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Category Archives: Book Review

A Community of Evangelism

10 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Book Review, Evangelism

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Book Review, community, Evangelism, Ministry, Tim Chester, Total Church

In their book Total Church, Tim Chester & Steve Timmis discusse evangelism in a way a bit different than how we typically discuss it. Their overall point in the book is that the Gospel creates a type of “life together” (to use Bonhoeffer’s phrase). The community created by the Gospel is the basic orientation of each member of the church (he contrasts this with a church as a “preaching center” where people appear once a week to get their “spiritual groceries” and then go back to their real lives).

This works out in evangelism as the entire congregation is participant in evangelism. Rather than evangelism being a only proclamation, “Jesus died for you” (they by no means discount the actual proclamation), the proclamation is embodied in the congregation (all of them) (John 13:35).

The gospel word and the gospel community are closely connected. The word creates and nourishes the community, while the community proclaims and embodies the word. The church is the mother of all believers, Calvin asserted, in that she “brings them to new birth by the Word of God, educates and nourishes them all their life, strengthens them and finally leads them to complete perfection.” Martin Luther believed that “The church . . . is constituted by the Word.” He also likened the church to a mother “who gives birth to you and bears you through the Word.”

The evangelism he envisions is actually more demanding, not less demanding that what we typically think of as evangelism:

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Book Review, Mistakes Leaders Make

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Book Review, Leadership

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Book Review, Leadership, Mistakes Leaders Make

In Mistakes Leaders Make, David Kraft, a man with over 40 years of ministerial experience, has a simple goal:

My prayer is that in reading this book you will have some aha! moments, have your blind eyes opened, and be led by the Holy Spirit to confess, repent, and be forgiven so you can learn before permanent damage is done.

Kraft, Dave (2012-09-30). Mistakes Leaders Make (Re:Lit) (p. 12). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

He structures the book around a fictitious local church, and systematically works his way through various ministry leaders, a lead pastor, an executive pastor, discipleship pastor, high school director, a children and women’s ministry director, a elder over finances, a worship leader and a counseling pastor. He then takes his story to focus on the type of error that a leader can make.

In the first chapter, he considers Norm, the lead pastor who has replaced Jesus with service for Jesus, achievement for Jesus as the center of his work. “Our identity in and intimacy with Jesus slowly dissipates, and over time, the ministry begins to occupy center stage in our affections, time, and focus. It is all downhill from there in a leader’s life and ministry.”

Dave Kraft (2012-09-30). Mistakes Leaders Make (Re:Lit) (pp. 17-18). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

In the second chapter, Kraft looks the assistant executive pastor who compares himself with the status of others, the work of the others, the reputation of others. Yet, such a desire is quite dangerous, as Jesus explains in John 5:44 (ESV) “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”

In the third chapter, Kraft considers the case of the charismatic young man with no theological training. Due to his natural abilities, the high school and junior high groups quickly grew in number. However, his pride overcame all. Often congregations overlook pride if numbers of look good – this, of course, is not true ministry, nor does it glorify God.

Kraft contrasts this with humility, “A humble person is so centered in Jesus, so much at peace and at home in Christ and his love and acceptance, that neither people nor circumstances take him on a roller coaster ride.” (44).

In the following chapters he looks at people-pleasing: where a fear of the opinion of this or that person causes the minister to compromise in this or that way:

Over my forty-three years in vocational Christian ministry, I have worked on many teams, with many kinds of leaders, and in fifteen different churches and organizations. I have come to the conclusion that we need to build organizations where there is a culture of candor and not a culture of fear. We need a culture where there is freedom to disagree with others, particularly leaders, to have various points of few, and to be able to express them without fear of reprisal and retribution. No one ought to feel as if he were walking on eggshells or violating Scripture or conscience just to keep various factions happy.(56)

In the remaining chapters he looks at busyness, the conflict between financial stewardship & faithful ministry, a refusal confront troubles to preserve a false harmony, permitting those who make the greatest demands for attention due to their subject pain to swallow up all other work, and allowing information to replace transformation.

Along the way Kraft makes various observations concerning leadership generally. Kraft commends hiring a leadership team comprised of men with spiritual vitality, appropriate talent and good, hard working character. In addition, make sure one possesses the necessary talent before giving them the position:

You don’t train for talent, you hire for talent. All the training in the world won’t change a person’s God-given DNA or help him or her be somebody God never intended. …Marcus Buckingham says, “People don’t change that much. Don’t waste your time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough.” (97)

Evaluation? A very useful book. First, the problems he address are common to ministry. Second, the solution are biblical and sound. Third, the real genius of the book lies in the vignettes. Typically, such stories merely fill space, but in this particular book the stories illustrate with painful exactitude the types of troubles which all too often deform ministry.

The Past as a Hero

25 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Book Review, Ministry

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Autopsy of a Dead Church, Conrad Mbewe, Ecclesiology, History, past, Thom Rainer

Thom Rainer’s Autopsy of a Dead Church examines the way in which a church slowly erodes as it gives up the true work of a Church (to fulfill the Great Commission while loving God & neighbor). The congregation becomes increasing inward focused, a claustrophobic social club, shrinking in on itself.

I had the privilege of spending sometime with Conrad Mbewe (http://www.conradmbewe.com), who asked, “How is your church relevant to Jesus Christ?” A church can be busy with nothing valuable it if it not relevant, not valuable to what Jesus is doing (since The Church is His Church).

The most telling error of a  dying church is the way it relates to its own past. Like an aging man reliving his high school glory, a congregation which looks backward (and thus inward) of is of no real use to the Kingdom:

The most pervasive and common thread of our autopsies was that the deceased churches lived for a long time with the past as hero. They held on more tightly with each progressive year. They often clung to things of the past with desperation and fear. And when any internal or external force tried to change the past, they responded with anger and resolution: “We will die before we change.”

And they did.

Hear me clearly: these churches were not hanging on to biblical truths. They were not clinging to clear Christian morality. They were not fighting for primary doctrines, or secondary doctrines, or even tertiary doctrines. As a matter of fact, they were not fighting for doctrines at all. They were fighting for the past. The good old days. The way it used to be. The way we want it today.

For sure , there were some prophets and dissenters in these churches. They warned others that, if the church did not change, it would die. But the stalwarts did not listen. They fiercely resisted. The dissenters left. And death came closer and closer.

Rainer, Thom S. (2014-04-14). Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive (Kindle Locations 161-168). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. The book is well written, clear and useful. It diagnoses the trouble with an ill church and how to turn the trouble around. Each trouble is matched by a prayer resolution to avoid (or repent) of a trap which kills a congregation and thus turns away from the work of Christ.

Rainer estimates the following categories for active congregations in North America:

Healthy: 10%

Symptoms of sickness: 40%

Very sick: 40%

Dying: 10%

That means 300,000 churches are sick or very sick. With such serious  statistics, this book is one which any church leader should read and prayerfully consider.

Depression: A Stubborn Darkness (Edward Welch)

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Book Review

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Biblical Counseling, Book Review, Depression, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, Edward Welch

The following is a brief overview of Welch’s Book Depression: A Stubborn Darkness

 While the immediate sources of depression are many, the ultimate understanding of depression must be in the context of one’s place before and relationship with God.

Causation: Depression does not stem from a single cause – nor do all depressions have the same form (14). God has never prescribed a happy life, nor does God legislate emotions (15). Suffering, which is the larger category to which depression relates, may stem from several sources: any of the aspects of creation which God curses (our bodies, our-selves, other humans, Satan) or even God, himself (27, 31-32, 38-41, 42-44). Any particular depression may stem from multiple causes (41).

Depression stems from an interaction of external events and internal beliefs (106). This interchange occurs in the heart, which Welch breaks out as follows: spiritual allegiances; imaginations, desires, motives; thoughts and feelings; actions.[1] This two-step process lies at the heart of Welch’s analysis of depression.

Outside events

Things outside our control

Things that come at use                                    

Depression

 Internal beliefs and interpretations

Things we can change

Things that come out of us.

 

 

 

The Unveiled Heart: “One of the problems with the heart is that it is difficult to know it” (133).  Depression exposes the heart, which can lead us to change:

When we see something of our own hearts, we are in a position to grow and change. However hard it is to have our innermost being exposed, it is a necessary part of the path of blessing. (135)

Ultimately God: Fortunately, it is not necessary to know precisely what caused a particular depression (43). We ultimately deal with God – and thus depression must be seen in light of this relationship (43, 46). The misunderstanding which contributes to our depression ultimately entails errors in our understanding of God (136).

Depression may unveil fears (chapter 15), anger (Chapter 16, “Sadness +  Anger = Depression”), loss of hope (Chapter 17), failure and shame (Chapter 18), guilt and legalism (chapter 19) and death (chapter 20).

Jesus willingly entered into our pain and partook of those things which could bring depression (47-50). To have seen the difficulty suffered by Jesus will take us out of ourselves (a self-centeredness) and permit us to see more clearly of God and his goodness (47-50). This teaches us that life will not be easy for us, and that difficulty is not necessarily a sign of God’s displeasure (51-52).

Sin is the real problem – far more profoundly than any depression (76). Thus, resolution of sin is foundational to the resolution of any pain (reminds me of the progression of ideas in It Is Well With My Soul). God is the only true basis for hope (78). Our purpose in life is to fear God and keep his commandments (82). The primary commandments we are to keep: love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; love our neighbor as ourselves. “Fight the spiritual battles that accompany depression so that you can love other people” (85).

Depression seeks surrender: God calls us to persevere (91). “What you thought was a path of life now looks more like a battlefield. Satan’s strategy is to wear you down. You remember the cross one day and [sic] Satan is content to wait for tomorrow” (97). Perseverance derives from and leads to knowledge and grounding (faith, trust, hope, love) in God (99).

Worship

Thus, to deal rightly with depression, we will need to become worshippers (55). Since we will not want to worship while depressed, we should liturgically use the Psalms to structure our worship before God (56). The Psalms present many opportunities for the depressed person to enter into worship, because the Psalms introduce the concept of depression quite plainly.

Welch lays out the following format for spiritual attack: “You are spiritually vulnerable — your emotions are so powerful that they skew your interpretations –Satan attacks — you swear allegiance to your most pessimistic interpretation no matter what others say” (65). Satan primarily attacks such a person by means of lies (64, et seq.).

Indeed, we must assume the presence of the lie, therefore, we be assured of the truth in Christ:

With depression, assume the lie is present. Consider a permanent attachment. As long as you struggle with depression, you will have to be particularly alert to it. Your goal isn’t to overcome it; your goal is to engager it with a growing knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Know Christ. Satan’s energies zero in on this point: the truth about Jesus. If you are growing in an accurate knowledge of Jesus Christ, you are winning the battle. If you are not, you are losing ground daily. 69

Only when one has been assured and of the truth Christ and his work (69) will we rightly  The primary work of Christ being the undoing of the curse, in particular the forgiveness of sin (which separates me from God) must be at the core of restoration to the broken soul (a review of Psalm 130) .

Appendix

The book concludes with helpful chapters on medical treatment, the effects upon family and friends, care and expectations.

 


[1] In an interesting comment upon cognitive psychology, Welch notes that biblical counseling goes to the spiritual allegiances which underlie the thoughts which are the subject of cognitive (/behavioral) psychology (104-112).

Book Review: Jesus Christ The Prince of Preachers (Abendroth)

04 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Book Review, Preaching

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Book Review, Jesus Christ: The Prince of Preachers, Mike Abendroth, Preaching, Sermons

Jesus Christ: The Prince of Preachers

Learning from the teaching ministry of Jesus

Mike Abendroth

Overview

The book is organized around eight points: 1) Jesus viewed preaching as preeminent; 2) Jesus preached with a high view of Scripture; 3) Jesus preached Christ, and him crucified; 4) Jesus preached doctrine; 5) Jesus preached as a herald; 6) Jesus preached discipleship; 7) Jesus preached for a verdict; and 8)jesus was an expository preacher.

Each chapter first develops a thesis, such as “Jesus preached for a verdict”. Abendroth first examines the proposition in light of the Gospel text, giving examples and explanations.  To show Jesus preached for a verdict, Abendroth quotes a text such as John 11:25-26:

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25–26 (ESV)

The examples are then developed through exegesis and argument.  Following his examination of the thesis, Abendroth then provides application and instruction for two groups: those who will teach, and those who will listen.

For teachers and preachers, Abendroth provides instruction on the proper attitude toward the work –“guard the primacy of preaching in your ministry”– and practical, “Habitually tell your congregation that doctrine is important.” For congregants, Abendroth provides examples of what they should look for in a proper ministry – “do not desire preaching that revolves God around you” – and how to support a godly ministry, “Pray that your pastor never gets creative in the pulpit” (where he means pray to God, not merely hope vaguely).

Citations

The book relies heavily upon citations and quotations. This is one of the pleasures of the book:

G. Campbell Morgan corrected a common adage of his day, “The preacher must catch the spirit of age,” saying, “God forgive him if he does. The preacher’s business is to correct the spirit of the age.”

However, in other places (particularly toward the front of the book), the citations drag down the argument, as in the paragraph of quotations from lexicons on the meaning of a particular word. Now, I like lexicons and have even read them without an immediate need to find an answer. Yet, very cluttering up an argument with “present active participle” following by “Louw-Nida, Thayer, and BDAG ….” [and he even cited Thayer!] didn’t help. An editor should have dropped this to a footnote.

Evaluation

Nothing in the book is novel – which is the primary virtue of the argument. Abendroth is arguing for preaching and teaching ministry which is not characterized by current fashion, but rather by Jesus’ example. The application sections are uniformly good. The decision to provide instruction to “lay” members of a congregation was wise and useful, even if the book is only read by a preacher.

While the book does not strive for novelty, it does unfortunately state correctives which must be heard even by pastors who should know better. For example,

What must be avoided at all costs is taking the Bible and simply using it as a jumping-off point for a personal agenda of the teacher. Even if the personal agenda is biblically correct (as opposed to textually correct), this kind of teaching must be shunned so that all the listeners will be able to clearly see that that the point of the message comes directly from the text. Haddon Robinson insightfully asks, “Does the preacher subject his thought ot the Scriptures, or des he subject the Scriptures to his thought?” Is the passage used like a national anthem at the football game—it gets things started but then is not heard again? Or is the text the essence of the sermon to be exposed to the people? (116).

In short, the book is clear, useful and accurate. The book itself is not a sermon, but closer to an instruction book for preachers (and their congregations) to avoid errors and aim at the correct target.  The book reads quickly. It is not a book which one would likely read for the enjoyment of reading, but it is a book which could (and should) be read for profit. A young preacher should read it to avoid major errors in his ministry, and an old faithful preacher should read it to correct bad habits.

 

 

 

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Apologetics, Bible Study, Book Review, Hebrew, OT Background

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Against All Gods, Apologetics, Baal, Book Review, Canaan, Canaanite, John D. Currid, Old Testament Background, Polemic, Polemical Theology, Polemics

It has been recognize for some time that the Exodus account of the Egyptian plagues functioned as a polemic against those gods. YHWH systematically destroyed the Egyptian gods. For example, the ninth plague of darkness struck against the Egyptian god of the Sun, Re. Re might shine, but only if YHWH lets him.

John Currid (Professor Reformed Theological Seminary), has recently published Against All Gods. In it, he traces out the “polemical theology” of the Old Testament.

Since the discovery of extra-biblical parallels to Old Testament events, prophecies, poetry, it has become a common place for critical scholars to contend that the Israelites were a wholly derivative, uncreative people who merely mimicked their more creative neighbors. Any parallel merely means the Israelites swallowed and repackaged what they heard and read (a sort of B-level retread of the real artists and thinkers).

Currid confirms the parallels but demonstrates how the usage in the Old Testament appropriates and subverts the original meaning. By using existing forms, the Israelites proclaimed that their God was the only true God:

“For example, the prophet Isaiah announced that “Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud” (19:1). It should be noted that earlier Ugaritic literature used the same epithet for Baal, the storm-god and main god of the Canaanites: “For seven years let Baal fail, eight, the Rider on the Clouds: no dew, no showers, no surging of the two seas, no benefit of Baal’s voice” (Aqhat, 42–44).26 Israel’s use of Baal imagery for the work of Yahweh was not syncretistic. It was not the merging of the characteristics of two gods into one composite god. Nor was Yahweh somehow evolving from Baal. Rather, Isaiah was making an implicit criticism of Baalism: Baal does not ride on the clouds; only Yahweh does! This was one way in which Isaiah polemicized Canaanite religion; he was taunting that paganism. In addition, the prophet was confirming the truth of Hebrew religion and, in particular, the radical monotheism that it promotes.”

John D. Currid. “Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament.” Crossway, 2013. iBooks.

Understanding the interaction between the Hebrew texts and the surrounding culture in terms of polemics explains a great deal of the usage — and does so far better than the standard academic position of the last 120 years. The history of religions thesis is so bound up with 19th Century progressivism, that it should be suspect on that ground alone.

Yet even the polemical reading does account for much of the usage found in the Hebrew Bible, Currid is careful not to over-claim for his thesis:

Polemical theology certainly does not answer every question about the relationship of the Old Testament to ancient Near Eastern literature and life. There is much to that relationship that simply cannot be understood and explained by the use of polemics.

Currid writes in an easy, clear style. He point is never jumbled. He covers complex material without making it feel complex. He often uses charts to summarize similarities and differences between sources, which makes the relationship immediately comprehensible.

The thesis itself does not merely answer destructive Old Testament criticism. It also helps to make sense of many passages of text. I won’t spoil anything by disclosing Currid’s many examples. But I will say the book is an enjoyable and worthwhile read. I will certainly keep the book handy for reference now that I’m done reading it.

Good Mood Bad Mood, Charles D. Hodge M.D.

17 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Book Review, trial

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anti-depressive, Biblical Counseling, Bipolar, Book Review, Charles H. Hodge, Depression, Good Mood Bad Mood, Medication, Over diagnosis

Charles Hodge, a medical doctor and biblical counselor, considers the matter of depression and bipolar disorder. In the first five chapters, he surveys the medical literature to argue there has been a massive over diagnosis of “depression” — not because the persons who present to the physician do not meet the DSM criteria [but even here there is a problem, because 25% of psychiatrists and 50% of general practitioners admit that they do not use the DSM IV criteria in making a diagnosis], but rather that the criteria capture too many false positives: the criteria do not distinguish between “normal” and “disordered” sadness.

“‘Normal sadness’ is something that happens to most of us when we lose something very important to us” (62). Such sadness will correspond to the nature of the loss and will alleviate when the trouble has been removed. Relying on the work of Horwitz and Wakefield, Hodge draws the correlation between 90% of the patients who show no benefit over a placebo for “depression” treatment and those who apparently are just sad and not “depressed”:

If the estimate is correct and 90 percent of those diagnosed with depression are simply sad because of a significant loss, it may also be that they are the 90 percent of patients for whom current medication is no more effective than a placebo. (68-69)

What of the other 10 percent:

I am often asked if I believe that the 10 percent with explained sadness represent a disease. The answer is: I do’t know. Nor does anyone else. No one in medicine, psychology, or biblical counseling should surrender to the argument that prolonged unexplained sadness is a disease. We should want a better explanation ….Until we have a pathological explanation for the 10 percent, we should be willing to say, “I don’t know.” (71)

Hodge then proceeds to discuss the ways in which sadness can produce good results. He first looks at the general research on the ways in which sadness can do good a person following a loss. He next looks at sadness in light of how the Scripture discusses sadness and hope. He discusses sadness in light of one’s desire and loss of expectation — and then the motive of one who has experienced such loss. I will not try to summarize his argument and the points of counseling (buy the book). However, I can provide the matrix in which he discusses sadness and loss:

[T]rouble and sorrow have great value when we pursue it guided by 2 Corinthians 7:10 [For godly grief produces a repentance [a change of thinking and living] that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.] When we choose to see sorrow the way God intends [as means and catalyst for transformation] we do not sorrow as those who have no hope. Godly sorrow leads to changes in our mind’s perspective and our heart’s priorities. The sorrow of the world often leads to deadly detours in living. (155).

The final chapters deal with bipolar disorder. In these chapters he carefully distinguishes between bipolar I (the old manic depressive) which plainly appears to be a medical condition, and bipolar II which has a much broader diagnostic criteria and may often be the result of side effects from (unnecessary) anti-depression medication.

The book ends with an appendix on the Gospel and another appendix on diseases which cause depression/depressive symptoms.

Recommendation: Buy it, read it.

Men Counseling Men

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Book Review

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Biblical Counseling, Book Review, Men Counseling Men

book title front

Men Counseling Men

A Biblical Guide to the Major Issues Men Face

John Street

Under the guidance of John MacArthur, the biblical counseling program at The Master’s College has received international acclaim, with instructors who are recognized for their exceptional ability to apply God’s truth to real-life problems.

Men Counseling Men is an exciting new resource on how to counsel men about the difficulties they face. Written by the school’s faculty members, it is an accessible, practical volume that will equip both trained professionals and lay people to provide solidly biblical help for men who are struggling with a variety of major life issues.

Readers will learn how they can offer hope and encouragement in relation to…

  • depression
  • parenting
  • anger
  • conflict resolution
  • physical affliction
  • sexual purity
  • marital relationships
  • rebuilding a marriage after adultery

God’s Word possesses incredible power. This book will help men experience that power as they turn to the Lord for help.

http://harvesthousepublishers.com/book/men-counseling-men-2013/

 

 

Full disclosure: I wrote the chapter “When Marriage Problems Become Legal Problems”.  I do not receive any money for the sale of the book. All the profit goes to scholarships for biblical counseling training.

Here is a bit from the chapter I wrote. One of the important aspects of counseling is to demonstrate the actual results of sinful choices. The Proverbs repeatedly set out sin and its repercussion: If you do X, Y will result. The pattern of sowing and reaping runs throughout the wisdom literature.

When it comes to divorce, you must realize that it will almost certainly make your life worse — at the very least it will create an entirely new set of problems (I understand that there are sometimes necessary and biblical grounds for divorce –but in most instance, the divorce is not sought for wise or godly reasons). In this section of the chapter, I sought to lay out just the practical unhappiness that will result from divorce:

 

The Court in General

                                What You Will See

Divorces in the County of Los Angeles are often filed in the main courthouse downtown. To get to the courthouse at the time the court opens, will require leaving early in the morning and fighting downtown rush-hour traffic. After you park, make your way across the street, stand in a long line, pass through an inspection to make sure that you’re not carrying any weapons; you walk down a long corridor and pass from the fourth floor to the second.

As you turn at the bottom of the escalator, you see a corridor stuffed with people. This is easily the most crowded area in the courthouse. There are two striking features of this crowd outside the courtroom: First, there will be children. Second, many of the women will be dressed as if they were seeking to seduce a man at a nightclub. One of those women and some of those children may very well be yours.

If your wife is involved with another man, he likely will be present with her as “moral support”. This will of course make you feel very uncomfortable. You will not want this man near your children, and you have no ability to stop it. The feeling of impotence will become a constant feeling during the divorce proceedings. Get used to it.

Book Review (Part Four): Inerrancy and Worldview: Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible, Vern Poythress

12 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Apologetics, Book Review, Vern Poythress

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Apologetics, Brian Morley, idolatry, Impersonalism, Inerrancy and Worldview: Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible, materialism, natural law, personal God, Presuppositional apologetics, Presuppositionalism, Vern Poythress

Part Four: The Impersonalist Misreading of Scripture

          Poythress identifies two basic worldviews.  On one hand, he identifies the biblical worldview of a personal God who “upholds all things by the word his power” (Hebrews 1:3): “The laws derive from God’s speech, which is the speech of a personal God. But our modern culture has moved away from this kind of regularity” (52).

          The opposing worldview sees such regularity not as the kind action of a loving God, but rather as the blind action of an enormous machine, “[O]ur modern culture has moved away from this kind of conception of regularity. The nineteenth century saw the triumph of natural science in interpreting the physical aspect of the cosmos. Nineteenth-century natural science produced a kind of mechanistic model of the universe, which could be easily interpreted as implying a kind of mechanistic model of the universe …a universe governed by impersonal law” (52). He calls this worldview “impersonalism” (30).

          Drawing out the theological implications, Poythress notes that the impersonal view begins without God’s existence: “[I]t substitutes the God of the Bible for a kind of god of its own invention, in the form of impersonal laws. The god is the substitute for the real thing, and that sense, an idol” (53).

          But what of polytheism? Poythress notes that if all things are ultimately and only physical matter, human beings and trees really are the same. The natural human desire for some spirituality combined with a materialism has a tendency to invest the physical world with spirits. 

          Such a thing is seen in ancient polytheism, where physical things: winds, ocean, rivers, stars, et cetera are understood to be gods worthy of reverence.  In modern times, a full-fledged religion is rare as with respect to physical items (although it is not completely absent). More often it takes a more diffuse superstition, “Everyday people within advanced industrial societies are looking into astrology and fortune-telling and spirits ….That direction may seem paradoxical. But ….If a materialist viewpoint is correct, all is one” (31).

          I spoke recently with a scientist and professor from one of the most prestigious universities in the world.  He casually mentioned that his materialist science colleagues were “very superstitious”. When I questioned him, he thought the matter beyond quibble.

          Poythress goes onto draw out the religious commitment of such pantheism: When a viewpoint includes spirits and gods, it may in a sense appear to be personalist. But ultimately it is impersonalist, because the “one” dissolves what is distinctive in persons” (31).

          In the book, Poythress demonstrates and works out the impersonalist convictions which underlie modern disciplines of science, history, linguistics, history, sociology, anthropology and psychology. In particular, he shows how such presuppositions necessarily will undermine any value for the Bible, but assuming at the outset that the Bible is cannot be true:  What he means is that the Bible describes a personal God uphold the world. The impersonalist presuppositions which underscore modern study assume such a God cannot and does not exist.

          To demonstrate the nature of such misreading of Scripture, Poythress interacts with the biblical texts in light of various disciples. By drawing out the impersonalist presuppositions in such disciplines, he exposes the manner in which such disciplines create conflict and confusion – not because it exists in the text, but rather because the presuppositions cannot account for or incorporate the claims of Scripture.

          I remember my anthropology professor in college discussing his works among pygmies in Africa. The pygmies lived in the forest and rarely saw anything more than thirty feet away (I don’t remember the precise distance, but it was not far – due to the extremely dense vegetation). When he took some people out to the plains and showed them large animals at a great distance, they thought the animals were very small – not far away. Their understanding of the world did not include the fact that things far away would look small.

          The impersonalist cannot rightly see the universe or Scripture, because he cannot admit to the evidence of God’s personhood – even though such denial comes at the cost of one’s own humanity.[1]


[1] Poythress does note that the regularity – but not utter and absolute uniformity – of God’s interaction with creation permits impersonalist “laws” to approximate some aspects of reality. For the good and value of God’s consistent regulation of the natural world, see God in the Shadows, by Dr. Brian Morley.

Book Review (Part Three): Inerrancy and Worldview: Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible, Vern Poythress

11 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Apologetics, Book Review, Vern Poythress

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Aldus Huxley, Ends and Means, Gullibility, Heath Lambert, idolatry, idols, Inerrancy and Worldview: Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible, Jeremiah 2:25, Presuppositional apologetics, Presuppositionalism, The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams, Vern Poythress

Part Three: Religious Gullibility and Dehumanizing Idolatry

          Poythress works out the trouble of the materialism in a section on religious gullibility.  The skeptic will appreciate that Poythress does not rule skepticism out-of-court, “Skepticism about religious belief should not be dismissed too quickly. It is a counterfeit, which means that it is close to the truth. It has seen some things to which we do well to pay attention” (221).

          Some questioning of religious claims is necessary, because human beings have a built-in vulnerability: Due the Fall (Genesis 3), human beings have a deep seated need for God: this is expressed in longing for significance, safety, assurance. The extraordinary desire for such things leads human beings to accept counterfeits: sort of like the young lover who overlooks extraordinary faults solely because the lover’s desire is so great. “I don’t care if he steals and lies, he is wonderful!”

          Gullibility is the cost of trying to remedy the damage of the Fall without seeking the remedy of God in Jesus Christ.  

          The things desired by the human being supersede any other commitment to truth or life: such things become one’s ultimate commitments and thus control all understanding in one’s life. Ultimate commitments which do not terminate in God are by nature extremely dangerous, because they will destroy the human being seeking them.

Such desires are in fact gods:

When we forsake the true God, we make commitments to ultimates that become substitutes for the true God. In other words, we commit ourselves to counterfeits. We worship them. Worship is an expression of ultimate commitment. The Greeks had their gods whom they worshipped. Modern people may worship money, or sex, or power (223).

This is the real trouble with our desire for satisfaction when de-coupled from God:

This is how idolatry functioned in Old Testament. The fundamental problem with the Israelites in the Old Testament was that they reserved for themselves the prerogative to determine what they needed and when they needed it, instead of trusting the Lord. The self-oriented hearts of the Israelites then looked to the world (the neighbors in their midst) and followed their lead in blowing to gods that were not God in order to satisfy the lusts of their self-exalting hearts. When this is comprehended, it portrays the terrible irony of Israelite false worship. When the Israelites followed the lead of their neighbors and bowed before blocks of wood, that act of false worship underlined their desire for autonomy and, in an ironic way, was an exultation of themselves even more than of the idol. The idol itself was incidental; (in our world it could be a pornographic picture, a spouse as the particular object of codependency, or an overprotective mother’s controlling fear attached specifically to her children) the self-exalting heart was the problems, which remains the problem today.

The main problem sinful people have is not idols of the heart per se. The main problem certainly involves idols and is rooted in the heart, but the idols are manifestations of the deeper problem. The heart problems is self-exultation, and idols are two or three steps removed. A self-exalting heart that grasps after autonomy is the Grand Unifying Theory (GUT) that unites all idols. Even though idols change from culture to culture and from individual to individual within a culture, the fundamental problem of humanity has not changed since Genesis 3: sinful people want – more than anything in the whole world – to be God.[1]

          Such an idolatrous heart necessarily seeks for some manner to escape from God (Romans 1:18). While those who reject God are rarely as expressive as Huxley, Huxley does make the confession of impersonalism plain:

For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries,  the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an  instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was  simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom; we objected to the political and economic system because it was unjust. The supporters of these systems claimed that in some way they embodied the meaning (a Christian meaning, they insisted) of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: we could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever.

Aldus Huxley, Ends and Means (1946), 272. A copy of the work may be found here: http://www.archive.org/stream/endsandmeans035237mbp/endsandmeans035237mbp_djvu.txt As Poythress writes of such a one, “His ultimate commitment is to himself as ultimate. That commitment has been labeled autonomy….In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, … this desire for autonomy, the rule of the self by the self, and alleged infinite freedom that might go with it have been overlaid by materialism or impersonalism” (229).

          And here is the real terror and sorrow of such idolatry: The desire for some satisfaction without God requires one to abandon a personal God – and thus requires one to rejection themselves as a person. Idolatry comes at the cost of dehumanizing oneself.

          Yet, the lure of idols is so great that we human beings will ruin our lives rather than leave off the chase, “It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners [idols] and after them I will go” (Jeremiah 2:25).

          The only solution for such deception is the redemptive work of God in Jesus Christ.

Poythress exposes the impersonalism presupposed by the various disciplines which interact with the Bible. – That will be discussed in part four.


[1] Heath Lambert, The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 148.

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