Ken Ham on the Curse of Ham

Book Review: Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue

It has been over a year since John MacArthur has stepped into glory and see Jesus face to face. MacArthur has authored many books over the years including some commentaries. Back in 2017, MacArthur along with Richard Mayhue have put together a Systematic Theology based on MacArthur's teaching and preaching. This book is simply titled, Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth.

Over 1,000 pages of the theology of John MacArthur summarized into one volume which was probably not an easy task, but it was accomplished. The book basically goes over the doctrine of the Bible, the doctrine of the Trinity which each member into their own individual chapters, and the doctrine of salvation. 

MacArthur goes on with the doctrine of man, angels, the church, and the future, which is Dispensationalism. For those who have followed MacArthur for years, you know this is no surprise. 

If you have read Systematic Theology books in the past, you know that the theology is the Bible interpreted by the author of that particular volume. A lot of works is similar with a few differences. In reading MacArthur, you will find agreement with other works of Systematic Theology along with disagreements. 

As I mentioned earlier, it has been over a year since MacArthur has passed away yet his legacy and influence lives on. I am thankful this book was put together. This is one for any serious theology student to have on their bookshelf. 

I received this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Mediator by Vern S. Poythress

The question that Vern Poythress presents before us in his latest book, Mediator: A Biblical Theology, is how immoral people approach a holy God? How can people who are morally corrupt come up to a God who is beyond corruption? As Christians, we know we cannot come to God on our own because we are sinners that deserve the wrath of God.

God provided a mediator for us in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5, LSB). Christ is the reason those who put their faith and trust in Him can approach a holy God. 

We know Christ is our absolute mediator, but the way Poythress was communicating in his book, there were other mediators especially in the Old Testament. Now those mediators did not take away sin like Christ does, but they were means of approaching God. 

Some of the examples of the Old Testament Poythress showed was the Tree of Life, the Covenant, and even the Prophets. To be honest, I understand where he was coming from, but I thought they were a bit of a stretch and going beyond what was written in that aspect. Not accusing Poythress of being a false teacher, but I think he was executing bad exegesis.

When it came to the New Testament, the book took a needed 180 because Poythress showed the entire ministry of Jesus pointed to Him as our Mediator.  He is fulfilled the law of God which is why He is our absolute mediator. 

To be honest, I was expecting more for Poythress on this subject. Granted, when it came to teaching about Christ being our mediator, it was pretty solid. The first half of the book felt like they were just page fillers. It was a good attempt on this topic, but I think it was poorly executed.

I received this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review. 

Scott Ardavanis: A Sermon from Hell

God Does Not Worship Us

There are some Christians who think that worship with a transactional event where we worship God and He worships us. I would like to know what Bible they are reading from because it is clear it's not God's Word.

The idea that God worships us sound like some form of self-esteem philosophy. God does not sing about us nor are we worthy of worship. God is worthy of worship for He created us, gave us life, gave us His provisions for us to live on this earth and gave us eternal life through His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

What makes us worthy of any kind of worship? To be honest, nothing. We are not good and fall short of the glory of God according to Romans 3. In fact, if you read that whole chapter, you will see why we are not worthy of any kind of praise but deserve condemnation from a holy God.

The fact that I have to make a post like this is really disturbing, but given the current church climate today, we really should not be surprised. Christians have become undiscerning and elders are not protecting their flock as they should which speaks volumes to their spiritual maturity. 

Church, if you hear your pastor that God worships you, get up and leave. Pastor, if you are preaching that nonsense, repent and/or resign. 

God is worthy of our worship. We are not worthy. We are undeserving of nothing from God except Hell. 

Book Review: Compassionate Calvinism by Sam Cole

Ever heard of cage stage? I am sure you have especially if you are engaged with social media. Cage stage is this zeal of sharing your newfound (for lack of a better term) theology and want to share it so you can prove everyone wrong.

Some people just post on social media without considering being gentle nor exercise self-control when engaging in an online debate. This is most true with Calvinists. They have a tendency to develop some form of cage stage even they have embraced their theology. Sadly, most of them have not grown out of it. 

In Compassionate Calvinism, Sam Cole dives into the doctrines of grace and how we can explain it them, as the subtitle of the book says, without being a jerk. Let's face it. Some Calvinists can be very unkind while discussing doctrine with them.

This book goes over Calvinism and the important doctrines that affirm. Those doctrines include total depravity, sovereign grace, election, the atonement, and the perseverance of the saints. This is not a systematic theology book, but just a basic introduction to Calvinism.

What makes this book unique, it does discuss doctrine, but it goes over how we can discuss it with others. Whether we are in defending what we believe or just simply sharing them with someone who is curious about Calvinism. We can discuss Calvinism without going into cage stage mode which ends up with being arrogant, or even a jerk (there's that word again). 

This book is one I would recommend for those who are new to Calvinism to help them understand the doctrines of grace and how to effectively communicate them charitably.

I received this book from G3 Press in exchange for an honest review. 

Jerry Bridges on God's Holiness

As used in Scripture, holiness describes both the majesty of God and the purity and moral perfection of His nature. Holiness is one of His attributes; that is, holiness is an essential part of the nature of God. His holiness is as necessary as His existence, or as necessary, for example, as His wisdom or omniscience. Just as He cannot but know what is right, so He cannot but do what is right…

God’s holiness then is perfect freedom from all evil. We say a garment is clean when it is free from any spot, or gold is pure when all dross has been refined from it. In this manner we can think of the holiness of God as the absolute absence of any evil in Him. John said, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Light and darkness, when used this way in Scripture, have moral significance. John is telling us that God is absolutely free from any moral evil and that He is Himself the essence of moral purity.

Adapted from The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges

Tom Pennington: Sola Scriptura

This message took place during the Sola Conference at Countryside Bible Church in Southlake, Tx:   

Owen Strachan: Addressing the Work of the Spirit

Peter Goeman on Common Grace

It’s easy to fall into a “believers-only” view of God’s goodness, meaning that the Lord reserves every kindness for His people and treats unbelievers only with judgment. But Scripture tells a different story. Again and again, God shows real, tangible kindness to people who do not love Him, honor Him, or even acknowledge Him. Theologians have often called this overflow of divine kindness common grace.

Wayne Grudem defines common grace as “the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation. Common refers to something that is common to all people and is not restricted to believers or the elect only” (Grudem, 657). This definition is helpful because it keeps two truths together: (1) these blessings are genuinely from God, and (2) they are distinct from saving grace. Common grace does not forgive sin or regenerate the heart, but it does display God’s benevolence, patience, and generosity in the world.

This category is worth exploring because it trains our spiritual eyesight. It helps believers interpret the world accurately. God is not only holy and just; He is also kind, even to those who reject Him. And when we see that clearly, it produces humility, gratitude, and a more compassionate posture toward the lost.

Read the entire post here.

Did God Promise a Messiah Before a Command?

Jon Moffitt recently said that God rescued us before a command was given. Now the Bible does that before the foundation of the world, God chose us to be holy and blameless. He also predestined us to be adopted as sons (see Ephesians 1:3-5).

What I think Jon was saying, which was in some advertising his latest book in the process, that we cannot look at the Bible as a list of commands which also includes what happened in the beginning. The issue with Jon's theology is when you read Genesis you will see that Adam disobeying God is what was the cause of sin coming into the world. 

The Bible says: 

And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created in making it. 

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet grown, for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being. And Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground Yahweh God caused to grow every tree that is desirable in appearance and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that went around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. Now the gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. And the name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that went around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris; it is the one that went east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 

Then Yahweh God took the man and set him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. And Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may surely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:2-17, LSB).

The first command God gave to Adam was not eat any fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of course, most of you know what happens next:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.’” And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Then they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God in the midst of the trees of the garden. Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” And the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate.” Then Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” And Yahweh God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

Cursed are you more than any of the cattle,

And more than every beast of the field;

On your belly you will go,

And dust you will eat

All the days of your life;

And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

To the woman He said,

“I will greatly multiply

Your pain and conception,

In pain you will bear children;

Your desire will be for your husband,

And he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:1-16, LSB).

The verse in bold lettering is Genesis 3:15, which was the first Messianic prophecy concerning the coming of Christ. God promised One who will come to crush the head of the serpent. This promise came after God's one command from the garden was disobeyed. Yes, God foreknew all that was going to take place, but the command came which was broken followed by the promise.

Jon Benzinger: Addressing Only One Way of Salvation

Kyle Swanson Addressing the Issue of Sin

Book Review: The Promise of the Messiah by Ethan Jago

It has been nearly a month since we celebrated Christmas. Most Christians love this time of the year because we remember what God did by sending His Only Begotten Son born of a virgin. What's sad is many Christians after Christmas will forget all about the incarnation of Christ till next Christmas, which is less than 12 away for those who are keeping track. 

The Incarnation of Christ is not something we should study around Christmas time. It should be something that we study, read, and know for all times of the year. I am delighted to recommend a great resource from G3 Press written by Ethan Jago, titled, The Promise of the Messiah: A Theology of Christmas. 

Jago does a wonderful job showing his readers that the coming of the Messiah was something God promised all the way back to the beginning in the garden of Eden. He also points out that while Christmas is a time to reflect on the birth of Christ, it is also time where we anticipate His return. Christ's first coming should always make us consider that one day He will return.

Jago continues to point out that Christ never ceased to be God. Jesus went through everything a man could go through yet was without sin. He was tempted so that He can be a Great High Priest that can sympathize with us in our weakness. Jesus did not earn righteousness or salvation but came to fulfill the Father's will. Jesus was already the Son of God and He delighted to do the will of God.

Jesus did not come just to be a good teacher, as Jago says in the book, or a miracle worker. He came to bear the sins of the world so that we can have righteousness from God by faith in Christ. Christ lived a perfect life because we could not. 

Jago concludes that the fulfillment came when Christ took our place on the cross so that He can pay for our sins. He also was raised on the third day and will physically return one day. As Christians today, we must share this good news to all. Christ's incarnation is not something that should be celebrated just during Christmas time, but in every season of the year. Not saying we should bust out the Christmas decorations, but we should remember that God loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son as John 3:16 boldly proclaims.

This is a great resource for all studying on the incarnation of Christ. This is also a useful tool to be used for Christmas time when doing a Sunday School lesson or sermon on the incarnation.

I received this book from G3 Press in exchange for an honest review. 

Jon Benzinger on the State of Theology

Cory Marsh on the Misconceptions of Biblicism

Like “fundamentalist / fundamentalism,” the terms “biblicist / biblicism” are not too popular among the evangelical elite. Because a biblical fundamentalist can also be called a biblicist in the right context, the idea of biblicism for how I and others understand it should be explained.

For some scholars, biblicism conjures up images of selective proof texting to justify one’s orthodoxy. For others, it gives the impression of an “ahistorical mindset” that devalues all insights and formulations from Christian thinkers throughout history. And still others view biblicism as an extreme form of literalistic interpretation, “with no respect for Scripture’s poetic devices or Aristotelian rationalism.” One dictionary even conflates “biblicism” with “bibliolatry,” the latter being a pejorative term to castigate those who value Scripture to the extent of apparently idolatrizing the Bible. If being a biblicist relates to any one of these views, it’s not surprising that astute Christian thinkers would want to stay as far from it as an identity as possible!

Now, I must admit that there are people in this world who probably fit within one of those descriptions. That said, I believe it’s unfair to tag a group people with a label that is used entirely differently by those who intentionally self-identify as biblicists and contribute to the academic community. Unfortunately, scholars who push a version of the label onto others who define it differently tend to be the most published and influential within academic evangelicalism and therefore become the standard bearers of what they believe a word should mean despite what it did mean before them. These are often voices within the current Reformed evangelical trend of returning to a form of catholicity that can (not always) resemble the medieval scholasticism justifying the “dark ages” when the Roman Catholic Church kept the light of God’s word from their people. I say it’s better to go directly to those who are informed from the inside and self-identify with a label, and consult their definition for how they use the term. Doing so reveals a more accurate portrayal of biblicism that looks much different than those given above.

Read the entire post here

Is the Virgin Birth Relevant?

In light of the approach of Christmas, I’d like to highlight the reality and importance of the virgin birth, or more properly, the virgin conception of Jesus Christ. Until recently, the virgin birth has been acknowledged as an important doctrine of the Christian faith. The early church fathers, the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene and Chalcedon Creeds, the Lutheran Augsburg Confession, the Reformed Belgic Confession, the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, and the Westminster Confession of Faith all bear witness to the church's faith in the virgin birth. However, in recent years some Bible scholars have questioned the veracity of this claim and have challenged the importance of this doctrine. Some within the church no longer believe it to be true.

Read the entire post here.

Book Review: The Completed Works of John Owen: Volume 9, The Death of Christ

In Volume 9 of "The Completed Works of John Owen", we take a look at his collection on The Death of Christ, which are taken from two of Owen's most notable works, "The Death of Death in the Death of Christ" and "Of the Death of Christ, the Price He Paid, and the Purchase His Made."

I will have to admit this was a tough read because Owen because these works seem to be pretty academic. Even I read "The Death of Death" as a separate book, it was a challenge. 

In this volume, Owen shows why the death of Christ is important and on which Christianity must know Biblically. Christ's death is why we were given eternal life. Christ became our mediator and destroyed death. Yes, we will all die one day, but death lost its sting when Christ died on the cross. 

Universalism is nothing new. It has been around for centuries. Owen does make his case as to why universalism is unacceptable and only the elect will have the benefit for inheriting salvation who have received Christ as Lord. 

Once again, another good volume in "The Completed Works of John Owen." I would advise anyone studying this volume to take your time because Owen unpacks a lot. 

I received this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review.

Brad Klassen on the Goodness of God

Bill Roach on Acts 22:16

In this video, Bill Roach addresses whether or not Acts 22:16 teaches baptismal regeneration.