Author:  Drew Dyke   Reviewed by Tim Challies

I don’t know for certain, but my guess is that the early church did not need a lot of books or sermon series with titles involving words like “dangerous” or “extreme” or “radical.” If we need these books today, it is only to battle the complacency that can come when Christianity is a majority religion or an accepted religion. When Christianity is in the minority or when it is the object of persecution, life is already plenty dangerous.

But our temptation is toward complacency and sometimes we do need a good shaking up, a good talking to. Drew Dyck delivers this in Yawning at Tigers which carries the subtitle You Can’t Tame God, So Stop Trying. The title conjures up an image of a tiger in a zoo, taken from the wild, penned into a little cage, pathetically pacing back and forth. When he is caged up we can approach him confidently, safely, at our own time, without any hesitation. But this is not God as he reveals himself in the Bible.

Dyck shakes up our complacency in two broad ways. In the first half of the book he looks at the way we can inadvertently shrink God down to our size, to a manageable size. We tend to do this by neglecting or redefining his holiness, by ignoring or writing-off his wrath. To combat this, Dyck draws the reader to God’s majestic holiness, his (dare I say it?) dangerous holiness—the kind of holiness that caused Isaiah to fall on his face and Uzzah to fall dead on the ground. Through several chapters he examines God’s holiness from several different angles and reveals this holy God as being infinitely better than any safe and manageable God we may prefer.

In the second half of the book he shows that we can also attempt to tame God by diminishing his love. Just as God’s holiness is too terrifying, his love is too unbelievable, so we try to make it make sense in light of our fallibility. “We take the infinite, divine love described in Scripture and place limits on it. We make it reasonable. We project our own faltering brand of affections heavenward and assume God’s love is as flawed as ours. Even as we pay lip service to God’s boundless mercy, we tabulate our shortcomings and wonder whether we’ve exhausted his grace.”

The book packs a powerful one-two punch with the emphasis on holiness followed by meditations on love. Dyck is a good writer—a very good writer—and his prose is lively and always interesting. The whole “God is dangerous” theme could easily be overplayed, but he doesn’t allow that to happen. He turns constantly to the Bible and to a host of good sources to back and extend his claims.  Read more…

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By Raynard Sims

John Bunyan writes in his book “The Pilgrims Progress”, “I am from the City of Destruction, and am going to Mount Zion.”  This quote seems to best sum up what marked the Puritans – their extreme focus on the Word of God in light of an eternity with Christ.

The Puritans were largely considered to be a part of the movement of Reformed orthodoxy, not associated with Lutheranism. The book seeks to cover the English Puritans around 1560 who were seeking reformation from the Church of England.

The book covers a systematic understanding of the Bible from the viewpoint of the Puritans. The book is not set up to expound on a topic in the basic sense, but rather will cover what a specific, or group, of Puritans said about a certain topic. Thus, this book will not replace a systematic theology work of Grudem or Horton but will rather supplement it.

The book is divided into the following eight sections with a final conclusion:

Prolegomena; Theology Proper; Anthropology and Covenant; Theology;  Christology; Soteriology; Eccelesiology; Eschatology; Theology in Practice;  Afterword

Many people have asked the question, “Why should I read or study thePuritans?”. While it is a valid question, there are a number of good reasons to read (or slowly work through) this book. Not only does this book give a comprehensive overview of the various Puritan theologians (saving you from having to read their vast number of works) but it highlights what is distinctive of the Puritan tradition and theology. The authors and contributors have spent countless hours tracing out the Christologically shaped theology, drawing our attention to that which is beneficial and edifying for reader, but has also alluded to some doctrines that were wrongly interpreted and formulated by the Puritans.

It has been suggested recently to begin reading this work by starting with the penultimate chapter (Theology in Practice) before returning to the beginning (http://www.challies.com/reading-classics-together/read-agreat- book-with-me). This section is probably the most pastoral and definitely the most practical and challenging section of the book. The authors start by commenting how many Christians affirm Calvinism and preach the doctrines of grace but fail to live according to the standards they profess. The authors continue to highlight how much of the teaching of the Puritans were implemented in their lives and how it should possibly be incorporated in our own lives.

The various authors and contributors of “A Puritan Theology” have done an amazing work to cover the vast number of systematic topic both in width and in depth. This work will continue to be the standard for all in-depth reading and word on the Puritans for a long time to come. “A Puritan Theology” will be a worthwhile read for all who can endure the page count.

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The Intolerance of Tolerance: DA Carson

We live in a culture obsessed with the idea of ‘tolerance’.  However, when tolerance, poorly defined, is made an absolute good, it drifts towards intolerance.  It must then, argues D. A. Carson, be  thoughtfully challenged, both for the good of the church and for the good of the broader culture.  Carson examines how the definition of tolerance has changed.  It now has less to do with putting up with a person or stance while still seeking to disagree, and more to do with not saying others are wrong.  It is impossible to deploy this new tolerance consistently, so that actual practice is often whimsical and arbitrary. Worse, the words ‘tolerance’ and ‘intolerance’ have become merely rhetorical terms of approval and  disapprobation.

Despite the many negatives about these new, often ethically deficient definitions of tolerance, from a Christian perspective there have been gains as well. In this valuable and accessible volume, Carson uses examples and quotations to illustrate his analysis and concludes with practical advice on exemplifying and promoting the virtue of civil civic discourse.

“Nothing is more intolerant than a tolerance that requires the absence of all convictions. Don Carson thoughtfully shows how tolerance, once defined as respecting others’ right to hold differing perspectives, has morphed into a pervasive insistence that no one should hold firm convictions. The consequence of such a shift is a challenge to biblical faith that needs a biblical response, which Carson ably provides. In doing so, he gives the biblical basis for true tolerance in a just society and shows the inevitable tyranny of tolerance ill-defined. Not to hear and heed him is to enter a nightmarish world in which zeal to discern truth is replaced by zeal to keep anyone from claiming anything is really true.” – Bryan Chapell, President, Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis

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Author:  Reviewed by Author & Blogger David Murray

The worst kind of poison is the kind that poisons you without you realizing it. There’s no bitter taste, no pain, no sudden weakness, nothing to alarm; yet, the poison is slowly and steadily doing its deadly work.  In such a dangerous condition, our only hope is some kind of test that shows what is undetectable to normal human senses, maybe a scan of sorts that shows up the extent of the poison in our systems. Only then can the antidote be found, prescribed, and taken.

Although the vast majority of Christians don’t realize it, we are being slowly yet steadily poisoned by virtually undetectable toxins. No, this isn’t about chemicals or biological agents; it’s ideas, worldviews, philosophies, and ideologies that we are unknowingly absorbing into our systems every day of life, and that are eating away at the vitals of our spiritual vitality.

Thankfully, Pastor and Professor Anthony Selvaggio has provided a scan to help us see the toxins and the damage they are doing.  In 7 Toxic Ideas Polluting Your Mind, he shines biblical light on seven wrong and sinful ideas or ideologies that have subtly infiltrated into our thinking patterns wreaking havoc on our spirituality.  He covers:

1. 1. Technopoly:The iPod Nation
   2. Neophilia:History is Bunk
   3. Egalitarianism: We’re all in Charge
   4. Individualism: Every Man is an Island
   5. Materialism: All That Matters is Matter
   6. Consumerism: Shop Till You Drop
   7. Relativism: What is Truth?

Even more thankfully, Selvaggio also provides antidotes to these terrible toxins, biblical truths with which to attack these infiltrators and drive them out of our minds and heart, with #1 and #4 being both especially convicting and especially converting for me.

I predict that as you read you will be stunned to discover how some of these viruses have wormed their way into your thinking and you’ll be grateful to Selvaggio for helping you not only to identify them but also to train you with biblical strategies to combat and defeat them.

It’s a book that stirs us out of our passivity and onto the offensive “to pick up intellectual arms and join the battle for the mind.” It’s a call to battle conformity to the world, but not the kind of worldliness that focuses merely on external behavior; rather it’s a summons to fight against thinking like the world.

Although this is a book that everyone can benefit from (and I certainly did), its popular style, contemporary references, and brevity make it especially helpful for High School and College age readers. It would be ideal for Church Youth Groups and for High School Apologetics courses. Also, great Sunday afternoon reading for teenagers.

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