Left Behind and the Evangelical Crisis by Crawford Gribben
As the title implies Gribben has written a critique of evangelicalism as represented by the wildly popular fictional series Left Behind authored by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. Gribben’s conclusion is that the novels have poor theology of salvation, the church and the Christian life, even though being admittedly theologically sound much of the time. […]
The God Who Is There Finding Your Place in God’s Story By D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2010) 233 pp. Paper, $16.99
Don Carson admits up front that this book is not for everyone. It is not bumper sticker theology, yet it is aimed at those who have little acquaintance with the Bible (p. 9). The author’s approach is to “run through the Bible in fourteen chapters. Each chapter focuses on one or more passages from the […]
Evangelical Feminism A New Path To Liberalism?, By Wayne Grudem (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006) 272 pp., Paper $10.99
Wayne Grudem is perhaps the most prolific evangelical author today writing in defense of the biblical roles of men and women in the church and in the home, known as complementarism. His thesis in this particular volume is that evangelical feminism (egalitarianism) has become a new path by which evangelicals are being drawn into theological […]
Messiah’s Coming Temple, Ezekiel’s Prophetic Vision of the Future Temple By John W. Schmitt and J. Carl Laney (Kregel Publications: 2013) 224 pp., Paperback $12.99
Messiah’s Coming Temple (MCT) is about the future temple which is prophesied in the Bible, particularly in Ezekiel 40-48. Many interpreters of the Bible try to allegorize or “spiritualize” the prophet’s vision of the temple, but Schmitt and Laney take pains to demonstrate the natural reading of the text: a future, physical temple will one […]
Conversion in the New Testament, Paul and the Twelve, by Richard V. Peace (Grand Rapids: Erdmans, 1999) 397 pp. plus XV, paper $33.75
Conversion in the New Testament is an exacting, thorough and valuable study of the conversion experience. Recognizing substantial differences between the sudden conversion of Paul in Acts and the gradual experience of the apostles in the Gospels, Richard Peace seeks to evaluate and harmonize the two. His aim is “to demonstrate that while there is […]
God in Eclipse, God Has Not Always Been Silent, by John B. Metzger (Keller, TX: J House Publishing: 2013) pp. 227, paper $9.99
John Metzger, missionary and educator with Ariel Ministries, has written God in Eclipse directly to Jewish people “to put into simple language a debunking of the issues surrounding God’s nature” (p. 5). Most Jews have abandoned even Judaism (pp. 13, 19) and rejected Christianity, partly due to mistreatment by Christians throughout the ages. Therefore, Metzger […]
Understanding Scripture, An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning, edited by Wayne Grudem, c. John Collins, and Thomas R. Schreiner (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012) 203 pp., paper $12.99
Understanding Scripture is a helpful volume dealing with the primary issues related to God’s Word. None of the editors contributes to the book but 17 other scholars do. Understanding Scripture is organized around seven parts with two or more chapters within each part. The parts are interpreting, reading, canonicity, reliability of manuscripts, archaeology, and original […]
The New Calvinists, Changing the Gospel by E. S. Williams (London: The Wakeman Trust & Belmont House Publishing, 2014), 74 pp., paper $6.84
As a physician and church leader in the United Kingdom, E. S. Williams examines the “New Calvinists” from a unique perspective. Interestingly the term is seldom used in the UK even though it has “penetrated deeply into the UK evangelical camp” (p. 51). (On a side note, I found the same to be true […]
What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About, a Survey of Jesus’ Bible, Gen. Ed., Jason S. DeRouchie (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2013; 496 pp., Hard $30.99
Jason De Rouchie and 16 other contributors have joined forces to provide the church this truly unique and marvelous volume overviewing the message of the Old Testament (there is a companion New Testament Volume – What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About). In the preface DeRouchie tells us that the book is not about: […]
Recovering Classic Evangelicalism, Applying the Wisdom and Vision of Carl F. H. Henry by Gregory Alan Thornbury (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013) 223 pp., paper $7.99
Gregory Thornbury, former professor of philosophy at Union University and now president of the King’s College, believes that the era of classical evangelicalism, represented by Francis Schaeffer, J. I. Packer, John R. W. Stott and most pronounced, Carl Henry, is quickly slipping away. He fears that “perhaps the evangelicalism I ‘signed up for’ is gone […]