Posted by Jeff Short on December 4, 2020 · Leave a Comment
Understanding the Congregation’s Authority by Jonathan Leeman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I’m a firm believer in congregationalism as the only biblical model, but any attempt to build the case for congregationalism from the Old Testament is going to be problematic. First, the church is not in the Old Testament, but is a mystery revealed by Christ in the New Testament. That is not the same thing as saying the Old Testament has no relevance for the church. Leeman’s approach suffered from a covenant theology that has been developed theologically and not exegetically. He places the church at the end of the line of historical redemptive development as though the church is ultimate—Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Christ, church. He actually made the church out to be another Adam, which confuses the churches’ purpose and mission. There is only the first Adam and the last Adam, which is Christ. There is the first Adam and the second Adam is Christ. Leeman puts the church in a universal, invisible kingdom where the church is another Adam taking dominion of the earth. This is an over-realized eschatology where the church supersedes Israel and serves as a second priesthood. More could be said.
Where Leeman actually addressed congregational authority from the New Testament, he did a good job. There’s definitely good in this book, but it’s a shame it’s in such a mixed bag.
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Posted by Jeff Short on September 24, 2020 · Leave a Comment
Relativity: The Special and General Theory w/Figures & Formulas by Albert Einstein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
For a book written over one hundred years ago, this writing is admirably clear and concise. Einstein explains moving beyond the limits of plane, Euclidian geometry (no pun intended). He certainly wasn’t saying Euclidian geometry was wrong per se, but rather that it wasn’t sufficient to deal with real practical problems of the world and space. If I have understood his work, time is not constant and the universe is spherical, or elliptical, in shape. If I can make a practical application of this masterly work, my weight as a semi-rigid body in a Galileian system will vary relative to the motion, i.e., acceleration or unaccelation, of my body in time-space and the point of observation. So, the next time my doctor complains about me being overweight, I can suggest that is due to the observation point and it is all relative anyway.
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The Justification of God: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Romans 9:1-23 by John Piper
The Mystery Of The Lord’s Supper by Thomas Watson
Writing to Learn: How to Write–And Think–Clearly about Any Subject at All by William Zinsser
