This volume by Independent Baptist pastor Tom Brennan tackles the Sermon on the Mount for Christians today. In thirty chapters Pastor Brennan seeks to help us apply this great sermons to our lives. He does not subscribe to the theory that this sermon is not for this dispensation, and so draws out many points.

Published by Xulon Press, this attractive volume is well written and easy to follow. His approach seemed to me to be devotional, just as you might expect a pastor to speak to his people. The intended audience is the person in the pew. He has read widely and was especially good at drawing in illustrations or quotes to bring out his points.

I might quibble with him over a few points, but he tackled even the more difficult passages in the Sermon on the Mount without dodging anything. He even dealt with the one on divorce. It appears to me that he worked really hard to put this book together.

In that we have fewer Independent Baptists writing today, you might enjoy giving this volume a try. 

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Here is a volume the New Studies In Biblical Theology (NSBT) series that tackles the theological hot-potato issue of repentance. Author Mark Boda strives to give us “a biblical theology of repentance” with this volume in the series edited by the well-known D.A. Carson.

The most valuable feature of this book is the in-depth tracing of repentance in every part of Scripture. He divides the Old Testament in the Jewish way as he feels that is more sensible for following repentance through the Bible. He has strong convictions about the Word of God, which I appreciate. He feels the typical approach of viewing the subject through the definitions of the words involved is insufficient. Following that theory, he traces more of the big picture of repentance. Repentance is more in some parts of the Bible than others, but he succeeds in finding what degree repentance is there. He is thorough.

It was surprising that the book is 80% Old Testament, but perhaps that is only because the New Testament talks much less of it. I found it easy to agree with many things he said. It seemed a little much to say repentance was a big theme of John when the word is only mentioned once. Still, you felt in the hands of a capable scholar as you read.

He references the theological battles involving repentance, but really does not address them. He seemed to want to lay the data out there so others could take it into the battle and think for themselves. I can not imagine anyone writing on this subject again without consulting this volume. For this volume set out to do, it succeeded all the way.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

                                                                                                                                                 Here is another fine volume in B & H Academic’s Perspectives series. This volume tackles viewpoints on Israel and the Church, which means a debate between dispensational and covenantal thought. This volume, edited by Chad Brand, discusses the four most prominent views though there is even more variety out there. You will read on the traditional covenantal view (Robert Reymond), the traditional dispensational view (Robert L. Thomas), the progressive dispensational view (Robert Saucy), and the progressive covenantal view (Tom Pratt Jr.). The editor Chad Brand assists on the progressive covenantal view as well.

All the authors are scholars and some have been well known in this subject for years. Each was fairly dogmatic, as you would expect in such a series. Only Mr. Reymond seemed to go too far in harshness. While I must disclose that I do not agree with his position, I even wonder if those who hold that position would think he had a good approach. He also used extreme examples like quoting John Hagee as if he were the best representative for dispensational thinking.

All of the other three wrote more respectively and gave much food for thought. It seems issues on election, the Millennium, and other topics intersected strongly with this subject, but the authors did a good job only referencing the points that made sense to the Israel/ Church issue.

This volume did not change my mind, but it did suggest points that I needed to think through. What more could you ask for in a series like this? I recommend it.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

We must applaud volumes that encourage us to see the Old Testament in all its splendor. Too many push it back to secondary status. Enter Old Testament scholar John Goldingay who makes his attempt to shake up our thinking on the subject. His aim is ” letting the Old Testament speak for itself.”

There are pluses and minuses in this volume for sure. The author writes well, knows the scholarly issues out there,  and can be quite thought provoking. His chapter on “The Costly Loss Of First Testament Spirituality”, for example, covered several trains on thought that I had never thought of, particularly on the Psalms and worship.

There were also chapters, like chapter four on Grand and a Middle Narratives, that I simply could not get on with. Perhaps that says more about me as a reviewer than him as a writer–I am not sure.

I imagine some will love this book and rate it highly, but for me it was marred by his suppositions that led him far afield. He has so little regard for the historicity of the Bible, thinks books like Jonah and Ruth must be fictional, and his claims of their abiding value are undermined by his view of dating.  His ideas of memory may be a trendy, new scholarly view, but it seems bizarre to me.

His last chapter fails completely in how it deals with Christology in the Old Testament, and I believe a majority of Christianity would think so. I will be curious to read future reviews. I will be curious, too, with his being such an influential scholar what will come of his discussion. He did at least succeed in making you feel he loved the Old Testament. You will have to check this one out and decide for yourself.

 I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.