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Category Archives: Books and Reading
Justification & Regeneration by Charles Leiter free PDF
Justification & Regeneration | Challies Dot Com:
Here is a way to pick up a free copy of the book. Crystal and I had a pastor stay with us earlier this year and he left this book with us because it was one of the best.
I look forward to reading it.
The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark
The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark follows the thesis that Christianity’s growth can be explained through the social situation surrounding it. Stark is a sociologist, mostly concerned with religion, but not a historian or New Testament scholar (xii). This book reflects his area of expertise. Rather than taking the tradition approach of looking at the early Church through the New Testament canon and extra biblical sources, Stark seeks to explain its growth through modern sociological findings and theories. He does this by comparing recent studies on the development of religions and applying them to the historical accounts of the Christian church. “That is, by resorting to simple arithmetic I believe I have demonstrated adequately that the rise of Christianity required no miraculous rates of conversion” (12).
Stark makes his argument by explaining the various circumstances surrounding the early Church. First, he deals with fact that Christianity was not a proletarian movement. This is never the case with cults. Rather, it could be argued that “the lower classes were disproportionately under-represented in the early church” (32). Second, the author looks at the relationship between the Jews and the Christians. Recognizing that a displaced ethnic or religious group will often seek the lesser of two evils in becoming like those around them, Christianity presented a viable option for the Hellenized Jews.
A third reality of the age in which Christianity was born was the presence of epidemics and natural disasters. Christianity continued past the devastation of the catastrophes while Paganism crumbled because they were able to confront these crises socially and spiritually (94). Because of their beliefs, Christians helped the sick and dying when no one else would. This benefited them in many ways such as showing the pagans they were different, providing opportunities to give an explanation to the catastrophe, giving them immunity to the diseases, and keeping their own alive. All of these helped equalize the numeric difference between Christians and pagans.
A fourth topic is the role of women in the culture and in the Church. “Christian subcultures in the ancient world rapidly developed a very substantial surplus of females, while in the pagan world around them males greatly outnumbered females” (128). This was caused by factors such as the Bible’s prohibition against infanticide and abortion. Also, women were attracted to Christianity because of the higher status they enjoyed within the family and within the life of the local church (128).
Another key to understanding Christianity’s growth was that Christianity was an urban movement (129). Because Christianity thrived in the cities, and cities had a constant overturning of people (due to disease, catastrophe, and movement) it grew rapidly.
Martyrdom moved Christianity forward by cutting down on the free rider mentality. Without this dead weight the movement surged onward. It also proved to outsiders that this was real to them. But ultimately, Christianity grew through personal interaction between the believer and his neighbor.
Stark finishes his work with “A Brief Reflection on Virtue.” Here he explains that Christianity thrived because it “gave to its converts was nothing less than their humanity. In this sense virtue was its own reward” (215).
Starks observations are accurate in many cases. Truly each of his chapters reflects another reason why Christianity was able to survive and thrive in the hostile polytheistic culture. His work in modern religious movements also helps the reader to understand the workings of a convert’s movement from one set of beliefs to another.
While offering the reader possible scientific explanation to the growth of the religion which shaped the last two millennia, Stark forgot the foundation. His book is sadly missing the working of God. The Holy Spirit was not mentioned, Pentecost was discounted, and the reality of the truth which the Christians believed was pushed aside.
This book is nicely summarized by Newsweek statement on cover “A fresh, blunt and highly persuasive account of how the West was won – for Jesus”. Where Stark has missed the mark is that the West was not won merely “for” Jesus. It was won by Jesus. This book is a “scientist’s” attempt at explaining the unexplainable – an omnipotent God stepping into time and calling people to Himself.
Andrew Peterson
One of my favorite artists to listen to is Andrew Peterson. He has a way of capturing my imagination and making me see this world in a different way. I have a list of favorite songs, but at the top are:
1. Dancing in the Mine Fields (This takes first place for sure. The rest of the list is not in any specific order)
2. The hidden track after “Why Walk When You Can Fly”
3. In the Night
4. The Reckoning
5. Little Boy Heart Alive (You can get this track and the whole album for free here – Andrew Peterson)
6. Let There be Light
7. After the Last Tear Falls
Not only do I like listening to his music, but have truly relished his Wingfeather Saga. The only problem is that I had to wait 3 months to get the 3rd book – a really long time if you have ever read the ending of the 2nd! Now I don’t even know when the final book will be written and released! The pain…
Kindle
Crystal and I have been reading Kindle books recently and have found many good deals on them.
Monergism is offering a good collection for free here.
Also, Amazon is constantly giving away free books here.
Even if you don’t own a Kindle, it is still a great way to get and read books. We read many on our computers and even on our iphones. (Crystal often reads me books as we travel in the car and the iphone is great for this. It doesn’t necessitate a flashlight or dome light.)
My reasons involve mostly getting to read the classics without the moldy book smell (I know, I know, that is probably all part of the experience… You can keep your experience and your allergies too.)
Rob Bell Action Plan
With the rise in popularity of a book which hasn’t even been published yet, I thought I would create a plan on how to eviscerate any heresy which may or may not be found in Rob Bell’s book (or any other book for that matter).
Action plan:
1. All believers who reject the teaching of his book must tweet small portions as soon as it is released.
2. All believers who reject the teaching of his book must post them as their Facebook status as soon as it is released.
Planned Outcome:
Pretty soon people will relegate his message to a small corner of the mind which can only respond to the written message by clicking a “like” or “retweet” button. It will enjoy a quick death along with all the other foolish nonsense which gets tossed up there.
Give it up…
A pastor recently spoke in chapel about giving as explained in 2 Corinthians 8:1-15. This passage highlights three incentive for giving which amount to one.
1. God gives grace to give (1-2)
2. God gave himself to us (9)
3. God can supply the needs of others through us (14-15)
These 3 incentives amount to one overarching incentive –
GOD is the incentive for giving
At the outset of the message, he made the observation that this topic is normally not addressed in colleges or seminaries – due to the general lack of funds possessed by students. I also noticed that the topic is rarely addressed in churches because the pastor may feel guilty about “asking for money.” Both of these reasons – lack of funds or guilt -are tragic. They are robbing believers of the benefits of giving!
An example of a giving spirit is found at Desiring God. I truly appreciate the work which they are doing making many books available for free download at their site. They also have Desiring God audio book as a free download. I understand that this is not possible for all authors, but their desire to further the Gospel and not the bank account has challenged me.
Am I willing to give freely of what could financially profit me? The statement “If you want to know what someone loves, look at their bank statement” does have merit.