Tag: NT

Live at The Gospel Coalition Conference – 4

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

Here is a brief overview of each of the plenary sessions from day 2 of the 2011 Gospel Coalition conference.

Session 5: James MacDonald – Not According to Our Sins (Psalm 25)
–Download audio–

I had never heard James MacDonald preach, except for maybe a clip here or there from the radio or something. He was an engaging speaker and very passionate. He said before you can preach Christ from the OT, you have to know how to preach. There’s a need for people today to preach, “Thus says the Lord.” Then you need to preach Christ from the Word and He is in the Word both in the Old and New Testaments. He then preached through Psalm 25 detailing his own personal experience of being crushed by life’s problems lately and really having to trust in God like the Psalmist did. He used visual elements in the preaching, but it was definitely a word-based proclamation. The visual elements helped, but it’s hard to describe if you can’t see the video. At the end he explained how Jesus is in this Psalm. He embodies our trust, He exemplifies our trust, and He enables our trust.

Workshops

I am not sure if the workshops will be recorded or not. But I’m glad I attended the ones I did.

Workshop 1: Colin Smith – Preaching a Christ to Whom We Can Come

Colin Smith originally hails from Scotland so his accent was on full display. What he said about preaching a Christ to whom our people can come, rather than one they are to follow and obey (only), was very grace-filled and refreshing. I’d say more, but you can download and read his presentation (in PDF) here, from his website and ministry UnlockingtheBible.com.

Workshop 2: C.J. Mahaney – Pastoring with Discernment: Applying the Gospel to the Hearts of Those You Serve

As always, C.J. Mahaney did not disappoint. His lecture was less a workshop, and more a sermon. It just was a sermon, no bones about it. About 800 or more it seemed were in the room for his session. He preached through the book of Jude with particular emphasis on “keeping in the love of God”, as people who were “loved, called and kept (vs. 1) by building ourselves up in faith (through rehearsing the Gospel to ourselves daily), by praying, and through waiting for God’s mercy. He also emphasized that Jude was very eager to declare the common salvation or the Gospel, but he had to contend. Mahaney stressed that contending isn’t optional, but we must be wise in what threats to the Gospel really apply to our church and need to be contended with in that context. The contending is important but Jude’s passion was the Gospel. He stressed that Jude wasn’t eager for secondary things or practice or church structure or social issues. We may be tempted to be passionate. What pastors are very eager about matters and is obvious to their people.

Workshop 3: Randy Newman – Questioning Evangelism

Randy Newman who is a converted Jew who ministers to college professors and the like with Faculty Commons, Campus Crusade, is also the author of a couple books on evangelism. Questioning Evangelism is his first book and what his lecture covered. Bringing the Gospel Home: Witnessing to Family Members, Close Friends, and Others Who Know You Well is a new book just published by Crossway. This session was excellent as he worked through the role of questions in evangelism. Answer people’s questions about the gospel with a question rather than an answer. He explained that you should look at people on a grid from A to Z with A being extreme atheist, and Z being almost a believer. Rather than aiming to convert people with a one-shot prospect, we should look for ongoing process. Try to bump them up a few rungs, by causing them to think and overcoming an obstacle. Let our Sovereign God do his work. Today people don’t share the many common beliefs that most Gospel pamphlets and tracts assume. So an incremental approach is better. I’m going to have to seek out his book, since this seems such a good approach.

Session 6: Conrad Mbewe – The Righteous Branch (Jeremiah 23)
–Download audio–

With my parents being missionaries in Zambia, I was particularly interested in hearing Conrad Mbewe. I had heard of him only recently, and my parents don’t know him at all. Some apparently, call him the African Spurgeon. He’s a pastor in Lusaka and helps direct two colleges for pastors. Not sure if he’s quite Spurgeon’s equal, but he is passionate and articulate. His message on Jesus, the Branch was powerful. He explained the role of leaders and how their sins affect the people, and their judgment is the people’s judgment. God’s solution has been to give new leaders who are faithful to his people, but ultimately it is Jesus the Good Shepherd and the Branch who will arise. The restoration prophesied here is described as surpassing that of the Exodus. He said, “Let’s face it, this wasn’t fulfilled in the 1940s with Israel.” He finds the ultimate fulfillment in the eternal state. The message didn’t focus on particulars about the land promise or anything, it was a wider lens view of Jesus Christ and his Greatness and Glory.

Session 7: Matt Chandler – Youth (Ecclesiastes 11-12)
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Chandler was the best message of the day, by far. He went so fast it was very hard to keep up. His own story of having been diagnosed with brain cancer a year or so ago, is compelling in its own right. His message on remembering the Creator in the days of your youth, was especially poignant given his own story. He connected the command to rejoice in 11:9-10, with the command to remember. We need to remember rightly (the Gospel and what God has done for us), in order to rejoice rightly. Our problem isn’t rejoicing, it’s rejoicing in the wrong things. Chandler also drove home the need for the Gospel in all of life, not just the entry to the Christian life. He displayed an amazing knowledge of the Bible and had a humorous yet insightful way of putting things. I’ve heard him compared to Mark Driscoll as far as the style of his church, and he is friends with Driscoll. I wasn’t sure what to expect. He didn’t wear a tie or anything close to that. But he didn’t come across as inappropriate or even close to it. His preaching could be put right up there with John Piper’s in a sense, or C.J. Mahaney’s. I was blessed and will want to download this to listen to it again.

This was day two, and I have to leave now to start day three. The conference will be over soon, unfortunately. But I’ve enjoyed my time here immensely.

Live at The Gospel Coalition Conference – 2

~ Bob Hayton

Here is a brief overview of each of the plenary sessions from yesterday’s conference. I’ll have more to say about books and the Band of Bloggers event I went to later.

The music was led by Keith and Kristyn Getty. It was more upbeat and lively than I expected, which was actually nice. The Irish flair was there with even a bagpipe solo. They are introducing a fairly new song of theirs, “By Faith” and also did an even newer one. Prior to session 2, the music at one point dropped out and the congregation was heard more clearly singing “O Church Arise”. The 5,000 or so voices singing that song together was powerful. Praise to Jesus for bringing together his people in places like this conference center (the massive McCormick Place in Chicago) and all around the world…

Session 1: Al Mohler – Studying the Scriptures and Finding Jesus (John 5)
–Download audio–

Mohler explains the problem of a Christless Old Testament, and explains how studying the Scriptures is supposed to result in finding Jesus. He shows how so many people are practical Marcionites, claiming the New Testament is the Christian book, the OT is Hebrew Scriptures. Basically, some would have us do synagogue lectures when we teach from the OT. Don’t get me wrong, his tone wasn’t combative at all. It was a very helpful and hope filled lecture on the importance of seeing Christ in the OT.

Session 2: Tim Keller – Getting Out (Exodus 14)
–Download audio–

Keller showed multiple links from the Exodus account to the New Testament. He explained that the story of the Israelites could be described as this: They were slaves in bondage with no hope and a sentence of death, finding redemption by hiding under the blood atonement, crossing over from death to life, then having a promise of going to a new country. They’re not there yet, but they’re on the way and God has given them his law and a worship system so they treasure and remember His work for them. Keller then says, that’s exactly how you would describe the people of God today, too. He goes on to discuss the layers of bondage and the redemption and how it was accomplished (all by Grace).

Session 3: Alistair Begg – From a Foreigner to King Jesus (Ruth)
–Download audio–

Begg gave us sketches of the beautiful story of Ruth. He showed how Boaz, particularly, was the goel, kinsman redeemer and foreshadows Christ. He also drew parallels from the locale of Ruth’s story and then David’s childhood tending sheep there in Bethlehem, to Christ and the Bethlehem shepherds coming at his birth in Bethlehem. Much to see Christ from in this book.

Session 4: Round-table discussion – Tim Keller, John Piper, Crawford Loritts, Don Carson, Bryan Chapell
–Download audio–

Highlights from that are really anything Keller or Carson said. Loritts emphasized the role of the preacher’s walk with Christ too, in preaching. Piper emphasized not ignoring the context of the OT text itself when preaching from it.

Keller explained his preaching as a fourfold trajectory often: 1) What you should do (as evidenced by this OT text); 2) You can’t do this (due to your sinfulness); 3) Christ has done it for you (i.e. the Gospel applied); 4) Until you rest in what He’s done, you can’t do it (living the gospel life).

Piper mentioned Graeme Goldsworthy’s book on Preaching the Whole Bible As Christian Scripture as containing a line that really got Piper thinking and has changed how he preaches. Goldsworthy said “If a Muslim liked your sermon, you didn’t preach a Christian sermon. If a Jewish person liked your sermon, you didn’t preach a Christian sermon.”

Carson brought out the Temple theme as one of many trajectories that are traced through Scripture and which really do point to Christ. He stressed everything doesn’t point to Christ the same way, but when you are in a text that addresses one of these types or trajectories that aligns to Christ, you have a warrant for going to Christ. Carson was also asked by Chapell, “Can you preach Proverbs without going to the New Testament?” Carson immediately responded, “Why would I want to? It wouldn’t even occur to me to do so.” He also pointed out that it’s the same with texts like Isaiah, too. Carson then went on to stress that the NT relates to the OT yes in terms of not only prophecy (OT) and fulfillment (NT), but also message hidden (OT) and message revealed (NT). Personally I find that very helpful, yes some things are plainly clear, but other things were hidden until Christ clearly revealed them.

At the end of the discussion, Chapell fired off a list of helpful resources for preaching Christ from the OT. I thought that list (plus Bryan Chapell’s own book, Christ-Centered Preaching) was excellent. You’ll have to listen to the audio though since he gave it out so quickly.

At the end of the roundtable discussion Tim Keller, John Piper, Dr. John Woodhouse and Lane Dennis (president of Crossway), presented a book written in Carson’s honor, commemorating his long service to the church and his 65th birthday.

“Keep Your Greek: Strategies for Busy People” by Constantine R. Campbell

~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

Many of us studied Greek back in our college days. some of us were proficient Greek students, once upon a time. Sadly, over time, the Greek vocabulary cards have lain untouched, paradigms become unfamiliar, and new Bible software tools provide the only real interaction with Greek that we continue to have.

Losing our Greek is troubling because we know that we learned Greek for a reason. Understanding the language of the New Testament allows us to “teach God’s Word with depth of understanding, observing its subtleties and nuances, many of which cannot be conveyed in translation” (pg. 83). Ultimately, Greek study is all about knowing God’s Word better so we can teach and preach it better.

Seeing so many Greek students slowly lose their Greek due to the business of pastoral ministry, Constantine R. Campbell started blogging about how to “Keep Your Greek”. The tips and strategies he shared on his blog were widely appreciated and Campbell was encouraged to turn his helpful suggestions into a book. The result is Keep Your Greek: Strategies for Busy People a handy little book published by Zondervan.

Dr. Campbell, a senior lecturer in Greek and New Testament at Moore Theological College in Syndey, arranges his strategies in order of importance. Number one on his list is the importance of 10 minutes spent reading Greek every day.

Reading every day increases your confidence. Vocabulary, grammar, and syntax all feel more familiar with everyday exposure. Your subconscious mind is triggered regularly to reinforce your learning and knowledge.

There is no substitute for reading Greek, he insists. Next he encourages us to burn our interlinears. He later allows a prudent use of Bible software, and even the use of a Reader’s Greek New Testament (like this one). But having the English translation of each Greek word immediately visible below prevents the actual learning of Greek. Too much dependence on software too, can cripple us — making us dependent on the tools and never proficient in the world of NT Greek.

Campbell offers encouragement when it comes to learning vocabulary and mastering those verb paradigms. Various tools, both online and in book form, are described as well. The most useful tool for Campbell is Burer and Miller’s A New Reader’s Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, which lists the unfamiliar Greek words and definitions in order, chapter by chapter throughout the New Testament. He advocates referencing this tool when reading the Greek for yourself.

Some will still wonder if relearning Greek is really worth it. They may have preached for years without much use of biblical languages. I thought Dr. Campbell’s words on this point were quite helpful:

I’ve never met a Bible teacher who wished they had not learned Greek. It’s only the guys who have let it slip and no longer use it for their sermon preparation who try to tell me that Greek doesn’t enhance their teaching…. Of course it won’t enhance your teaching if you don’t use it!

…My own experience is that Greek always enhances my teaching of the Bible in some way. It may not always make a dramatic difference to my understanding of the text, though it sometimes does. But it always gives me a deeper appreciation of the text and insight into its nuances. This is the testimony of all those who have talked to me about their experiences of teaching the New Testament with a knowledge of Greek. It makes a difference. (pg. 10)

By the end of the book, after reading through all the tips and helps that Campbell offers, you find yourself agreeing with Campbell that yes, I can keep my Greek. “It’s easier to remember the Greek you’ve forgotten than it was to learn it in the first place,” he reminds us (pg. 73). An appendix applies the book to the first time learner, encouraging them to take care how they learn the language the first time. “Get it right the first time”, that section is entitled.

Having began as a series of blog posts, this book is casual and accessible rather than formal and technical. After each chapter, Campbell even includes some of the blog reactions (comments) from his original readers. This feature of the book makes it both more interesting and more helpful. The insights, questions and feedback of the bloggers will mirror what’s going through your mind as the reader. And many of the tips the bloggers share are worthwhile in their own right.

This little book, and it is little — only 90 pages long — will prove to be an encouragement to many, like me, who have let their Greek slide. I highly recommend it.

Be sure to check out the Keep Your Greek blog tour at Zondervan’s Koinonia blog for more information on this book.

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

Pick up a copy of this book at Amazon.com or through Zondervan direct.

The Old Testament: All about Christ, or Not?

~ Bob Hayton ~ 21 Comments

Fascinating debate recently about how to read the OT. The first two statements below are from Professor Mark Snoeberger of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.

First:

But since I’ve spent almost all my study time in the OT during the last two months, it’s almost as though I’ve left the Gospel Carnival behind. Kind of like going for a drive in the country, but better. It’s been very refreshing, but the funny thing is that, despite the fact that I have been spending considerably more time than normal in my Bible for the past two months, I’ve read virtually nothing about Christ, the Cross, or the Gospel.

Now some of you are probably shaking your heads right now and saying, “This guy doesn’t know how to read his Bible–it’s ALL about Christ if you know how to successfully navigate between the lines!” And I’m not blind to the redemptive thread that winds through the Bible. But the thing is, when I stop reading between the lines and just start reading the lines, Christ and the Gospel do not emerge as major OT themes. In fact, they’re not themes at all.

and then in the first comment under this post:

Revelation concerning the common or civic sphere, on the other hand, begins with the dominion mandate, takes peculiar shape with the Noahic Covenant and the second table of the Law, and dominates the theocratic period.

Dispensationalism, I think, can be demonstrated to be a variation of this latter model (some would say a perversion) that offers multiple adminstrations–not just two. The various purposes of God are inter-connected, but what is key is that they are not limited to redemptive concerns. What binds them together is not so much the Gospel as it is the manifold glory of God. It’s BIGGER than the Gospel.

Let’s take one example: the OT sacrificial system. There are diverse understandings within dispensationalism on the OT sacrifices, but one that I have felt comfortable embracing is John Whitcomb’s theocratic understanding of the sacrifices, viz., that the sacrifices were only incidentally connected with being redemptively right with God; instead they were concerned with being theocratically right with the (K)ing and with the covenant community. That these sacrifices became a pattern for the redemptive arrangement in the death of Christ is not accidental, of course. And God certainly arranged history so that there is a continuity of form. However, it seems to me that rather than seeing the OT sacrifices as anticipating Christ, it is better to say that God modeled Christ’s sacrifice retrospectively after the theocratic system.

If this is the case, then the the Mosaic system has its own meaning, known plainly by the OT saint, without reference to Christ. It was not intrinsically anticipatory.

Over and against this, Brian McCrorie in the comments here shared my basic view on this matter:

Ben I don’t think I fundamentally disagree with you. However, I would only add that we should not only interpret the OT on it’s own terms, but also interpret it canonically (ie, the Bible as one book)

If we simply isolate the OT from the NT, and interpret it “on it’s own terms”, and not canonically, would we ever come to the conclusion that Jonah could be a picture of Christ? Furthermore, I don’t need an OT text to explicitly tell me the rock in the wilderness was Christ when Paul tells me as much in 1 Cor.

If we isolate the testaments we may not even (like some comments above) see how Adam prefigured Christ. But it blows my mind that someone who has the NT would even question the correlation of the first Adam to the second, or King David to his greater Son whom he calls “Lord”.

The bigger question in all of this I think is how or if we can do what the NT writers do. For instance, we don’t have explicitly or implicity (that I know of)in the NT that Joseph was a type of Christ. But the correlations are almost as clear as day. I agree with James that Keller’s references to Esther and others are much more of a stretch. However, that doesn’t make his hermeneutic “special”, he’s just trying to follow the pattern of intertextual canonical interpretation. How confidently we do that today without divine inspiration is the sticking point (at least for me).

Lastly, I wanted to comment on something Keith said:
“How could God, ‘retrospectively’ do anything when he decreed it all outside of time?”

Marriage from the perspective of Eph 5 is a perfect example of this. We know now, this side of the cross and through later revelation, that marriage was instituted to be a picture of Christ and the church. In other words, the cross and the church preexisted (in the purpose of God, not strictly in time) the marriage of man and woman. Why then would we be surprised to find the events and words of the OT orchestrated and inspired to point to Christ? We’re not necessarilty reading Christ and the NT back into the OT. It’s almost as if we’re going back before the OT, now with the knowledge of God’s ultimate plan climaxing in Christ. We have now what angels and prophets once only dreamed of seeing. Please don’t make me go back to that day.

and then:

Here [is an] illustration supporting canonical reading (or reading the NT back into the OT):

Black box: Imagine a FAA flight inspection team reviewing data and clues from the site of a plane crash. All their information is leading them down a path of understanding the cause of the crash. But when they find the black box they have the pilot’s definitive word on how and why the plane went down. Wouldn’t they then go back and look at all the collected data and see how all along it pointed to that particular failure. But without the black box it wasn’t clear. The recording didn’t change the data (NT revelation doesn’t alter the OT), but shed new light on its proper and full interpretation. Furthermore, without the box, the collected data could never have been fully understood. Why would any inspector then go back and disregard the recording, or separate it from the data, and try to interpret the two separately? Instead, he would interpret the (less clear) clues with the definitive recording….

By isolating the OT and having a hermeneutic based on original authorial intent instead of a wider canonical interpretation based on divine Authorial intent, we are severely limiting our understanding of the text. We can better locate, appreciate, and interpret the signs and symbols pointing to Christ in the OT only as we see them through the lens of the NT. Lastly, we must be very careful to isolate the OT from the NT because, in my opinion, the function of OT revelation (as well as parables, for example) is not simply to reveal, but also to conceal. We weren’t meant to get all the information on God’s redemptive plan from the OT. Throughout the OT God gives us clues which only later can be identified for what they were. My guess is that originally God intentionally concealed the whole story (like any good writer) from all people, but particularly from rulers and authorities, and ultimately Satan himself. How else can we explain Satan killing the King of the Jews only to realize the salvation of the world and his own defeat?

I encourage you to read the comments where Brian made these statements above. There is an in-depth discussion of this question and all participants are quite irenic and charitable. Makes for great reading. The comments at Snoeberger’s blog will just puzzle you more than anything. If that is the result of dispensationalist thinking, I say beware.

Makes me excited that I’ll be going to the Gospel Coalition Conference this year where the theme is preaching Christ from the Old Testament. Maybe that’s why the Conservative Evangelicals have such an appeal to young fundamentalists, they get what the message of the Bible is all about.

“Reclaiming the Old Testament for Christian Preaching” edited by Kent, Kissling & Turner

~ Bob Hayton ~ 7 Comments

Over the last few decades, a revival of interest in the Old Testament seems to have come over the evangelical church. Numerous resources for preaching the Old Testament and for understanding the various genres we find in the first two thirds of our Bibles have been produced. The tide is turning, and more and more we hear of careful preaching through the Old Testament again.

We still have a long way to go, however. Most conservative pulpits major on the New Testament. After all, the relevance of NT books to the Christian living today is much more apparent. Popular expositors have even given us commentary after commentary on the New Testament, to the almost complete exclusion of the Old Testament. Theology-heavy sermons from the doctrinal portions of the New Testament can serve to keep people out of touch with the reality of the story of Scripture. And ironically, in an age where everybody’s story has value, the grand overarching storyline of the Bible is silenced by the Church’s neglect of the first 39 books of her Bible.

Many of the resources being published that are seeking to revive a focus on the Old Testament are locked away in scholarly tomes or couched in some liberal theological garb, effectively kept away from the average pastor’s and Bible teacher’s reach. A new book by InterVarsity Press aims to bring scholarly resources into an accessible and highly useful format. Reclaiming the Old Testament for Christian Preaching, edited by Grenville J.R. Kent, Paul J. Kissling and Laurence A. Turner, actually manages to live up to its title’s bold claim. In an accessible and user-friendly format, the book brings together contributions from a wide array of OT scholars.

After a brief introduction, the book moves on to cover OT narrative plot, OT narrative characters, the Law, Lament, Praise Poetry, Wisdom literature, the Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Apocalyptic literature, and the Minor Prophets. It also has a chapter on preaching from difficult texts and another on preaching Christ from the Old Testament. The chapters aren’t too long or overly detailed; instead, they are delightfully readable. They are structured in such a way as to clearly convey the primary difficulties and recommended approaches for the particular genre surveyed. Almost all the chapters include helpful footnotes and recommendations for further study. And each concludes with an example sermon which puts the theory into practice.

As I read through this book, I kept earmarking page after page where helpful insights were shared about the various parts of the Old Testament. The sections covering narrative plot and characters were especially helpful and full of examples. Laurence Turner stressed placing each narrative in context to its larger narrative, and on sticking to the flow of the author as much as possible when developing a sermon. Paul Kissling discussed a unique strategy of comparing the speech of the characters over and against the narrator’s account, as a way of finding the main point of a given story. Christopher J.H. Wright’s chapter on preaching the Law was also superb. He stressed the connection Law has with grace as seen in the historical setting given in the Pentateuch. He also unpacked the lesser-known missiological aspects of the Law: namely, Israel living out God’s Law as a testimony to the nations, and the application this has to the Church today.

Federico Villanueva’s chapter on Lament was particularly insightful as he writes from the standpoint of a non-Westerner (he ministers in Manila). Tremper Longman’s chapter on wisdom literature, particularly his discussion of Ecclesiastes and Job, was also very helpful in finding ways to grasp the main point of these books and how best to apply it to today’s Christians. Similarly, Grenville Kent’s discussion on the Song of Solomon was also very helpful. Even though he steers clear of a direct allegorical interpretation, he finds value in analogy and metaphor. His discussion of where God makes an appearance in the Song, and why, is worth quoting here:

So if Yahweh had appeared directly in the Song, the culture may well have misunderstood him as condoning fertility religion or even as just another fertility god. The Song clearly separates worship and sex. it is ‘a non-mythological, non-cultic, non-idolatrous, outright, open celebration of God-given sexual love’. (pg. 130, quote from John G. Snaith The Song of Songs (Eerdmans, 1993), pg. 5.)

The chapter on Isaiah, by H.G.M. Williamson did a great job stressing the literary unity of Isaiah. He traced the theme of righteousness and justice showing how such wide themes inform the specific context of any given passage in the book. Daniel Block challenges us to preach Ezekiel, and offers several helpful charts and analyses of the book and its central message. Alison Lo gave a wonderful, yet brief treatment of the Minor Prophets. She excelled at relating the context and themes of those books to today’s world and its problems. She also discussed the interrelation of the books as a wider whole (the “book of the twelve”), and provided a fascinating outline of Zephaniah.

Gordon Wenham’s discussion of various “difficult texts” in the Old Testament was in the whole, masterful. Some may disagree with his stance on Gen. 1 — explaining the wider context of the ideas about the world of the time (and thus not getting into a discussion of whether the six days are literal 24 hour days), but his comments on the imprecatory psalms, the “eye for an eye” law, apparent divine-sanctioned genocides, and OT slavery are both helpful and wise. R.W.L. Moberly’s chapter on preaching Christ from the Old Testament cites a lot of material that applies to this concern. He stresses that the wider context of the Old Testament includes the canonical grouping of the books and their use by the Church. He sees a second narrative (the NT) interpreting the original narrative in a sense similar to a detective story where at the end, all the initial elements of the plot make perfect sense. He also allows for imagination to impact interpretation and helpfully walks through some examples in how to think through this in a practical manner.

The chapters in the book are not all of equal value. The praise poetry, and apocalyptic literature sections were not as helpful to me. Some of the contributors may not be as immediately accessible as others. But the beauty of this book is how it offers a manual for the preacher who is choosing an OT text to preach. This book won’t be the only resource consulted, but it offers a sensible approach and several helpful points for encountering just about any text in the Old Testament. Throughout, it stresses a literary and canonical approach that focuses on the Old Testament we have, not imagined historical reconstructions. This ensures the book’s usefulness by people of a variety of particular persuasions within evangelicalism.

I trust tools such as Reclaiming the Old Testament for Christian Preaching, will encourage many pastors to pick an OT book for their next sermon series. This book will prove useful for any Bible student, and I highly recommend it. May the beauty of the Old Testament captivate the hearts and minds of more teachers and preachers, and be preached with power to the congregations that God has entrusted to their care.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Inter-Varsity Press for review. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

Pick up a copy of this book at Amazon.com or through IVP direct.