so after reading the book i naturally looked around for some commentary, and i was particularly interested in what religious commentators had to say. i found an article in a prominent publication that i believe is wildly off the mark.

the article comes from Christianity Today and is entitled “What Would Jonathan Edwards Say About Harry Potter?” (thus mixing two of my prime interests!). in this article the author, Josh Moody, begins by stating:

So there we have it. The most engrossing imaginative world created at the start of the 21st century is essentially pagan.

that is the thesis of his article, and i do not think he could be more wrong. i would argue that it is not essentially pagan, but is essentially, i stress the word essentially, Christian. do i think the Harry Potter story is a Christian allegory? no, i don’t. do i think the Harry Potter story deals with many issues pertaining to religion including death, love, the natural state of man, and redemption? you betcha.

Moody goes on in his article to show how Jonathan Edwards interacted with popular (and by that i mean main stream, pop-culture type things) trends of the day, most notably the rise of Enlightenment thinking. he states, and i agree, that Edwards would not have ignored the Harry Potter phenomenon, but would have searched its pages for insight in to why these books affect people the way they do and what that says about the contemporary cultural climate.

Moody then goes on, however, to misrepresent what he sees as the central theme of the series. he says:

The latest and last of Rowling’s Potter series…is all about death. In case the title didn’t make that clear (”the Deathly Hallows”), the frontispiece has two quotations referring to death. There is a sense in which the whole seven-volume series has been about death.

Even Dumbledore (beware: spoiler) seems to have tinkered with the less-than-salutary sides of this fascination. Also, there’s Voldemort, with his evil determination to avoid death at the cost of others’ lives, and Harry, dear Harry, who with his purity and bravery manages to cheat death again and again, even finding himself at one point in a sort of cosmic waiting room with the dead Dumbledore.

now on one level i suppose you could say that the overall story is about death. but i think that would be selling it short. i think it would be much more accurate to say that the overall story is about how to deal with something that we will all one day face, and that, of course, is death. we will all one day die. we will all lose friends and family to that last enemy. the question is more about our response to when that happens and our taking it upon ourselves now to learn how to deal with death for the times when we are staring death straight in the face. i think that’s part of the brilliance of the story. what J.K. Rowling has managed to do is to show children an honorable way, in the characters of Harry and those around him, of dealing with death. too many children’s tales fail to deal seriously and honestly with the subject, too many parents believe it to be too weighty of a subject, and so our children grow up not knowing how to cope when someone is lost. that is a great tragedy.

but Moody’s misreading goes deeper than that. he describes Harry, pure and brave (Harry is certainly the latter, but i would not argue that he is the former), as having managed “to cheat death again and again.” now, that may be true on some level and in some instances, but it makes me wonder if he truly read the entire series as he has claimed to have done. more often than not Harry’s “cheating” of death is due to the brave and gallant friends that he has surrounded himself with, or it is due to the effects of the profound sacrifice of love that his mother made for him when he was an infant.

but though he may have “cheated” death in the first six books, by the end of the seventh Harry was mature enough and brave enough to look death in the face and say, “O Death, where is thy sting?” now i said in my previous post that i didn’t think the scene in which Harry sacrificed himself was that powerful, and i still don’t on a surface reading level, but the more i’ve thought about it the more i’ve discovered the true profundity and beauty of the imagery that Rowling packed in. but more on that in a second.

Moody goes on to say:

What does this tell us, Edwards would have wondered. He would have discovered that we live in an age that is fascinated by the transcendent—and the paranormal—but that, while intrigued, is totally confused about that realm.

Edwards would have seen that the essential question of spirituality—What happens when I die?—is a great vacuum that culture is looking to fill. The series also tells us—and this no less important—that if Rowling’s world is expertly reflecting the light our world can shed on these matters, true understanding is at a pretty low level.

part of the beauty of books is that different readers can get different ideas out of reading the same words. however, i’m not sure where Moody gets that the underlying question of the series is “what happens when i die,” especially when that question is based around the “cosmic waiting room” scene that Moody referenced.

Harry, in a sense, knew what was going to happen when he died. he was going to be able to join those he had lost, those who had sacrificed themselves, by and large, to save and protect him. and he was ok with that. if there was one thing that Harry had finally understood it was that there are far worse things and far worse fates than death.

the “essential question of spirituality” that i believe Rowling addressed in the series is “what is the greatest virtue that exists in the world?” and, as we are continually reminded throughout the seven volumes, that virtue is love. it is shown in the sacrifice Harry’s mother made to protect him. it is shown through the many relationships, flawed as they are, that Harry clung to as he grew up and began to understand love. it is shown through the great sense of guilt and remorse that Dumbledore had in the loss of his sister. it is shown through the incredible lengths that Snape would go to out of love for the girl he never won.

above all that, however, it is shown in Harry, at the height of the ultimate battle between good and evil, accepting his fate, taking that fate head on, and walking to his death under the belief that his sacrifice would save many. deeper than that, however, Harry contained a piece of his enemy within him. thus it was not really Harry who died at the end of the Avada Kedavra curse, but evil. to make it abundantly clear, you could say that Harry carried the ultimate expression of sin and death with him to his death, and he then rose again to fight and win the final victory.

i believe that is what Edwards would have seen. and i believe that he would be satisfied that no more compelling of a story is needed in order to shed “true gospel light on the transcendent.”

one of my professors, here at RTS Charlotte, died yesterday after years of battling cancer. this wasn’t a surprise as Dr. Brown’s health had been declining fairly rapidly over the last month and a half or so as his cancer came back with a vengeance. before he got sick this last time, i was planning on going to Europe with him this summer for a Reformation history course.

Dr. Brown was truly a brilliant man. he earned four, yes, four, degrees from Harvard College and Divinity School, and he was a renowned expert in the fields of systematic theology, right-to-life issues, ethics, journalism, public affairs, and political philosophy. he was a co-founder of The Christian Action Council, now known as Care Net, Inc., the leading evangelical pro-life organization which works to help end the atrocity of abortion through education, ministry, and the establishment of pregnancy centers around the country. aside from his teaching and his social efforts, Dr. Brown was also an accomplished scholar. he published several notable works including The Sensate Culture, The Protest of a Troubled Protestant, and Death Before Birth. however, he was probably most known for his work Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church, widely recognized as the definitive work on the subject of the various theological errors throughout the history of the Christian church.

Dr. Brown was one of my favorite professors here at Charlotte, not because of his courses, which were good courses, but because of his always cheerful presence in the halls of the seminary. he always had a joke or a great story ready, and he often spoke in limericks, which was quite funny. the first time i spoke to him, he asked me, in hebrew, to go to lunch with him. unfortunately, i had to decline (and this only after he translated his question after seeing my thoroughly confused expression) but his willingness to reach out to the students and truly get to know them will be greatly missed.

i thank God for the great privilege of knowing and studying under Dr. Harold O.J. Brown, and i rejoice with the angels that he is finally home and free from the suffering that he had to endure in this life. he can now join the Apostle Paul in saying, “i have fought the good fight, i have finished the race, i have kept the faith. henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

as mentioned in an earlier post i attended the Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference in Grantham, PA last week. it was an amazing conference and i plan to make attendance a yearly thing no matter where i end up in ministry. in giving my reflections, i will follow the categories of the description of the conference from the aforementioned post.

IT’S A PREACHING CONFERENCE: it truly was a preaching conference. this year the theme centered around the doctrine of holiness, and what holiness should mean to a minister of the gospel. i won’t take the time to recount all of the messages that were given at the conference, but i do want to mention the two that impacted me the most. for a rundown on the other talks, visit Tony’s blog (here’s an index of his posts on the conference)

the opening sermon of the conference, given by Ben Short, dealt with Philippians 1:21, wherein Paul proclaims, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Reverend Short expounded on what this should mean to ministers and that this verse should be “the antidote to discouragement.” Christ is everything for us. Christ is first, last, and everything in between, and this should bring to focus the various trials of ministry. one of the biggest tests that a congregation can go through is to see how their pastor(s) deal with strife and suffering.

Short quoted Robert Murray McCheyne in saying (loosely), “the greatest need of the people in my church is my personal holiness.” yet not just holiness when things are going good, but especially when things are going badly. Short reminded us that when we are confronted by jealousy of others’ success, “to live is Christ.” when we are bogged down by church politics, “to live is Christ.” when we have unhappy congregants, “to live is Christ.” when we are faced with any trial whatsoever, we are to remember that “for me to live is Christ.” suffering for the sake of Christ is the test of our boast in him, and people are watching to see how we respond in those times. and so we were challenged to really own what it means to say, “for me to live is Christ” and to truly live that out in our ministry to others.

the second message of the conference was given by Sinclair Ferguson. Dr. Ferguson preached from Titus 2:11-15 on the Father’s purpose and the Son’s purchase of our holiness. there is a sense in which i am still reeling from the effect that this sermon had on me, and i am still processing what was said. so hopefully what follows will make sense. Dr. Ferguson began by stating

holiness in imperatives (commands) is unmovably rooted in indicatives (propositions) powerful enough in grace to sustain the great weight of those imperatives

one could spend hours meditating on that statement alone. what he’s saying is that the commands of Scripture are shocking and difficult (i.e., 1 Peter 1:14-16), but as difficult and heavy as they may seem, there are truths about and promises by God powerful enough to withhold the weight of those commands in our lives. those truths and promises are made manifest in the work of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us and enables us to walk anew in light of both the promises and commands of the Triune God.

that is the purpose of God the Father in our holiness: to choose us that we might be holy, to elect us from the foundation of the world that we might be conformed to the image of his Son through the work of the Holy Spirit. but this purpose required a purchase, and that purchase was made by Jesus Christ, Son of God. often in Reformed circles there is much focus, for good reason, on the purchase of our justification, or right standing before God. yet there is often less focus on Christ’s purchase of our sanctification, which is just as much a part of our salvation and union with Christ as our justification is. in other words, we are purchased in the full of our being and in the fullness of the ordo salutis (”order of salvation”; see Romans 8:28-30).

while the death of Christ necessarily purchased the justification of the elect, the redemptive work of Christ does not end with justification. Christ’s work also purchased freedom, though a progressive freedom, from the effects of sin for all those who are his. Dr. Ferguson listed five ways in which Christ does this:

- Jesus dies to propitiate (satisfy) the wrath of God against those who are called by grace
- Jesus dies as an expiation (purging) of our defilement
- our holiness is effected at the death of Jesus because at his death he died to sin
- Jesus dies to free us from the bondage of Satan
- Jesus purchases for us the gift of the Holy Spirit

justification is purchased by this, yes, absolutely, but so is sanctification. the death of Christ purchases the grace powerful enough to sustain the great weight of the imperatives to live holy lives before God and men. the glory and truth of this, said Dr. Ferguson, is summed up in Colossians 3:12-13, a passage which Dr. Ferguson described as a picture of true, practical Calvinism. as God’s chosen ones, because of what the Father has purposed for us, and because of what Christ has purchased for use, namely the fullness of union with him, may we put on holiness and put off worldliness. “were that it was true that all Calvinists (and i would say all Christians) would live like this.”

what a challenge!

IT’S A FELLOWSHIPPING CONFERENCE: the fellowship at this conference was unlike anything i had experienced before. i rode up with a group of 8 or 9 other men, and though i was a stranger to most of them before the conference, as we returned home i felt that i had known them for quite some time. i am so thankful for having the opportunity to have met them and i hope to continue to grow in relationship with them. what struck me most about the fellowship at the conference was how “real” everyone seemed to be. i never got the impression that anyone was putting on for others or anything like that. much of this is due to the fact that the discussion was not all pleasantries. many of the pastors i talked to were open and honest about their ministries and the great joy they have in their people, but also extreme hardship and struggle that comes along with dealing with sinners on a daily basis. for someone who will be finishing seminary in about a year, the insight and wisdom i gleaned from these men was invaluable and i am eager to learn more from them and to also apply what i’ve learned in my own ministry.

IT’S A WORSHIPPING CONFERENCE: though our current church is more contemporary in worship than not, i’ve never really been one to come down hard on either side of the contemporary vs. traditional music debate, although, if pressed, i would lean more towards the traditional side. after this conference, however, i would say that i’m leaning much more heavily to the traditional side of things. there is much to be said for the stripped down, simple singing and worshiping of God through psalms and hymns. there is something to be said for worship that is more about what is being sung and proclaimed than the variety of instruments or tunes played (though i must say that God is a God of beauty and order and tunes and instruments are tools in reflecting that beauty and order). you could call it almost mystical in the sense of that “mystic sweet communion” not only “with those whose rest is won,” as the old hymnwriter put it, but also with those with whom you are, in unison, proclaiming the great words and truths of Scripture.

spiritually this conference impacted me more than anything i can remember, save the day i put my trust in Christ as Lord and Savior of my life. perhaps, though, i could feel this way only because of where i am in life right now, namely a seminary student on the cusp of entering full-time, vocational ministry. i pray that i will take what i learned from this conference into my ministry and that i will look back on my first experience (the first of many, i hope!) at a Banner of Truth conference with fondness for the rest of my life.

THE REST: on the more material side of things, i can see other reasons why so many pastors, re: bibliophiles, look forward to this conference every year. on the one hand, Grantham is right next door to Carlisle, PA, not only home to Banner’s North American office, but also home to Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, one of the best places to get great deals on books. over at the Banner office are the famous “secret shelves” wherein there are treasures to be found at 50% off the list price.

and then, of course, there is the legendary “Sinclair Ferguson’s Tour Through the Conference Bookstore.” being skeptical before going to the conference, i am now a true believer in this wonderful tradition. basically Dr. Ferguson leads first-time conference goers through the bookstore and talks about books that every pastor should have, or about the impact of certain books on his own spiritual life. great as it is to get book recommendations from someone like Sinclair Ferguson, the real magic comes in his being a trustee of Banner of Truth and the discounting power that such a position holds. at this particular conference, titles he spoke on were discounted either 65 or 75% off (though i’m told that in the past discounts have reached as high as 80 and 90%), which is just simply unbelievable.

so not only did i come away from the conference literally blown apart by the depth and weight of the teaching, the fellowship, and the worship, but i also came home with an abundance of new reading material. oh that there were more hours in the day for reading.

all in all this conference was wonderful, and i am counting down the days to May 27-29, 2008 when i hope to again be making the trip up to Pennsylvania to attend the conference.

Richard Baxter’s work, The Reformed Pastor, is a lengthy exposition of Acts 20:28, wherein Paul instructs the Ephesian elders, “Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (51). Following the pattern of this verse, Baxter structures his exposition in three parts.

In the first part, Baxter explores what it means to “take heed, therefore, unto yourselves,” and breaks this into two sections: the nature of this oversight and the motives of this oversight. On the nature of the oversight, Baxter exhorts pastors and overseers in the church to seek assurance of their own state of grace before they begin to work towards the goal of seeing others come into or grow in a state of grace. He stresses the need for ministers to know, and study, and be affected by the truths and beauty of the gospel of Christ as a prerequisite to the work of the ministry. Concerning the motives of ministers taking heed unto themselves, Baxter notes the ministers are much more susceptible to, and often much more plagued by, temptations of Satan than are regular Christians. Knowing this alone ought to be motivation enough for pastors to watch closely how they walk in the Lord.

In the second part of the book, Baxter examines another phrase of Acts 20:28, looking at what it means to take heed to the flock. Again this chapter is broken down into the nature and motives of this oversight, and a third section, the manner of the oversight is added. Under the nature of the oversight, Baxter stresses the vital importance for the minister to care for each individual member of his flock, being mindful of their state and needs and the methods to go about either growing them in grace or winning them to Christ. Also of importance was the great emphasis that Baxter puts on shepherding families and heads of families so that they may assist the minister in keeping watch over the flock. Concerning the manner of the oversight, Baxter’s instructions are best summed up in saying that ministry is only to be done for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The last section of this part of the book concerns motives for the oversight of the flock, and Baxter notes the great privilege it is for a minister to be made overseer of a parish by the Holy Spirit. Again, this ought to be motive enough for the minister to give his all to God and to the ministry in order that those souls under his care might be won for Christ.

In the third and final part of The Reformed Pastor, Baxter gives a guide to applying all that he has discussed in the first two parts of his book. He first discusses the use of humiliation in the pastor’s life, lamenting over many common sins that pastors often fall to. He does this in order for pastors to be humbled for their past negligence in their duties, and to encourage them to be spurned on to greater obedience in their calling. The rest of this section is spent in outlining a program for carrying out the work of special instruction among the flock including personal catechizing and personal instruction on the things of religion.

Overall this book was a helpful treatise on the vital importance of the calling to gospel ministry and was very blunt about the care that must be taken upon entering and living under this calling. However, there are several issues with Baxter’s method that bear mentioning. In the third part of the book, on applying what he had previously discussed, Baxter’s language tends to be quite militant and strict in the steps he outlines to carry out the oversight of the flock, and he often strays into broad-brushed condemnation of certain activities. It is implied that any pastor that does not devote two entire days of each week to making house calls for the purpose of catechizing and instructing his flock is being deficient in his duty, or at the very least is devoted too much to his preaching and study, and not enough to caring for and catechizing his flock. It also seems that he is too harsh on what he calls “unnecessary recreation,” be it socializing or otherwise, stating that the only recreation a minister needs is “an hour, or half an hour’s walk before meat” (216). But perhaps the greatest hindrance of the book is its dogmatic “do” mentality. One might read the book and think that no room has been made for the Holy Spirit to work, and that the success or failure of the ministry is solely based on the performance of the minister.

Though these faults may take away from the overall value of the book, the book is still quite useful to ministers today. Baxter’s insistence on the necessity of true, biblical church discipline is something that every minister needs to take to heart. Discipline, far more in the present day than in Baxter’s, is the one mark of the church that is virtually non-existent. The modern church has lost a sense of what it means to faithfully carry out disciplinary acts of love in the hopes that those disciplined might repent and return to their Lord and their God. In reading the striking words of Baxter on the issue, pastors will hopefully be restored to a correct understanding of the need for discipline and then be motivated to enact discipline in their own churches when the need arises.

The book’s biggest value is in the first part which gives instruction on the minister watching over himself. Baxter’s words are so vital and so relevant to ministers throughout the ages that they would be doing themselves harm not to heed the warnings and encouragements that Baxter gives, particularly in the need for ministers to “preach to yourselves the sermons which you study, before you preach them to others” (61). As Baxter notes, too many ministers neglect their own souls and carry out their ministry as they would any other vocation, with no sense of urgency of the things of the gospel. However, not only is this doing violence to the calling of God in the pastor’s life, but this does little to assist the flock in taking the gospel seriously. Thus it is vital for the pastor to be gripped and affected by that which he preaches and teaches his people, so much so that he is outwardly and publicly affected. Only then will those in the flock begin to have a sense of wonder towards the gospel and take seriously the calls of the pastor to faith and repentance.

i’ve been reading through Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor, and i was convicted by the passage quoted below. with all the theological battles raging today, particularly in Reformed circles, Baxter’s words here offer striking counsel.

The Scripture sufficiency must be maintained, and nothing beyond it imposed on others; and if papists, or others, call to us for the standard and rule of our religion, it is the Bible that we must show them, rather than any confessions of churches, or writings of men. We must learn to distinguish between certainties and uncertainties, necessaries and unnecessaries, catholic verities and private opinions; and to lay the stress of the Church’s peace upon the former, not upon the latter. We must avoid the common confusion of speaking of those who make no difference between verbal and real errors, and hate that ‘madness formerly among theologians,’ who tear their brethren as heretics, before they understand them. And we must learn to see the true state of controversies, and reduce them to the very point where the difference lieth, and not make them seem greater than they are.

How unsuitable it is for us, who live only by kindness, to be unkind!

have you ever had a moment when you’ve been reading when you’re so struck by a sentence or paragraph that you just can’t read anymore and feel driven to put your book down and meditate on that sentence or paragraph? that happened to me tonight as i read these words from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “Much in Deeds of Charity.”

this sentence struck me because it’s so true. how ridiculous it is for us who live only by the sheer kindness of our Creator, who sustains us day after day, to be unkind or uncharitable to those who are just as much the image of God, and just as much sustained by Him, as we are. i think this sentence struck me so much because of the time of year it is. at a time when we should all be the most joyful, preparing to celebrate the birth of our Savior and the great hope that came into the world because of that birth, there’s probably no other time of year in which people are more unkind, more uncharitable, more everything bad. just watching the news or going to any kind of store is enough to support the claim. people fighting over parking spots, people being incredibly impatient with understaffed retail stores, people being beaten up or even killed over a popular toy — it’s madness.

so perhaps there is no better time of year to pay attention to these words of Edwards’, and no better time of year to put a little more effort in to loving our neighbors as ourselves.

This moment of tragedy and evil [referring to 9/11] shone its own light on the Church and what we came to see was not a happy sight. For what has become conspicuous by its scarcity, and not least in the evan­gelical corner of it, is a spiritual gravitas, one which could match the depth of horrendous evil and address issues of such seriousness. Evangelicalism, now much absorbed by the arts and tricks of market­ing, is simply not very serious anymore (David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, 4).

these are the words that John Piper chooses to open up the first chapter of this volume with. not his words, but the words of David Wells, and Wells could not have put it any better. the church is simply not very serious anymore. at least not when it comes to suffering and evil. sure there are rallies and money drives and things like that, but there is often no love, no ministering, no truly getting one’s hands dirty in order to “love one’s neighbor as himself.” this has resulted, in Wells’ words, in a lack of a spiritual gravitas, or a lack of spiritual weightiness, in matters of suffering and hardship. rather than deal with suffering, the church is content with increased programming. rather than deal with the incredible depth of sin, the church, by and large, would rather call for boycotts against companies like Disney and Wal-Mart. but this is nothing more than a band-aid mentality. worse yet, it’s like trying to put a band-aid on cancer. it just doesn’t do any good.

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God is the latest volume to result from the annual national conference put on by Desiring God Ministries, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. the book is divided into three sections, these being “the sovereignty of God in suffering,” “the purposes of God in suffering,” and “the grace of God in suffering.” the most helpful thing about this book is that, as Justin Taylor says in the introduction, this is a book on applied theology, rather than a book dealing with abstract ideas. each of the contributors of this book has dealt with their fair of suffering. two contributors are paralyzed and deal with chronic pain, two experienced the death of a parent when they were young, two have had children die in the past few years, and two are currently battling prostate cancer. through all these trials, each tells how they have found comfort and hope in the sovereign God, the “God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3).

the greatest thing the American church can take away from this book is that God is sovereign over all suffering, all evil, all schemes and devices of Satan. this is the subject of Piper’s first chapter in the book. Piper issues ten calls to celebrate the fact that God is more powerful than Satan and the evil powers. Piper calls us to celebrate that God is sovereign over Satan’s delegated rule, over Satan’s angels, and over Satan’s hand in persecuting the church. we are to celebrate that God is sovereign over Satan’s life-taking power, over Satan’s hand in natural disasters, and over his sickness-causing power. we are to celebrate that God is sovereign over Satan’s use of plants and animals, over his tempting us to sin, and over his mind-blinding power. finally, we are to celebrate that God is sovereign over Satan’s spiritual bondage. even though he may bind us through either misery and suffering or through pleasure and prosperity, we are to rejoice that Satan is not sovereign over his captives. only God is. and God is merciful in setting free those whom are His from this bondage through the gift of repentance and faith. what joy there is in this. what grace, and what mercy.

not only should we rejoice at this, but we should hasten to share this joy and this comfort with others in hopes that they too may be set free from their bondage to sin. that is what the church should take away from this book. not to run from suffering. not to ignore it or suppress it, but to look to God for comfort and freedom in facing our sufferings head on. not only for our sake, but for the sake of others as well, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians,

for as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

may this book serve to comfort those who are suffering, may it serve to deepen their love and awe of God, the sovereign Lord of all things, including evil and suffering. and may they, through their comfort, be better equipped to comfort others who suffer, sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them, and calling them to rejoice in the God of all comfort.

this volume is a new edition of the three classic works on sin by John Owen. the folks at Crossway Publishers have worked hard at getting this new edition, which they are saying is “more accessible” (meaning it has been transcribed into more modern English than Owen wrote in), but without losing any of Owen’s content. and the editors of this volume, Justin Taylor and Kelly M. Kapic, handle this task marvelously.

one of the first questions that is always asked by people who are encouraged to read old, dead theologians is, “why should i? how can someone who wrote hundreds of years ago, in such a different cultural context possibly be able to speak to me?” questions like these fail to take into consideration, however, that even though humans may be located in different places at different points of history, the human condition is essentially the same. it is essentially cross-cultural. people that lived in the sixth century BC would have experienced similar struggles, similar joys, and similar desires that we still experience today, more than two thousand years later. and this is especially true in regard to sin, and so it is wisdom to listen to and learn from the insights and advice of those that have gone before us. and this is the reason that Owen is so essentially helpful to us today.

as mentioned, this volume, Overcoming Sin and Temptation, is actually a compilation of three works, Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, his Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It, and his treatise on Indwelling Sin. the first of these works, on mortification, is so helpful today that i will focus this review on it.

sin is a dirty word in the modern world today, especially, sadly, in the modern evangelical church. no one wants to talk about sin. no one wants to admit that they do sin. and, of course, no one wants to know how to mortify sin, for if they did then they would have to admit that they are a sinner. this is because of a lack of understanding of the nature of sin and the power that sin has over humanity. as Owen states in this work, a superficial understanding of sin will produce a lack of motivation in fighting it, and it is precisely such an attitude towards sin that Owen argues against. once the Christian is convinced of the power and true presence of sin (Owen’s Indwelling Sin is particularly helpful here), then they can start about the task of mortifying sin.

Owen, after noting what mortification does not mean, identifies three aspects of mortifying sin in a believer. these aspects are the habitual weakening of sin so that it has less and less of a chance to take hold, the constant warring and contending against sin, and being victorious in these battles so that sin no longer directs the desires of the heart. Owen then goes on to describe how this war is fought, both in the preparation for battle and the actual battle strategy that a Christian must develop if he is to have any kind of success in mortifying sin. and, of course, every step of the way, Owen emphasizes again and again the sheer necessity of the Christian’s relying upon the Holy Spirit to illumine, guide, and assist in this great task.

sin is, indeed, a dirty word. a dirty practice. and it is because of this that the church must face it head on and mortify it. it cannot be ignored, nor can it be underestimated. doing so only will give sin a stronger foothold and more opportunity to overcome individuals and communities. no, it must be mortified, and because of this the modern church is greatly indebted to those who have made this new edition of Owen’s works on sin available to a new generation of readers. Christians must see it as their duty to constantly be putting sin to death, and Christians should therefore be exhorted to flee to the wisdom and insight of John Owen in doing so.

in Owen’s immortal words, “to kill sin is the work of living men; where men are dead [Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13], sin is alive, and will live.” and so, saints in Christ, “be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”

a few months ago i wrote this post describing a new book that was going to be coming out, written by Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. as i said in the previous post, i was somewhat excited to get around to reading this book, and i was even more excited at receiving the news that i would be receiving a free copy of the book when it released in May.

i received the book a few weeks ago and have put off reading it until now because of some buzz that was going on when the book first came out. some who had read the book and reviewed it had severely questioned some of the things that Driscoll had recounted in his Confessions. Driscoll has long had the reputation of being brash and outrageous at times, and many have particularly been critical of the fact that he sometimes (at least in the past) cusses while he is preaching. he even received published recognition of this fact in the popular book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. while the language and words that Driscoll uses may be questionable in some respects, the slander and libel that he is receiving are even moreso. for this reason, i have chosen not to speak at length about some of the more provocative passages for the following reasons:

1. they have already been discussed ad nauseum throughout the blogosphere.

2. many of those that have been most outspoken against the book and against Driscoll have, as they admit, nor, again per their words, do they have any intent of doing so.

3. having read the book, it is clear that the criticism is largely unwarranted, especially when the passages are taken in context with the chapters they are in and in the overall flow of the book.

so if you’re looking for another blog review that slams a brother in Christ for using words that don’t fit inside a whitewashed tomb, then you should probably move on.

Confessions of a Reformission Rev. is written as a confessional history of the life of Mars Hill Church. it chronicles the church from its inception, with a handful of couples, to its present state, with about 4,000 members. as with any lasting church, Mars Hill’s has experienced times of great blessing and growth, and also extreme lows and several points of certain death. like the church, Driscoll too experienced times of great joy and blessing in his ministry, but also times of questioning and severe hardship. in recounting both trials and periods of fruitfulness Driscoll speaks with candid honesty. this honesty was one of the things that struck me about the book. it is not often that pastors will speak as openly about their ministry mistakes and failures as they do about their successes. what i found most impressive was the humility he displayed at both extremes, always acknowledging that “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away,” viewing the trials as times of pruning and growth in faith, and the times of blessing as confirmation of God’s love and the ministry that He had given Driscoll.

another point of interest in the book was Driscoll’s telling of the early days of the Emergent movement, his involvement in the early days, and the fact that he is currently distancing himself from those who have taken Emergent into what it is today. he outlines the disagreements he has with many of the Emergent leaders and continually affirms that he is committed to biblical doctrines and understandings of the faith, and that he is not ashamed of the true Gospel as revealed in the record of redemptive history that God has given us. despite what many pro-postmodern leaders would have us believe, Driscoll’s ministry and church is a profound testimony to the fact that the biblical message of the Gospel of God’s grace–that we are all sinners who are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ who humbled Himself to take upon the sins of those that are His, paying the penalty for them as a sacrificial lamb in order to purchase redemption, newness of life, and eternal blessedness for those whom God adopts as children–is still “relevant” to and capable of making sense to the so-called postmodern generation. Driscoll does not shy away from presenting a “bloody” Gospel (as some refer to the biblical message and refuse to preach because they cannot reconcile it with the way they think it should be) because he believes that to be God’s truth. and rightly so.

one of the only issues i have with Driscoll’s philosophy of ministry (i have a few, but most of them are largely preferential, rather than any kind of clear right/wrong dichotomy) is his ambition to grow his church to over 10,000 members. he does mention that the church has been planting churches around Seattle and elsewhere, and that is definitely commendable. however, i wonder what kind of toll that will take on Driscoll to pastor a church that large. thankfully, he has chosen a church model that allows him, as he says, to be a pastor of a 70-100 member “church” with those numbers representing the number of elders in the church. Driscoll spends time getting to know the elders and trains them for ministry, and then lets them pastor the various ministries that they have been placed in leadership over, allowing Driscoll the time to prepare sermons, study, and write so that all of his time is not taken up making hospital visits and doing counseling sessions. i would be interested to see what kind of impact that has on the average church member. i’m curious as to how they would view Driscoll. just a face at the front of the stage (or on the screen)? the designated speaker of the church? or do they sincerely consider him to be their pastor. my concerns aside, it is obvious that this model works for Mars Hill and that God is greatly blessing the efforts of all involved.

at the end of the day, this book has had a great impact on me. from Driscoll’s zeal for the lost and his city, to his humble honesty in telling of his successes and failures, to his dramatic transformation from a cussing, sarcastic youth leader to a godly and loving pastor, there is no doubt that God has been and is at work in him and in his ministry in Seattle. i would strongly encourage all Christians, especially those training for pastoral ministry to read this book and glean the wisdom that Driscoll carefully and graciously shares. i hope the book will be as much of an encouragement to all who read it as it was to me.