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Book Review: Descriptions and Prescriptions: A Biblical Perspective on Psychiatric Diagnoses and Medications

9/30/2017

 
By far the best book I've read regarding a Biblical view of psychiatry and its practice.

This book is aimed toward pastors and other Christians involved in abundant counseling ministry; but really any Christian could benefit from it. He seems uniquely qualified to write it (having both an M.D. and an M.Div); and the church can benefit greatly from that.

While he rightly doesn't support the use of drugs for something that is a legitimate sin issue, he certainly shows that there truly are issues that should indeed be dealt with from the use of drugs (under the care of a psychiatrist or other medical professional qualified in those drugs).
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Knowing which ones fall into which category is also dealt with. And the answer is that it really depends on the person, the abnormal behavior (whether it's depression, anxiety, hyper-activity, obsessive compulsiveness, mania, etc.). And the goal of course is to get to the root issue that is causing the abnormal behavior. Is it sin? Is it a chemical imbalance? Is it both?

How the person is treated depends on the answers to those questions.

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Book Review: What's Best Next

1/30/2017

 
I typically don't have much appreciation for many "Christian Living" books (or the entire genre for that matter). But this book in particular is a game changer.

If you're like me in the mind frame of "Christian Living" books/genre, perhaps you'll do better as thinking of this book as part of systematic theology, with the specific study being: ergonology, or the doctrine of [good] works (Eph. 2:10).

And that's what this whole book is about: setting a course for and giving us tools to accomplish those good works which God has called us to do, and which He has prepared beforehand for us (Eph. 2:10).

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Thankfully, Matt Perman does a wonderful job in sticking to the sub-title: "How the Gospel Transforms the Way you Get Things Done" (emphasis mine).

In other words, he doesn't neglect Ephesians 2:8-9 - we are saved by grace through faith - when teaching on Ephesians 2:10 - we are saved for good works.

That's the foundation to the entire book. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. ​

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Book Review: How Firm a Foundation?: An Exegetical and Historical Critique of the "Ethical Perspective of [Christian] Reconstructionism" Presented in Theonomy in Christian Ethics

2/28/2015

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Not worth your time.

From the back cover:

“This book helps Christian voters and politicians think through two perennial questions. Are we required to apply the judicial laws of the Old Testament to our present-day political contexts? And if we are required to obey these laws, how shall we do so?”

However, the book fails to answer either of these questions and turns out to be nothing but a circuitous tirade against Greg L. Bahnsen’s interpretation of one passage of Scripture - Matthew 5:17-20.
If anyone has studied just a little on the subject of theonomy (the school of thought whose most controversial tenant is to follow consistently the Westminster Confession of faith and actually apply the teaching that the general equity of the judicial laws of Moses ought to be our standard and guide for civil government today - see Westminster Confession of Faith XIX.IV), then he or she would know that the the exegetical grounds of theonomy can be established from a various number of passages in Scripture - many in the New Testament (Rom. 3:31, 7:12; Gal. 5:14; 1 Tim. 1:8-11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 2:2; Jas. 1:25, 2:8-12).

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Book Review: New Covenant Theology: Description, Definition, Defense

11/11/2014

 
When it comes to the growth of the church and the unity of the faith, fresh insights into theology should certainly be considered in bringing us closer together (Eph. 4:7, 11-16; 1 Thess. 5:19, 20).

That being said, it must also be clear that we are certainly required to test everything (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Jn. 4:1) by the Word of God (2 Thess. 3:14; 1 Jn. 4:6). And if something is found lacking in theological value or, worse yet, contrary to teachings of Scripture, it is our duty as Christians (and even more so of pastors - 2 Tim. 4:2; 1 Pet. 5:2) to hold on only to that which is good and edifying (1 Thess. 5:21) and even abhor what is evil (Rom. 12:9), even if it's in the form of doctrinal evil (Gal. 1:8; Phil. 3:2).

Now, let me be clear at the outset that I do not think for a moment authors Tom Wells and Fred Zaspel are evil or have any inkling of evil intent in this book.
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However, I have a many concerns regarding this book's true value in unifying the church with fresh and faithful insights into the Word of God.

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Book Review: The Establishment and Limits of Civil Government: An Exposition of Romans 13:1-7

5/27/2014

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This was a very interesting read that I would recommend for anyone looking for a very thorough treatment of Romans 13:1-7 and its subsequent applications.

Admittedly the book took me places where I was unprepared to go and in which I found myself a little uncomfortable.

I was expecting the book to talk about the importance of the text in relating the civil magistrate to a minister of God. And it certainly did that.

What I was not expecting the book to speak to is how far we can (or should) allow the civil magistrate to go - outside its limits set by God - before submission to it is no longer a praiseworthy act of obedience to our Lord.
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Written in the mid nineteenth century, the style was noticeably different from modern expositors. It was engaging; but you really have to be paying attention the entire time (i.e. this book is not one of those you can read with a toddler running around being all cute and cuddly and handing you things - you'll need to be in your study, alone).

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The Joys and Distractions of Book Reviews: An Analogy

4/30/2014

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I love books!

There's no way around it!

So much knowledge, wisdom, and insight from some of the greatest teachers of the world!

Especially when they pertain to building us up in the faith, how can they not be a necessary part of the Christian life?
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And truly, they are! Paul says to us concerning the importance of the written word: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction..." (Rom. 15:4). Likewise, when he was in prison and needed comfort, encouragement, and strength, what did he so strongly request that Timothy bring him, but written wisdom: "bring...the books, and above all the parchments" (2 Tim. 4:13).(1)

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Book Review: The Hunger Games (Trilogy)

4/26/2014

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Each book is summarized briefly, followed by an analysis on the trilogy as a whole.
WARNING: SPOILER ALERTS THROUGHOUT!

Overall, I found this to be an excellent trilogy, a good work of literature, and an engaging story.

As to whom I would recommend it, it really depends on one's age, maturity, and personality. If you have a difficult time with violence, death, or war, then this is not for you.

On the other hand (if you can handle those things), this story is a great telling of how violence, death, and war can be when Jesus Christ is not given honor as both Savior and Lord, not only for individuals (and in the church as a whole), but also in society.
"But this book says nothing about Jesus..."

You're absolutely correct. The author does not bring this point up explicitly in the books (and for my part I really don't know what the author's worldview is or her understanding of who Jesus Christ is). But it comes out nonetheless, like it would in any dystopian work; and it would be good to point this out when reading it with others (especially your children).

Whether it was intentional or not, I think it is very telling that Jesus Christ is not mentioned at all, or even anything resembling the idea of Christ's church. It is in this Christless world of Panem, where the Hunger Games take place, that we get a very good picture of what society truly is like when there is no restraining force of God on earth.

Let's consider the story then...

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Book Review: The Continuing Relevance of Divine Law 

3/21/2014

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Dispensational Hermeneutics in Disguise

Written from the perspective of New Covenant Theology, this work is trying to bridge the gap between Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism. Eschatological issues aside, I had a hard time seeing how New Covenant Theology differs that much from Dispensationalism.

Zaspel tries to make a case for there being a law of God upon which the Mosaic Law is founded, yet maintaining that the two cannot be identical. He further tries to establish that the church’s dependence on the law of Moses is erroneous, the three-fold division of the law (into moral, ceremonial, and judicial) is unnecessary, and yet the disregarding of the law (which he charges dispensationalism with) is also in error.

In my opinion, confusion abounds.
The Continuing Relevance of Divine Law
When commentating on Romans 2 he advocates his position that the works of the law written on the hearts of the gentiles are simply “principles of righteousness” yet “independent of Mosaic legislation.” He does not prove this at all but simply asserts it. The apostle Paul knew how to say “principles of righteousness;” yet under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he chose to say “works of the law.” In context of the passage and the readership of Romans I don’t know what else Paul could mean other than the Mosaic law. But apparently Zaspel has some insight into this text of which so many others throughout the history of the church are completely unaware.

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Book Review: God and Politics: Four Views on the Reformation of Civil Government

2/18/2014

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A Great Read, but one of these is not like the others

This book might not be readily accepted by some who are looking for very divergent views. For instance by the title of the book I was thinking there would be a case for Christian-democratic-liberalism, Christian-republic-rhetoric(ism), Christian-libertarianism, and yes maybe Christian-theonomy.

While I think a book like that would be helpful, since there are at least professing believers in each of those camps, I was very delighted with what I actually found in this work.

According to the foreword, the book is comparing specifically “Reformed” views on Christian political theory. The subtitle “Four Views on the Reformation of Civil Government” then takes on a slightly more telling meaning.
Among those four views, with the exception of one (which will be explained later), they are all saying the same thing - the law of God is to be the very foundation from which all our modern laws are to be derived.

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Book Review: Theonomy and the Westminster Confession

1/28/2014

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Theonomy and the Westminster Confession
A Historic Defense of the Un-Heretical Heresy

This is not a Biblical defense of the theological orthodoxy of theonomy.(1) Instead, it is a historical defense that the theonomic viewpoint is not at all something new. This is a book of quotes from primary sources of men who either (a) were members of the Westminster Assembly, (b) gave theological influence to members of the Assembly, or (c) otherwise subscribed to the Confession when it was published.

While the school of thought known as Theonomy began to gain popularity in the late 20th century, it was sometimes summarily dismissed in Reformed circles as heresy by the "fact" that it contradicted the Westminster Standards:
To [Israel] also, as a body politic, he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people; not obliging any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require.
(Westminster Confession, Chapter XIX, Section IV)
What "the general equity thereof may require," of course, is something that needs to be understood in light of the historical, grammatical context in which the statement was written.

If the authors of the Westminster Standards truly believed that the penal sanctions of the civil aspect of the Mosaic Law had no abiding validity, then understood in today's English it would seem this statement invariably settles the matter.

But did they actually believe that?
And if not, what is meant by that statement?

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Book Review: What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? The Positive Impact of Christianity in History

1/11/2014

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On the one hand, I would say this is a truly great contribution to the idea that Christianity has a place in transforming the world for good - not in a “social gospel” sense but in the sense that the gospel truly transforms the lives of individuals who then use the grace given them to transform society.

The book was published in 1994 to answer the simple question, “What if Jesus had never been born?” For all the animosity that is out there toward Christianity and how it’s been a disservice to the world, there is much to be seen and understood from this book as it provides ample evidence to the contrary.
In the introduction the book posits the problem:
We live in an age in which only one prejudice is tolerated -- anti-Christian bigotry. … Today, the only group you can hold up to public mockery is Christians. … But the truth is: Had Jesus never been born, this world would be far more miserable than it is.

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Book Review: How to Memorize Bible Verses: The Fast and Easy Way to Memorizing Scripture

12/2/2013

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Yikes! This book basically employs a common technique for memorization whereby one turns words and numbers into pictures and then creates a bizarre story so as to remember the exact order of the thing needing to be memorized.

While I’m sure it can help in certain situations, I don’t know that it’s something that ought to be applied to Scripture.

For an example of how the author applies this method to Scripture, see the following (WARNING: Long quote):
Let’s look at Ephesians 4:11. The key words I’ve chosen to memorize are underlined. This is a challenging verse to correctly memorize in order due to the list of people it mentions.

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, theevangelists, the pastors and teachers…”

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Book Review: Watchmen

11/23/2013

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Atrocious Violence. Inappropriate Nudity. Abusive Profanity.

At first glance it would seem this book is not fit to be read. But lest we judge the book prematurely, it would be good to remember the Bible contains the same things - and in their rightful context of what happens when sin corrupts human nature.

While it doesn’t appear that Moore (author), Gibbons (artist), or Higgins (colorist) produced the work with a Biblical view in mind, it doesn’t change the fact that the work does a truly masterful job of showing the struggle of man, in and of himself, to determine good from evil. Even at the end of the book [SPOILER ALERT] while there’s a slight sense of “hope” for humanity, it’s tainted by the lie that caused it. And so the redemptive element (or at least the only thing that’s remotely close to a redemptive element) ends up being the conclusion the audience will draw as the last scene seemingly promises to be the discovery of Rorschach's journal. Truth will out!
But a sad truth it is. The truth that fallen man, no matter how intelligent, how idealistic, how “good”-intentioned, how perceptive, or even how super, man is not and cannot be the savior, either of himself or anyone else. And in one of the most creative forms of depicting this reality, the story that Watchmen tells is fantastic.

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Book Review: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

9/19/2013

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A Paradigm Shift in Our Understanding of Communication

Although there's definitely a temptation for us to amuse ourselves to death with things that have always had the intent of amusement (sitcoms, dramas, sci-fi, fantasy, etc), Neil Postman has nothing bad to say about "junk television" (as it's called in the introduction).

Rather, his very compelling argument is that we're turning into a society that will amuse itself to death because our capacity to comprehend and act on things is transforming into one that only operates on amusement itself. In other words, it's not that we make things for the sake of amusement that will hurt us, it's that we now make everything - even things that are not meant to be amusing - into a venue of entertainment.(1)

While originally published in 1985, I sincerely think this book is just as relevant today (in the age of Google, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter)* if not even more so than when it was first penned. Postman takes the reader through the history of our mediums of communication and shows (and I mean, really shows from history) that when our culture of communication started to turn from the printed word to visual images, our capacity to think through things cogently had started to drop significantly. Our attention span has taken a terrible plummet. And even our humanity has been desensitized to a degree.


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Book Review: No Other Standard

8/1/2013

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Of all the wicked heresies and threatening movements facing the church in our day, when Westminster Seminary finally organized their faculty to write something in unison, they gave their determined political efforts: not to fight socialism, not to fight homosexuality, not abortion, not crime and mayhem in our society, not subjectivism in theology, not dispensationalism, not cultural relativism, not licentiousness, not defection from the New Testament, not defection from the Westminster Confession of Faith, all of which are out there, and they could give their legitimate efforts to. Boy the thing they had to write about - was Theonomy!

-Greg L. Bahnsen, "Law and Disgrace" sermon, Chalcedon Presbyterian Church, 1993
 
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The Emperor Has No Clothes...still!

In 1973, Greg Bahnsen graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia, PA) with two Master’s degrees (M. Div, Th.M.). His thesis, approved by the overseeing faculty, was “The Theonomic Responsibility of the Civil Magistrate,” in which he set out to establish the theological premise that unless otherwise indicated by further revelation from God Himself, God’s law, including the civil penal sanctions, has moral abiding validity. From the encouragement of his professor John Frame, he reworked this thesis so that it could be published as a book. In 1977 it was published as Theonomy in Christian Ethics. You can see my review for that work here.

In 1990 a book titled Theonomy: A Reformed Critique was published as a joint venture from the faculties at both Westminster Theological Seminaries (Philadelphia, PA and Escondido, CA) to establish a “Reformed answer” to Greg Bahnsen’s work (it took 17 years - from the date of his thesis - to formulate a “response”). In 1991, Bahnsen himself responded to their “critique” with this book, No Other Standard.

If you’ve ever wondered if there were any gaping holes in the Theonomic perspective of theology, this book will settle the matter. In his normal fashion, Bahnsen applies the doctrines of Scripture with rigorous logical skill to show that God’s Word must be our standard in all matters of life - including politics and socio-political ethics.


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