The Westminster Confession is a foundational document for countless churches worldwide. Churches of all sizes claim it as their confession, and hold to it with varying degrees of closeness. Its influence must not be underestimated. However, countless officeholders will have vowed to abide by the Westminster Confession with only the most perfunctory of understanding of its relevance to their situation. Ligon Duncan has assembled an impressive array of contributors from a variety of ecclesiastical backgrounds. The aim is simple – to enable the 21st Century to understand the confession more fully, and so bring about the same kind of rugged, vigorous, intelligent and self-sacrificing Christianity that was the result of its initial publication over 350 years ago.
In the first of what will be three volumes, the topics covered include:- Baptists and the Westminster Confession; Finney’s attack on the Westminster Confession; The Westminster Confession and the Relationship of Church and State; The Holy Spirit and the Westminster Confession.
Life is a journey, full of smooth sailing and rocky roads. The Psalms are there for us as we experience life. They can clarify our thinking or release emotions from the deep well of the soul. Joy Comes in the Morning helps readers understand how to utilize the Psalms throughout life’s journey and introduces readers to the concept of genre.
Joy Comes in the Morning is a unique combination of head and heart. It introduces readers to the importance of genre as an interpretive tool and demonstrates this for the three major genres in the Psalms. Interwoven with the author’s personal testimony, Joy Comes in the Morning also traces the author’s journey and shows how no matter life’s circumstances, joy comes in the morning.
The Puritans are frequently maligned but seldom understood. Far from the dour malcontents they are often portrayed to be, most Puritans were wholesomely engaged in life. This book is designed to introduce you to a wide range of influential Puritan writers and a representative work for each that pushes through stereotypes to the heart and soul of these Christian pastors and theologians. With a clear grasp of the historical contexts in which these Puritan works were written, these twenty essays presented by editors Kelly M. Kapic and Randall C. Gleason illuminate the vibrant spirituality of the Puritans that transcend their sometimes surprising political, ecclesiastical and religious differences. In these pages notable scholars, such as J. I. Packer, John Coffey, Mark Noll, Leland Ryken, Richard Lovelace and Sinclair Ferguson, invite you to sit at the feet of Puritan writers, ranging from William Ames, William Perkins and Richard Sibbes to Thomas Goodwin, John Milton, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan and Jonathan Edwards. What comes through is a living, three-dimensional portrait of the devoted life that emphasizes the Christian experience of communion with God, corporate revival, biblical preaching and the sanctifying working of God’s Holy Spirit.
Have evangelicals misunderstood Paul? Was the Reformation doctrine of justification a mistake? The New Perspective on Paul has serious implications for that pivotal doctrine of the gospel.
Guy Waters lays out the theological, historical, and cultural antecedents to the New Perspective and examines its leading proponents. He offers a trenchant critique of their work and warns us of problems that the New Perspective may pose within the Church.
Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia seems to burst on the reader like a sudden storm. The issues it raises still generate controversy, even after two thousand years of church history. In large measure this is because what was at stake when Paul wrote was the gospel itself. The question of whether human works were to play any part in the justification of sinners had to be answered clearly if the fledgling Christian movement was to prosper. And Paul was determined to answer it with total clarity. This explains the vigour and energy of his language, and the impact the letter has had down the centuries.
Derek Thomas explains the issues dealt with in the letter and refutes the contentions of the so-called new perspective on Paul. His book is an important addition to this expanding series of study guides.
The atonement is the crown jewel of Christian doctrine. And it is the responsibility of each generation of theologians to preserve its heritage, explore its facets and allow its radiance to illumine their day. With The Glory of the Atonement editors Charles E. Hill and Frank A. James III, along with a group of expert contributors, attempt to fulfill this trust at the dawn of a new millennium. The Glory of the Atonement is divided into three parts–biblical, historical and practical–with each section introduced by an overview essay. In part one evangelical biblical scholars explore the atonement within the contours of Scripture, looking first at the atonement in the Pentateuch, Psalm 51 and Isaiah 53, and then more closely at the major texts of the New Testament. In part two historical and systematic theologians weigh the atonement in the ancient, medieval and Reformation traditions. The primary perspective of the contributors is the Reformed tradition, which is further represented by essays on John Calvin, Herman Bavinck and Karl Barth. A timely capstone to this historical view is a stimulating consideration of the atonement and postmodernism. Finally, the implications of the atonement are brought home in part three with a look at the atonement in contemporary preaching and Christian living. Here is a full-course feast for ministers of the Word, a textbook for students of the Bible and theology, and a valuable resource for any theological library.
For many of us the book of Job stands directly in the centre of one of the most complicated problems of life – the interaction between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Its implications for a world of suffering and injustice is one that has provoked much tortuous thought for both Calvinists and Arminians.
How Job deals with tremendous suffering – losing most of his earthly possessions, family and health – and how God deals with Job’s suffering, does not necessarily make a nicely packaged story.
The issues Job faced are ones that all Christians will struggle with to one degree or another.
Calvin is still an influential theologian and was an excellent preacher. Derek Thomas uses Calvin’s sermons on Job as a model for preachers today.
A concise critique of the view that the institutional church, guilty of apostasy, should disband, ceasing its clerical ministries and its administration of the sacraments.
The book of Job is the harrowing story of a man whose life changed so dramatically in the course of a few short days. It is about the problem of suffering; and the answer to the problem is not seen in the comments of Job’s counsellors but more importantly in his response to suffering. The book of Job teaches us how to respond to difficulties in our lives. Job’s acceptance of his loss is a wonderful example of piety. When he responds with questions and even a measure of bitterness and anger, his frustration is always taken directly to God. Job never lost faith, he is a model of cross-bearing and he teaches us to persevere even in the incomprehensible ways of God in our lives.
In 2 Corinthians you get a picture of how Paul is a model on how to be a leader in the church. We live with Paul through the problems of overseeing many congregations in different stages of growth. We are given examples of how to deal with many types of disciplinary issues yet throughout it is a great example of the use of authority coupled with humility – two things that the modern world has great difficulties in putting together. If you ask Christian leaders for one of their greatest difficulties in ministry is, it is this, how to lead without arrogance. The answers on how to do that are here.
A Hebrew vocabulary guide that gives the student everything he or she needs in order to master basic Hebrew vocabulary and to expand knowledge of biblical Hebrew. This title is intentionally made with a space between the cover and the binding to allow the book to lay flat when opened.
Achieving the right balance of amount of information, style of presentation, and depth of instruction in first-year grammars is no easy task. But Mark Futato has produced a grammar that, after years of testing in a number of institutions, will please many, with its concise, clear, and well-thought-out presentation of Biblical Hebrew. Because the teaching of biblical languages is in decline in many seminaries and universities, Futato takes pains to measure the amount of information presented in each chapter in a way that makes the quantity digestible, without sacrificing information that is important to retain. The book includes exercises that are drawn largely from the Hebrew Bible itself.
The NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible provides a theological conservative, balanced system of notes and articles that trace the Reformed Christian heritage back to its roots in the Reformation. Appropriate for both an academic and an informed lay audience, this Bible incorporates extensive study notes, as well as articles, charts, and graphs, that comment on Scripture from a distinctly Reformed perspective. Included is the complete text of each of the six major Reformed doctrinal standards, keyed in the study notes to relevant Scripture passages.
Derek Thomas shows that amidst the language and forms that dazzle and shock the book of Revelation is above all a book about Jesus Christ. Thomas takes us through the series of seven visions which show the outworking of the words of Jesus to Peter: ‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’
Marking a significant milestone in the history of the Southern Baptist Founders Conference, this book is a compilation of papers presented over the first twenty years of the Conference.
