Books, and friends

-
I’ve been tagged by Ryan Jones with a book “meme.” Here goes.

1. One book that changed your life: “The Holy Bible, English Standard Version” (Read it in 90 days; I dare you! Okay, if you can’t do it in 90 days, at least do it in one year.)

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: “The Holiness of God” by R. C. Sproul

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: I’m with Chesterton: “A Practical Guide to Shipbuilding.” I’m an Eagle Scout; I can stay alive until I get the ship built.

4. One book that made you laugh: “The Complete Calvin and Hobbes” by Bill Watterson

5. One book that made you cry: "The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky

6. One book that you wish had been written:“Systematic Theology” by John H. Gerstner

7. One book that you wish had never been written: “The Jews and Their Lies” by Martin Luther

8. One book you’re currently reading: “The Future of Justification” by John Piper

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: “Systematic Theology” by Wayne Grudem

10. Now tag five people:

Augustinian Successor

LP Cruz

Stephen Newel

thatatheistguy

Debbie Kaufman


I just don’t want to stop there. Books I highly recommend, in order from highest to lowest:

The place to go before, during, and after:

“The Holy Bible, English Standard Version”

How to Get It:

“The Holiness of God” by R. C. Sproul
“Saved from What” by R. C. Sproul
“Christ Alone” by Rod Rosenbladt
“Faith Alone” by R. C. Sproul
“All of Grace” by C. H. Spurgeon

How to Give It Away:

“Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God” by J. I Packer
“Evangelism Explosion” by D. James Kennedy
“Powerful Evangelism for the Powerless” by C. John Miller
“Let the Nations Be Glad” by John Piper
“Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper

Why It is what It is:

“When Skeptics Ask” by Norman H. Geisler
“The Law of Perfect Freedom” by Michael Scott Horton
“Keeping in Step With the Spirit” by J. I. Packer
“One Holy Passion” by R. C. Sproul (this has recently been published under a different title that I can’t remember, it’s about God’s attributes)
“A Summary of Christian Doctrine” by Louis Berkhof
“Counted Righteous in Christ” by John Piper
“Reasons for Faith” by John H. Gerstner

Why you should be a Baptist:

“Baptist Beliefs” by E. Y. Mullins
“Baptism and Church Membership” by Errol Hulse

Some titles for those who want to go “off the deep end:”

Any and All Bible Commentaries by John Calvin
“Commentary on the Book of Galatians” by Martin Luther
“Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth” by John H. Gerstner (great for 'recovering dispensationalists' like me)
“Systematic Theology” by J. P. Boyce
“Getting the Gospel Right” by R. C. Sproul
“Systematic Theology” by Charles Hodge
“Classical Apologetics” by Sproul, et. al.
“The Shape of Sola Scriptura” by Keith Matheson
“The Works of Jonathan Edwards” – Yale University Press Editions (Read the man himself, not just Gerstner’s or Piper’s interpretation of him, good though they may be. Good luck with the long sentences.)

Comments

Debbie Kaufman said…
Thank you for tagging me JK. I will have the post up for you in response in a few days, hopefully this storm we are having will not douse my electricity as it has so many others around the state.
December 11, 2007
Ryan Jones said…
Thanks for the list, J.K. No fair using the Bible though. That's a given for just about every question. Great answer for the book you wish had never been written.
December 18, 2007
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Face of Terror

-
Osama Bin laden is dead. Since the rest of the internet is buzzing with opinions on that death, I thought I would weigh in. First, this is not the end of global terrorism. Like the Hydra of old, when one head is chopped off, two more take its place. We still need diligence in our fight against global terror. U. S. and allied Armed Forces still need our prayers. We still need a strong military and intelligence community. We have not yet cut off the Hydra’s immortal head. Second, the way to get to the ‘heart of the matter’ is with Christian missionary efforts. We must reach the people who make up those societies and population segments that produce terrorists . To tell a story I have told here before : Early in the twentieth century, Baptist evangelists preached through rural Mississippi and Alabama with such effectiveness that moonshiners could no longer sell their whiskey: All their customers were getting converted! In desperation, the whiskey sellers hired two men to murder on...
Read more

The Canons of Dort

-
I believe that the Canons of Dort are true. This is a statement that came out the Synod of Dort, held from 1618-1619. The Canons of Dort outline the system of theology known today as the “five points of Calvinism.” The problem I have with most “five-point Calvinists” is that the Canons of Dort contain much more than five points. Many explanations of the TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints) are gross simplifications of the Canons of Dort. [This is especially true of explanations given by those who oppose Calvinism. It is easier to knock down a straw man than it is to knock down a real man, and so it is easier to criticize an oversimplified Calvinism that the more robust form.] Some of those who teach the “five points” leave out some of the quotes below: This death of God's Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than ...
Read more

Intelligent Design

-
The Intelligent Design (ID) movement makes much of the argument from irreducible complexity. Dr. Michael Behe has become famous for a simple example, the mousetrap. He points out that the mousetrap will not perform its function without all of its parts. The wooden base, the metal hammer, a spring, a catch and a metal bar to hold back the hammer are all necessary parts. One component by itself will not catch a mouse. Mainstream evolutionary science has a counter-argument. To paraphrase Dr. Kenneth Miller, if you disassemble the mousetrap, each component can serve as something useful on its own. If we take away the catch and metal bar, we have something left that can serve as a paper clip. The spring could make a simple two-section key chain. The wooden base makes a paperweight. Evolutionary processes like random mutation and natural selection can combine and retain the useful parts as the complicated evolves to perform the complex function. The useful parts are combined into the mousetr...
Read more