Category: Theology

Classic Arm Chair Theology at its best (or should that read worst?)

“Smart Faith: Loving Your God with All Your Mind” by J.P. Moreland & Mark Matlock

~ Bob Hayton

Today’s Church is facing a growing epidemic. Our young people are leaving Christianity by the droves. They survive through high school, but often hit the eject button at some point during their college years. What’s wrong?

J.P. Moreland and Mark Matlock think they have an answer to this crisis. In their recent book Smart Faith: Loving Your God with All Your Mind published by NavPress, they expose part of the problem: “We now live in a Christian culture so deeply committed to a nonintellectual way of understanding the Christian faith that this perspective is now embedded within us at a subconscious level.” They continue: “Faith is now understood as a blind act of the will — a decision to believe something independent of reason…” The gospel we share has been reduced to “primarily… a means of addressing felt needs.” “We give testimonies of our changed life and tell people that Christ is the answer to troubles.” But this lacks true transforming power. “Religion has… become personal, private, and too often simply a matter of how we feel about things.” (pg. 24-26). In sharp contrast stands the rest of life which demands the use of our intellect in today’s ever-secular world.

The 58 percent of church-attending teenagers which Barna researchers tell us “won’t be attending church by their thirtieth birthday”, were likely “missing the intellectual aspects of faith.” (pg. 25). Moreland and Matlock aim to cultivate a robust, Christian intellect through their book. Along the way, they hope to fortify their readers against the siren call of our world’s increasingly anti-Christian culture.

The book describes the problem and how we got here. It explores faith and knowledge, and aims to elevate the importance of the mind. It then goes on to apply Christian intellect to evangelism and apologetical persuasion, personal devotion and study, worship, and more. The book provides case studies of complex real world scenarios that young people face that could present a problem. In the end, these case studies are fleshed out with an intellectually honest and faithful approach to integrating our Christianity with all of life.

The authors are irenic and patient, not to mention painfully honest. Slowly and surely the attentive reader is prodded and nudged in the right direction. The book is not a heady read. It’s written in a light and straight-forward manner, and at 175 pages, it isn’t too long. Still, it covers some important ground. More important, the authors achieve their goal: they offer a book which will ground the faith of young people and encourage a deep-rooted faith in Christ.

This book would make a great gift for a high school graduate. Youth ministers will want a copy of this book both for their own benefit and to recommend to others. Smart Faith earns a high recommendation.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by NavPress. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

You can purchase a copy of this book from any of these fine retailers: Christianbook.com, Amazon.com or direct from NavPress.

Book Excerpt — Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything by Adrian Warnock

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments


For Resurrection Sunday, I wanted to share an excerpt from Adrian Warnock’s book Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything, published by Crossway. I hope to review this book in the near future, but this excerpt captures some of the beauty of it. Very few books are written which revel in the resurrection. This book is full of such reveling.

Some may wonder why the resurrection is so important, since Jesus uttered “It is Finished” on the cross, and there atoned for the sins of the world. This excerpt from pages 124 to 126 explains how vastly significant the resurrection is. The words below will be another reason to wonder and worship Jesus Christ our living Savior this Easter morning.

The credit of Jesus’ righteousness is much larger than the debt of our sin. His account had more positive approval than the negative disapproval that was due to all of us. The debt was paid, and as a result, as a righteous man and the beloved Son of God, the Father was entirely just to raise him. Jesus had turned away God’s wrath, he had destroyed our sin, our guilt could now be taken away, and we could be counted righteous. If the cross was Jesus’ payment for our sins, then the resurrection marked God’s acceptance of that payment.

Jesus is declared to still be righteous by his resurrection, just as he was declared to have become sin by his death. God’s wrath has been satisfied….

Unless Jesus himself had been justified, it is impossible to see how we could have been. If he could not even save himself, how could he save others? The resurrection shows the positive delight of God in his Son, which is now shared by us. Many people think of salvation as the removal of our sin and its punishment. If Jesus had only wiped the slate clean, forgiven our wrongdoing, and taken the wrath God had for us, we would be left in a neutral position. We would no longer be under God’s displeasure, but he would not be pleased with us either. Many Christians, even if they do not articulate their theology like that, certainly live as though it was true. Many live as though they must still work to please God.

The resurrection was necessary to allow the credit of Jesus’ righteousness to be shared with us, for it demonstrated that the credit was greater than the debt. Jesus’ favor still remained when sin was destroyed. God’s hatred for sin was not greater than his love for his Son. Righteousness remained available to credit to our account.

Jesus was so full of merit that not only did he have enough righteousness to cancel out our sin and enough that he deserved to be raised from the dead, but he still had abundantly more credit remaining in his account. As a result, our justification consists not just of a canceling of our debt, but also of an imputing to us of the righteousness of Christ. It is not only “just as if I’d never sinned,” but also “just as if I’d already completed a perfect life.” Jesus doesn’t merely give us a clean slate and then sit back and watch whether we will mess it up again.

Book Giveaway: “Collected Writings on Scripture” by D.A. Carson

~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

For those who couldn’t come to The Gospel Coalition Conference last week, here’s your chance to win a free copy of D.A. Carson’s book Collected Writings on Scripture (edited by Andrew Naselli). You can read my review of the book here.

Use the Google form below to enter the contest. One random person will receive a copy of Collected Writings on Scripture by D.A. Carson, compliments of Crossway Books. As I’m fitting the bill for postage, the contest is limited to the 48 continental US states.

Only one entry per person, duplicate or questionable entries will be rejected. Contest runs through Wednesday April 27 at 9pm Central. Winner will be notified by email.

Click on the “Read Inside PDF” link at the Westminster Bookstore book detail page, to answer the bonus question, below. (You can find it through Crossway’s product page or Amazon’s read inside link, too.)

Contest is now closed.

Congratulations go to Brandon Lehr, the winner of the free copy of Collected Writings on Scripture by D.A. Carson.

“Collected Writings on Scripture” by D.A. Carson (edited by Andrew Naselli)

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

Crossway gave all the attendees of The Gospel Coalition Conference a copy of this book, last week. I thought I’d post my review, and host a book giveaway for my blog readers who have followed my blog updates from The Gospel Coalition Conference. No, I didn’t read and review the book in one week; I already had received 2 copies of this book from Crossway. Look for details on the giveaway, tomorrow.

Solomon said “there is nothing new under the sun”. In theology, however, this often appears not to be the case. With the preponderance of scholars today divided up into numerous different biblical disciplines, a constant barrage of books and controversies threatened to inundate us in a tidal wave of “new” ideas and opinions. Against such a barrage, we need seasoned, Christian scholars who can navigate through this sea of scholarly opinion without losing their bearings on the north star of Christian orthodox truth.

D.A. Carson is just such a scholar. Over thirty plus years of ministry, Carson has plotted a faithful course and in the process has given the Church an abundance of incredibly helpful books and articles along the way. He’s also had a hand in training many Christian ministers of the gospel to cling to the Word of God in today’s dark world. As I read through a recent compilation of many of Carson’s writings on Scripture, I was amazed at how relevant his treatment of the doctrine in the controversies of 20 years ago was to today. Maybe Solomon was right after all!

In Collected Writings on Scripture, recently published by Crossway, Andrew Naselli has compiled some of D.A. Carson’s most helpful articles, essays and book reviews on the subject of Scripture. Most of these writings are chapters in a book somewhere or an article in a journal from 20 years ago elsewhere. Naselli has helpfully collected them in one volume, and after working my way through the book, I agree this was a wise decision.

Carson has the ability to cut through the fog and get to the heart of a controversy, while at the same time staying dispassionate and irenic. His clear reason and forceful logic require even those being critiqued to agree that he has correctly captured their viewpoint even as he finds some fault with it. For the reader, Carson takes one on a journey across the last thirty years and indeed over the past two thousand. He surveys new developments in the doctrine of Scripture and compares them to church history and Scripture itself. Some of the essays or reviews are more technical and focus on a particular author or controversy, but Carson takes pains to show how what is at stake in an individual work applies to the broader picture. Along the way, a robust doctrine of Scripture is hammered out on the anvil of controversy and I found that my confidence and trust in the orthodox doctrines of verbal inspiration and inerrancy were strengthened.

Carson doesn’t just preach to the choir. He chastens the church for the diminishing role of the authority of Scriptures. He doesn’t hesitate to use the work of others, either. Whether it’s a jewel of a quote from Calvin, or a painstaking new explanation of the New Testament witness to inerrancy by Grudem, Carson is both aware of the contribution of others and applies it winsomely to the current discussion.

Carson’s ability to dissect a book and both appreciate its good points and show its weaknesses is nothing short of amazing. A few of the chapters deal with three books on Scripture at once. Seeing Carson interact with these books strengthened my critical eye and informed me of Carson’s perspective at the same time. I was particularly helped by his discussion of Peter Enns’s book Inspiration and Incarnation. Carson is disturbed by Enns seeming goal of overthrowing the confidence in Scripture that many of his readers have: “Wow. So are we explaining how evangelical faith accommodates biblical scholarship, or are we asserting that a Copernican revolution must take place within evangelical faith so as to accommodate biblical scholarship?” (pg. 367). He goes on to show that while incarnation can be a helpful analogy for understanding Scripture, Enns fails to explain what view of incarnation he has, how exactly Jesus’ humanity equates to Scripture’s humanness (if Scripture has errors does that mean Jesus had sin??), and how he uses the analogy. Carson concludes, rather, that “‘Incarnation’ is merely a rhetorically positive word to approve Enns’s argument” (pg. 269).

Carson’s review of Enns’s book leads to my one disappointment with this collection. Carson deals a lot with hermeneutics in dealing with Peter Enns’s claims. Carson concludes concerning the apostles that their “hermeneutic… overlaps with that of the Jews, is distinguishable from it, and at certain points is much more in line with the actual shape of Scripture: it rests on the unpacking of the Bible’s storyline.” (pg. 282). It is here that I wish Carson would elaborate. I was hoping this collection would include Carson’s thoughts on hermeneutics along with inspiration and canonization. I’m not sure if Carson has given us an extended treatment of hermeneutics, so that might be why it is excluded. Still, what is included is superb and furthers my belief that Carson’s scholarship is one of the incredible blessings God has given the Church today.

This book is not for everyone. Some familiarity with current controversies over inerrancy and Scripture is required. Students and pastors alike will be blessed and challenged by reading this book. And even if it is a stretch for you, you should benefit. I know I did. I recommend the book highly.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Crossway Books for review. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

You can pick up a copy of this book at Amazon.com or through direct from Crossway.

Live at the Gospel Coalition Conference – Final Reflections

~ Bob Hayton

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at The Gospel Coalition Conference. The event was organized well and the layout of the convention center was easy to follow. I wish I had had more time to take in some of the extra panel discussions sprinkled throughout and the post-conference event. Apparently an extra session was called Thursday morning, where D.A. Carson addressed the Rob Bell issue, speaking on what universalism is and why it isn’t a confessionally Christian position. [Download the audio here.]

Seeing 5-6,000 people in attendance at this kind of an event was special for me. I’ve spent time in an ultra-conservative fundamentalist group, and for many years I learned to look with deep suspicion on anyone who didn’t agree with me on almost every point of doctrine and practice. To see the unity in Christ, the desire for good preaching, the passion for the Gospel in such a diverse and mixed group of people was thrilling. God uses all kinds of people, and united around the Gospel message we have room for varying points of view on secondary doctrines and matters of practice. I was thrilled at the idea of The Together for the Gospel conference back when it first launched, and I have elsewhere pointed out how the Gospel should really shape our unity. So it was a joy to finally experience on a large scale a similar event that focuses on people coming together for the Gospel.

The theme of the conference was especially meaningful to me. I’ve been studying the interrelation between the Old and New Testaments for quite some time. Seeing Christ in the Old Testament afresh has been faith building for me and has revolutionized my reading of Scripture. The topic was treated carefully and not just academically. Christ in the OT was preached as something for us to rejoice in. I believe that many preachers will be more equipped to preach from the Old Testament after having attended this conference. Many of the books recommended for preachers to read, will also prove helpful.

Dispensationalism wasn’t necessarily treated as a big problem needing to be addressed head on or anything. Some speakers said certain forms of dispensationalism bias one toward not preaching Christ from the OT. I would agree, but much of what was said at the conference can apply no matter what position is taken on dispensationalism. I don’t think reasonable dispensationalists would have been offended by the conference at all. They may have been challenged or even encouraged by it, but not offended. Not being dispensational myself, I might have missed something there. I just think the way the conference handled this point was commendable.

Finally, the book tables and exhibits were breathtaking. Lifeway Christian Stores helped sell the books, but numerous publishers had their representatives on hand to help with the book tables. My friend Shaun and I, avid book review bloggers that we are, enjoyed getting to meet several contacts that we’ve only ever interacted with on email before. We took a shift helping the Christian Focus Publications book table too, as we have been working with them closely on a social media project (through our new part time business, Cross Focused Media). From a book-lovers’ perspective, there were great discounts, giveaways galore, and a lot of excellent books on hand. That made the conference special in its own right.

On the way back, Shaun and I got to meet a blogging friend, Kevin Thompson in Janesville, WI. Kevin has interviewed me before, this time I got to interview him! (Unofficially and without recording equipment…) We really enjoyed meeting him, and both enjoyed our trip to The Gospel Coalition Conference, immensely.

For more on The 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference you can check out the Desiring God blog here for live summaries of each of the sessions.