A Note for PG Gazette and Townhall.com Readers

Thank you if you are visiting this site because of today’s story in the Prince George’s Gazette, “Pastor Addresses Skipping Church,” or because of today’s post at Townhall.com (and carried at Crosswalk.com), ”Is Jeremiah Wright Mainstream?” The tab to the book, Where Are All the Brothers?, is above the first post in a tool bar line for this site’s pages. The Amazon link is at the top of the right side bar. I am appreciative of your visit.

New Book: Secret Sex Wars

Below is my endorsement of Secret Sex Wars, edited by Robert S. Scott, Sr, being posted at their website. Please tell a brother about the book. I have counseled men through pornographic additction; I have heard first-hand of the struggles of others. The need for help is real.

Like an evil parasite ever-looking for another host, sexual immorality, in all of its deviant forms, has buried itself into the walls of the belly of the Internet, and thus into the minds of many feeding continually on its images. Although the sickness and bondage from this sin is at pandemic levels in the world, its pervasive presence in the African American community only exacerbates the speed and depth of the erosion of our families and our communities. Secret Sex Wars comes to us at a time when the call to arms needs to be sounded in a new and clearer tone. This clarion call will benefit the men and women who heed the charge because the book is rooted in the Word of truth rather than the empty bio-psychiatry words of the modern talk-show hosts—those have appointed themselves falsely as experts and prophets on sexual liberty in our community. This book challenges men to take responsibility for their failures to fight off sexual sin without being naïve about the power of sexual sin or being condescending toward the sexual struggles, hurts, desires and disappointments of African American men. The candor of the writers about their own falls and triumphs leaves every reader without the ability to excuse defeat by saying “but these men do not know my pain,” for they do. My hope is that Secret Sex Wars will run a wide course through the African American community so that we might be rescued from the plague of sexual sin before we destroy ourselves from the inside out.

 

Helm: Calvin, A Guide for the Perplexed

From Paul Helm at Helm’s Deep:

Those who visit Helm’s Deep may be interested in this short book, Calvin, A Guide for the Perplexed, (a nicely ambiguous title, don’t you think?), to be published later this year by T & T Clark. It is intended to be an introduction to Calvin’s theology, with (where appropriate) a philosophical flavour.

 

The Chapters are -

1. Orientation

2. The Knowledge of God and of Ourselves

3. God in Trinity

4. The Son

5. Grace and Faith

6. The Christian Life

7. The Church and Society

8. Calvin and Calvinism

 

With the agreement of the publisher I hope to post three or four shortish sections from a draft of the book between now and its publication. The first of these will appear next month. So Jonathan (Edwards) , a paper on whose views of the Trinity was previously announced, will have to wait in the queue until John (Calvin) has had his say….

Incidentally, if you have the need of a translation of the Institutes, then the reissue of the Beveridge translation (newly published by Hendrickson) may be just the thing. It has new indexes, and has been ‘gently edited’, which means, I hope, only the removal of typos and other detritus. (I have not yet had the chance to check). Beveridge is superior to Battles in sticking closer to the original Latin, and having less intrusive editorial paraphernalia.

‘I have also consulted the older translations of the Institutes, namely those of Norton, Allen and Beveridge, in view of both the accuracy of those translation and the relationship in which they stand to the older or “precritical” text tradition of Calvin’s original. Both in its apparatus and in its editorial approach to the text, the McNeill-Battles translation suffers from the mentality of the text-critic who hides the original ambience of the text even as he attempts to reveal all its secrets to the modern reader’. (Richard A. Muller, The Unaccommodated Calvin, (New York, Oxford University Press, 2000, Preface, ix)

Thank you, Professor Helm! I am going to encourage those I serve to get the book.

Blaque Tulip; Book Notices: April 4, 1968

Over at the Blaque Tulip, Lance Lewis has written about our Unrivaled Savior. He has other posts pertaining to the presidential contests and our hope that are worth reading. I also appreciate his post on Glory; it is one of my all-time favorite movies too.

I also am appreciative of Newsweek’s cover story on William F. Buckley, Jr. I make no apologies for enjoying the writings of Buckley or George F. Will. Both men have helped me to think of how to speak about God, morality, truth and ethics to the committed liberal and secularist, even behind DuBois’s veil. I can only hope to have their respected wit when I reach age 60.

Even so, I still enjoy reading Dyson. (It is hard to live behind the veil philosophically when you understand the Gospel; even more so when you understand it from a Calvinist perspective. Dyson has served me well for helping me to remember I am trying to reach people within the veil too.) I am looking forward to his newest: April 4, 1968.

 Finally, I hope Accountable in the Covenant series will make us accountable to living morally.

Reposting Where Are All the Brothers?

This is a repost of the Where Are All the Brothers? post for those of you asking for the orginal post since the format of the blog has changed. The tab to more information is above the first post on this page, below the letterhead rather than to the right as in the previous format. This new format also has a search box. I am making this repost until I can figure out how to put a widget for the book on the front page.

Nathan Finn’s Domestic Slavery and Baptists

Church historian Nathan Finn at The Fullness of Time Blog has a new book coming out with colleague Keith Harper, entitled, Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution. From the blog, here is the post:

 Lord willing, my first book will be hitting bookshelves in about eight weeks. Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution was first published in 1845, about a month before the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. The book was based upon a series of point-counterpoint articles originally published in The Baptist Repository, a paper in Boston. The authors were Francis Wayland and Richard Fuller, two denominational leaders among Baptists in mid-19th century America.  Several historians have argued that the book was the most important work of its kind. It has not been in print since the 1850s.

My colleague Keith Harper and I have annotated the work, added a brief introduction, and included an appendix that reprints several articles from The Baptist Repository related to slavery and the formation of the SBC. The book will be published by Mercer University Press in its The Baptists series, edited by notable Baptist historian Walter Shurden. I hope to author several posts in the next few weeks about the two authors and the book itself.

I am looking forward to Nathan’s observations. Nathan also recently made a good post on the concept of ”Reformed Baptist.“

Tim Keller’s The Reason for God Available

Tim Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is available at 38% off now from Westminster Bookstore. Tim is also featured in Newsweek. May we all learn from him how to speak to the skeptic without apologizing for robust belief in the One True and Living God. Get this book for a skeptic - aka “seeker” to some - you know. Congrats Tim!

Where Are All The Brothers?

A little bit of self-promotion here: Where Are All The Brothers? Straight Answers to Men’s Questions About the Church (Crossway, 200 is available for pre-order at Amazon. A description can be found on my Where Are All The Brothers? page — the link is to the right.  I hope especially to get this book into the hands of scores of brothers behind bars, in uniform, and on high school and college campuses.     

God be praised for his grace and mercy toward me. May he bring glory to himself through the book. Many thanks to a great team at Crossway for bringing this project to fuition.

Great Stocking Stuffers!

Daniel Hyde just published God With Us: Knowing the Mystery of Who He Is. From the back cover, Michael Horton writes: “Why the God-Man?” Athanasius’s question frames the entire complex of Christian faith, piety, worship, and practice. With devotional warmth and doctrinal clarity, Pastor Hyde makes an excellent tour guide through the treasures that lie at the heart of history–indeed, at the heart of God himself. Whatever the stage in the Christian pilgrimage, God with Us will lead readers from meditation to doxology, (Michael Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California).

   

   

Over at Westminster Bookstore there is a great 45% off sale on all ESV Bibles.

   

John Piper has kind words to say about the newly released The Divine Decrees, by Jonathan Edwards, edited by Oshea Davis.

Finally, among other great reads this year, I have been enjoying Malcolm Yarnell’s Formation of Christian Doctrine. I appreciate Malcolm’s gentlemanly effort to strengthen our methodological senses before we are washed away under postconservatism’s storm.

Megachurches, Megaphones: My Tribute to African American Reformers Anthony Carter and Thabiti Anyabwile (and Carl Ellis, Bruce Fields, Ken Jones, and Wy Plummer)

 When Anthony Carter’s On Being Black and Reformed was published, I think the Reformation in the African American community surpassed Mach 1. Finally there was a rallying point, a buoy, and a field book for those of us saying to others, “come over here and get excited about a better way of thinking about Christian living and ministry in our context!”

  

  I remember reading the book with great excitement over the course of about two days. (I was so thrilled that I immediately wrote a review of the book for the Journal of African American Southern Baptist History, a journal that is not available online, but can be obtained by contacting the Florida Baptist Convention.)  I am thankful for the Lord’s kindness to us through his servant Anthony Carter.     

 Now another book has me equally excited! Except for getting my children ready for school this morning and writing this blog post, I have not been able to put down Thabiti Anyabwile’s The Decline of African American Theology! This book is going to take the new Reformation to Mach 2. We now have a tool drawing from a common history with other African Americans (as opposed to the Reformation texts and history) from which we can fight the good fight and contend for the once and for all delivered faith. Prior to this text, there was always a loophole in making the case for Reformation in the African American community. But Anyabwile closes this loophole to a pinhole by demonstrating it is not the Black neo-Reformers who have deviated from the faith of our forefathers. Instead, it is the greater African American church and religious community that has deviated from the orthodoxy held by our forbears and almost disintegrated; (yes, in our context it is community rather than communities, for we a quite syncretistic). Thank you, Lord, for giving us the hope of reformation, revival and revitalization through the Pure Church writer formerly known as Ron Burns.         

  Thinking of these two men reminded me of an unpublished work I produced in 2006 in which both of them were mentioned as Reformation examples. The article, Megachurches, Megaphones, is included below as an MS Word file. This work is my tribute to them for leading the way in this new Reformation. They exist in stark contrast to the megaphonies.  

megachurches-megaphones.doc  (Megachurches, Megaphones is about the Black Church and social justice, or the lack thereof by Word of Faith churches in particular.)

My tribute also rightly belongs to Carl Ellis, Bruce Fields, Ken Jones, and Wy Plummer, who have been in the trenches of the new Reformation for at least two decades longer than the upstarts (self included). We stand on their shoulders and on the shoulders of many others like them. I am sure Carter and TA do not mind sharing this tribute with these men.