J I Packer's Puritan Portraits

J. I Packer is one of those writers who is always a  pleasure to read. Any writer must consider it pure gold to have him do an introduction to their book. Also  Packer is at his best when he is talking up the Puritans. His introduction to the Death of Death is a classic in its own right and was essential reading when I was at college for the course The Person and Work of Christ. So right from the start Puritan portraits promises much. It's a compilation of his introductions to Puritan works with Christian Focus, they do however lose something as they belong with the books assigned, this is certainly felt in the shorter introductions. Although this is the case the Puritan Portraits is still an excellent read. The biggest loss is felt in the first section on Henry Scrougal. It may whet your appetite for Scrougal’s book, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, but it is as much about George Whitefield as Scrougal himself because of the effects that Scrougal’s work had on Whitefield and then through him the great awakening.  I have read The Life of God in the Soul of Man and loved it and this introduction stands well alongside it. Yet it isn’t much of a portrait of Scrougal. I suspect this is in part that as he died at such a young age these isn’t too much to say about it.

I wondered how I would react to those Puritans that I hadn't read, when I read Packers portrait of Stephen Charnock it gave me a desire to read Charnock for myself so I downloaded one of his works for my Kindle, so job done Dr Packer.

The Bunyan portrait is a good introduction to Bunyan whose Pilgrims progress is one of the most successful books of all time. Packer distils Grace Abounding to the Chief of sinners effortlessly whilst interviewing comments from Pilgrims Progress and the book he was introducing the Heavenly Footman.

Of Matthew Henry Packer  begins with ‘This write up of asset of six sermons was Matthew Henry’s final literary labour’ and could have been edited as it is clearly introducing a work that isn’t included in Puritan Profiles.  That said Packer offers us in this small section Henry’s view of God, the Word and the Church and this written in such beautiful prose that I am eager to read Henry afresh.  Packer urges us to get into Henry to discover that the Puritan reputation of being downcast is not true as Henry wants us to a joy filled life whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. Henry wants us to be devoted to God and to live our lives in the presence of God.

On the section on John Owen, Packer is in his element he acknowledges the enormous debt he owes to his hero Owen and he points us to why, we Packer rightly believes do not have the attributes of attributes of God, that is the holiness of God that Owen and Scripture have. We also don’t have the same view of our sinfulness and how to deal with our sin. Something that Packer found lacking in his own early Christian experience until he discovered Owen and found himself being challenged and changed as Owen exposed Packer to the word of God.

Packer introduces us to John Flavel whose work is heart-warming  and like many of the Puritans his work seeks to lead us into both understand how to say yes to God not just with actions but with a heart that longs to say yes.

With regard to Thomas Boston, Packer points out that this leading light of Scottish Reformed Theology was a man concerned with soul winning. We, Packer points out think of the conversion process as something that happens in an hour or two following a special meeting where someone shares the gospel, gives an appeal and then sends them those on a counsellor for follow up. Boston recognised in his own experience and that of those around him that the new birth could be a process of months. Boston believed in Evangelism, sharing the gospel through the preaching of the Word both in a worship setting and in the home.

Boston believed that we should be like our Lord in Fishing for souls, 1, faithfulness even at the risk of upsetting people. 2, to seek to recover lost sheep. 3, prayerfulness, Jesus prayed spending much time and energy in prayer so should we. 4, Singlemindedness.  5, Seek opportunities to move from earthly things to heavenly things.

Packer also walks us through Boston as the shepherd of souls, not just evangelising but ministering to those in need who have suffered. Packer reminds us that this is because this was something that Boston knew from experience. In very saints life comes hard times but these hard times are used of God for our good and are only for this time. Some of those will remain for all of our days on earth whilst we go through these times we must ask God to straighten the crook in our lives but being patient and seeking hard for the lessons that God is seeking us to learn during these times. 

For Packer the reason to read the Puritans is multifaceted but one of those reasons is because they are deep, they desire you to be serious about who God is and how serious sin is not just in general but your own sin. Packer acknowledges that the Puritans are hard going but that is because what most Christian books are today is just froth. He urges us to keep on with the Puritans, underline their headings and then go back again and read them again, in doing this you’ll realise it wasn’t a waste of time.

May the God of the Puritans be our God as we strive to live in light of His bountiful grace

Stephen

Mercy and Justice in Les Mis

I have just watched Les Mis at the movies, I have never read the book but enjoyed the musical about ten years ago. What an amazing story of mercy! When Jean Valjean leaves jail after nearly 20 years for stealing a loaf of bread he thinks he is free but  his past is going to haunt him as his papers say that he is a convict so he cannot get bread and he cannot get lodgings. His situation is utterly hopeless, hopeless that is until a priest shows him kindness by offering food and a bed for the night. How does Valjean react to this kindness? He steals all the silver he can find and flees in the night but he is caught very quickly and returned to the priest. The priest shows him even more undeserved kindness and tells the police that he didn't steal them, he was given them. He tells them that Valjean wasn't just given them but that he forgot the most valuable part of the gift, the large silver candlesticks and gives them to him. He then tells Valjean that he must use the gifts that have been given to him to become a better man. Valjean reaches a crisis point, he has been shown mercy and knows he cannot be the unloving person he has always been, he acknowledges his crimes and cries out to God dedicating his life to God. His crisis point ends as he determines that a new story must begin as Jean Valjean's story has now come to an end. Eight years later we find him running a factory and as mayor of a city. A man with a reputation for kindness and mercy who is respected by all and will help anyone whatever the cost. He is a new man.

Yet there is another figure we meet in the beginning, Javert the policeman. Javert is a law abiding citizen and doesn't understand how anyone could commit a crime or expect someone who commits a crime to ever be a changed man. They are lawless, always without grace and hope, and have no chance of finding God or heaven as they are damned. Javert is a tragic, heartless man, similar in many ways to a Pharisee. Javert meets the mayor and sees that he is Jean Valjean when the mayor shows mercy, as the mayor rescues someone stuck under a carriage and the mayor uses all his strength, it reminds Javert of Valjean . A light goes off in Javert's head that this man is Valjean and he relentlessly pursues justice from then on. The great tragedy that for Javert is that, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, he cannot see that Valjean is a new man, a changed man.  It isn't until the end of the show that Javert, who has repeatedly seen the mercy and grace working in Valjean, reaches his own crisis point. Valjean is merciful, he has been merciful to Javert, but unlike Valjean, Javert is repelled by Grace. He will not be a debter to grace or mercy, not at the hands of a criminal like Jean Valjean. So Javert takes his own life rather than becoming a transformed man.

Victor Hugo writes a tale that could come out of the gospels with Valjean being like the tax collectors and sinners who were entering the kingdom whilst the Pharisees who sought to uphold the law were left outside. Valjean receives grace and becomes a grace-filled man who loves with compassion and whose crisis point leads on to a new life of mercy to others. He reveals himself to be a trophy of grace with his good works pointing away from himself to the one who showed mercy on him.

Are you a person who has known grace in your life, has this led to you becoming a trophy of grace displaying God's love to others? Jesus shows mercy to the undeserving for free, this leads to a new life of showing mercy to others.

Grace
Stephen <><

Dear Billy Graham, Mormonism is still a cult

I thought I'd wait until after the American election before posting this as this is not in anyway politically motivated. I am not American, although I am married to one and love the US and the church there. I also have my theologically differences with Billy Graham but I do respect him and believe God has used him mightily throughout the latter half of the C20th. His achievements should not be dismissed and neither should his love of God. Yet I am really concerned that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association removed Mormonism off it's list of cults after Mitt Romney visited Dr Graham.

I know that we share similar ethical views with Mormons on marriage (although some Mormons still hold to their original belief in plural marriage), abortion and would share simple moral views on a whole host of other issues so I do understand why Billy Graham felt he could endorse Mitt Romney's campaign to get into the White House yet Mormonism is still a cult because:

It believes God was once a man on a planet and that a good Mormon shall become a God of his own planet and populate his own planet with his many wives. Genesis 3 tells us that it was the Serpent who first suggested to man that he could become a god and he hasn't changed his game.

Mormons do not believe in the Trinity, Elohim was born on a planet and fathered Jesus or Jehovah (this is confusing because they call him by a name of God but He is not Elohim- In Scripture, Elohim and Yahweh are the same, The Father, The Son and the Spirit. In Mormonism Jehovah has a brother and his name is Lucifer, according to Mormonism these were fathered in the spirit world. They felt out when Elohim picked the Mormon Jesus to be the saviour of the World.

They do not believe in the virgin birth instead The Mormon Elohim impregnated baby 'using natural means' Brigham Young. Which 

Of course much worse than any of that is their view of Salvation, Mormons believe that man is basically good so Christ did died to pay for the sins of Adam only. Mormons believe in a sort of universalism, the best Mormons get to be gods of their own planets, the rest go to heaven. They baptise the dead to make non-Mormons into Mormons so they can go to this second class of heaven. They have a system in place that makes salvation obtainable by works, baptism and temple sacrifices (not animal sacrifices).
Paul warned us in Galatians chapter 1 to be aware of even an Angel if it preaches a different Jesus and a different Gospel this applies to the message of Mormonism which was supposed to be delivered by the Angel Moroni. May Mormons come to see the true God and the true gospel and find life.

Shalom

The Prodigal Prophet

I have been hanging out with an old friend recently, the prophet Jonah or at least the book in the Bible about him.

I find Jonah's story to be one of the most amazing stories in the whole Bible .  Each chapter begins with a surprising twist. In fact the whole account is full of surprising twists and turns. The first chapter even opens with a shock, Jonah the son of Amatti, has the Word of the LORD come to him. Yet the surprise comes as this prophet of God, who may already have had a faithful ministry in Israel against the crooked King Jeroboam the 2^nd, (2 Kings 14:25) runs off in the opposite direction.  Verse 3 tells us ‘But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.’ Jonah who was called of God, hears the voice of God, experiences the presence of God in a real way and what does he do? He bolts in the opposite direction as fast as he can. This isn’t a sin of ignorance it is wilful disobedience as he tells the sailors later, (v10) ‘For the men knew he was fleeing the presence of the LORD, because he had told them so.’  Jonah experienced the utter folly of running from an omnipresent God, for you cannot outrun a God who is everywhere at the same time.  So the consequences of Jonah’s actions led to his being thrown overboard the ship and ending up in the belly of a great fish. That is probably where we would expect Jonah to end, a very short book on judgement of disobeying God but that is not where the book ends.

Chapter 2 begins in the belly of a great fish. You may have heard of the revivals in Wales, but chapter 2 starts with a revival IN a whale (or big fish). The shock of chapter 2 is first, that there is a chapter 2 and second that what is eating to Jonah is not a big fish but his own stricken conscience.  Jonah in the midst of the dark, dank, smelly belly of the great fish calls out to God in prayer. If ever a situation was without hope this seemed like it - the disobedient prophet hidden away in the stomach of a fish towards the bottom of the ocean. Yet it is not without hope, Jonah cries out to God in prayer (2:1), ‘Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the great fish.’ We are given some indication of that hope for, in spite of his disobedience and the circumstances Jonah finds himself in, we are told that Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. There is still some sort of a relationship between God and Jonah. Jonah takes the words of Psalm 18 and makes them his own. He acknowledges his sin and his utter dependence upon the LORD. Verse 7 proclaims, ‘While I was fainting away I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to You, into your holy temple.’ He goes on to say, ‘That which I have vowed I will make good. Salvation belongs to the LORD’.  Jonah in his hopelessness promises to keep his vow to the LORD and chapter 2 ends with Jonah standing on dry ground, although probably still smelly and messy from his experience.

The greatest shock in the whole book however is that in chapter 3, ‘The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time.’ This prophet who disobeyed God by running from his very presence is once again given the opportunity to serve God as the call is renewed and Jonah is forgiven. Jonah discovered that God’s mercies are new every morning. Whilst we serve a holy God, He is also a God who is able and willing to forgive us and bring us home to him

The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon by Steven Lawson

I received this book for free I am not obliged to give a positive review. 

I am enjoy the series Long Line of Godly Men edited by Steven Lawson  and this book is no exception Lawson loves Spurgeon and knows his subject well. That said I do think that it is very dependent upon Iain Murray's Forgotten Spurgeon and covers much of the same ground. This isn't a problem unless you read the two back to back (as I did due to Lawson giving thanks to Murray for his book). Lawson weaves in and out of direct Spurgeon quotes and retains a beautiful flowing text, it seems almost effortless but reflects I suspect years of delving into Spurgeon's vast treasure trove. Lawson shows that Spurgeon had a warm hearted reformed theology, a theology that was motivated by a high view of God's sovereignty but that was equally concerned to see sinners saved. 'I preach Calvinism as high, as stern, and as sound as ever; but I feel, and always did an anxiety to bring sinners to Christ. He saw anxiety for sinners as a key trait of preachers' This led Spurgeon into controversy with the hyper Calvinists on the one hand and the Arminians on the other. This is because Spurgeon was biblical in all his thinking and preaching, as he said of Bunyan we can say of him, his blood his bibline, wherever you prick him he bleeds Bible. The truth always attracts controversy it is not that Spurgeon looked for it but it came looking for him and he was able to stand up for Christ. This was to help him later when within his denomination when he fought for the authority of Scripture in the downgrade controversy. Spurgeon was confident in God and in God's word and this kept him, Lawson tells us that Spurgeon was concerned to preach only what he found in scripture. He did this by using his extensive intellect to study the word but also relying upon the Holy Spirit. Unlike a lot of reformed baptists Spurgeon believed in the power of the Holy Spirit in more than a credal sense, but he wasn't a charismatic in fact he dismissed the holiness movement seeing it as an Arminian error that had developed because much Arminian gospel preaching did not led to regeneration and so was inadequate. Spurgeon believed in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about life at the New Birth which resulted in a personal holiness. In preaching Spurgeon relied on God to speak through His word and trusted the Holy Spirit to do the work in saving souls. He entered the pulpit believing this was God's work and that God would do it. May He do it again by raising up men like Spurgeon in this generation. I commend the book to you!

In the Grip of Grace

Stephen

It's Friday but Sunday's coming

The glorious humility of Christ! Spurgeon on the exaltation of Christ

The Shadow of Death- Holman Hunt

  

Man seeks to win his glory by the slaughter of others—Christ by the slaughter of himself: men seek to get crowns of gold—he sought a crown of thorns: men think that glory lieth in being exalted over others—Christ thought that his glory did lie in becoming "a worm and no man," a scoff and reproach amongst all that beheld him. He stooped when he conquered; and he counted that the glory lay as much in the stooping as in the conquest. Charles Spurgeon

The best and worst moment in history was the moment that Christ died, the agonising, humiliating death of Christ. He was dishonoured and treated like a sham so that those who put their trust in Him can dwell in his glory forever. 


Shalom
Stephen <><