My regular readers may be shocked at the title, as they should be. The title is a little misleading. Doctrinally speaking I would say that I adhere to the doctrines of grace; or in other words, I am a Calvinist. However, something I read by John Newton caused me to think. In counseling a young man "on controversy", Newton says this:

"Of all people who engage in controversy, we, who are called Calvinists, are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation. If, indeed, those who differ from us have a power of changing themselves, if they can open their own eyes, and soften their own hearts, then we might with less inconsistency be offended at their obstinacy; but if we believe the very contrary to this, our part is, not to strive, but in meekness to instruct those who oppose, "if perhaps God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth."
(HT: Grace Gems)

Newton has an excellent point. If we really believe in the doctrines of grace then it will change things. It will change the way that we interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ. If we really believe in Total Depravity it will change things. Our understanding of unconditional election will dictate our attitudes. If we really believe irresistible grace then we should have a much different confidence. A belief in Limited Atonement ought to change the way we interact with other brothers that have been bought with the Lamb's blood. If we really believe Perseverance of the Saints then ought we not to have more confidence in God's ability to bring differing saints to glory?

So, the point of this series of posts will be to really ask whether or not I believe what I say I believe. Am I really a Calvinist in practice? I hope to put together 5-6 articles on this topic. I plan to go through each of the points of the T-U-L-I-P and discuss the implications of each. It will not be my intent to debate the truthfulness of each point. I will assume them, and then ask the question, "If I really believe this, what will it look like in practice"

...Read Part 2

You may remember my 2008 Reading Plan. If I read all of those books I will have read 40. I am hoping to add to this list...my big goal is 100, my lower goal is 50. In reality it might be something in between the two. Another goal that I have is to post a review on every book that I read in 2008. So far I have reviewed Spurgeon by Dallimore and Newton by Aitken. I am also posting these reviews on Amazon; it would be greatly appreciated if you would visit each review and say whether or not it was helpful. Spurgeon here, Newton here. In the future you will see the Amazon permalink on every review.

Author: Jonathan Aitken

Publisher: Crossway

Pages: 400 pages

Price: 21.99 USD

Genre: Biography


Quick Summary:

It is somewhat difficult to write a review on a biography when it is the first one on the subject that you have read. My exposure to Newton has been somewhat limited. I know him as the man that wrote Amazing Grace. I have heard of his conversion. Recently I have been exposed to some of his letters and a brief biography by John Piper. All of this created a stirring in me to know more about this man that said, “I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior”. Would Aitken's biography serve to fittingly tell the life of John Newton?

Aitken does a marvelous job of outlining the life of John Newton. He begins his biography not on the open sea but at Newton’s mother’s side. Sadly, Newton’s time at his mother’s side was cut short; as she was taken by tuberculosis at a young age. This left young John solely in his father’s care, and by the age of 10 Newton was off to sea. It seems that seafaring began Newton’s downward spiral into debauchery. Aitken follows the life of Newton for some 8 chapters into debauchery. The only bright spot in Newton’s story was his unrelenting love for his later-to- become wife Polly. Even after his conversion Newton continued the deplorable practice of slave trading. It is here that we are exposed to some of Newton’s most vile sinning, for now it appears he is doing so in light of the gospel. At this point in the book I remember commenting to my wife that I was growing to greatly dislike John Newton.

But my dislike for Newton would soon change. It seems as soon as Newton’s seafaring career ended his spiritual journey became stronger. At this point in the biography the life of Newton shifts gears. For the rest of the biography we follow Newton in his pursuit of ordination, his ministry at Olney, his creativity, his contribution to the corpus of Christian literature and hymns, his involvement in the abolition movement, and his ministry at London. These Aitken follows quite well until Newton’s demise and death.

Also, weaved throughout this story is Newton’s love for his wife Polly. Thus this biography becomes an exciting sea tale, a spiritual journey, a pastoral guide, and a romance all in one.

What I Enjoyed:

Aitken does a wonderful job of putting together the life of Newton into a beautifully weaved story. One of the literary features that makes this work shine is the inclusion of Newton’s letters. Sometimes it feels as if Newton is writing his own biography. One of the temptations in writing a biography is to portray the subject without many flaws and often times almost above human status. Part of the beauty of Newton’s story is that he was such a great sinner. The more that we can see Newton as a great sinner the more it points to Christ as a great Savior. Aitken keeps Newton human.

What I Disliked:

In as much as Aitken shines on displaying Newton as a great sinner, I felt that in expressing latter half of Newton’s statement (“…Christ is a great Savior”) Aitken dropped the ball. Newton would be disappointed to find that a biography on himself did not have at its center the magnificent work of Jesus Christ. One standard I apply in reading biographies is this: after reading the biography, do I want to learn more about the man or am I driven to know Christ more. After reading this, I want to know more about John Newton. That is not altogether bad but a very important part of the story played a flat role. Newton was the main character when it should have been Jesus. Because of this we miss discovering what it was that made Newton tick.

Should You But It:

Nonetheless, it is a great work on John Newton and will serve the reader well. My hope is that it only introduces the reader to Newton and inspires you to pursue more of his work, because therein one might see and savor Jesus Christ. Should you buy it? Yes. Should it be the only Newton book in your collection? No.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Last night was a significant milestone in the '08 Election process. The winners of the Iowa caucuses were Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama. I could easily link to numerous articles on this. I particularly am interested in Thabiti's response (he has an interesting take on the decline of African-American Theology and the election). A wonderful statement of summation was provided by Dr. Mohler: The rhetoric of the race -- and the rhetoric of many evangelicals -- is disturbing. This race is important and necessarily so. We are talking about the next President of the United States, after all. But evangelicals have invested far too much hope in the political process. No government can make people good, transform humanity, or eliminate sin. The political sphere is important, but never ultimate. Jesus Christ is Lord -- and He will be Lord regardless of who sits in the Oval Office. If you are interested in following this story closely a great place for updates is Justin Taylor's blog.

John Piper encourages us to Pray Global Prayers. He also points us to Operation World to assist in our prayers. (It would be helpful if OW had an RSS Feed so we could add it to our Google Reader's).

When Nikki and I bought our last car (a state-of-the-art 1993 Grand Prix) I could not help but notice that the world is populated with many similar cars. Was it that people suddenly decided to buy '93 Grand Prix's en masse? I doubt it. Maybe my eyes were more aware of the red beasts. I say all of that to ask a question...is it just me or are we seeing a massive resurgence of John Newton stuff? Within the last couple days there have been new posts on Newton. Founders points us to Newton on zeal blended with humility. Of First Importance quotes Newton as saying We cannot think too highly of Christ.

Stephen Moore has a very interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal. He is concerned that because of video games his sons are turning into Teenage Zombies. It might sound a little strong but more says, "I am persuaded that video games are the new crack cocaine". While I would not go that far, I have found that many of our teenagers are so obsessed with video games that they have little time to go deep theologically. Some barely crack the cover of their Bibles "b/c they hate reading". Yet these same students read hours of e-mails, text messages and television screens. Some might say we should find a way to "get the gospel" in all these things. Maybe we should come up with some cool Christian video games. My solution--would be to man up and be parents. Unplug your television, pry the control out of the hand of your 5 year old, and go play catch. Then, of course, come back and have a riveting game of Madden together. (HT: Tim Ellsworth)

Brian Thornton has asks, what is central in looking for a church home? Is it good worship music? Fun events? A relevant youth ministry? A nursery without cockroaches and broken glass? A hip pastor? Good solid expositional preaching? Friendly people?

Said at Southern has a wonderful roundup on evangelism. I have yet to check out all of the articles but I am awaiting the time to do so.

And finally Borrowed Light is honored to be part of the SBCVoices. It is an excellent resource that puts together all of the blogs from folks that are part of the SBC.

How often do children of God sadly experience that which Newton speaks of? How is it that we can experience the blessedness of God and over time the evenening shade prevail? Newton offers encouragement and points us to sovereign grace. This is Newton's poem on Job 29:2.

Sweet was the time when first I felt
The Savior’s pard’ning blood
Applied, to cleanse my soul from guilt,
And bring me home to God.

Soon as the morn the light revealed,
His praises tuned my tongue;
And when the evening shades prevailed,
His love was all my song.

In vain the tempter spread his wiles,
The world no more could charm;
I lived upon my Savior’s smiles,
And leaned upon his arm.

In prayer my soul drew near the Lord,
And saw his glory shine;
And when I read his holy word,
I called each promise mine.

Then to his saints I often spoke;
Of what his love had done;
But now my heart is almost broke,
For all my joys are gone.

Now when the evening shade prevails,
My soul in darkness mourns,
And when the morn the light reveals,
No light to me returns.

My prayers are now a chatt’ring noise,
For Jesus hides his face;
I read, the promise meets my eyes,
But will not reach my case.

Now Satan threatens to prevail,
And make my soul his prey;
Yet, Lord, thy mercies cannot fail,
O come without delay.

I think my fellow bloggers have taken off early for the Christmas season. Today is another slow day.

John Piper reminds us that today is the 200th anniversary of John Newton's death. If you want to read Piper's biography on Newton you can do so here, or you can buy Josiah Bull's excellent work The Life of John Newton, or if you are feeling really saucy you can buy his Complete Works for only $127. You can read his letters for free at Grace Gems and his Olney Hymns for free at CCEL. Ever minute and every dollar you spend getting to know this man of God is well spent.

Old Truth sounds like John Piper today: Worship, Not Evangelism, The Most Important Task. Piper says that Missions exists because worship does not. This article echoes that sentiment as it points us to a quote from Robert Reymond's New Systematic Theology. His central thesis is this: For decades now evangelical churches have been conducting their services for the sake of unbelievers. Both the revivalistic service of a previous generation and the "seeker service" of today are shaped by the same concern--appeal to the unchurched. Not surprisingly, in neither case does much that might be called worship by Christians occur. As a result, many evangelicals who have been sitting for years in such worship services are finding their souls drying up, and they have begun to long for something else.

Yesterday it was announced that Alex and Bret Harris will be releasing their new book, Do Hard Things, in April. Right now it is retailing for 16.99. I am hoping it is discounted quickly, I would love to do a small group on this book in youth group! (HT: JT)