Book Review: What is the Gospel?

Gilbert, Greg. What is the Gospel? Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.

Truth is being assaulted from all sides in our day. From the capitulation of the Biologos cadre, to the crass man-centeredness of Osteen, to the “God is an American conservative Republican” cultural Christianity crowd, there are voices out there to confuse believers, distort the truth, and eviscerate biblical Christianity. It’s time someone wrote a book reminding us what the gospel is, and what it isn’t.

Greg Gilbert’s brief (124 pages), accessible offering, published by Crossway under the 9Marks imprint, is just what the doctor ordered. Gilbert carefully points the church back to a biblical understanding of the gospel, and along the way he manages to distinguish between the results of the gospel and the gospel itself. It does not help people much if we talk in glowing terms of kingdom and cultural transformation if we haven’t made clear how one gets through the door. As he gently corrects, Gilbert’s tone is not polemical; he’s not going to alienate anyone, whether they are lost or merely confused about the gospel.

The book contains but eight chapters, four of which cover these topics: God’s righteousness, man’s sinfulness, Christ the Savior, and the response of faith and repentance. Gilbert reminds us that one does not need to be a Princeton grad to understand that Jesus died for my sins.

One of the great things about this book is that you can give it to an earnest seeker, and know that they will be exposed to a simple, solid, accurate, biblical, and compassionate explanation of gospel. I plan on keeping a box of these things in my study for just that purpose.

Book Review: Team of Rivals

 

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of AbrahamLincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

This is one of those books so thick that they ought to publish it with a set of wheels. That said, it is a fascinating exploration of the character and genius of Abraham Lincoln. Goodwin studies four main characters, Lincoln, plus the other men who were seeking the Republican nomination in the 1860 presidential election, Salmon Chase, William Seward, and Edward Bates. She traces the life of each, from childhood through their tours of duty on Lincoln’s cabinet in the dark days of the Civil War.

Goodwin does a masterful job of not only displaying (with a great deal of accompanying evidence) the character of each man, but how their political machinations throughout their lives either helped or hurt their political ambitions, ultimately culminating in Lincoln’s election. She documents the open disdain with which Lincoln’s rivals held the “rail splitter from Illinois,” and shows how everyone underestimated his intelligence and the shrewdness of his own political maneuverings.

Lincoln invites his rivals to serve in his cabinet, placing each man in a position where he can’t say “no” to the opportunity, and then patiently manages the fireworks that ensue from the clash of egos and ambitions at the top level of his administration. At each turn in the story, Goodwin shows how Lincoln outfoxes the newspapers, the politicians, the political parties, and his own cabinet members.

The genius of Lincoln, Goodwin demonstrates, is not that he “kept his friends close and his enemies closer,” but that he managed to turn enemies into allies, calling forth from each man the best of their gifts and skills in the service of a nation badly in need of strong leadership. Lincoln’s character (especially his humility) is seen in that many of his most contemptuous rivals became his most devoted friends, once they began to work closely with him. Edwin Stanton’s heartbroken tribute at Lincoln’s deathbed, “Now he belongs to the ages,” put a voice to the quiet awe in which many of Lincoln’s compatriots held him at the end.

This is a terrific book, from multiple aspects. First, I am guessing you won’t find a better, more complete accounting of the run-up to the 1860 presidential elections, and then Lincoln’s management of his administration. Second, it is an outstanding study of leadership and character. Third, it is a great biography of Lincoln. And last, it is so well-written, so well-documented, so detailed that Goodwin held my attention from the first page to the last. I recommend it highly.

Book Review: Understanding Scripture

Grudem, Wayne, Collins, C. John, and Schreiner, Thomas R., eds. Understanding Scripture: An overview ofthe Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012.

Without question, this is one of the best basic Bible introductions that I have read. Using a series of nineteen essays by eighteen different scholars, the editors have woven together a comprehensive introductory exploration of all the major questions that surround the phenomenon we call the Bible.

Part 1 addresses the issue of Bible interpretation. A sketch of the process of Bible interpretation is provided, showing due sensitivity to the issue of genre, followed by a good summary of the history of interpretation. As is true in the rest of this little volume, the two chapters are just the right length to tease out the major issues without burying the introductory reader in a flood of detail.

Part 2 explores five different reading strategies with which one can approach the text. This is clearly the most devotional part of the book, and the editors have chosen well for the contributors, with names like Packer, Piper, and Powlison. In reading this section, students might be tempted to blow through it and get to chapters with more technical details such as canon, or the use of the Old Testament by the New. But the reader should not forget that the whole point of studying Scripture is to, well, read it, and to read it with ever-increasing understanding. This section might well be where the payoff for the book is located.

Part 3 investigates the issues and problems surrounding the concept of the canon of Scripture. The Old and New Testaments are treated separately, as the canon issues between the two are quite distinct. An excellent chapter on the Apocrypha is also provided.

Part 4 delves into the reliability of the manuscripts and questions of textual criticism. The level of detail is just right for an introductory work, and the two testaments are again dealt with in two separate chapters. Part 5 continues that pattern by devoting a chapter each to archaeology and the Old and New Testaments. Plenty of examples are given, although it would have been nice for a few pictures to have been included in these chapters.

Part 6 was devoted to the biblical languages. This section was either the weakest, or strongest part of the book, depending on the level of detail you are looking for. Peter Williams got into an astonishing amount of detail regarding Hebrew, for a layman’s introductory text. I enjoyed this chapter immensely, I suspect my students got somewhat lost in it. It will certainly give the average man on the street an great appreciation for those who know Hebrew well enough to translate it. David Black took a very different approach with Greek, and dealt with characteristics of Koine, the range of Greek styles in the New Testament, and some basic linguistics. The section concluded with a great chapter on the Septuagint. Peter Gentry handled this section and included in it several pages on translation strategy (functional versus formal equivalence).

This is probably my major criticism of the book. Gentry’s paragraphs on translation strategy should have been expanded into a complete chapter on the history of the English text and the translation rationales behind the myriad modern versions. He did a great job handling the issues, and I wish he’d been asked to contribute a whole chapter on it.

The final part, on Old Testament and New, included a chapter on the history of salvation by Vern Poythress, and a chapter on the New Testament’s use of the Old, by C. John Collins.

This is a terrific lay-level textbook for Bible Introduction. It’s too short (203 pages) and too basic for graduate use, and possibly even for undergraduate use. But in the church, which is where I am using it, it is perfect in terms of its writing level and content complexity. I highly recommend this book for personal or church classroom use.

Mile-high Mistake

Football Mama and I just finished watching the Denver Broncos break our hearts. Tell me now, why do you take a kneel-down with 31 seconds left in regulation, when you've got the best quarterback in the league and a better than even chance of getting close enough for a field goal?

Especially when you've no guarantee of winning the toss in overtime, and you could lose by sudden-death if Baltimore scores a touchdown!

Well. There went the season. Denver made too many mistakes, at both the coaching and player level, and Baltimore was just too strong. On the one hand, Denver gave it to them on a mile-high silver platter. On the other hand, Baltimore earned it by making fewer mistakes, and consistently stronger play.

Phooey. Now I've got an entire season to brood about it. Go Packers.

In case anyone is paying attention, last year, with a quarterback reputedly not good enough to play in the NFL, Denver won it's first playoff game, beating the former SuperBowl champion Steelers in an away game.

This year, with the best quarterback in the league, Denver loses at home, even though its special teams contributed two touchdowns to the effort.

Tebow should be given a chance somewhere. Just sayin' . . .

List of Twelve Top Books

In Sunday's message, I encouraged folks to make an intentional effort to grow in Christ this year. The text was from Paul's own testimony in Philippians 3:7-16, and the critical point was that "pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" implied specific, strenuous effort.

It is this passage in which we see clearly that sanctification is, as Jerry Bridges puts it, a "joint-venture" between us and God. Paul says in verse 12, "I press on so that I may lay hold of [our part of our own sanctification, notice the implication of effort] that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus [God's part of our sanctification]."

In any case, among the practical suggestions that I gave for areas of growth in which to strive in this new year, was a recommended reading list of good books. I've been asked to provide this list, so here it is. Note that the list is weighted heavily toward theology in general, and the holiness of God in particular. While it contains some samples of application (Priolo, Viars, Metzger, and one of Bridges), these books are more about knowing God than they are practical Christian living.

There are multiple reasons for that. One of them arises out of the text. Paul speaks in verse 8 of "knowing Christ my Lord," and verse 10, "that I may know him." Our deepest errors are not failures of practice, but a failure to know God, and the truth about God, properly. I would argue that all failures of practice can ultimately be traced back to a defective knowledge of God, and a defective love for Him.

In no particular order, here's the list:

• Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges
• Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer
• Basic Christianity, John Stott
• The Dangerous Duty of Delight, John Piper
• Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, Packer
• Holiness of God, R.C. Sproul
• Knowing God, JI Packer
• Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges
• Heart of Anger, Lou Priolo
• Teach them Diligently, Lou Priolo
• Putting your past in its place, Steve Viars
• Tell the Truth, Will Metzger

There are many excellent books that could be added to this list. Most of these on the list are books I find myself turning to over and over again. A few are recent additions that I believe are "best in class" or close to it.

God has given the church teachers (Ephesians 4:11). Use them. Pick them well, pick them carefully, but use the teachers with which God has blessed His church.

Wahoo!

Finished fixing the Falcon Down manuscript! Yesterday's investment in reading the Style and Template portions of the Open Office Writer Guide was time well-spent. I have fully finished reformatting the manuscript with proper styles and fixed all the problems with italics. Now I'm moving on with the story itself (it's over 50% complete at this point).

If you're wondering what all this is about, you may read the first three chapters of Falcon Down right here. I'm anticipating that the book will be available around the first of May. Here's the preliminary version of the back-cover blurb:

Flying low, slow and blind over a moonlit Bering Sea, Major Jacob Kelly put his sleek F-16 fighter through its paces on a Project Hydra test flight. He didn’t know that an air-to-air missile from a Soviet fighter covertly trailing him was about to start a sequence of events that would place him into a desperate fight for survival. Incarcerated in a secret facility deep within the Soviet Union, Kelly discovers the most daring and ruthless program of international espionage in the history of the Cold War. He faces torture, interrogation, and certain death—unless he can escape . . .
 
Falcon Down is the first in a series of four novels from author C. H. Cobb that bring the two superpowers to the precipice of war in the turbulent final decade of the Soviet Union.

Hunkering down over our laptops

Doris and I have spent the day each banging away on our laptops, and tomorrow will be more of the same, as we enjoy this New Year's holiday.

She's working on her PensofTwins website. I'm working on learning how to properly use Open Office (OO) styles so I don't keep trashing my novel as I'm writing it.

Such a sob story. OO trashed my book. Well, let me rephrase that. I did some boneheaded something or other that wound up clobbering the formatting in my new novel, Falcon Down. It was a product of my own ignorance (the boo-boo, not the book). Major league pain-in-the-neck.

So I've spent the day reading the manual for OO, determined to work with the product rather than fighting against it, and I'm setting up styles to format the book properly as I write. This is going to wind up being a valuable use of time, and a good experience, but I am champing at the bit to do more WRITING, not clutzing around with my word-processor. I hope to get back to actually writing more on the story some time tomorrow.

Doris has spent the day working on her website, learning arcane trivia about beginner's level HTML, style-sheets and what-not. She would rather be DRAWING and doing art and photo work. But it's a good experience for her, too, and she is slowly building her website. I love their logo, by the way. Diane designed it. Take a look.

Anyway, I suppose we make quite a pair. Believe me, the nuts don't fall far from the tree, either. When we had the kids here for Christmas it looked like a Dell sales event, with laptops everywhere. What a bunch of geeks.

 But it's been a good day, today, and what we've been working on had to get done, and the holiday has given us a break from the church ministry.

The fruit of Doris' labor can be seen at PensOfTwins.com, and her cards and my book Outlander Chronicles: Phoenix can be purchased from DoorwayPress.com.

Oh yeah!

My shoulders are sore. My jeans are wet down around the shoes. Kind of cold. But there's a big smile on my face: I've just come in from shoveling SNOW!!! Oh, yeah!

Let me tell you about a picture-perfect day. Actually let's start with last night. We had our entire crew with us for the holidays. What a blessing, what a joy! There've been ten of us at 321 S. Chippewa since last week. Actually, make that 110. Luke and Rory count for about fifty people each; something about the effect Christmas has on little kids.

Anyway, Doris and I've been sleeping on the floor in the basement. She's had the futon, and I've been putting our exercise mats (of P90X fame, a nightmare of the distant past) to good use. No, not exercising! Sleeping!

We had a wonderful Christmas day together yesterday. But  between 10 PM last night and 3 AM this morning, our census went from 110 to 2 (Luke and Rory took their energy and excitement with 'em). Because of the weather, everyone bugged out a bit early. Around 10PM last night, Dani and Erik (kids in tow) took Josh and Abbie to Columbus, trying to beat the storm. The California Cobbs had to catch a flight out of Columbus today. They managed to get the flight time moved up from 4 PM to 7 AM (it was fortunate, too, because their 7 AM aircraft was the last to leave from that gate this morning before they started canceling flights). In any case, they reached their destination (Omaha) safely.

David drove Lauri back to Cincinnatti at 3 AM (she had to open the Starbucks store this morning).

Everyone got out of Dodge while the gittin' was good. So I arose at 6 this morning and had the sun room to myself. Enjoyed a cup of coffee and the last several chapters of Acts while watching the snow.

When my bride got up (much later!) she fixed a great breakfast. Just happen to have a picture of it.

It was a beautiful, relaxing day after an extremely busy Christmas season.

But snow means that someone's got to deal with it, and that someone would not be football momma. My pleasure becomes my problem, so when the white stuff stopped falling out of the sky, I went out to the shed to have a chat with my snowblower.

Unfortunately, my snowblower shared my wife's opinion: if I like snow so much, I can jolly well grab a shovel. It was fixated on not moving out of its warm, dry shed (well, dry anyway), my protestations to the contrary not withstanding.

The cantakerous contraption makes its opinion known through the simple [manifestly rebellious] act of not starting. That's one reason why my shoulders hurt tonight. The other reason would be the ridge of snow that the city plow left in front of my driveway. Someone must have told him that I love snow. That ridge would have done the Sierra Nevada proud. In any case, that stupid snowblower was not about to start up. Dumb machine.

Fortunately, I possess what I call "the nuclear option." No small engine has yet been able to resist this bit of persuasion.

Yep. That's football momma's blow dryer. Please don't tell her it was on the floor. I really don't want to sleep in the basement again on those stupid exercise mats.

Anyway the snowblower started and did its thing, and I shoveled the Sierra Nevada into my yard. And I am sore.

But I still love snow.

Happy Mayan Cataclysmic Change to the Earth Day!

The prophecy must have been true! A cataclysmic event has happened! Only, they are about 2016 years off. Hey, close counts, right?

The cataclysmic event that changes everything occurred when Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of sinners, came into the world, lived a perfect life, and absorbed the righteous and just wrath of God for all who would place their faith in Him! And that does change everything!

You never know

Our hearts go out to broken-hearted families in Newtown, Connecticut. There are literally dozens of families who have lost loved ones, close relatives, and dear friends from this terrible tragedy. There are moms and dads, from whom have been robbed dear children.

The loss is staggering, and the aftermath will go on for a long, long time. Many will carry scars from this horrific event until the day they die. Some will not be able to cope.

The question "why?" will soon be explored in the national media. "Root causes" will be sought out. Undoubtedly a combination of reasons will found to explain why Adam Lanza, the alleged shooter, turned the elementary school into a shooting gallery. Maybe he was the victim of bullying. Perhaps he had a psychological disturbance. Some will blame the whole affair on the guns.

I'm quite sure there will be one root cause, the real root cause, that will not be explored in the media. Like the rest of us, Adam Lanza is a sinner. Like ours, his heart is deeply corrupted. Some people fight the evil within them. Some give in to it. Some feed and encourage it. But that deep-rooted, twisted hostility against God and His creatures exists in every human being.

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless; 

there is no one who does good, not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:10-18 (NIV)

Every human will express his or her own corruption in different ways, but no person is exempt from it. Some will turn their destructiveness on themselves, some upon others, some both. There is an adversary who encourages the destruction. His name is Satan, and of him Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

Two thousand years ago, we turned our destructive rage upon Jesus, screaming, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" And so we did. Not knowing that the Father had planned to redeem the world through the death of His Son, we poured out our hostility against God on His Son, and played right into God's plan of eternal redemption. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

The perfect Man died on the cross in the place of the sinners who nailed Him there, and on the cross He destroyed the bondage of sin, and through the resurrection He destroyed the power of death.There is but one solution to sin, one cure that can defang it, declaw it, and make it a toothless thing, powerless to destroy anymore, and that is faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for my sins, in my place. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— (Ephesians 2:8)

Christmas is the point in the calendar when the church celebrates the incarnation of Christ, when He took upon Himself the form of man and was born as a helpless babe in a stable in Bethlehem. That birth provides as much hope today as it did then. Christ appeared to conquer death and sin. Jesus is the comfort for those who have lost little ones. He is the one Who gives the hope of eternal life. The solution for sin is imprinted into the nail scars in His hands and feet, and the scars left by the crown of thorns. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands . . . (Isaiah 49:16)

For the religious these are comforting but empty sentimentalities. For true Christians, these are life-changing truths, these are the words of eternal life. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

I am quite confident that the media will not discover the root cause. They'll probably want to throw more government at it. But I hope that the grieving moms and dads will somehow hear the message through their tears, and find comfort and peace in knowing that the Father lost His Son too, to a murderous crowd. He knows their grief and carries their sorrows. And I hope they will learn that He has, through that horrific death two thousand years ago, secured for them the sure and certain hope of eternal life, through faith in Christ. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. . . (Isaiah 53:4)

You never know when sin will emerge and display its raging destruction through an event like the school shooting in Connecticut. So kiss your kids on the way out the door tomorrow morning, but know that they are in the hands of God. Don't live in fear, live in the faith of the One who loved you and gave Himself for you.