Doctrine: A book review

I have been a bit leery of writing a review of any books by Mark Driscoll, the lead pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Mostly, that leeriness comes, not from concern over the content, which is often brilliant, but over the baggage that seems to instantly arrive any time Pastor Mark comes up in conversation. Christians seem to be of two minds about him: either they condemn him as a man whose preaching has in the past included vulgarity and even profanity, or else they endorse him as a bold preacher effectively reaching the lost in a very lost place. For myself, I take the line first used by John Piper about Mark: "I can't endorse where you've been, but I like where you are headed." That seems to me about right. Pastor Mark has said and done some things in the past which I cannot endorse nor encourage others to imitate. Yet I also see in his preaching and writing a deep awareness of his own sin, a commitment to repentance, and a tremendous gifts being well used to proclaim "the faith once for all delivered to all the saints" (Jude 3). He is, in this way not unlike Martin Luther, a deeply flawed but deeply gifted man whom God used to reach many people with the Gospel.

With that caveat in mind, then, let me offer my review of Pastor Mark's book Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe, which is the fourth book he has written with Prof. Gerry Breshears of Western Seminary. Briefly, I think it's brilliant, solid, and as biblically orthodox as any basic theology book I have ever read. It definitely leans toward and supports the Reformed part of the Christian tradition, but all orthodox evangelical Christians from all traditions should find themselves learning from, agreeing with, and cheering the presentation of Christian teaching contained in these pages. The book is organized around 13 of God's biblically described actions (e.g., "Trinity: God Is", "Creation: God Makes", "Incarnation: God Comes", etc.). Thus, the book follows the flow of salvation history from eternity past all the way to its consummation in the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. Those looking for debates about miraculous spiritual gifts, a resolution of the covenant vs. dispensational hermeneutical question, or other hotly debated points will need to look elsewhere. Instead, what you find is a lively, engaging presentation of classical Christian faith and a firm stand against all that deviates from it. For this, I think Driscoll and Breshears deserve three cheers.

Books I read in October

I'm really behind on my blogging of late. Leaf raking, bowhunting, a friend's funeral and the rest of life have consumed a lot of time of late. So by way of catching up, here's the skinny on what I finished reading lately:

King Me by Steve Farrar. I became a fan of Farrar's back in the early '90s, the "men's movement" was just getting started and he published Point Man: How A Man Can Lead His Family. This book is an attempt to use the accounts of the Hebrew kings (the failures as well as the rare successes) to talk about how fathers train their sons to be men of God. I found it practical, helpful, and hard all at once. Bottom line: it's a good book on parenting that isn't written for women. That alone makes it a treasure in this man's estimation.

Ten Question to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health by Donald Whitney. This is the book we just finished in our Band of Brothers men's study group. The chapters are short, but the questions are hard, and force you to take a hard look at where you are growing in Christ and where you aren't. For example, "Are you a quicker forgiver?" "Do you delight in the bride of Christ?" The questions seems simple on the surface, but they are deceptively so. In reality, there is a penetrating quality to each chapter which will leave you wondering, at times, where the fruit of your Christian life is after all this time. If you really want to grow, this book will open the doors of your heart to conviction and change.

Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness by Eugene Peterson. This is a book for pastors. It's actually the 2nd time I've read it. The first time was back in my Spiritual Formation group at DTS though, so it didn't have the same impact ("When the student is ready..."). In it, Peterson uses Jonah as a springboard for talking about being a faithful pastor in Nineveh when all of us want to heed the siren call to go to Tarshish, fleeing both our calling and the presence of the Lord, trading in being a pastor for being "successful" like Aaron in Exodus 32. If there is a book written by a pastor that commends fellow pastors to be content with obscurity and faithfulness to Christ over methodology and marketing Jesus, this is probably it.

Joe's bookshelf, #3

I've been reading an amazing book called Death by Love: Letters from the Cross. It's the 2nd collaboration between Pastor Mark Driscoll (of Mars Hill Bible Church in Seattle, i.e., the theologically orthodox one) and Professor Gerry Breshears of Western Seminary. The book is a series of letters written to real people (with identity usually concealed). Each letter applies a portion of the Bible's teaching about the crucified Christ to the typically wrenching individual situation the person is encountering. It's a masterful use of solidly biblical theology to deal with deep and lasting issues of personal sin. So for example, to a woman who struggles with demonic oppression after a lifetime of witchcraft, Driscoll writes about the doctrine of Christus victor. To an evil man who molested and abused his children and wives, and who is therefore fearful of hell now that he is dying, he writes about Christ our ransom payment. Altogether, the book looks at the many faceted jewel of the Cross and shows how the Cross is the answer for all kinds of human depravity, including both the evil that we have committed and that committed against us. It's well worth your time.

Joe's Bookshelf #2

It's been a while since my last entry of this sort and it is high time for another one, since I've got a backlog of probably a dozen books to post about. Anyway Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) is one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time. The authors, Ted Kluck and Kevin DeYoung, provide a helpful critique of the dangers and problems of the Emergent/emerging church movement. The movement is hard to classify and engage with because, when pressed, so many of its adherents want to argue with you about terms (emerging or Emergent? "movement" or "conversation" and so, irritatingly on...) or absolve themselves of any connection to anybody that is part of the movement when it suits them apologetically ("Well, I like Brian McLaren, but I don't agree with him about everything."). What makes the book so appealing is that it engages with those in the "emerging conversation" on their own terms and is written, in many ways, like a book by Donald Miller or Brian McLaren, but minus the theological fluffiness and unwillingness to make the hard choices that must be made to remain authentically Christian.

Kluck's chapters are usually written in the sort of highly conversational "story" type way that should be right up the average "emerging" Christian's alley, while DeYoung (Kluck's pastor) writes with a more studied, theological emphasis. Both contribute to a meaty critique of the major issues raised by the emergence of the emerging church. Among their criticisms are:

• Many in the emerging "conversation" seem to feel that dialogue is an end, not a means, thus they are content to engage in it for its own sake. In this way, they are like the Athenians on the Areopagus, "who spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas" or those the NT describes elsewhere as "ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth."
  
• Often the emergent cultivate ambiguity on issues about which God has spoken clearly, such as homosexuality and the authority of the Scriptures over a believer's life. Truth has become "truth" for far too many emergents. Truth can be more than propositional, but it is never less than propositional. Indeed, it cannot be.
• The emerging desire to draw a distinction between Jesus and Christianity, or even between Jesus and the apostle or between Jesus and the OT. It's a failure to realize that without the OT, there is no Jesus worth mentioning. Without the apostles, nothing is known about Jesus or his teaching. Without Jesus, there is no Christianity. While the emergents may not like every aspect of who Jesus really was or about the "movement" he founded, that's more a problem with them than with Jesus. There simply is no Jesus worth mentioning sans doctrinal formulations, propositional truth, rationality, and Truth. After all, Jesus got crucified for stating in propositional, hard categories some truths the Jewish religious leaders disliked. Jesus didn't start conversations for the sake of conversations, but to help people find Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, apart from belief in Whom there is no salvation.
• The emergents' tendency to focus on the way something is said rather than the truth of what is said. That is, when you talk to emerging Christians, often they will say "Well, so and so is just so nasty in how he says things" as if 1) that constitutes a refutation of what was said; and 2) harsh criticism doesn't count.
  

This is a great book, and at risk of sounding like I'm gushing over it, I really do think every Christian between age 16 and 40 should buy a copy and read it multiple times as it will help your brain deflect a lot of the mushy headed substitute for thinking that seems to be in the air within Christendom these days.

Joe's Bookshelf #1

One of the things people visiting my office for the first time often say is something along the lines of "Wow! Have you actually read all those books?" My standard answer is "Yes, almost all of them, though some of them are reference books so they aren't the sort one reads cover to cover." Most people are duly impressed, though I'm not sure why, since I think my love of books is sometimes an indication I need to get out more. Ah well...

At any rate, I thought some people might enjoy an occasional feature in which I offer my highly enlightened opinion (note the humility!) on what I'm reading of late. Though this forum is a long way from the Oprah book club, perhaps it will encourage or challenge someone.

The first book from Joe's bookshelf is Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, by James L. Swanson. My first impression is that I had no idea so many people were involved in the conspiracy to shoot the president, or that one of Booth's co-conspirators made a near-successful attempt on Secretary of State William Seward's life on the same night as Lincoln was shot or that all that prevented Vice President Johnson's assassination was another co-conspirator's cowardice. Blame my public school education, I guess, but the myth of Booth as a crazy lone gunman had endured in my consciousness until now. It was also fascinating to read of the loyal Southerners who helped Booth escape the pursuing hordes of the largest manhunt in American history for 12 days. In our day, some 143 years later, Abraham Lincoln is America's president. But that was a far from universal feeling in April 1865. Those who agreed with the assassin's cry of "Sic semper tyrannis!" as he leapt from the President's box that fateful night far outnumbered those who did not, at least in the South. Given that fact, if Booth had not broken his leg on his theatrical leap down to the stage, he would have been able to get to the Deep South, where he probably would have made a permanent escape, living out his days as a Confederate folk hero. That possibility tantalizes throughout the book, even though the outcome of the chase is already known. It's a gripping story, well told at a fast pace in a narrative style which keeps the focus on the chase even while it informs with rich historical details. Would that all history books on my shelf were so entertaining...