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Written in the genre of Henry David Thoreau's travel-thinking essays, Jesus, History, and Mount Darwin: An Academic Excursion is the story of a three-day climb into the Evolution Range of the High Sierra mountains of California. Mount Darwin stands among other mountains near fourteen thousand feet high and that are named after promoters of religious versions of evolutionary thinking. Rick Kennedy, a history professor from Point Loma, uses the climb as an opportunity to think about general education and how both the natural history of evolution and the ancient history of Jesus can find a home in the Aristotelian diversity of university methods. Kennedy offers the academic foundations for the credibility and reliability of accounts of Jesus in the New Testament, while pointing out that these foundations have the same weaknesses and strengths that ancient history has in general. Natural history, Kennedy points out, has a different set of strengths and weaknesses from ancient history. Overall, the book reminds students and professors of the wisdom in being humble.
A Faith Worth Believing, Living, and Commending
The materials presented here are reflections on a variety of topics: a belief in God's suffering and the pastoral implications of this; Luther's theology of preaching; practical approaches to evangelistic preaching; pastoral advice on death and dying; apologetic preaching in a post-Christian culture on the model of Paul; effective living in the power of the Holy Spirit, striking a balance between enthusiastic service and fervent love; the image of God's love in the Old Testament; and personal exhortations.
Although this book was written on the balcony of my own study where reflection and meditation are carried out, it is cognizant of ministry contexts where people's needs and struggles are most evident. With anecdotes and analyses, the readers will be enabled to discern the signs of divine transcendence in their lives, and to apprehend, or rather to be apprehended by, the beauty of God's grace–the abiding basis of our being and well-being.
What has been written in this book reveals the heartbeat of a mentor who earnestly hungers for divine beauty and holiness, a mentor whose hunger God eagerly fulfills, just as he promises, and a mentor who wishes this same fulfillment to happen for readers. The basic assumption in this book is this: a faith that is worth believing is a faith that is worth living, and thus worth commending. The book is also an exercise of faith seeking understanding–understanding only God could supply. It is written with the hope that it will lead readers from knowing God to loving him, to enjoying him, and finally to proclaiming him so that others will be brought into the orbit of God's inestimable grace. Not until our hearts, which God's heart touches, touch the heart of others is our ministry complete and our life found pleasing to God.
Psalm 15
Psalm 15 begins with two related questions: «LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?» (v. 1). These are questions worthy of our consideration as Christian business professionals seeking to integrate our faith and our work. The psalmist answers the questions with the following description: «He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken» (vv. 2-5, NIV).
Using this psalm as a basis, Southwest Baptist University's College of Business and Computer Science is devoted to educating «Psalm 15 professionals,» who exemplify traits including integrity, service, respect, charity, faithfulness, truthfulness, humility, and perseverance. The devotions in this small volume draw readers' attention to the need for believers to exemplify such character traits. Contributions from the SBU faculty and administration remind us of the necessity to approach life and work with a biblical worldview. This volume is an abbreviated version of another Resource Publications book, A Noble Calling: Devotions and Essays for Business Professionals, also available from Wipf and Stock Publishers (www.wipfandstock.com).
From the Dust
"She was dirty and dusty. Her curly hair had seen neither a comb nor water for months. In one hand she carried a package of cigarettes and in the other a solvent rag." Young Namusisi had no home, no family, no money for school fees, and no one to love her or care for her. She survived in the culture of the buyaye on the streets, parking lots, and porches of the city of Kampala, Uganda. But one day she met Daddy Kefa and her life was changed. He took her to his children's home where she was provided for and was shown the love of Christ. Namusisi was just one of more than six thousand Ugandan street children who were rescued from a meaningless and hopeless life by the efforts of a compassionate, selfless, and godly man. From the Dust contains the poignant stories of many of those destitute children–stories of how they came to live on the streets and of how their lives were changed. Here are stories of a people ravaged by a demonic dictator, a people who had lost all sense of humanity and were struggling under emotional, physical, and spiritual poverty. From the Dust tells how the efforts of one man made a difference to so many who were groping in a dark world of sin and hopelessness. It is the story of the love of God to the lost and dying, and of how that love made a difference to so many Africans and can still make a difference to those who will trust in him. «He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory» (1 Sam 2:8).
Let's Talk about Money before You Tie the Knot
This book reviews the financial past, present, and future of couples contemplating marriage, with questions and text posed to highlight critical points. The work required in this financial counseling course for couples is purposely kept to a minimum to ensure that the task will be finished. Forms that accompany the questions enable each member of a couple to complete an individual workbook. A facilitator's guide is also provided. While the simplicity of this book recommends it, the wealth of good financial information and guidance in Let's Talk About Money Before You Tie the Knot provides a solid financial foundation on which to build a marriage.
When History Teaches Us Nothing
When History Teaches Us Nothing is an early historical reflection on the recent Reformed debate over the late John C. («Jack») Miller's Sonship Discipleship Course. Miller (1928-1996), an erstwhile professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary (Pennsylvania) and an influential pastor in the New Life congregations of the Presbyterian Church in America, sought to minister to the jaded by accenting God's grace in the gospel. Gradually fears grew that his approach was spawning, among other things, an antinomianism and a revivalism antithetical to Reformed theology and piety.
While not dismissing these concerns, Trumper argues that Sonship can only be accurately evaluated once it is understood in light of the practical loss within conservative Presbyterianism (i.e., within Westminster Calvinism) of the gracious Fatherhood of God and the sonship of believers. Drawing on his knowledge of the theological history of adoption, Trumper notes the significant parallels between Miller's protest of paternal grace and that of the early nineteenth-century Scottish churchman John Macleod Campbell (notably his stress on the life of sonship–"the prospective aspect of the atonement"). Trumper thus cautions today's Westminster Calvinists against repeating their forebears' mistake, which was to dismiss the validity of Campbell's protest on the basis of the problems with his proposed solution.
By so arguing, the author provides a more balanced and constructive response to the debate, highlighting its potential for the biblical renewal of Westminster Calvinism. Essential to this renewal is the recovery of the Fatherhood of God and of adoption, the evening out of attention accorded the Bible's forensic and relational (specifically familial) elements, and the better reflection of the theology and tenor of the New Testament (especially). Only such a renewal, Trumper argues, can render superfluous further protests for paternal grace.
Building Up the Church
Building Up the Church: Live Experiments in Faith, Hope, and Love, the companion volume to Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's book, New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today's Church (2008), is a practical study guide to invite the church to imagine that «another ways is possible» as it lives into its identity as «God's peculiar people» (Titus 2:14). Its stories, reflection questions, and suggested exercises are designed to catalyze local churches and Christian communities into becoming «laboratories for the gospel kingdom»–that is, communities that serve the living God and their neighbors by carrying out experiments in faith, hope, and love.
Religion on Trial
In a concise and devastating style, Craig Parton, an experienced trial lawyer versed in the laws of legal evidence, argues that religions uniformly fail the simplest tests of admissibility for their respective claims. Few religions even bother to make testable assertions, relying instead at best on subjective and existential appeals. The stunningly few historical, and thus verifiable, claims of a precious few religions can be swiftly sorted out, and the result is an astounding vindication of the central nonhearsay claims of the first-century eyewitnesses to the life and work of Jesus Christ.
This work challenges the prevailing viewpoint that all religions are making the same, or even similar, allegations. More troubling than this prevailing view is that the religions of the world remain diametrically opposed on the issues of the nature of humanity, the reality of evil, the nature of history, and the way of salvation. Sorting out the clashing claims of religions is the task of this book, and a trial lawyer well schooled in the laws of admissible evidence brings insight and clarity to matters normally thought to be solely in the domain of philosophers and theologians.
Crossing Borders for the Truth
The time is post-World War II; the place is the United States and sporadically several «at-risk» foreign countries. The story is about a young scientist, Richard, who believes that the origins of violence and warfare can be found in the early life experiences of individuals. To test this belief, Richard insists he must have firsthand research experience, which means traveling to foreign countries to observe local populations under stress and to study their children. In the process, he meets many intriguing people and inadvertently gets entangled in a potentially dangerous espionage operation.
William Charlesworth has created a story embodying two problems: on epistemological, the other biobehavioral. The first is the problem of acquiring the truth of something firsthand as a valid substitute for learning though potentially unreliable intermediaries such as the popular media. The second problem is the question of whether the origins of violence lie in normal resource competition between individuals rather than in some form of innate human pathology. While conducting research to deal with these problems, Charlesworth's scientist encounters individuals whose survival behavior challenges the value of posing both problems.
All the Evidence You Will Ever Need
In All the Evidence You Will Ever Need scientist Paul Baba expounds on numerous areas of evidence that support the concept of a Creator of the universe, the Bible as a document given to mankind by the Creator, and the process that the Bible teaches as the way to eternal life in Heaven. The purpose of the book is to reach non-believers and seekers with a rationale for the gospel. The book will also be useful in college classes, youth groups, study groups, and Sunday School classes. It will be especially important to parents of students who encounter teachers and professors who seek to undermine faith in a Creator. There are key chapters on the problems with evolution, the case for the Bible as God's word, fulfilled prophecy, the basics of Christianity, transformed lives, and a number of other areas of evidence to support faith.