Natural Theology

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Author(s): Geerhardus Vos
Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
Price: $2.99       (Sept 19-20)

Biblical and natural theology may not appear to mix, but the two actually do belong together. Vos’s reputation as the father of contemporary biblical theology is not negated by his earlier teaching of natural theology, appearing here for the first time in English.

Gathered from source material found in the Heritage Hall archives at Calvin Seminary and University, these are the earliest notes of Vos’s lectures on natural theology. They demonstrate his understanding of Reformed orthodox approaches as well as extensive knowledge of contemporary developments in the subject.

The present volume could be regarded as, and may have formed, a partial introduction to Reformed Dogmatics since it lacks a prolegomenon and because Natural Theology discusses religion and the proofs for the existence of God.

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Judah Among the Empires

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Author(s): Daniel Timmer
Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
Price: $2.99       (Oct 2-3)

Daniel C. Timmer helps today’s Christians understand the Minor Prophets.

Many Christians shy away from reading the Minor Prophets because they fear they are too difficult to understand. In Judah Amongst the Empires, Daniel C. Timmer helps today’s Christians understand how the Minor Prophets show us God’s relationship with His chosen people.

Through introductions, commentary, and Christological connections, readers will learn to love these glorious books. Use this book to guide your personal studies or a small group.

This Bible study includes material on Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah.

“The Minor Prophets have been unfortunately named since there is nothing ‘minor’ about them. Like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they treat the same grand themes of sin, judgment, and salvation, all against a covenantal backdrop. Yet they are too often neglected. . . Enter Daniel Timmer’s delightful short work, Judah among the Empires, which does a great job of retrieving these prophets and their messages for the modern church. Ideal for preachers and home group leaders.”
— Jonathan Gibson, associate professor of Old Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

 

Christ and the Culture Wars

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Author(s): Ben Chang
Publisher: Christian Focus Publications
Price: $2.99       (Oct 4-5)

A call to engage with the identity politics of our world, and reframe the way we spread the Christian gospel.

In our modern world the gospel of Jesus is seen by many less as good news for all humanity, and more as the bigoted edicts of a bygone era. Benjamin Chang explores the stories of the revolution, tracing the trajectories of four of the biggest social justice movements – feminism, racial justice, gay pride and the trans movement – before looking at the ways Christians usually engage with these arenas of cultural conflict (mirror, argue, ignore) and identifying a better way forward.

Rather than hunkering down in our own identity tribes, arguing against other groups, or ignoring what is going on in the culture around us, Chang encourages Christians to find ways to speak for Jesus. He urges us to look at the way we tell stories, and consider whether we can re–capture hearts in our culture by telling a more powerful counter–narrative. He gives us language to use to speak about the cross in our world of identity politics. We will see that the gospel resonates with a culture when it speaks the language of the culture.

The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

Author(s): Carl Trueman
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Price: $2.99       (Ends Oct 31)

What is an evangelical . . . and has he lost his mind? Carl Trueman wrestles with those two provocative questions and concludes that modern evangelicals emphasize experience and activism at the expense of theology. Their minds go fuzzy as they downplay doctrine. The result is “a world in which everyone from Joel Osteen to Brian McLaren to John MacArthur may be called an evangelical.”

Fifteen years ago in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, historian Mark Noll warned that evangelical Christians had abandoned the intellectual aspects of their faith. Christians were neither prepared nor inclined to enter into intellectual debates, and had become culturally marginalized. Trueman argues that today “religious beliefs are more scandalous than they have been for many years”—but for different reasons than Noll foresaw. In fact, the real problem now is exactly the opposite of what Noll diagnosed: evangelicals don’t lack a mind, but rather an agreed upon evangel. Although known as gospel people, evangelicals no longer share any consensus on the gospel’s meaning.

Provocative and persuasive, Trueman’s indictment of evangelicalism also suggests a better way forward for those theologically conservative Protestants famously known as evangelicals.

 

The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People

Publisher: Zondervan
Price: $1.99       (Ends Oct 9)

“The greatest story ever told” is more than just a cliché.

God goes to great lengths to rescue lost and hurting people. That is what The Story is all about: the story of the Bible, God’s great love affair with humanity. Condensed into 31 accessible chapters, The Story sweeps you into the unfolding progression of Bible characters and events from Genesis to Revelation. Using the world’s most popular modern-English Bible, the New International Version, it allows the stories, poems, and teachings of the Bible to read like a novel. Like any good story, The Story is filled with intrigue, drama, conflict, romance, and redemption – and this story’s true!

The Story features a foreword by Max Lucado and Randy Frazee. This book tells the grandest, most compelling story of all time: the story of a true God who loves his children, who established for them a way of salvation and provided a route to eternity. Each story in these 31 chapters reveals the God of grace – the God who speaks; the God who acts; the God who listens; the God whose love for his people culminated in his sacrifice of Jesus, his only Son, to atone for the sins of humanity.

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Prepared by Grace, for Grace

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Author(s): Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley
Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
Price: $2.99       (Oct 9-10)

Few teachings of the Puritans have provoked such strong reactions and conflicting interpretations as their views on preparing for saving faith. Many twentieth-century scholars dismissed preparation as a prime example of regression from the Reformed doctrine of grace for a man-centered legalism. ‘In Prepared by Grace’, for Grace, Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley make careful analysis of the Puritan understanding of preparatory grace, demonstrate its fundamental continuity with the Reformed tradition, and identify matters where even the Puritans disagreed among themselves. Clearing away the many misconceptions and associated accusations of preparationism, this study is sure to be the standard work on how the Puritans understood the ordinary way God leads sinners to Christ.

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Old-Earth Creationism On Trial

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Author(s): Tim Chaffey & Jason Lisle
Publisher: Master Books
Price: $2.99       (Oct 16-17)

As the modern Church struggles to find a place of relevancy for a new generation that already has massive demands on its time and attention, more and more young people raised in the Church are leaving it – failing to find the answers to their questions of faith and life, beset with doubts raised by issues that the Church chooses not to address. Opting to skirt the controversy of Genesis as literal history, the biblical authority of the Holy Word is called into question and reduced to a collection of mere stories. More popularly considered an issue for schools or in the public realm, the conflicting views on the age of the earth also remain a pivotal issue within the Church – as it has for over two centuries.

Was the Creation week literally six days?
Does science really point to an old earth?
Does the issue really matter for Christians?
Should this issue even be discussed within the Church?
Join authors Dr. Jason Lisle and Tim Chaffey as they put forth a case against an old-earth interpretation of Scripture. A comprehensive biblical, theological, and scientific critique of old-earth creationism, the book presents its compelling testimony in layman’s terms to create a powerful debate that leads to unquestionable truth.