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     MacArthur speaks out against apathy in the church today; it is as it was in Charles Spurgeon's day, of which Spurgeon wrote: Everywhere there is apathy. Nobody cares whether that which is preached is true or false. A sermon is a sermon whatever the subject; only the shorter it is the better.

     Does Christ's life-long record of perfect obedience to God get 'credited' to your account when you trust in Christ and are 'justified' by God? This has been the historic Protestant understanding of the 'imputation of Christ's righteousness,' but John Piper warns that we are in danger of losing this doctrine today, because of attacks by scholars within the evangelical camp. In response, Piper shows, in careful treatment of passage after passage, that the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers is clearly the teaching of the Bible, and if we abandon this doctrine we will also lose justification by faith alone.   John Piper defends this crucial doctrine.

From a reader: 

     John Piper's God-exalting book is one of the most stimulating and engaging books that I have ever read. The chief end of man, Piper writes, is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. He expands on this by repeatedly teaching us that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. God gets the glory, we get the pleasure and happiness. In other words, God's desire to be glorified and my desire for lasting peace, happiness, joy, and satisfaction are not at odds with each other, but are one and the same goal. Reading this book will take you through a whirlwind tour of God-centered Christianity by a careful and very wise guide. Piper shows how a Christian Hedonist uses her money, loves his neighbor, worships his God, and seeks to have others join in worship by exalting God in missions and rejoicing in suffering. Using our sword (the Word) and empowered by prayer, we can be obedient in this battle. This book could reawaken countless numbers of Christians to exalt God for who he is, and is even recommended for the non-Christian who believes that this particular faith is a usual, boring one. It is no exagerration to state that this book will point one to the fountain of joy: God Himself. Therefore, I would recommend this to all who are Christian Hedonists and all who desire to become one!

     God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work, not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.

     “I pray for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. . . .  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  Those were the words of our Lord Himself at the end of John 17.  It was His last prayer for the disciples before He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and taken away to die.  Unity is a high ideal.  In every era of history, there is some loud, clear voice calling for the end of division in the church.  The fourth and fifth centuries had it in the councils that declared against Arius and Nestorius.  The eleventh century had it in both Popes and Patriarchs working, albeit unsuccessfully, for the reunion of the Greek and Latin churches.  The sixteenth century certainly heard that call, most loudly from the Roman Catholic church decrying the schism being perpetrated by Luther and Calvin.  And our own century has seen it, too, and continues to see it—a call for denominations to put aside “petty” theological differences and unite for the good of society and the world.  Iain Murray has written a book called Evangelicalism Divided.  The book is a historical record of the ecumenical movement in the United States and Great Britain in the latter half of the twentieth century.  In it, Murray traces the developments in the ministries of several key figures in the era, most notably Billy Graham, J.I. Packer, and John Stott.  His conclusion is that because of a desire to have a place at the table of ecumenical discussion, a long series of what seemed at the time to be relatively innocuous decisions eventually blurred the bright line that marks out what it means to be a Christian. 

     A key theme of this book is the antimony (unresolvable tension) between God’s sovereignty, man’s responsibility, and the Christian’s evangelistic duty. Packer says of his book that it “dispels the suspicion that faith in the absolute sovereignty of God hinders a full recognition and acceptance of evangelistic responsibility. On the contrary, only this faith [in sovereignty] can give Christians the strength that they need to fulfill their evangelistic task”

     In approaching these two concepts of Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, Packer first reminds us that the Bible teaches both concepts. The fact that we cannot resolve how these two truths fit together does not give us license to therefore declare them as contradictory. We know that God’s word is inerrant, and because both of these concepts are taught, we must hold to both of them. We do well to reflect on Isaiah 55:8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some are to be read in parts, others to be read but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly with diligence and attention".  -Sir Francis Bacon-

     The 17 th century English essayist was not thinking of the Bible as he penned this observation, though if any book should be “read wholly and with diligence and attention” it should be the Bible, so says Jim Boice, the author of a book about which one could rightly apply the entire quote…because Foundations of the Christian Faith can be tasted in small morsels, at times swallowed in big chunks, and because of its readable style even read wholly with diligence and attention.  Dr. Boice will be a familiar name to many, both inside and outside the Reformed tradition.

      In the First Edition of this work, having no expectation of the success which God has, in his goodness, been pleased to give it, I had, for the greater part, performed my office perfunctorily, as is usual in trivial undertakings. But when I perceived that almost all the godly had received it with a favour which I had never dared to wish, far less to hope for, being sincerely conscious that I had received much more than I deserved, I thought I should be very ungrateful if I did not endeavour, at least according to my humble ability, to respond to the great kindness which had been expressed towards me, and which spontaneously urged me to diligence. I therefore ask no other favour from the studious for my new work than that which they have already bestowed upon me beyond my merits. I feel so much obliged, that I shall be satisfied if I am thought not to have made a bad return for the gratitude I owe. This return I would have made much earlier, had not the Lord, for almost two whole years, exercised me in an extraordinary manner. But it is soon enough if well enough. I shall think it has appeared in good season when I perceive that it produces some fruit to the Church of God. I may add, that my object in this work was to prepare and train students of theology for the study of the Sacred Volume, so that they might both have an easy introduction to it, and be able to proceed in it, with unfaltering step, seeing I have endeavoured to give such a summary of religion in all its parts, and have digested it into such an order as may make it not difficult for any one, who is rightly acquainted with it, to ascertain both what he ought principally to look for in Scripture, and also to what head he ought to refer whatever is contained in it. Having thus, as it were, paved the way, I shall not feel it necessary, in any Commentaries on Scripture which I may afterwards publish, to enter into long discussions of doctrines or dilate on common places, and will, therefore, always compress them. In this way the pious reader will be saved much trouble and weariness, provided he comes furnished with a knowledge of the present work as an essential prerequisite. As my Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans will give a specimen of this plan, I would much rather let it speak for itself than declare it in words. Farewell, dear reader, and if you derive any fruit from my labours, give me the benefit of your prayers to the Lord.  Strasbourg, 1st August 1539.

     In the new preface Piper explains who this book is for: This book is not just for missionaries. It is for pastors who (like me) want to connect their fragile, momentary local labors to God’s invincible, eternal, global purposes. It’s for lay people who want a bigger motivation for being world Christians than they get from statistics. It’s for college and seminary classes on the theology of missions that really want to be theological as well as anthropological, methodological, and technological. And it’s for leaders who need the flickering wick of their vocation fanned into flame again with a focus on the supremacy of God in all things.

     Arthur W. Pink (d. 1953) is noted for his independent thinking. He was so well read, and had such a photographic memory, that he could give you the page and column in a host of reference works and commentaries. This book shocked the Christian world in 1919 when he first published it. He fiercely defends the sovereignty of God, and all the cognate doctrines such as the Doctrines of Grace. It is THE book to give to those just after conversion, and a prime book to give to anyone who defends the free will of man.      Pink was a Baptist preacher who held pulpits in England, America, and Australia. His conversion was instant, and complete dedication to the cause of God and truth quickly became evident. This early book by Pink lays Scripture end to end to prove God's control over all persons and events. It is uncompromising, and as such it raises the hackles on the necks of many new students of this doctrine. Persons who knew Pink seldom objected to anything he taught, because he could literally quote hundreds of verses of Scripture verbatim on the subject under discussion. This book may be overwhelming, but it is certain that its many printings have been used of God to convince people of His sovereignty. His doctrinal belief is that that God both elects and reprobates, as Romans 9:21-23 clearly teaches. It is an important stone to guide the steps of those who are not yet convinced of God's absolute sovereignty over all persons and events.

     The Death of Death in the Death of Christ is a polemical work, designed to show, among other things, that the doctrine of universal redemption is unscriptural and destructive of the gospel. There are many, therefore, to whom it is not likely to be of interest. Those who see no need for doctrinal exactness and have no time for theological debates which show up divisions between so-called Evangelicals may well regret its reappearance. Some may find the very sound of Owen’s thesis so shocking that they will refuse to read his book at all; so passionate a thing is prejudice, and so proud are we of our theological shibboleths. But it is hoped that this reprint will find itself readers of a different spirit. There are signs today of a new upsurge of interest in the theology of the Bible: a new readiness to test traditions, to search the Scriptures and to think through the faith. It is to those who share this readiness that Owen’s treatise is offered, in the belief that it will help us in one of the most urgent tasks facing Evangelical Christendom today—the recovery of the gospel.

     Listed as one of the five hundred most important books in American history, A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of the Will, Which Is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Vertue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame (Freedom of the Will, for short) is one of Edwards’s most enduring performances. In this monumental work, Edwards is at pains to combat the “prevailing notions,” advanced primarily by Arminians, that the will is “self-determined” in the sense that our choices are not predetermined by any other cause but the exercise of will itself, or are exercised from a state of “indifference.” For Edwards, this was nonsensical and dangerous, because it denied the sovereignty of God as first cause. Famously, Edwards reduced such a view of the will to an absurdity by using the infinite regress argument—causes of a supposedly “indifferent” choice were actually linked, as in a chain, stretching back infinitely. In its place Edwards offered a “compatibilist” view of the will and moral agency based on inclination that attempted to reconcile freedom and necessity. A person acted according to predisposition either towards sin, if unregenerate, or holiness, if regenerate. Choice was a matter of strongest motives. Humans have a “moral inability” to resist their strongest motives. According to one’s spiritual state, then, there was a “necessity” to choices and actions that, at the same time, did not violate freedom and liberty to make those choices and perform those actions.