The Gospel Coalition

In Books and Culture,Jason Hood reviews N.D. Wilson’s Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl:

Imagine 51 minutes of an earthier Nooma video infused with an ethos of postmillennial confidence and injected with the steroids of Christian orthodoxy and Chestertonian Orthodoxy. Ponder all possible manifestations of “A Portrait of the Kuyperian Artist as a Young Apologist.”

Mike Horton and Scot McKnight have a good conversation about The King Jesus Gospel for the White Horse Inn. Audio here.

Hidden Persuaders: The Unheralded Gains of the Pro-Life Movement

That the pro-life movement is bigger is a given. It’s also younger, increasingly entrepreneurial, more strategic in its thinking, better organized, tougher in dealing with allies and enemies alike, almost wildly ambitious, and more relentless than ever.

A couple weeks ago, I had an enjoyable conversation with Hein Van Wyk of ShareFaith.com about Counterfeit Gospels, evangelical trends, and biblical relevance. The videos are available here.

Draw my soul to Thee, my Lord
Make me love Thy precious Word.
Bid me seek Thy smiling face
willing to be saved by grace.

Lord, Thy powerful work begun
Thou will never leave undone;
Teach me to confide in Thee
Thy salvation’s wholly free.

Dearest Jesus, bid me come;
Let me find Thyself, my home.
Thou the refuge of my soul,
where I may my troubles roll.

- J. Adams, 1838
(Listen to a contemporary version of the hymn here.)

Do not think you are hearing of small things
when you hear of this birth,
but rouse up your mind,
and tremble when you are told
that God has come upon earth.

For so marvelous was this,
and beyond expectation,
that because of these things
the very angels formed a choir,
and in behalf of the world
offered up their praise for them,
and the prophets from the first were amazed at this,
that He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men.

For it is far beyond all thought
to hear that God the Unspeakable, the Unutterable,
the Incomprehensible, and He that is equal to the Father,
has passed through a virgin’s womb,
and has chosen to be born of a woman,
and to have Abraham and David for forefathers.

Hearing these things, arise, and think of nothing low!
And most of all you should marvel at this -
that being Son of the Unoriginate God, and His true Son,
He suffered Himself to be called also Son of David,
that He might make you son of God.
He suffered a slave to be father to Him,
that He might make the Lord Father to you a slave!

- Chrysostom, 347-407 A.D.

Try this out on a friend today, and you’ll both have a laugh! (HT)

Links for your weekend reading:

1. How Christian Humility Upended the World - John Dickson

2. Check out this interview with Jared Wilson about his book, Gospel Wakefulness. I love what Jared says about how gospel wakefulness arises from the depths of profound brokenness. Read this book and exult in the Savior!

3. Along the lines of my Apollinarian post this week, Justin Taylor asks, “Can someone be saved who distorts or denies the biblical doctrine of justification?” and takes a look at how John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, and John Piper answer. Very helpful.

4. Scot McKnight on why we can’t call Steve Jobs’ legacy “kingdom work”

5. Five Factors that Brought Life to a Dying Church - J.D. Greear

6. Chris Castaldo on Hispanics leaving the Catholic Church

7. Dave Miller at SBC Voices interacts with my post on changing the name of the SBC.

Today, I’m happy to welcome my friend Tony Reinke to the blog to discuss his important new book, Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books (Crossway, 2011). I had a chance to read a pre-release copy of this book, and I offered this endorsement:

“How to read, what to read, who to read, when to read, and why you should read—Tony Reinke answers all these questions and more in this very good and (surprisingly) brief book on reading. As he shows how reading can bring glory to God and growth to the church, Reinke encourages Christians to take up the discipline of reading widely and wisely.”

Good reading isn’t just about finding good books. It’s knowing how to read the good books you find. So let’s hear from Tony as we consider ways to improve and increase our reading.

Trevin Wax: What are the different ways one should read a book? Why should certain books be read one way and other books read another way? And how can you tell the difference?

Tony Reinke: Excellent questions, Trevin. I do think books should be read differently, with different degrees of completion and at differing speeds. We must read Scripture carefully and cover to cover. But all other books can be approached differently. I may read the book completely through. Or I’ll read one chapter. I may read the books very quickly. Or I’ll read them slowly.

Trevin Wax: Why the different approaches?

Tony Reinke: The most simple answer is that I read different books for different reasons. Partly this is determined by what I want my books to accomplish. For that I use a series of reading categories that set my personal reading priorities in place. Six categories frame my book choices:

1. Reading Scripture
2. Reading to know and delight in Christ
3. Reading to kindle spiritual reflection
4. Reading to initiate personal change
5. Reading to pursue vocational excellence
6. Reading to enjoy a good story

With these categories I can evaluate my books on the basis of how well they accomplish these tasks. Some books promise to help address one of these particular topics, and I may read it from cover to cover fairly slowly. Some books may have a chapter or two that will help answer some particular need in my life, so I’ll read just those chapters. Some books I read all the way through but at a fairly quick pace, often because the book is predictable or overlaps with other books I’ve already read. And some books, after having given them a fair shot, fail to prove their worth. And those are books I’ll stop reading. So how I read a book is largely decided by what I expect to get out of the book personally, even if I’m just reading for fun (category 6).

Trevin Wax: How much time and attention should we give to classic literature? 

Tony Reinke: I aim to give classic literature a fair bit of time in my reading diet, but that reflects the deficiency of my personal educational experience. I’m reading a number of classics simply to catch up, or so it seems that way. My awakening to the value of classic literature as a Christian can be traced back to my reading of Leland Ryken’s book Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective. In Realms of Gold, Ryken guided me through The Odyssey by Homer, Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, Macbeth by Shakespeare, Paradise Lost by Milton, The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, Great Expectations by Dickens, The Death of Ivan Illych by Tolstoy, and The Stranger by Camus. Through his book, Ryken helped me to see the benefit of classic literature. To him I remain indebted.

Trevin Wax: How have you found classic literature to be spiritually beneficial? 

Tony Reinke: In two ways. First, there’s a spiritually reflective benefit to reading classic literature. After reading the many excellent excerpts you posted on your blog from the Julie Rose translation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, I bought a copy, brought it to our annual June beach trip, and read the first 200 pages. Page after page, Bishop Myriel reminded me of Christ’s humility and sacrifice and compassion, to a degree that I was not expecting at first. The selflessness of Hugo’s character reminds us of how sacrificing our comforts and treasures can be used as a doorway for God to reach fellow sinners. The bishop’s character frequently led me to reflections about the kindness of the Savior. And that’s one of the most important uses of classic literature. I want to see Christlikeness on display. I want to see the fruit of the Spirit in action. And I want to be perceptive to godliness on the page because, as I explain in Lit!, the fruit of the Spirit is subtler and much easier to miss than the fruit of the flesh. So I read classic literature for spiritual reflection.

Second, there’s also a utilitarian benefit to reading classic literature. As someone whose nose is always in the social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), I find that my attention gets broken up and fragmented on a daily basis. Over time I lose my concentration and find it hard to read serious books. For me classic literature is the remedy, and Shakespeare in particular. Shakespeare is a daunting read for me. Most of what he wrote was intended for a stage-play in the first place, not the reading chair. So when I begin to sense that my attention is becoming fragmented, I pick up Shakespeare’s works (the Jonathan Bate edition). In order for me to track with his works, I must pause at every antiquated word and look up the definition at the bottom of the page until the meaning becomes clear. To do this requires that I slow myself down and read with sustained concentration for 20-60 minutes. Rushing is not an option. As a result, I find that when I turn to read my Bible, I read it with much greater care and attention, able to once again focus my attention more carefully on each word and phrase that I read. So Shakespeare recalibrates my reading pace, restores my fragmenting brain, forces me to slow down, and ultimately helps me to read my Bible more carefully. I need that.

Trevin Wax: You recommend marking up books. Why?

Tony Reinke: I certainly do. So many Christians treat books as taskmasters. Most Christians have a stack of unfinished books in their house, maybe on a desk or a bookshelf. Those unfinished books are often a source of low-grade guilt. We’ve been conditioned to think that if we buy a book, we must read it from cover to cover. That’s not true, and I’m trying to loosen Christians from this misunderstanding of what is really a subtle form of slavery to books.

Apart from Scripture, all other books are optional reading. In fact, all other books are tools for us to use in our lives as we see fit. We use books when we need them. This means that we can read books cover to cover if we wish. Or we can read one chapter, or one page. It’s our call. By writing in a book, I claim the book as a tool. I own it; it belongs to me; it was purchased to serve me, and its value to me as a tool far exceeds its resale value. This does not give me license to ignore the truth God teaches me in my reading, but it does liberate me to see books as gifts from God, not as taskmasters. And that’s a very important stage of development for Christian readers.

Of course, I mark all sorts of things in my books, but fundamentally it is a claim of ownership, a claim that reminds me that my books are my tools and that I am not enslaved to them.

Trevin Wax: Name a few novels that you’d recommend Christians consider reading.

Tony Reinke: I really try to avoid giving out too many book recommendations since everyone’s tastes will be unique and different authors will make different impacts on various types of readers. But of course, a few excellent titles come to mind.

The seven books in the Narnia Chronicles by C. S. Lewis are very important, especially if you want an overview of just about everything Lewis really believed was important (according to Alan Jacobs). I believe it.

Also, The Lord of the Rings is wonderful. As Tim Keller has said, Tolkien’s epic wonderfully illustrates important but often very abstract themes like glory, brilliance, weightiness, beauty, excellence, and virtue. Those themes are not commonly illustrated.

And of course, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is a classic. Bunyan is able to sketch out just about every type of person you could imagine seeing in this world – or more painfully, character traits that you may see in yourself – and presents them in striking detail and always in relation to eternity.

I would add Gilead by Marilynne Robinson to the list too. It’s a subtle and beautifully written novel by one of the best contemporary Christian novelists.

Trevin Wax: How can we read discerningly from Christians in other theological streams?

Tony Reinke: I think the key is to read selectively. For me it again goes back to keeping my reading priorities straight. First, I must invest sufficient time reading Scripture directly (1). There’s no substitute here. Next I choose excellent and trustworthy books on the person and work of the Savior (2), books by the likes of Packer, Stott, Piper, Carson, Ferguson … we have lot of great ones to choose from (your books included, Trevin!).

These two reading categories anchor my soul and hold me steady when I read everything else. With those anchors in place, I have a fair amount of flexibility to read from writers that represent a broad spectrum of theological views. My focus on Scripture and the orthodox gospel provides me with spiritual protection when I venture out to read books from other theological streams. Without these reading categories in place, I would never attempt to read as broadly as I do.

Second, with my categories firmly in place, I can then look to different authors to fill specific categories in my reading diet. So for example, I’m not reading Peter Kreeft for my ecclesiology, but I do want to read his book on logic (5). I’m not reading G. K. Chesterton to learn reformed theology (2), but I do read him to think about the effects of modern life on the soul (3). And I’m not necessarily turning to C. S. Lewis to discover new depths to the atonement of Christ (2), but he’s one of the first authors I turn to when I need fresh courage to battle personal sin (4). Knowing which authors cater to specific reading priorities has been really helpful.

Astonishment:

There was something wonderful about my church upbrining—a place of teaching, of love, of worship of God. But there was something more in those young adults who met Jesus and became a part of our church.

They did not simply believe in Jesus—they were astonished by Him.

We are no longer astonished by the gospel. We believe it, we say, but do we really? Do we really teach it, share it, preach it as if it is the only thing that makes sense of all things?

Wow, how can we be certain about anything? Rob Bell’s Replacement Speaks Out on Bell and Hell:

Here’s what I mean: If you died, took pictures, and came back to life again, then you would know with certainty what happens after death. Of course, you would only know what happens to you, not everyone else. But if you haven’t died, you can only speculate about what happens to you and everyone else.

NYT: A Last Bastion of Civility, the South, Sees Manners Decline:

“Manners are one of many things that are central to a Southerner’s identity, but they are not primary anymore. Things have eroded,” said Charles Reagan Wilson, a professor of history and Southern culture at the University of Mississippi.

“Fine line between racial pioneer and eugenicist” – GetReligion takes on the Fact Checkers:

I think many news reporters enjoy the freedom to just opine or offer analysis under the guise of “fact-checking.” Still, I thought this one from the Washington Post was particularly interesting. It deals with some statements presidential contender Herman Cain made about Planned Parenthood and race. Now, you will never find me defending anything that any politician says on account of how I believe that somewhere close to 100% of all politicians lie somewhere around 100% of the time. I’m all for checking out what they say and providing news consumers with information to combat their tendency to lie. In any case, it looks like Herman Cain made the “fact checker” at the Washington Post a bit upset by talking about Margaret Sanger’s eugenicism.

I used to believe a heresy.

No, I was never excommunicated. No one ever threatened me with pitchforks and fire. In fact, no one was more surprised to learn about my heresy than I was.

I discovered the error of my ways during my first year of theology classes in Romania. Our systematic theology professor was helping us understand Christology. He spent significant time in the Bible pulling out relevant texts that pointed to Christ’s humanity and divinity. So far so good.

Then the professor began listing heresies of the Trinitarian variety. Eventually, he came to Apollinarianism, which he described as “the teaching that Jesus had a divine soul in a human body.” As he continued teaching, I felt like someone had suddenly punched me in the gut. Though this heresy had never been taught in my church or in my family, it had somehow wormed its way into my mind as the most logical way to hold Christ’s divinity and humanity together. I’d just assumed that Jesus as “God in the flesh” meant a divine mind/spirit wrapped up in a human body.

Logical or not, it was wrong. My professor was telling us that a guy named Apollinarius had thought the same thing and that the early church had condemned him as a heretic in 381.

So here I was, a closet heretic, and I didn’t even know it! What did this mean? Was I not truly converted? Was I an apostate? Up until this point, was I unsaved?

No, not at all. I was a child when God replaced my little heart of stone with a heart of flesh. I had been seeking to faithfully follow Jesus for years, which is why I wound up studying theology in Romania in the first place. My understanding of Christ’s nature was in error, but I was a genuine believer. Once my error was contradicted by the testimony of Scripture and the witness of the church through the ages, I corrected my understanding and never looked back.

So here I am, a former Apollinarian filled with immense gratitude that the Triune God saved me even when I didn’t have a correct understanding of His Tri-unity. By God’s grace, I am reminded that it’s not my perfect knowledge of Christ’s nature and person that saves me but Christ Himself.

Orthodox Teaching Does Not Save…

I believe this story is a good reminder that orthodox theology, while vitally important, is not what saves. Don’t get me wrong. We need to be firmly rooted in the Scriptures as we embrace and proclaim the full counsel of God. The church needs the guardrails provided by our creeds and confessions. Far be it from me to ever diminish the need for clarity and consistency on doctrines of first importance, of which the Trinity is a classic example. A non-Trinitarian god cannot save. Likewise, unless Jesus is both God and man, we are doomed.

At the same time, we need to remember that one can be saved by the Trinity without a complete and exhaustive understanding of the Trinity. It’s quite possible to be muddled in our thinking and still be gloriously cleansed of our sins. That’s why Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Richard Hooker, though standing solidly against the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, could affirm that there were Catholics who were justified by faith alone, even though they didn’t have a firm grasp on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. In other words, we are justified by faith in Jesus, not justified by our faith in the right articulation of doctrine.

In the circles I run in, we believe this is a day for firm conviction, not flabby compromise. We seek to be clear on who God is and how He has saved us. That’s why we point out errors that creep into our churches (Counterfeit Gospels anyone?) and why we warn people of bad theology. But in our right emphasis on right thinking, we need to guard against somehow concluding that orthodoxy itself is what saves. After all, the demons have their systematic theology down, but they are still demons.

Tim Keller is on to something when he points out the way in which reliance on right doctrine can become idolatrous:

“Idolatry functions widely inside religious communities when doctrinal truth is elevated to the position of a false god. This occurs when people rely on the rightness of their doctrine for their standing with God rather than on God himself and his grace. It is a subtle but deadly mistake. The sign that you have slipped into this form of self-justification is that you become what the book of Proverbs calls a ‘scoffer.’ Scoffers always show contempt and disdain for opponents rather than graciousness. This is a sign that they do not see themselves as sinners saved by grace. Instead, their trust in the rightness of their views makes them feel superior.” (Counterfeit Gods, 131)

It’s quite possible to be muddled on doctrine and still belong to Jesus. It’s also possible to have all your doctrinal dots and iotas in line and one day hear Jesus say, “I never knew you.”

It’s not orthodox theology that saves but the God whom orthodox theology describes. It’s the reality that saves us, not our knowledge of that reality.

And thank God this is the case! After all, who can fully comprehend the intricacies of Trinitarian reality? Who can plumb the depths of our justification before God? Who can completely understand the Person and work of the Holy Spirit?

Thanks be to God that in this postmodern world of uncertainty, the Bible gives us real knowledge of God. And thanks be to God that the real God chooses to save us even when our knowledge falls short.

…But Persistent Denial of Orthodox Teaching Reveals the Heart

So we’ve established that orthodox theology is not what saves us. But what do we do with those who espouse unclear or untrue teachings regarding doctrines of first importance?

First, we are patient. We consider their background, their testimony, and their views on other matters. We do not immediately assume that the person must be unsaved. We must also make sure that our zeal for representing God correctly does not lead us to misrepresent our friend. Slanderous assumptions and false accusations against a brother are serious. It matters little how well we represent the truth about God if we are guilty of misrepresenting our brother.

But since truth does indeed matter and since the Bible offers us a robust portrait of salvation and the gospel, we cannot ignore or downplay essential teachings that are contrary to the Scriptures. So we seek to gently bring the person in line with the church’s understanding of biblical truth.

Should the person resist, we persist – again, not because orthodox theology is what saves but because truth really does matter. God cares deeply about how He is represented. That’s why we seek clarity. That’s why we want to make correct affirmations.

If a person espouses heretical teaching and continues to maintain the error in spite of clear Scriptural teaching and the witness of the church, then we must eventually conclude that their resistance to the revealed truth of God is evidence of an unconverted heart, not merely a mistaken belief. So we treat them as unbelievers, praying for them and their redemption.

Conclusion

In a time when many people are plagued with postmodern uncertainty and aversion to religious dogma of any sort, it is increasingly difficult to maintain both of these truths – that assenting to orthodoxy does not save and yet denying orthodoxy reveals an unconverted heart. So in our zeal for biblical truth, we must be careful not to assume that everyone who unknowingly accepts a false teaching is lost and hellbound. But neither must we let the truth that a person can be wrong and still be saved lead us to downplay or denigrate the vital importance of truth as we seek to proclaim the full counsel of God.

Al Mohler and Jim Wallis debate justice and the church. Matthew Lee Anderson has some good analysis:

The demands of social justice are something more than merely implications of the gospel. They are also conditions that help us see the gospel’s uniqueness, for we bear witness to that shalom inaugurated at the cross. Framing the gospel/justice relationship this way potentially reveals their inter-relationship more accurately than describing justice as a one-directional “implication” of the gospel. It opens the possibility that the church has unique insight into the nature of social justice (Christian ethics) that is not itself the same as the gospel. And this framing avoids making social justice something that is brought into the atonement in ways that potentially undermine its distinctiveness.

Western Seminary has just launched a new blog that you might find interesting. And, to celebrate, they’re giving away a bunch of books.

Bob Glenn on what to look for in a church

Jonathan Leeman - The Kingdom Gain of Congregationalism:

In a congregational church, every member jointly shares the authority, and therefore every member jointly owns the responsibility. By giving every new member a “vote” (in some cultural contexts) or by requiring some type of congregational “consensus” (in other cultural contexts), congregationalism says to every member joining the church, “You now have a share in the authority of this congregation, and therefore you now have a responsibility for this congregation and its gospel witness.” In other words, congregationalism involves more than participating in the life of the church. It involves owning a church’s gospel witness.

In this TGC roundtable, J. D. Greear, Greg Gilbert, and I talk about how gospel-centeredness must lead to mission. Evangelism requires contextualization. Good contextualization starts with the questions that people in contemporary culture are asking, but it necessarily moves us to bring in the additional questions the Bible would have us ask.

In the end, the point of gospel-centeredness and clarity regarding the gospel message is not that we will master the gospel but that the God of the gospel would master us. Right doctrine is vital. So is love for neighbor that represents the heart of Christ the King.

Mastered by the Gospel from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.