I don't read much on current events or politics aside from the news. But I was intrigued by a book I had heard about somewhere, "America Alone" by Mark Steyn, and I just finished reading it last night.
Steyn's basic point is that Western Civilization is facing a grave and potentially mortal danger in the form of Islam. The threat isn't primarily military in nature. Rather, it is cultural. The West is losing, or has already lost, its Judaic-Christian moorings, and as a result has no effective defense against an Islamic people who are both growing and confident in the kind of society they desire to establish.
His argument is based mostly on demographics. To put it simply, the nations of the West are not having enough babies to sustain their populations. At the same time, Muslims everywhere are reproducing at high rates. Couple that with huge Muslim immigration to Europe, and the very real prospect is that before long Europe will become politically and culturally dominated by Muslim people with Muslim values. Europe will become "Eurabia." I was persuaded by his analysis that Europe is in fact already heading in this direction.
Almost every other Western nation, including Steyn's own Canada, is either facing a similar danger, or is slowly decaying due to zero population growth and crippling social spending. The lone exception is the United States of America, which still enjoys a high birth rates and has a culture that places a high premium Judaic-Christian religious and cultural values (at least relative to other Western nations). Hence the title, "America Alone."
As humorous as Steyn writes, he does make a very serious case in this book. In fact, it's not a little disturbing. He writes: "Americans and other Westerners who want their families to enjoy the blessings of life in a free society should understand that the life we've led since 1945 in the Western world is very rare in human history. Our children are unlikely to enjoy anything so placid, and may well spend their adult years in an ugly and savage world unless we decide that who and what we are is worth defending." As a father of four, I often wonder, what will the world be like when my children are grown-up? Steyn's scenario is not reassuring.
Steyn's proposal to address the problem is to do all we can do to make the conditions right for Islam to reform from within. This includes supporting women's rights and economic and political liberty in the Muslim world, curtailing the export of radical Islamic ideology, creating a "Global Community Outreach" office to promote alternative institutions and values overseas, etc.
It's at this point I am left feeling unsatisfied. Steyn may have identified a real problem, but his suggestions all miss the point. At the core, these problems are profoundly spiritual in nature. What is needed is a spiritual renewal and revival of Western people, and an evangelistic gospel ministry to Muslim people. Only the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in this world offers any real hope. In the end, all worldly power - whether it is demographic, or economic, or military, is nothing compared to the power of the message of cross. When hearts change first, then long-term change in cultures and nations can begin to take root.
And the proclamation of the gospel is not America's task, but the church's - here in America, in Europe, in the Middle East, and wherever the church may be found. Our hope is in Christ alone, not America alone.
Since I’m a Calvinist, it’s only right that I should read John Calvin. I did read some Calvin in seminary, but not as much as one might think. There is a virtually unlimited amount of theological reading material that professors would like their students to read, but a very limited amount of time. So, we got portions of Calvin’s Institutes but not much else.
Like so many so many books on my shelf collecting dust, I’d often look at my two-volume set of the Institutes of the Christian Religion and think, “Someday I’m going to read those.” About a year ago, just as I was having those thoughts, a friend asked me if I’d be willing to read the Institutes with him. We’d read a small portion, and then meet once a week to discuss it. We began this discussion group and before long there were four of us meeting weekly at Panera’s to talk about our assigned reading pages. Two dropped out for different reasons, and for a while now it’s just a pair of us. We read about 25 pages a week and discuss it over coffee.
Remarkably, we’ve covered over 1100 pages in a little more than a year’s time. And it’s been a great blessing to read Calvin and think and talk over his theology. It’s quite incredible to think that a book written about 450 years ago (1559 was the final edition of the Institutes) can still speak with such authority and force today. Calvin’s writings not only reveal the man’s genius, but more importantly his profound and intimate knowledge of Scripture. As one author put it, he writes as though he is speaking from within the text itself, so familiar is he with the warp and woof of biblical revelation. If I knew Scripture a tenth as well as he did, I’d probably be ten times the preacher and pastor that I am.
One of the gifts I requested for Christmas was a large print of John Calvin to hang on my office wall. My wife told my mother about it, and she ordered it off the internet and framed it for me. Who asks for a framed picture of a 16th-century theologian with a funny-looking beard for Christmas? Although my mom thinks I’m a bit odd, it’s going to look great on the wall when I get it hung up. It’ll be a reminder that I’m just a dwarf standing on the shoulders of the giants of the faith who have gone before us.
Sometimes a story or book will so completely engross you that it is impossible not to dwell on it for days afterward. I can't remember ever reading a book that had so drawn me into the story and then left me there long after I finished it, as much as this book did. "Endurance - Shackleton's Incredible Voyage," by Alfred Lansing, had been recommended to me by a couple of different people. So, as we were about to take a week's vacation between Christmas and New Year's, I figured I'd pick it up at the library for some leisure reading.
"Endurance" is about the 1914 British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition that attempted the first-ever overland crossing of the Antarctic continent, from one end to the other. It was an almost impossible undertaking from the beginning; it wasn't until forty-three years, and much technological advance, later, that a team of explorers was able to accomplish the feat.
Merely reaching the South Pole was not enough, since that feat had been accomplished in 1912 by the Norweigian Roald Amundsen. Ernest Shackleton, the Irish-born leader of the Trans-Antartic Expedition, wanted to accomplish a new first that would restore wounded British honor after having been beaten by the Norweigians to the Pole. So, he hatched and organized the almost insane plan to cross the continent from west to east.
Of course, Shackleton also knew very well that fame and fortune would be his should he succeed. These motives were not absent, as Lansing informs us. However, whatever may have driven Shackleton to undertake such an adventure, the reader cannot help but have tremendous admiration for the man's incredible courage and leadership by the end of the book. The real story is not the motives behind the expedition, but how the men survived it when everything went wrong.
The expedition never even made it to the Antarctic continent before their ship, the Endurance, got trapped in the polar ice pack in which it was eventually crushed and downed into the sea below. What follows is an almost unbelievable account of the survival of the 28 men left marooned in the middle of the Weddell Sea, with absolutely no contact with the outside world. After drifting northwards on the ice floes for five months, the party eventually made it to Elephant island after a tortuous seven-day journey in the three life boats they had saved from the Endurance.
Even this would make a great survival story. But it only gets more incredible - as the title of the book aptly describes it. From Elephant island, Shackleton and five others made a desparate, near-suicidal, 800 mile journey across the notoriously tempestuous Drake Passage to South Georgia island, the nearest outpost of civilization. Seventeen days later, and almost miraculously, they arrive safely to the island. From there Shackleton and two others had to cross over the island to reach the whaling station nearly 30 miles away. They were the first ever to do so, simply because it was thought such a journey was humanly impossible due to the extreme conditions of weather and terraine.
Lansing's account is just riveting, and the intensity of the story increases with each page. It is a testimony to the human will to survive despite even the most impossible circumstances. Of course, that they did survive is also a testimony to the provision and providence of God. It would be hard to imagine any one those men not acknowledging the good hand of the Lord upon them to deliver them out of such desperate straits. I read the book wanting to know more about the spiritual life of the men, what was going on in their hearts and minds as they endured such an ordeal. The diaries they wrote give some insight, but I wonder how God may have used the experience in their lives to draw them to seek the greater salvation in Christ. Evidently they did have some kind of hymn sings and worship services. However, very little is said about prayer for deliverance. It's hard to imagine that that wasn't also a big part of their lives, despite the fact they were tough, self-reliant men.
Whatever the story may be of the spiritual life and growth of the men, this story of their survival is worth reading and reflecting upon. As strange as it sounds, it makes one actually want to go to the Weddell sea, see the icebergs and glaciers and seals and penguins, feel the ice-cold hurricane-force gales, be overwhelmed by the vast expanse of white and ice, experience the utter remoteness of the place, and wonder, "How did they do it?"
In the wide spectrum of Christian faith and practice, my church - the Presbyterian church - belongs to that part known as the Reformed tradition. Reformed churches are so called mainly because they trace their theology and practice back to the Reformation.
The only problem with the label “Reformed” is that it means different things to different people. For many Christians, “Reformed” is equated with the five petals from our favorite flower, "TULIP" – Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints.
As much as I love these teachings, and believe they are Scriptural, to limit the Reformed tradition to five bullet points is misleading. The Reformers and their heirs had a far more comprehensive understanding of biblical teaching, and the life that flows from it, than this.
Which is why I’m glad that Dr. Horton has written the book that he did, “God of Promise”. Horton’s aim in the book is to explain what is really a better summary of Reformed theology. And that is, covenant theology. As he puts it, “Reformed theology is synonymous with covenant theology” (pg. 11). I’m glad Horton wrote this book not because I’m overly concerned about the purity of labels, but because I believe the evangelical church today could use a strong dose of Reformed teaching, both in her doctrine and in her practice.
Horton not only explains what covenant theology is all about, but unpacks many of its important implications. First, he defines and describes what the Bible means by the term “covenant”. He relies heavily on the insights of scholars who have studied extrabiblical covenants from the ancient Near East to help define the kinds of covenants we find in Scripture. He then builds on that discussion to affirm and describe the basic structure of covenant theology with its pre-Creation covenant of redemption between the members of the Trinity, the covenant of works between God and Adam, and the covenant of grace between God and Christ, and all those who belong to Christ. At the risk of oversimplification, essentially the first is God’s plan to redeem a people for Himself, the second is the way of eternal life that was first offered to Adam, that is, perfect obedience (thus, “works”), and the third is the new way of attaining eternal life after the fall, faith in Christ (apart from works, hence, it is by grace).
Horton’s overall explanation of covenant was helpful (with this caveat: he could have simplified it by relegating much of the text to the endnotes). I’m not as convinced as he is that the covenant at Sinai, including the Ten Commandments, should primarily be considered a republication of the covenant of works (and thus, abrogated by the new covenant in Christ). While I agree that this underlines the fact that justification is a matter of grace and not of law-keeping, I’m not sure how to square this understanding of the law with his own very good explanation of the place of the law in the Christian life in the last chapter.
Maybe Horton’s most valuable work in the book is to spell out the implications of such an understanding of God’s dealings with his people. For example, covenant, since it is by nature God’s dealings with a group of people, is a powerful antidote to the individualism in today’s church. Horton especially does a good job of showing how the Lord’s Supper, as a covenant ratification ceremony, has a lot to do with the community of believers and less to do with the individual Christian’s participation in it. Other implications of covenant theology include our understanding of the church and the world, the nation of Israel, the place and function of the law in the life of the Christian, eschatology, and the efficacy of the sacraments as real means of grace.
These are the very aspects of Reformed theology and life that are obscured when we see the Reformed tradition as nothing more than an affirmation of God’s sovereignty in salvation. It is that, of course, but it is also a comprehensive understanding of how we, as God’s covenant people in this sin-cursed but good creation, are to think and live to the honor of our Creator and Redeemer God.
Horton has many good things to say and a number of helpful insights. The only problem is that sometimes the book is difficult to follow. His flow of thought was at times jumpy and unclear. It made for tough going in places.
The subtitle is “Introducing Covenant Theology,” but it doesn’t always read as an introduction. For example, in the space of 3 pages he uses the following technical words with little or no explanation: “pericope”, “shekinah”, “deus nudus”, and “semi-eschatological age” (pgs. 141-143). Too many of these words and the average reader will give up, thinking he’s gotten in over his head.
My hope is that someday this book will be rewritten as a true introduction. Covenant theology is too rich and valuable for just a few Christian folks (and in the big picture, at least in this country, Reformed people are just a smattering after all) to hoard it all.
The day after Meredith, our first child, was born, the doctor deadpanned, “Now all you’ve got to do is raise her.” The intense labor and delivery was over, but the real challenge of being parents was just beginning. Here we had a precious little girl, and I was her father! Now, Lord willing, we are going to have our fourth child and third daughter in March (somehow, we also produced a son). Being a dad to my son doesn’t seem nearly as intimidating as being a dad to my daughters. For that reason, when I saw an ad in World Magazine for a book called “Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters – 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know,” I figured I’d give it a try.
The author is a pediatrician, Dr. Meg Meeker. Her fundamental aim is to encourage fathers to make the necessary effort to provide the kind of leadership, authority, and love that daughters need from their dads. Anyone committed to a biblical view of the family, especially of the importance of the father in the life of the children, will not quarrel with Dr. Meeker’s basic point.
In the book, Dr. Meeker paints a very scary picture of our culture, one that seems almost designed to destroy the lives of girls and young women. Sexual images are ubiquitous, driving home the point to girls that their primary value lies in their bodies and appearance. Moral relativism has replaced whatever Christian ethic may have kept teenage sexual activity in check. The result of all this is that our nation’s girls are being devastated by the consequences of our culture’s promotion of boundary-free sex: from STD’s to depression to just plain confusion about how to live in this world. The statistics and studies that Dr. Meeker cites are eye-opening. About the worst thing we can do for our daughters is let the culture be their primary teacher about who they are, what they are to believe, and what they are to do. Yet that is what is happening.
The good news is fathers are able to shape their daughters hearts and minds like no one else can. A dad is a hero in the eyes of his daughter. She craves his love and attention. A daughter will one day look for a husband that is like her father. A father can teach his daughter modesty, and humility, and how to serve others rather than herself. I was thankful to be reminded of all these truths. Most helpful was the simple but profound truth that, as a dad, I occupy a huge place in the minds of my daughters. Dr. Meeker puts it this way: “Realize who you are to her.”
“Strong Fathers” certainly isn’t written from a strong biblical world-and-life perspective (though Dr. Meeker will probably sound like a fundamentalist to some who don’t question our culture’s confused understanding of family). In fact, the most disappointing chapter for me was “Teach Her Who God Is”. It almost sounded as though she was saying: “Give her God – it doesn’t really matter which one – and she will be a healthier and more well-adjusted person.” Is that really why we worship and serve God – to make our families better and happier? Of course not, but that is the kind of utilitarian approach to religion Dr. Meeker seems to endorse in the book.
Despite that, though, there is much value here. If you are a Christian father of daughters, your goal, more than anything else, is to communicate truth to your girls about their Heavenly Father. If you read her book with some discernment, and keep in mind the biblical principles that underlie her basic points, Dr. Meeker has much help to offer those dads who have been given the precious but daunting call to be a girl's father.
I recently just finished reading the seventh and last book of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” I started the series earlier this year for a couple of reasons. First, the movie version of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” had come out a few months before. In the midst of the Narnia craze I heard over and over how good the books were. Secondly, I had read some C.S. Lewis works before and liked his writing. So, although I have never been a big fan of fantasy literature, I decided to give them a try.
Since then, I discovered an even better reason for reading the books. It gives me something to talk about with my five-year-old daughter, who is a huge Narnia fan. Her favorite, of course, is “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” She almost has the lines from the movie memorized, which means I don’t recommend watching it with her if you haven’t seen it yet.
I started with the first book, “The Magician’s Nephew.” At first I didn’t really enjoy it that much. It was a little slow, and I wasn’t sure what the point was. But the more I read, the more I found myself being taken in by the stories. Like I said, I’m not much for fantasy. But what drew me into the stories was the deeper theological meaning always lurking just under the surface.
Of course, some of the meaning is quite obvious. For example, Aslan’s death for Edmund’s transgression, and his rising to life again, are clear and powerful re-tellings of the gospel message: Christ’s death and resurrection for sinners. But there are to be found so many more subtle theological statements throughout the books. Just to give one example, I love Lewis’ portrayal of the civilized but cruel Calormen people in “The Horse and His Boy.” They are powerful, efficient, and masters of gaining and maintaining control over their people. But they are terrible poets! Lewis doesn’t come out and say they are terrible poets, but he gives us a sampling of some of their “poetry”: ‘Application to business is the root of prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not concern them are steering are steering the ship of folly toward the rock of indigence.” Their poetry seems to be an expression of their soullessness. They have no sense of beauty, no appreciation for a transcendent reality that poetry seeks to convey. Rather, they are wholly earth-bound, people of this world, both masters of the world and yet at the same time slaves to it. Could this be Lewis’ assessment of man in the world without God – essentially de-humanized and spiritually dead?
Another feature of the Chronicles that I came to appreciate is the unembarrassed moral clarity that existed in Narnia. The evil characters were evil, and the good ones were good. “Old-fashioned” values such as chivalry, bravery, and self-sacrifice are abundantly on display. There is very little irony and sarcasm in Narnia. Maybe this is partly because they are stories meant for children, and children want their ethics and morals clear and simple. But is there more than that? A cynic may say that Lewis is being hopelessly naïve in his picture of a world in which there is only good versus evil, and you are on one side or the other. But what if the world of Narnia is a bit closer to reality than we realize? What if there is a “another world,” like Narnia, in which a cosmic battle is taking place between all that is good and all that is evil, and there is no gray areas in between? The Christian knows that there is such a world, and it has much more to do with what goes on in this messy world of ours than we ever realize.
Finally, I admire Lewis’ imagination. He communicates Christian truth, not with propositional statements, but with word pictures. I wish I had more of that kind of imagination, especially in my preaching. I can tell you something about the majesty and goodness of Christ that is true to Scripture. But far more effective is Lewis’ depiction of the glory of Christ when he writes about Aslan. Mr. Beaver is asked if Aslan is safe: “Safe?...Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
I recently finished reading this outstanding book. Marsden tells the story of Jonathan Edwards' life in a sympathetic but discerning way. There is no doubt that Edwards was a giant among giants among the faithful saints that have gone before us. I was very humbled to read about this man who was consumed with a passion for Christ and a deeply-felt concern for the believers under his charge as a pastor.
Edwards was also a man of his times in many ways. Marsden very helpfully analyzes Edwards' life and theology in light of the contemporary theological, sociological, and political landscape. He deals with the Great Awakening, the emerging forces of popular democracy, the noble but often sad attempts of evangelizing the indigenous peoples, and the nature of the controversy that led to Edwards' dismissal from his Northhampton pastorate.
What struck me about Edwards was his utter devotion to both experiential Christian piety and the study of Scripture. He was a "New Light" who promoted the spiritual revivals but he was also completely faithful to his Calvinistic heritage that always rooted Christian experience in biblical revelation.
The book is very readable. Marsden tells a good story, but also explains much of Edwards' profound theology along the way. I HIGHLY recommend it.
I decided to read "The Da Vinci Code" while on vacation. Why this book, why during this time? The book is very popular, and conveys the impression that nearly everything we have traditionally believed about Jesus and Christianity is untrue. As a pastor, I thought it would be important to know first-hand what the book is saying. Why on vacation? Most of my reading is for sermon preparation. Vacation is a good time to do other reading. And, I wanted a book that I could read in between checking the map for directions and handing toys and books to the girls in the back seat. In other words, one that wouldn't take much sustained concentration to finish.
Well, The Da Vinci code is definitely entertaining. Dan Brown, the author, has crafted the book so that nearly each chapter ends with some new twist or surprise. As a suspense novel and thriller, I suppose it's good. At times, as they say, I couldn't put it down. However, the style of writing itself leaves something to be desired. Although I'm no expert, I'm fairly certain The Da Vinci Code is not destined for literary greatness. In fact, to me it read like a movie script.
As a reliable source of information about Christianity, the book is awful. If it was portrayed as nothing more than a novel, then at least it would be harmless. However, Brown packages the historical inaccuracies and outright falsehoods as the products of serious scholarship. The result is that someone who doesn't know any better may read certain passages and say, "Gee, I never knew that (e.g.) Jesus married and had children." For a good critique of The Da Vinci Code's historical un-truths, see Dr. Craig Blomberg's article at: http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/articles2004/0200/0202.php.
In the early part of last century, liberalism, or "modernism", began to redefine who Jesus was and the work that he came to do. It tried to salvage the moral teaching of Jesus while denying that he was the eternal Son of God who came to save from sin. Now that classic liberalism has petered out, it appears that outright paganism may take its place as biblical Christianity's major challenger in our culture. Brown extols the virtues of pagan spirituality and worship while he tries to challenge the very foundations of the Christian faith. As Christians we may be interacting more and more with those who, in a similar way, altogether reject Christianity. And The Da Vinci Code and related "resources" may be their source of information. For this reason alone the book is important to read and understand.
Finding myself at the Norman public library recently one evening, and perusing the books on the shelves without looking for anything in particular, this book title caught my eye: "So Many Books." It's a little book about books, especially about the amazing proliferation of books today. The author, Gabriel Zaid, says:
"Books are published at such a rapid rate that they make us exponentially more ignorant. If a person read a book a day, he would be neglecting to read four thousand others, published the same day. In other words, the books he didn't read would pile up four thousand times faster than his knowledge."
If you are like myself and already know of more books (or maybe even own more books!) than you will ever get to actually reading, this kind of statement could be discouraging to say the least. So many books, so little time.
But why do we read? Not just to increase our store of knowledge. Reading should stimulate our growth and development as Christians. God gave us a mind and the capacity to grow in understanding the world he created and governs. Reading just one book but profiting spiritually from it is better than reading 100 books and just getting more information.
One good book I am reading now is called "Spiritual Depression" by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. I highly recommend it, even if you are not spiritually depressed! (I'm reading it because it was given to me at my ordination service) If you read it carefully, and take to heart what he says, I guarantee you will be encouraged in your faith in Christ.