Book Review: A Theology of Luke and Acts: God’s Promised Program, Realized for All Nations

Posted by Jeff Short on January 25, 2020 · Leave a Comment

A Theology of Luke and Acts: God’s Promised Program, Realized for All Nations by Darrell L. Bock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bock takes the Lukan books together and traces major themes throughout the two books. The continuity shows Luke and Acts to truly be a two volume work. The book has brief sections at the beginning providing concise commentary and then most of the book is arranged topically, bringing together references from both books that contribute to the topic at hand. It is a helpful book for studying either Luke or Acts separately, or both books together.

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Filed under Reviews · Tagged with Acts, Biblical Theology, Church, Gospel, Luke, New Testament

Book Review: Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship

Posted by Jeff Short on December 20, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship by John Piper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a fantastic treatment of the task of preaching. Piper aims to bring together the rigors of exposition with the beauty of Christ’s Gospel from Genesis to Revelation. He gives careful attention to various texts throughout the Bible to show how every good promised to believers in Scripture is bought by Christ’s work on the cross, so the preaching of Christ from all Scripture is not some tacked on mask or afterthought. This book is helpful on a number of levels and will help you think about the aim of preaching and how that aim is accomplished through faithful exposition.

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Filed under Reviews · Tagged with Church, Expository Preaching, Gospel, John Piper, New Testament, Old Testament, Pastoral, Preaching, Reviews

Book Review: The Bible Expositor’s Handbook: New Testament

Posted by Jeff Short on December 20, 2019 · Leave a Comment

The Bible Expositor’s Handbook, NT Edition: New Testament by Greg Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book on exposition of the New Testament. Harris uses a consistent historical grammatical hermeneutic while looking at various New Testament passages. He considers intertexuality, progress of revelation, biblical theology, and the nature of prophetic fulfillment. He treats the interaction between the testaments and traces major themes through the New Testament. It is not exhaustive, but it is helpful and accessible.

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Book Review: The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God

Posted by Jeff Short on October 26, 2019 · Leave a Comment

The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God by George Eldon Ladd
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I disagreed with a lot in this book and came to realize the problem with it is a foundational hermeneutical issue. Ladd held to a re-interpretation of Old Testament texts by the New Testament, so later revelation changed the contextual meaning of prior revelation. Though he tried to maintain some sort of continuity of the kingdom from the Old to the New Testament, he ended up with a discontinuity in the nature of the kingdom as revealed in the Old and New Testaments.

He spiritualized and generalized the kingdom to where at times he made it synonymous with salvation, eternal life, etc. He conflated conceptions of the universal lordship of Christ and the mediatorial kingdom of men on the earth. He ended up with a supersession of Israel and reformulation of the people of God to the point that his vision for the restoration of Israel fell short of the promises/covenants made to the fathers, which necessarily included a geo-political, ethnic, and territorial kingdom with Jesus Christ on the throne of his father David in Jerusalem ruling over the twelve tribes united on the land promised to Abraham.

It was an interesting read historically, but I can’t recommend it as helpful.

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Filed under Reviews · Tagged with Eschatology, George Eldon Ladd, Kingdom, New Testament, Old Testament, Reviews