Miscellanies

“… we need to realize that the Reformers saw nothing less than the gospel at stake. We sometimes forget what Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others risked in taking a stand for the gospel. They risked their very lives. Regarding the Reformers’ work as nothing more than sowing seeds of unfortunate division shows both little knowledge of and little respect for what they did. They were human, and they had their faults and shortcomings. They sinned, sometimes greatly. But they also, like the imperfect characters of the Bible, were used greatly by God. In other words, the church should be grateful for the Reformation. And in this age of religious pluralism, theological laxity, and biblical illiteracy, perhaps the Reformation is needed more than ever before.”

- Stephen J. Nichols, The Reformation: How a monk and a mallet changed the world (Crossway: 2007) p. 21

Happy Reformation Day everyone!

What better way to celebrate this sacred day than to listen to Carl Trueman being interviewed by Al Mohler over the question: Is the Reformation Over?

The interview can be heard between the 11:02-19:40 mark.

Speaking of worship and idolatry, this song by Zach Jones is incredible. You can buy it for a buck here.

Only You Satisfy

So hungry, so thirsty for / That which satisfies / This world’s full of broken cisterns / That have left me dry

There’s only one place where I’ll / Find what You made me for / There’s only one true fountain / That satisfies my soul

Only You / You’re the Fountain of living water / Only You satisfy my soul / You’re the source of eternal pleasures / Only You satisfy my soul

So desperate, so needy for / You to open my eyes / To see where I’ve turned to idols / Where I’ve bought their lies

There’s only one place where I’ll / Find what I’m looking for / There’s only one true fountain / That satisfies my soul

Whom have I / In heaven but You, Lord /And the earth / Has no one / Above You, Lord / Whom have I / In heaven but You, Lord / And the earth / Has nothing I desire above You, Lord

© 2006 NAP Record

Song sample:

Every time we post the Kari Jobe version of the Revelation Song we get a tremendous response. Kari is a gifted vocalist based in Texas and she was kind to send TSS some copies of her new self-titled album. The album cover and CDs are both signed and next week we’ll give them away. Stay tuned. … And here’s that version of the Revelation Song (this recording is featured as the final cut on the CD, too).

Sunday morning, Rick Gamache delivered an excellent sermon on worship in light of idolatry (Worship God!: The Heart of the Right Response; 10/28/07). His main text was Philippians 1:18-23 (esp. v. 21).

Here are a few scattered highlights from my notebook …

• God does not make worshipers, each of us already worships. If we follow a trail of where we spend our time, money, energy and affection and we will be led to the throne of what we worship.
• “Pleasure is the measure of our treasure” - Jon Bloom
• Tragically here is what we often find enthroned: unworthy idols like money, status, reputation, career, promotions, relationships, children, s-ex, possessions, hobbies, books, leisure, education and even ourselves!
• Evil is forsaking living water for broken cisterns; seeking to be satisfied in something or someone other than God Himself (Jer. 2:12-13).
• Worship is not a Sunday thing, it’s a way of life.
• God and idolatry are at war for our worship.
• Our worship of God is intended to bring us pleasure! “For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant” (Ps. 147:1). God’s demand for our worship is a demand for us to be happy and to experience our greatest pleasures! If we are not worshiping God, it’s to our detriment.
• The essence of worship is to find our deepest satisfaction in Jesus Christ alone — in this life, and even in the face of greatest loss and personal death (Phil. 1:18-23). We can be content in the loss of all things only if we treasure Christ above all else (Phil. 3:8). Further, to say that death is gain — because we long for greater intimacy with Christ — shows that Christ is the supreme object of our hearts. This is worship.
• So if my circumstances never change, can I be satisfied? Even if my child continues in rebellion, my health never improves, I never get married, etc., can I be satisfied in Christ? (This is a question of worship).
• God does not need our worship, nor does our worship add anything to Him (Acts 17:24-25).
• Thinking that our worship gives God something He didn’t already possess is man-centered legalism that kills worship. We come to worship God to receive from Him. “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps. 116:12-13). This lifting of the cup is a call for God to fill us (see also Heb. 11:6).
• This worship is not man-centered, it’s radically God-centered. In Psalm 73, where did Asaph’s thinking radically shift from saying God has forgotten about His people (vv. 3-13) to where Asaph breaks out in praise of God’s sufficiency (vv. 25-26)? The change came when Asaph met God in worship (v. 17).
• We need to recognize, like Asaph, that “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (v. 26). Our hearts are weak and frail and prone to idolatry.
• In the end we need to pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit to see more of the glory of Christ. A prayer our Father gladly answers (John 16:14; Luke 11:13)!

These are only my scattered notes to whet your appetite for the whole sermon. You can download the mp3 or listen below. Excellent sermon worthy of your precious time!

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Related: Rick Gamache sermon jam (audio)

Related: Seeing the glories of the Cross requires a deeper understanding of God’s holiness and the depth of personal sin.

Related: Spiritual questions to ask your children

Related: Depression, Worldliness and the Presence of God (sermon on Psalm 73).

I’ll never forget the glorious day God opened my eyes to see that everything in the Christian life centers around the Cross. It was reminiscent of viewing the massive Rocky Mountains for the first time — having my breath taken away by the size and grandeur of their jagged features, snow-topped summits, and cloud-ripping peaks.

About four years after my conversion, I was preparing to deliver a short message on Titus 3:4-7. The intention was to study this passage to prepare an evangelistic message on a local college campus. The passage reads:

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God’s glorious grace saves us purely on the basis of His own mercy, apart from anything we could ever merit from Him. The works we do in ‘righteousness’ are nothing in His sight. We are redeemed in Christ alone, and we can be justified in Him alone. On the basis of the Cross and God’s grace alone, we can possess the hope of eternal life.

These glorious truths sounds pretty evangelistic. Well, kinda.

As an expositor I was trying to come to grips with this passage and the context (which did not seem evangelistic). These passages are embedded between a call for obedience before and a call for obedience after. Listen to the next verse: “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people” (v. 8).

Over the course of that week of study and meditation, God kindly revealed to me that the Cross is bigger than evangelism and conversion! Being reminded of the Cross is for “those who have believed.” From here God showed me the dangers of forgetting the Cross and how the Cross is central to the everyday life of the Christian, producing joy and earnest obedience.

As you can imagine, I was shocked and surprised at these discoveries. Preparation on the passage continued but within a new understanding of the Cross in the Christian life. I would later title the message, A Gospel Tract for Believers.

When I want to be amazed at the Cross, I return to Titus.

The Purchase of the Cross

Recently I was back in Titus, being amazed again. This time our gracious God opened my eyes to the beauty of the completed work of Christ on the Cross. Listen to Titus 2:11-14:

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

That final verse made my jaw drop because here Paul unfolds the purchase of Christ at the Cross. These are what Christ bought in His sacrificial death for sinners! We are told that Christ “gave Himself” in order to redeem and purify a people zealous for good works. In other words, our redemption, sanctification and even our zeal-ification were all purchased in the Cross!

1. Purchased holiness

Titus 2 seems to parallel Ephesians 5:25-26, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” Here is Christ purifying His Bride (the Church). This model for husbands in the spiritual leadership of their wives shows that our sanctification is not merely the fruit of hard work. Our sanctification is the fruit of Christ’s direct work.

Puritan John Owen recognized a pattern in the NT picture of sanctification, that our washing/sanctification is through blood (Heb. 9:13-14; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5). Not only at the beginning of the Christian life and in justification does blood cleanse us, but at all points of sanctification Christ’s blood sanctifies us. Which means the Cross is ever at the center of our sanctification.

And so in his commentary on Hebrews 2, Owen attacks those who believe holiness is attained merely by following the moral example of Christ. “And they who place this sanctification merely on the doctrine and example of Christ, besides that they consider not at all the design and scope of the place, so they reject the principal end and the most blessed effect of the death and blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus.”

Christ is certainly our example, but all of our moral purity is (most importantly) the purchase of Christ on the Cross!

I find it interesting that this theme of Christ purchasing our sanctification is not a major one in Owen’s works on mortification and indwelling sin, nor a major theme in Communion with God or the Glory of Christ. The theme does find prominence – of all places – in Owen’s classic defense of definite atonement in The Death of Death.

To show the atonement cannot have been achieved for all sinners, Owen argues the application of the atonement would also be applied to all. “So that our sanctification, with all other effects of free grace, are the immediate procurement of the death of Christ. And of the things that have been spoken this is the sum: Sanctification and holiness is the certain fruit and effect of the death of Christ in all them for whom he died.”

I know some of you will disagree with Owen’s overall argument on limited atonement. What I want you to see instead here is the precious wisdom Owen understands so well — that the work of the atonement reaches far beyond mere redemption and justification. Whoever Christ died for will be sanctified and will be holy because this sanctification and holiness has been purchased at the Cross.

Thus we can say with Paul, Christ is our righteousness and sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ purchased it all.

2. Purchased zeal-ification

And not only our sanctification and mortification (death to sin), but all of our Christian zeal was also purchased in the Cross!

Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon on Titus 2:14 and his overall point was to reveal that all genuine Christians are zealous people. At the beginning he says, “Zeal is an essential virtue of a Christian. This is evident from the text because in the text it is mentioned as what belongs to the description of a true Christian and part of his distinguishing character. Also because it’s mentioned as a virtue that Christ purchased for all his elect.”

Edwards understood that ministry zeal is not the product of our self-sustained efforts, nor the effect of getting ourselves emotionally pumped up before a sermon, or pep-talking a congregation into service and evangelism. Ultimately, all zeal in the Christian life is purchased at the Cross.

How sad is our tendency to separate the work of Christ on the Cross from our ministry zeal and faithfulness. I know I’m guilty here. Examples of this can be seen in contemporary writings. On 1 Thessalonians 2:19, one author writes:

“This is why, when Paul looks ahead to the future and asks, as well one might, what God will say on the last day, he holds up as his joy and crown, not the merits and death of Jesus, but the churches he has planted who remain faithful to the gospel. The path from initial faith to final resurrection (and resurrection we must remind ourselves, constitutes rescue, that is salvation, from death itself) lies through holy and faithful Spirit-led service, including suffering” (N.T. Wright, Fresh Perspective, 148).

This could not be further from the truth. Paul understood the faithful ministry zeal of churches to be the working out of a zeal Christ purchased at the Cross. The Cross will be forever the centerpiece of glory because without it there would be no ministry zeal, no successful church plants, no faithfulness to the message of the Cross. We must resist the temptation to disconnect the merits of Christ from our ministry zeal.

Without the Cross, there is no zeal.

Conclusions

1. Self-sufficiency abated. This understanding of our mortification, sanctification and zeal-ification protects us from self-sufficiency. Our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor. 3:5). Or to put it another way, our sufficiency is in God’s grace, by His Spirit, and through the work of His Son on the Cross.

2. Confidence engendered. Few things more encourage ministry zeal and the pursuit of sanctification than the knowledge that Christ already purchased these gifts of grace! We have the confidence to pursue and kill sin because we are being washed in His blood. We have the confidence to pray for fervent zeal because it’s a zeal already fully purchased by Christ.

3. Legalism killed. Legalism is seeking to appease God through personal obedience. At its heart is the awful idea that I bring to God something I’ve achieved in my own strength that pleases Him more than His Son. This legalism is killed when we reflect on the Cross of Christ, where He purchased all our holiness and zeal.

It sounds awkward, but the bottom line is that we are simply becoming what’s already been paid for. We should continue praying for holiness, sanctification, victory over indwelling sin, and that God would inflame our passions and zeal. But in these prayers we are merely asking that God would apply, by His Holy Spirit, what Christ has already purchased for us on the Cross.

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Related post: What is Legalism? (a very simple, working definition)

Related post: Cross-centered obedience (how the diligent pursuit of personal obedience presses us into the Cross and comforts our souls)

I’ve often wondered how the Church can prepare Herself to combat future heresies, those inevitable errors we cannot fully anticipate. Do we wait for the errors to rear their ugly heads and then send in the experts? Or is there a broader, more preventive solution?

According to Wayne Grudem, the study of systematic theology is one way to prepare the Church for future errors. In the introduction to Systematic Theology (Zondervan: 1994) he writes:

“Whatever the new doctrinal controversies are in future years, those who have learned systematic theology well will be much better able to answer the new questions that arise. The reason for this is that everything that the Bible says is somehow related to everything else the Bible says (for it all fits together in a consistent way, at least within God’s own understanding of reality, and in the nature of God and creation as they really are). Thus the new question will be related to much that has already been learned from Scripture. The more thoroughly that earlier material has been learned, the better able we will be able to deal with those new questions” (28).

How true this is.

Pagitt interview

So after listening to this interview with Doug Pagitt, a noted Emergent Church figure, I took note of these principles in action. And we’ll listen to it in a moment. But first let me say this interview is far from ideal and some parts make me cringe for both sides. Yet, at the same time, I think the interview is valuable and instructive.

It’s worth repeating Grudem. A systematic theology, originating from careful biblical exegesis, protects the Church by wrapping its arms around large biblical themes and showing where one particular doctrine impacts other doctrines. The unity of revelation is self-sustained, and the authenticity of a single doctrine is based upon its consistency with the whole. Frequently, error will contradict the biblical conclusions of systematic theology at several points and so error must first shirk an overall unity of systematic theology.

Note Pagitt’s universalism must (at its root) deny a real place called “hell” and a real place called “heaven.” Scripture’s obvious dualism does not fit into his universalism.

But further, note Pagitt’s irritability at stringing together the biblical teachings on one particular topic. The irritability is directed, not on the exegetical authenticity of the string, but simply on the act of stringing. This is a response against systematic theology.

A heavenly place

Pagitt clearly disagrees with the “dualistic-Platonic understanding of the cosmos” and denies heaven as a real place. But pick up any number of systematic works and you will read that Jesus went to, and will return from, a place called heaven (Acts 1:11). And you will be pointed to Jesus’ words of comfort to His disciples: “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2-3).

What ‘place’ is being prepared for Christians if heaven is not a literal place?

Further, a good systematic theology will illuminate this in the Old Testament. When Elijah and Enoch were taken into heaven, their soul and body left the earth (Gen. 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11). Where did they go, if not to another physical place? And why the importance of a resurrected body if heaven is not a physical place? The afterlife as a physical place is found across Scripture and is well defined in orthodox systematic theology.

My point today is not to highlight one error, but to illustrate a broader theme. Christians with a well-grounded systematic theology will have the tools to see past the argument that heaven — as a physical place — is merely a human philosophical invention. A degree in ancient philosophy is unnecessary because a Christian who has a mature systematic theology does not first ask, “What is dualistic-Platonism?” But rather, “What does Scripture say on this issue?” And on multiple levels, Scripture is very clear that heaven is a place.

And what if Plato agrees with Scripture? Well then, praise God!

Conclusion

Bottom line: Systematic theology properly done (i.e. based upon accurate biblical exegesis) creates a reinforced fiberglass-like mesh of biblical truth that overlaps itself into one cohesive worldview to answer the most pressing questions of our day and to prepare the church to answer emerging errors.

It’s here, behind the fortress of a biblically faithful systematic theology, where the Church finds safety and discernment. And it’s also behind this fortress that the Church will worship God in truth, looking forward to streets of gold, the tree of life, the Throne of God, the precious Lamb, and the saints and angels worshiping forever — a physical place built around God’s glory, giving us hope and joy today and the anticipation of pleasures forever.

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Related: Some favorite systematics:

1. Systematic Theology by Grudem. See also condensed Bible Doctrine by Grudem.
2. Institutes by Turretin
3. Institutes by Calvin (an index to his commentaries)
4. A New Systematic Theology by Reymond
5. Great Doctrines of the Bible by Lloyd-Jones
6. Vol. 2, Collected Writings of John Murray
7. Reformed Confessions by Beeke and Ferguson
8. Salvation Belongs to the Lord by Frame (nice intro)

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Related: For those of you interested, here are Spurgeon’s thoughts …

“We are too apt to entertain cloudy ideas of the ultimate inheritance of those who attain unto the resurrection of the dead. ‘Heaven is a state,’ says somebody. Yes, certainly it is a state; but it is a place too, and in the future it will be more distinctly a place. … Our ultimate abode will be a state of blessedness, but it must also be a place suited for our risen bodies. It is not, therefore, a cloudland, an airy something, impalpable and dreamy. Oh, no, it will be as really a place as this earth is a place. Our glorious Lord has gone for the ultimate purpose of preparing a suitable place for his people. There will be a place for their spirits, if spirits want place; but he has gone to prepare a place for them as body, soul, and spirit.”

– C.H. Spurgeon, sermon on 9/23/1883 (no. 1741), 29:672-673.

“We are frequently told, indeed, that the great danger of the theological student lies precisely in his constant contact with divine things. They may come to seem common to him, because they are customary. As the average man breathes the air and basks in the sunshine without ever a thought that it is God in his goodness who makes his sun to rise on him, though he is evil, and sends rain to him, though he is unjust; so you may come to handle even the furniture of the sanctuary with never a thought above the gross early materials of which it is made.

The words which tell you of God’s terrible majesty or of his glorious goodness may come to be mere words to you – Hebrew and Greek words, with etymologies, and inflections, and connections in sentences. The reasonings which establish to you the mysteries of his saving activities may come to be to you mere logical paradigms, with premises and conclusions, fitly framed, no doubt, and triumphantly cogent, but with no further significance to you than their formal logical conclusiveness.

God’s stately stepping in his redemptive processes may become to you a mere series of facts of history, curiously interplaying to the production of social and religious conditions, and pointing mayhap to an issue which we may shrewdly conjecture: but much like other facts occurring in time and space, which may come to your notice. It is your great danger.

But it is your great danger, only because it is your great privilege. Think of what your privilege is when your greatest danger is that the great things of religion may become common to you!

Other men, oppressed by the hard conditions of life, sunk in the daily struggle for bread perhaps, distracted at any rate by the dreadful drag of the world upon them and the awful rush of the world’s work, find it hard to get time and opportunity so much as to pause and consider whether there be such things as God, and religion, and salvation from the sin that compasses them about and holds them captive. The very atmosphere of your life is these things; you breathe them in at every pore; they surround you, encompass you, press in upon you from every side. It is all in danger of becoming common to you! God forgive you, you are in danger of becoming weary of God! … Are you, by this constant contact with divine things, growing in holiness, becoming every day more and more men of God? If not, you are hardening!”

- B.B. Warfield, The Religious Life of Theological Students (P&R). Address delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary on Oct. 4, 1911.

Hello everyone! It’s a beautiful Friday but I have nothing to say. The World Series excitement certainly impacts my reading schedule and my blogging. I was considering another John Owen graphic to celebrate the BoSox 2-1 victory in game 2. But I decided against this. An avalanche of work awaits me today and I need to get on it. … If you’re looking for something to read, I would point you to an excellent post by Tim Challies titled, Guarding the Deposit. I love the Antiques Roadshow. What a great illustration, Tim! Well, have a great weekend everyone! Tony

How do you celebrate Reformation Day (Oct. 31st)? In our home we like to grill some papal bull hamburgers, feed the kids a diet of (gummy) worms, and watch the old 1953 movie Martin Luther starring Niall MacGinnis. Ah, yes, the classics … This year Ligonier Ministries is helping Christians celebrate with a special deal on the ESV Reformation Study Bible. For one day only (Oct. 31) you can order the RSB for just $15.17. Get it? More details will be available soon by clicking the picture …

“We must understand that Christianity is not a mood. It is not an emotion. It is not a feeling. It is not an amorphous set of beliefs. It is established by the truth of God’s Word, by the saving reality of God’s deeds in Jesus Christ, around certain definite doctrines without which it is not possible to exercise the kind of faith that saves.”

- Dr. R. Albert Mohler, at the fall convocation at Southern Seminary on August 21st [as quoted in The Tie: Southern Seminary Magazine (Fall 2007), p. 23]. Download magazine PDF here.

The free magazine also features the testimony of Marxist-turned-Christian, Michael A.G. Haykin on pages 18-19. Good stuff.

Last week we played the game, Who is George Smeaton? To be honest, I had not heard of him until recently. Now I know more about the 19th century Scottish theologian and that’s all thanks to the input of TSS readers, the most knowledgeable blog readers on the planet (illustrated by the fact that many of them roast their own coffee beans). Helpful input came flowing from Scottish readers and Brazilian readers and really from readers all over. So thank you!

As you now know, Smeaton’s two books on the atonement serve as the foundation for Jerry Bridges’ new book, The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness (Crossway: 2007). In the foreword, Sinclair Ferguson says Smeaton’s volumes should be on the shelves of every preacher. “They are treasure troves,” he writes.

Just yesterday in the mail arrived my copy of Smeaton’s 1870 work, The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement (the second volume, Christ’s Doctrine of the Atonement, is currently out of print). As expected, the Smeaton volume was beautifully bound by the Banner in this 1991 reprint featuring a Smyth-sewn binding and cloth cover (remove the unsightly dust cover to see this delicious goodness). The text is a facsimile reproduction of the 1870 edition (see picture). There are brief Scriptural and topical indexes in the back.

To my pleasant surprise, the volume contains a lengthy appendix covering the history of the atonement from the first century through the Reformation period (pp. 479-544). Smeaton begins his historical study this way, “We find, when we make due allowance for erratic tendencies, either of individuals or of sects, through all this time, one harmonious testimony to divine justice and the judicial aspect of Christianity” (p. 480).

As time allows, I plan to write a fuller review, but this quote from the introduction to Apostles’ is a great one, illustrating the ever-present tendency within the church to neglect the doctrine of the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ. The quote stresses our need to linger often at the Cross in our studies, never assuming the importance of the Cross. Written 130 years ago, it’s ever fresh today.

“The design of this work is mainly to demonstrate, in the only way in which this is to be done, the pure biblical doctrine of the atonement. But polemical references are by no means withheld; that is, applications, necessarily brief, of ascertained truth to germinant errors, especially to those subtle forms of error which, in an evangelical guise, and not seldom with exegetical appliances, tend wholly to subvert the elements of substitution and penal visitation, which constitute the very essence of the atonement. It is a remarkable fact that since the Reformation no article has been so much impugned in every variety of form. Till recently this was uniformly done by a class of men who had forfeited all claim to be regarded as either evangelical in sentiment or biblical in doctrine. Within recent memory, however, a new phenomenon has presented itself to the attention of Christendom — a sort of spiritual religion or mystic piety, whose watchword is, spiritual life, divine love, and moral redemption, by a great teacher and ideal man, and absolute forgiveness, as contrasted with everything forensic. It is a Christianity without an atonement; avoiding, whether consciously or unconsciously, the offence of the cross, and bearing plain marks of the Rationalistic soil from which it sprung; and it has found a wide response in every Protestant land.”

- George Smeaton, The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement (Banner of Truth: 1870/1991), vi.

Puritan John Owen was noticeably pleased after his BoSox had their way with the Colorado Rockies in game one of the World Series, winning 13-1 at Fenway last night. Such sweet victory.

One of the fan-favorite features of TSS is our book reviews. Sometimes I get questions from readers who want tips about how I write book reviews.

Well, I certainly don’t consider myself an expert on writing them so I can only offer general thoughts on the process that come to mind.

Also, since I only review non-fiction works some of these thoughts may be more or less useful to reviewing fictional literature. I’ll try to go back to my old Liberal Arts education tools to recall what I learned about works of fiction and see if I can look at reviews both the perspective of a non-fictional work and a fictional one.

Here are some thoughts …

1. Setting standards. Book reviews are an act of literary criticism whereby a specific book is assessed and evaluated from a standard set by the reviewer and the reviewer’s audience. So, for example, the theological works I typically review are first compared to their biblical accuracy, then compared to other works by the same author, and finally compared to other works covering the same themes.

In the past month I’ve read 5 books on evangelism — one was very poor, two were okay, one was very good, and one was excellent. I came to this conclusion by comparing all five to Scripture, and each to one another. Reviewing any literature (and especially fiction) will require standards of evaluation just the same. A work of fictional literature may be compared to other works covering the same themes, compared to the works of other authors in the same era, or compared to a specific work of the author’s other works.

At some level you will need to answer the fundamental question, What am I comparing this book to?

2. Cultivating critical thinking. I love writing book reviews because it forces me to cultivate the rigorous discipline of critical thinking. By critical thinking, I don’t mean that I want to be a critical person. Rather, it means I am forced to ask and answer several discerning questions like the following:

(1) What is the overall purpose of the author?

(2) What question, ethical standard, social custom or problem is being confronted, questioned or solved by the author?

(3) What assumptions do the authors bring into the discussion? Are they writing from a Christian or non-Christian worldview? What is assumed without argument? What worldview do they champion? What school of thought do they represent?

(4) What is the author’s point of view? Is the book written from the perspective of an adult or child? Rich or poor? Preacher, evangelist, or scholar? Where did the author live and what did they experience in life? For me, determining where the author serves as a professor or pastor helps me to understand the individual and the perspective.

(5) What events, information, and evidence does the author use to make her case? Is it strong and clear information, or weak and assumed? Every conclusion must be backed by a series of events and dialogues (fiction) or facts and evidences (non-fictional).

(6) What are the implications and consequences of the author’s arguments? Assuming the author is right, what must change?

These questions help me unlock even the most subtle messages embedded in literature and art. And one great way to put these six questions into action is by looking at an advertisement in a magazine. Every ad has a target audience, a worldview, and a means to persuade. Who is the target audience, what worldview does it embrace, and what is the basis of the persuasion?

It’s only because we are made in God’s image that we have the self-conscious awareness to bring literature under critical thinking and discernment. A true gift from God Himself.

3. Getting at the main point. Let me revisit this point a bit further. I believe every author, painter, advertiser, sculptor, commentary writer, songwriter, and poet is trying to convince you of something. That’s the nature of communication — someone taking a message he is passionate about and seeking to convince others of that message. The big question is, what is that individual trying to communicate?

In literature this may be on the surface. For example, C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe makes fairly obvious points — sinful greed corrupts our hearts, this sin negatively impacts our family and those closest to us, and Christ is our sufficient substitute — the One who breaks the power of sin and Satan. However in Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces, the meaning is much harder to discern (I’m still scratching my head over this one). J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is another really tough (but rewarding) adventure to attempt to ‘crack.’

Or consider, say, an adventurous novel written about a boy’s hitchhiking travels across the country one summer. It may be a fun adventure filled with surprises, threats, and interesting characters, but it may also have a much deeper intention. Perhaps it was written by a man who was born and raised in New York City and written as a criticism of the way large cities impair childhood development?

You get the idea.

The goal is to understand the author behind the work. Did they live through a world war? (To think of it, perhaps Aslan’s victory in the battle for Narnia is Lewis’ way to comfort children in a time of world war?) So get to know the author, and get to know the world of the author.

But don’t assume that fictional works are disconnected from reality. The truth is that authors with strong convictions have frequently chosen fictional literature to get their messages out. Some consider fiction the best means to communicate reality.

4. Getting at a biblical worldview. Christians are perched on a distinct view of reality because our worldview is informed by God’s eternal revelation in Scripture. We are therefore at a great advantage to evaluate every work of literature as it correlates or contradicts this eternal reality. Finding where themes, worldviews, attitudes, and ethics correlate or contradict Scripture is one of the most interesting disciplines (and downright addictive!).

Centering everything around Scripture also helps me interpret popular literature I disagree with. For example, I obviously don’t agree with existentialism, but I am surprised how fully their writers can communicate the hopelessness and despair of the human condition.

Holding a biblical worldview makes literature reviews quite interesting!

5. Read more than you review. Typically, of all the books I receive in the mail only about half are interesting enough to read. And of those books I read, only half get reviewed. Reviewing half (or even less) of the total number of books I read gives me tremendous freedom to review and invest time thinking through the very best books. There is value to reviewing books you don’t like, but I’ve tried to isolate the books I love and spend my time reviewing those titles. So read much more than you expect to review.

6. Now write. Every review will look differently. Don’t try and force your review into a grid or pattern, just write about what most strikes you about the particular book. After asking all of the questions above, you should have a lot to talk about.

Finally, I cannot help but be reminded of my Liberal Arts prof that impacted my life to a great degree on these things. And since Dr. Joseph Wydeven recently retired, this is a great opportunity to thank him for his work at Bellevue University in Nebraska. He was a tremendous blessing in my intellectual development and growth in critical thinking. Thank you, Dr. Wydeven!

Blessings, TSS readers! Tony

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Related: More on critical thinking here.

Related: Here are my top five favorite books on writing:

1. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
2. On Writing Well by Zinsser
3. Keys to Great Writing by Wilbers
4. Hypnotic Writing by Vitale
5. How to Write a Paragraph by Paul and Elder

Mark Lauterbach is blogging updates on the fires near San Diego that have already claimed 1,300 homes and caused the evacuations of several of his church members and staff. See Mark’s blog for the latest updates as well as CNN. Be in prayer for those affected.