Books

On this final day of 2011, I will get back into the “business of blogging” with a review of some of the books I read this past year.


33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners by Jonathan Franklin. This is a riveting account of the men trapped in a Chilean mine collapse 2300 feet underground for about 9 weeks.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Henrietta Lacks was a poor woman from Clover, Virginia. Though she died of cervical cancer in 1951, her cells became the first immortal human cells. In the opening chapter we are told that Henrietta’s cells went into space to study the impact of zero gravity on human cells, and that one scientist estimates “that if you could pile all [Henrietta’s] cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons – an inconceivable number given that an individual cell weighs almost nothing.”

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Lauren Hillenbrand. Unbroken is the story of Louis Zamperini who survived 47 days at sea following the downing of his aircraft. He was “rescued” by Japanese soldiers and became a POW, suffering under some of the most brutal conditions of the war. Hillenbrand gives limited attention to Zamperini’s conversion to Christ during the famous post war Los Angeles Crusade of Billy Graham.

Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Topic by R. C. Sproul

How to Write a Sentence: and How to Read One by Stanley Fish (I guess I need to re-read this one).

History and Fallacies by Carl Trueman. This is a critique of how we understand history.

Ship of Ghosts by James Hornfischer. This book chronicles the history of the USS Houston, its sinking and the imprisonment of many of her crew during the early days of WWII.

A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester. Reads like a novel.

Stiff – The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Absolutely intriguing, but not for the squeamish.

The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin. One of the worst blizzards to hit the prairies fell on January 12-13, 1888. It was called the Children’s Blizzard because many children were sent home from their one room schoolhouses at the onset of the storm. When the blizzard ran its course, more than 100 children lay dead in the snow.

Judgment Day

Unless you have recently crawled out of a cave, you know that Mr. Harold Camping has predicted that Judgment Day will occur on May 21, 2011. Mr. Camping leaves no room for doubt. On “Open Forum,” his radio call-in program, he has stated that it is as certain as the virgin birth or the resurrection of Christ. Billboards around the country announce the date and claim “The Bible guarantees it.”


Smarter people than I have written critiques of Camping’s claims and the hermeneutics he uses to arrive at his conclusion. He is extremely harsh towards those who do not hold his views, calling them deceivers and false prophets. On the outside chance he is wrong in his predictions (hear the sarcasm in the voice), will he admit to being a false prophet? That is unlikely, since he has made similar predictions at least twice before. No doubt he will revise his figures and be just as dogmatic about the next date. No matter, you must admire his chutzpah. But when his “judgment day” predictions prove false, what will scoffers think of the Bible since it “guarantees” that it will happen on May 21? No doubt his caricature of truth will be the only one that some people will ever consider.

This is a good time for us to remember Millard Erickson’s counsel to avoid the extremes of “eschatomania” and “eschatophobia.” Erickson coined this phrase in his Introduction to Christian Doctrine. He describes the term like this:

One pastor is reported to have preached on the Book of Revelation every Sunday evening for nineteen years! Sometimes the teaching is augmented by large detailed charts of the last times. Current political and social events, especially those relating to the nation of Israel, are identified with prophecies in Scripture. As a result, some preachers have been caricatured as having the Bible in one hand and the daily newspaper in the other. Hal Lindsay’s Late Great Planet Earth is a noteworthy example of this type of “eschatomania (p. 374).

Eschatophobia is the reaction to the opposite extreme. It is unfortunate that some tend to avoid this truth that Scripture calls “the blessed hope.”

So, as long as people are making money on eschatology, why not me? I am making available “Harold Camping End of the World Tour” T shirts. Let me know if you want one, but get your order in before May 21.

Heaven is for Real - Whew, What a Relief

To the few who read this blog, it will come as no surprise when I confess that I am a curmudgeon. But it  is a relief to know that I am not alone. Fellow curmudgeon Tim Challies comments on the latest offering that reveals the glories of heaven - and this from the experience of a 4 year old child. I, for one, am perplexed that Scripture gives such insufficient information that books like these are necessary. But then again, what do I know. I've never written a book.

Provocative Words

This sounds like heresy to an evangelical culture drunk on pragmatism

Evangelicals have always insisted that Christ is a person who can and should be known personally; he is not simply an item on a creed to which assent should be given. But from this point they have drawn conclusions that become increasingly injurious. They have proceeded to seek assurance of faith not in terms of the objective truthfulness of the biblical teaching but in terms of the efficacy of its subjective experience. Testimonies have become indispensible items in the evangelistic fare. Testifying to having experienced Christ personally is particularly seductive in the modern context, because it opens up to view an inner experience that responds to the hunger of the “other-directed” individual but often sacrifices its objective truth value in doing so. The question it poses to the outsider is not whether Christ is objectively real but simply whether the experience is appealing, whether it seems to have worked, whether having it will bring one inside the group and give one connections to others.

In any genuine knowledge of God, there is an experience of his grace and power, informed by the written Scriptures, mediated by the Holy Spirit, and based upon the work of Christ upon the Cross. What is not so clear from the New Testament is that this experience should itself become the source of our knowledge of God or that it should be used to commend that knowledge to others. To be sure there was plenty of witnessing that went on in the early Church, but it is anything but clear that this should be understood as the use of personal autobiography to persuade others that they should commit themselves to Christ. (David Wells, No Place for Truth, 172-173. Italics original)

Resources for the KJV

Here is a list of resources, historical and polemical, relating to the King James Version:

God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible  by Adam Nicholson

In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture by Alister McGrath (who doesn't like Alister McGrath?)



The King James Only Controversy. Can You Trust the Modern Translations by James White



The King James Version Debate: A Plea for Realism by D. A. Carson (D.A. Carson; nuff said)



King James Onlyism by James D. Price (Dr. Price was the editor of the OT translation committee for the NKJV. This extensive work is rich with text-critical issues.)

The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask

“Postmodernism has made apologetics irrelevant.” I have read statements to this effect from various sources. The idea is that since the culture has largely imbibed the postmodern denial of absolutes, Christianity therefore cannot be defended; it must be demonstrated. While this may sound plausible on the surface, there are problems with this kind of thinking.


First, it is not clear how postmodern thinking has trickled down to street level. Certainly, in academia there can be found those who read their political correctness agendas into classical literary works and who revise history to give voice to the oppressed. It is likewise the case that judges and legislators adopt a type of postmodernism when they see the Constitution as fluid, not fixed. But the extent to which this kind of thinking has been embraced by our neighbors and coworkers is debatable.

Second, regardless of the prevailing culture, Scripture counsels us to always be “prepared to make a defense (apologia) to anyone who asks for you a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15). The assumption seems to be that there will always be those who ask Christians “what” or “why.” Mark Mittelberg has produced a useable resource to help believers answer those questions. The book is The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask.

The title shows something of the dilemma. Unbelievers often ask difficult questions that many Christians are unable to answer. In 306 pages of text (excluding endnotes and resources), Mittelberg has prepared a manual that will help one find the Bible’s teaching on some of these difficult topics. In addition to showing how Scripture addresses an issue, Mittelberg will give insight on how to best articulate and frame the response.

Do not imagine that The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask is a catalogue of Bible verses listed by topic. The author distills the Biblical teaching and calls science, politics and logic to witness to the truth expounded in the Bible. At the end of the book is a list of resources for further study. The aim is to point the Christian to every resource necessary to make a reasoned defense of his or her faith.

Apologetics is not dead. Christians will be asked hard questions. This book will help to provide solid answers.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Tyndale Publications as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

The Ten Commandments

There has been some buzz about the rerelease of the Cecil B. DeMille classic “The Ten Commandments.” It has been restored to DVD and will be released on BluRay. What a great movie! Who would not want to see tough guy Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, complete in Egyptian headdress? (Does anyone remember the 1973 sci-fi movie that reunited Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson?).

It wasn’t too long ago that Christians were protesting the removal of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Courthouse. The commandments gained renewed popularity after being the target of the “secular and liberal elite.” It seems that we Christians (or conservatives or card-carrying members of the religious right and now TEA party activists) are always on the prowl for a cause to defend. Do not misunderstand. I do not suggest that people of faith roll over and play dead as the culture “slouches more and more toward Gomorrah” (to paraphrase Robert Bork’s great title), but we better be equipped to engage the battle intelligently.

Regarding the Ten Commandments, many modern Christians gave little thought to them until them became a cause celebre. Stop reading this and take this little test: grab a paper and pencil and see how many of the Ten Commandments you can list (insert Jeopardy theme music here). If you are not able to list all ten, you are probably like many, if not most, evangelical Christians. We have relegated the Ten Commandments to a bygone era that has little relevance to the modern age. Some have even claimed that since we are under grace, then the law – as represented by these rules – has no meaning to us.

This is a strange paradox: defending principles that many cannot articulate and some consider unimportant. However, the Scripture teaches that there is a “lawful use of the law” and our neglect of this has contributed to the cultural problem. Books and sermons produced by smarter people than I have expounded the proper use of the law. For the sake of brevity, I will point to one aspect. The moral law of God, the Ten Commandments, exposes the moral bankruptcy of our culture and shows sin as being the transgression of God’s law.

Of course, we “get” the first table of the law: no other Gods, no images, not taking the Lord’s name in vain, and the Sabbath day observance (with its attendant controversy). Most of us would claim that we are guiltless concerning these – although idols and images are not merely statues of stone. They may be concepts that stand opposed to God; they may be people who usurp our loyalty to God; they may even have wheels, account numbers, or 160 channels.

The second table of the law is where the transgression is closer to where we live. Honor father and mother – a direct indictment on modern family dynamics where Homer Simpson is the quintessential father. Do not steal – at least the Bible honors the private ownership of property (take heed, socialists). Do not commit adultery – how does this square with a culture that has invented the concept of “serial monogamy” and “starter marriages.” Do not murder – unless of course he or she had it coming, or was old and wasting resources, or lived in the womb of someone who planned to terminate the pregnancy. Do not covet – if we followed this, how would General Motors, Ford or Chrysler ever sell a new car (something to consider, capitalists)? And of course, if we took seriously the bearing false witness business, what would that do to contract law?

Let’s be honest. Many in our churches today care little about the Ten Commandments. It may be the stuff of a classic movie, but that’s about all. It has become cliché, but it is true that we see them more as the “Ten Suggestions.” If we really took this seriously, the results would be life altering – much too uncomfortable for us to bother about.