50% Off Special at WTS Books

Carl Trueman calls this "an important book which all preachers should read."

There are many books on preaching, but few, if any, on the theology of preaching. Yet, whether it is recognized or not, theology underlies any preaching that claims to be biblical.

For the rest of the week, it will be half off the regular price at Westminster. I certainly plan on getting a copy for myself. While you're at it, add this other book to your order for only $3.20. It's got Sinclair Ferguson as a contributor, and I'm pretty sure none of us know nearly as much about the issue of Baptism as we ought to.

Free Puritan Kindle Books, Volume 7

Thomas Boston - An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion (Volume 1, Volume 2)
You may not have heard of this book, but it is Thomas Boston's wonderful exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. HIGHLY recommended! He has a brilliant discussion of union with Christ as the ground of justification as well.

Thomas Cartwright - Treatise of the Christian Religion

Thomas Watson - Puritan Gems
Basically an anthology of amazing Thomas Watson quotes.

Andrew Bonar - Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne
True, M'Cheyne was not a Puritan, but anyone who loves the Puritans will still want to read this book.

Thomas Watson - The Beatitudes

Thomas Watson - The Mischief of Sin

Thomas Watson - The Saint's Spiritual Delight
Watson shows himself here to be a proto-Piper.

Peter Martyr Vermigli - To the Duke of Somerset
A letter from the Italian Reformer in ye olde english.

King and Servant Show 31

Jonathan is once again joined by special guest Pastor Stephen Goundry to discuss mercy ministry and its importances in the work and life of the local church

The Unprofessional Book Review: In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

“I have always wondered what it would have been like for an outsider to have witnessed firsthand the gathering dark of Hitler’s rule. How did the city look, what did one hear, see, and smell, and how did diplomats and other visitors interpret the events occurring around them? Hindsight tells us that during that fragile time the course of history could so easily have been changed. Why, then, did no one change it? Why did it take so long to recognize the real danger posed by Hitler and his regime?” -Erik Larson

In the Garden of Beasts is Erik Larson's superb follow-up to his gripping and haunting historical tale The Devil in the White City. Anyone familiar with White City will recall that the book was set in the romantic locale of late 19th century Chicago during the World's Fair. The excitement and fabulously optimistic atmosphere in that book was set in dramatic contrast against the murderous and horrifying serial killer, H.H. Holmes, who also chose to call that city home. I never thought Larson could ever match the greatness of that book, frankly. I'm not entirely sure he does that; rather, I would call it a tie.

Enter 1930s Berlin, which is the setting of In the Garden of Beasts which is named after the Berlin home of the main protagonist of the book, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, William Dodd. As the main protagonist (along with his philandering daughter, Martha, who receives her own parallel story told in the form of alternating chapters), Dodd is a former history professor with a strong desire to finish writing his history of the civil war. Initially, he thinks Berlin, 1933 will provide the ideal time for him to finish writing it. Anyone who knows history, however, knows that 1930s Berlin was anything but a calm time for a U.S. ambassador to Germany.

(In the footnotes of the book, Larson recommends the following Youtube video of authentic footage from circa 1930 Berlin which he used for some reference in his descriptions of the city.)

As I said, Dodd's Berlin home was located in what was known as the Tiergarten, or Garden of Beasts. Larson vividly paints the picture of a life in uncertain Berlin, in a time when Hitler, in his first year as Chancellor of Germany, had not yet shown his murderous hand to the people of Germany or the rest of the world. This is at first a very romantic Berlin, complete with elaborate dinners, schmoozing with dinner guests, and touring the countryside of Germany in convertibles. These are days which initially seem to belie the whispered stories of secret police and Jewish oppression. Soon, however, the Dodds forge relationships with Nazis, Soviet spies, and Jewish landlords who are eager to capitalize on the U.S Ambassador's presence in their own shrewd dealings.

In the Garden of Beasts beautifully paints a picture of a nation on the brink of something unknown and terrifying. The air of the book is electrified and crackles with paranoia. Especially in the latter half of the book, you wonder if Dodd's outspoken opposition to the Nazi agenda hasn't possibly doomed him. When Dodd finally meets Herr Hitler face to face, Larson captures the situation in such a way that you feel that you, too, are meeting the man himself face to face.

Larson's flair for the dramatic is constantly put in check by his interest in painting things as they happened. He is very committed to only using quotes which come from reliable sources. As he explains in the introduction to the book, he only uses quotes which come from real documents. And there are a lot of them.

As an American, my history of World War II always began with Pearl Harbor and D-Day. The Germany in this book is absolutely foreign to me. I needed to see what Germany was like in the ten years prior to WWII, and so this book filled a great void in my historical knowledge.

Ultimately, the greatest strength of In the Garden of Beasts is the ground-level picture that emerges of a pre-war Germany. This book was so interesting that since reading it I have begun to read Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which I see as in many ways offering a more top-down supplement to the personal story we see told here within the pages of Larson's book. The climactic event of the book is the infamous (though apparently not to me, before reading this book) so-called Night of Long Knives, in which Hitler personally charges up the staircase of a hotel, gun in hand, calls his political enemies out of their beds, and has them executed on the spot. In the end nearly a hundred (that could be a low number) of his political opponents end up dead or in prison. Once Hitler shows his hand, the book draws to a close as Germany is forever transformed into another sort of beast.

Free Kindle Formatted Church Fathers

This is an old project that I worked on a long time ago. It took ages to put an active Table of Contents in each book, but it is done. Because I did this so long ago, I don't know which web pages I got these from, but I do know that I got many - if not most - of these from Turretinfan's blog before turning them into Kindle books. A couple of the Anti-Nicene volumes are missing, though most of them are here. As always, you can say thanks by visiting our sponsor, and in the process, helping me pay for my books for seminary.

Ante-Nicene Volume 1
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and other Apostolic Fathers

Ante-Nicene Volume 2
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria

Ante-Nicene Volume 3
Tertullian

Ante-Nicene Volume 5
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, and Novatian

Ante-Nicene Volume 7
Lactantius, Asterius Urbanus, Victorinus, Dionysius of Rome, and Early Liturgies

Ante-Nicene Volume 10
Deutero-Canonical Gospels, The Epistles of Clement, Origen's Commentary on John

Post-Nicene Volume 1
St. Augustine - Biography by Philip Schaff
The Letters of St. Augustine

Post-Nicene Volume 3
Augustine - Doctrinal Treatises and Moral Treatises

Post-Nicene Volume 4
Augustine - Anti-Manichean and Anti-Donatist Writings

Post-Nicene Volume 5
Augustine - Anti-Pelagian Writings

Post-Nicene Volume 6
Augustine - Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, and Homilies on the Gospels

Post-Nicene Volume 7
Augustine - Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on First John, Soliloquies

Post-Nicene Volume 8
Augustine - Expositions on the Psalms

Post-Nicene Volume 9
John Chrysostom - On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters

Post-Nicene Volume 10
John Chrysostom - Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew

Post-Nicene Volume 11
John Chrysostom - Homilies on Acts and Romans

Post-Nicene Volume 12
John Chrysostom - Homilies on First Corinthians

Post-Nicene Volume 13
John Chrysostom - Homilies on Gaatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon

Post-Nicene Volume 14
John Chrysostom - Homilies on the Gospel of John and on Hebrews

Post-Nicene Volume 15
Eusebius - Church History, Life of Constantine, and Oration in Praise of Constantine

Post-Nicene Volume 16
Socrates Sozomenus - Church History

The Onion Understands the American Church

The Onion: Church Cancelled Due to Lack of God. After reading this satirical article in the Onion, I wonder how many churches shouldn't just close up shop anyway. After all, this piece isn't that far off. How many churches just keep doing church because they don't know of any better place to get together and do some singing once a week? My favorite zingers :

“I enjoyed the lovely singing during church service, and was very sad to see it go, particularly because I am a lonely septuagenarian waiting to die,” Mabel Graskowsky, 78, said. “But then Pastor explained to me that there are groups who get together just for singing only, and I could go to any one I wanted whenever I wished. Just singing! None of that boring inbetween stuff I always slept through. I’m much happier now.”
...
“I’m meeting once a week, not Sundays but on Wednesdays, with anyone who cares to join me. We won’t be worshipping anybody, just practicing my favorite hobby, horticulture. I’ll admit, it doesn’t have the power to grant eternal absolution from earthly pain, but at least flowers are real. We must cultivate our garden.”

I fear that many people in churches feel this way, but they are unwilling to give up the feeling of togetherness, the country-club atmosphere, the potlucks, the pleasing music, some free wine and friendly conversation. If you took away those things and left only God, I fear most churches would close their doors - and I daresay such a thing would be for the better. In fact, I can't help but think that such a thing has happened in places like China where there is no room for superficial niceties. If going to church means you could be detained or killed, only the serious need apply. In America where church is by and large a place for entertainment and creature comforts, precisely the opposite principle is in play.

Epiphany Camden

A Possible Response to the "Hitler Objection" to Two Kingdoms

I was doing some reading this morning and was intrigued to learn (yes, through Wikipedia) about Hitler's own form of Christianity known as "Positive Christianity". This was a Christianity which had a very anti-Jewish, essentially Marcionite canon (no Old Testament, for example). Now, my thoughts on this are short and sweet, and I am not a crusader for the two-kingdoms view like Stellman or Hart, but it strikes me as implausible that Hitler would need to create or introduce a new version of Christianity if old school, two-kingdoms Lutherans posed absolutely no threat to a genocidal Nazi regime.

The old caricature of two kingdoms is that they would just sit by and watch Hitler roll over Europe. But two kingdoms, as I have come to understand it, simply says that the church, as the church, doesn't function in the political realm, but in the devotional/spiritual realm. Its members are still free to oppose Hitler every step of the way, but as citizens, not as the Church qua Church. What I'm arguing is that if the old cartoon of the socially disengaged Lutherans were accurate, Hitler would have had no need of Positive Christianity, and there wouldn't have been a Confessing Church vs. a National Church.

If the old cartoon were really true, then the Lutheran churches would have been untouched as the Nazis rolled through Austria, Poland, France, and then the rest of the world, all the while clutching the Augsburg confession and singing "This World Is Not My Home" (or the German equivalent).

The Unprofessional Book Review: The Next Story by Tim Challies

I've always got something going on - be it my computer screen, my Kindle, my iPod touch, my PS3, or my Macbook. There is always a screen seeking some kind of response from around me. Frankly, it's overwhelming. On the one hand, I like to think that these gadgets are making me more productive and knowledgeable (especially the Playstation) - although I'm beginning to doubt this is really the case.

I'm going to keep this review short and sweet since this has been a well-reviewed and well-received book. I'm going to speak to the aspects of the book which most strongly-addressed my own personal concerns about technology and living in the digital age. But let me say from the outset that with this book, Challies has addressed almost every area of my own life that I have been either troubled or befuddled by with regard to technology.

I appreciated Tim Challies' opening chapters which chart the nostalgic (remembering using my first Apple II in grade school) course of how we were brought to this technological point in human history. I also appreciated his development of a theology of technology early on. However, I think the greatest value of this book is found in the second half where guys like me get a much needed practicality-slap in the face. The truth is, knowing things is not the same thing as learning things. I always knew that this constant influx of information was making it harder for me to concentrate and focus on individual ideas for more than 15 minutes at a time. Challies knows it, too, and he says we need to fight this tendency - all the while he manages not to guilt you into throwing out your Macbook.

When Challies, on pages 131-134 says that we need to identify and destroy our distractions while cultivating concentration, he's talking to me and everyone like me who have fooled ourselves into thinking that reading information counts as gaining real knowledge.

Yes, you practiced being distracted, and you managed to get better and better at it (congratulations!). Eventually you rewired your brain in such a way that it craves distraction and fights against concentration. The practice it took to become a distracted person proves that practice will be involved in overcoming distraction.

Also, his advice of a "digital fast" may sound gimmicky to the more cynically minded, but when you actually try to do it, you start to see your idols. "The more difficult this sounds and the more difficult it proves to be, the more important it will be for you to do it" (133).

The Next Story is necessary reading for Christians in our digital generation. My guess is, in ten years, the revised and expanded edition of this book will be necessary reading for our children, since the heart of what Challies is saying in this book really addresses a new generation who lives in the public eye at all times, perpetually distracted, and confused about the difference between gathering information and actually learning. These are problems that will persist as long as we have continuous knowledge, continuous community, and hearts that desire to know God and yet often can't see the stars through the city lights.

Free Puritan Kindle Books, Volume 6

The Letters of John Newton
Note: This is a HUGE file with more letters in it than you'll ever be able to read. It does not come from any one book, but rather, from numerous web pages from around the net, and I simply combined them into one file. The biggest downside is that there is no Table of Contents.

Thomas Goodwin - Commentary on Ephesians

Thomas Manton - A Treatise of Self-Denial

Thomas Watson - Body of Practical Divinity

William Ames - The Marrow of Sacred Divinity

Martin Luther - Commentary on Galatians
It's becoming customary for me to include non-Puritans in my lists of Puritan books, so here's another one to keep the tradition alive.

For Jesus, Did Divorce Entail Remarriage?

In R.T. France's commentary on Matthew (which I highly recommend), he writes about Matthew 5:31-32, where Jesus introduces what many have taken to be the "exception clause" where Jesus supposedly allows the offended party, in the case of adultery, out of their marriage. I have written a paper on the subject, for those interested. Many believe that in Matt. 5:31-32 Jesus may have been allowing for divorce in the case of adultery, but that this in no way implied a right to remarry. The truth is, I do have friends who have divorced because of adultery, and I have taken that position with them, that they ought to remain single, pray for reconciliation, and pray for the strength to remain single. Here is what France says about that position:

Modern discussions of divorce in light of Jesus' teaching sometimes suggest that Jesus recognized the necessity of divorce after adultery, but forbade remarriage. But such a view does not fit the Jewish context, where divorce consisted of the provision of a certificate which explicitly granted the right to remarry; the standard wording, according to [Mishna Gittin] 9:3, was "You are free to marry any man." Without that permission it was not divorce. Divorce and the right to remarry are inseparable, and the Jewish world knew nothing of a legal separation that did not allow remarriage.

So France is arguing that in Jesus' context, to allow divorce was to allow remarriage. If Jesus is introducing an exception here, then He is also allowing for remarriage (and I agree that France's case here is very strong). France appears to believe that the "except for porneia clause" would have been assumed by the readers of Mark and Luke's parallel passages, with that being the reason why no such provision is specifically mentioned in those books. France goes on:

His condemnation of remarriage as adultery is simply on the grounds that the divorce (unless for adultery) was not legitimate and so the original marriage remains valid in the sight of God.

So France holds to a middle-line position which says that all divorce is illegitimate, unless adultery happened, in which case the marriage was forcibly ruined by the guilty party. His position is one which tries to do justice to the teaching of the three gospels that deal with the subject, which I greatly appreciate. France, however, does say that if the ethics of the Kingdom of God are practiced (specifically Jesus' teaching in 5:27-29 on lust and adultery), then in the Kingdom of God there will be no divorce, since adultery and even lust have no place in it. For all intents and purposes, then, divorce is in France's view, prohibited - albeit in a round-about way.

Let me postscript this discussion by saying that if Jesus is not introducing an exception clause in Matt. 5:31-32 or in Matt. 19:8-12, then all of this discussion is superficial. I am quite convinced that James Boice's view on the matter is correct and that Jesus is not here introducing an exception clause, but rather, describing the state into which the woman who has been divorced is placed. If her husband divorce her, then it is assumed she will be remarried, in which case she is then made an adulterer. As I say in my paper, I do not normally like The Message, but it turns out, Eugene Peterson does a pretty good job of broadly paraphrasing the sense that I believe is being taught in Matt. 19:10-12:

If you divorce your wife, you’re responsible for making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual promiscuity). And if you marry such a divorced adulteress, you’re automatically an adulterer yourself.

So I began with the question of whether divorce entailed remarriage, necessarily, for Jesus. I accept France's argument that it did, but I deny that there was ever a situation where Jesus approved of or allowed divorce.

Why Celebrate a Non-Rapture?

Let's just face it right now. As Christians, this hasn't been our best year. If it hasn't been those monsters at Westboro Baptist Church dancing like a bunch of lunatics at soldiers' funerals, then its been Terry Jones doing things that likely resulted in innocent people overseas being killed. Like I said - not the best year. Then, to top it all off, most people don't know that Harold Camping is a schismatic and believe that he speaks for a large section of Christians when he repeatedly attempts to predict the arrival of Christ. Altogether, lets just admit, the Gospel looks pretty foolish in the world's eyes. But then again, what's new? As far as I remember, the Apostle Paul saw that as a given and it didn't phase him.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18).

True - what they are seeing in Westboro and Jones and Camping are hardly what I would call a robust representation of what Christ was about - but this is what the unbelieving world thinks we're like - whether it's fair or not. We've got to deal with it.

Watching the news coverage and reading the stories about Harold Camping's end of the world which did not transpire, I can't help but sense something. The coverage - as well as the half-joking Facebook statuses and Twitter updates from observers around the world actually seem to reflect more of a collective sigh of relief than it did a confident reaffirmation of something they already knew. I don't believe for one minute that the observers around the world weren't just a little curious if something wasn't going to go down on Saturday night.
Atheists as well as the generically secular speak very confidently that there is no coming day of judgment at all. But then Saturday came, and in many of these places as the clock struck 6 o'clock, there were dances of joy and what I choose to interpret as overwhelming relief. Of course, once the time passed the attitude transformed into one of pure mockery. Instead of mocking Harold Camping for being wrong, it is as if all the world experienced a larger relief and for one brief moment felt assured that there was no coming judgment - as though this one wrongly predicted Rapture proved that there would never be one. In one story, a man jokes, "You haven't partied until you've partied with the godless." For many, this is a time of rejoicing. But why? If you're an atheist, then this is just another false prophet like all the others who've ever lived. What's so special? I think that the partiers fear that there will be a judgment - otherwise, what is there really to celebrate? You celebrate a birthday when you really have one, you celebrate a close brush with death when there was a real threat of dying - and you celebrate the world not ending when there is a real possibility of that, as well.

The sad part is, judgment day is unavoidable. Even if the partiers live for another 80 years, they will meet judgment day - all of us will. Saturday's party will be quite short lived in the scheme of things.

Will "Adventurous Christians" Enjoy The Tree of Life?

I haven't made it much of a secret that I'm very excited about Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life. My curiosity was certainly piqued when I read this section of one reviewer who saw the film at the Canne film festival.

If it sounds like I'm saying that "The Tree of Life" is a puzzler, that it blends uncanny clarity and extraordinary powers of perception with what sometimes seems like murky, pretentious chaos and that it's suffused with a spiritual and even religious sensibility that will provoke an allergic response in quite a few viewers, you're on the right track....

Actually, the questions Malick is pursuing in "The Tree of Life" are simple, even purposefully naive ones that have plagued human beings since the beginning of time. It's his method of asking and answering them that is both highly aestheticized and likely to provoke controversy. (I won't discuss the end of the film, but implausible as this may sound, "The Tree of Life" may appeal to more adventurous Christian viewers.) They range from "the microscopic story of a family in a small town in Texas" to "the macroscopic story of the birth of the cosmos," as Brad Pitt put it at the press conference.

I know that my many friends who prefer the less artsy and visual films may not appreciate this, after all we Reformed are known for our delight in objective, logical, straightforward facts. However, I could probably be classified as one of those "adventurous Christian viewers" who will probably really appreciate this film. I tend to like Malick's subjective style, and since he is consistently unwilling to do interviews or offer interpretations of his films, I always feel at liberty to read my Christian worldview into his work. Plus, the fact that he does attend an Episcopal church in Texas, where he lives makes me think that there may be a sort of broadly Christian worldview being projected by this film (albeit, one that includes theistic evolution). A review will be forthcoming in a few weeks. Until then, I will wait very impatiently.

Free Puritan Kindle Books, Volume 5

John Owen - The Death of Death in the Death of Christ

St. Anselm - Cur Deus Homo (God Became Man)

St. Augustine - The Confessions

The Divine Right of Church Government by Sundry Ministers

David Dickson - Truth's Victory Over Error

David Dickson - The Sum of Saving Knowledge

George Mueller's Autobiography

Hudson Taylor - Autobiography

John G. Paton - Autobiography

Free Kindle Books by Bavinck and Ridderbos

I received an email in answer to a query earlier today from Paideia Books about sharing some books by Dutch Reformed scholars, and here was the answer I got:

Our files are provided free of charge as we simply want to give them the widest distribution possible. Therefore, we would be happy to have you format our files into Kindle versions as long as you do not charge for them. We also usually ask that you provide some sort of source acknowledgement. We are pleased that you are interested in our materials. Thank you.

Warmest Regards

Kerry John Hollingsworth

Director

Reformational Publishing Project

And so, here are the books from Paideia which I have ready in Kindle format. I may have more in the future:

Herman Ridderbos - Studies in Scripture & Its Authority

Herman Bavinck - The Certainty of Faith