Veritas et Lux

How to Know God’s Will – Wayne Grudem (2020)

Wayne Grudem, How to Know God’s Will (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2020), 66 pp.

One of the highlights of Wayne Grudem’s ministry is his clear and biblical writing style. His most recent book is no exception. What the Bible Says About How to Know God’s Will is a short book which is focused on one powerful question.

Dr. Grudem probes the inner workings of a complex subject by the dimensions of every action and nine sources of guidance concerning the will of God. The great strength of this book is its brevity. Readers who wrestle with the thorny matter of knowing God’s will shall gain a clearer understanding of the subject in a short period of time and come away with a wealth of biblical counsel.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault On Mind, Morals, and Meaning – Nancy Pearcey

Nancy Pearcey has done it again. Her book Total Truth captured the attention of thousands and helped equip a new generation of thinking Christians. While some consider the term “thinking Christian” somewhat of an oxymoron (think, “military intelligence,” or “jumbo shrimp”), nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, clear thinking and warm-hearted devotion are crucial characteristics for anyone who professes faith in Christ. Anyone who rejects the notion of a “thinking Christian” should pause and consider the thought process generated in order to make the claim!

Pearcey’s newest masterpiece, Saving Leonardo is as the subtitle suggests a call to resist the secular assault on mind, morals, and meaning. The primary assertion: “The only hope lies in a worldview that is rationally defensible, life affirming, and rooted in creation itself.”

The Threat oF Global Secularism

In part one, the author clearly articulates the necessity of a Christ-informed worldview. She challenges readers: “Do you have the tools to detect the ideas competing for your allegiance in movies, school textbooks, news broadcasts, and even Saturday morning cartoons?”

Pearcey reveals the goal of the book at the outset: “The goal of this book is to equip you to detect, decipher, and defeat the monolithic secularism that is spreading rapidly and imposing its values on your family and hometown.” As such, she calls Christians to abandon the “fortress mentality” that has been prominent for years; a mentality that gravitates to isolation from the world. Rather, Christ followers ought to become familiar with their audience and engage with them on a worldview level. “The first step,” writes Pearcey, “is to identify and counter the key strategies uses to advance the global secular worldview.”

Next, Christians must understand how secularism views the nature of truth. Pearcey demonstrates how empiricism has spawned what we know today as the fact/value split. This divided concept of truth is the most important feature of a secular approach to epistemology and is “the key to unlocking the history of the Western mind.” The author is quick to explain the biblical concept of truth; a notion that was the theme of Total Truth: “Because all things were created by a single divine mind, all truth forms a single, coherent, mutually consistent system. Truth is unified and universal.”

The fact/value dichotomy finds values in the so-called upper story (a scheme developed by Francis Schaeffer). These values are private, subjective, and relative. Values include religious claims and personal preferences. Fact are found in the lower story. These facts are public, objective and universal. The author gives numerous examples of how the fact/value dichotomy is diametrically opposed to the biblical view of truth. For instance:

“Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Science yields facts but not ‘value judgments’; religion expresses values but cannot ‘speak facts.'” – Albert Einstein

Clearly, values posed in the fact/value dichotomy are never considered to be true. Rather they are expressions of an opinionated individual; i.e. a so-called “bigoted Christian.”

Two Paths to Secularism

Part two uncovers two paths to secularism, namely, the Enlightenment and Romantic movements respectively. The Enlightenment (or Analytic Tradition) is fixated on reason and relies on the scientific method. Immanuel Kant plays a central role here with his nature/freedom dichotomy. Various worldviews have been spawned as a result of Enlightenment thought including empiricism, rationalism, Darwinism, logical positivism, linguistic analysis, utilitarianism, and materialism.

The Romantic stream (or Continental Tradition) relies on story and is fascinated by myth and imagination. Again, various worldviews have resulted including idealism, Marxism, deconstruction, phenomenology, existentialism, pantheism, and postmodernism. Both streams are reductionistic and the author is careful to bring this point home repeatedly.

Pearcey dissects both streams carefully and skillfully. Her depth and insight is very helpful and encouraging. The final two chapters are the most helpful and practical. The author prompts readers to give up the typical Christian fortress mentality: “Christians must go beyond criticizing the degradation of American culture, roll up their sleeves, and get to work on positive solutions. The only way to drive out bad culture is with good culture.”

The author reminds Christian parents that they cannot protect their children from unbiblical worldviews. But they can “help them develop resistance skills, by giving them the tools to recognize false ideas and counter them with a solid grasp of biblical concepts … Christians are responsible for evaluating everything against the plumb line of Scriptural truth.”

Nancy Pearcey is picking up where Francis Scheaffer left off. And she gives Schaeffer the last word on the subject: “One of the greatest injustice we do our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity is not conservative, but revolutionary … We must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo.”

Reviving the Lost Art of Letter Writing

Once there was a day when the nib of a pen would intersect with a piece of paper, revealing the contemplations of a thoughtful person. The end result would yield a letter that would inspire a willing recipient and breathe fresh courage into a human soul.

Less than 200 years ago, letter-writing flourished in the American colonies. Yet, the convenience of technology has all but extinguished the power of the pen. The convenience of text messages and emails have replaced the personal touch of the letter. Indeed, the art of letter writing is nearly dead. For this reason, it is time to revive the lost art of letter writing.

A Rekindled Friendship

The strained friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson is well known and documented. Thankfully, Dr. Benjamin Rush intervened and convinced Adams to renew his friendship with Jefferson. The second president of the United States responded with a letter to Jefferson. Subsequently, the two men exchanged letters back and forth until their respective deaths, which occurred on the same day – July 4, 1826. The power of pen and ink combined with some thoughtful words supercharged a friendship on the brink of collapse.

A Rekindled Art

A handful of letters have arrived in my mailbox over the past several years that left a meaningful mark and provided much-needed fuel to propel me in a Godward direction:

An affirming letter from my father
A letter of personal counsel from Dr. John Piper
A letter of encouragement from my grandfather, Samuel Barger
A letter from Pastor Wayne Pickens, who mentored me in the defining years of pastoral ministry

One letter from my 89-year-old friend, Bruce who recently went to be with the Lord sits permanently in my study:

“Knowing you is to learn, as our Lord measures it, more than just the message of Scripture. You sow also of yourself in His name. More than His word you teach by example, tireless sacrificial giving for His glory and in furtherance of His love …”

Each of the letters above are safely preserved and serve as a permanent reminder of a special time in my life.

Opening a timely and encouraging letter is like receiving oxygen at the summit of Mt. Everest after a grueling climb. It is like salve on a wound in need of healing. A letter is a welcome guest that is never turned away.

It is not too late to revive letter writing in our generation. I suggest we revive the art of letter writing for at least five reasons.

1. Personal Touch

First, a letter is personal. Taking time to compose words on a page, sealing the letter in an envelope, and dropping it in the mail involve a series of additional steps and effort but the payoff is worth it. The personal touch of a letter deeply impacts the one who receives it.

2. Powerful Memories

Second, a letter helps enshrine memories that preserve friendships, provide a permanent record of significant thoughts, and instill hope for the future. When I read a memorable letter, it helps recall significant thoughts and feelings that may have otherwise been forgotten.

3. Permanent Keepsake

Third, a letter becomes a personal and powerful memento. An email can be cataloged in Evernote or saved in some other digital format. An email can even be printed and tucked away for future reference. But an email can never replace the special quality of the written letter.

4. Portrays Selflessness

Next, a letter is an act of selflessness. It takes a certain amount of discipline, time, and creativity to craft a meaningful letter. Such a pursuit, then, involves an intentional act of kindness or selflessness as the one composing the letter must think of others before herself. One might say that letter writing is a way of fulfilling the Golden Rule: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12, NLT).

5. Proclaims a Blessing

Finally, a letter is a way of proclaiming a blessing. At the heart of a blessing is the need for acceptance. “Genuine acceptance,” writes John Trent, “radiates from the concept of the blessing.”¹ A letter has a way of unleashing a person to become all that God intends them to be. It is a way of communicating the kind of support that is empowering and life-changing. A letter has a way of inscribing an indelible seal of blessing on the soul of one of God’s image-bearers.

A simple letter has the power to inspire hope, instill confidence, and initiate action. A letter communicates devoted love and lifts the human spirit. A letter unshackles the hands and feet, inspires hearts and minds, and communicates love and support to the people we care about.

Reviving the lost art of letter writing begins with you. Who will you influence or encourage today with a simple letter? Who will be the recipient of your timely wisdom or counsel? Who will be inspired to take a step into the great unknown because they received a letter from you? Who will be challenged by your courageous words? Whose life will be changed forever because you took the time to craft a well-thought-out letter? Let us, then, revive the lost art of letter writing – one letter at a time.

John Trent, The Blessing (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1986), 28. ↩

The Royal Priesthood and the Glory of God – David S. Schrock

David S. Schrock, The Royal Priesthood and the Glory of God (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2022), 199 pp.

The Short Studies in Biblical Theology series, published by Crossway Books includes a series of accessible books designed for the non-specialist. The books are basic enough for anyone to grasp but are also invaluable tools for pastors. As a veteran pastor, I have been greatly encouraged by this series.

The Royal Priesthood and the Glory of God by David S. Schrock is the most recent book in the series. This book traces the history of God’s royal priesthood which begins in Eden and cultivates in new Jerusalem.

The Royal Priesthood begins in Eden as God commissions Adam to glorify him by reflecting the greatness of his worth in the Garden. Adam is charged with an important stewardship in the Garden – he must work it and keep it (Gen. 2:15) and thus serve the Lord.

The author traces the various movements of the priesthood through redemptive history, which culminates with the royal priesthood of Jesus Christ. The book concludes with these fitting words:

This way of life is the one that brings glory to God and extends Jesus’s blessing to the ends of the earth. Because of Christ’s priesthood, heaven and earth have been united in Christ. And one day soon, as Psalm 110 foretells, all Christ’s enemies will be put under his feet.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

The Christian Mind – Harry Blamires

My uncle Dwight gave me this book almost thirty years ago. I’ll never forget what he said when he handed it to me: “Only real men can read this book.” Whether it was meant to motivate or amuse, I read it with a vengeance. This is my third time through.

Blamires thesis is clear throughout the book: “There is no longer a Christian mind.” An interesting proposal, given the original publishing date of 1963. But the facts outweigh any contrary argument. The author notes, “And we have emptied our brains of Christian vocabulary, Christian concepts, in advance, just to make sure that we should get fully into touch. Thus we have stepped mentally into secularism.” We live in a post-Christian era. This much is certain. The frightening reality is that some Christians understood this in the 1960’s. Many Christians today simply have no comprehension of the Christian mind.

In part two, the author suggests what the Christian mind should look like. He delineates six marks of the Christian mind which include:

1. A supernatural orientation.

2. An awareness of evil.

3. A conception of truth

4. Accepts the notion of authority

5. Has a concern for the person

6. Has a passion to live life to the glory of God.

The Christian Mind should be celebrated for its analysis of culture and its allegiance to the Word of God. Like Francis Schaeffer, Blamires is in touch with the barriers to Christian thinking. While his concerns originated in 1963, they continue to reverberate almost fifty years later.

The point my Uncle was trying to make is this: Real men think Christianly. Real men live according to truth.

“The Christian mind is the prerequisite of Christian thinking. And Christian thinking is the prerequisite of Christian action.”

Harry Blamires

Why is My Teenager Feeling Like This? A Guide for Helping Teens Through Anxiety & Depression – David Murray

David Murray, Why Is My Teenager Feeling Like This? A Guide for Helping Teens Through Anxiety & Depression (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 140 pp.

David Murray’s newest book, Why is My Teenager Feeling Like This? A Guide for Helping Teens Through Anxiety & Depression could not have come at a better time. The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a corresponding mental health crisis, especially among young people. Many of the struggles existed prior to the pandemic but simply lay dormant. COVID-19 merely surfaced the mental and spiritual battles that exist in teenagers.

Anyone familiar with David Murray knows that he is a thoughtful and caring writer. What is more, his books are always saturated with biblical wisdom and encouragement. This book is no exception.

The introduction of Murray’s work helps readers understand the root causes of anxiety and depression. He provides an assurance upfront that there is help for anyone who struggles with a wide range of ailments.

The book addresses a myriad of mental health issues that utilize a case study approach. After describing an example of a person who is struggling with anxiety, depression, loneliness, workaholism, negativity, rebellion, etc. the author provides a brief prescription for offering help. Each chapter concludes with a section that offers real-life application. Generally, there is a verse to memorize, some practical questions, and a prayer.

In addition, David Murray has written a second book specifically designed for teens. I recommend these fantastic resources for both parents and teens and trust that God will use them to encourage young people during these troubling times.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

God’s Love: Better Than Unconditional – David Powlison

How many times have you uttered the words, “God’s love is unconditional?” Yet the term is strangely absent from Scripture. One might argue that other terms are absent as well, like “Trinity” and “hypostatic union.” Of course, the terms are missing but the truth of the Trinity and the hypostatic union are clearly taught.

So what does one make of the notion of God’s “unconditional love.” David Powlison tackles this important subject in his book, God’s Love: Better Than Unconditional. Here’s his proposal: “God’s love is much different and better than unconditional … God cares too much to be unconditional in his love.”

Powlison is not the only one who resists the notion of God’s unconditional love. R.C. Sproul adds, “I can think of no more pernicious lie to destroy people’s souls than this, which some preachers are spreading around the world: God loves you unconditionally. No, he does not. If we do not meet the conditions that he established for us in creation, then God will send us to hell forever” (Truths We Confess, Vol. I, 216).

Powlison grounds his argument with four “unconditional truths.”

1. It is true that “conditional love” is a bad thing.

2. It is true that God’s love is patient.

3. It is true that true love is God’s gift.

4. It is true that God receives people just as they are.

The author admits that the phrase “unconditional” has a “noble theological lineage in describing the grace of God.” But the term is fraught with difficulties. He suggests four biblical improvements:

1. There are more biblical and vivid ways to capture each of the four truths just stated. The Bible provides much richer descriptions of God’s love than “unconditional.”

2. It is clear that unmerited grace is not strictly unconditional. While it is true that God’s love does not depend upon what you do, it very much depends on what Christ did for you. In that sense, it is highly conditional.

3. God’s grace is something more than unconditional in that it is intended to change the people who receive it.

4. “Unconditional love” is filled with cultural assumptions. Such a term implies the minimizing or even elimination of expectations on the one receiving the love.

Powlison urges readers to consider the notion of “contraconditional love.” He continues, “God has blessed me because his Son fulfilled conditions I could never achieve. Contrary to what I deserve, he loves me. And now I can begin to change not because I can earn his love, but because I’ve already received it.”

I commend God’s Love: Better Than Unconditional to fellow pilgrims. It contains the biblical answer to the questions in regards to the love of God. Readers concerned with Powlison’s thesis will be quickly persuaded and encouraged to pursue God with greater obedience and passion – an overflow of the love received from the sovereign and loving God of the universe.

5 stars

77’s – Ping Pong Over the Abyss (1983)

The 77’s first album was originally released in 1983. So why review an album that is almost thirty years old? For starters, Michael Roe decided to make the album available on iTunes a few weeks ago. So anyone that has an old crusty cassette and nothing to play it on should be very excited. Also, the iTunes release gives many listeners a chance to hear these unbelievable notes for the first time.

Ping Pong Over the Abyss engages with worldview themes in a way that is uncommon in Christian circles. If King Solomon wrote lyrics to a rock album, this is what it would be like. The album tackles several worldviews in a very straightforward way. A Different Kind of Light questions the notion of finding “truth within.”

They talk about a light inside you
I hope I never get that blind
I don’t want to take my chances
On joining the collective unconscious
I’m waiting for the clouds to break
I’m looking for the road to take
Don’t want the usual merchandise
Recycled in a new disguise

I’m following a different Light
A different kind of light
A different kind of light

It’s So Sad lays bare the worldly philosophy of hedonism and refuses to embrace the lies of Hinduism:

Trying to buy heaven
Right here on earth
The cost will always end up
More than it’s worth
You ponder living
You wonder why
No matter what you do
You’re still going to die

Falling Down a Hole wrestles with a host of worldviews including Buddhism, Islam, Spiritualism, Fatalism, Humanism, Evolution, and Witchcraft:

Humanism
Is a tired old line
The logos is sleeping
Just give it some time
Evolution is preaching
“From monkey to divine”

Renaissance Man is a frontal assault on atheistic evolution and is a powerful musical apologetic:

It’s from “star stuff” that he’s made
It’s the cosmos that gave him life
How does that help him feed the poor
How does that help him love his wife

A renaissance man
Tearing himself from The Rock
A renaissance man
Tearing himself from The Rock

He’s cast away all thoughts of heaven
His science is full of preconceptions
His answers make me ask more questions
How many can wait on evolution

He needs to live
On the sides of the north
In the city of Reformation
That’s where he’ll find his life

This album is definitely not a typical Christian rock album. The themes are sobering and tap into the meaningless of man apart from Christ. A severe blow is delivered to nihilism, humanism, and hedonism. Something tells me these guys were reading Francis Schaeffer in the late 70’s!

If you like your music raw and realistic and don’t mind a trip back to the 80’s, Ping Pong Over the Abyss is for you.

Finding Truth – Nancy Pearcey

Finding Truth, by Nancy Pearcey is another fine contribution that deserves to be read. The author maintains with Romans 1 that all people have access to general revelation. As such:

We all have access to evidence for God through creation.
We all suppress the evidence for God from creation.
We all create idols to take the place of God.
God gives us up to the consequences of our idols to a “debased” mind.
God gives us up to the consequences of our idols – to “dishonorable” behavior.

Pearcey builds upon her earlier works, both of which are best sellers. Total Truth argued for a unified view of truth and the obliteration of sacred/secular split. Saving Leonardo sought to help people develop skills in critical thinking. Finding Truth introduces readers to five principles that help make sense of competing worldviews and make a positive case for historic Christianity. The five strategic principles are summarized below:

Identify the Idol. Anything which is presented as eternal and unchanging is an idol. This principle helps us get to the heart of mankind’s propensity to erect idols and bow down to them. By way of contrast, Christianity refuses to begin with creation and an epistemological starting point. Rather, the beginning of knowledge rests in a transcendent Creator who is sovereign over all things.
Identify the Idol’s Reductionism. Pearcey notes, “The link is that idols always lead to a lower view of human life … When one part of creation becomes deified, the other part will be denigrated.” Reductionism, is, therefore, a fool’s errand as the creation is elevated to a status that God never intends.
Test the Idol: Does it Contradict What We Know About the World? Since idols always fail to satisfy, people will begin to realize that they cannot live according to the logic of their presuppositions. They are either forced to live in the real world – which is to oppose their worldview or they live in accordance with their worldview which contradicts reality.
Test the Idol: Does it Contradict Itself? The competing worldview, at this point, becomes self-defeating. The author notes, “Everyone who proposes a reductionist worldview must make a tacit exception for his own thinking – at least, at the moment he is stating his claims. But that too creates a logical inconsistency.” Thus the worldview fails.
Replace the Idol: Make a Case for Historic Christianity. As it becomes apparent that a competing worldview fails, the apologist must make a strong case for the viability and truthfulness of the Christian worldview. “By identifying the points where non-Christians are free-loading, we can be confident that we are addressing areas where they sense the need for something more.”

Finding Truth is an essential toolbox for thinking Christians. Pearcey does a dual service for readers as she not only instructs them to analyze and demolish competing worldviews (2 Cor. 10:5); she encourages readers to go deeper in the Christian faith which is informed by biblical reality and rock-solid facts. A more accurate description, however, would be a treasure chest. This is required reading which will only enrich one’s Christian life and effectiveness in the marketplace of ideas!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan – Peggy Noonan (2001)

A number of years ago, I began devouring books about my favorite president. When Character Was King by Peggy Noonan emerges as one of the most thoughtful and inspiring books about the former president.

Noonan paints a compelling portrait of President Reagan; a portrait that is an exceedingly human portrayal of a man who feared God, loved his country, and cherished freedom. The author writes, “As president, Ronald Reagan believed without question that tyranny is temporary, and the hope of freedom is universal and permanent; that our nation has unique goodness, and must remain uniquely strong; that God takes the side of justice, because all our rights are His own gifts.”

Reagan opposed the godless ideology that held millions of Russians hostage from 1917 to 1991. Lenin said in 1920, “We repudiate all morality that proceeds from supernatural ideas that are outside class conceptions. Morality is entirely subordinate to the interests of class war. Everything is moral that is necessary for the annihilation of the old exploiting social order and for uniting the proletariat.” In contrast, Reagan knew that virtue and morality are directly related to one’s relationship with God.

A few quotes reveal the man we know as President Reagan:

“We had strayed a great distance from our Founding Fathers’ vision of America. They regarded the central government’s responsibility as that of providing national security, protecting our democratic freedoms, and limiting the government’s intrusion in our lives – in sum, the protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They never envisioned vast agencies in Washington telling our farmers what to plant, our teachers what to teach, our industries what to build.”

“Don’t give up your ideals. Don’t compromise. Don’t turn to expediency. And don’t for heaven’s sake, having seen the inner workings of the watch, don’t get cynical.”

“All of these things – learning to control the government, limiting the amount of money it can take from us, protecting our country through a strong defense – all of these things revolve around one word, and that word is ‘freedom.'”

President Reagan was and continues to be a breath of fresh air in an increasingly pessimistic political climate. He was unafraid to stare evil in the face. He courageously stood for the cause of freedom. Indeed, he was jealous to see the flag of freedom fly in every land. He opposed despotism, communism, and socialism. He promoted free enterprise. President Reagan refused to capitulate in the face of adversity.