Book Review - Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (23/9)

What does the modern-day, sophisticated church has to do with the reformation of the (not so) ancient past? Well… Plenty! In this book, Carl Trueman contends that the churches today (and tomorrow) about the need to recover the spirit of the reformers.

In the first chapter, Trueman first gives an analyses of the current status of evangelicals. First, he described how the evangelicals have lost the spirit of the reformers, specially he explained why the reformers saw the desperate need for the church in their time to be reformed to the centrality of the Gospel and the Word, their motivation and their goal. Then, Trueman commented on how the contention within the evangelical with regards to worship often only differ merely with the outward form, which in his view, is only embracing the reformers outwardly, but missing the precise point of why the reformers saw — a need for the congregation to have a vernacular worship.

In the next chapter, Trueman looks at the theology of glory — looking at God from man’s  point of view vs theology of the cross — looking at God from Christ’s point of view. This branches out of how Luther himself saw the dichotomy of these two teaching and found the teachings to the Church then to be akin to those of the theology of glory, which thinks that God values what man values. In contrast to that, Luther responded by proclaiming that the church needs to embrace the theology of the Cross.

Trueman then raises two examples that he finds the current evangelical circle need to consider, first regarding suffer, How do we understand and view suffering? Are we unknowingly embracing the theology of glory by our preoccupation to shun away from suffering or to deem suffering as bad or ‘not according to God’s plan’? In the next example, Trueman talks about the definition of a truly successful church. Is the successful church one that entertains and attracts and gauges it’s success by numbers? Or by how faithful the word is being preached? He calls the church to recover what they have lost, to re-embrace the true marks of the ‘successful’ church.

In the next chapter, Trueman then focuses on the centrality word of God and preaching what it does, what it is for, and what the training preachers be. And in the last chapter, He elaborates on the doctrine of assurance, and how we can you find it? Do we base it on our feelings? Emotions? Experience? Or rather on what God has done for us, definitively and absolutely, through Christ Jesus death and resurrection?

Essentially, this is a call for the reform-ed (i.e. Protestant) to re-examine the importance of the Reformation and recover the spirit of Reformers. Although this may be a thin book, it does pack a punch and Trueman gives many points for the evangelical to consider how far we are away from the reformers, and to recover from it before it’s too late for us. Recommended for all church leaders and preachers who wishes to be faithful to what God’s Word say.

Rating: 4 / 5

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Book Review - From Jesus to the Church (9/9)

I’m personally not a great fan of history. I find that having a deluge of dates, names and places rather intimating, and don't usually find myself reading any books on history. However, I was quite intrigued by the title of this book, plus it didn't seem to be a super thick book and thus attempted to read this book. I must say, this book has been very insightful and perceptive, I came away with a deeper appreciation of the early church history.

Within this book you will find many helpful background info which you normally do not find elsewhere, for example there were many revolutionaries that had tried to revolt against the Rome governance. These revolutionaries, like Jesus, were often executed in the bid to stump the revolt, or are being intimated by the Rome governance. And these ‘solutions’ were often very effective in solving these problems.

Craig Evans first attempts to answer the question about the link between the temple (Jewish) and the Church (Christians), specifically, he wants to show the readers that the forecast of the destruction of the temple was one of the key prediction of Jesus judgement on the corrupt Jewish leaders and shows that Jesus does have the church in mind, but not in the same way as what we might often think. Evans handles this question very carefully, being careful to examine how the new testament authors used the words ‘synagoge’ or ‘ekklesia’ in their writings. Admittingly, I felt the first 2 chapters the most difficult to comprehend, but this is not due to any fault of the author!

Next, Evans examine how Jesus himself proclaims the kingdom of God, what he means by it. And how the Old Testament should shape our understanding of the concept of the kingdom of God. What is clear is that, this kingdom already has in mind the inclusion of the Gentiles even within the Old Testament. Therefore the inclusion of Gentiles into Christianity is not something novel, rather it is a outworking of what the Old Testament passages were writing about.

The third chapter talks about how James, rather than Peter was early church leader was exceptionally well written. In it, he interacts with Acts very well, and attempts to show that James was indeed the leader at that time. This was my first time hearing this, and I would have hope to see how Evans would have had attempt to explain John 1:42, where Peter is called the rock. Within this chapter, Evans also explains about the apparent ‘differences’ between James and Paul with regards the faith and work, and this was very well handled. This was the best chapter within the book and would be well-worth the price of the book.

Lastly, Evans ends by explaining why the church moved from a Jewish majority in the beginning to a Gentile majority thereafter, essentially the ‘stumbling blocks’ for the Jews to believe in the Risen Christ.

This book is exceptionally well-written and would be insightful for many. It has certainly helped me in my exegesis of the New Testament, being more careful to ask myself how would the first readers have understood this text. I do encourage pastors or motivated laypeople to read this book, and reap from the knowledge you would be able to gain from it.

Rating: 4 / 5

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Book Review - God's Story: A Student's Guide to Church History (22/7)

Who likes history? Honestly, I think not many will thrilled at this particular topic. However, Brain Cosby has attempted to make church history something interesting to the kids/youths with this book.



First Cosby defends the need for us to know our history well, the common adage ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ has proven to be true numerous time. But christians has an even more important reason to know our history well. We each come from a particular denomination and they have existed for a particular reason, it would be wise for us to know why. Secondly, history is really His-Story. When we know about our history we can rejoice what God has done, and trust in what he will do in the future.

Cosby then explains and teaching church history chronological, starting from the very first church! Those that are started in the apostolic times and working across the centuries and millennium, Cosby brings out the ‘big players’ during the particular eras. No particular person was given extra attention, though John Calvin did received slightly more attention.

What Cosby did excellently in this book is how he approach the topic on ‘Crusades’, this is a dark history in the church’s history but Cosby does not sweep things under the rag, he slowly tease out the issue, and explains how christians can answer those who questioned the atrocities committed by the church.

Cosby did give more content in this book to the reformation and those reformation era, which was covered in greater depth than the eras before that.

This is a relatively easy book to read too, it can easily be finished in a few sitting, however since it is published by CF4kids, I do question at what age is it especially pitch at? I feel that kids that are younger (12 and below) would most likely not read this book, and unless for teens who are deeply interested in this topics, the rest might not be engaged enough in this book to read it through. However, this remains to be a good primer for those who wants a quick, brief, succinct introduction to church history (even for adults!). You might be surprised at how much you’ll actually learn from this thin book. [Update: It's meant for teens 14-16!]

One tiny complain for this book, a little too much self-promotion of the previous books the author has written (no I don't dislike the author!). But maybe also include references to other books by other authors too.

Rating: 3.75/5

If you're interested, you can get this book here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Here's the book trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1mCUEAQlf8

Free e-book From Reformation Heritage Books

'Introduction to Reformed Scholasticism' EBOOK is currently FREE for a limited time, you can get it here.

On sale is also the paperback version for $10 here.



 

China's Reforming Churches (4/6)

This looks like a good book to start if you want to know more about the state and growth of the China churches.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuqR4pchsBE[/embed]

If you're interested, get it here and here (free international shipping), Kindle

Book Review - Know Your Heretics (29/5)

Why would anyone want to write on the guys who go it all wrong? It would be like trying to make a movie on Lex Luthor's Injustice League, but Holcomb gets this book just right. Why? Because these guys would be able to show you how you can go wrong. And so, an alternative title could be “Don’t repeat these mistakes again guys”. Living in an era where innovation and novelty is highly sought after, this book reminds us that sometimes new isn’t always better.

At the forefront, Holcomb defines what he means by heretics and orthodoxy, dealing especially with the “orthodoxy” as defined by Walter Bauer (orthodoxy is that which is defined by the winner), over and against that, Holcomb defines heretics as that which “best follows the Bible and best summaries what it teaches - best accounts for the paradoxes and apparent contradictions, best preserves the mystery of God in places where reason can’t go, and best communicates the story of the forgiveness of the gospel”.

Holcomb also defines what heresy is, and is not. It is not “every potential wrong belief, rather only those beliefs that contradict(s) the essential elements of faith”.

Alongside with clear definitions, the format for each wrong heretic includes the four sub-sections, historical background, the heretic teaching, the orthodox response, and contemporary relevance.

A total of 12 heretics were covered in this book chronologically, starting from the Judaizers all the way to Socinus. The major heretics such as Macion, Sabelius, Arius, Nestorius, such to name a few are covered. Socinus was a surprised, one that was new and I’ve never really heard of him thus far.

One minor complaint that I have with this book was the chapter on Nestorius. It was rather repetitive, parts of the content was already mentioned in Knowing the Creeds and Councils (see my review it) and it felt as if I was re-reading the same arguments as before. For the others however, Holcomb was able to present the false teachers and teaching in greater detail as compared to Know the Creeds. This is no small feat and Holcomb should deserve due credit for his work on this.

Holcomb ends off the book reminding us the importances of getting our doctrines right. And reminds us that not every disagreement is to be deemed as heretical, as long as imperfect humans are studying the Bible, there will bound to be disagreement among us.

If I had to choose between this or Know the Creeds, I would recommend Know the Creeds. As they direct believers to firmer grounds to build their faith. However, I would still recommend the same christians to then read this book, just to let them see the relevance and importances of right doctrine in the christian life, and how they can they might have so easily got their theology wrong.

Ratings: 3.75/5

If you're interested you can get it here and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.