Miscellanies

TSS will be noticeably quiet for the rest of this week as I travel for work and attend my first ever Desiring God conference. Unlike other conferences this Spring I have no intention of blogging the conference and this will help my own heart soak thoroughly in the encouragements and exhortations. You can pray for me to this end.

So, if you are attending the DG conference this weekend, look for me. I would love to meet you! And I’ll see the rest of you next week.

Thanks for reading,

Tony Reinke

PS – Jerry Bridges will be preaching Sunday morning at Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Minneapolis if you are around. More info here.

ESV Literary Study Bible

For those taking note at home, we have a chronology of links for readers interested in the new ESV Literary Study Bible edited by Leland and Philip Graham Ryken.

1. TSS reviewed the ESV LSB and you can read it here.

2. TSS traveled to Wheaton to interview editor Leland Ryken (listen to audio here).

3. The ESV released their official ESV LSB website here.

4. Now on the official ESV LSB website readers can browse the full text for free! Click here.

5. Finally, our friends over at Crossway transcribed the Ryken interview. Be watching for the text later this week at the official ESV LSB website.

PS - I’m told further production delays are slowing the release of the ESV LSB. They should ship in another week (first week in October).

Book review
Christ Crucified by James Durham

Inside the cover of his personal copy of Christ Crucified, 19th century preacher C.H. Spurgeon wrote two words: “Much prized.”

Without question, author James Durham (1622-165 left the Church with a precious treatise on the Cross of Christ. But, sadly, this “much prized” Puritan work never found itself printed in the 19th century, and the last printed edition appeared in 1792! The work may be prized for its content, but we lament that it’s so far outside the reach of contemporary readers.

This absence temporarily ended in 2001 when Chris Coldwell and publisher Naphtali Press (Dallas, TX) released a retypset, edited, and beautiful edition of Durham’s classic. But the 500 copies – even selling at $75 each to cover high expenses of a short print run – sold out by the Fall of 2003. The classic, while back for a flash, returned quickly to the status of “rare” and again outside the reach of most readers.

Just in the past few weeks (August of 2007), Naphtali finished their second (and much larger) printing. The 2001 Naphtali edition is back, fully stocked, and now available for $30!

So why is Durham’s classic so treasured?

“Much Prized”

Admittedly, Durham is a lesser-known of the Puritan divines and probably because the Scottish preacher died in 1658 at the age of 36. His productive ministry lasted a mere decade and the 11 books that bear his name were all printed posthumously. The 72 sermons in Christ Crucified were transcribed by Durham’s ministry partner John Carstairs. Carstairs edited and first published the sermons 25 years after Durham’s death. The full title is Christ Crucified: The Marrow of the Gospel in 72 Sermons on Isaiah 53 and was originally published in Edinburgh in 1683.

Christ Crucified is traditionally classified and used as a commentary on Isaiah 53:1-12. And it certainly contains an encyclopedia of biblical exegesis and deep doctrine you would expect from a Puritan commentary. But Durham’s sermons go further, being filled with rich application, exhortation, encouragement and fuel for the Cross-centered life. It’s a Puritan work that, when carefully digested, molds Gospel-centered preachers like Spurgeon.

In these 72 sermons, Durham patiently and carefully walks verse-by-verse through the great OT prophecy of Christ. His aim is not merely exegesis or theology, but rich application. He wants us to experience the Cross, and he moves the reader frequently from doctrine to application.

For example, in sermon 22 Durham traverses the mystery of Christ’s substitution, of His absorbing the wrath of God and being “wounded for our transgressions” (v. 5). The sermon ends with a plea for us to feel our dire condition as sinners. Our sin deserves the wounding of judgment. The suffering of Christ should lead us to despair in our empty self-righteousness. The sermon concludes with these words:

“O let these things sink in your hearts, that you are sinners, great sinners, under wrath, and at feud with God; that Jesus Christ is the savior of lost sinners, and that there is no way to pardon and peace, but by closing with him, and laying hold on his satisfaction, that you may be drawn to cast yourselves over on this everlasting covenant, for obtaining the benefits that Christ has purchased” (p. 252).

From beginning to end, Durham’s work is rich and applicable but the book is perhaps best remembered for the final six sermons on Isaiah 53:12, covering the intercessory work of Christ. Here Durham is at his best, reminding us our salvation, sanctification, and all other spiritual victories are a direct result of the Melchizedek-like eternal priesthood of Christ.

Christ intercedes for the elect, that they be justified, pardoned, and receive “favor, friendship, and fellowship” with God and kept from temptation. He intercedes so our service will being acceptable before God, our prayers be heard, that we be armed against the fear of death, always advancing in sanctification towards our ultimate salvation and glorification. “In a word, he intercedes for everything needful, and for everything promised to them, his intercession being as broad as his purchase” (p. 626).

Durham contends that we fail to comprehend the far-reaching influence of Christ’s intercession. He seeks to comfort his readers by opening our mind beyond Calvary and into the eternal holy of holies where Christ is now interceding for the saints.

Throughout the volume Durham presses his readers into Scripture, presses them into the Cross, and then applies the Cross for their salvation, sanctification, joy and comfort.

The enduring value of Christ Crucified is quite evident.

Naphtali edition

The Naphtali edition is more than 700-pages long and noticeably tall and wide. You can see how it stands alongside Meet the Puritans.

The retypeset text is clean and easy to read. Archaic words are underlined with a brief definition in brackets. The text includes sidebar headings for each subheading, and these headings are all listed in the extensive table of contents (download a PDF copy of the full table of contents here). The outside columns provide great room for notes.

Publishers of Puritan works should take careful note of Chris Coldwell’s work. Here is a retypeset Puritan classic, with the following admirable features:

• Uses original sources for careful edits and corrections.
• Notes variants and archaic words in the footnotes with a glossary in the back.
• Provides an excellent introduction and author biography.
• Supplies extensive table of contents in the front.
• Adds a Scriptural index and topical index in the back.
• Brought together with durable Smyth-sewn binding and housed in a cloth cover.

It’s doubtful the Naphtali edition could be improved.

Recommendations

I first learned of Durham four years ago when reading Spurgeon. In an early sermon Spurgeon said, “If I had lived in his [Durham’s] time, I should never, I think, have wanted to hear any other preacher; I would have sat, both by night and day, to receive the sweet droppings of his honeyed lips” (sermon 172). Obviously, Durham played a significant role in Spurgeon’s early ministry development.

As I mentioned earlier, in his personal copy of Christ Crucified, Spurgeon simply wrote “Much prized” (Autobiography, vol. 4). In Commenting and Commentaries – a book where Spurgeon freely assaults poor commentaries and their authors – he writes Christ Crucified is “marrow indeed” and “We need say no more: Durham is a prince among spiritual expositors.”

From contemporary reviewers Joel Beeke and Randall Peterson in Meet the Puritans (RHB: 2006) Christ Crucified is said to be “an excellent book for believers who yearn for a more intimate fellowship with Christ in His sufferings” (p. 678). Later they make the amazing claim that Christ Crucified is “one of the best commentaries ever written on Christ’s person and work in redemption” (p. 679). On this Naphtali edition they write, “The present reprint is carefully and beautifully done” (p. 678).

We agree with all of the above.

Take the advice of Beeke and Spurgeon. Christ Crucified: The Marrow of the Gospel in 72 Sermons on Isaiah 53 is a classic Puritan work that has been beautifully reproduced. Your soul will be drawn to fellowship with Christ and stirred to deeper discoveries of the Cross. Since 1792, Durham’s classic has never been more available and never more affordable.

Title: Christ Crucified: The Marrow of the Gospel in 72 Sermons on Isaiah 53
Author: James Durham (1622-165
Editor: Chris Coldwell
Reading level: 3.0/5.0 > Easier thanks to excellent editing and glossary
Boards: cloth spine, embossed
Pages: 704
Volumes: 1
Dust jacket: no
Binding: Smyth-sewn
Paper: white and clean
Topical index: yes
Scriptural index: yes
Text: perfect type, re-typeset
Publisher: Naphtali Press
Year: 2001 ed., 2007 printing
Price USD: $45 retail; $30 pub.; $29 RHB
ISBN: 094107546x

Book review
Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

The title of Jerry Bridge’s new book – Respectable Sins — pops with sarcasm. While confronting many obvious and blatant sins in culture – abortion, corporate corruption, homosexuality, bullying and physical abuse – the Church frequently misses the sins running rampant within its walls.

“The motivation for this book stems from a growing conviction that those of us whom I call conservative evangelicals may have become so preoccupied with some of the major sins of society around us that we have lost sight of the need to deal with our own more ‘refined’ or subtle sins” (p. 9).

Later in Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate (NavPress: 2007) Bridges makes this shocking statement: “In our human values of civil laws, we draw a huge distinction between an otherwise ‘law-abiding citizen’ who gets an occasional traffic ticket and a person who lives a ‘lawless’ life in contempt and utter disregard for all laws. But the Bible does not seem to make that distinction. Rather, it simply says sin – that is, all sin without distinction – is lawlessness” (p. 20).

Bridges begins the book with an excellent chapter on defining sainthood in light of the messed-up Corinthians being considered “saints” (see 2 Cor. 1:1). We are called to live as the “saints” we have been declared in Christ. The second chapter — “The Disappearance of Sin” — paints a strong argument that the Church is having a hard time defining and seeing her own sins. The third chapter – “The Malignancy of Sin” – sets out to reveal that sin is not merely what we do but who we are. Our sinful actions spring from our sinful heart. Sin is a “principle or moral force in our heart, our inner being” (p. 24). Bridges then gets into the Gospel as our hope. We can face and overcome sin because of the Cross and the powerful working of the Holy Spirit.

Bridges has dressed the reader for warfare.

The “Respectable Sins”

So what sins are “respectable sins”? Bridges’ chapters include the following topics:

• general ungodliness defined as a sinful attitude towards God
• anxieties and frustrations
• discontentment
• unthankfulness
• pridefulness revealed specifically in self-righteousness, even in a pursuit of theological accuracy, in prideful motives behind our achievements and revealed in a spirit of independence
• selfishness with our interests, time, money and inconsiderableness
• lack of self-control in eating, drinking and temperament, finances, entertainment and shopping
• impatience and irritability
• anger, even anger towards God, and the underlying roots of anger in resentment, bitterness, enmity, hostility and holding grudges
• judgmentalism and a critical spirit over differing convictions and doctrinal disagreements
• envy, jealousy, competitiveness and being controlling
• the sins of the tongue like gossip, slander, lying, harsh words, sarcasm, insults and ridicule
• worldliness shown financially, by our idolatry and in “vicarious immorality,” that is, the enjoyment of watching or reading the sinfulness of others.

And Bridges says his list was whittled down for print!

Conclusion

Bridges’ new work fills an important gap. There are excellent theoretical and architectural works to help church leaders conceive the mission of pastoral ministry and fellowship groups (Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp is one great one). But Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate (NavPress: 2007) may be the best yet in giving churches an easy-to-read book that has great potential in small group settings as believers help one another identify — and then mortify — the “respectable” sins of the heart. And only one who has proven himself faithful to the message of the Cross, like Bridges, is suited to lead us deep into the caves and caverns where sin lives in our hearts. A useful and excellent book worthy of consideration in the 2007 TSS Book of the Year contest.

Title: Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate
Author: Jerry Bridges
Reading level: 1.75/5.0 > easy
Boards: hardcover, embossed
Pages: 187
Volumes: 1
Dust jacket: yes
Binding: glue
Paper: white and clean
Topical index: no (unnecessary)
Scriptural index: no (would have been very useful)
Text: perfect type
Publisher: NavPress
Year: 2007
Price USD: $18.99 retail; $13.99 MonergismBooks
ISBNs: 9781600061400, 1600061400

Interview with Dr. Leland Ryken

WHEATON, IL — Last Thursday afternoon I walked across the campus of Wheaton College and up the stairs of Blanchard Hall for a rare opportunity to sit down with a favorite contemporary author, Dr. Leland Ryken.

Ryken serves as the Clyde S. Kilby Professor of English at Wheaton College. He has written many excellent books, but especially The Word of God in English: Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translation (Crossway: 2002), which carefully critiques contemporary translation philosophies and builds a strong case for literal translations like the ESV. It’s an excellent, pointed book that remains on a short list of my personal favorites. Ryken also served as Literary Stylist on the ESV translation committee (more on this later).

Ryken’s son, Dr. Philip Graham Ryken, is a prolific author, pastor, and preacher. Together with his son, Dr. Ryken edited the soon-to-be-released ESV Literary Study Bible (read our full review here). The LSB was the focus of our interview.

1. Thank you for your time, Dr. Ryken! … Where did the idea for The Literary Study Bible originate? Has this been a long-awaited project?

2. Explain for us the essential features that distinguish a literary study Bible?

3. There are a number of contemporary translations seeking to paraphrase the Bible and make it easier to read. You have confronted the dangers of this methodology in The Word of God in English. Is the LSB, in any way, a response to these contemporary translations in showing that a literal translation can be effectively used by general readers without a paraphrased text?

4. How will the LSB benefit the preacher, especially in expositional preparations?

5. You state in the LSB, “The goal of literature is to prompt a reader to share or relive an experience. The truth that literature imparts is not simply ideas that are true but truthfulness to human experience.” Explain further how the literature of Scripture invites us to experience Scripture.

6. Can you give us some specific, concrete examples of this?

7. What differentiates the LSB from other available study Bibles? And how will general readers benefit?

8. Quite obviously, the Psalmists, prophets, and other authors of Scripture did not write using a literary guide to genres. Much of the literary discussion in the LSB draws from a host of modern literary terms to interpret the ancient literature of Scripture. How do you defend this approach?

9. In the past, Bibles have been effectively used in home schooling education. Can the LSB be used as a textbook of sorts to learn literary genres, styles, and forms?

10. Some readers, I’m sure, are unaware of your role in the translation of the English Standard Version itself. Explain this role for us.

11. Now the ESV LSB is complete, and serves as a culmination of your translation efforts and literary commentary efforts. It must be quite fulfilling to see this Bible together and completed.

Thank you, Dr. Ryken, for your time. Congratulations to you and your son on the completion of such an incredible project. The ESV Literary Study Bible will greatly bless the Church by helping us read Scripture more competently for ourselves. Is there a more precious gift from the career of a literary scholar?

Blessings to you and your future ministry!

———–

Related: Read our full review of the ESV Literary Study Bible here. Also, from our day-long trip to Wheaton, Illinois (Sept. 13, 2007) we photographed our way through Crossway Books and Justin Taylor’s office (see here) and visited two local museums (see here).

Attention friends and readers in the beautiful city of Omaha, NE. Coming up on Saturday, October 20th, Omaha Bible Church will be hosting author and professor Dr. Don Whitney. The one-day conference is titled Sharpening Your Spiritual Focus and the cost is $15 per individual and $25 per family. For more details click here.

Pastors are invited to Whitney’s evening session, Disaster Proofing Your Ministry. Click here for more.

I spent the first seven years of my Christian life at OBC and benefited greatly from the excellent speakers that were brought through. Past speakers include Don Carson, John MacArthur and Kris Lundgaard. If you’re in the area, be sure to check out the Whitney conference. It will be a good one. And bring your friends, too!

Marcia over at the Ruminations and Ramifications blog just completed a Blank ESV Reformation Study Bible in 11-volumes. Wow! And it looks great, too. Check out her post here for pictures. Marcia recently wrote to thank us for the Blank Bible Series we posted last year. Like Jonathan Edwards, you can make a custom note-taking Bible. Begin by reading the TSS Blank Bible series index.

Thank you, Marcia, for the kind comments!

Tony

Thankfully pastor and author Mark Dever doesn’t read blogs so he will be spared from seeing this.

WHEATON, IL — Behind the books on our shelves are dozens of visionaries, writers, editors, graphic artists, printers, and marketers hard at work. One goal of The Shepherd’s Scrapbook is to introduce the people and organizations behind the books.

This Spring we traveled to Pennsylvania to see the American office of the Banner of Truth Trust. Another favorite publisher is the Good News Publishers or Crossway Books — or simply known as the ones who publish the English Standard Version. Look on your shelves and count how many Crossway books and Bibles you own. Likely you have a bunch. These originate in Wheaton, IL.

And 2007 looks to be a monumental publishing year for Crossway. Along with the ESV The Literary Study Bible edited by Ryken and Ryken, our friends have produced The Reformation by Stephen Nichols, Sam Storm’s two excellent books Chosen for Life and Signs of the Spirit and will soon be printing the edited version of Communion with the Triune God by John Owen. Yet this Fall and Winter we look forward to John Piper’s response to N.T. Wright on justification, and the American edition of a book that sent shockwaves through the U.K. earlier this year — Pierced for Our Transgressions by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey and Andrew Sach. Each of these volumes (and several others) are grand accomplishments.

Crossway / ESV

The Crossway office and warehouse are within walking distance from the SE corner of Wheaton College, across a set of very busy train tracks. The office and warehouse are housed in one building. In many ways, the interior of the building is reminiscent of a church building with dark brick, embroidered cloth banner, tall ceilings and many windows. The main level perimeter offices are large, bright and with open ceilings.

Last Thursday morning I had the joy of joining the Crossway staff for chapel, a time to give thanks to God, reflect on His grace, and to pray for needs (both personal and professional). The various Crossway authors at work and under deadline were prayed for specifically. The chapel service brought a surprisingly personal context for all the other publishing work and revealed a community of editors caring for their writers and one another beyond the business context.

Warehouse

Crossway books are printed off-site, but warehoused on-site. I took the camera back for a few shots of the warehouse operations. You can see the line where orders are filled. As with the Banner of Truth, all noticeably damaged and defective books are pulled from circulation. Both publishers are perfectionists.

Justin Taylor

Justin Taylor is the main reason I came over to Crossway. Justin is a busy editor, writer, and blogger. His official duties center around editing the ESV Study Bible due out late next year and his blog, Between Two Worlds, is considered one of the best on the Internet (one I check daily and highly recommend).

Justin Taylor has also edited many books, including new versions of John Owen with Dr. Kelly Kapic (Overcoming Sin and Temptation and Communion with the Triune God). Communion is due out in mid-October, so Justin’s work has been especially busy. His diligent labors are amazing, considering he works 9-5 on the ESV Study Bible and his other writing projects (like Communion) are completed in his personal time in the evenings!

A proof of Communion sits on his desk with some final edits before it’s printed.

Justin’s office is on the main level and has no ceiling. He has a modest library on hand and has minimal decorating (please leave decorating ideas for Justin in the comments).

Justin blogs, edits and emails with his John Owen coffee mug handy. His monitor is lifted with two ESV Bible boxes, a copy of The Book of Great Books and a hardcover ESV. His timeliness can be attributed to a nifty Dunder-Mifflin calendar.

All Justin’s emails and calls are screened by his personal office assistant, Dwight Schrute.

Conclusion

Obviously, I captured only a few highlights. It was great meeting Lane Dennis, the man behind Crossway (sorry, no pics). But it was also great to see Crossway behind the scenes and the humble prayerfulness of editors coming together at the throne of mercy.

Time is running short and I have one final stop. Back at Wheaton College campus I walk up to Blanchard Hall to meet Dr. Leland Ryken. …

————-

Related: Photo tour of Banner of Truth warehouse in Carlisle, PA (here).

Hi Tony,

My name is Ryan and I am a 33-year old pastor in Hazleton, PA. I’m writing just to say thank you for putting your Princeton Cemetery photographic tour online. Last year I stumbled onto your page (I have no idea how it happened) and enjoyed it so much that I took my family there as a day-trip last month while on vacation.  Being in ministry, it was really a wonderful experience for me. I wrote three blog articles on it, the last of which I just posted today. Your pictures ’stirred’ me, and for that I say thanks!

Sincerely in Christ,
Ryan Day
http://ryanlday.blogspot.com

————–

Well, thank you, Ryan for the kind comments. I appreciate the feedback. My wife and kids will be comforted knowing there are other wives and children who have endured dad’s crazy cemetery/vacation ideas. And I’m thankful you found the Warfields! Sadly, so many visitors miss them.

Blessings to you, Ryan!

Tony

Despite various names (atheists, humanists, secularists, freethinkers, rationalists or brights) the “legion of the godless” is growing more vocal and more global. In the past few years atheists have written five bestselling books and the Washington Post recently ran two articles on the sharp rise in (vocal) American atheism. One study shows that while only 6-percent of 60-year old Americans would be classified as atheists, 25-percent of those in the 18-22 year bracket would. These trends are not limited to America, the report says, and atheism (or non-theism) is gaining vocal prominence in Europe, India, Israel, Turkey, Spain and Italy. The report concludes that, while a vocal increase is evident, an atheist Presidential candidate wouldn’t have a prayer. You can read the WP reports here and here. Some interesting trends worth noting.

HT: Cranach

WHEATON, IL — Last Thursday morning I headed out from downtown Chicago. About 30 miles West sits an old but beautiful college town made famous for Wheaton College. Before crossing the busy train tracks to the South (to meet with Justin Taylor), my first goal was to browse two local campus museums. On the NW corner of campus sits the Wade Center, and to the SW sits the Billy Graham Center.

Marion E. Wade Center

I am told the Wade Center houses personal libraries and manuscripts from several authors, including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. The center does feature a main room of various treasures including the wood desks of Lewis and Tolkien. Tolkien’s desk is very tiny and modest. Lewis’ is a bit larger, but also very plain. Perhaps most popular, the Center features Lewis’ childhood wardrobe thought to be the inspiration behind the magical doorway into Narnia. Lewis’ grandfather handcrafted the elegantly chiseled wardrobe.

I was warned by a sign on the wall that photographs were not to be taken of anything but the desks and wardrobe and none of which could be published. The receptionist pointed to the sign and the curator stopped by to make sure I saw the sign. So for a photographic tour I have nothing for you but you can see pictures on the Wade Center website.

Billy Graham Center Museum

South of the Wade Center sits the massive photo-friendly Billy Graham Center Museum. Behind the Roman column exterior, the museum is shaped with hallways connecting large and dark circular rooms of various sizes. Much of the museum is taken up with artwork. The entrance to the museum features a 10-foot tall original painting of Christ by Warner Sallman and one dark room is devoted to a large three-dimensional crystal crucifix.

Most interesting was the “History of Evangelism in America” exhibit featuring a nice display on Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening.

The exhibit included an original 1746 edition of the Religious Affections.

As expected, the museum is chiefly devoted to the life and international evangelistic ministry of Billy Graham. Various items from his life and ministry were on display including his traveling pulpit, a childhood Bible, and dozens of photographs.

The marriage of Billy and Ruth Graham was sweet. Ruth, who passed away this year, must have been a hoot.

What especially caught my attention was Graham’s personal copy of John Stott’s The Cross of Christ with underlining on the first page of the seventh chapter. This simple book illustrates the power the publishing world to impact evangelism and the preaching of God’s Word. A book well-digested by a preacher is broadcast to souls that would otherwise never read the book. This underlining illustrates an interesting dynamic.

I left the museum with a sense I had passed through a display of holy relics. I decided not to publish photographs the many paintings of Christ or the crystal crucifix. But overall the Billy Graham Center Museum was positive and the history of evangelism in America was excellent.

Conclusion

I would not make it a special trip, but if you travel to Wheaton a quick stop to both museums will be enlightening. And both museums are free.

But enough of museums. History is being written as we speak. I headed South over the nearby train tracks to the Good News Publishers and Crossway Books building surrounded by neighborhoods. It’s known as the home of the English Standard Version and home to uber blogger Justin Taylor. …

WHEATON, IL — Good morning everyone. The first ever TSS road trip is done and we’re headed home. Our travels took us to Wheaton, Illinois and we accomplished a number of things. We toured and photographed some local museums (like the Billy Graham Museum) then headed over to Crossway / ESV for a photographic tour through their facility. We experienced a day in the life of uber blogger Justin Taylor. And finally we traveled up to Wheaton College for an interview with Dr. Leland Ryken about the new ESV Literary Study Bible. Over the next few days we will be sharing all this and more.

For now, here is a pictorial appetizer of Justin with his beloved Dwight Schrute bobble head. Enjoy …

Happy Thursday morning, TSS readers. The Shepherd’s Scrapbook’s mobile communication truck is warming up in the driveway.

This morning we head out for our first TSS road trip and we have surprises in store, so stay tuned.

If you see us zipping through your town, honk!

See you soon.

Tony

John Owen and Communion with the Triune God
Interview with Dr. Derek Thomas

What comes to mind when you think of communion? Bread, wine, and religious ordinance? The following interview is for fellow 21st century pilgrims unfamiliar with the term ‘communion’ and specifically ‘communion’ with God.

October 12th is the scheduled release date of Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic’s newest volume in the writings of Puritan John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (Crossway: 2007). Communion was first published in 1657. The original edition is in the public domain, has been printed in various shapes and sizes, and is available for free online. In the past 50 years this work has been known as the second volume of The Works of John Owen (Banner of Truth).

The 2007 Crossway edition includes several enhancements like helpful indexing, introductions, extensive outline and glossary. Owen’s work has never been more accessible for readers (see our review here).

For the next month we are taking some time to highlight Owen’s masterpiece. Today we talk with Dr. Derek Thomas to discuss John Owen and better understand communion with God.

Introduction

Dr. Thomas is from Wales and currently serves as John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Practical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. After pastoring for 17 years in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Dr. Thomas returned to the United States in 1996 and also serves as the Minister of Teaching at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson. He has lectured extensively on Owen (listen to his lectures on Owen here).

TSS: Dr. Thomas, it is always an honor to have you join us here on The Shepherd’s Scrapbook! Being a scholar of John Owen and well-acquainted with his works, what are your initial thoughts of this classic, Communion with the Triune God?

DT: Thank you, Tony. It is a great honor for me to join you here at The Shepherd’s Scrapbook. It is one of my favorite sites to visit.

I am also delighted to speak about John Owen. Along with John Calvin, he has been the most influential theologian in my life (at least, among dead ones!). I think I “commune” with him most days about something. That’s the great value of books. The authors may have died, but their writings live on.

I’m as excited as you about the forthcoming publication of Communion with the Triune God, after the splendid job they did with Overcoming Sin and Temptation (Crossway, 2006).

What comes to mind about Owen’s volume, Communion with the Triune God, is its essential Trinitarianism. Owen does a number of things that are important for us to see.

First, he is thoroughly indebted to Calvin and the Fathers in his Trinitarian theology. In an age when the church would find it difficult to expound the Trinity in any meaningful way, Owen assumes a line of theological continuity from the early centuries to his own day (thereby removing the charge made by Rome that Protestantism was ‘new’ and therefore suspect). He cites, for example, the classic formula of Augustine that the external acts of the Trinity cannot be divided (opera ad extra Trinitatis indivisa sunt) without any embarrassment! And, if my memory serves me correctly, we’re only a few pages into the volume!

The second thing about this volume is not only its catholicity (linking with the Fathers), but its centrality. In focusing on the believer’s fellowship with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), Owen is picking up what Calvin had insisted lay at the heart of the all theology – union with Christ. Owen is doing so in a more overtly Trinitarian fashion than perhaps Calvin did; but he is bringing to surface what is at the heart of God’s covenant relationship with redeemed sinners. In doing so, of course, Owen can’t help but be experiential in his theology. In that sense, Owen is a perfect example of the puritan oeuvre.

TSS: At first glance of the title people may confuse this book as a long work on prayer or the spiritual disciplines. Or it may be shelved in bookstores with purely subjective books on how to experience some divine warm-fuzzy. Communion with the Triune God is very unique. What does Owen mean when he talks about “communion”?

DT: This is a really good question! And if the publication of this volume can do something to displace these unhelpful books to which you refer, then all the better for it!

Why is the reformed church so confused about reformed spirituality? This is where a volume like Owen’s Communion with the Triune God is so valuable at this present time.

Owen has a fairly complicated view of what communion in this context means. It begins with the idea of what “communion” or “fellowship” in Greek (koinia) means: to share in common with. This raises some important theological (and practical) distinctions: union and communion are not synonyms for Owen. Our union with Christ, brought about by God’s initiative and covenant. It introduces into a status from which flows (as fruit) communion with God. Kelly Kapic summarizes it this way:

• God communicates of himself to us.
• Union with Christ establishes our relationship with God.
• The resulting overflow of union is our returning unto God what is both required and accepted by him (i.e. communion). [endnote 1]

The union with Christ is brought about unilaterally; the communion on the other hand is a bi-lateral issue. Our communion with God can be affected by our sin, unresponsiveness, and especially neglect of the ordinary means of grace.

It is Owen’s Trinitarian emphasis, based to be sure on a disputed text (1 John 5:7), that enables him to expound a multi-faceted dimension to communion. Communing with the Father helps us appreciate the nature of love and reciprocate it; fellowshipping with the Son helps us appreciate and reciprocate grace; fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit encourages assurance as he draws us back to the embrace of Jesus Christ offered to us in the gospel of the Father’s love.

TSS: Communion with the Triune God is rightly hailed as a masterpiece on the Triunity of God. Why is this Triune distinction important in Owen’s understanding of communion?

DT: I have preempted this question somewhat already. But allow me to narrow the focus a little.

The obvious place to begin is to state that for Owen God is Trinitarian in nature. The only fellowship with God that is possible is with the entirety of the Godhead and therefore with each Person that constitutes the One God. If the place of any of the three persons is misconceived or denied, the gospel falls. Thus Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons or liberal Protestants who deny the Trinity as empty verbiage can never state the gospel properly because their view of God is all wrong.

The gospel in both its accomplishment and application involves a salvation planned, an atonement made and a salvation applied and none of these are possible apart from the work of all three Persons. For Owen, then, communion with all three keeps the gospel straight and the Christian life in good shape. From it flowed all manner of issues relating to the assurance of salvation – too often argued subjectively without recourse to the nature of salvation itself.

TSS: I’ve watched enough YouTube videos to notice that a large segment of professing Christianity in America dogmatically assert that Christianity is a relationship whereas theology is peripheral. For Owen, experiencing God personally and knowing God accurately are inseparable. Can you explain further how this is revealed in Owen’s thought and why this is important for us to grasp today?

DT: I’ll have to take your word about YouTube, but it is time for us to announce a Declaration of War against the creeping influence of Schleiermacher on modern evangelicalism.

I draw your attention to an essay by Carl Trueman called “John Owen as a Theologian” in a volume of essays on Owen, John Owen: The Man and His Theology (P&R and EP, 2002). These were lectures delivered at a conference on Owen in 2000. It says everything that needs to be said, first of all, about Owen’s distinctive theological emphases, and secondly why theology must be in the service of the experiential and not vice versa.

Owen was no different here than his Calvinstic predecessors, or for that matter, John Calvin himself. From Calvin’s opening sentence of the Institutes, which declared that nearly all the wisdom we possess consists in knowing God and knowing ourselves, comes the distinction that knowledge of God is more than knowing about God. There is a difference between knowledge by description and knowledge by acquaintance.

I had a student in my office recently who obviously loves Sinclair Ferguson. He had listened to what sounded like hundreds of Ferguson’s taped messages. I listened with interest and then (half anticipating the reaction), I said with cool detachment, “I’ve known Sinclair for 30 years and he’s a close, personal friend.” There was an awed silence! “Really!”

Well, Owen would say, Christians brought into a saving relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ can say, “I know God – personally.” True, the descriptive “personally” is a modern one and not one the seventeenth century would have employed in quite the same way, but the intent is precisely the same.

For Owen, as for Calvin, there is no sense in trying to talk about knowing God by experience if we don’t know how to articulate who God is! The only God there is has revealed himself to us in creation and providence, but supremely in the Scriptures and in his Son’s incarnation. But to have those things clear in our minds and be able to articulate them is not yet to know God. To know God, cognitio Dei is relational knowledge, knowledge that comes to us, in the relationship of faith.

TSS: You mention the “personal” aspects of a relationship with God would have been stated differently by Owen and the Puritans. Explain this further. How is this differently stated? Why?

DT: Well, forgive me, but I think we tend to use the word “personally” in some quasi-therapeutic sense, often at some disparagement to anything cerebral or structured. The puritans adopted (on the whole) a very definite faculty-psychology in which the mind must govern the will and the affections. Personal knowledge of God comes through the integration of this faculty psychology and through some back door to the heart.

TSS: This is very helpful in light of earlier questions. Thank you! … Owen seems to balance well an understanding of our Father who remains transcendent, majestic and holy but for the saint is also their loving, adoptive Father who “from eternity … laid in his own bosom a design for our happiness.” Owen calls us to “rejoice before him with trembling” and of course says if we don’t understand the deep love of the Father we will not draw to Him in communion. Owen writes, “So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more. Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from him; but if the heart be once much taken up with this the eminency of the Father’s love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto him” (p. 128). How does Owen excel in this theme of communion with the Father?

DT: Of course, ravishing as this language is, it should be recalled that Owen is expounding the Father’s love for us employing the Song of Solomon (Canticles) as background. This was typical of the puritans as a whole to view the Song as an allegory of salvation.

Owen is dealing with a surprisingly modern problem at this point: that in communing with Jesus it is all too possible to draw the conclusion that whereas the Son loves us, the Father is angry with us. From such a distorted view emerges a misshaped view of the gospel, of course. Jesus has no need to make the Father love us because his coming into the world is evidence of it. The Father is the “fountain” or “source” of love.

“Though there be no light for us but in the beams, yet we may by beams see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all our refreshments actually lie in the streams, yet by them we are led up unto the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream; wherein though actually all our light, our refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. … (Communion with the Father) begins in the love of God, and ends in our love to him” (2:23-24).

TSS: That’s a helpful quote that captures Owen well. Thank you! … A year ago I interviewed Kris Lundgaard, an author who has taken John Owen and rewritten his books for contemporary audiences. He said he was surprised that sales of his book on overcoming sin (The Enemy Within) far outsold his book on the beauty of Christ (Through the Looking Glass). This was to him a surprise because seeing the glory of Christ is critical in the fight against sin (2 Cor. 3:18)! It’s likely that the overtly practical Overcoming Sin and Temptation from last year will outsell Communion with the Triune God (or any other Owen titles for that matter). What are the practical implications of Communion with the Triune God to the mortification of sin and the pursuit of holiness?

DT: Well, there’s no way I can come up to Kris standard, but I along with others am so grateful for his love for Owen and his publication. He manages to make Owen appear user-friendly to those who might otherwise be intimated.

I think I can understand why a volume on mortifying sin and dealing with temptation outsells because we all feel the need for help in this area. But perhaps this is a reflection of what another theologian-preacher once called, “sanctification by vinegar,” meaning we are sometimes forced into a set of behavioral responses by the fear of being caught or the being punished rather than because we have a desire to do it.

Only by a grasp of the true nature of God and the delights of communing with him can we really respond in the way we should. Owen, as all good theologians of Paul, observed what we might call gospel grammar. The imperative must follow the indicative. Holiness follows from what grace has reckoned us to be in Christ. What this volume does is tell us who we are. It solves the identity crises which sin can so easily bring. The volumes ought to be read in that order – Communion with the Triune God followed by Overcoming Sin and Temptation. It would be the Bible’s way.

TSS: Dr. Thomas, I love this: “What this volume does is tell us who we are”! This is a helpful observation on the importance of Communion with the Triune God. … Again, thank you for joining on TSS. You are a valued friend in our ministry. Blessings to you!

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Related: Read our full review of Communion with the Triune God.

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[endnote 1] Kelly Kapic, Communion with God: The Divine and the Human in the Theology of John Owen [Baker Academic, 2007], 157.