarly. It's not, it's by no means a scholarly work. It's meant to be read by the everyday man. But maybe Volume Two could connect the dots on school, work, marriage, parenting and retirement. Just help to connect the dots in everyday life.

Volume two could help us look at how providence is like in the saints. Piper has written many short biographies. I have counted 27 in the desiringgod.org. I read some and I recommend that you read them if you're not familiar with Piper's writing. These are very short books. Some are less than 10 or 20 pages. So if you're not sure whether you want to buy or read Piper, you can just download and read these shorter biographies to get a feel for how he writes. And as I was saying, maybe these type of things can be in Volume Two. The whole point is to see what he has written in Volume One and to expand it a bit more in the effects it has.

But the funny thing is this, if there is such a volume. Most likely people will not read Volume One, they will just read Volume Two which just ruins the whole point of what I just said.

This Will Be Read 300 Years Later!
I really enjoyed this book and this is my concluding thoughts. This book has the potential to be a classic. We have John Owen's books on temptation, Richard Sibbes' Bruised Reed, Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections. These are books that are still read 300 years later. 300 years! Piper's providence might have a chance to be read 300 years later as thorough biblical exposition on God's purposeful sovereignty.

Why Pay When It's Free?
So what else can I say? Buy the book. No, seriously, I mean buy. I know the book is free. I knew it was free for download when I bought it, but I still bought the Logos version. Why Logos rather than Kindle? Well because uh Lagos has more features and is more suitable for Christian study. Kindle doesn't cater for Christian studies and the features are limited. I can talk about it on another episode one day. But anyways, I bought the Logos version. Now why did I buy it and not just download the free one? Because I'm a fool.

I'm not brought up this way. I mean we don't pay for things that we can get for free.

And my reason is this, my reason for paying rather than just downloading for free, is over the years I have gained much from Desiring God ministry in my Christian life and walk. But I know myself. I don't see myself anytime in the future giving money to Desiring God ministry because I will give to my local church and the ministry here. But I would like to contribute or do something. And what I can do is buy the book.

I have watched a video where Piper explains that he doesn't take in the book sales royalty. He says that all the royalties don't go to him. Instead it goes to a ministry fund and at the end of every year the board sits and thinks on how to give the money away for ministry.

So my buying this book is just a way of contributing to a ministry that has helped me over my Christian walk.

Providence Brought You Here, Thank God!
I bought the book, having the confidence that I will profit, spiritually profit, from this book. I paid full price for this book and I profited greatly. I have no regrets. My hope is whether you pay or get the book for free, that you will profit from this God-exalting, Jesus-loving, Spirit-empowering, Providence- proclaiming, reviewer-exciting, reader-enticing book. This is a Reading and Readers review of Providence by John Piper.

What Great Providence has brought you to listen to this episode. Let me describe the chain of events. It just so happens that whatever circumstances you were in, it has led you to listen to this episode. It just so happens that John Piper's book of 30 years in the making was published in April, which just so happens to be the time when I'm looking for a good book to review after I just launched the Reading and Readers podcast. Which means if I didn't launch my podcast and Piper didn't published this book on Providence, you wouldn't have listened and profited as much as I hope you did today. So let us praise God for His Providence.

Do you think Piper's Providence will be a classic, read 300 years later as much as we read Owen, Sibbes and Edwards today? If yes, email me. If no, email me too. My contact details are at www.readingandreaders.com.

Thank you for listening.

Book List
Providence by John Piper. Amazon. Logos.
Free Biographies by John Piper. Desiring God.
Where do John Piper's Book Sales Go? YouTube Video.

Sound Effects: https://www.zapsplat.com/

(Edited Transcript of Podcast) Behind The ScenesWhat is Reading and Readers? How did it come about? What goes into making a podcast? Where is this podcast going? All these questions and more answered in today's special episode. Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers podcast where I review Christian books for you. Except I'm not reviewing any books today. One of my favorite things to do in terms of the movie experience is to watch the Behind The Scenes feature where the director shows you what goes on behind the camera. So today we're just gonna do a bit of that. First up let me explain something odd about this book review podcast and that would be the cover art. The cover art does not have any books or bookshelves or persons reading books on it. Instead what you get is a desert, a river and leaves. So what’s up with that? Desert Alive And No Books In SightThe reason behind that just to give you the behind the scenes look at what goes on here. I hired a graphic designer, Hanna, to do the cover art. And that process of me getting the graphic designer and also choosing the song for this podcast is an episode by itself. But anyways, I was trying to describe to her what I intended for this podcast. In my first draft to her, I explained that the way I see it, many people, their lives are like a disaster zone. It's like an earthquake or tsunami and people are struggling in their lives. So I see my role as bringing some aid, some encouragement, some light into the darkness and struggle because I think a good book can do that. A good book can shed some light into many things whether it's suffering or God's sovereignty or temptation and so on. Many writers spend time to think about those things. A good book can do good. And I was describing these things to Hanna. And I wondered whether there was a biblical metaphor to describe what I just said. What came to mind was Isaiah 35. Let me just read from Isaiah 35. It's a familiar one. I read from verse 1 to 2 and later verse 5 to 7. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. If you can just imagine, if someone was to draw it out or animate it or make a movie out of it. It's such a glorious thing when the God comes and out of the desert there is life. So to me it's such an inspiration for what God can do in people's lives. And I find that my role, if I can put it that way, is maybe my one small role is to share what I read in the hopes that it can bring life into your desert and barren thoughts or struggles. There Is A Book For ThatBefore I started this podcast journey, I was already sharing book reviews. For example, once there was a young lady who asked about what I think about emotions in the worship service. Because you have people arguing. On one side, they say that an emotion-led service is a problem. The problem being that truth may or may not be told. Your emotions go wild and once the emotion subsides, what do you have left? Then you have the other group who says that an emotionless service is a problem because there is no feeling, there is no heart, there is no joy, there is no zeal. And so they say that services with no emotions is a dead service. So this young lady asked me what are my thoughts and I directed her to Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards because I read that book and to me he just conclusively, he just made it very clear the role of emotions and religious affections in the Christian life. So I directed that book to her, she went to buy it and she read halfway. She hasn't finished it yet but she found it useful. Then on another day a young man asked me for book recommendations. At that time Jeff Vanderstelt’s Gospel Fluency was available for free. So I asked him to read it. He finished it and liked it. We had a couple of conversations about how to apply what we have read and he asked for more book recommendations. I gave him a few books from my library. I mentioned young man and young woman because it's part of my ministry. I look after youth ministry in my church and later on these youths become young adults. And I continue to mentor them and one of the ways I mentor them is by recommeding books. We have this chat group where we ask questions and one young lady was reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship. She posted screenshots, parts of pages, where she doesn't understand and the people in the chat group then discuss about what Bonhoeffer meant. If you think that I'm surrounded by readers, it's not really true because by far these are a minority in my circle, but I do encourage those around me. If given a chance I would share, I'll share about the books that I'm reading, I'll share about how this particular book can help you. And I just want to extend that love of reading good books to the people around me. Now, just because I enjoy reading books doesn't necessarily mean that a person would enjoy reading reviews. Now for that I have to thank Tim Challies. I got introduced to challies.com many years back and I read his book reviews. It struck me that I enjoyed reading his book reviews. It was a very interesting thing for me that I learned from the book review without reading the book. And he made me interested to get those books and to read them. So I owe a debt of gratitude to Tim Challies for his book reviews over the years and the many books he recommended has indeed helped me. Free Book? Good!As you have heard, I help young people and one of the things I try to get them to do is read books. One of the reasons why they tell me they don't read is because good books are expensive. Sometimes I would put to them and say that well, it seems that you guys can afford games and movies and expensive coffee. But yes, good books are expensive. That's why I chose to review Faithlife’s free book of the month. I'm already buying and downloading their books every month. I was thinking that if I reviewed these books then they can hear share about why this book is worth reading and maybe it would just compel them and also you dear listener to download a free book. Did I mention, it was free? So that's why I do what I'm doing over here in the hope that more people will read. Books Are Harder To Review Than MoviesSometimes the book reviews is for a buying decision. But now because it's free, there is no buying decision. The other decision is whether do you want to commit a portion of your life to reading this book. Is this book worth reading? So that's my role as well. The other thing I noticed is that some people don't read reviews to make decisions. They read reviews to know what other people think about the book. So that's what I try to do here as well. And when I say the book is good or book is bad, I try to be very conscious of the fact that these writers spend a lot of time writing. So writing is a craft and I appreciate them. The five books that I reviewed for this podcast, they're all written by christians by godly men. So I when I criticize their work, it doesn't mean that these are bad works. It just means that I personally don't like the book. And I give reasons why. Similarly some people may not like certain movies or like certain food or like certain songs. So it is a preference sort of thing. I try to be gracious and yet truthful to what I think. I reserve my harsher comments on false teachings and books that distort the faith. So far we have not reached those books yet. But maybe one day I will share a few books that have. Now let's talk about something else. What happens in making a podcast because some people may want to know what's happening behind here. Well, first of all, I have to read the book and it's not like watching a movie. I say that doing a book review podcast is a lot harder than doing a movie review podcast. Now, a movie reviewer could actually disagree. And until that day when we have a face off and maybe a bit of a debate, I think that watching a movie only takes two hours, even the tv series, which takes how many hours, it doesn't compare with the complexity and time and effort that is needed to actually read a book. So reading a book is hard-ish compared to watching a movie. And reading a book to review is a bit different from reading a book for my own self. To write the review, I have to do a bit more research. For example, for the first podcast episode, it's Deep Church by Dr Jim Belcher. Now there were so many reviews. That book was released 10 years ago and when it was released, there was so much noise, there was so many people saying it was such a great book, so many people saying that it's not. So 10 years later, I'm trying to make sense and adding my thoughts into that conversation. On the other hand, you have Dr Dru Johnson, which is the fifth episode. Now, he wrote the commentary on Genesis 1-11 and I think that he is not as well known as the other four authors. Dr Jim Belcher, Dr Russell Moore, David Jeremiah, or Skip Heitzig. So Dru Johnson is an author that is not very well known. So I have to research him a bit more and I hope that more people will read it, even though he may not be as well known as the other four. Okay, so that is the the reading and the review part. So I have to structure all my reviews and do a bit of research around the book and the authors and the theme. Podcasting Is Technically ChallengingThen we have the technical part. The technical part is things like the recording, the uploading, the distributing and so on. So, for example, for this podcast, I had to research on microphones. I've never dealt with microphones other than use them. So now I have to research a bit on what is a good microphone for podcasts: the different types, different costs, different things that I need to look at. And I got a good one for this podcast. After that we have editing software. I never use Garageband before. Then I tried it out and I tried different software and I figured out to get a good one to use for this podcast. I also have to figure out on the hosting of the podcast for the audio and hosting the podcast is different from hosting the website. I have to figure out how to make those two things happen. Regarding the podcast host, I'm very happy to use a Bcast. Bcast is very new but they have many interesting services. One of them is transcription. So after I have the audio of the podcast, I upload it and then I can click a button and I can get the transcription. The text is not perfect, I have to edit it so that takes time as well. But it's nice to have that service packaged in this podcast host. I will leave an affiliate link at the bottom because I think it's quite good. So if you are interested, you can just have a look at this Bcast as a podcast hosting service. So the other thing which I have to do is social media. Now if you know me, I'm really not keen on the whole social media scene. I really don't like it because I'm a bit old fashioned even though I’m in the youth ministry. Anyways for this podcast, I created a Twitter and Instagram account. I’m still not sure whether at this time whether to create a Facebook Page. But anyways I'm putting it out there. I'm not sure yet what I'm gonna do with them, but I'm hoping that I can just use it for conversation rather than just promotion and advertising. I have those social media channels if I need to and at the moment I just have to think about what am I gonna do with them. So that's part of the learning curve I guess. There's a lot of learning curve in doing this podcast. More than I thought. I thought all I would do is record and share. So I wouldn't be doing much more than what I normally do with my friends or the young people here. But in the end, I had to spend quite a bit of time on many things. The Future of Reading And ReadersSo let's look into the future. I’ve told you how this podcast came about and what is required to get one episode out. Now let's just share a bit of my vision for this Reading and Readers project. I hope that in six months time I would be able to apply for the Faithlife affiliate program. I don't know exactly all the details on what I will get or be able to benefit as an affiliate but I am a big fan and customer. I've got so many of their books. I'm hoping that by being an affiliate there is something that I can offer to listeners or readers, whether directly or indirectly. In six months time. I'm also looking at Crossways Blog Review Program. They have a six months minimum for people to apply. And if I do get in, if they approve me, I will be able to access pre-release books which means that I can review some of those books earlier. If I can review earlier you can make an earlier buying decision. That could be important if you are looking to buy a book for a friend or family in time for their birthday or Christmas or a special event. So I'm looking forward to get early reviews out so that you can make a timely buying decision. Community of Christian ReadersLooking beyond six months, I have big hopes for this podcast but I do struggle with making sure I don't get too far ahead of myself. The important thing is whether we can build a community, whether we can get enough people who are interested in this niche, this Christian book reviews. And if we can have a community of people then the things that I mentioned just now, like affiliates and blog review program, those things can easily happen. But if it's only just me talking to myself, which is one of those nightmares that I have regarding this podcast, you just throw it out there and and the only person listening to it is me. So anyway, if we can have a community that can gather together for Christian book reviews, the same way that there are communities that gather for camera or microphone reviews or entertainment, like music and movies. If they can have communities around those things, I think we can have a community for Christian book reviews. I'm sure there are people out there who love to read Christian books. Otherwise all those books are published for who? I mean it must be for people who like to read them. Right? So I hope that enough people enjoy reading and listening to reviews like I do. So that's why every episode I ask people to subscribe or write a review and even visit the website so that we can build this community. Sharing a Good ThingAnd there is a reason. I'm gonna explain to you because maybe some of you don't know why. Why is it that every podcast asks that you subscribe or download or share the podcast with a friend? And the reason is because when you subscribe, it actually does something to the algorithm. That’s how channels and podcast go up the ranks when you search for something. What pops out? What pops out depends on the level of interests and the level of interest is dependent on subscription, downloads and so on. The more people like it then the more people will see it and this creates a virtuous cycle and that is what every podcast and every channel Youtube channel and so on is going after. And what does that mean for this Reading and Readers podcast? If you like it and you subscribe and you share your friends and more people get into it, what happens is that the chances of this podcast coming up in a search becomes higher so that other readers, other would be readers, are more likely to see this and my hope is they can get introduced to good books. As I mentioned early on, a good book, can turn the desert into life and help some gain a fresh perspective on their situation. There are so many books and I don't want to review them here now, but there's so many books that makes me savor the salvation that I have. There are books that has made me humble by the lives of the saints. I mean I was sharing with this young brother and he said look at Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I've read the mini biographies and I'm so humbled by what they have done in their sacrifice for the faith. And yes, I can now have a conversation with this young man about all these Christians and not idolizing them but sharing about what the faith has meant to the saints. And I think it's just a wonderful thing. If more people know who Amy Carmichael, Bonhoeffer, Liddell, Spurgeon and so on, if they know more of these names, I think it would be a great benefit to the Christian life. I can go on I can go on but for now I just want to say that this is a behind the scenes look at Reading and Readers. If you like what you hear, if you like the book reviews, share it with someone, tell someone who likes to read or someone you think would like to read one day and encourage them to listen and pick up a book to read. If you like this podcast, please subscribe, write a review and visit the website. Readingandreaders.com. And with that thank you very much for listening. I don't know what the future holds but I trust in God's Providence. Until next time, keep reading. Affiliate LinkAffiliate means I make a commission if you purchase. Bcast Podcasting Host. https://bcast.fm?via=terence

Let’s Start From the BeginningHave you had the experience where someone comes to you with a problem and then you say, “Let's start from the beginning?” Well, we have a lot of problems in this life and in this world. So why don't we start from the beginning. And what can be more of a beginning than Genesis? Let’s do that with today's book Dr Johnson. He will guide us through Genesis chapter 1 - 11. Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today's book is from Logos’ Free book of the Month for April 2021. The book we are reviewing today is a book from the commentary series, Transformative Word. The title of the book is “Universal Story: Genesis 1-11” by Dru Johnson. The Reverend Dr. Johnson teaches biblical literature, theology and biblical interpretation at the King's College in New York City. He has a colorful background as it says here: Before academia, he served two years active duty and five years in the reserves of the U.S. Air Force-involved in counter-narcotics operations in the Amazon basin of Colombia from 1993-98. None of that is related to this book, but I thought his counter narcotics operations a world far away from Genesis 1 - 11. The Outlandish ScopeNow, why does he title this book “Universal Story”? I'm going to explain using his words and it's a long paragraph. Genesis 1–11 is outlandish in its scope. The opening chapters parade stories of humanity intertwined with the most intriguing subjects we still wrestle with today: the beginning of the cosmos, the nature of humanity, family, sex, deceit, death, murder, mass murder, ecology, agriculture, urbanization, and more. No topic seems to escape the sweeping narratives of Israel’s initial history. This early history is the story of humanity, but also the story of “all creatures of our God and King,” as Saint Francis once put it. It is the story of astronomers, entomologists, cartographers, historians, and social workers because it seeks to explain place, history, and the lineage of every human endeavor. It is the story of stories, because it is a story about how all of these things came to be the way the Hebrews knew them to be, and the way we know them today. In other words, all stories about life and reality in this universe are in some way subsumed under the early history of Israel’s Scripture. So you can see that he makes a very sweeping case that we need to understand Genesis 1 to 11 in order to understand everything else around us. This book is structured with chapter one as the introduction of which I just quoted at length. In chapter two you will learn why it's 1 to 11 and not 1 to 10 or 1 to 12 because of the way the book of Genesis is written. And in the same chapter two you will also see how what we believe in and what we know of the Christian faith from the New Testament, Old Testament can all be traced to Genesis And after that, in chapters 3-7, these five chapters explains Genesis 1 - 11. Now there are 11 Genesis chapters, but he doesn't divide them equally into these five chapters. There's one chapter for Genesis 1, one chapter for Genesis 2, one chapter for Genesis 3-4. One chapter for genesis 5-9 and one chapter for Genesis 10-11. If you're keeping track, that means the emphasis of the book is on chapters one and two. And understanding chapter one and 2 of Genesis is foundational to understanding the remaining chapters. So after explaining Genesis 1 to 11, Dr Johnson has two chapters which explains what we have just learned in connection with science and ethics today. And the book wraps up with a conclusion and recommended reading. The Missing ChapterThe attentive listener would have noticed that we have a missing chapter. I said in the beginning that this book is part of a series, the “Transformative Word” series. And what is this series about? We don't have the typical introduction by the editor of the series or a chapter just describing what is the series about. It's not in this book, it's not in Amazon and I could only read about this series in Logos, the website. This is what it says. God’s Word is transformative. It is this conviction which gives the Transformative Word series its name and its unique character. Series Editor Craig G. Bartholomew has worked alongside authors from around the world to identify a key theme in each book of the Bible, and each volume provides careful biblical exegesis centered on that gripping theme. Later it continues: The result is an engaging, accessible thematic exploration of Scripture, poised to offer you new and refreshing insights. The Transformative Word volumes were designed to pair with your favorite commentary, to enrich your study with a thematic as well as exegetical perspective. What all that means is that this book is not meant to replace a very rigorous academic, technical or full commentary. It’s designed to be read alongside another commentary. So that explains why this book is so short. It's a commentary which is only 128 pages. You see just like Faithlife, Logos has a free book every month. I have committed myself to review a Faithlife book every month but I don't dare to do that for Logos because the Logos free book is a thick and academic commentary. I just don't have the time and maybe even the ability to review those type of commentaries. But that's what makes April's free book different, it's only 128 pages. So I thought why not give it a read and I'm glad I did. Commentaries Are Not For MeNow some of us listening may be put off by commentaries and you say and you think: “I'm not a preacher, pastor, scholar or theologian. I'm not even the overachieving Bible study leader who really studies the Bible before he leads. So I don't think I want to listen.” But wait, wait, don't go yet. When you hear my story, you might want to hear the rest of the review. So this is how my story goes. In the first two years of my Christian life, I wanted to understand more about the Bible. I went to the church library, I took a book. It was a commentary on Genesis. I read it and it was hard going. I understood the words but the discussion on the Hebrew language, other manuscripts and other Ancient Near East sources just confused me. I felt like I was in the middle of a discussion that has been ongoing for awhile amongst very smart people and I was just not one of those smart people. Because of that I didn't touch commentaries. Some years later I met a brother in Christ. He saw that I love reading and he asked me to read commentaries and I said “No, no, no”. I tried and it didn't work. He said there are different types of commentaries and what I read was an academic commentary really meant more for those who do research or scholarship rather than for the layperson. He suggested I read 1 Kings by Dale Ralph Davis, so I did. And I'm so happy I did. It was a funny book, insightful. It made me think. It made me understand what 1 Kings was about. And so I really gained from reading commentaries after that. Dru Johnson's Universal Story reminds me of those easy to read commentaries. It's one of the easiest commentaries to get into. Reading Genesis For New InsightsLet me put it to you this way. If the book of Genesis is a national park, it is a national park that you have visited very often. Sunday School teachers around the world have guided young children to color the skies as God created the heavens and the earth. And many Sunday School children sit enraptured when the teacher tells them about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve and the Serpent. Who has not heard those stories before? You have already read those chapters. These are very familiar stories to you. So you might ask why read a commentary on something that you are so familiar with. Well, the difference here is the tour guide. This is not your Sunday School teacher and God bless him or her for their service to all of us. The tour guide in this book is Dr Johnson. And he leads you through those familiar points in Genesis 1-11 and he avoids those pits. He tells us about those places where you have creationists and evolutionists and how they have argued and so on, but he doesn't make us stay there. Instead he allows us to get a broad understanding and he moves on. Then at some point he would just stop and ask that you take a look at that tree. Remember, we're in a national park. All right. So there's a tree over there, it's a tree you have walked past dozens of times. But now he points it out to you and say, “Do you see that bird? It's a rare bird and its nest is there on that branch.” And you look at it and you wonder, “I walked past this tree dozens of times, but I've never noticed that amazing and beautiful bird. Or the nest that is on that branch.” What I'm trying to describe here is the wonderful feeling we get. What the series editor meant by new and refreshing insights. How Dr Johnson does this is by asking interesting questions. What Exactly Went Wrong in Eden?Let me give you an example. In chapter five, there is this section where he asks what exactly went wrong in Eden. Was it when the woman listened to the serpent? Or was it when she hinted at an extra command onto God's command? Was it when she lusted for the wisdom of the fruit? Was it when she took it? Or when she ate it? Or when the man who was standing there the whole time ate the fruit. Now, many of us we understand the story of the Eden and we understand the Fall came about because the two ate the fruit. But here he asked what exactly went wrong. He makes a very interesting point. He asks us to read Genesis 3:17. In this passage, it says that God, God said to the man, “because you listened to the voice of your wife”. So Dr Johnson says that the problem, God's diagnosis of the problem, was that the man listened to the wrong voice. So that was a perspective I've never considered before. It was not really the eating. What really prompted everything according to God in Scripture, is the man listened to the wrong voice. Now, another question that I never pondered before was, did the serpent lie? I always thought the answer was yes, or at least he told a half truth. But here, Dr Johnson claims that the serpent spoke the truth. This is how he explains it. I quote: The serpent predicted three things: 1) they would not die in that day, 2) their eyes would be opened, and 3) they would be “like God” knowing good and evil. Dr Johnson then shows that after eating the fruit, they did not die in that day. So the serpent did speak truth. Number two, the scripture also says that their eyes were both opened and they knew that they were naked. So The Serpent did not lie, the eyes did open. And the third thing was that they would be like God. In Genesis 3:22, God said, “Behold the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil.” So Dr Johnson writes: Everything the serpent said came to fruition precisely as he said. What does this mean? If nothing else, we learn that just because someone has authoritative knowledge, does not mean that we should listen to them. This is an insight which I've never considered before and I don't know about you, but I've always thought that being authoritative, knowing what is really true is enough for us to follow. But here we see that we can have two authoritative voice: the authoritative voice of God and the authoritative voice of Satan. Where what Satan says is also true, but in this case we should not follow him. Reflective QuestionsEvery chapter has this type of insights where he shows us something that I'm not familiar with. Under his capable hands, Genesis 1-11 becomes new and refreshing. Every chapter ends with the suggested reading. We have a Bible passages to read alongside. And there are also questions. Now if you're looking to this book as a bible study book, something to bring to your small group, it can be that book. The only thing I would caution is that some bible study books are more directed meaning you can find the answer in the Bible or in the book that you're reading. That's not true for this book. In this book, the questions are very reflective. It's very open ended. So it's not as guided. You will not find the answers to the question in the bible or in the book. For example, the questions for the chapter I just explained is: “How do the stories we tell create voices we listen to? How can we learn to critique these voices with the voice of scripture?” It's very reflective. It is something that there is no firm answer to. I find it very engaging and you could have many good discussions but I just want to tell you that you will not find the answer in the Bible or in the book. Asking Different QuestionsNow after explaining Genesis 1-11, he has these two chapters where he deals with science and ethics today. Many will come to a commentary on Genesis to get answers to those type of questions: Young Earth, evolution, sexual ethics. If you're looking for a definitive, deep and wide study to get a conclusion that you can bring to your next debate or get some points that you can bash the other fellow with, this is not the book for you. I would say you probably want to get books written by Ken Ham or others like him. Apologists who are really debating and answering these tough questions. Universal story by Dru Johnson doesn't repeat many of the arguments for or against those topics. Instead, he asks different questions. For example, on evolution, he says this: The term “evolution” has many uses and layers. By “evolution” I mean the explanation of the current biological diversity based on principles of survival of the fittest, scarcity of resources, and propagation. These three principles are meant to explain how humankind rose to rule the world. These same principles that became the dominant force in biology for the next 150 years bear strong resemblance to the concerns of the biblical creation stories. Now, if you don't understand all the biological stuff, don't worry. The point I want to make over here is that he says that the principles that concern biology in terms of evolution are the same or similar concerns that has been stated in the Biblical creation stories. He makes a case of how survival of the fittest, scarcity of resources and propagation are mentioned within the Biblical creation stories. As I was reading, I was not sure whether I agree or not agree, but I thought it was very interesting. There are some people who say that science and the bible is basically explaining the same thing in different ways. So whatever tensions that exist, actually, all those tensions can be explained as different ways of looking. Dr Johnson, I think, correctly perceives it. That's not exactly true. There are some cases where it is describing the same thing, but in some cases it is two worldviews clashing. And Dr Johnson here makes the case that we need to have a biblical understanding of these topics. Otherwise, if we use the scientific way of interpreting the world, we would abandon the biblical perspective. So he makes that case well. He's not one of those people who say that we are all saying the same thing but in different ways. He makes a strong case for the biblical point of view. More Books From the SeriesLooking at book recommendations. Normally, I would maybe suggest books by Dr Johnson or maybe some books on Genesis. But today I'm going to do something a bit different. I'm going to suggest that you consider getting some books from the Transformative Word commentary series. The reason why I say this is: it's different, it's as they say, an unique character. It's easy to read. It's not a 750 page commitment to pick up one of these books. Because of Johnson's book, I bought a few more of the series. I bought Habakkuk, Daniel and Hebrews. Because it's April. Let me explain. Each of those books that I just mentioned would cost you $5.99 in Amazon for the Kindle copy. And I know prices in Amazon fluctuates, but that's the price that I see today. Now if you're going to get the four books that I mentioned from Amazon, you're going to be looking at $24. Now, if you were to get it from Logos in April, you're gonna get all those four books: You're gonna get Genesis 1-11 by Dru Johnson, Habakkuk by Heath Thomas, Daniel by Barbara Lai and Hebrews by Adrio Konig. You're gonna get all four of these four books for $7 and minus a few cents. $24 in Amazon, $7 in Logos. So I got it all for $7. I would say that this book, Universal Story by Dru Johnson to be worth the full price. It's really an enjoyable read and insightful. So if you want to get those books I suggest you get them in April. I Like CommentariesBefore I finish my review, I just want to mention that I looked at the final chapter where there is this further reading, reading recommendations. We have commentaries and under academic commentaries I see Golden wen Hamm's World Biblical commentary. Guess what? That's the book I picked up so many years ago in my church library. That is the book that made me nearly give up on commentaries because it was just too difficult for me to understand. But it's not that it was a bad book. It was just a book that was too advanced for me at that time. This this is why I appreciate books like Universal Story by Dru johnson because it makes it so much more accessible. It makes it easy. And we understand that it doesn't take a scholar or professor or theologian to understand what the Bible says. You can explain things in a way that ordinary people can understand. And you understand not just from a cognitive, like I know something new, but also how it helps you grow as a Christian. Which voice are you listening to today? Do you put too much emphasis on what is authoritative, not realizing that what is authoritative may not be the right voice to listen to. This book is very good. It's accessible. It asks good questions. It packs a punch in 128 pages. It's like a featherweight knocking down other heavyweights. This is a Reading and Readers review of Universal Story: Genesis 1-11 by Dr Dru Johnson. The Universal Podcaster’s AppealBefore you go, I want to tell you another universal story. And this is the universal appeal that all podcasters everywhere has asked for since the genesis, the beginning of podcasting. And that appeal is this: If you like this podcast, please subscribe, review or visit the website. The website for this podcast is readingandreaders.com. And I just want to say that this episode, episode five, concludes the five reviews for the launch of this Reading and Readers podcast. The next episode, episode six, will not be a book review. It will be a behind the scenes episode on how reading and readers came to be, it's genesis so to speak, and how it works and where this podcast is heading. So if you're interested in that, check out the next episode. Thank you very much for listening. Book ListUniversal Story: Genesis 1-11 by Dru Johnson. Amazon. Logos. Faith Amid the Ruins: The Book of Habakkuk by Heath A. Thomas. Amazon. Logos.Glimpsing the Mystery: The Book of Daniel by Barbara Leung Lai. Amazon. Logos.Christ Above All: The Book of Hebrews by Adrio Konig. Amazon. Logos. Sound Effects by zapsplat.com

(Edited Transcript of Podcast)

Proving Atonement From 66 BooksHow important is the cross in the Bible? Christians would say, “Very, very, very important. The whole book is about the cross in the Bible. All 66 books point to Jesus.” “Can you prove it? Can you back up your claim that all 66 books point to Jesus?” And with today's book, the answer is yes. Hi, my name is Terence, and I'm your host for Reading and Readers Podcast, where I review Christian books for you. Every month I review Faithlife’s Free Book of the Month and for the month of April, the free ebook is Bloodline: Tracing God’s Rescue Mission from Eden to Eternity by Skip Heitzig. According to his biography: Skip Heitzig ministers to over 15,000 people as senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque. He reaches out to thousands across the nation and throughout the world through his multimedia ministry including a nationwide half-hour radio program, Connect with Skip Heitzig. He is the author of several books including Bloodline, You Can Understand the Book of Revelation, and The Bible from 30,000 Feet. His book, “The Bible From 30,000 Feet” is 600 or so pages long. It’s on how to read all the books in the Bible in 52 chapters. Wait a minute. There are 66 books in the Bible, not 52. And yes, what he has done is he has combined some books like the prophets together. The three Gospels are in one chapter, and there are some epistles which are combined in some chapters. So you get 52 chapters, which leads to 52 weeks, which means you can read one chapter a week to finish the book in one year. Now, why am I bringing up “The Bible from 30,000 Feet? I thought we were reviewing Bloodline.” Yes, we are but I'll explain why in a moment. The Bible bleedsBloodline is a book where the title refers to the redemption of Christ. Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. The Blood of Christ. Heitzig writes: History hinges on a single pivotal event: the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. There, God’s great redemption of mankind was accomplished—a rescue mission that culminated at the end of Christ’s three-and-a-half-year public ministry but began before the world was formed. This incredible tapestry is woven throughout the Scriptures in red. The great Bible teacher of yesteryear, William Evans, noted, “Cut the Bible anywhere and it bleeds.” The blood of Jesus stains every page, every book, in both testaments. Evans observed that “the atonement is the scarlet cord running through every page in the entire Bible”; it “is red with redemption truth.” That is where the title Bloodline comes from. He also refers to the story where Jesus, after his resurrection, walked with two disciples to the village named Emmaus and as they were talking, they went to a place and they had dinner at the table. Jesus then said to them, And I quote Luke, Chapter 24:25-27. And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. The last part is where we get the biblical support for what Hietzig does in this book. Look at the last sentence: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Every part of Scripture points to Jesus. So that is what Hietzig has done in this book. One chapter, many booksThe structure of Bloodline is as follows. Remember how many books are there in the Bible? 66. Now there are 16 chapters in this book, that is 16 chapters plus the introduction, plus the epilogue. Now those 16 chapters are in canonical order. It's not chronological. Meaning they are arranged by the groupings of the books as you read in the Bible. If it's chronological, you would have the Prophet Isaiah and his prophecies coming up in Second Kings. If it's chronological, you would have Paul’s missionary trip to Galatia, coming up in the Book of Acts. But it's not chronological, its canonical. What you get is things like the first two chapters. The first two chapters of Bloodline is on the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Then later on, you have a chapter, one chapter, which is subtitled The Monarchy. In it you have 1st, 2nd Samuel, 1st, 2nd Kings, 1st 2nd Chronicles, all these six books in one chapter. You have one chapter, subtitled, wisdom literature. In it you have Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and Lamentations. All these books in one chapter. And you have combinations of grouping of prophecies in various chapters, the four Gospel and Acts is one chapter. You have various chapters that group together the Letters. So you have the the Pastoral Epistles, the Prison Epistles and the General Epistles as grouped into separate chapters. And you have the last chapter on, obviously Revelation. That is how he has arranged the book. It's going according to how the Bible itself is structured. Writing Challenge? Now I want to give some criticism first in this book review. Then I will go to the positives. The biggest criticism I have of this book is that it's a self imposed creative challenge. Do you know those challenges where you have the professional photographer and give him a toy camera? He then has an assignment where he takes a photo and you see, wow, that picture is so amazing even though he was constrained by using a toy camera? Well, you've seen those challenges where the professional uses dumbed down tools. In this book, Heitzig has handcuffed himself. He has handcuffed himself by various constraints. He's trying to achieve many things in one book. He is trying to: 1. Tell the big story of the Bible.2. Write about the atonement. 3. Make it easy to read. He doesn't assume that the reader knows much of the Bible, so he makes it easy to read, easy to understand. 4. Refer to all 66 books of the Bible. He doesn't skip any one of them.5. Do all of the above in a short book in 250 pages or so. Remember that in his previous book, “The Bible From 30,000 Feet” it was 600 pages. So here we have bloodline 250 pages to deal with 66 books and his earlier book, he did the same with 600 pages. So he doesn't have a lot of pages. And because he doesn't have a lot of pages, there are some parts which comes in very rushed. Okay, so I think that he could have done a better work. This is my assessment. Example from PhilemonOne of the best parts of this book, for me, was the section on Philemon. And the reason is Philemon itself is just a single letter. It's just one chapter. It's self contained. So he could write the summary of it quickly. For example, he writes: Reading between the lines of this epistle, it’s generally believed that Onesimus, a slave of the Christian leader Philemon, stole money from his master and ran away to Rome, thinking, I’ll just blend in and get lost in this big city. Instead of getting lost, however, Jesus found him: Somehow Onesimus met Paul, who was still in prison, and Paul led him to Christ and found out his story. In this letter, Paul appealed for Philemon to receive Onesimus back to him not just as his slave, but as his new brother in Christ. Now this is a mastery of a summary because over here you have the characters Onesimus, Philemon and Paul. You have the background of the city. And you also have the intent. Paul appealed to Philemon to receive Onesimus back to him, not as a slave but as a brother. So it's a very masterful paragraph and he does a background for almost every section because he needs to explain to the reader what's going on in this book. After this, he would share some insights from that book. Some of us, the general reader, may not be familiar the Bible and may find it fascinating. This is how he ends in this way. In this Philemon section, he writes: That’s how it is with God: He loves to restore people. He looks for hearts that are broken, for people who have made bad choices, who are beat up and scarred. He loves to turn people around. And when you choose to become part of His family, His bloodline, that’s what He will do for you. If you bring your broken heart to Him, the master mechanic, He will rebuild it. He’s in the business of restoration and redemption. So you see here, that he is. He ends by connecting it to the bloodline metaphor and he wants, he's inviting us to worship. And he says that he writes that, “more than merely inform about God's astonishing rescue operation, I want you to be inspired to worship him.” That is his intent. He begins with a background. He gives some insights, and then he ends by a connection to the bloodline. He wants us to worship God by the end of it. Runway too short, can’t takeoffLet's take this passage as an airplane. So if the background is the engine and the worshipping final paragraph is the take off. I could not take off because there was not enough runway. There wasn't enough space to build up so he could not build up on the insight for it to lead us to a sense of “God, you're so amazing. I am so in awe of you” because just as he is getting there, it ends. The plane does not crash. It’s not a tragic incident. But it just putters along and he goes back. Taxis back to the start and he tries again to take off. And oftentimes it doesn’t. It just doesn't work. He just doesn't have enough runway to take the plane off the ground, and I will show you why I think so. First, GenesisAll right, in the book, in Bloodlines you have in there a chapter. There's a section in one of the chapters. It refers to Genesis 33:15. Now in the book, it's one page. If you go online, you go and search for Heitzig. You look for his sermon series on Bloodline and you find that there is a sermon title: “The Cure for the Curse.” The exact same subtitle in this book: The Cure for the Curse. It's a one page section, very short, not much runway. In the sermon, it's one hour. It's a one hour, 5 point sermon of the same name. So you see, he can expound at length about one verse. But he couldn't do it in this book because he had no pages. Second, RuthI give a second example. In the Book of Ruth, I found that I couldn't connect the dots. He makes a conclusion that I disagree with, and I couldn't see how he made that conclusion. Let me read to you and you see whether you know what I'm talking about. Heitzig writes: More than anything, the book of Ruth shows us how God chose us and paid the highest price to be able to call us His beloved children. Now, when I read this, I was thinking “More than anything. Wow, this is, like, more than anything.” The Book of Ruth shows us how God chose us and paid the highest price. But I didn't get that. How did God chose us and paid the highest price in the Book of Ruth? What is the highest price? Did I miss something? And later on, in another section, Heitzig writes: Boaz put a significant portion of his resources and his reputation on the line to become Ruth’s bridegroom, and Jesus set aside His heavenly glory for a season to buy your salvation with His blood. So the great sacrifice, the highest price that God paid that is demonstrated in Ruth is demonstrated by Boaz. But how is that so? Because the way I read Ruth is that Ruth has made a bigger sacrifice than Boaz. What has Ruth done? She has left her home. She has left her family to live together with her mother in law in a foreign land. And this positive compliment is not just my assessment. It’s in the Bible. In Ruth 2:11, it says, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.” So Boaz has a positive view of Ruth. Not just Boaz, the people have a positive view of what Ruth has done to leave her family, to leave her home, to stay with Naomi. And if you say that Boaz has put a significant portion of his resources and his reputation, in what sense? Yes, I know Ruth is a Moabite. Yes, I know that in marrying Ruth there is a threat to Boaz’s inheritance. That's why the other guy did not take Ruth in. I know that, but the Bible doesn't make a big deal about this. In fact, the Bible, the Book of Ruth seems to make a bigger deal, I would say, of what Ruth has done in choosing God. So now hear me clearly, I'm not even saying that I'm right and Heitzig is wrong. What I am saying is that I couldn't connect the dots. He doesn't give me enough words. He doesn't give me enough evidence in this book to show me that more than anything, the Book of Ruth shows us how God chose us and paid the highest price to call us his beloved children. Third, MonarchyAnd last example. And this one, I think, will convince you: when he comes to the monarchy. The monarchy that started with Saul and ended with the last kings of Israel and Judah. There is the United Kingdom. And then there was the Divided kingdoms. The monarchy in Bloodline is one chapter that covers 1st, 2nd Samuel, 1st, 2nd Kings and 1st 2nd Chronicles. And that is all covered in 14 pages. In his other book, “The Bible from 30,000 Feet”, each of those books, I just told you, is a chapter by itself. So you have six chapters, and all together those six chapters form 53 pages. In those 53 pages he gives the background, he links to the to the gospel, and there's a sense that he calls to worship and so on. So you have three times as many, four times as many pages in the “Bible from 30,000 Feet”. Bloodlines chapter on the monarchy is very rushed. In Bloodlines, Saul is barely mentioned. David has two sections. Solomon seems to take the most central position and there is little to nothing on the Kings of Israel and Judah. But what can you expect with 14 pages? The writer spends a lot of words and paragraphs explaining to the reader, the general reader who doesn't know the background. By the time you have finished explaining the background, you don't have much room to say anything else. You need this book, or something like thisAfter finishing with my criticisms, let me now turn over to the positive aspects. If you judge the book by the constraints that it has imposed on itself, all right, it's a good book. There is no book that I know of that attempts to tell the big story of the atonement in an easy to understand way from 66 books under 300 pages. If that is what you're looking for, I think there is only one book, and that is Bloodline. If you think there's another book, please let me know. Now, despite the flaws, and I think those are big flaws, I think that Christians should know the breath of the Bible and how every book connects to the Atonement, how all 66 books can be traced to the Cross of Christ, because: 1. It immunizes you from this understanding, this popular notion, that the Christian Bible is a storehouse of quotations where you just look for verses to put up in Instagram. Or it's just quotations that you read on bumper stickers. No, it's not. If you understand how every book is actually God-breathed, you can overcome all manner of apostasies and false teachings. If you just understand the whole counsel of God. So this book helps in that. 2. It answers the challenge that the Bible is an inconsistent mess. You have 66 books, dozens of authors, a mishmash of genres: poetry, narrative, letters, apocalyptic literature. So it's a mishmash of things. But with this book, it helps Christians understand. There is one message that even though there are dozens of authors, there is really only One Author. And the book is centered on Jesus Christ. 3. The atonement itself is very important, so even if you don't read about the 66 books and so on, but if you understand the atonement, that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. If you understand this, you can interpret the Bible correctly. You can evaluate sermons and teachings. Does your teacher, preacher, pastor or leader hold to the atonement? It is one of the most important doctrines in the Christian faith. So you should understand what is the atonement. Pre-millenial WarningAnother thing that I want to say about this book as a caution, not as criticism, is he refers to the millenial. In various parts of the book, he makes a pre-millennial interpretation of the verses. For example, let me read: A curious feature of the millennial kingdom (Christ’s 1,000-year reign on a refurbished earth) is the presence of another temple, complete with some animal sacrifices. So you see over here, that there is the Christ 1000 year reign on the physical earth, and you have another temple, a real future temple in the real city of Jerusalem. I personally don't hold to pre-millennialism. I'm a-millennial. Now, if you think that means I'm not biblical and close to blasphemy, then please consider it as part of my journey. As I consider the Bible and every passage I read, I try to think about the question: How does this correspond with the pre-millennial, post-millennial or a-millennial interpretation? Now here's the thing. If you have very strong feelings because I do not hold a pre-millennial position or you think otherwise, that strong feeling or hostility that comes out is probably the reason why nobody talks about it anymore or preaches about it much nowadays. Because it invokes a lot of those unpleasantness where people are quarreling and arguing about things that seem so far away and not important. Now here's the danger. What we have today is that many people think that eschatology or the teachings on the last days is not important, and that is so wrong. I think eschatology is important. I think that even though we don't know the details, we do know that yes, Jesus will come back and we win. Okay? Christians win. The Kingdom of God reigns. That's true. But we should understand what are the different views so that we can make sense of the different parts of the Bible. So I think that is very important. I appreciate what Heitzig has done in this book. Even when I don't hold to that. Because as I read it, I can see that. Okay, this is how he interprets Ezekiel. This is how he interprets those passages, and it gives me an opportunity to reflect. I just want to mention this because of some of the readers may be surprised by the strong pre-millennial position that he takes in this book, but I think that if you understand how to read it, I think you would be better off with it. Books without Bloodline’s ConstraintsNow, let's go to my conclusion. Is Bloodline a good book? I don't think it's a very good book because of the constraints. I don't know what happened. I mean, why can't we just increase the page count, for example? Is it a marketing issue? Is it a publishing issue? Is it a creative writing challenge sort of thing? I don't know why he handcuffed himself such that he could not have more space to write. It's good in light of the constraints. It’s unique. But it's not something that you can read in one sitting. I think that the plane couldn’t take off. The runway is too short, so I find that very jarring in many, many ways. If you're not looking for a book that fits all those constraints, there are other books that I can recommend. If you want an easy to read a book for the whole Bible, I would suggest children's books. Okay, if you're trying to help a young believer or a child understand, one of the easiest ways is just give a children's Bible book. I would recommend “Biggest Story” by Kevin DeYoung. He looks into the centrality of Jesus. He goes through the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but makes it easy for children to understand. So I would recommend the Biggest Story by Kevin DeYoung. As you move forward, maybe you want to read more about how the 66 books relate to the central theme. I've read several of those type of broadening books. I have not read “The Bible from 30,000 Feet”, but that looks like a good book. And I think that at 600 pages, one chapter a week, I think you should gain from reading that book. So I would recommend that book for you to have a look at. If you're looking at the Atonement, then I would suggest this book that I really enjoyed, John Stott’s “The Cross of Christ”. I found it very engaging. He goes into the atonement, and you can see the depth of what the Cross of Christ means for the believer. John Stott is a very gifted teacher. So those are some of my book recommendations. Ending lineIf you enjoy Heitzig’s teachings, I think that he does a better job of explaining all that we've talked about in his sermons, in his teaching series. If you just looking for devotional book, this can be it if you don't mind the runway being too short. You just want a very quick and easy read every day. Then, yes, this book will be good for you. But beyond that I find that there are better books that I can recommend. So this is a Reading and Readers review of Bloodline by Skip HeitZig. Before you go, can I ask you to do something? If you are a Christian, that means we are both of the same bloodline. We can both trace a line from Jesus on the cross to where we are today. If you like the podcast, can you hit the subscribe button, write a review or drop me a line at readingandreaders.com. As an encouragement, not as a compulsion. Thank you so much. If you're not a Christian, I hope you will hear carefully to what Heitzig has to say. I get this from his chapter on Revelation. Let me read to you: All through this journey we have seen very clearly that at the center of all Scripture is a single person: the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the megatheme, the protagonist from Genesis to Revelation. In the Old Testament, Christ is promised by the prophets. In the Gospels, Christ is presented. In the book of Acts, Christ is proclaimed. In the epistles, Christ is pondered. And in the book of Revelation, Christ’s return is predicted. It’s all about Jesus. Boiled down to its irreducible minimum, the Bible is about one person and two events: Jesus Christ and His first and second comings. Jesus dealt with sin the first time He came, and the second time, He will rule and reign with those who are cleansed from sin. Thank you for listening. Book ListBloodline by Skip Heitzig. Amazon. Faithlife.Biggest Story by Kevin DeYoung. Amazon. The Bible From 30,000 Feet by Skip Heitzig. Amazon.The Cross of Christ by John Stott. Amazon. Faithlife.

(Edited Transcript of Podcast)

Ethical Man Gets Tempted
Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert. Because you are in Christ. That means you were there, too. And because Christ is in you, you too, can overcome temptation. Or is it?

Today's book is "Tempted and Tried: Temptation and The Triumph of Christ" by Dr Russell Moore. Dr. Russell Moore is the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Prior to his election in 2013, Moore served as the provost and dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he also taught theology and ethics.

Now here is a man who teaches ethics and he becomes the president of the ethics Commission. So we might think that this highly ethical person might not understand the temptations that the everyday person faces. And, we would be wrong, because in the opening pages of this book, he shares a personal story, of him in a hotel lobby between him and an attractive receptionist while his wife and Children are outside in the rain. In this very short story, Moore shows us that he is a man subject to temptation, just like any of us. And more importantly, he shows that the temptation can strike in very subtle in ways that we do not realize, if we're not careful.

Christian Norm
In fact, that is why Dr Moore wrote this book. In an interview with Justin Taylor, Dr Moore answered that this book was a book for the Christian who wonders, why is it that after becoming a Christian, he is still subject to so many temptations? And maybe there's something wrong with his faith because as a mature believer, temptation should go away, shouldn't it? Dr Moore explains the struggle against temptation is part of the normal Christian life.

Another objective of this book was for Christians to be more precise in thinking about sin and temptation. There are those who are being tempted, who then despair and say, "I'm sinning". In contrast, there are those who are sinning and delude themselves by saying, "I'm being tempted". Actually, sin and temptation are two separate categories related but separate, and here in this book, Dr Moore helps us think more precisely about these terms.

Before, During and After the Desert Temptation
The way the book is structured is that you have the first two chapters that situate us in temptation. So, if you are a person who thinks that you suffer no temptation or you have a good grip on temptation, then the first two chapters will be humbling. On the other hand, if you think temptation is impossibly overwhelming for you and no one understands you, then the first two chapters will be very encouraging.

When we go into chapter two, we have it here written the baptism of Jesus, and this is an important chapter because it explains why Jesus is able to help us in our temptation. Here you have John the Baptist telling Jesus, "I should not be baptizing you. You should be baptizing me." Jesus gave this very cryptic answer, he should be baptized by John "to fulfill all righteousness". Its not so much that Jesus had to repent. Jesus never sinned so there was no repentance for sin. Instead Jesus had to be baptized because we had to, because we are the ones who need repentance. Because Jesus is our high priest, he is one of us. So by identifying himself with us, the incarnation, the truly God truly man, he helps us in our temptation because he has overcome.

Now it is critical we understand who Jesus is before we go into the heart of the book. Namely, the three temptations of Jesus in the desert. Chapter three, four and five are the Temptations. The first one is the turning of stones into bread. Then you have the devil taunting Jesus to jump so that the angels will catch him. And the last temptation is that Jesus should worship the devil in order to get all the kingdoms of the world.

The next chapter is how are we to think and practice what we have learned in the first five chapters. And some readers might be tempted to skip to read this chapter because you are facing temptation right now and you want to get some help. Immediate help. Well, that would not be a good idea, because chapter six is a practical application of earlier chapters. Meaning if you skip you will not understand how to apply what is stated in Chapter six.

We Are All Tempted
In this book review, I want to share three insights namely temptation, Satan and Jesus. And these insights span across the whole book. Throughout the whole book, Moore persuades us that all of our temptations in everywhere in every form, the temptations that we face in school, in home, in the office, whether you are a man or woman, whether you are born in Africa or in Tokyo, wherever you are in whatever place, whenever time, all of our temptations can be traced to the three temptations of Jesus in the desert. That is a big claim.

If you can see Jesus in the desert as fighting for you and knowing that Jesus has indeed face temptation that is common to all men, then you will see him as a person who understands where you are now, in whatever temptation you face. For example, Moore writes, the connection between food and sex. The desire for food and the desire for sex is connected. Now, this is not a novel observation. C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity made the same point. Commenting on sex, Lewis writes, "There is nothing to be ashamed of in enjoying your food. They would be everything to be ashamed of if half the world made food the main interests of their lives and spent their time looking at pictures of food and dribbling and smacking their lips." Here, Lewis describes the striptease of food and shows the absurdity when it comes to us thinking about sex. Moore writes more food for thought. He elaborates that the desire for food and the desire for sex are God given desires which have been corrupted.

Psychology and Cover Up
Moore also writes about the temptation from the psychology of the person. He wants to show us how temptation works on us and how there is this risk that we will go into extremes. One of the extremes is where you think you are exceptional. Moore writes, "You start to see yourself as either special or as hopeless, and thus the normal boundaries don't seem to apply. It might be that you are involved in certain patterns right now and that you would if asked, be able to tell me exactly why they are. They are morally and ethically wrong. It's not that you are deficient in the cognitive ability to diagnose the situation. It's instead that you slowly grow to believe that your situation is exceptional. I am a God. And then you find all kinds of reasons why this technically isn't theft or envy or hatred or fornication or abuse of power or whatever."

When I read , I thought of Ravi Zacharias, the name behind the biggest sex scandal of 2021. If you have read the reports, Ravi does think that he is exceptional. Even as he goes out and talks about the goodness of God behind the scenes, he is inflicting much pain and hurt to many women. So this book, written 10 years ago, helps us to understand and interpret current events, whether it's Ravi Zacharias, the apologist to millions who falls from grace or your church member who is caught or entangled in some other scandal.

Do you remember how you responded to the sex scandals or to any scandal in the church? Were you dismayed at the damage this did to Christianity? Now listen to this, Moore writes: "The demonic powers not only will give us what we crave, but they will assist us in covering it over, for a little while. That’s precisely the irony. Often you are fueled on from one temptation to the other because you haven’t been caught. This gives you an illusion of a cocoon protecting you from justice. The powers, though, don’t want you to get caught—not yet, not this early in the march to the slaughterhouse. They don’t have a mere seventy or eighty years to live. They are ancient and patient and quite willing to wait until your downfall will bring with it the most catastrophic consequences—for you, for your family, for the kingdom of God, and to the image of Christ you carry. So they’ll help you cover it all up, and then they’ll expose you—mercilessly."

So we see here the nature of the spiritual warfare that the enemy is willing to help us cover up until we reach the end of the slaughterhouse. This slaughterhouse metaphor is used very powerfully in Moore's writing in chapter two, and here we can see the way Moore portrays Satan.

Clash of Samurais
He portrays him as the ancient cunning power. Satan is not a comic with a pitchfork and a tail. Nor is he a buffoon that gets easily outmatch and outwitted by Jesus in the desert. We see here that there is real spiritual warfare between the believer and the devil, and we can see this exemplified in the spiritual warfare between Jesus and Satan in the desert. There is real temptation at stake.

The problem with the temptation in the desert is that we don't understand what happened. It's kind of like when you watch a Formula One and you see that the lead driver enters the pit. Why did he go into the pit? Because we don't understand the rules of the sport. Or we watch a movie and we see that there is one big monster fighting another big monster. What's happening? Who is the good guy and who's the bad guy? We don't know, because maybe began the movie halfway through. So if we don't understand the rules or the story, we cannot make sense of it.

Imagine you're watching a Japanese samurai movie. And on the right, you see the Black Samurai coming. He is undefeated. He has killed millions of warriors and there is blood on his blade. And on the left you see the White Samurai who has just completed his meditation and he is weak from fasting for 40 days and 40 nights.

The two warriors clash. The Black Samurai slashes for the gut. Jesus deflects. The devil aims for the legs. Jesus deflects once more. Lastly, the devil aims for the heart and Jesus in the very last second manages to deflect the blade and the Black Samurai rides and runs off, fleeing from the White.

That scene is not in the desert writings on the temptation when we read in the Gospels. But here's the problem. The reason why we cannot fully understand the desert temptation is because it happened too fast, and what we needed was to have some background to understand who is the Black Samurai. Who is the White Samurai? Or rather, who is the devil and who is Jesus? And this is where Dr Moore helps us. He draws the context from Deuteronomy so that when the two of them exchange Bible verses, Dr Moore shows us the power and the meaning behind it.

He portrays the devil not as being outwitted so easily by Jesus, who is able to respond with a better Bible verse. But instead the devil knows the desires of Jesus and knowing the desires of Jesus, the devil delivers a very precise and powerful blow to Jesus, which Jesus should not have been able to deflect.

But Jesus knows who he is. He is the Son of God. His relationship with God, the father is pure. He is the Son of Man. He fully stands with and stands for the children of Adam. The devil has always been able to tempt all the children of Adam to sin. He has never failed. And he did tempt Jesus.

Do you know what is at stake here? If Jesus was tempted by Satan to sin in any one way, we would all fall. The atonement requirement for a perfect sacrifice would never be met. How would you tempt a beggar with a little money? How would you tempt the King with a great amount of money? How would you attempt the son of God? If we see through the desert temptations how tempted Jesus really was, we can appreciate and marvel that Satan failed.

Jesus was tempted, but he did not fall for temptation. Jesus never sin. He knew he will get all the kingdoms of the world. But it will be from the hand of God, the Father, not Satan.

I Am Your Father, JesusAnd here is where there is one part of the book which I am not convinced. Let's see whether you can see what it is. I quote from Dr Moore, he writes, "Satan was not just trying to tempt Jesus; he was attempting to adopt Jesus. Satan, in all three temptations, is assuming the role of a father—first in provision, then in protection, and now in the granting of an inheritance. Satan didn’t just want to be Jesus’ lord; he wanted to be his father."

I don't know what you think about that paragraph, and I want to assure you that Dr. Moore does write more about it and that he does give good evidence and good support for it. After some reflection, (and this is after being convinced the first time I read it because I thought it was a very interesting and counter-intuitive insight) I disagree.
The traditional idea is that the devil wanted Jesus to act independently.

I don't think the devil wants to be a father. What do you think is a father? What comes to mind for me, it means the father is self sacrificial. He loves, he wants to care, and all that motivates the father. That's that's what I think. And that's not true of the devil. So the actions may seem to be like so and I realized that the devil is an imposter and he he does try to be the ruler of the world and be a spoiler. I'm convinced that the devil wants to steal Jesus from God. I'm convinced that the devil wants to steal the father's glory, but I wouldn't put the emphasis so much that the devil was wants to be a father to Jesus. I don't think the devil cares. And in that sense, I don't think he can be a father.

I guess my point of difference is the way I interpret the word father and the way Moore over here adapts it to his claim. Now, having said that, this claim is not the whole book so Moore doesn't keep pushing this idea to the reader. In fact, it is just an observation made out of the various chapters and scriptures. But it's not something that you need to to believe in order to accept all the other conclusions, meaning you can still hold on to the traditional understanding that Satan was trying to get Jesus to act independently and set himself up as God himself.

Help Me Overcome
So let us look into this question: Will this book help me overcome my temptation? I believe many people will reach out for this book because of that. And the trite answer is no. And no book can help you. Only Jesus can. And in that sense, this book is good because it points you always to who Jesus is, to understand the temptation, how he overcomes it, who Jesus is and who we are in him, the truly God truly man. So all that actually helps strengthen our understanding of temptation and sin.

The deeper answer is trying to understand what you mean by overcome temptation. If you mean overcome temptation to mean that you will have no such experience, no tugging of the heart, no struggle, no fight, then no, this book will not help you. And as Dr Moore earlier wrote, that is not what this book intends to achieve. You will and should struggle with temptation. That's part of normal Christianity. But this book will help you fight the fight.

This book is very good, especially in the second last chapter to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfort. It overcomes any excuses you may have regarding temptation. And he makes very clear the difference between temptation and sin.

More Help
Are there any other books that may help you in this when you go into? I searched in Amazon, and I searched for the word temptation. There are two categories of books. First category is what we're looking at today. And there is one author that comes up prominently, which is John Owen. So John Owen is a Puritan writer, and he has written extensively, deeply on temptation and on sin. Other than John Owen, there doesn't seem to be a lot of other authors or books on this topic.

The other category, when you look for temptation, is the trashy novels, and you want to avoid that in every way possible.

You don't have a wealth of library or resources on temptation and sin. Whereas if you compare with a search on grace or blessing or goodness, you will have multiple books by multiple authors throughout the ages. So I just want to make a comment here that if your understanding of sin is weak, then your understanding of grace is also weak. You need to understand sin in order to understand grace. Now this book is not about sin. This book is about temptation. So when you read this book, you will understand the differences between sin and temptation.

And it's important because a confusion here can bring a brother or sister down. And that's why this book is good for teachers and counselors, even parents or anybody who is any position to advise people on temptation. And I would say that that would be everybody. So this book helps to encourage those who are struggling with temptation and at the same time warns us not to indulge in temptation to sin.

Writing Wins
But let's say you are one of the few who have read John Owen, all of John Owen. And let's say that you clearly understand the differences between sin and temptation. You also understand sin and grace in terms of the gospel. So you understand all these things. Is this book still worth reading? I say the answer is yes, simply because it is well written. Every reviewer I read says that this book is well written, and Jared Wilson from Gospel Coalition writes this way: "And I was stirred to fight my own temptations to writerly envy at his deft phrasing and moving composition."

And I agree. Dr. Moore just pulls you in. Every thought exercise makes you wonder. Every story he shares has you engaged. And it's just a wonderful, well written book, a great resource for the church and one that I think that every Christian should read. So I I would like to end by just showing an example of the writing and also the conviction that can come out of reading this book. This passage explains the relationship between temptation, Jesus and the Devil, the demonic forces. So let me read it: "Ultimately, the agony of temptation is not about you or me. We’re targeted because we resemble Jesus, our firstborn brother. We all, whether believers or not, bear some resemblance to Jesus because we share with him a human nature in the image of God. As we come to find peace with God through Jesus, we begin a journey of being conformed more and more into the image of Christ. The demons shriek in the increasing glory of that light, and they’ll seek even more frenetically to put it out of their sight."

The demons shriek in the increasing glory of the light of Jesus. I had a picture in my head when I read that.

Today's book is "Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ" by Dr Russell Moore.

Resist the Temptation to GoYou might be tempted to close this podcast. Don't. I ask you to resist the temptation for a moment. Before you go, please subscribe to Reading and Readers. If you found this podcast helpful, please write that in the review as an encouragement to me and as help for other would be listeners and readers. For more information and on how to contact me, you can visit the website readingandreaders.com. I end this with a quote from the book. May demons shriek in the increasing glory of that light of Christ in you. Thank you for listening. Book ListTempted and Tried by Russell Moore. Amazon. Faithlife.Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen. Amazon. Faithlife.

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(Edited Transcript of Podcast) A book on joy leaves me joyless. I disagree with how the esteemed Dr David Jeremiah writes, but I agree with what he writes. It gives me great joy to bring you today's review.

80 years old, 80 books
Today's book is "Counted it all Joy" by Dr David Jeremiah, founder and host of Turning Point for God and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church. It's a mega church of the Southern Baptist Convention that is attended by over 10,000 people a week. From Dr Jeremiah's website, I count 80 books, including the Jeremiah Study Bible and two Gold Medallion award winners. USA Today and Wall Street Journal list his books in their best seller list. Dr. Jeremiah is 80 years old this year, which means, on average, he has written one book for each year of his life. Choose Joy in ChristThe original title of the book I'm reviewing today was “Turning toward Joy”, published in 1992. In 2013, it was republished and re-titled to “Count it all Joy”. It's the same book. Dr Jeremiah's introduction in both books are exactly the same, they are both dated 1992. Count It All Joy is a devotional exposition on the Epistle to the Philippians. In the introduction, Dr Jeremiah writes, “The theme of this letter is joy. The word rejoice is found nine times, the word joy four times, and the expression “rejoice with” two times. Even though he was writing as a prisoner, Paul was filled with joy, and that joy permeates his letter. The secret of his joy was his relationship with Jesus Christ. The letter begins and ends with the name of Jesus.” This book is not Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now: Seven Steps to Living at Your Full Potential”, where step number seven is “Choose to be happy”. No, not at all. In Dr Jeremiah's book we don't choose to be happy. We choose Jesus, and when we choose Jesus, we have joy in Jesus. So that is the big difference between Dr Jeremiah's book on Philippians compared to Osteen’s. Joys, Small Group Guide and CommentariesThe study on Philippians is structured as 12 chapters. Every chapter begins with the words the “Joy of…”. The first chapter is titled, “The Joy of Community”. The next is “The Joy of Adversity”, and this naming pattern continues until the last chapter, which is “The Joy of Serenity”. After these 12 chapters, we have the Reader's Guide. Nervous small group leaders will benefit from Dr Jeremiah's guidance and tips on leading a small group study. Here you'll find chapter summaries, icebreakers, discussion questions, application questions, optional activities, prayer focus and assignment. You have everything you need to make sure you have a good group study. He encourages you to make a prayer box - he tells you how to make one - and to keep a journal. The questions he has are thought-provoking and some of the questions can keep the whole group up the whole evening.After this, you have a chapter on footnotes and a chapter which lists the commentaries. I count 23 commentaries. The oldest is Moule (1897), Meyer and Ironside, both published in 1920s are frequented quoted . The newer ones are Jim Boice (1971), Warren Wiersbe (1974) with the newest: Alec Motyer’s The Message of the Philippians (1984). This means if you are looking for a book that deals with recent scholarship or recent issues, then this is not the book for you. Having said that newer does not mean better. A book published 100 years ago can be better written, more convicting than a book published yesterday. So there's still something to be gained from reading old books. Now that you know how the book is structured, let's turn the page to chapter one. StaccatoThe Joy of Community. It begins with a heartwarming anecdote. In prison, Paul longed for the Philippians and this pain is described by a quote from Dr. John Townsend. Later on, we get a word study on what the name Paul means, and the meaning of servants and saints. A paragraph quotation from Amy Carmichael, immediately followed by another paragraph quotation from J. I. Packer. A quote from Motyer, then a quote from McClain, an anecdote on John Newton, a poem from unknown author, another poem from Judson Edwards, a quote from Marian Evan’s letter, then a quote from C. S. Lewis. Along the way we have word studies on pronouns (I, me and my), the Greek background behind words: knowledge, discernment and offense, which is skandalon in Greek. The chapter ends with an anecdote from Alan McGinnis on Viktor Frankl. Well, having heard my review of Chapter one, what do you think? I failed to properly convey the joy of community that Dr Jeremiah writes, but I wanted to convey to you the reading experience of chapter one. In this book, it is evident that Dr Jeremiah loves good writing. He quotes extensively from the Bible. He quotes extensively from other writers. He loves good writing, but in this book doesn't offer much of his own. Reading the chapter is like reading clippings. He picks good quotes or anecdotes, and he lets these carry the burden of describing his thoughts. Or to give an example from our Internet habits, reading the chapter is like reading a Facebook page. We read posts or shares, which are accompanied by some comments that show how it's relevant to the whole page. Count It All QuotesNow that is a big claim. Let me support it with some evidence. Taking the first chapter as an example, I copied the whole first chapter into Microsoft Word. Then I highlighted the paragraphs, and I categorize them as anecdote, quotation, Bible verse or the author's words that are not dependent on anecdotes or quotations to carry the message. According to Microsoft Word, there are around 4000 words in chapter one. By my estimate, from least to most, 3% of those words were Bible verses. 16% were Dr Jeremiah’s study on the Greek word, 21% were anecdotes, 21% were quotations and 40% were the author's own words that did not depend on anecdotes or other people to carry the big idea. Is this a problem? It may not. I know people who prefer reading Facebook post, than reading a book, and they might be prefer a start-stop, start-stop book full of anecdotes and quotations rather than a sustained building of an idea. of a big thought, to a conclusion. If you prefer well written book, then this review might have saved you some time and money. But a good book is not reduced solely to writing style. We should ask the question: What is the content? Is the content true? Whatever is True, Think on Them Do you remember the list of commentaries? Dr. Jeremiah quotes them in a positive light. If you're familiar with any of the authors, then you could guess the nature of his teaching and you would be right. His teaching is from the solid evangelical tradition. I can't vouch for the preacher because I don't listen to his sermons, but I can vouch for this book. What is a quick way to assess a commentary? If you are familiar with the episode to the Philippines, you will know that there are a few flashpoint versus versus that have caused much heat within the Christian family, for example, between Arminans and Calvinists. But there are also verses that have been reinterpreted to support dangerous and even heretical views. Let us look at three verses from Philippines and see, how does Dr Jeremiah deal with with them? Christ Emptied HimselfPhilippians 2:7: “Christ emptied himself by taking the form of a seven, so Christ emptied himself.” Now there is a teaching that says Christ is divine, but because he is a man, he has no divine nature. How can Christ be divine and not have a divine nature? Maybe that's a question that you leave to theologians to argue. After all, it doesn't affect you on how you live and how you go to church and how you worship, right? Well, let me read to you how one author/teacher endorses this teaching: “He [Jesus] performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God... not as God. If He performed miracles because He was God, then they would be unattainable for us. But if He did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue His lifestyle. Recapturing this simple truth changes everything... and makes possible a full restoration of the ministry of Jesus in His Church.”So this author/teacher writes that we are responsible to pursue Jesus miracle-performing lifestyle, and it is possible for a full restoration of miracle-performing ministry in the church because Jesus was a man without any divine nature, just like us. This teaching stems from a faulty interpretation of Philippines 2:7. Writing 30 years ago, Dr. Jeremiah states the traditional understanding which condemns that teaching. He writes, “Jesus Christ was not simply like God; He was the very nature and substance of God. All that God is, Jesus Christ was and is and ever will be. To say that Jesus was in the form of God is the same as saying that Jesus was God.” Very clear. I like that. So that is his understanding of Philippians 2:7. Let's look at another one. Joy of ResponsibilityPhilippians: 2:12-13: “So work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” If you're familiar with this passage, you will hear the debate of God's sovereignty (it is God who works in you) and human responsibility (work out your own salvation). Under the chapter titled, “The Joy of Responsibility”, Dr. Jeremiah writes, “The New Testament is very clear about the nature of salvation. It is not the result of man’s efforts but comes through the grace of God.” Later, in the same chapter, he writes, “God has worked in us. He is working in us. He will continue to work in us. We are to work diligently so that we might realize the benefit of all that God has done and is doing for us. Both divine enablement and human responsibility are involved.” Dr Jeremiah doesn't resolve the tension here and he doesn't do it in his chapter on God's sovereignty and human responsibility. Where does it start? Where does it end? But he states and asserts our traditional understanding that both are true, that God is sovereign and humans are responsible. I Can Do All… Whaddya Mean I Can’t?The last Philippians verse that I wanted to check when I read this book is a famous one. And I'm sure you have heard it quoted, cited and prayed. That is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Alas, Dr Jeremiah doesn't address the misuse of this verse. He doesn't write the negative case, what this verse does not mean. Instead, he writes the positive case, what this verse means. He writes on the contentment and also the people that Paul is mentioning in this chapter. So I didn't get to see how he addresses the abuse of the verse, but I am happy with what he wrote this chapter. Bad Book or Bad Review?At the end of the day, as I finished the book, it is a book with good teaching, poorly written. Now that is a very harsh comment I know. And how can I make such a conclusion of a book written by the esteemed and respectable Dr David Jeremiah? His Turning Point to God Ministry reaches untold numbers around the world. His sermons feed 10,000 people weekly. His books number 80 and he has his own study Bible. And if you look at Amazon for this book “Count It All Joy”, 187 reviewers gave him an average of 4.7 stars. In Good Reads another book review site. We had 147 reviewers, and it ranks 4.14 stars, There are many people who give this a five star review. Is there something wrong with my review? One of the reviewers, one of the very few who did not give five stars, wrote, “It's basically a quote book”. After counting all the words in the first chapter, I have given you evidence for that. Another reviewer, Debbie from “Christ Focused Book Club” writes, “some parts of the study felt disconnected due to the frequent quotes and serial word studies.” Later on, she kindly concludes, “I recommend this book to those who are interested in studying Philippians and who like this author's style.” Maybe her last comment helps us understand the high rating, the many five stars, for this book. Four ReasonsLet me give you four reasons why I think the book scores so highly despite my very low review. 1. People like this. Anecdotes and quotations heavy, yes, and people like that. 2. I bash his writing style, but I wholeheartedly endorse the teaching. Maybe this is one of the rare times when substance beats style. Awesome. It should happen more often. 3. Dr. David Jeremiah's ministry, whether it's preaching or radio or others, has helped many, many people and hearing his voice as they read this book, they might have overlooked the flaws. In other words, he teaches so well in other areas that his readers appreciate him and are less critical. That's good. 4. Maybe readers have not been introduced to other books on Philippians. If true, then let me correct that right now. If you are a teacher who needs to go deep into Philippians, pick up one of the technical commentaries he listed or the newer ones. I recommend the new International Commentary on the New Testament, Golden Fee’s book on Philippians. “Count It All Joy” was not written for deep study. And if you do any deep study, you already knew that. If you are a small group leader and you don't want to read one textbook just to understand one letter, and you like Our Daily Bread and want something like that, I ask that you go and get Warren Wiersbe “Be Joyful”. By the way, in the Acknowledgement chapter, Dr Jeremiah thanks Warren Weirsbe for encouraging him to write “Count It All Joy”. So I'm sure Dr Jeremiah supports my recommendation that you get Warren Weirsbe’s “Be Joyful”. If you are looking for less reading and more discussing, then get this book “Philippians: The joy of living in Christ”. It would be perfect for you. Guess who wrote it? Dr. David Jeremiah as part of the Jeremiah Bible Study series. Last recommendation. If you're not looking for a deep technical book and you're not reading for a small group, you're just looking for an engaging book for personal reading, I recommend Don Carson's “Basics for Beginners: An Exposition of Philippians”. I really like this book. Let me read his opening paragraph of his first chapter: “I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much—just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races—especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of gospel, please.” And that's how Dr Carson begins his exposition of Philippians under the chapter titled “Put the Gospel First”. Award Winner, Christ Wins Now that you have spoilt for choices on Philippians, let me make a few things clear. If you like Dr David Jeremiah's “Count It All Joy”, good for you and I mean that sincerely, not sarcastically. I strongly criticized the writing style. It's a book of quotations. But I strongly affirm what he taught, the conclusion he makes, and how he makes those conclusions based on Scripture. Having been so critical, I did wonder how his writing won awards and became best sellers. So I dug a little deeper, and I note that Count It All Joy was written in 1992 and this was one of his earliest books, either book number two or number three. I then read, snippets of his other books and found he still likes his stories. He still gives a lot of anecdotes and so on, but the stories in his later books don't interrupt, but rather they flow with his easy to read, warm and inviting writing style. He gets better over time. In his 40 years of writing 80 books in all, we see the development of a novice to a seasoned writer. With that, I actually wonder whether Dr Jeremiah might agree with my review of this book. Perhaps he would chuckle, half-embarrassed the same way we would if we look back at our earlier works: writings or recordings. But there is nothing here for writer or reviewer to be embarrassed about. More importantly, both writer and reviewer agree that the joy of the believer is in Christ. Count It All Joy is a book that brings out the joy in the epistle to the Philippians through many quotations and anecdotes. While I do recommend other books, I know that many of us love a book full of anecdotes and quotations. Count It All Joy scratches that itch. This concludes my review of Count It All Joy by Dr David Jeremiah. Give Me Some HappinessBefore you go, can I count on you to give me some joy today? Sorry, I meant happiness, not joy. It would make me momentarily happy if you would subscribe or write a review. You can also visit readingandreaders.com to contact or support me. Let me end today's episode by quoting Dr Jeremiah, who, writing 30 years ago, could not foresee today's pandemic. In the introduction, the final paragraph, he writes, “The reason for Paul’s joy was his relationship with Christ! As we study his letter to the Philippians, we will observe the testing of that joy in the crucible of Roman imprisonment. If Paul’s relationship to his Master could bring him joy under those conditions, then surely we who also love the Savior can learn to rejoice in our difficult times as well.” Thank you for listening.
Book ListCount It All Joy by David Jeremiah. Amazon. Faithlife.Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (NICNT) by Gordon Fee. Amazon. Faithlife.Be Joyful by Warren Wiersbe. Amazon. Faithlife.Philippians by David Jeremiah. Amazon. Faithlife.Basics for Believers by D. A. Carson. Amazon. Faithlife.