Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Andy Naselli

I am a fundamentalist, Calvinistic, separatist Baptist

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So writes Mark Dever in a new book based on a conference honoring J. I. Packer at Beeson Divinity School on September 25–27, 2006:

Timothy George, ed. J. I. Packer and the Evangelical Future: The Impact of His Life and Thought. Beeson Divinity Studies. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009. [Amazon | WTS Books]

Sample pages as a PDF include the TOC, preface, and opening chapter by Alister McGrath.

Here’s the opening paragraph of Mark Dever’s chapter, entitled “J. I. Packer and Pastoral Wisdom from the Puritans”:

There are some people for whom it is an honor to be asked to honor, and J. I. Packer is certainly one of them. And this is a surprising honor, considering that I disagree with him on baptism, church, and the resources of and prospects for rapprochement between Protestants and Roman Catholics. After all, I am a fundamentalist, Calvinistic, separatist Baptist—I barely believe in rapprochement with Presbyterians! (p. 87)

In the final section of his essay, titled “Puritans on the Definition of Justification and Questions of Church Cooperation,” Dever respectfully disagrees with Packer on Evangelicals and Catholics Together (pp. 93–96).

In Packer’s response to this book’s essays, he playfully picks up a metaphor in which he is Robin Hood, Timothy George is “Little George,” etc. He writes,

I saw in my Baptist brother Mark Dever a latter-day Sheriff of Nottingham, giving me a passing grade on the doctrine of grace but a firm “F” in ecclesiology. (p. 172)

Related: Mark Dever interviewed J. I. Packer ten years ago.

See It Again for the First Time

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This paragraph from my favorite Piper book is much more meaningful now that I see my little daughter’s eyes light up every time she sees something new:

What a wonderful experience it is when God grants us a moment in which we don’t take anything for granted, but see the world as though it was invented yesterday. How we would marvel at the wisdom of God. We should pray for the eyes of children again, when they saw everything for the first time. William Quayle reminded me of this recently in his lively book, The Pastor-Preacher. He said, “A cow has pretty eyes, as quiet as a pool of quiet water, but uneventful eyes. There is no touch of wonder in their dreamless depths. The eyes are therefore soulless. A child’s eyes are fairly lightning. They are to see things: they are the windows of the brain, and bewilder like a play of swords of fire.” These are the eyes we need to see the unending wisdom of God running through all the world. There will be no exhausting the understanding of God. We will be making new discoveries for all eternity.

—John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God (2d ed.; Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2000), 92 (emphasis added).

Related:

  1. Sermons by Piper on the Pleasures of God
  2. My thoughts on Piper’s Desiring God
  3. Planet Earth: A Theological Documentary
  4. Piper on “Planet Earth”

Further Up and Further In

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north_america

Layton Talbert reflects on Job 26:14a: “Behold, these are but the outskirts [“outer fringe,” NIV] of his ways.”

“These are the mere edges of His ways.” The word edges (KJV, “parts”) denotes a termination, a boundary line or coastline, an edge or corner. What we can discern of the infinite God from His works in nature and history are the mere coastlines of the continent of the mind and character of God. Imagine landing for the first time on the seventeenth-century American continent. You have no idea that the sand onto which you step is the fringe of a continuous landmass over 3,000 miles wide and 9,500 miles long. Imagine formulating views of what this whole continent is like based on what you can see from the bay where you drop anchor. Suppose you forge your way five miles inland, or even fifty miles, to get a better idea of what this new country is like. As tangible and verifiable as what you see is, you are experiencing a minuscule fraction of an unimaginable stretch of vast and varied terrain yet to be explored—massive and multiple mountain ranges, trackless prairies, impenetrable forests, mammoth lakes and mighty rivers with deafening waterfalls, swamps and deserts, flora and fauna yet unknown. How much more there is to know about our magnificently infinite God than what we can see from where we are, only eternity can tell.

–Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job (Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2007), 146.

Related: A few years ago I reviewed Talbert’s book and linked to MP3s of his sermons on Job.

You Don’t See This Happen Every Day

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The latest Themelios issue includes articles by both Ray Ortlund and his son Dane.

  1. Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. | Pastoral Pensées  Power in Preaching: Delight (2 Corinthians 12:1–10), Part 3 of 3
  2. Dane C. Ortlund | Christocentrism: An Asymmetrical Trinitarianism?

How cool is that? If I were Ray, I’d be filled with gratitude to God! (And he is—he told me this morning.)

  • Ray Ortlund (blog) is pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He served as Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois from 1989 to 1998, and he has pastored churches in California, Oregon, and Georgia.
  • Dane Ortlund is a a PhD candidate in New Testament at Wheaton College under Doug Moo.

Ten New Book Reviews

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The November 2009 issue of Themelios, which came out this morning, includes ten book reviews I contributed:

1. Review of Barry J. Beitzel, The New Moody Atlas of the Bible. Themelios 34 (2009): 367. [Amazon]

Beitzel

2. Review of Douglas Bond, The Betrayal: A Novel on John Calvin. Themelios 34 (2009): 409. [Amazon | WTS Books]

3. Review of John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come (ed. C. J. Lovik; illustrated by Mike Wimmer). Themelios 34 (2009): 409–10. [Amazon | WTS Books]

4. Review of Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will: or, How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc. Themelios 34 (2009): 451–52. [Amazon | WTS Books]

5. Review of Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. Themelios 34 (2009): 457–58. [Amazon | WTS Books]

6. Review of C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters: First Ever Full-cast Dramatization of the Diabolical Classic (produced by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre). Themelios 34 (2009): 453–55. [Amazon]

Screwtape

7. Review of The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testamentst (40 vols.) in Logos Bible Software. Themelios 34 (2009): 455–57.

8. Review of Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters. Themelios 34 (2009): 452–53. [Amazon | WTS Books]

9. Review of Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Themelios 34 (2009): 458. [Amazon | WTS Books]

10. Review of Gregory A. Wills, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859–2009. Themelios 34 (2009): 403–5. [Amazon]

Wills

Theology That Wounds Rather Than Heals

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Reflecting on Job 16–17, D. A. Carson observes,

There is a way of using theology and theological arguments that wounds rather than heals. This is not the fault of theology and theological arguments; it is the fault of the “miserable comforter” who fastens on an inappropriate fragment of truth, or whose timing is off, or whose attitude is condescending, or whose application is insensitive, or whose true theology is couched in such culture-laden clichés that they grate rather than comfort. In times of extraordinary stress and loss, I have sometimes received great encouragement and wisdom from other believers; I have also sometimes received extraordinary blows from them, without any recognition on their part that that was what they were delivering. Miserable comforters were they all.

Such experiences, of course, drive me to wonder when I have wrongly handled the Word and caused similar pain. It is not that there is never a place for administering the kind of scriptural admonition that rightly induces pain: justified discipline is godly (Heb. 12:5–11). The tragic fact, however, is that when we cause pain by our application of theology to someone else, we naturally assume the pain owes everything to the obtuseness of the other party. It may, it may—but at the very least we ought to examine ourselves, our attitudes, and our arguments very closely lest we simultaneously delude ourselves and oppress others.

–D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word (vol. 2; Wheaton: Crossway, 1999), entry for February 17. (This book is available for free as a PDF from TGC.)

I compiled lists of what to say and not to say to people who are suffering in an address on the logical and emotional problems of evil. Abbreviated forms of those two lists occur at the end of this four-page essay. Would you add anything to those lists?

Bruce Ware on (1) God and (2) Parenting

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Bruce Ware preached two superb sermons at my church on Sunday:

1. The morning sermon was on God, primarily as described in Isaiah 40–46: “‘There Is No One Besides Me: Biblical Foundations for the Centrality of God.” Towards the end he insightfully and clearly explains a very hard text: Isaiah 45:7.

2. The evening sermon was on parenting: “How to Bring Big Truths about God to the Young Hearts of Our Children” (outline included). There’s lots of wisdom here to supplement Ware’s Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God, which Jenni and I reviewed last year.