Charles

For those who know Carl W. Wilson, you know him as a committed Christian, a scholar, a practitioner, and one who has developed a keen interest in the modern hard sciences since the 1500. This first of a two volume set should be on the reading list of every Christian, especially living at a time when modern science, while having accomplished good things, operates from a humanistic philosophy that has taken it away from the truth of God in many many instances. In a brief amount of space, knowing how to give you a good picture of this book and its value to Christian scholarship is not an easy task. It is Wilson’s Magnus Opus. If you have read his other books, whether it be on discipleship, doctrine of man, Christian education, or cultural apologetics, you know of his great burden and desire to glorify God in all of his writings and ministry. Written well, and very readable, it covers a great amount of material that will serve as an invaluable resource. I would say that it would be worth having this book if you only read the introduction and chapter 32 which summarizes much of what he has documented throughout the book.

One sample of what you will find in the book, “The conflict is between true disciples of God in the church and the false religions conceived by natural sinful men to solve man’s problems by one world political government lead by one humanist. Democracy that once worked under a faith in a common biblical God in America and the West is now subject to humanism based on pride, greed, and lust. It seems postmodern anti-church leaders are ready to sacrifice America and the West for a chance at a man-made U. N. world government.” That is a hard-hitting statement, but Wilson backs it up throughout the book.

While modern science has attempted to leave God out of the picture, as Christians we know it was our faith and belief in God that actually gave rise to modern science; yet over the years man has followed the usual pattern of taking the things of God and attributing them to sinful man. For example: we know the claim that modern science only deals with facts and observations, not theology and philosophy. We also know as Wilson makes clear, the fallacy of making that into a total truth without admitting that modern science operates on a faith based philosophy. It was that very tension that sparked Michael Polanyi to move from science to philosophy.

Wilson has taken the time in this book to help us move beyond modern science to consider the history of science and the changes in science’s philosophy. He points out with references how even those associated with modern science did not have a true sense or grasp of the history of science, consequently leading them further away from a God foundation for all truth.

Wilson further writes, “A primary purpose of this two-volume history of science is to inform Christians, since the perversions were developed and maintained as a result of the natural sin bias of men who think they can be ‘wise as God.’ This book seeks to develop through history the work of the enemy in leading men astray, even well known men in the field of science. He makes clear that the book is not “anti-science,” but rather it is an attempt to highlight throughout the pages and unbiased science that honors the Creator God as the source of all that is truly scientific. He contends that the churches today have weakened because they have not stood for and clearly proclaimed Christ as the the Creator and Re-Creator which tends to cause a blindness to the truth. Wilson, while painting a discouraging picture for America and the West, holds out hope that if the churches and other institutions of learning will return to the truth of Christ as Creator and Re-Creator and seek to carry out the great commission, we could expect a revival of biblical truth throughout.

I encourage you to invest in this book and make it your aim to read it, mark it, and use it with your children, in the discipleship in the churches, and other educational institutions.

Here is a book that you must read, preach, and teach. We have reviewed this in a previous issue of Equip to Disciple, but due to its present importance, we are reprinting it with slight editing because it is a good companion to the Doctrine of the Christian Life book also reviewed in this issue. John Frame has produced another outstanding kingdom-building book. It is an introduction to systematic theology. Before you disregard it as just another theology book, remember from Frame’s other books, he views theology as life and life as theology. Even though he says this is a book for beginners in theology, it challenges us to think more biblically. He writes for a college-level audience which I believe would also include new seminarians.

Salvation Belongs to The Lord is unique as it challenges those engaged in full-time teaching and preaching, it is very readable for others in the church. He says this is not a part of his Theology of Lordship series, but I believe it should be read before the others in that series. In this book Frame gives us the big picture of the Sovereign God and his Lordship over all things, including the church and salvation. Understanding the big picture of God’s truth and reality will enable us to handle the details more effectively.

This is a timely book in that studying doctrine, at least in a systematic way, is not very popular. It is a time when thinking with intentional precision is needed. Systematics is a pedagogical device to help us understand more of God and his Word as it relates the parts to the whole and ties the teachings of the Bible together. Frame is right when he says, “the Bible is not a miscellaneous collection of ideas but a coherent, consistent system of truth in which major doctrines depend on one another.” I believe that is why it is difficult for people to know how to think biblically because they cannot always connect the dots in the Scriptures. This book will enable the reader and student to do that better and more practically than many others that have been written.

Part one lays the foundation for what he writes about in his Lordship series books. It is about the Sovereign and Triune God, His Word, His Son, and His Holy Spirit. Part two deals with the ordo salutis, order of salvation, thus the title. He opens up the doctrines of grace, including the means of grace. He also treats the topic of the church and kingdom clearly. For example, while the Reformers listed three marks of the true visible church, Frame suggests several others should be part of that list: love among the brothers and sisters, worship, and the Great Commission are some of his examples.

As usual, Frame gives good insights into the government of the church. His conclusion on the “Nature of the Church” challenges us to remember that “the well-being of the church has more to do with the work of the Spirit than with the form of government.” His section on the Church and Kingdom is also helpful. For example, he says that God’s kingdom is synonymous with God’s sovereignty. “The church consists of those who have been conquered by God’s saving power, who are now enlisted in the warfare of God’s kingdom against the kingdom of Satan…The church is the headquarters of the kingdom of God, the base from which God’s dominion extends and expands”(page 249).He uses the term “missional church” to underscore the church’s task in making kingdom disciples. He highlights three elements that make up the missional church–worship, nurture, and witness.

I would encourage you to read, study, and discuss this book in order to assist churches in their making kingdom disciples curriculum. Dr. William Edgar, professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, made a descriptive comment on the cover of the book, “We can be grateful for such a powerful and clear exposition of the whole range of theology. It is at once vigorously orthodox and sweetly pastoral.”

If there is one book that you should possess, read, study, use as background resource for preaching and teaching on the Christian life, this is the book. This is the third volume in a series of four by John Frame. For years I have included the writings of John Frame on my must read list. He thinks from a wholistic world and life view regarding the Kingdom of God.

As the title suggests, this book deals with Christian ethics. And, who better than Frame to write about that topic. He points out, as he writes about Christian ethics, the threefold perspectives regarding ethics and Christian living.

First there is the normative perspective, followed by the cultural or situational perspective and then followed up by what he calls the existential perspective, referring to our daily living the Christian life. We are aware that Christianity, particularly reformed and evangelical Christianity, is struggling with the very topics included in this book, things like: the kingdom of God, law and grace or law and the gospel, justification and sanctification, the sufficiency and authority of Scripture, culture, and the role of the church within the kingdom. While sharing with Frame a one kingdom perspective and seeing God as sovereign over all of life and realizing that all truth is God’s truth, I find this book full of substantive content in dealing with these issues. Frame does not hesitate to set forth his understanding and convictions in a way that does not pull any punches, yet he does so in a fair and balanced manner. Even with those with whom he disagrees, he speaks fairly and with a Christian spirit.

Frame’s treatment of the law of God, particularly the ten laws, will be welcomed by the serious Christian who wants to obey His Lord and King. He explains how we relate to the law of God i.e. to show us our sins, then to lead us to Christ, and after we are in Christ, how the law becomes God’s standard for our living the Christian life, not to win God’s favor unto salvation and acceptance, but as the way he wants us to live in order to obey, serve, and please him. I think of one example: chapter 32: “The Fifth Commandment: Family, Church, and State,” followed by chapter 33 on the fifth law, entitled “Man and Woman.”

I particularly appreciate his section “Christ and Culture.” As Christians we do not live in a vacuum which requires that we have to be able to understand our environment in order to apply our theology to daily Christian living. What is culture? How do Christians relate to culture? What about the church and culture? These are some of the topics that make this book a treasure and commentary on the Christian life. The last section of the book reveals his overarching desire, “Personal Spiritual Maturity.”

Though Frame is a philosopher and theologian, par excellence, he writes with the heart of a pastor concerned for his people to live the Christian life, according to God’s standard. His triperspectival view of the Christian life, (normative, situational, and existential), blends together all three areas into one wholistic view of living the Christian life: loving God, loving one another, and walking in obedience as we progress in our sanctification. Frame will challenge you to think biblically and theologically from a “Calvinistically Reformed” context. Consistent with Equip to Disicple’s philosophy, Frame helps us to underscore the importance of the church’s role in making kingdom disciples thus enabling them to live in the broader kingdom without attempting to transform things like our workplace into a church, yet at the same time having a clear Christian impact on the culture around us. Once again the old saying comes forth with the challenge,” how to be in the world but not of the world.”

Timothy George said of The Sky Is Not Falling and Chuck Colson, “Chuck Colson has a prophetic word for today’s church. He shares it here with conviction, compassion, and rare wisdom.” God has placed Christians here on a mission and it looks as though the mission has been aborted. The culture has been engulfed by everything that appears to oppose biblical Christianity. Christians are to know the Word, know the world, and growing out of that knowledge, know how to combat the forces that are taking our culture downward.Colson has a unique ability to do both these things and to speak with a voice that definitely has a prophetic tone that is missing in most of evangelical Christianity today.In this easy but challenging read, Colson helps us to understand what we are up against and what these forces look like that are causing the sun to set on our western civilization as we have known it, and that includes Christianity.

One example from the book highlights what the book focuses on. “Christianity is a belief system that is, as Paul tells Festur, ‘true and reasonable.’ I can’t think of a more critical time for pastors, scholars, and laypeople to be grounded in a biblical worldview and to defend it clearly to those hungering for the truth. But are we prepared for the challenge? … 90 percent, according to one survey-have no understanding of worldview. How are we going to contend with competing philosophies if we’re not even rooted in our own truth system?” (Page 24)

Colson demonstrates what is happening to the effectiveness of Christian influence when we are putting experience above reason and image over words. It is apparent we are not equipped for moral discourse or how to combat postmodern thinking. Today, if it feels right and looks right, it must be right, whether in fact it is or is not. Colson writes that “the gospel is not a matter of soothing feelings or rewarding experiences (although it may produce both). It is the Truth that postmodernists can stake their lives on” (Page 27).

The chapter “Bringing Sanity to Moral Confusion” will set the stage for the six-part series mentioned below. The biggest bankruptcy in America today is not economic but moral and spiritual and Colson shows us why. Living by the untruth that the ends justify the means is continuing to take its toll in our society. Using the analogy by theologian Michael Novak in the 90’s that Western liberal democracy is like a three legged stool which if any one of the legs is removed the stool falls. The three are, according to Novak, political freedom, economic freedom and moral responsibility. You get the point!

This is not a doom and gloom book because Colson believes that all hope is not lost for America, and we concur. At present, if we are alert and equipped, we can understand the issues and get involved in every area of life, seeking to be salt and light. And if the church is fulfilling its role in discipling the people, we can hope to see the influence return.The challenge to the church is to disciple its people who have the mission to see their kingdom role in the world. The church must teach the Word with a sense of prophetic urgency and accuracy. It must help the people understand the world and then train the people to move into every area of life making a kingdom difference.Colson refers to Calvin’s emphasis in Book Three of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, that the Truth has to be carried into the mind and heart and then applied. But to get to the application we cannot bypass the learning process.

One last selling point for this book: Colson underscores one of our frequent themes at CEP, that Christians must learn to be bi-lingual. We must speak the Christian language to one another but then know how to speak that same truth in the language of the people we seek to reach. Often, using the Christian language, as though we were speaking to our Christian family members, is not the most effective way to communicate with those presently outside the family. This book will help. It is not difficult to read but it is filled with solid challenging and engaging content.

While it is not necessary to read the above book before using the six-part video series, for which there is a leader’s guide and questions for discussion, it would set the stage. The six-part DVD Doing the Right Thing, is effective for Sunday school groups, high school and above, it can be used in a men’s gathering, or women’s study. Or you can work through it on your own. The series is focused around the moral and ethical challenges that we face today. Moral relativism, if it feels good, do it, or whatever is true for you may not be for me, or there are no absolutes upon which to develop morals, values, and ethical decisions are the things that are effectively dealt with in this series.The format is straight forward. It is narrated by Fox News analyst Britt Hume, along with Chuck Colson and Robert George of Princeton. Five panelists and an audience of college students move through topics ranging from ethics in the public life, to ethics in the market place, to bio-ethics, and knowing the right things to do etc.

Colson was right when he said that we are in an ethical mess and generally not because we are bad people, but because we do not always understand the cultural forces impacting our lives. While the Bible is being preached and taught in our type of churches, the people are not always connecting the dots; hence the church has to go the extra mile and disciple the people with the discerning ability to recognize, understand, and know how to stand in the faith against those forces.

The aim of the series is worldview oriented because it is aimed at examining this moral and ethical mess and coming to grips with what we can and must do in attempting to set things right, according to God’s Truth. Examples of discussion questions will help you to see the import of this series. For example: If moral truth is knowable, why do we have so much disagreement about it in our society and across cultures? Or, when Paul says that governments are “God’s servants to do good,” what does he mean by good? In what ways did government fail to uphold this idea of “good” during the recent economic crisis?

The series is well developed and helps the participant think concretely about today and our role and responsibility in today’s world, plus how Christianity, God’s Truth, is our answer and guide through this mess.

For one wanting to understand more about the history of salvation, how it is accomplished and applied, and for those struggling between the Lutheran view and the Calvinistic view of the subject, this book appears in good timing. I think the statement on the book’s cover sums it up, “Union with Christ is the central truth of the whole biblical teaching about salvation. The entirety of our relationship with God can be summed up in this doctrine.” It continues, “Yet when people ask what this union actually is, we flounder.”

Robert Letham uses Scripture, theology, and church history (fathers) to develop this topic and he does so in a way that enables us to have a clearer understanding of how and why God made us to be united with him. Though the atoning work of Christ is the heart of the gospel and other things are merely parts and applications, we need to understand that salvation stems from our union with Christ. Our justification, our adoption, our sanctification result from our union with Christ.

Years ago, I came to appreciate this doctrine in studying John Murray’s Redemption, Accomplished, and Applied. Murray said, and Letham reminds us of his words, “nothing is more central or basic than union and communion with Christ.” He quotes Lane Tipton, theology professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, “there are no benefits of the gospel apart from union with Christ.” Sadly, Letham is correct when he says that not much is heard about “union with Christ” from today’s pulpits, and that is a pity because it is so central and basic to salvation.

Some following a more Lutheran view of salvation maintain that union with Christ is the result of our being justified by faith; however the Calvinistic focus maintained that our justification by faith is grounded in our union with Christ. Letham leads us through those kinds of issues in this book. It is technical, yet very readable. Letham develops the teaching that Paul sets forth in Romans 6, that “our union with Christ is the foundational basis for sanctification and the dynamic force that empowers it.”

In the chapter, “Union with Christ and Transformation,” Letham sets forth what he calls ten theses. The first of the ten is enough to whet your appetite to read and study the others-The union we enjoy with Christ is more real and more fundamental than the union we have with members of our own bodies. In these theses, Letham opens up topics such as the Word and Sacraments, important topics especially in today’s liturgical malaise. He concludes with the reminder that our union with Christ will continue “in unbroken and unsullied fulfillment.”

You will not regret reading and studying this book. It will be a good reference for you as you think about, teach, and preach about salvation and our relationship to the Triune God.

Here is a bookevery ruling and teaching elder will want to have. I must confess as I read, it brought back memories when we were forming the first three years of our PCA existence. I chaired the Constitutional Documents Committee and worked very closely with Morton Smith in developing the Book of Church Order for the PCA. Along with Frank Barker, Don Patterson and John Barnes, that was actually a four-year process and I had to present each part to the General Assembly and allow discussion and questions before it was finally adopted. Morton Smith and I spent hours upon hours dealing with the very things Guy Waters writes about in this book.

Waters deals clearly and effectively, as well as biblically and theologically, with numerous issues that we had to work through back in 1973-1976. He refers to the PC BCO throughout this book. I am so glad that he is teaching a polity course at Reformed Theological Seminary with this material. It answers and documents so many issues that are constantly coming before our church. I will be careful not to get nostalgic with this review.

Waters explains the two different schools of thought regarding church government and why Presbyterians, and particularly the PCA has chosen the latter-jure humano (by human right) and jure divino (by divine right). He writes, “by jure divino we mean that the fundamental principles of Apostolic church government have been retained, and are legitimately applied in the circumstances and under the conditions which are peculiar to our own age and country (page 43).

From there he sets forth the principles of that government and polity but then helps us to understand how the application of those principles may vary from circumstance to circumstance just as the Westminster Confession of Faith 1:6 maintains, “and there are some circumstances concerning worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.”

He deals with topics such as the number of offices in which he prefers the two office view, referring to the PCA position. (We actually called it the two and one half office view, practically speaking, but for parity sake we concurred in the beginning that the office of elder is one office with two functions, ruling and teaching). Waters also clearly points out the second major office, that of deacon, is a perpetual office and should be part of the churches structure. Growing out of that he explains the role of women, as it relates to teaching and serving the needs of the church –which underscores the PCA’s position on male officers for both elders and deacons.

You will appreciate Waters’ section on the theology of the church with some emphasis on the kingdom but also explaining the difference between ecclesiastical government and civil government. What he highlights fits nicely with our understanding of the spiritual mission of the church which is to make kingdom disciples who then in turn move into the broader kingdom to have a positive Christian witness and influence, a position which protects the church’s spiritual mission concept and the peoples’ responsibility of each member to live everyday as kingdom people, claiming and giving to God glory in whatever we do.

Finally, I appreciate, as you will also, Waters’ emphasis that church government is a topic that cannot be separated from kingdom discipleship. Operating on the jure divino concept we cannot ignore this part of God’s revealed will regarding the subject. He further points to why this should be viewed as part of the church’s discipleship training. If you are an officer, you need to constantly think about your responsibility as formal leaders in God’s church. If you are not an officer, you need to pray for those in authority in the church. And last, as you have the privilege of electing men to these perpetual offices, you need to know God’s qualifications and pray specifically that he will raise up godly men who excel in these character and skills traits.