Charles

Following the challenge of the Blamires book on The Christian Mind isJohn Stott’s Issues Facing Christians Today. Stott, one of the leading evangelical preachers and scholars of the 20^th century, first published the book in 1984. This important book has now been revised and updated and includes a new chapter by John Wyatt.

When we talk about thinking with or developing a Christian mind there is the tendency to draw back and say, “That’s too hard. I do not know how to do that. And what difference does it really make?”

Along with The Christian Mind, this book is among the list of several books that I recommend using in making kingdom disciples, or those who know how to think God’s thoughts after Him and apply them to life or how to think with a transformed mind. Blamires deals with the necessity of the concept of the Christian mind while Stott is more hands on with the topic by looking at issues we are facing today.

Stott establishes five foundations to further challenge and instruct us in the process. In the chapter entitled “Our Complex World: Is Christian Thinking Distinctive?” he lists five foundational elements for thinking Christianly.

First, Stott says we need a fuller doctrine of God. God has concern for all of humankind, which has important consequences for our thinking. God is the God of the nations and not simply of the covenant people. God begins with all the nations before he focuses on Israel, and he ends with all the nations. We need to remember that as well. Also, the living God is the God of justice as well as justification. He is concerned that community life be characterized by social compassion and justice, especially from those who are justified.

Second, we need a fuller doctrine of human beings, body and soul, based on being God’s image and likeness. Evangelism, relief, and development should define our Christian responsibility.

Third, we need a fuller doctrine of Christ that is consistent with His revelation of Himself as the Lord and Savior who is the agent of our redemption, not as depicted by things like The Da Vinci Code.

Fourth, we need a fuller doctrine of the church; not an isolated, withdrawal view of the church from life but Christians as agents of God’s reconciliation and thereby having significant influence on society. This comes about by living like kingdom people are supposed to live, with a concern for all of life.

Fifth, we need a Christian mind. Developing a Christian mind that thinks with integrity, is not anti-intellectual, and knows how to understand and speak to the problematic issues in today’s world is crucial.

These five elements are the keys to having a biblical world and life view, which is the right view of God, creation, man and the fall, redemption and restoration, and consummation. Knowing how these apply while we are living between the kingdom come and the kingdom coming is what God requires of us.

With certain basics in place, we are in a better position to think about, understand, discuss with intelligence, and impact those around us. Issues Facing Christians Today deals with issues such as bio-technology, same sex relationships, gender issues, war and peace, poverty, human rights, work and business relationships.

You will benefit tremendously from reading, studying, and discussing this book. There are discussion questions to use with each chapter and topic. And though you may not always agree with the book, you will be better equipped to understand and think about major issues of life.

Whether you feel competent to pray or not, it is always beneficial to rethink prayer – what it is, how to pray, and how not to pray. It is also good to be reminded that the number one object of our prayers is God Himself and His will. R. C. Sproul, in his usual manner of making difficult issues relating to theology and the Christian life accessible to us, has done a good thing in these ten chapters on prayer, focusing on the model prayer we know as the Lord’s Prayer.

If you remember the context of the prayer, the disciples, feeling a bit inadequate in their prayer life, came to Jesus and asked Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus responded, “When you pray… pray then like this.” Sproul suggests that the disciples obviously saw the connection between Jesus’ extraordinary prayer life and His power, actually His whole teaching, His character, and His whole person. Prayer was a vital part of our Lord’s life and should be the same for us. And yes, prayer does involve not only the heart but the mind as well. We need to understand certain things about God and ourselves. Our prayers are not about us but about Him. Actually, with these instructions we are reminded that the Sovereign God invites us into His presence. Also notice that Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question was not for them to pray this prayer but rather to pray “like this.”

Jesus gave them an eight point model prayer, not to be repeated simply by rote but to help them remember who God is, who we are, the reality of our sins and the need to seek first His kingdom in everything. Prayer is not first about us. As Sproul points out, you have to go a distance into the prayer before we are included; but Jesus does elaborate on the kind of things that can be included in our prayer life, things that can and should have priority.

If we carefully study this prayer, we will learn a great deal about the Lord. He is our Father, He is the sovereign and holy King of the kingdom, and His will determines all things that come to pass. One example will indicate how valuable Sproul’s expositions are. In the chapter entitled “Your Kingdom Come,” he declares we must pray for the kingdom that is already here. The coming of Christ the King will come in its fullness at the end of the age. In the meantime, this petition implies we are to bear witness to the reality of Christ’s present kingship over all while we await His return. Sproul points out, “The only way the kingdom of God is going to be manifest in this world before Christ comes is if we manifest it by the way we live as citizens of heaven and subjects of the King.” Referring to Calvin, Sproul reminds us that the church’s task is to make visible the invisible kingdom.

While God does not need our praise and adoration since He is the all sufficient God and His existence does not depend on us, the marvel is that He wants us to serve and follow Him. He wants our adoration, reverence, and love.

Jesus modeled the importance of prayer to us and gave us instruction to help us have a more meaningful prayer life. This book of expositions on the Lord’s Prayer will be an encouragement to you and enrich your prayer life at the same time.

The Doctrines of Grace is an excellent book that speaks to the doctrines of grace; and since 2009 is the 500^th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, we decided to include the book in this issue’s reviews.

While you cannot think of the doctrines of grace and not think about John Calvin, Boice and Ryken do so in an intentional way. This is a good study book to work through these great doctrines since the authors help the reader associate them with Calvin. Boice and Ryken are clear that if the church is going to see great days, these truths must be widely known, preached, and embraced. They are further on target in maintaining that nothing is more needed today than the recovery of these great doctrines.

In the forward, R. C. Sproul writes about James Boice’s reaction to the news of his terminal cancer. He was not able to complete this book, but Ryken was able to do so quite admirably. Sproul said it was hard to tell where Boice left off and Ryken took up the pen.

The book is clear. It is not about any kind of Christianity but Calvinism because Boice believed that Calvinism was good for the church and its abandonment usually led to liberalism. Ryken’s comment in the preface gives you an idea of what the book is all about. From chapter eight, which Ryken calls the most important chapter in the book, Boice wanted to portray a kind of Christianity that was biblically based and theologically rigorous Calvinism but also practical and warm hearted. Ryken said, Boice so “earnestly wanted to convey the warmth and vitality of true Reformed spirituality.”

There is neither apology nor hesitation to set forth the doctrines of grace so clearly present in Calvinism as over against Arminianism. The author’s contention is that evangelicalism needs what Calvinism has to offer. The nine chapters in the book develop this sentiment clearly.

While part one develops the broad themes of Calvinism and its place in history, part two sets forth the five points of Calvinism. Part three concludes with an excellent chapter on the true Calvinist and how Calvinism has continued to impact the world.

The authors sought to end the book on the same positive note voiced by the late Abraham Kuyper at the close of his famous Princeton lectures on Calvinism in 1898. Kuyper maintained that the future looked bright for Christians because of Reformed, Calvinistic theology. But Ryken is correct when he says, “Our ability to fulfill this glorious calling will depend in large measure on our response to the doctrines of grace.”

For a rich blessing, we recommend this book for reading, studying, and looking afresh at the glorious doctrines of grace.

If there has ever been a lime when Christians need to be prepared to deal with bioethical issues, the lime is now. There are so many complex conflict” and controversies in this area that Christians need to be equipped to know how to think biblically, clearly, and rationally about; and the time to do that is not when issues arise. I am referring to things like abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, assisted reproduction, and assisted suicide. At a time when the entire medical science realm has created many different choices about many different things, the average Christian is not equipped or prepared to think through their ramifications.

A couple of examples will illustrate my point and they are dealt with in this important little book on bioethics. Bioethics is written by Ruth Groenhout, a professor who teaches philosophy, philosophical anthropology, health care ethics, and other philosophy courses at Calvin College. She has also written numerous articles on health care ethics in a number of publications. One example is how do we define life and death? That seems to be a straight forward question; however, with medical science’s ability to “prolong” what we might call life and with other options now at their disposal, we have to ask what is morally acceptable from a Christian perspective and what is there that tends to make medical science idolatrous. There are disagreements over the answer to such a question. When does life end and who makes that decision? When does DPA, durable power of attorney, and DNR, do not resuscitate, come into play? The DPA for example takes precedent over any other. And who has the right to say, do not resuscitate? How do you decide between two people who gets the organ that each needs to live? Or what about a husband and father of three facing a tough decision of whether to donate his matching kidney to his son who is on dialysis?

Groenhout does not dodge the hard questions. Is hospice care the same as murder? When is it right or wrong to plug in a life support system? However, she encourages Christians first of all to have a clearly biblical view of God and man. What does it mean that man is the image of God and what are some of the implications that concept offers for bioethical issues? One of the things I appreciated about Groenhout’s honesty in raising these issues is that we need to know how to think about these things before we are under the pressure of the crisis of the moment. I like her concept of a principled based reasoning, especially from a biblically clear position. I was also intrigued by the idea that while the DPA does take precedent over any other, and while often without it the immediate family has the responsibility for making those decisions, when a person is a part of the Christian community, what role does the extended body play in that process? Is it necessary for people to face those situations in isolation and loneliness?

The book reminds us that when we speak of man being in the image of God, it not only applies to his healthy state but his sick one as well. Christians should read and study this book. The church should be challenged to think about its role as it is called to embody the love and grace of God to its members.

I think the real challenge Bioethics brings to us is how to keep medical science in a servant’s role and not in an idolatrous role. There are times when it is absolutely wrong to mechanically keep a person alive, and we need to know how to do principle based reasoning at such a moment. A question posed by the author and well worth our discussion and consideration is, what is good death? What is different about that from death that is not good?

We must not run from those issues but neither should we be too consumed with them. A Christian perspective based on biblical reasoning and thinking will prove to be a tremendous asset when one is called to face some of these issues and their concomitant decisions.

I must confess that I did not want to read another book on leadership when I received this book. Since training leaders has been a big part of my ministry, I have read dozens and dozens of books on leadership, and even did my dissertation on the topic. There are some really good books and some not so good books on the topic; some written from a distinctly Christian position and some not necessarily from that point.

However. because of my appreciation for Harry Reeder, I read The Leadership Dynamic and immediately concluded that this book needs to be the basic book for Leadership 101, 102, and 103. Reeder is right on the mark when he contends that healthy churches must have healthy leaders. Reeder’s desire is for leaders who know their mission, who are unalterably committed to achieving it by God’s grace, who take care of their people, and who intentionally produce leaders. I react positively to those things and also to the way the book connects training leaders with discipleship. I have the same reaction when I read that leaders must be grace-driven with a disciplined lifestyle.

Reeder’s 3-D Leadership paradigm of define, develop and deploy gives a good context for all the specifics in the book. Because one of the main points in the book is to train and disciple leaders and potential leaders, this book will be a valuable tool for a pastor to have and use in discipling church leaders. My recommendation is to read it and use it in the process.

As I was reading the book, I also gleaned another entitled When Leadership and Discipleship Collide, by Bill Hybels. Hybels is right; there are times when various approaches to leadership collide. Do we use the American business model, or a strictly biblical model, or what? Reeder gives an excellent balance that incorporates the biblical principles of leadership with good, common sense application. Again my reaction and appreciation for this book centers around its concept that leadership is connected to making kingdom disciples, for that is what “world-shaking leaders look like,” where they come from, and what they would do.

PCA teaching elder Dr. Ron Gleason has written an outstanding book on a very difficult topic: capital punishment I was initially asked to read and comment on the manuscript. Here’s what I said, “Regardless of one’s own position on the controversial issue of capital punishment, Dr. Gleason clearly and effectively gives readers the resources to work through this topic and equips them to discuss it with others. This powerful book will make a significant contribution to this topic. I recommend it for careful reading, study, and discussion.”

The book starts out the introduction with a challenge. It asks if you could give coherent reasons for your position on the issue of capital punishment. The author then explains that his aim is to challenge the reader “to develop your mind and your understanding about this important and controversial issue so that you are equipped to explain capital punishment from a moral historical and biblical perspective.” I would say the book accomplishes its aim.

Though you will know exactly where the book stands on the issue, you will find it to be a fair and balanced presentation that actually does help you think through and understand the issue more clearly. Gleason further says that his intention is to explain how Christians can be pro-life and pro-death penalty at the same time. I believe he also fairly accomplishes that aim.

The book addresses this topic from a historical and biblical perspective, and I appreciated Gleason’s use of both the Old Testament and the New Testament in the treatment. You will certainly appreciate and benefit from the entire book, but especially chapter seven, “Objections from Christians Who Oppose the Death Penalty.” This is another one of those topics, though full of emotion, where it would serve us well to have conclusions based on sound biblical theology.

There is no doubt that the Bible teaches capital punishment. While we cannot separate our emotions from any part of us, because the Bible is God’s revealed will, seeing and understanding His will enables us to better see capital punishment. You will also want to read the notes, endnotes, and bibliography of the book, though you will find The Death Penalty on Trial a good source in itself. As you read, however, do not look for simplistic answers to this serious topic. Studying this book in a group could be a worthwhile exercise.