What to read next

Need help figuring out what to read next?  If you're looking for a good Christian book you might get some good ideas here or here.  Or if you're looking for a novel or general nonfiction this is a good place to check.

Gospel Coalition Videos: Al Mohler

For a pleasant diversion beyond the scope of Bilbo's Birthday's original purposes (books and reading) these next several days I'll be posting video from the Gospel Coalition National Conference a couple of weeks ago.  The theme of the conference was preaching Christ from the Old Testament.  Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, opened the conference with a sermon from John 5:31-47 titled, "Studying the Scriptures and Finding Jesus."


Studying The Scriptures and Finding Jesus - Albert Mohler - TGC 2011 from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Buying Books

The charms of the used bookstore are irresistible to me.  The more cramped, cavernous, and confusing the better.  I tend to visit the same sections (theology usually though never exclusively) and I tend to look for certain types of books and a few specific authors.  But the appeal of a used book store is discovering a book you weren't looking for, a book you didn't even know existed which now makes you look back upon your years and say, "Until now my life was but a shadow, a footnote, a commercial break before I discovered this treasure."

If only the prices were better.  True, you can find some great deals in used bookstores.  Powell's Bookstore on the South Side of Chicago, for instance, puts a box of free books on the sidewalk every week to make room for newer arrivals.  But almost always if I buy a book at a used bookstore I can go home and find the same book on Amazon for much less than what I paid.

Which brings me to the point of this post.  Buying books online definitely (for me at least) lacks the charm of a real life bookstore, but it is cheaper.  Most people know of Amazon as a great place to find new and used books at good prices, but let me introduce you to two other sites you might want to consider.

I often, but not always, find better deals at Abebooks than on Amazon, especially for academic books.  Similarly, Westminster Theological Seminary's online bookstore is fantastic and has frequent specials.  Until two days ago you could have bought David Helm's One to One Bible Reading (which I enthusiastically praised) for 60% off.  They do this all the time, and I'll try to post their deals as they come up.

Online book shopping may not be charming and you might not discover a gem you weren't looking for, but it's definitely cost effective, which, if your stage of life resembles anything like mine, is a big deal (pun intended).

On Reading Old Books

Some quotes from C. S. Lewis' famous introduction to St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation (Crestwood, NY:  St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1993):

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books.  Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium.  He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said (3).

This mistaken preference for the modern book and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology.  Wherever you find a little study circle of Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are not studying St. Luke or St. Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Hooker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M. Maritain or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even myself (3).

Every age has its own outlook.  It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes.  We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period.  And that means the old books (4-5).

Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past.  People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we.  But not the same mistakes.  They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us (5).

 

Tolkien vs. Joyce

In 1998 Modern Library published its list of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century.  James Joyce's Ulysses was ranked #1.  See the whole list here.  My favorite book, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, didn't even make the top 100.  It did however come in at #4 on Modern Library's readers' poll.  Similarly, in 1997 the British newspaper The Telegraph polled its readers for their favorite books of the last century.  The Lord of the Rings took the top spot.

I know some people who read Tolkien's masterpiece (a term I do not throw around loosely) every single year.  This year I decided to join this illustrious club.  On the other hand, how many people have actually read Ulysses?  In 2004 NPR covered Dublin's celebration of the day 100 years after the single day in which the events of the book take place.  Part of the story was how unreadable most people find Ulysses:

The difficulty of reading Ulysses is as legendary as the book itself — many of the passages are written in Joyce's signature stream-of-consciousness style, and there are countless allusions to stories of the Bible and Greek mythology. In some versions of the book, notes explaining the meaning of certain passages go on for more than 250 pages.

Thus two very different books, each considered by some to be the best book of the 20th century.  The critics elect an unreadable book.  The people elect a book that they read over and over again.  Yet ever since its publication English departments and the rest of the literati have dismissed The Lord of the Rings as popular (gasp!), genre fiction, and escapist.  Alas, I have not read James Joyce, so I have to reserve final judgments for that day, (as Don Corleone says) if that day ever comes, when I do read it.  But I doubt my present inclinations will sway.

What say you?  What's your favorite book and why?

Personal Evangelism

I've recently come to the conclusion that my general lack of intentional evangelism is inexcusable, despite my best efforts to make excuses.  These excuses have ranged from, "I'm too introverted" to "I'm not sure if the Bible says that every Christian should be regularly involved in personal evangelism."  Yet recent conversations, The Gospel Coalition National Conference, and now Mark Dever's book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism (Wheaton:  Crossway, 2007) have helped me see these excuses for what they are--excuses.  Coming in at 124 pages The Gospel and Personal Evangelism is a quick, punchy, and convicting resource for all Christians who need to know the basics of evangelism.

I particularly enjoyed chapter 5, What Isn't Evangelism, as well as his criticism of evangelistic techniques that are essentially sales pitches.  These techniques, including "controlled conversation" (107) betray the unbiblical view that a person's conversion depends on the success of the evangelist rather than God's sovereignty in election and calling.  On a personal note, a salesman friend of mine once remarked that his training in sales and his training in evangelism had much in common.  This made me deeply uncomfortable at the time.  Thankfully Dever has now helped me put more theological reflection behind my criticisms.  Dever says,

My concern is the opposite:  if you don't believe that the gospel is the good news of God's action--the Father electing, the Son dying, the Spirit drawing--that conversion is only our response to God's giving us the grace-gifts of repentance and faith, and that evangelism is our simple, faithful, prayerful telling of this good news, then you will actually damage the evangelistic mission of the church by making false converts.  If you think that the gospel is all about what we can do, that the practice of it is optional, and that conversion is simply something that anyone can choose at any time, then I'm concerned that you'll think of evangelism as nothing more than a sales pitch where the prospect is to be won over to sign on the dotted line by praying a prayer, followed by an assurance that he is the proud owner of salvation.

But evangelism isn't all about our ability to hawk our religious wares.  Discouragement can be painfully sharp sometimes as we share this best of news only to have it received as unimportant or unbelievable.  But that's where we must remember that it is our part simply to give out the message; God will bring the increase" (110-11). 

Stated more positively,

The Bible presents the human problem as one that can never be solved by coercive force or imposition.  Therefore, all I can do is present the good news accurately, live a life of love toward unbelievers, and pray for God to convict them of their sins and give them the gifts of repentance and faith (71).

Here's more wise advice that in my experience has been unheeded in some churches' evangelism training:

But afterward we'll have to do what some witnessing Christians find very hard to do, something that surprises some of our non-Christian friends--listen to their answers! (65-66)

My one beef with the book is that I'm not sure if people less out-going than Dever will feel as encouraged to evangelize as people with more extroverted personalities.  By no means is our identity limited to where we fall on the introversion-extroversion scale, but nevertheless I've noticed that some of the most passionate people who urge all Christians to evangelize are those who seem most suited for it themselves.  I'd love to read a book on evangelism by an introvert.

With that said, however, Dever makes a strong case from Scripture that all Christians are indeed called to the task of proclaiming the gospel.  His book is clear and helpful--even for people with less out-going demeanors.  Now it's up to such people (like myself) to stop making excuses and start sharing the gospel.

Here's the book's outline:

1. Introduction
2. Chapter 1:  Why Don't We Evangelize
1. Basic Excuses 
1. I don't know their language (literally not metaphorically)
2. Evangelism is illegal (in some countries it is)
3. Evangelism could cause problems at work
4. Other things seem more urgent
5. I don't know non-Christians
2. Excuses concerning them
3. The Heart of the Matter:  Plan to Stop Not Evangelizing
3. Chapter 2:  What is the Gospel?
4. Chapter 3:  Who Should Evangelize? (answer:  everybody)
5. Chapter 4:  How Should We Evangelize?
1. The Balance:  Honesty, Urgency, Joy
2. Specific Suggestions
1. Pray
2. Use the Bible
3. Be Clear
4. Provoke self-reflection
5. Use the church
6. Chapter 5:  What Isn't Evangelism?
1. Imposition
2. Personal Testimony
3. Social Action and Public Involvement
4. Apologetics
5. The Results of Evangelism
7. Chapter 6:  What Should We Do After Evangelism?
1. Negative Responses:  I'm undecided, I want to wait, Not now, No never
2. Positive Responses
8. Chapter 7:  Why Should We Evangelize?
1. Reasons
1. A Desire to be Obedient
2. Love for the Lost
3. Love for God
2. Encouragements to Evangelize
1. Ask for testimonies
2. Consider the reality of hell
3. Consider God's sovereignty
4. Meditate on the gospel
5. Consider the cross
9. Chapter 8:  Conclusion:  Closing the Sale
10. Recommended Reading
11. Appendix:  A Word to Pastors

Preaching Christ from the Old Testament . . . Before the New Calvinism

A good piece from an Old Calvinist on Cain building the first city in Genesis 4:

But they who are moved by this consideration [who exactly lived in the first city] forget to take into account that the writer of the sacred history does not necessarily mention all the men who might be alive at that time, but those only whom the scope of his work required him to name.  The design of that writer (who in this matter was the instrument of the Holy Ghost) was to descend to Abraham through the successions of ascertained generations propagated from one man, and then to pass to Abraham's seed to the people of God, in whom, separated as they were from other nations, was prefigured and predicted all that relates to the city whose reign is eternal, and to its king and founder Christ, which things were foreseen in the Spirit as destined to come. . . . (City of God, 15.8.)

Augustine wasn't just about allegory.

Patricia St. John

It's hard to review Patricia St. John's autobiography An Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary Faith.  The English children's author and missionary to Morocco (among shorter stints elsewhere) wrote her life's story shortly before her death in 1993.  From a literary perspective there is much to complain about.  The story seems to jump from one episode to another without a real attempt at connecting the pieces.  It gives the book a feeling of this happened then this happened then this happened.  On many occasions the narrative wasn't entirely clear and left me confused about what had happened.

I also couldn't tell where she stood theologically.  St. John was a nurse missionary but still did significant work in evangelism, Bible teaching, and other "traditional" missionary work.  Yet I all I could tell about her beliefs was that she was broadly evangelical.  Not that there's anything necessarily wrong about broad evangelicalism--I just would have wanted more theological reflection in a missionary's account of her life.

One last complaint.  An Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary Faith didn't really let me get to know Patricia St. John.  There was some self-reflection, including real struggles to understand God's purposes in profound human suffering, but most of the book was given to telling what happened.  For example, she never gives any sustained attention to the fact that she never married.  Did she feel called to singleness?  Did the opportunity never present itself?  Did she willingly reject marriage and family for a life of service among Moroccan street children?  I don't know.  Similarly, I was puzzled to learn at the very end that a memorial service was held for her at All Souls, Langham Place in London.  What was her connection to All Souls?  There was no mention of the famous church with its even more famous pastor John Stott.  Did she know John Stott?  Or what about other prominent British evangelical leaders like J. I. Packer or Martyn Lloyd-Jones?  To my disappointment her autobiography does not answer.

That's her autobiography, but what shall we say about her life?  Patricia St. John forsook the world to serve Jesus Christ.  She lived in huts, spent many a night on the bare ground, and treated dying babies in famine- and civil war-ravaged Ethiopia.  Maybe my complaints about the lack of insights into her thoughts and feelings have missed the point.  Her whole life was given to self-denial.  Why should she conclude her life with the kind of self-seeking discovery that infests the best-selling memoirs today?  We can say of her what Paul said of Epaphroditus:  "So receive him in the Lord and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me" (Ph. 2:29-30).

Here was my favorite part:

Perhaps the most significant thing about these last years has been the gradual but growing realization that the apparently almost fruitless years of toiling and praying in Moslem lands are beginning to yield a harvest.  The news reaches us of a new hunger there for God's Word, and a new burden of prayer in the hearts of God's people.  We cannot publish what we hear.  We can only rejoice over these small green shoots (292).

Be glad for her work and follow her example.

Reading the Book One to One

A few days ago I mentioned my excitement at reading David Helm's new book One to One Bible Reading:  A Simple Guide for Every Christian (Kingsford, NSW:  Matthias Media, 2011).  I had intended to put it aside for a week or two in order to finish some other books, but an unexpected ministry opportunity made it a bit more urgent.  I would say this even if Dave wasn't my pastor:  this book is one of the simplest, clearest, and encouraging books for gospel ministry that I've read.  What's more, it's equally valuable for the ordained pastor or lay person.

One to One Bible Reading gives four reasons why Christians should read the Bible with other people (11-16).  First, Scripture is effective and sufficient for salvation.  Second, Scripture is effective and sufficient for sanctification.  Third, reading one to one provides great training in Christian life and ministry.  Fourth, reading the Bible with another person is inherently relational, which is at the heart of Christian ministry.  Underlying all these points is the conviction that the ministry is something every Christian does (Eph. 4:11-16), not just the trained professionals.  Thus, every Christian should be seeking out opportunities to intentionally disciple another person by reading the Bible with him or her.

Helm leaves no stone unturned.  He gives very simple, practical advice on how to initiate reading relationships; preparing for a meeting; which biblical books to read for non-Christians, new Christians, and mature Christians; and how to lead a discussion in which the goal of the meeting is to see what the Bible is actually saying and then to think through how it applies to life today.  Even the person with no formal or informal training in interpreting the Bible or in discipling another person will be encouraged to see how down to earth the process really is.

Perhaps the best praise I can give for One to One Bible Reading is to quote my wife:  "It makes you want to read the Bible with another person."  By all means get this book and start discipling today.

Why did Jesus die?

Such is the question that the late Leon Morris set out to answer in his 1983 book The Atonement:  Its Meaning and Significance (Downers Grove:  Inter-Varsity Press, 1983).  As Morris explains in the preface The Atonement covers the same ground as his earlier The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross but geared to a wider, less specialist audience.  The Atonement examines eight biblical themes "that bring out the meaning of the cross and is thus a serious attempt to see some of the significance of Christ's atoning work" (12).  These are covenant, sacrifice, the Day of Atonement, the Passover, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, and justification.

As to be expected from Morris this is careful, faithful scholarship, even if 28 years after its publication much of the scholarly debate has moved on (e.g. propitiation vs. expiation).  Rather than analyze each chapter in depth I will point out what I thought were some of the more helpful points.  Morris concludes several chapters by drawing out the implications of the cross for the life of the believer.

Thus for sacrifice (66-67):
     a) sin is defiling
     b) Jesus' sacrifice brings purification from sin
     c) the death of the sacrificial victim counts (in the Old Testament as well as in Jesus' case)
     d) sacrifice is at cost (ultimately for God himself)
     e) Jesus' sacrifice means the Christian life is one of spiritual sacrifice in devotion to God

Day of Atonement (87):
     a) Jesus' death brings access to God
     b) Jesus' death brings forgiveness for sins

Redemption (128-30):
     a) people are by nature slaves to sin
     b) Christ paid the price of freedom
     c) now the redeemed are free

Reconciliation (146-50):
     a) sin is the barrier between God and man
     b) sin must be dealt with
     c) there is a real hostility between God and sinners
     d) reconciliation is God's work
     e) reconciliation proceeds from the love of God
     f) the reconciliation must be received

Justification (200-202):
     a) people are guilty before God because they have broken his law
     b) this guilt merits a penalty
     c) justification is by faith

My biggest complaint against The Atonement is that Morris does not really show how all these themes fit together.  He does say that all these themes show that salvation is entirely by God's grace completely apart from human merit (204), a great point in itself.  However, on several occasions he says that the different themes bring out different aspects of Christ's atoning work, which is certainly true, yet he goes farther and says that the different themes essentially stand alone by themselves apart from the other themes.  Thus, only the theme of propitiation (Christ's death as turning away God's wrath from sinners) involves God's wrath (169).  I'm convinced that the Bible's teaching on Christ's death is complex yet ultimately unified.  I hold to what is called the penal substitutionary view of the atonement.  It means that Christ suffered and died in the place (substitution) of sinners, thus paying the penalty for human sin against God.  Penal substitution, in my view, encompasses all eight themes that Morris draws out.  All of this is to say that Morris' work tends to stay at the level of biblical analysis rather than offering a synthetic theology of the cross.

Be that as it may, this is a good book.  I'll finish with some quotes I found particularly helpful:

It is accepted today as axiomatic that God's attitude to us is one of love and that it always will be.  I wish to affirm this in the strongest of terms.  But it is love and not sentimentality that is in question.  And what we do not always see is that love is capable of very strong action.  Real love will always be resolutely opposed to evil in the beloved (147).

 It is impossible to take the Gospel's seriously and yet maintain that Jesus did not teach the reality of the wrath of God (165). 

It is the great teaching of the New Testament that we are justified, not by what we do, but by what Christ has done (196).

Great words as we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Reading the Book Part III

At last the final post on reading the Bible:  How much of and how often you should read the Bible.  We have great freedom in this respect.  The Bible itself doesn't give us strict rules.  Rather, its self-description as "breathed out by God" (2 Tim. 3:16), "a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps. 119:105), and so forth reminds us what a treasure it is.  Once we see how precious it is we naturally want to avail ourselves of its riches.

In other words, because the Bible is what it is we should be reading it with consistency and intentionality.  Every day if possible.

But how much of the Bible should you read at one time?  I would recommend going in one of three directions.  First, you could read for breadth.  A great discipline (which I confess never to have done) is to read the Bible through in one year.  This comes out to something like four chapters a day.  But rather than reading the chapters consecutively (which would probably burn you out somewhere around the latter half of Exodus) read from various parts of Scripture, including both Testaments.  The most well-known and time-honored scheme is the M'Cheyne plan, named after the 19th century Scottish pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne.  This plan takes you through the Old Testament once and the Psalms and New Testament twice in one year.  The chapters assigned on one day tend to have theological connections so that you can get a feel for how the Bible fits together.  If you want some helpful guidance along the way as you follow this plan see D. A. Carson's For the Love of God vol. 1 and 2, which is also available in blog form.


Second, you could read for depth.  This means taking a smaller chunk of Scripture and mining it for all its riches.  In high school a pastor took me through the book of Philippians in which we would privately read one section once a day for an entire week and then meet to discuss the passage.  Needless to say I got to know Philippians really well.  I'd highly recommend this type of study.


Third, you could memorize Scripture.  Currently I'm memorizing the book of Philippians with a friend using a very helpful memorization method that you can find here.  Memorizing Scripture is hard work but worth the effort.  If you want the Bible to flow through your veins then this is a discipline well worth devoting yourself to.  


Whether you read for breadth, depth, or choose to memorize Scripture depends on various factors.  Sometimes a change in routine is helpful, so if you've been reading for depth for a while than maybe you should read for breadth.  Or sometimes where you are personally might influence your decision.  If you're a new Christian I'd recommend reading for breadth to get a taste of all the Bible has to offer.  Someone who's more mature might want to consider memorization.  


There are no hard and fast rules, but I would caution against two errors.  Beware of legalism in your reading.  Many of us tend to think that the act of reading the Bible in itself is what makes us holy.  Similarly, we read in order to check that task off our list.  It becomes something to get done.  Don't fall into that trap.  Second, beware of not having discipline.  Some people who want to avoid legalism go in the opposite direction and have no discipline at all in the reading plan.  Which means in effect that they hardly ever get around to actually reading their Bibles.  Discipline is different from legalism.

Reading the Book Part II . . . The Sequel

I'm much more inclined to read shorter blog posts than longer ones.  Hence I try to break up bigger posts into smaller ones.  Which brings us to this post--the second part of a second part of a three part post that in my original vision was just one post.  Think Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II.

So here are some books that are helpful for the ins and outs of interpreting the Bible.  Earlier I mentioned Graeme Goldsworthy's According to Plan as a good place to see how the whole Bible fits together.  In terms of method I cut my teeth on Duvall's and Hays' Grasping God's Word:  A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible back in my freshman year of college.  A more well-known book that does much the same thing is Fee's and Stewart's Reading the Bible for All It's Worth (apparently these types of books have to be written by two people).

A couple of books on the doctrine of Scripture that I have not read but would love to get my hands on (insert metaphorical wink suggesting that someone should buy them for me) are Timothy Ward's Words of Life:  Scripture as the Living and Active Word of God and John Frame's The Doctrine of the Word of God.

Finally, I want to spread the word about David Helm's new book One to One Bible Reading.  Dave is one of my pastors, and so I was privileged to get a copy as soon as it came out last week.  The book is a very short guide to reading the Bible with another person in an evangelistic or discipleship context.  I plan on reading it within the next few weeks with a full review to follow, but for now consider his COMA method that can equally work in personal reading as well as reading with another person:  (1) Context, (2) Observation, (3) Meaning, and (4) Application.

Why it's impossible to read everything worth reading

Interesting article from NPR's website.  Here's one paragraph:

Surrender, on the other hand, is the realization that you do not have time for everything that would be worth the time you invested in it if you had the time, and that this fact doesn't have to threaten your sense that you are well-read. Surrender is the moment when you say, "I bet every single one of those 1,000 books I'm supposed to read before I die is very, very good, but I cannot read them all, and they will have to go on the list of things I didn't get to."

Read the whole thing.

Reading the Book Part II

In the last post we looked at why we should read Scripture.  This time we'll try to answer the question, How should you read the Bible?  Books and books have been written on this issue, and so my temptation is to give an extremely complicated answer.  Instead, I'll keep it as simple as I can and point to you to the books so you can work through the details and complexity as you grow in your Bible reading skills.

Here goes:  the reader of the Bible must come (1) with a heart attuned to faith and (2) eyes attuned to seeing what is there.

First, if Scripture is indeed God's own Word to his people that reveals his infinite grace in Jesus Christ (see the last post) one must approach Scripture in grateful humility.  One must listen to what it says by faith in the One whom the Bible reveals.  It's very easy, especially for theological students, to become adept at the most subtle textual analysis of the Bible while keeping what the Bible actually says at arm's length distance from their souls.  (D. A. Carson has spoken and written on this with some eloquence, but my Google search to locate an actual quote fails me.  If anyone knows where please post it in the comments).  Rather, the first step in interpreting Scripture is to believe--believe that the Bible is God's own Word and therefore receive its teaching with joyful submission to its authority.  Furthermore, we affirm that the Holy Spirit actually works in our hearts so that we receive it with faith, but as my goal is simplicity I won't expand on this at present.

Second, we must see what is there.  This sounds obvious, but in the end biblical interpretation is just seeing what is actually in the text of the Bible.  Working out how exactly to do this brings in the complexity.  Again, for simplicity's sake, four steps:

(1) Read the passage slowly and repeatedly so as to catch every detail.  It is very common for the most accomplished biblical scholar to catch something new on the tenth reading of a passage that he or she missed on the first nine readings.  So read slowly, read the passage over and over again, and read with pen and paper at hand to maximize your mental capacities.

(2) Read a passage in light of its context.  No passage or verse of the Bible fell down from heaven all by itself.  Every text exists within a context.  Just as it would be very difficult to understand the plot of a novel by only reading the even numbered pages, so it is for trying to understand a passage of Scripture without paying careful attention to its context.  In Paul's letter to the Romans, for instance, one must read and understand chapters 1-3 before trying to competently understand chapter 4.  This makes for hard work but fruitful payoff.

(3) Read a passage according to its genre.  By genre I more or less mean the style of literature.  Some parts of the Bible are narrative, others are poetry, others (such as Paul's letters) have logical argumentation, and others (such as Revelation) are in a genre that does not have an equivalent in modern literature.  Thus, when you're reading poetry in the Psalms, look for vivid images, metaphors, and something called parallelism; but don't expect the author to develop and defend a logical proposition.  Similarly, narratives will employ such devices as plot development and character development, irony, suspense, and so on.

(4) Finally, read a passage of the Bible in the light of the Bible whole.  This can be really difficult without familiarity with the flow of Scripture's entire plot line.  One very accessible book I've found helpful on this topic is Graeme Goldsworhty's According to Plan:  The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible.  At the very least, remember this:  Jesus Christ lies at the heart of the Bible.  The Old Testament looks forward to him and the New Testament reveals his person and mission in all its fulfillment.  Interpret your passage with an eye to Jesus.

Next post:  helpful books and an even simpler model for interpretation by my pastor David Helm.

Reading the Book Part I

I promised back in an earlier post that I would write on reading the Bible.  This topic obviously deserves more than one blog post, so I'll divide this topic into three posts:

     (1) Why you should read the Bible
     (2) How you should read the Bible
     (3) How much and often you should read the Bible

Along the way I'll offer a few brief thoughts and guide you to some good sources so you can fill in the gaps.

Why should you read the Bible?  My favorite passage in Scripture that explains what Scripture is and does is 2 Timothy 3:14-17:  "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

Notice what the Bible is:  "breathed out by God."  Another way to say this is that the Bible was inspired by God or that the Bible itself in a very real way is the very words of God.  Now notice the two things the Bible does:  (1) it makes one wise for salvation and (2) it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.  In other words, the Bible first shows us how we can be saved (by God's grace through faith in Jesus), and then after our conversion the Bible builds us up in holiness and godliness.  It gets us in then keeps us going.

So why should you read the Bible?  Read the Bible to discover God's magnificent grace.  And read the Bible so that God's grace can work in your heart for the rest of your life.

The Dangers of Reading

Someone has quipped that people of the Book should be people of books.  In other words, since Christians are converted and built up into holiness by God's Word it follows that Christians (and I'd say especially pastors) should be careful and consistent readers of books in general.  Or, as Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:13, "When you come, bring . . . also the books, and above all the parchments."

However, in my own experience books pose four particular dangers.

(1) The danger of the stumbling block.  Some books are utter trash and should not be read.  They delight in sin and have no redeemable value in terms of common grace, cultural engagement, practicing discernment, or learning much (for an explanation of these terms see yesterday's post).  The only conceivable result in reading these kinds of books is to be led into sin.

(2) The danger of the page-turner.  I am particularly susceptible to this danger.  Some books are so thrilling and engaging that I can't put them down.  Earlier this year I read through The Hunger Games trilogy in just a few days.  The story so gripped me that at times I neglected my family.  To try to get my son to play by himself so I can have uninterrupted reading is a horrible failing as a father.

(3) The danger of the study.  This one is specifically directed at pastors.  Gospel ministry necessarily involves a lot of book work from seminary to sermon preparation to lifelong growth in ministry skills.  But gospel ministry is also all about people, and if the pastor neglects evangelism and personal discipleship of God's people than something has gone wrong.

(4) The danger of self-righteousness.  One of the first things I do when I visit someone's office or living room is examine the bookshelves.  Part of this habit is mere curiosity.  I like books and so my eyes naturally gravitate to the library.  But in all honesty I'm also making judgments about the owner of books.  If the offerings don't impress me then I naturally have unfair thoughts about the person.  This is snobbery in the highest.  I'm saying in my heart, "I'm a better person than you because I read more books and better books."  In other words, I've identified my value and worth (as well as the other person's value and worth) in my own sense of accomplishments.  This is nothing but self-righteousness.  The gospel says that my value and worth in God's eyes (the only eyes that matter) are completely unearned.  I'm nothing but a sinner and I've been saved by nothing but God's free grace in Jesus Christ.

Let us keep sending for the books and parchments.  Let us also be always mindful of these dangers.

Christian Readers and Non-Christian Books

I've had several Christian friends who, for one reason or another, only read Christian books.  Some of these were fellow grad students who felt that their reading requirements for their classes made any side reading of their own preferences impossible.  Others had personalities not well suited to reading novels or other genres outside their specialist disciplines.  And I've known a few folks who were fairly committed to the position that Christians don't have much business reading books written by non-Christians.


People in this last group weren't really as dogmatic on this issue as I've made them sound.  They would morally distinguish between, say, a history of World War Two written by a secular historian and the vulgar, blasphemous memoir of some celebrity libertine.  The point of contention usually lay with books that fell somewhere in between this spectrum.


My own view is that the matter should be judged on a book by book and person by person basis.  A book that might make one Christian stumble might have no such effect on another.  However, on the broader issue of whether or not Christians should choose to mix a substantial amount of non-Christian books into their reading diet, I take the position that Christians should.


Tim Challies lists four reasons "Why Christians Should Read in the Mainstream."  Here are his arguments with a sentence or two from each section:


(1) Common Grace:  "Common grace tells us that Christians do not have the market cornered when it comes to what is true and what is wise."


(2) Cultural Engagement:  "If you want to understand the people around you, why they are the way they are, what influences them, why they make the decisions they do, you will do well to read the books they read."


(3) To Practice Discernment:  "If you read only your favorite books by your favorite Christian authors you will grow only so far and in only so many directions. To read widely is to engage with people who think differently and who approach very similar issues from a radically different worldview."


(4) There is Much to Learn:  "C.S. Lewis once wrote that there are two great benefits available to us if we choose to read widely: we will have the opportunity to experiences places we’ve never experienced and we’ll be able to think thoughts we’ve never thought before. "


The whole post is worth reading.

How many unread or mostly unread books do you have on your shelf?

I have 108.  I intend to read most of them.  Eventually.

Count up your good intentions and post them in the comments.

Preaching Christ from the Old Testament

The Gospel Coalition National Conference has come to an end.  It has been an exhausting but exhilarating three days of glorying in the cross of Jesus Christ through preaching, singing, and conversation.  The highlight for sure was spending time with my great friend Jeff Lash (visit his blog here).

The theme of this year's conference was Preaching Jesus and the Gospel from the Old Testament.  While I am certainly still an amateur in the craft I'd like to list several books that I've found helpful.

Several books by Graeme Goldsworthy:  Gospel and Kingdom, According to Plan (my favorite from the pack), and Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture.  Michael Horton's God of Promise:  Introducing Covenant Theology was helpful in seeing how the parts of Scripture fit into the whole in a covenantal framework.  Along those same lines I'd have to add John Calvin's magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Other books mentioned by the conference's speakers include Edmund Clowney's Preaching Christ in All of Scripture, Alec Motyer's Look to the Rock:  An Old Testament Background to Our Understanding of Christ, and a couple of books from Sidney Greidanus:  Preaching Christ from the Old Testament and Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text.

The sermons from this year's conference were immensely helpful, which you can access here.

The Gospel Coalition 2011 National Conference

One of my greatest pleasures of living in Chicago is my proximity to all that a major city has to offer.  This week the Gospel Coalition's National Conference is convening at McCormick Place just a few miles to the east of my apartment.  The Gospel Coalition is a network of Reformed pastors, professors, and lay people committed to recovering the gospel of Jesus Christ as the very center of Christian ministry and life.  The Coalition convenes every two years for a national conference, and this year the conference is entitled, "They Testify About Me:  Preaching Christ from the Old Testament."  If you're not in Chicago you can watch the talks live online.

One another note, here's a list of the free books I've already brought home:

1. Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope by Trevin Wax (Moody)
2. Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day edited by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)
3. Reverberation: How God’s Word Brings Light, Freedom, and Action to His People by Jonathan Leeman (Moody)
4. Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (25th Anniversary Reference Edition) by John Piper (Desiring God)
5. Taking Hold of God: Reformed and Puritan Perspectives on Prayer by Joel Beeke (RHB)
6-10. The Essential Edwards Collection (5 Books in Set) by Owen Strachan and Douglas Sweeney (Moody)
11. Christ Formed in You: The Power of the Gospel for Personal Change by Brian Hedges (Shepherd Press)
12. Faithful Preaching: Declaring Scripture with Responsibility, Passion, and Authenticity by Tony Merida (B&H)
13. When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search: Biblical Principle and Practices to Guide Your Search by Chris Brauns (Moody)
14. Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself by Joe Thorn (Crossway)
15. Orphanology: Awakening to Gospel-Centered Adoption and Orphan Careby Tony Merida and Rick Morton (New Hope)
16. The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion by Tim Challies (Zondervan)
17. Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purposes of Godby David Platt (Multnomah)
18. Collected Writing on Scripture by D. A. Carson
19. One to One Bible Reading by David Helm
20. Revolution in World Missions by K. P. Yahannan
21. Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology by Dever, Duncan, Mohler, and Mahaney

Of reading many books there is no end

I suspect this is true for many people, but the books I read are a mixture of those I want to read and those I think I need to read.  Thankfully most of the time the books I think I need to read are also ones I want to read.

Or, to put it another way, I read in two broad categories:  fun books and books related to my educational and professional training.  My formal training is in pastoral ministry, particularly in the academic disciplines biblical studies and theology.  My reading in this category therefore includes systematic, biblical, historical, and pastoral theology; church history; ministry; and books relating to the Christian life.  I also try to read both contemporary and historical works.  I intentionally read as broadly as possible in this category.  Part of that is because my personality naturally tends away from specialization, but I also think Christians and especially Christian pastors should be well versed in all the theological disciplines (this point probably deserves a blog post of its own).

No matter how busy I am I always read books purely for my own pleasure.  In my sophomore year of college I took a class called Great Books.  We would read one book a week from the canon of great Western literature, including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, all the way to Darwin.  Rather than sucking out all my remaining desire and energy to read such demanding reading actually made me want to read more.  Only it made me want to read books purely of my own choosing.  I discovered that if I didn't read simply for fun I would go crazy. 

So it remains the case today.  In this category I tend to read as my whim takes me or as books are recommended to me.  This year I've been on a biography kick whereas last year science fiction made a strong showing.  I had never heard of The Hunger Games trilogy until a good friend highly recommended it.  I read novels, history, sports literature--whatever seems good at the time.

So what am I reading now?  Augustine, The City of God (been working on this one for a while now); Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 2, God and Creation; Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor; Leon Morris, The Atonement:  Its Meaning and Significance; Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine:  The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything; Patricia St. John, An Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary Faith (technically my fun book but has obvious crossover status).  And of course always Scripture, which also deserves its own post.

Reading List 2011

In the next couple of days I hope to write about my own reading habits, why I read, how I choose what I read, and so forth.  For now I'll just list what I've read so far this year in the order in which I finished them.  The links take you to Amazon.

William Raymond Manchester, The Last Lion:  Winston Spencer Churchill:  Visions of Glory, 1874-1932.  Part one of a superbly written biography of a man I find endlessly fascinating.  I began this book towards the end of 2010 and finished it just a few days into the new year.

Michael Horton, Beyond Culture Wars:  Is America a Mission Field or Battlefield?  Typically Horton-esque in its relentless condemnation of contemporary American evangelicalism and its call to return to Reformed confessionalism.  Very helpful corrective to those who tend to see the church's mission as making America return to its supposed Christian roots, although it seems these themes pop up quite often in Horton's other books and radio show The White Horse Inn.

Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.  Thorough biography on the German pastor executed by the Nazis for his part in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.  I learned a ton but the long block quotes were a bit wearisome.  Others have said that Metaxas glosses over Bonhoeffer's Lutheran-Barthianism (or vice versa) and makes him look like a fairly typical evangelical.  This may be a fair criticism.

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games Trilogy (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay).  Depicts a future North America in which twelve impoverished districts are enslaved to a totalitarian Capitol.  Each year each district has to send a boy and a girl to fight to the death in a gladiatorial match called the Hunger Games.  The one remaining survivor's district gets extra food for that year.  Crisply written, compelling characters, and a page-turning plot.  And yes, it is as violent as it sounds.

Otis and Roberts, A Road More or Less Traveled:  Madcap Adventures Along the Appalachian Trail.  Two friends set out to hike the entire Appalachian trail from Maine to Georgia.  Along the way they meet the most outrageous characters.  Much more well written than I was expecting (I guess the book's cover might suggest otherwise).

D. A. Carson, The God Who is There:  Finding Your Place in God's Story.  Very good overview of Scripture with an eye to a biblically illiterate audience.  I would read anything Carson so much as doodles on a scratch piece of paper.

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.  The third reading of my favorite book.  I love it so much I plan to read it every year in February (everyone has their own ways of battling seasonal depression).

William P. Farley, Gospel-Powered Parenting:  How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting.  Very helpful book on how the gospel of grace lies at the very center of raising kids.  I especially enjoyed the sections on discipline, fatherly affection, and teaching your children biblical truth.  Reformed:  my kind of theology.

John Owen, The Mortification of Sin.  Part one in the compiled and modernized volume Overcoming Sin and Temptation.  I read this off and on in conjunction with my personal Bible study.  This book makes you take both your sin and God's grace much more seriously.

John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War:  The Threshold of Middle-Earth.  Only for the most avid Tolkien fans.  Garth argues that Tolkien's service in World War I, particularly the terrible Battle of the Somme, greatly influenced Tolkien's mythology.  Moreover, Tolkien's optimistic fantasy should be seen as a strain of post-war literature in direct contrast to the pessimistic modernism of writers such as Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and Wilfred Owen (the latter group enjoying the status of Orthodoxy in English Departments).  I saw how Tolkien's mythology developed over the course of the war, but Garth never convinced me that the war actually dramatically influenced it in significant ways.

Accepting the Inevitable

I'm finally starting my own blog.  It was inevitable.  Four reasons:

(1) My wife kept saying I should.

(2) I'm attending the Band of Bloggers conference in conjunction with the Gospel Coalition National Conference next week.  All participants will receive 17 books worth a total of $237 (I only paid something like $25 to attend).  The conference's organizers hope that the bloggers will read and review these books and hence introduce them to a wider audience.

(3) Writing clarifies one's thoughts.

(4) Several bloggers, most of whom I have never met, have ministered to me in various ways over the past few years.  I would be delighted if I could likewise benefit other readers.

Bilbo's Birthday will be devoted to books, particularly books I'm reading.  I've always been a bibliophile, so I might as well write about my own interests.  Hopefully I'll give regular posts of book reviews and reading in general.

By the way, Bilbo Baggins' birthday falls on September 22, as does Frodo's.  The lover of books knows these types of things.  And puts them on his calendar.