Category: Book Recommendations

Important Free Book: “Finding the Right Hills to Die On” by Gavin Ortlund

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

The Gospel Coalition is giving away a free ebook this week that you’ll want to download. Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage by Gavin Ortlund is a fantastic treatment of the relative importance of doctrines and the need for unity in essentials and charity with regard to nonessentials. You can get a download of the book from this link.

I have been blessed by Dr. Al Mohler’s concept of theological triage and this is a book-length consideration of this idea. I’ve added my own thoughts on the importance of this question here, and in many other posts over the years.

Dr. Ortlund, the author, shares his own theological journey but aims not to convince us of any of his positions but rather to help us think through how to do theology and how to think about the relative importance of doctrines. So far this book looks really good.

If you stumble upon this post later and the book is no longer free, you can purchase a copy at any of the following links:

The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible

~ Bob Hayton ~ Leave a comment

A few years back Reformation Heritage Books released The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible. Its general editor is Joel R. Beeke, with Michael P.V. Barrett and Gerald M. Bilkes as OT and NT editors, respectively. This study Bible brings together study notes in the Reformed tradition with the text of the most lasting translation from the era of the Reformation, the King James Bible.

Reformation Heritage has a special right now on all copies of this Bible (as much as 50% off) – including large print and leather versions. Click for details.

This study Bible includes introductions to each book of the Bible and each main division of books. Study notes typically take up around 1/4 of the page, and include a notable feature: “thoughts for personal/family worship” from each chapter. Also included are doctrinal articles and essays on practical Christian living from a Reformed perspective, along with the text of several influential early church creeds and Reformation-era confessions and catechisms. The list of such documents includes the Nicene Creed, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, and the Westminster Confession of Faith among others. Instead of the King James Translators’ Preface, this study Bible includes a look at the King James Version’s tradition, text and translation. This is essentially a defense of the superiority of the King James Bible while stopping short of declaring it as the only acceptable Bible. The editors admit, “Others who believe in inspiration and preservation as dogmatically as we have a different opinion as to how and where God preserved His Word.”

This study Bible is nicely formatted and easy to read, and I have no doubt that the devotional and study helps included are excellent in the whole. The one draw back in my view, is that it does not preserve the footnotes from the 1611 King James version – but in that respect, it follows the majority of King James Bibles published today. Unfortunately, this leads modern readers to assume that the King James text is more settled than that of the modern versions since the KJV does not resort to footnotes to record the literal Greek or Hebrew meaning, offer an alternate translation or mention that some manuscripts have a different reading. Unfortunately, that is a wrong assumption since the King James translators do all of those things in the dozens of footnotes included in their original 1611 translation. Reading the translators themselves on the topic of Bible translation (by reading their preface) is quite instructive and highlights the challenge facing all Bible translators, and once more I lament that the preface was not included in this KJV study Bible.

That said, this is a helpful tool and worthy of inclusion on your study shelf. The King James Version is still used today in large part because it was such a good translation and it merits careful study, even today.

Pick up a copy of this book at any of the following online retailers:
Westminster Bookstore, Amazon, ChristianBook.com, or direct from Reformation Heritage Books.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

About Book Briefs: Book Briefs are book notes, or short-form book reviews. They are my informed evaluation of a book, but stop short of being a full-length book review.

In the Box: New Titles from Kregel & Moody

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

“In the Box” posts highlight new books I’ve received in the mail.

I periodically showcase new titles that arrive at my doorstep in posts like this. Today’s post highlights two theology books. The first one is directed at a more popular level, while the second one has the academic reader in mind.

Paul vs. James

 
Paul vs. James: What We’ve Been Missing in the Faith and Works Debate by Chris Bruno (Moody Publishers)

Now this book has the best cover I’ve seen in a while. And the title is catching: Paul vs. James: What We’ve Been Missing in the Faith and Works Debate. On the back cover the book sets in juxtaposition these two statements: “One is justified by faith apart from works of the law” – Paul; “A person is justified by works and not by faith alone” – James. Christians at all stages of their spiritual growth have grappled with this apparent contradiction. I’m looking forward to reading how Chris Bruno clears up the matter. I am also drawn to this work since Chris Bruno has some fundamentalist roots (having taught at Northland and Cedarville) and now teaches at Bethlehem College and Seminary (founded by my former pastor John Piper). Look for my review of this title in the next month or two.

To learn more about this book, check out the product pages at the links below. You can purchase this book at Amazon, Christianbook.com, Westminster Bookstore, or direct from Moody Publishers.

Trinity without Hierarchy

 
Trinity without Hierarchy: Reclaiming Nicene Orthodoxy in Evangelical Theology edited by Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower (Kregel Academic)

This book intrigues me because I have benefited from some of the authors who are critiqued in this work. Complementarian authors like Wayne Grudem and Bruce Ware have used the relationships between the persons of the Trinity (specifically the headship of the Father and subordination of the Son) in defense of their positions. (Complementarians defend the traditional view that husbands are the chief authority figure in marriage, fathers in the home, and only men should be elders or pastors in the church.) New to me is the term “eternal functional subordination (EFS)” which Grudem and others argue for. This book brings together both complementarian and egalitarian Evangelical scholars who together present a case from the Bible, historical theology and systematic theology to defend the historic orthodox view of the Trinity. The editors do not claim that Grudem and Ware are heretics, they go out of their way to appreciate “Wayne Grudem’s [clear and persuasive] description of the deity of Christ” and “Bruce Ware’s [effective and forceful] refutation of Open Theism” (p. 12). But they deny that Grudem, Ware and others are “at liberty to dispense with eternal generation, nor to substitute roles of authority for Nicene terms for articulating the relationships between the divine persons” (p. 13). I am merely an observer of the debate at this point and look forward to digging in and learning more. Expect my review in a few months.

To learn more about this book or to pick up your own copy, check out the book’s product page at the following sites: Amazon, Christianbook.com, or direct from Kregel Academic.

Disclaimer: My thanks go out to both Moody Publishers and Kregel Academic for review copies of these titles.

Book Excerpt: Sam Crabtree on Not Rewarding Disobedience

~ Bob Hayton ~ Leave a comment

I recently finished a helpful little book on parenting by Sam Crabtree, Parenting with Loving Correction: Practical Help for Raising Young Children. In a chapter entitled “Reward Obedience, Not Disobedience” Crabtree shares the following pointed anecdote.

A friend of ours stopped by our house with her elementary school-aged son. As she stood chatting with my wife, Vicki, the boy climbed onto the back of the couch.

“Neil, get down off the couch,” the mother said.

The boy sat there unmoved as she continued to chat.

“Neil, get down off the couch,” she repeated, then kept talking with Vicki about other things.

The boy visibly stiffened his resolve. On his face and in his posture, you could see it: of all the things in the world Neil could do, he wasn’t going to get down from that couch.

The game was on.

“Neil, if you don’t get down off that couch, Sam and Vicki aren’t going to like you.”

Frankly, that’s irrelevant. To Neil, whether we like him or not was immaterial. (We like him. Years later I officiated at his wedding.)

The boy stayed put. Neil’s defiance had become the issue — not the couch, and not Sam and Vicki. The mother started digging in her purse. “Here, Neil, I’ll give you this candy bar if you get down off the couch.” When she pulled out the candy bar, he hopped down and fetched the candy bar.

Checkmate.

Mom loses.

Get this: she may think she’s rewarding him for his obedience. Actually, she’s paying him to disobey her. guess what she’s going to get lots more of?

Neil was obeying not his mother, but his sweet tooth. And the mother was catering to that….

…If you’re startled at the thought that you might actually be rewarding rebellion, whining, sassiness, and disobedience in your child, keep reading. None of us wants to be a parent that rewards the wrong thing in our child. This chapter can help you avoid that.

(p. 77-79 – italics and bold emphasis added)

The rest of the book is as on-point as the anecdote above. And while Crabtree’s diagnosis is sharp, his bedside manner is quite mild. I highly recommend his book (and hope to review it more fully later).

You can pick up a copy of this new book by Mohler from Amazon.com, Westminster Bookstore, Christianbook.com, or direct from Crossway Books.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

Book Excerpt: Albert Mohler on “Wee Little Preaching”

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

R. Albert Mohler Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is known as a preacher and enjoys his role of cultivating preachers. Mohler has a new book out on preaching from Moody Publishers this year with the title He is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World. One of his chapters focuses on “preaching the Bible’s big story.” In it he stresses the need for preachers to situate the text they are focusing on within the bigger picture of God’s redemption story. He uses a particularly poignant example playing off of the children’s Sunday School song that starts with the line, “Zaccheus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.”

…One of the great problems with much evangelical preaching today, and one of the reasons so many saints are not growing to completeness in Jesus Christ, is that so many of our pulpits are filled with what you might call “Zaccheus sermons” — or to put it more bluntly, wee little preaching.

Every Sunday, far too many preachers read a wee little text, apply it in wee little ways to their people’s lives, and then tell everyone to come back next week for another wee little story.

That tendency to isolate our sermons to one tiny piece of biblical text is a major problem, and it also explains why so much evangelical preaching is moralistic. It is easy to pick out a familiar story, make a few points from it about what people should and should not do, and then be done with it. But that kind of preaching will leave a church weak and starving, because the Christians who sit under it never find themselves in the big story of God’s work in the world. If we as preachers want to see our people growing to maturity in Christ, we must give them more than a diet of wee little morality sermons. We must place every text we preach firmly within the grand, sweeping story of the Bible. (p. 89-90, emphasis added)

…Our people can know so much, and yet know nothing, all at the same time. They can have a deep repository of biblical facts and stories, and yet know absolutely nothing about how any of it fits together, or why any of it matters beyond the wee little “moral of the story.” (p. 95)

…We want our people to leave the preaching event asking the right questions. If our preaching is too small, their questions will be equally small. If we neglect the big story — the gospel metanarrative — they will be satisfied with small questions and will live on small insights. They may take home an insight, a story, a principle, or perhaps an anecdote. We should not be satisfied with that. They should not be satisfied with that. Our ambition — our obsession as preachers — should be nothing less than to preach so that the congregation sees the big story of the gospel, the grand narrative of the gospel, through every text we preach. (p. 102-103)

I say “amen” to Mohler’s assessment on this. I’ve heard too many “wee little” sermons in my day. May God grant the rising generation of preachers the wisdom to unpack God’s Word for us in such a way as to highlight the Gospel story and the grand narrative of Scripture!

You can pick up a copy of this new book by Mohler from Amazon.com, Christianbook.com, or direct from Moody Publishers.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review.