Book Review: Tom Nettles, Ready for Reformation: Bringing Authentic Reform to Southern Baptist Churches

 

I'm continuing to recycle some of my old book reviews. See above for audio versions of my review of Tom Nettles, Ready for Reformation: Bringing Authentic Reform to Southern Baptist Churches (Broadman & Holman, 2005): 140 pp.

It was interesting to take another look at this review (written in 2006) and to consider Nettle's critique of the SBC over 15 years ago.

My written review appeared in the Evangelical Forum Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2006): 13-14. You can read a pdf of the review here on my academia.edu page.

JTR

Book Review: John Keith Davies, The Local Church: A Living Body

 

I have posted the audio of my book review of John Keith Davies, The Local Church: A Living Body (Evangelical Press, 2001).

I have also posted my written review which appeared in the Evangelical Forum Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2004): 11-12. Read it here on academia.edu.

JTR

Calvin on Cyprian on Christian Unity

I preached Sunday on Christ’s prayer for future disciples as part of his High Priestly prayer (John 17:20-26). A good bit of focus was given to Christ’s prayer for unity: “That they all may be one….” (v. 21). I’ve also been re-reading Calvin’s book IV of the Institutes and had just been looking at Calvin’s defense of the Protestant movement against charges of it being schismatic in chapter 2. Ever since I ran into Dr. Anthony Lane at the Calvin Congress last August I’ve been intrigued by Calvin’s use of the Church Fathers. I had picked out Calvin’s quotation from Cyprian to share in the sermon on Sunday but did not get time to use it, so I thought I’d share it here (from Institutes 4.2.6):

Cyprian, also following Paul, derives the source of concord of the entire church from Christ’s episcopate alone. Afterward he adds:

The church is one, which is spread abroad far and wide into a multitude by an increase of fruitfulness. As there are many rays of the sun but one light, and many branches of a tree but one strong trunk grounded in its tenacious root, and since from one spring flow many streams, although a goodly number seem outpoured from their bounty and superabundance, still at the source unity abides. Take a ray from the body of the sun; its unity undergoes no division. Break a branch from a tree; the severed branch cannot sprout. Cut off a stream from its source; cut off, it dries up. So also the church, bathed in the light of the Lord, extends over the whole earth: yet there is one light diffused everywhere.

Nothing more fitting could be said to express this indivisible connection which all members of Christ have with one another.

JTR

Book Review: James M. Renihan's Edification and Beauty: The Practical Ecclesiology of the English Particular Baptists, 1675-1705

I have posted my book review of James M. Renihan's Edification and Beauty: The Practical Ecclesiology of the English Particular Baptists, 1675-1705 (London: Paternoster, 2008) to my academia.edu site. You can find it here.

The review appeared in the Reformed Baptist Trumpet, Vol. 1 No. 2 (2010): 12-14.

I have also recorded a spoken word version of the review to sermonaudio.com. You can listen to the review here.

JTR

The Vision (3.9.18): When is a church a church?

Image: Scene from Lord's Day worship at CRBC.

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons (Philippians 1:1).

When is a church a church? What make a church different from a fellowship, a Bible study group, or a para-church ministry?

Our Particular Baptist forebears addressed these questions in chapter 26 of the Second London Baptist Confession (2LBCF). They concluded: “A particular church, gathered and completely organized according to the mind of Christ, consists of officers and members….” (26:8).

One of the proof texts they offered was Philippians 1:1. We have a narrative in Acts 16 of the founding of the church at Philippi under the ministry of Paul and Silas. Lydia, the seller of purple, and the Philippian jailer, as well as members of their respective households, were among the first converts who were baptized and apparently formed the nucleus of a developing church. No mention is made in Acts 16 of officers being appointed. But when Paul writes his later epistle to the church (Philippians), it is clear that officers have been named. Paul writes to the saints (the hagioi, or “holy ones,” not super-Christians but the whole people of God made set apart by Christ), along with their bishops (episkopoi, or “overseers,” a term used interchangeably with presbyteroi or “elders”—see Titus 1:5-7) and deacons (diakonoi).

A church, it seems, can come into existence when God’s people are gathered and are “giving themselves up to the Lord and to one another” (2LBCF 26:6), but it is only “completely organized” when it has Scriptural officers “for the peculiar administration of ordinances, and execution of power and duty, which he instruct them with, or calls them to” (26:8).

I preached and taught on this topic last Sunday at the meeting of the Lynchburg RB Mission. Continue to keep this ministry in prayer as it develops and we move forward.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Review Article: Poh Boon Sing's "A Garden Enclosed"

I have recorded and uploaded to sermonaudio.com a spoken word version of my “Review Article” on Poh Boon Sing’s book A Garden Enclosed: A historical study and evaluation of the form of church government practiced by the Particular Baptists in the 17^th and 18^th centuries (Good News Enterprise, 2013), which appears in the latest issue of Puritan Reformed Journal Vol. 9, No. 1 (January 2017): 281-290.

I have also uploaded a pdf of the article (look here) and also posted the article to my academia.edu page (look here).

JTR