The Joy of Hearing

The Joy of Hearing: A theology of the book of Revelation
Tom Schreiner
Crossway, 2021

This is the first book of a new series, which actually begins with the last book of the Bible. The editors of the series note that ‘there are remarkably few treatments of the big ideas of single books of the New Testament’. Schreiner’s book on Revelation is the first in a planned series of books aiming to remedy that for students, preachers and interested lay-people.

I’ve written a post elsewhere entitled ‘What to read before preaching a book of the Bible’, and one of my suggestions is to read ‘a monograph of manageable size’ – ie a book like this.

This series doesn’t seem like it will be overly technical – it’s maybe a step below the NSBT series (which is more focused on topics than single books of the Bible).

One of the books I suggested in my other post was Richard Bauckham’s The Theology of the Book of Revelation (almost exactly the same length as this, but a bit more technical). Schreiner quotes from it around 50 times here (most other quotations are from commentary introductions), and it’s still the one book on Revelation I would recommend for ministers. Schreiner’s would be more suitable to give to someone in the pew. That’s not to say this is flawed by any means – Schreiner is always a reliable guide – so if you can read both, do!

It’s certainly a series worth paying attention to, and for most NT books will fill an important gap in the market.

Be thou my vision: a liturgy for daily worship

Be thou my vision
Jonathan Gibson
Crossway, 2021

The worship of many Presbyterian churches has become more liturgical in recent years. Or as they would argue, everyone has a liturgy, and they’ve just started to think theirs through a bit more. So the ‘four-hymn sandwhich’ has been replaced by a Call to Worship, Confession of Sin, Assurance of Pardon, perhaps Recitation of a Creed etc. As Brian Schwertly points out in his article Are Liturgies Authorized by Scripture, historic Presbyterian opposition to liturgies wasn’t because prayers were written down, but because they were enforced.

This book came about because of a lockdown effort by the author to revitalise his own devotions by including these elements in his personal worship. The resulting effort gives you the opportunity to do the same. The book is structured for 31 days, which you can then repeat monthly. It’s a mix of Scripture readings, prayers from church history (occasionally from some surprising authors such as Samuel Johnson), creeds, catechisms, doxologies, and the Gloria Patri. For the catechisms, there’s the great realisation that if you do Heidelberg – Shorter Catechism – Heidelberg, it will give you questions for exactly 365 days. It is a pity however that rather than printing 3 questions for each day (or even just the first 31 days of the Heidelberg), you’re just directed to an appendix at the back of the book. This isn’t easy to do on a kindle, and even in the printed book will require you to remember which question you did the day before. Unless you tick them off, like an animal. For the Bible reading aspect, M’Cheyne’s reading plan is an appendix. There’s also an appendix with Collects from the 1552 (more Protestant than its predecessor) Book of Common Prayer.

As for the binding, it’s cloth over board, in a slipcase. There is a cowhide leather edition which is exclusive to WTS Books in the USA for some reason, which is a bit disappointing. All in all however it will make a good Christmas present for many, especially any with some Anglican sympathies!

The Reformed Pastor

The Reformed Pastor
Richard Baxter (updated and abridged by Tim Cooper)
Crossway, 2021

The Reformed Pastor is a more controversial book than some of us may have realised. Carl Trueman has apparently called it ‘one of the most depressing, almost psychopathic books on pastoral ministry’. Many of the book’s critics trace its problems to the fact that in the words of R. Scott Clark, Baxter ‘denied the Protestant doctrine of Justification’.

Clark says that Baxter’s works are ‘sprinkled with arsenic’ and should come with the warning: ‘the contents of this volume may be both spiritually useful and harmful. Use only under the supervision of your minister’. Some of the concerns with The Reformed Pastor are highlighted in an article by James Renihan entitled ‘Reforming the Reformed Pastor’.

That being said, The Reformed Pastor has never been lacking in commendations, whether from Spurgeon in his day or Mark Jones in ours (‘I need to read and reread this classic’ he says in his endorsement). Joel Beeke describes it as ‘the type of book you want to read once a year’.

If it is a book to be read regularly, the 600 pages that the book takes up in Baxter’s collected works is a bit of a stumbling block. The Banner of Truth ‘Puritan Paperback’ version is itself an abridgement of around 250 pages. This edition by Cooper is 150, whittling down Baxter’s 160,000 words to 30,000.

Out of all the contenders to do the abridgement, Cooper may well be the most qualified to do it, having been one of the co-editors of Baxter’s mammoth autobiography (5 volumes, only £472.50 from OUP). As Van Dixhoorn says in the foreward: ‘He has so engaged the pastor of Kidderminster’s theological and practical writings that he is able, if I may use the phrase, to think his thoughts after him’.

Baxter’s most famous work will remain controversial – but it’s now a lot more accessible.

 

Man of Sorrows, King of Glory

Man of Sorrows, King of Glory: What the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus means for us
Jonty Rhodes
Crossway, 2021

Man of Sorrows, King of Glory, is about the Lord Jesus Christ in his three offices (prophet, priest and king) and two estates (humiliation and exaltation). It’s theologically on the ball, full of great insights and illustrations, and accessible without being simplistic. The two great pitfalls of popular-level books is that they can mangle theology pretty horribly (Rhodes gives some good examples in his excellent treatment of Christ’s cry of dereliction), or else be above the heads of the average person in the pew. The latter has been my main criticism of Mark Jones’s otherwise excellent books with Crossway. Rhodes however has a real gift for making things simple, and I wouldn’t hesitate to give this book out to anybody. Many of the qualities of Rhodes’ first book (Raiding the Lost Ark, 2013) are on display here – let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another 8 years for his next book!

Oh, and Messiah the Prince gets a footnote – though I would have loved to see Symington quoted on Christ’s Intercession as well!

Men and Women in the Church

Men and Women in the Church: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction
Kevin DeYoung
Crossway, 2021

Realising that he didn’t have a short book to hand people on the topic (Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is 600+ pages), DeYoung wrote this one.

A book like this is certainly needed, and on the whole it does what it says on the tin, but it falls short in a few ways which would make me hesitate to give it out to people.

My main criticism is his willingness to let women lead some elements of public worship. And no matter what you think of that position, the fact that he will let them pray certain kinds of prayers in church but not other kinds of prayers just seems bizarre: “In my tradition, there is usually a long intercessory prayer conducted by one of the pastors. It would not be right in my context to have a woman give this prayer. But I have had women pray in worship services in more specific contexts or in less formal ways”.

His rationale for this stems from his interpretation of the silence of women in 1 Cor 14:34 as only in the context of weighing prophecy. As an attempt to reconcile 1 Corinthians 11 (women can pray and prophesy) and 14 (women must be silent), I don’t think it’s a ridiculous interpretation, but I’m not convinced by it. Not least because it was only first proposed in 1962 and it works best if you understand NT prophecy to be different from OT prophecy (ie you are charismatic).
It seems better to understand 1 Corinthians 11 as those like Chrysostom (4th century), Bunyan (17th century) and Warfield (19th century) and others have done throughout church history – taking it as speaking of ecstatic, immediately-inspired prayer and prophecy, which no longer have any equivalent for us now the charismatic gifts have ceased.

Especially since DeYoung is a Presbyterian, he would have been better sticking to the Confessional restriction of vocal leadership in public worship to those ordained or intending the ministry (see WLC 156 & 158-9, Directory for Public Worship and Form of Presbyterial Church-government). The conclusion of Hart & Muether (in With Reverence and Awe), that ‘the key distinction in worship is not gender but ordination’ is much better and more consistent.

There were also some other bits I found unsatisfactory, such as his section on prophetesses. For example Andrew Steinmann’s treatment of the same issue (in passing!) in his commentary on Nehemiah which I read the other week is much stronger. DeYoung argues that ‘women prophetesses carrying out their ministry differently from male prophets’ whereas Steinmann emphasises the times in which they lived, pointing out that ‘Only Huldah was inspired to utter true prophecy, and she lived in the grim final days of Judah, shortly before it fell to Babylon’.

On the whole the book has much to commend it, and seeks to make a positive case for complementarianism, showing how it’s based on nature rather than arbitrary rules. His final two chapters, on ‘Growing up as boys and girls’ and ‘Following Christ as men and women’ are particularly helpful. If I were to preach a series on manhood and womanhood, it’s definitely a book I’d turn to. It’s good on the big picture but just a bit woolly in applying some of the principles to the church – which is a pity for a book entitled ‘Men, Women and the Church’.

His ability to use 1 Corinthians 14:34 ‘As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches’ to argue that ‘churches that do not allow women to speak in church under any circumstances are contradicting the instructions of Scripture’ is unfortunate and means the book may confuse some people more than help them. For those who are unlikely to be swayed by that exegesis though, there is much here that is helpful.

(Though can someone tell DeYoung/Crossway that ‘helpmate’ isn’t actually a biblical word, but a misunderstanding of the KJV of Genesis 2?)

Surviving Religion 101

Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on keeping faith in College
Michael Kruger
Crossway, 2021

When he went to College, Mike Kruger took an Introduction to NT class taught by a young, bright, engaging scholar who had previously been an evangelical. His name was Bart Ehrman. That experience led Kruger to explore his own faith more deeply, and has now resulted in him writing this series of letters addressed to his daughter who is just about to start the same university. The book covers topics like the preservation of Scripture, canon and contradictions in the Bible – but also more emotive ones such as Hell and homosexuality. There’s actually a fair bit of overlap between this book and Crossway’s excellent 2019 title Confronting Christianity.

Don’t think of it as just a book to hand students going off to university, however. The material would be really useful for preparing a series of apologetic talks, or working into sermons. In fact, Kruger asks in the introduction: ‘Why are our Christian college students not better prepared intellectually? Is it because, perhaps, our churches in general are not intellectually engaged with their faith? And is that due (at least in part) to having ministers who are also not thinking (and teaching) deeply about the Christian faith?’ (He then goes on to ask is that a problem with the seminaries).

All in all, it’s a really helpful book both to hand out to people, but also for ministers to work through and make sure they’re engaging with these questions in their preaching.