Tag: Recommended

“A Life of Gospel Peace: A Biography of Jeremiah Burroughs” by Phillip L. Simpson

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Book Details:
  • Author: Phillip L. Simpson
  • Category: Biography
  • Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books (2011)
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Page Count: 336
  • ISBN#: 1601781229
  • List Price: $30.00
  • Rating: Highly Recommended

Review:
In recent years the English Puritans have been making a comeback. Pastors and theological students, in America and elsewhere, have been looking to their writings for inspiration and guidance. Names like John Owen, Richard Baxter, Thomas Goodwin, Richard Sibbes, John Bunyan, Samuel Rutherford,and Matthew Henry are exceedingly well known. Their books adorn my bookshelves and the shelves of many of today’s church leaders. What’s more, their appeal bridges both the Calvinism-Arminianism and the charismatic-cessationist gaps. Preachers of all stripes benefit from the wisdom of these men of years past.

Many of the Puritans have had a long history of well-written biographies. But some of the Puritans are known today by little more than their writings. One such Puritan preacher is Jeremiah Burroughs. His name may be familiar to some–he is perhaps best known for his attempts to encourage a unity of spirit in the Puritan party between the Presbyterian-leaning majority and the Congregationalists and other non-conformists. He was a preacher extraordinaire in his time and was invited to be one of the few Congregationalists admitted to the Westminster Assembly of Divines, which gave us the well-known and widely respected Westminster Confession of Faith. But in the centuries after Jeremiah Burroughs’ ministry, no full-length biography of the man had ever been written.

That misfortune has been remedied through the efforts of Phillip L. Simpson, an avid researcher of all things Jeremiah Burroughs and webmaster of the Jeremiah Burroughs Homepage website. His recently published work, A Life of Gospel Peace: A Biography of Jeremiah Burroughs (Reformation Heritage, 2011), makes a fine contribution to the study of the English Puritans in general, even as it introduces us to the largely forgotten man, Jeremiah Burroughs.

We don’t know an awful lot about Burroughs, we don’t know when he was married and what exactly his home life was like. But everything we do know about him is pieced together admirably by Simpson. We follow Burroughs from his childhood home to his days as a college student at Cambridge, influenced by Puritanism and traveling far and wide to sit at the feet of well-known Puritan preachers such as John Cotton, John Wilson and John Rogers. Burroughs’ closest friends at that time are also well-known Puritans in their own right: Thomas Goodwin, William Bridge, and Sydrach Simpson. Burroughs was also influenced by the well-known Thomas Hooker during his time at Cambridge.

From there, Burroughs took teaching and preaching posts which eventually got him in trouble with the Anglican authorities of the day. His opportunities to preach became severely limited and he eventually took refuge in Holland. There he was involved in a Congregationalist church and had many opportunities to preach. But when the tides of religious freedom turned, and the English Civil War saw the Puritan parliament squaring off against the Anglican monarchy, Burroughs took the opportunity to return to his beloved England.

He soon was preaching at three different churches a week, and being asked to preach before parliament. And then his services were required in the Westminster Assembly. He worked tirelessly, preaching and teaching, and turning his lectures into a number of important and widely read books. Then at the age of 47, the humble and widely respected minister died.

As Simpson details the life of Jeremiah Burroughs, he adds all the fascinating details such as Burroughs’ thoughts on church government and eschatology, his run-ins with Anglican authorities and harsh critics, his escapades in Holland, and the inner workings of the Westminster Assembly. And as Simpson walks us through Burrough’s life chronologically, he pauses to discuss the sermons and books that were written by Burroughs at each step in his life. Simpson’s expertise shines through as he summarizes and excerpts Burroughs’ works, and it seems that he must have read them all.

In reading this biography, then, you also sample many of Burrough’s writings, which are often excerpted at some length. Burroughs proves to be focused on God’s glory and has a warm style that majors on God’s grace and the glories of Christ:

In all your conversation with God, have an eye to Christ; look unto God, the infinite, glorious First Being of all things, but do it through Christ, the Mediator…. Then God is rendered sweet and amiable, lovely to the soul, like a friend that the soul can be familiar with, when He is looked upon through Jesus Christ. (pg. 151)

God the Father is infinitely satisfied in Christ. Surely if Christ is an object sufficient for the satisfaction of the Father, much more, then, is He an object sufficient for the satisfaction of any soul. (pg. 206)

Pastors and church leaders will benefit from Burroughs’ life and example–his emphasis on prayer and the manner of his dealings with various church controversies and personal criticisms. They will also benefit the excepts shared from Burroughs’ Irenicum to the Lovers of Truth and Peace, which was my favorite section of this book. In this book, Burroughs aimed to encourage the church of his day to desist from ugly divisions and to instead work for peace. Simpson points out that Richard Baxter once said, “I entreat those that would escape the sin of schism, to read the foresaid treatises of peacemakers [including] Jeremy Burroughs’s Irenicum” (pg. 255). With my background in strict fundamentalism, I found his thoughts on this subject most pertinent, and I can’t help but share a few of these excerpts with my readers.

Many men are of such spirits as they love to be altogether busied about their brethren’s differences. Their discourses, their pens, and all their ways are about these, and that not to heal them but rather to widen them. (pg. 257)

We must profess truth when the truths are necessary to salvation, and when my forbearance in them may endanger the salvation of any. [Yet he criticized the] rigidness of the judgments of some… who think all differences in religion that cannot be quelled by argument must be quelled by violence. (pg. 260)

If I must err, considering what our condition is here in this world, I will rather err by too much gentleness and mildness than by too much rigor and severity. (pg. 261)

Shall every jealous, suspicious conceit, every little difference, be enough to separate us, and that almost irreconcilably? Have we the Spirit of Christ in us? Is the same mind in us that was in Jesus Christ? (pg. 261)

Let us account those [to be] brethren in whom we see godliness, and carry ourselves towards them accordingly, even though they will not so account us. Let us not be too ready to cut off association with our brethren. (pg. 262)

Oh, that God would set the beauty and glory of peace, friendship, and love before us! That this precious pearl, union, might be highly valued by us! Let us all study peace, seek peace, follow peace, pursue peace, and the God of peace be with us. (pg. 263)

Simpson reflects on Burroughs’ death and legacy as follows:

Burroughs once said that peace was dearer to him than his own life. Time has shown that, though he did not live long, his cry for peace among brothers in Christ continues to resonate to this day. What could be more needful in this age than to adopt his attitude of graciously submitting to whatever circumstance our heavenly Father brings us? (pg. 295)

Surely such a man is worth getting to know. And you will find no better book to become acquainted with Jeremiah Burroughs than Phillip Simpson’s excellent biography. I highly recommend it.

Author Info:
Phillip L. Simpson and his wife, Sara, live in Huntington, WV, along with their two children, Zack and Molly. Phillip developed and maintains the Jeremiah Burroughs Homepage website, a site dedicated to collecting resources by and about Jeremiah Burroughs. He is a lay teacher and member of Crew Church in Huntington. Simpson graduated from Marshall University and Eastern Kentucky University, and is employed as an occupational therapist, helping people with dizziness and balance disorders. He also serves on the West Virginia Board of Occupational Therapy.

Where to Buy:
  • Christianbook.com
  • Amazon
  • Reformation Heritage Books

Related Media:
  • Author interview about this book
  • Author’s website

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

Dr. Russell Moore: A Gospel-Centered Response to the Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood

~ Bob Hayton

Dr. Russell Moore struck gold in his comments Friday on the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s reversal of their decision to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. I really appreciated his viewpoint and wanted to share some of his article posted on Christianity Today here.

Some pro-life persons might wish that the Christian churches had as much influence in the public arena as Planned Parenthood, that we were able to mobilize as many callers and threaten as many boycotts. Some might see this as a sign that we need more money and respect. After all, if some Christian foundation had more financial firepower than Planned Parenthood, Komen might have stood firm…

In all of this, though, we can gain an opportunity to see what the abortion culture is all about: cash. Planned Parenthood and their allies use the thoroughly American language of freedom of choice and women’s empowerment, but what’s at stake, as seen here, are billions of dollars…

The answer for those of us who cherish the lives of women and their children, regardless of stage of development, isn’t to long to compete with Planned Parenthood in the influence that comes with massive amounts of wealth. It’s instead to see, first of all, how our own captivity to Mammon devolves us in the same way…

We don’t need a Christian foundation to compete with the merchants of death. We don’t need one more coalition with enough signatures to counter the threatened boycotts of the abortion rights peddlers. And we sure don’t need to sell bumper stickers with a line drawn through a pink ribbon.

What we need, first of all, are churches who recognize that this isn’t all that surprising. Mammon is a jealous god, and he’s armed to the teeth….

And then we need to demonstrate what it means to believe that a person’s life consists in more than the abundance of his possessions.

Let’s stop highlighting how God “blesses” the millionaire who tithes. Let’s stop trumpeting the celebrity football players and beauty queens as evidence of God’s blessing. Let’s show that God has blessed us in a Christ who never had a successful career or a balanced bank account, but who was blessed by God with life, and with children that no one can number, from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language.

Planned Parenthood has won this one. They spent a lot of money, and they’ll make a lot of money. And they’ll do so off the shredded corpses of children and the raped consciences of women. If Jesus’ kingdom were of this world, we’d be fundraising to keep up with them.

But what we have is greater than that. We have a word that tells a pregnant young woman that we believe her Down Syndrome baby is a gift, not a health care burden. And we can offer the kind of gospel that cleanses the conscience and offers what outlasts money and power: life and that to the uttermost.

Let’s work to legally protect women and children. And let’s grieve that old Mammon has won the day, again. But let’s not grieve like the pagans who have no hope. When it comes to the struggle for life, the color of victory isn’t pink like a ribbon. It’s red like a cross. [Read the full article]

Group Read through G.K. Beale’s “A New Testament Biblical Theology”

~ Bob Hayton

This year, I will be reading through G.K. Beale’s A New Testament Biblical Theology with some friends. I want to extend an invitation to all of you to join us as we read through this important book this year.

The book is more than 1,000 pages long so it will take us some time to get through it. We are going to try to read 2 chapters a week starting February 5th.

The reading group is set up at Goodreads.com. You can join the group there (a free account with Goodreads.com is required). You should also be able to follow the conversation at our Facebook page for the group too. And I’m sure I’ll be blogging periodically about the book as well here at FundamentallyReformed.com.

If you still need to pick up a copy of this book, you can do so at your local Christian bookstore or at the following online retailers.

G.K. Beale on “A New Testament Biblical Theology”

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

I’m gearing up to start working my way through G.K. Beale’s new book, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New, his magnum opus (Baker, 2011). Together with Craig Hurst and G.A. Dietrich, I’ll be reading through this book two chapters a week. I’ll be posting more details on where the discussion forum will be, but I’m sure any of my readers are welcome to join us.

G.K. Beale is known for his work on tracing out all the New Testament quotes and allusions to the Old Testament. He is co-editor of the Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Baker 2007) and also the author of a massive commentary on Revelation (Eerdmans, 1998) and a helpful biblical theology work entitled The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (IVP, 2004).

The Gospel Coalition blog collects all the glowing recommendations for A New Testament Biblical Theology, and Westminster Bookstore has the book at a great price (even better than Amazon’s).

See the 10 minute video clip below where Dr. Beale discusses his work.

Great Books at 50% off from Westminster Bookstore

~ Bob Hayton

Right now there are a lot of book deals going. Crossway has all their e-books at $5.99 or less. And at Westminster Bookstore, their 2011 bestsellers are all at 50% off, now through January 12th.

Here are some of the discounted books that I think are most worth picking up.

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A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller

This book was my top book read in 2009. It is a very important book and a good read. If you’re looking to jump-start your prayer life in 2012, or just looking for a book that is a good mix of theology and practicality, this book is for you.

Read my review here.

Westminster Bookstore deal: $7.49 (50% off)

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The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones

This is still my favorite kids Bible story book. The stories are told in a moving way, and the artwork is beautiful. Be sure to look at the video on the book detail page at Westminster Bookstore to get a taste of this book.

Read my book recommendation here.

Westminster Bookstore deal: $8.49 (50% off)

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The Gospel Story Bible: Discovering Jesus in the Old and New Testaments by Marty Machowski

I’m using this story Bible with my kids right now. It comes with high recommendations and so far looks really good. I like how it intends to bring out the connections between the Old and New Testaments. I plan on reviewing this book soon.

Westminster Bookstore deal: $14.99 (50% off)

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The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God by Tim Keller

This book promises to be excellent. It’s on my wishlist for sure. I appreciate how Tim Keller speaks and writes, and this book is by all accounts one of his best. This isn’t the only Keller book on this list of 50% off deals. His books The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism and King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus are also bestsellers from 2011.

Learn more about this book here.

Westminster Bookstore deal: $12.97 (50% off)

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Here are a few additional titles worth checking out:

For the full list of discounted titles, click here.