Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Explaining the EFCA Doctrinal Statement

by

This new book robustly explains the EFCA’s statement of faith:

Evangelical Convictions: A Theological Exposition of the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America. Minneapolis: Free Church, 2011. 276 pp.

Who wrote it? The foreword by the EFCA’s president thanks especially two people for “their tireless labor” (p. 17):

  • Greg Strand, EFCA’s Director of Biblical Theology and Credentialing
  • Bill Kynes

This book was drafted by members of the Spiritual Heritage Committee [i.e., Mike Andrus, Bill Jones, Bill Kynes, David V. Martin, Ruben Martinez, Greg Strand (Chair), and Greg Waybright], but its content was vetted by numerous EFCA pastors and others in various areas of EFCA leadership and ministry, including President William J. Hamel, members of the Board of Ministerial Standing (which includes District Superintendents and the Chair of the Ministerial Association), representatives of ReachGlobal and faculty from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. (p. 19n1)

I especially like how the book connects the gospel with each of the ten articles:

  1. God: God’s gospel originates in and expresses the wondrous perfections of the eternal, triune God.
  2. The Bible: God’s gospel is authoritatively revealed in the Scriptures.
  3. The Human Condition: God’s gospel alone addresses our deepest need.
  4. Jesus Christ: God’s gospel is made known supremely in the Person of Jesus Christ.
  5. The Work of Christ: God’s gospel is accomplished through the work of Christ.
  6. The Holy Spirit: God’s gospel is applied by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  7. The Church: God’s gospel is now embodied in the new community called the church
  8. Christian Living: God’s gospel compels us to Christ-like living and witness to the world.
  9. Christ’s Return: God’s gospel will be brought to fulfillment by the Lord Himself at the end of this age.
  10. Response and Eternal Destiny: God’s gospel requires a response that has eternal consequences.
Evangelical Convictions: A Theological Exposition of the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America

Theology on a Tightrope

by

Ken Casillas, The Law and the Christian: God’s Light within God’s Limits (Biblical Discernment for Difficult Issues; Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2007), 1–2, 24:

It’s funny what you remember from your childhood. Personally, I find it difficult to recall specific conversations, events, and experiences. But of all the positive things I would like to remember from my years as a missionary child in Puerto Rico, for some reason the sad story of Karl Wallenda has stayed with me. Wallenda was a German entertainer who became famous for doing extremely dangerous tightrope stunts without a safety net. His family act was dubbed the Flying Wallendas, and their signature performance was a seven-person pyramid topped by a woman standing on a chair. The Wallendas performed internationally through the middle of the twentieth century. Though the group survived catastrophes such as the 1944 Hartford circus fire, in 1962 Karl lost his son-in-law and nephew in a major fall in Detroit. Overcoming a cracked pelvis, Karl continued his death-defying stunts. At sixty-five he traversed a distance of 1200 feet above Georgia’s Tallulah Falls Gorge, doing two headstands some 700 feet in the air.

Wallenda walked for the last time at the age of seventy-three. For a promotional event, a wire was strung about 120 feet high between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Some believe the problem was the high ocean winds. The family says that some guy ropes were misconnected. Whatever the case, Karl Wallenda plunged to his death on March 22, 1978. The entertainer once said, “Life is being on the wire; everything else is just waiting.” [Read more…] about Theology on a Tightrope

Eight Benefits of Historical Theology

by

This book has been over a dozen years in the making:

Gregg R. Allison, Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine; A Companion to Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.

It’s 778 pages. And that’s the abridged version. Allison writes in the preface, “Even when I turned in the largest rough draft Zondervan had ever received, no one laughed at or chided me. Rather, a calm and simple suggestion was made that I revisit the length of the draft for the sake of keeping the book to one volume.”

The first chapter presents eights ways that historical theology benefits the church (pp. 24–29, numbering added):

  1. [Historical theology helps the church] distinguish orthodoxy from heresy. . . .
  2. It provides sound biblical interpretations and theological formulations. . . .
  3. It presents stellar examples of faith, love, courage, hope, obedience, and mercy. . . .
  4. [It protects] against the individualism that is rampant today among Christians. . . .
  5. It not only helps the church understand the historical development of its beliefs, but enables it to express those beliefs in contemporary form. . . .
  6. It encourages the church to focus on the essentials, that is, to major on those areas that have been emphasized repeatedly throughout the history of the church. . . .
  7. It gives the church hope by providing assurance that Jesus is fulfilling his promise to his people. . . .
  8. As beneficiaries of the heritage of doctrinal development sovereignly overseen by Jesus Christ, the church of today is privileged to enjoy a sense of belonging to the church of the past.

Interpreting the Pauline Epistles

by

A good book just got better:

Thomas R. Schreiner. Interpreting the Pauline Epistles. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011.

From the preface to the 2nd edition (p. ix, line breaks added):

It is tempting to enlarge the book significantly, but I believe the book has continued to be read because of its brevity. Hence, the purpose of the revision is to update the book where necessary, especially in terms of bibliography.

The book has not changed dramatically, for I am still convinced that the substance of what I wrote some twenty years ago is correct. Nevertheless, the entire book has been revised, and there are some significant additions.

The original edition presented the diagrams in Greek but not in English, and thus English has been added to enable readers to understand diagramming conventions.

The most valuable chapter in this book—or at least the one that most strongly influenced me—is “Tracing the Argument” (pp. 97–124). It revolutionized how I read Paul.

Update: That chapter is available as a PDF (though it’s from the first edition, not the second).

Update on 3/31/2017: In my latest attempt to explain how to interpret and apply the Bible, I include a chapter on argument diagrams with a focus on phrasing (pp. 121–61).

Practicing Affirmation

by

Earlier this month I read a book that I desperately needed:

Sam Crabtree. Practicing Affirmation: God-Centered Praise of Those Who Are Not God. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011.

And I already need to read it again.

Sam Crabtree is executive pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, and John Piper, that church’s pastor for preaching and vision, writes the foreword.

Here’s an interview with the author (audio):

https://vimeo.com/51221224

And here are some excerpts from the book:

[T]he praising of people does not necessarily preclude the praising of God, if the people are commended ultimately for his glory. God is glorified in us when we affirm the work he has done and is doing in others. (p. 12)

Good affirmations are God-centered, pointing to the image of God in a person. (p. 18)

Proportionality matters when it comes to affirmation, for affirmation can be choked out by criticism, correction, or mere indifference and neglect. (p. 44)

It takes many affirmations to overcome the impact of a criticism, because criticisms are heavier and sting more. (p. 48)

Corrections tend to cancel affirmations, and the closer the proximity to correction, the more crippled the affirmation. (p. 64)

I can be so quick to point out the negative while taking the positive for granted, assuming people around me will behave the way I think they should and forgetting that I might have a role to play in encouraging them to behave in certain ways. (p. 74)

Not only commend people to their faces (or in letters), but commend them behind their backs, whether or not the report ever gets back to them. (p. 109)

Related: Bob Kaulflin on receiving compliments

Update: I named this book one of the top three of 2011.

Just Preach the Point of the Text

by

Jonathan Leeman, Reverberation: How God’s Word Brings Light, Freedom, and Action to His People (IX Marks; Chicago: Moody, 2010), 105–7, 112:

“We don’t think your preaching will build this church. So we have decided not to nominate you as our next pastor.” That is what the elders of a church said to me toward the end of a three-month interim pastorate.

It was a Sunday. We had just finished the church’s evening service, which I had led. My wife had gone home. And the four elders and I were now sitting in the living room of the elder chairman. My wife and I had prayed that, God willing, the interim pastorate would turn into a full-time pastorate. Apparently, that was not going to happen.

What was wrong with my preaching? That was the obvious question. The four brothers focused their answer almost entirely on one thing: my faithfulness to the biblical text. They put it like this: “Your preaching has been fine from the standpoint of saying true things, and much of what you’re saying comes out of the text you’re preaching. The problem is, your sermons tend to be 20 to 30 degrees off the main point of the text.” [Read more…] about Just Preach the Point of the Text

A Short Bibliography on the Church

by

Timothy Savage, The Church: God’s New People (The Gospel Coalition Booklets; Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 27 (numbering added):

  1. Belcher, Jim. Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009.
  2. Calvin, John. “The External Means or Aims by Which God Invites Us Into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein.” Institutes of the Christian Religion. Book 4. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960.
  3. Carson, D. A. Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005.
  4. Chester, Tim, and Steve Timmis. Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.
  5. Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000.
  6. Dever, Mark, and Paul Alexander. The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005.
  7. DeYoung, Kevin, and Ted Kluck. Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. Chicago: Moody, 2009. [Cf. my review.]
  8. Edwards, Jonathan. “A Farewell Sermon.” In The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1979.
  9. Keller, Timothy. Gospel Christianity. Studies 7 and 8. New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003.
  10. Packer, J. I. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Chap. 3. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1991. [Cf. my summary.]
  11. Stott, John. The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2007.
  12. Strauch, Alexander. Biblical Eldership: Restoring the Eldership to Its Rightful Place in Church. Colorado Springs: Lewis and Roth, 1997.