For All It's Worth

The Thrill of Hope by Bruce Green Pastor Bruce Green has given his readers an accessible and hope-filled look at the sometimes puzzling Book of Revelation.  Bruce writes, “In the same way, Revelation was written to show Christians there’s no power like hope.  As John will demonstrate, Satan is the ultimate evil and force behind Rome (14).”  There is both a historical rootedness concerning John’s Epistle and a spiritual battle taking place that John sees in his vision that Bruce seeks to capture.  Speaking of the “testimony of Jesus” in Revelation 1:9, Bruce remarks that, “Revelation is a bugle call breaking through the haze and chaos of battle urging them not to retreat from the front lines, but to keep their banners raised high for Jesus (29).”  Bruce takes the description of John’s presence on Patmos “on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus” to be indicative of John’s faithful witness to God by which he has been exiled to Patm...

Cosmos Reborn by John Crowder At the outset I was impressed by John’s Trinitarian focus, his insistence on the love of God, and his interaction with such theologians as Barth, Torrance, and C. Robert Capon.  There is true sense that John is seeking to focus our attention on the who (Jesus Christ) rather than the explaining the “how,” or how it all works out in a nice an neat theological system.  I also appreciate John’s insistence, though somewhat misguided due to his criticism on law, that God’s love is what compelled him to send his Son to the Cross for us. Yet, there are some major problems with this book regarding the areas of penal substitution, hell, and God’s love. One, John excoriates and hates the idea of penal substitution, something that he calls theological garbage (52).  Why?  Because he does not believe that God the Father abandoned the Son on the cross and that sin has deafened our ears and hearts to God but not separated us fro...

Samuel Rutherford by Richard M. Hannula The great Reformer Samuel Rutherford displayed a remarkable theological vision for Scotland that many could not handle or control.  Principal Richard M. Hannula in his new bitesize biography of Rutherford outlines the major events and fiery personality of Rutherford that commends readers to see him as a gospel believing man seeking to defend the purity of the church.  After being appointed as Professor of Humanities in 1623, Rutherford was right in the midst of a squabble with King James who sought to alight the Church of Scotland with more Anglican practices (Five Articles of Perth), for these practices were deemed unbiblical by the more Presbyterian group in the church.  He fought tirelessly against King James and his bishops who forced non-biblical tradition upon them.  At one point, Bishop Sydserff summoned Rutherford to his side and demanded that he conform to episcopacy and renounce his Presbyterian f...

Salt, Light and Cities on Hills: Evangelism, Social Action and the Church by Melvin Tinker The uneasy relationship between social justice and evangelism has troubled evangelicals for some time.  The desire to focus on social justice issues as primary puts evangelicals in a bind because they often feel that evangelism and gospel believing proclamation is lost.  Yet, as Pastor Melvin Tinker points out that there should not be a strong division between the two if we rightly understand the good news of Jesus Christ. Broadening the landscape of social action and evangelism, Tinker gives us a historical snapshot in the first chapter surrounding these issues in Britain in the 19 th and 20 th centuries.  With some groups, social action was carried out with little or no biblical basis (24), yet others such as D. Marty-Lloyd Jones were convinced that the Kingdom of God, the salvation of souls was primary and Christian witness in the halls of justice were second (...

Romans 8-16 For You Edited From the Study by Timothy Keller This second installment on Romans from the pen of Pastor and Author Timothy J. Keller is a winsome and careful reflection on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.  Adding to his wise comments on Romans 8-16 is an excellent appendix on God’s Sovereignty and Election, which in a few pages covers objections to election but focuses also on the free actions of human beings.  By giving us a short snippet of election from a whole Bible perspective, Keller helps us see this grand doctrine through the story of Scripture.  In the opening lines of commenting on Romans 8.4, Keller singles out what Christ’s work does for us by writing, “Everything Christ did for us was in order that we might live a holy life” (15).  Therefore, the aim and purpose of Jesus’ entire life, death, and ministry was to push us toward a holy life, one that would live not under the weight of condemnation but under the guidance of the...