Update on Recommended Books

Recommended Books is now updated. Enjoy!

Best Books of 2008

Here are the best books that I read this year.

1.  You Can Change: God’s Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behaviour and Negative Emotions by Tim Chester
2. When Sinners Say “I Do”: Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage by Dave Harvey
3. The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World by David Wells
4. Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change by Paul David Tripp
5. The Case for Civility: And Why Our Future Depends on It by Os Guinness
6. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
7. Christ and Culture Revisited by D. A. Carson
8. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan
9. Mission and the Coming of God  by Tim Chester
10. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview by Albert M. Wolters
11. Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures by Dennis E. Johnson
12. Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach by Vern Sheridan Poythress
13. Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp
14. Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
15. Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be by Kevin DeYoung, Ted Kluck

 

Some books that disappointed me

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N. T. Wright

Though well written and very helpful at times, his understanding of the Gospel makes this a very confusing/dangerous book. Not recommended.

The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller

The first five chapters are quite good but the last two run out of steam abruptly. I guess I just expected more from Dr. Keller particularly in light of Reason for God.

Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian World View by Brian J. Walsh and Richard Middleton

For all the recommendation, it’s a curious thing that a Christian Worldview is supposed to demolish Capitalism and replace it with a modified Socialism. First half fair; second half propaganda.  

The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright by John Piper

Three fourths of the book involved explaining Wright’s view and the other fourth was a weak defense of the biblical doctrine of Justification. This books needs to be read with Counted Righteous in Christ for any benefit— in my humble opinion.

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch

It was rather disappointing with all this book’s insight that it ends with the declaration (albeit humble) that changing culture is only ultimately in God’s hand. The first two thirds of the book candidly withheld this conclusion. Still worth the read, just have lower expectations of influencing the culture around you.

Surprisingly Good Books:

The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier by Tony Jones and A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-filled, Open-armed, Alive-and-well Faith for the Left Out, Left Behind, and Let Down in us All (Living Way: Emergent Visions) by Doug Pagitt

Jones’ book is worth the read and well written. Pagitt’s is heresy with a capital “h” but a good manifesto on Emergent theology and missiology; a must read for those who want to understand this movement.

Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be by Kevin DeYoung, Ted Kluck

                Didn’t think this book would live up to the hype. It did. Well done.

Christ and Culture Revisited by D. A. Carson

I don’t know why I doubted the contribution of this book before I read it. It’s a great read and very astute. Read it.

 

Some other top book lists of 2008.

Tim Challies
David Dockery
Tullian Tchividjian
Trevin Wax
Tony Reinke

Andreas Köstenberger

Few More Good Audio Resources

Two weeks ago I went to Xenos Summer Institute in Columbus, OH with DA Carson, Mark Mittelberg and Mark Driscoll.

The first night was particularly powerful with Mark Driscoll and Dennis McCallum (the lead pastor of Xenos).

Here are the audio:

• Are we Getting the Job Done? by Dennis McCallum
• How the Local Church can Reach Our Postmodern World by Mark Driscoll

Here is the link to all the conference’s sessions: here

Also been listening to JD Greear, pastor of Summit Church. One of the best preachers I’ve heard. No lie.

Check out his sermons: Summit Sermons/Podcasts. You won’t be disappointed.

Best Books Thus Far

2008 is half over. Here are the best books I’ve read so far this year, in order.

1. When Sinners Say “I Do”: Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage by Dave Harvey
2. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
3. Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Resources for Changing Lives) by Paul David Tripp
4. The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World by David Wells
5. Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis
6. Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures by Dennis E. Johnson
7. Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach by Vern Sheridan Poythress
8. Do I Know God?: Finding Certainty in Life’s Most Important Relationship by Tullian Tchividjian
9. The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God’s Grace by John M. Ensor
10. Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World by J. Mark Bertrand
11. Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens by Neil Cole
12. Revolutions in Worldview: Understanding the Flow of Western Thought by W. Andrew Hoffecker

Two Talks

Been really busy.

Here are two worthy talks to listen to.

Greg Koukl – Emerging Culture and the Government: Download

J.D. Greear- Romans 9: Download

Greear’s talk is amazing, particularly the last 10 minutes. Can’t agree with the entire talk, but great nonetheless.

Spanking

Here’s a PowerPoint regarding the issue of spanking and corporeal punishment I made in undergrad for a class.

For what its worth here’s my thoughts on spanking.

My overall position on spanking is: Though not explicitly Biblically mandated, it is wise for most children upon severe and volitional misdeeds/offenses to be spanked.

Spanking will be relative to the child and circumstance; and to delineate explicitly guidelines and principles would be helpful but tedious and cumbersome at this time for me personally.

It seems clear to me that the “rod” (choter in Hebrew), refers to corporal punishment of some kind in the book of Proverbs.

For example, “a whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools” (26:3). Clearly, corporal punishment of some kind is in mind here. Or take, “on the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.” (10:13). Then, one uses a rod to strike in 23:14, “If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.” (Similarly in 23:13.)

Maybe, though, I’m missing something.

I do believe however from 23:13, that corporal punishment (which spanking is a manifestation of) is a subset or type of discipline. It says, “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.” To not withhold discipline involves striking a child with a rod, but I do NOT think that discipline is coterminous with corporeal punishment.

Take another example. “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother”(29:15). Rod and reproof are aspects and dimensions of discipline—and I believe that there are even more. Discipline does not equal the rod.

So not all discipline demands or warrants spanking/corporal punishment. And I honestly don’t believe anyone who believes to the contrary.

Now, my understanding of Proverbs derives particularly from Bruce Waltke (see An Old Testament Theology: A Canonical and Thematic Approach by Bruce K. Waltke and The Book Of Proverbs: Chapters 1-15. (New International Commentary on the Old Testament) by Bruce K. Waltke).

Basically, the statements in the book of Proverbs are not imperatives, nor guarantees that if we follow each one to the letter everything things will be as described in this book. There will be exceptions.

For example, it says in 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” However, as we all know there are many children whose parents trained them up correctly in so many, but they still departed from the path, with temporally or entirely.

In Wisdom literature, each saying is a generalization in which exceptions will always occur, and should not be taken as explicitly as commands. They are wise sayings that should be followed if one wants to be wise.

As a result, I don’t think that one can say from Proverbs that spanking or corporal punishment is a Biblical mandate. Nor do I think exceptions to, or abuse of, warrant refrain from this form of discipline.

“Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol” (23:14-15). “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him” (22:15). IF you spank or use corporeal punishment, there is no guarantee that these proverbs will hold true.

But I don’t think one can escape the fact that it is wise to spank a child under some severe circumstances. As it says, “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (13:24).

Could be wrong.

Some Good Audio Resources

Though I don’t plan on reading Young, Restless, and Reformed by Collin Hansen (not least of which are expressed by Challies), the following interviews with Hansen may be of some value to you–they were for me.

• Part 1
  
• Part 2
• Part 3

While I’ve heard and read many of what DA Carson has said in the following lectures at the 2008 Nashville Conference on the Church and Theology, I still found them to be profitable (particularly the end of the first on with regards to the Gospel being necessarily the epicenter of all theologizing).

• Keeping Up with the Conversation
• The Gospel and Postmodern Minds
• We Preach Christ Crucified
• The God Who Helps

Enjoy.

Random Good Quotes

“None of us feels the true love of God till we realize how wicked we are. But you can’t teach people that — they have to learn by experience.” Dorthy Sayers

“Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.” G.K. Chesterton

Understanding and Applying Scripture

Here’s a great quote on how to read the Bible and apply it in every circumstance, as Christ must always be the hermeutical key. Take from Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Resources for Changing Lives) by Paul David Tripp.

That is how Scripture differs from an encyclopedia. When I use an encyclopedia, I do not need to read other articles to understand the one I am reading at the moment. One article has no connection to another; there are no overarching themes. In the Bible, however, every passage is dependent on the whole, and the whole Bible is held together by interdependent themes that run through every passage like rebar, the steel rods that reinforce concrete. If I handle Scripture topically, I will miss the overarching themes at the heart of everything else God wants to say to me. These themes give me a sense of identity, purpose, and direction that will fundamentally alter the way I think, desire, speak, and act. They will go to the root of my problem, producing change that lasts.

The sad fact is that many of us are simply not biblical in the way we use the Bible! Being biblical does not mean merely quoting words from within its pages. Being truly biblical means that my counsel reflects what the entire Bible is about. The Bible is a narrative, a story of redemption, and its chief character is Jesus Christ. He is the main theme of the narrative, and he is revealed in every passage in the book. This story reveals how God harnessed nature and controlled history to send his Son to rescue rebellious, foolish, and self-focused men and women. He freed them from bondage to themselves, enabled them to live for his glory, and gifted them with an eternity in his presence, far from the harsh realities of the Fall. (pp. 26-27)

Damnable Sins or Just A Sin

Michael Patton makes the claim in his post “Will One Sin Really will Send You to Hell for All Eternity?” or “Why is Hell Eternal?” that it isn’t particulars sins that sends a person to hell. Rather it’s our rebellion, as particular sins are symptomatic of our rebellious nature. And only rebellion is what damns a person, not other individual sins.

The real problem is that we are at enmity with God. From the moment we are born, we inherit the traits of our father Adam. This infectious disease is called sin. This disease issues forth into a disposition toward God that causes us to begin life with our fist in the air, not recognizing His love for us or authority over us. It is rebellion. While this rebellion does act according to its nature, the problem is in the disposition, not so much the acts. When we sin, we are just acting according to the dictates of our corrupt nature. But the worst of it—the worst sin of all—is that we will never lower our fist to God. We are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3) and as a leopard cannot change his spots, so we cannot change our rebellious disposition toward our creator (Jer. 13:23).

… Can an enemy of God love his neighbor? Of course. Enemies of God can and do all sorts of acts that the Bible would consider virtuous. But from the standpoint of their relationship with God, they cannot do any good at all (Rom. 3:12). Giving a drink to someone who is thirsty with the left hand while having your right hand in a fist clinched toward heaven does not count as “good” before God. Why? Because we are in rebellion against Him. This is our problem.

This I propose is the only sin that keeps people in Hell for all eternity.

Interesting. Don’t know if I agree.

It could rather be that each sin is an act of rebellion that deserves damnation. Sin is the exchanging of “the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:23). It’s essentially spiritual adultery.

Thus, the nature and the symptoms are both damnable; though distinct, they cannot be separated. Just think of an adulteress relationship. Both the heart and the action are inseparable. God judges the individual sins, no doubt, and they appear worthy of eternal punishment. “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Col 3:5-6).

Neither way, I agree our rebellion is the most grievous sin and deserves damnation. Just now I think each act of sin is our rebellion in action and thus also deserves damnation.

Could be wrong.