Author: jimmyreagan

Books On The Study Of Ecclesiology (Doctrine of the Church)

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9415130_origHere’s a doctrine with a wide variety of viewpoints. For that reason, you will probably find fewer books that you agree with than in the study of other doctrines. Even among independent Baptists (like me) there is an incredible amount of debate. The debate, in my opinion, is hardly worth fighting over.

When did the church begin? What is the Church? Is it only local? Or is there a Universal Church that is the Body of Christ? Then as you spread out among Christian people, there is the issue of church government. How do we do baptism? The Lord’s Supper? Are denominations acceptable or should every local church be autonomous?

It often starts more fights than it answers questions, but there are places to read to decide what you believe.

Best place to start:

In this case I recommend beginning with the Systematic Theologies out there.

1. Systematic Theology Volume Four: Church/Last Things by Norm Geisler

He writes well and as a teacher of many years he is understandable. He fairly presents differing viewpoints and that is especially important on this subject. I love his 4 volume set.

2. Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem 

He supports a form of church government I wouldn’t follow, but he presents it well and you will understand where they come from. I love to read him after Geisler.

3. Christian Theology by Millard Erickson

Presents in a way different from the above two and well worth having. I am glad to have it.

There are others like Charles Ryrie worth consulting too.

Baptism/Lord’s Supper

1.The Meaning And Use Of Baptizein by T. J. Conant

The nuts and bolts of why we immerse.

2. Baptism: Its Mode And Subjects by Alexander Carson

An influential classic.

3. Understanding Four Views On Baptism, edited by Armstrong and Engle

These Four Views books are awesome to really understand a concept.

4. Understanding Four Views On The Lord’s Supper

Another winner!

Local Church

There are some helpful material out there. I recently reviewed Believe and Belong by Clarence Sexton. Peter Masters has written some helpful pamphlets and books like Do We Have A Policy For Church Membership and Growth? We need more here.

Baptist Church

1. Principles and Practices For Baptist Churches by Edward Hiscox

The first place to look.

2. The Church: Its Polity and Ordinances by Hezekiah Harvey.

A good secondary source.

3. Baptist Church Manuel by J. M. Pendleton

I’ve seen some Baptist churches that made it a higher authority than the Bible! Still,  it lets you see what has been believed.

Happy studying!

Believe and Belong by Clarence Sexton

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believe and belong

Here’s a timely subject where you wonder why more hasn’t been written on it before. In this volume entitled Believe and Belong by Pastor Clarence Sexton the subtitle says it all: “The Joy of Church Membership.”

It is a needed corrective to the prevailing notion that church membership is irrelevant at best and unbiblical at worst. It is born of our excessive personal independence that scorns even the most gentle accountability. The interdependence that is inherent to the idea of the local church is just too much for many. No doubt, the loss is truly theirs.

As a pastor, I appreciate his emphasis as this is a battle we all face in dealing with folks. Pastor Sexton writes with the intensity and candor you might expect from someone who has been in it over 40 years.

He makes a good case for membership as well as what a church really is. That is foundational to the local church ever being both what it can be and what The Lord intended it to be. His discussion on God’s Word being our guide is critical in a day when many forget that our cry should be sola scriptura (“by the Scriptures alone”).

He actually covers most of the things found in a discussion on the local church: baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, the pastor. He warns of “grievous wolves” and ends on a push for the Great Commission. Along the way comes out strongly for soul liberty and the priesthood of the believer, which, strangely, is rare among Baptist pastors today. Yes, that was Baptist people’s most unique feature in previous generations.

This book is fine for new Christians as well as seasoned Christians who need to consider a subject they have thought little of in the past. Pastors, we will find ideas here of how we might present this truth. I recommend this book.

DISCLAIMER: Unlike other books I have reviewed on this blog, I know this author. While that could be some bias, I still feel this a truly helpful book.

clarence sexton

Humble Orthodoxy by Joshua Harris

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humble orthodoxyWhich one do we need: orthodoxy or humility? Both says Joshua Harris! In fact, we don’t have the luxury to choose one at the expense of the other. Or as the subtitle of this volume published by Multnomah says, we should be “holding the truth high without putting people down.” So what does that leave as the goal? What he calls humble orthodoxy.

This is actually a reworking of the last chapter of his Dug Down Deep. If I were  forced to choose I would prefer that volume to this one as I really enjoyed reading it. Still, this book has something to say and I need to hear it.

Our tendency to be a Pharisee, our latent idolization of self,  our propensity to be so impressed with who we are and what we know, he exposes with care. He says, “The message of Christian orthodoxy isn’t that I’m right and someone else is wrong. It’s that I am wrong and yet God is filled with grace.” Ouch!

He demonstrates how at our core we are about God being on our side. That is a world of difference than wanting to be on God’s side. If it is about God being on my side, then I will argue and fight till my last breath. Sadly, at that point our lives are no longer about God and His glory. We live for what he calls “the tiny kingdom of self.” In that setting, of course, “Knowledge puffeth up.”

We have the wrong focus to make correct theology, as critically important as it is, the goal. Our Lord is the goal. Any other goal is inferior and little more than misspent effort. If correct theology is the goal I can so easily look down on others who I know has less theology than me. I know I have fallen in that trap before and am glad I had Mr. Harris to take me to task for it.

He attacks “arrogant orthodoxy” as actually falling short on the orthodoxy scale rather than the other way around. He sees true theology as telling me that repentance must start with me. Well, he has us there!

He sees a interlocking link between orthodoxy and humility. More orthodoxy leads to more humility and more humility leads to more orthodoxy. When our pride grows, what, then, does that tell us about our orthodoxy? That is a painful, yet particularly helpful, insight.

As much as I want to have my theology right, there is enough remaining sin in me to keep me humble, he says. You can speak for yourself, but that really describes me. A critical spirit, though a spirit quite at home in our age, is pure nonsense in a sinner like me. I must defend my faith without reducing myself to a critical spirit that denies on many levels the very faith I defend.

He also says: “Friend, the truth is not about us. It’s not self-determined. It’s not an accessory. It is about God.” That will help us not develop a Christian subculture with all the weirdo that can accompany it. He also says: ” In eternity we’ll see the silliness of self-righteousness and quarreling over the nonessentials.” That sums it nicely for a book well worth your time to read.

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 .

Bound Together by Chris Brauns

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Bound Together

I hesitate to tell you that this book tackles with verve the theological ideas of original sin and union with Christ. I can hear the groans–another theology tome. Please reroute your thinking as this volume is so much more than academic exercise. In Bound Together by Chris Brauns and published by Zondervan we have so much more!

There’s real life questions here. In discussing how we are tied to others in both good and horrifying ways, we find the questions tough. We all know on some level, and are actually glad about it, that blessings have come our way over the choices of some. But when someone’s choice rips our family down the middle, or the choice of a leader lands the whole nation in peril, well, that is another matter. The deeper question is why the Lord designed our world so. Like it our not, He did.

Mr. Brauns uses the analogy of the rope. We are tied together. In some ways if one goes over the cliff, we all will. While that is not true on some levels (personal accountability), it definitely is on others. He shows that what happened to us when Adam fell demonstrates this very thing. Before we sink in despair, we should see the upside of the rope. CHRIST!

We are now tied to Him and as he triumphs over sin He literally pulls us up out of or own sin. You see, the rope rescued us. If you could remove the rope from God’s Universe, you would do yourself far more harm than good. So we praise Him for the rope even if on occasion it appears unfair. He also explains that the new rope in Christ is far stronger than our old rope tied to Adam.

No, he explains, this doesn’t extinguish personal responsibility. I can’t just blame the rope, but I can trace how my choices have the potential to pull up or down. In his one chapter on marriage you see how the home might be the greatest length of the rope. Any idea that I am just my own person and can do as I please is absurd. There are too many hurting children in our world, for example, for this to be true.

He offers hope to hurting families too. He uses Rahab as an illustration. The rope can be used by me for good. She made a daring decision and her entire family was spared. This may not always work out so, but at least it is a shot.

In the latter parts of the book he explains how something so valued in our culture, and truly good on some levels, could be the very thing that is destroying us. That thing is individualism.

He pulls off the theology too. By the book’s end you will add to your obvious knowledge that your personal sin affects you and others as well as the truth that original sin affects you too. That affect is only overcome through Jesus Christ. This is a great book.

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.

Tower of Babel by Bodie Hodge

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Tower of Babel
How would you like a book that addresses parts of the Bible that you have always found difficult to get anything out if? How about, for example, genealogies? How about questions on the races and languages of our world and how exactly the Tower of Babel episode really played out and shaped the world we know today? Then you might really enjoy The Tower of Babel by Bodie Hodge and published by Master Books.

I’ll confess some of the material may be too narrow in its appeal your taste. Discussing how to pronounce “Babel” may not be a question you have had a burning desire to have answered, but I assure your other parts like chapter 13 entitled ” What about Extra-Biblical Tables of Nations and Genealogies That Go Back to Noah?” are riveting. Finding the names of the Biblical genealogy is exciting. I didn’t need that discussion to believe myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy reading it.

Mr. Hodge is good at seeing what is really at stake. The authority of God’s Word is, as always, the heart of the issue for these type discussions. When he shares what might at best be esoteric knowledge at least he confesses when he is speculating and he faithfully brings us back to core issues.

He may at times revisit subjects that we thought we had a handle on, like the division of the continents being in Peleg’s day or the dating of the Book of Job, but whether you agree with him or not, you will be given substantial food for thought. There may also be places that are too detailed, like an in-depth analysis of the genealogy as it relates to today, but it still makes a wonderful reference to pull off the shelf. Too bad there isn’t an index.

The last chapter is short but ends where it should: Christ. In other words how does this fit in the big picture? How does it fit in me? Put this down as a fun read.

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.

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Advise For Seekers by Charles Spurgeon

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Can anyone really share the Gospel like Charles Spurgeon? He had a way of dissecting the human heart and finding the chasm needing Christ that dwells within. Excuses? He could anticipate the best of them and slay them before they could hardly be off your tongue. In other words, he excelled in understanding the human heart. That is one of the reasons he was such a great preacher as well as why when he wrote his Advise For Seekerse should listen with care. As a nice bonus, Attic Books has reprinted this jewel in a small, attractive hardcover volume.

He begins where we most err–this delusional idea that we can save ourselves. He says:

The self-righteous man knows that what he is doing cannot satisfy God, for it cannot satisfy himself; and though he may perhaps drug his conscience, there is generally enough left of the divine element within the man to make him feel and know that it is not satisfactory.

We know he is dead on no matter what we would like to believe. It is such a dead-end road that we must turn toward Christ.

He spoke to of the best healing available in Christ:

Jesus can heal you of your pride; he can deliver you from anger; he can cure you of sluggishness, he can purge you from envy, from lasciviousness, from malice, from gluttonly, from every form of spiritual malady.

How’s that for putting the good back in the good news of the Gospel?

While he could write with devastating accuracy of our sinful hearts, he could also write with such beauty the love of Jesus. O how He wants to save us despite all we have done. In later chapters he writes of Jesus as one who says “come”!

This book is from the 1800s so of course it is the language and punctuation of that day, but I suspect you will be little at a loss. Whether you are a seeker yourself, or one who works with seekers, you will find this book, as with any Spurgeon title, a real treasure.

Reasons For Belief – Book Review

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reasons for belief

To believe in God must we believe against reason? Not on your life! Sometimes many of us feel at a loss to answer the tough questions that the world can throw our way. We believe but sometimes can’t quite grasp the way to explain what our hearts know to be true. On the other hand, there are some out there who want to believe but are not quite sure what to think. In either case, this fine volume by Norman Geisler and Patty Tunnicliffe and published by Bethany House will be of immense help.

The design of the book is ideal in that you could grasp its contents if this were your first time to wrestle with these issues while the widely-read Bible student will love it too. The book is laid out in addressing the 10 most challenging objections you will hear. Things like does real truth exist or is it just what is truth to you. The idea of relative truth has done incredible damage to our society. Beyond just saying it is wrong, learn here just how pathetically illogical the whole concept is.

He covers beautifully in the next 3 chapters the challenges involving the existence of God. I assure you the intellectuals of our day don’t have a corner on the market of logic on these issues. In fact, you might find them fully bankrupt when you finish reading here.

When you get settled on the reality that God simply must exist, then there are challenges on if the God of the Bible is the true God. He explains carefully and guides us to Christ. Whether the issue be the trustworthiness of the biblical manuscripts, or the existence of miracles, or the Resurrection, he guides us with the skilled hands of a master worker.

I’ve enjoyed reading Mr. Geisler since I was a freshman in a public university. He meant a great deal to me then, and he still has his touch. I love it and highly recommend this book.

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.

The Day of the Resurrection

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The Empty TombResurrection Sunday. Easter time. Is it just a big Sunday? One with a larger attendance and more work? Is it a day for family and a big Sunday meal? What is it, really, to you?

(Be sure to check out the chart below you can print out for study).

The Place where He lay!

The Place where He lay!

I don’t always dwell on it like I should, but everything I am, every dream I have, every hope of the future, every possible happiness that I could hope to have in time and eternity, all ride on 3 days about 2,000 years ago. Those days define me. No other thing even comes close. There was a choice I made, but the 3 days had to happen for me to have a choice and they are the pivot of all.
View of Mt. Calvary

View of Mt. Calvary

It is so pivotal, in fact, that it too defines human history. Before Calvary the world clamored, at least in the depths of their souls, in anticipation of this event where God transcended the corruption of sin we brought into His creation and which devastated you and me. After Calvary, we look back either in need of it or in wonder of it.
I managed to sneak up on Calvary early one morning while the caretaker was away and saw this scene!

I managed to sneak up on Calvary early one morning while the caretaker was away and saw this scene!

Jesus, my Savior, battled sin and death on a tortuous cross, was laid low in the cold tomb of death, and walked out on death with the keys of victory jangling in His nail-pierced hands on that Resurrection morning.
I went back at evening. The Empty Tomb is something I never want to forget!

I went back at evening. The Empty Tomb is something I never want to forget!

I don’t know where your mind or mine is this day, but the three days ending on Easter mean everything.
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Related  post:
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Here’s a chart to help you study the events of the Resurrection:
Click on above link to see the chart below in better detail or to print out from a .pdf file to study.
synthese of resurrection to the ascension (1)
synthese of resurrection to the ascension (1)

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If you enjoy this chart, it and several others from the Gospels have been collected in my new book “Following Jesus Through the Gospels”. Click HERE for more information.

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Books On The Study Of Eschatology (The Doctrine of Last Things)

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eschatologyIt’s not hard to get folks to study the doctrine of eschatology. What other Bible subjects are so many whole conferences discussing? What is amazing, too, is the outlandish number of books written on the subject. A blog post far too long to write would be “Worthless Books On Prophecy.” Very few subjects have so many volumes go from the bestseller list to the discount bin so quickly either.

This is one place that one must admit his or her bias right up front. I follow the pretribulational premillennialism point of view. That is not to say that there isn’t many wonderful believers who have differing viewpoints while dearly loving my Savior just as I do. Still, my studies of God’s Word has led me to a position.

One thing is clear: Jesus is coming again! This is the non-negotiable point of prophecy. We can debate some points, but we shall see Him face to face. No amount of ridiculous date-setting or bizarre speculations will change that fact! Let’s make sure we see this as a life-changing doctrine, not a mere academic exercise for esoteric knowledge.

Here are some of the books I find to be the most helpful:

1. Things To Come by J. Dwight Pentecost

A widely used bestseller! Most every premillennialist has a copy. This volume is often used as a textbook and many pastors I know make it their first choice. A clearly laid-out volume that can help anyone understand the premillennial position.

2. Dispensationalism by Charles Ryrie

Whether your dispensationalism would go as far as his or not, this volume is indispensable to grasp this point of view. He is fair to opposing viewpoints and is the best representative of classic dispensationalism.

3. Progressive Dispensationalism by Darrell Bock

There has been a change in the dispensational world by some and this volume is a great reference to understand it. I agree with some of this thinking found here. Read this to be up-to-date.

4. The Coming Kingdom of Christ by John R. Rice

A sentimental volume to me as I read it years ago as a young Christian. He is one of the best at highlighting the imminent return of Christ. Much original and helpful material is presented in this volume.

5. What Does The Future Hold? by C. Marvin Pate

I read this recently as a refresher before I taught a class on prophecy. It is the perfect overview volume no matter your perspective. He is careful in his explanations. His own eclectic view means he is in no one’s camp, but he really helps you understand the various viewpoints. I highly recommend this volume.

Other volumes to consider:

You might find The Nations, Israel, and the Church in Prophecy by John Walvoord helpful as well as his The Rapture Question, his The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, and his The Millennial Kingdom (yes he wrote widely on the subject). The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views edited by Robert Clouse is good for comparing views.

Jesus Is Coming by W.E.B. was a great challenge to me as a young Christian. It had a great influence on many later volumes. The Basis of the Premillennial Faith by Ryrie is ideal for the younger Christian as is First The Rapture by J. F. Strombeck.

To round out your library you will want the 3-volume set The Theocratic Kingdom by George Peters (look for the Kregel edition). I’m glad to have Biblical Eschatology by Ironside and Ottman in a beautiful Klock & Klock edition.

Don’t forget to consult your favorite systematic theology volume. I used several and especially enjoyed Norm Geisler’s Systematic Theology as it was very well done. I’m not even getting into the many commentaries on Revelation as that is a discussion for another day.

Perhaps there are some volumes you would have expected I include here and while they are on my shelves, I don’t recommend volumes that pretend to see what can’t be seen, that tends to focus on signs rather than the Savior, or that  tends toward ultra-dispensationalism.

Some are afraid of the study of prophecy, but a Christian shouldn’t feel that way. I like to say that if you are a believer prophecy is taking us somewhere and it is somewhere good–the presence of Jesus Christ!

Related Posts:

Books on the Study of Bibliology

Books on How to Study the Bible

What Happens When Your Pastor Becomes Your God

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Like a popeToday Jack Schaap gets his prison sentence for his crime against a minor from his own congregation. For some, the question is, when will this nightmare go away?  For innocent church members and Hyles-Anderson college graduates, I wish it could go away quickly. I’m glad First Baptist of Hammond has a new pastor with a sterling reputation and that they have tried to work their way through a near impossible situation.

On the other hand, it is not going away for the victim, nor her family, anytime soon. Let’s pray for healing as we know they face a long, hard road. (Please no one write me stating that she was a loose girl–she was 17 and the expectation for godliness is surely far stronger on the side of a 54-year-old pastor!) I didn’t want to speak of details that would be hearsay before, but this is now a documented (Chicago Tribune News Item) story and I know some good people are asking fair and honest questions.

This week court documents were released in response to Mr. Schaap petitioning the court for a lighter sentence. They shed light (or something!) on the sordid mess. Apparently, the prosecutors were appalled by his request for leniency in that it was based on health problems and stress of ministry. In disgust, according to their statements, they decided to share more of the details with the world. As much as I am against what Mr. Schaap did, my purpose in writing is not so much in taking him to task (the courts are on to him, his church fired him, and he will someday face the same God I will face for my own sins).

When you read some of the details, you start asking, how could this happen? One theme stands out as a key to the whole mess–what the victim and her family had been taught about how they must view their pastor. We can all be tempted to sin, but beyond that, I submit this particular sin could not have happened had the victim and her family had the proper view of their pastor. Of course, “there but for the grace of God go I”, but such an environment of thought was doomed from the start. I’m not blaming the victims, nor even want to focus on Mr. Schaap’s fall, but what is clearly unbiblical teaching.

Pastors are but men with all the faults and foibles that go with it. To ask people to believe something else than this is to ask them to believe outside the bounds of reason. We have an office called pastor designed by God that is worth magnifying, but that must never spill over into magnifying the frail, sinful lives of we who hold the office. We must be held to the same standard from the same Book that every Christian should be held to.

Some have gone so far to teach that a pastor cannot be questioned. No Baptist I know has ever claimed infallibility, but just how far removed is that from the papal system of the Catholic Church that we all soundly criticize? To accept what someone says without analyzing it is to say it cannot be wrong. Of course, I am not talking about a critical or disagreeable spirit, but a carte blanche power over my life is an extremely dangerous gift to give to someone other than Jesus Christ.

The victim states that she asked some time after the illicit affair began if this was wrong. She says Mr. Schaap explained that it was fine and that God had given her to him. That defies reason and is so contradictory to the Bible that only a person deep into allowing a pastor to fill the role of God in his or her life could fall for it. In the victim’s defense, she had been taught this way of thinking and was convinced it was a sin against God to question it.

Apparently, there was a small handful of people who knew Mr. Schaap was taking this young girl to a cabin alone. Again, there are so many red flags in that for any rational person that it would make the whole landscape a sea of red. But he said he was doing “spiritual” work and so those involved were afraid to say the obvious “you have got to be kidding.” Even the parents expressed remorse that they fell for this ridiculous mindset that pastors can do no wrong.

Power corrupts and great power greatly corrupts is a truism that affects us all. I wouldn’t even trust myself with absolute power and I am sure I wouldn’t trust you with it–even if you were a pastor!

I so love being a pastor. It is such an awesome life work, a real calling that is hard to put in words, but that doesn’t make me more spiritual than you by default. It is my hope that over time I will gain the respect of those I pastor, but it is not automatic and I am wrong if I demand that it is. Perhaps we should so respect the office of pastor that we would not allow some of these more awful things to happen in it.

I’ll be frank again–someone could have helped Mr. Schaap had they only said something like “That is not acceptable and I love you, the souls you shepherd, our church, and our Lord too much to let you do this.” I’m not picking on anyone. Hindsight is 20/20 and as one of my college professors told me once, “it’s so easy to pontificate and say, ‘you fools'”, but I am going to call you to foresight. I am going to call on us all to say “never again.”

Remember it is our Lord who expressly said for us to have no gods before Him. To make myself God as some pastors have done is a direct attack on the Lord and a robbery of His glory. At the same time, to let a pastor in my life be elevated to a position only the Lord should have is idolatry. Think of it–idolatry! Nothing but ruin could follow such a horrible decision in my life. Survey the damage of what we are thinking about today. It’s hard enough to be a godly man and pastor, and so we are not qualified to be the Almighty! Before we try to dismiss this sorry affair from our minds, let’s make sure we learn the devastation that happens when you make your pastor your God.

Related Posts:

The Tsunami of Jack Schaap (Written when the story first broke last summer)

The Backflow of the Schaap Tsunami ( A followup to the first article)