Book review: The Heresy of Orthodoxy

Recently I linked a review of Peter Enns' book by Michael Kruger of Reformed Theological Seminary.  Well, recent by this blog's standards, which is "roughly within the last six months."  I have been meaning to get around to reviewing a book that he and Andreas Kostenburg wrote, The Heresy of Orthodoxy.  I can't recommend this book enough for anyone wanting to deal with the common secular claims about Scripture.  Whether you're dealing with someone who just got done reading a Bart Ehrman book or watching the latest horrible CNN "documentary" attempting to undermine the testimony of Scripture, this book will be an excellent and helpful work to go through because it exposes and examines the root of all those writings: the Bauer hypothesis which is essentially a rejection of any idea of a supernatural establishment of the church, and instead proposes warring groups of Christians with different beliefs that were eventually all subdued under one "orthodoxy" through the power of one of those groups. (You may recognize this as the plot to The DaVinci Code, except with fewer church ninjas.  Not none...just fewer.)

In all seriousness, there are three main reasons this book is a great investment for a believer wanting to understand the history of the church and defend the faith from these sort of attacks:

1. It discusses at length not just the evidence, but the presuppositions that drive the way all evidence is examined by those who follow in the footsteps of Walter Bauer.  The general method of attacking Christianity and establishing a notion of society as a religion-less, secular entity is rooted in the ideas discussed here, that Scripture did not come from men inspired by God and the church does not teach what it does because those men taught the consistent revelation given to them, but rather they just happened to be "the winners" in a battle of differing beliefs.  However, their claims are rooted not in an unbiased examination of historical data, but rather filtering all that data through a worldview that says "there is nothing beyond immediate physical human experience, therefore, it couldn't have happened in the way claimed."  In doing so, those promoting this position make a series of assumptions that reveal that they are not "doing unbiased history," but rather are in fact making theological claims of their own.  
2. It examines the evidence given in support of these claims, and as noted above, shows how the conclusions drawn from their evidential claims require one to start from a position not actually drawn from that evidence, but from a presupposition of secular humanism.  
3. It is written in a way that a lay believer will be able to engage with and understand without having to gain a scholastic vocabulary, and it also has extensive notation allowing those wanting to dig deeper to find many resources to learn more about the subjects being discussed.  

Easter weekend is a time that media outlets love to trot out the latest attempt to undermine the truth of the Gospel, whether it's the latest "Tomb of Jesus" or "Did Jesus really exist?" or "FOUND: The Gospel of ____" nonsense.  This is a time that can be trying for us as we try to evangelize those around us as well as engage in worship with our brothers and sisters: how do we respond to this while still displaying our love for God and our fellow man?  How can we defeat lies with the truth without becoming angry jerks?  Preparing ourselves with what is true, being in Scripture consistently is key, and a book like this only helps to buttress a well-laid foundation with further context.

This is also an excellent opportunity for believers to brush up on their church history, a subject about which many of us are woefully ignorant, which exposes us to this sort of attack.  This book exposes the Christian to and prepares the Christian for that attack with the knowledge needed to engage the thinking behind it, and most importantly, to preach the Gospel meaningfully in response to it.  Not in the "You're a liar and you need Jesus" way I see used so often and so pointlessly on the Internet, but in a way that shows we are listening to what our opponents are saying, and we do have a real response that continues to focus on our need for Christ.  There is another book that focuses on the other common point of attack during this time, but I will review that later...

Some Saturday reading

Yes, I'm still alive.  No, I've not been hiding, but it has been a very busy fall without much down time.  I would like to report that the classes I've been taking through church have been excellent, and so a lot of my writing time has been focused on that.  I will be reposting some of my work from there, for whatever small edification it may offer.

I did want to post up and recommend reading this review of Peter Enns' new book, The Bible Tells Me So.  The review is by Dr. Michael J. Kruger, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, and coauthor of a book I'm currently reading and also highly recommend, The Heresy of Orthodoxy.  I'll post up a review when I'm done, though certainly I am far less qualified to speak to this subject than he is.  What this review and that book both testify to, however, is the fact that there is an active war against the idea that God has revealed Himself and that He is knowable at all.  Enns doesn't present an atheist perspective or even a Bart Ehrman-like agnostic one.  But like those perspectives, Enns' book basically echoes the tempter's question of "Did God really say...?"  Kruger strongly demonstrates: yes, he did, and the grounds Enns gives for doubting is weak at best.

More later.  Go read!

Book review: Finally Free

Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace
By Heath Lambert, forward by Joshua Harris

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.--1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

I have written before about my struggle against addiction to pornography and the ways in which God poured out a great deal of grace into my life as He matured me and led me onto His paths.  The incredible mercy God showed me through all of that, the way He broke in to destroy strongholds of sinfulness while showing me His immense love and gentleness is the reason I have no problem accepting as true the idea of God saving those He wills by His call and not by anything they have done--because surely, I did nothing to deserve that mercy.  That struggle, of course, is not completely absent from my life, but it is much smaller now; no longer is my life dominated by wicked desires that drive me between lust and despair.  However, I still have times when its ugly head is reared, and I desired to sharpen my arsenal especially as we moved; I was temporarily without a group of close brothers to turn to and I desired to put my mind on something that would help me deal with this specific issue.  When I read some reviews over at The Gospel Coalition, this book excited me a lot and from the first time I got my hands on it, its words have had a great impact on me and the way I deal with my struggles.

Finally Free is very well-done in its approach, for several reasons:

Firstly, it is not the typical guilting rant: there are so many books out there that attack the reader seeking a way out with "Do you know how horrible it is for women in porn?  You're part of the problem, you need to stop!"  To which the addict replies, "You're absolutely right and I want out.  How do I get out?"  But unfortunately that's not what those books are covering.  Pointing out the evil of sin and its effects on our hearts is critical and we need to continue, but it is not the end; indeed, if that's all we do, then we have failed to preach the Gospel or truly call anyone to repentance.

Likewise, this is not a heady treatise, nor is it purely practical in nature.  However, it absolutely is practical, in fact I would argue that its effect is most practical simply because the author spends so much time preaching the simple truths of Scripture and God's grace.  It's not just "here's how to get away from looking at porn," though that certainly is an aspect of it; rather, it is a call to recognize that when we allow pornography into our lives, we are allowing another master besides Jesus to rule over us.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.--Matthew 6:24

I've long contended here that Jesus' specific attack on one of man's most common idols, an idol that reveals how much (or little) man really trusts God to provide for him, can be extended to cover all of our idols.  And truly, one cannot serve both God and wicked sexual desire at the same time.   But that is the point that Lambert builds up to and makes very well: the point of this struggle is not, as I said, to simply cease looking at porn for its own sake, but rather to walk with Christ, to know Him deeply and have that relationship with Him that He has called us into.  It is the very reason grace is extended, and it is why in the epistles to the churches Paul and the other apostles who we see writing spend so much time over and over again, speaking out clearly both against legalistic rule enforcement and against licentiousness--they're simply two sides of the same coin, and equally lead away from Christ.

Thirdly, it goes out of its way to not be graphic or vulgar in its approach to this issue.  Since this is an issue that revolves a lot around a struggle with thought life, obviously a book that went into detail about what people are already struggling with could itself prove a trigger for further problems.  It has a lot of specific examples of people dealing with this struggle drawn from Lambert's ministry, but it focuses on how they deal with it rather than what they deal with.  The reader is able to see his struggles pictured and feel the gravity of the seriousness of these sins, without also being drawn into the downward spiral of thinking about the particulars.  And that particular issue is a big one: when speaking to someone struggling with pornography, the issue is not getting a sinner to be ashamed of his sin and desire freedom.  The issue is getting them move away from worldly grief that brings only death, to godly grief that brings life and inspires real transformation.  This transformation, of course, is a work of the Spirit, but a work like this is a great motivation in that work to the struggling believer.

The book is not a long read, but I took my time with it.  It's very straightforward, and anyone willing to find the time to sit down and read can easily make their way through it in a reasonable amount of time, but there are some study questions in the back and I think it could easily be used between accountability partners or in a small group.  The first few chapters Lambert spends time writing about different weapons we can employ in the fight against sexual idolatry.

One chapter in particular that had a big impact on me was the one about using gratitude.  It did give me a great weapon in my battle, but in addition it spurred me to think about gratitude, and to realize how much I really take what Christ has done for me for granted.  By realizing this I found myself able to shine a light of truth onto those desires to look at porn when they came up, by remembering: this is not simply some random physical desire, this is an element of spiritual brokenness that is revealing an area of ingratitude, where instead of thinking "I wish I could do this but it's wrong" instead I can take the positive track of "I am grateful for the mercy and grace Christ has shown to me, not just to pay for my sin but to open my eyes to it and call me into relationship with him!"  That made a huge difference to me--not to perfection, but in the striving for it.

The end of the book ties everything together with the point I mentioned earlier: the real purpose.  We aren't simply trying to end porn addiction for its own sake, but because it is a roadblock in our walk with Christ.  Sanctification is not about a single item but dealing with all the things in our lives that do not reflect the image of Christ, and as we walk with Him we see those things turn up--the anger, the impatience, the fear and anxiety in places where we don't trust Him like we should, and so on.  Defeating pornography's hold on a generation of Christian men is crucial, but it is only step one, and that point is made clearly.

I highly recommend this book because it is both practical and Gospel-centered in its approach.  It contains a great description of specific things Christians can do in going to battle against their sins, but also consistently reminds and calls Christians to an understanding of the fact that their relationship with Christ is not something offered reluctantly by a God who had no other choice--it was given freely, lovingly, and the freedom to accept it granted out of that love by our Heavenly Father.  Know that truth, brothers, and run after it; this book is an excellent tool in that pursuit.

Book review: What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qu'ran

Let me preface this by saying that I don't consider myself to have any sort of authority to really "review" this or any other book as...well, as an authority.  I am writing about it purely from the perspective of, I would say, the sort of person this book is intended for: a Christian desiring to have knowledge that can aid in the preaching of the Gospel to those who need to hear it most (that would be everyone).  And to that end, the book I want to discuss is exceedingly useful.

The book I refer to is What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qu'ran, by James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries.  Dr. White is an incredibly intelligent and well-spoken teacher and preacher of the Word, and while there are a couple of minor points we may disagree over*, by and large I have found his work to be invaluable in expanding my understanding, maturity and confidence.  He has a prolific body of work, and is known for his unflinching engagement of apologetic issues ranging from second and third tier issue discussions (issues like spiritual giftings and the various "isms" of Christianity, like new perspectivism, Calvinism vs. Arminianism, etc.), cultic offshoots of Christianity (such as King James Onlyists) and other religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, atheism, and of course, Islam.

There are many things to appreciate about all of Dr. White's works, but three primary ones shine through that make this work helpful and edifying for the believer:

1. It is detailed and utilizes good scholarship while still being readable and clear.  So much writing is just hard to wade through because it's so thick, either with dry, boring prose or the author's own overwrought attempts to sound "casual" that generally result in them sounding confused and unclear.  Dr. White is a heavy user of footnotes, and every statement is backed up with thorough documentation so that, should the reader so desire, one can verify if his statements are true and reflective of what he is discussing.  In addition to this, he is completely transparent both as to his motivations and his sources, and such transparency only serves to make his work more credible in the eyes of someone who may otherwise be skeptical of a Christian writing about Islam.
2. This is not an anti-Muslim screed, or a book about the encroaching dangers of Islamofascism/sharia law in the West.  Dr. White desires to see transformed hearts in the Muslim world, and approaches them not as enemies needing to be beaten back, but as brothers and sisters that are astray and in need of Christ's love.  As a result, this book is written in love and in a spirit of gentle correction and discussion that, one hopes, would be accompanied by the Spirit's movement in the hearts of readers to unlock chains of deception.  That in and of itself makes it incredibly unique.
3. Dr. White is devoted to the idea that a text should be able to speak for itself, and therefore the book has extensive quotations from both the Qu'ran and the hadith literature that forms the body of understanding and commentary on the Qu'ran.  By doing so he is able to open the minds of Christians seeking to understand their Muslim neighbors, to talk about their worldview without attacking and to give an apologetic basis for engaging in the areas that typically are sticking points between Christians and Muslims.  In one section, he writes about the claims of the Qu'ran that "people of the book" (a.k.a., Jews and Christians) should look to their own writings (the Torah and the Gospel) for evidence that Mohammed is Allah's final prophet and that the Qu'ran is Allah's true and final word, while also demonstrating that the Qu'ran's author clearly did not know what was contained in either of those writings.**  While anyone who has engaged with someone from another faith can well attest, simply demonstrating this will not generally cause them to make an about-face into Christianity.  It can, however, open doors of dialogue, and demonstrate that we as believers do take them seriously and desire to understand them. 

The spirit of love and the earnest desire to see Muslim lives transformed by the power of the Gospel is infectious and clear.  This is a book that anyone who wishes to understand their neighbors, their mission field or just to understand the true thoughts and desires of the people we see portrayed on the news as everything from savage monsters to innocent victims of Western colonialism.  Muslims, like all others, need to know that Jesus is not simply a teacher or prophet, not simply someone who said good things and carries a title of Messiah, but that Jesus lives and that He gave His life to redeem theirs.  They need to know that their good works do not hold value before a holy and just God, but that in Christ they are seen as justified, sanctified and glorified, adopted children of the living God.

I encourage everyone to read this book.  I read it on my Kindle phone app, which was very useful in hopping back and forth easily between the main part of the book and the footnotes.  While it won't make you an expert on Islam (a title even Dr. White does not claim), it together with a knowledge of the Bible will give you a foothold in understanding it and its adherents, and in being able to have loving, fruitful conversations that, God willing, will lead to lives transformed by the power of the Gospel.

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.--1 Peter 3:14-16