All Articles For Book Reviews

Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, ed. James D. Bratt. Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans/Paternoster, 1998. xiv + 498 pages. $29.00 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] Most of the sixteen pieces by Abraham Kuyper that are the content of this book have never before been translated into English. They are either published speeches by the great Dutch theologian and politician, shorter articles, or excerpts from longer works. Among them are Kuyper’s account of his spiritual conversion (“Confidentially”); his critique of theological liberalism (“Modernism: A Fata Morgana in the Christian Domain”); a well-chosen selection from Kuyper’s still untranslated three-volume work on common...

Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Critique of Dispensationalism, by John H. Gerstner. Brentwood, Tennessee: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1991. 274 pages. $15.95 (hardcover). [Reviewed by the Editor.] Dispensationalism will never be the same. Presbyterian theologian John H. Gerstner has written the definitive, Reformed critique of this popular heresy. It is devastating. The recent (19th century) product of disreputable origins (John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren), centering on the bizarre notion of a “premillennial, pretribulation rapture,” dispensationalism is “spurious Calvinism,” “dubious evangelicalism,” and “deviation from essential historical Christianity” (p. 68). Gerstner demonstrates that n dispensationalism is a...

The ABC’s of Assurance, by John H. Gerstner. Ligonier, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1991. 112 pages. Paper. $7.95. [Reviewed by the Editor.] Literally. Dr. Gerstner treats the biblical . doctrine of the Christian’s assurance of salvation by chapter headings that follow the alphabet: “Assurance of Eternal Salvation”; “Beating the Body”; “captain of Our Salvation”; etc. In short chapters, usually three or four pages, and in simple language, the book explains and defends the precious truth that the believing child of God can and must be sure of his or her eternal salvation. All of the glorious doctrines of salvation...

Thomas Manton was a Presbyterian preacher in London, England in the 17th century. His Commentary on Jude was first published in 1658. It richly deserves its fortune of being republished down through the years. Manton has correctly grasped the thrust of Jude: the command to the church to contend for the Christian Faith against those enemies within, whom we would call antinomians but whom Manton calls the “fanatical and libertine party” (p. 14). The error of such church members was that “in the gospel chiefly they abused the doctrine of Christian liberty and free justification by Christ” (p. 152). This makes a...

An Inquiry into the Spiritual Character of The Revival of 1859, by Rev. William Hamilton (Hudsonville, MI: Reformed Book Outlet, 1993) 297 pp., $7.00 (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. Herman Hanko.] A few explanations are probably in order before we briefly review this important book While Rev. Gise VanBaren was working in the Covenant Reformed Fellowship during the latter part of 1992 and the first part of 1993, this old book, difficult to obtain, came to his attention. It impressed him as an important book both because it spoke to current problems in Northern Ireland and Great Britain at large, and...

GREAT LEADERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, edited by John D. Woodbridge; Moody Press, 1988; 384 pp., $24.95, (cloth). (Reviewed by Prof H. Hanko.) The history of the church, it has been said, is the history of her leaders. Undoubtedly this is true when it is remembered that throughout the church’s history from Pentecost to today, God has been pleased to raise up men of outstanding ability, zeal, courage, and faithfulness through whom He has worked mighty deeds for the welfare of Christ’s body. Sometimes these men are relatively obscure men, all but forgotten by the church today. Sometimes they are...

The Case for Full Subscription to the Westminster Standards in the Presbyterian Church in America, by Morton Howison Smith. Greenville, SC: GPTS Press, 1992, 98 pages (paper). No price given. [Reviewed by the Editor.] One of the founding fathers of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and longtime Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Morton Howison Smith, pleads for full subscription to their creeds by all officebearers in the PCA. He does this in the face of opposition within that church. The issue is popularly referred to as the difference between “strict” and “loose” subscription to the Westminster Confession and...

Better to Marry, by David J. Engelsma. Grand Rapids: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 1993. 105 pp., $9.95 (paper). [Reviewed by Rev. Audred Spriensma.] Prof. David Engelsma has written another small book (105 pages) on the subject of marriage. His first book, Marriage: the Mystery of Christ and the Church, was first published in 1975 and has been reprinted several times. It is a fine book on the nature and demands of marriage based upon the teaching of God’s Word fromEphesians 5. The Christian couple in their marriage relationship are to be a picture of the glorious relationship between Christ and...

The Bondage and Liberation of the Will: A Defence of the Orthodox Doctrine of Human Choice against Pighius, by John Calvin. Ed. A. N. S. Lane. Tr. G. I. Davies. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996. Pp. xxxix + 264. $17.99 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] The second in the series of Baker publications, “Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought,” is this defense by John Calvin of the Reformation’s doctrine of the bondage of the will against Pighius. Surprisingly, this is the first appearance of Calvin’s important work on the bound will and sovereign grace in English. In...

The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An Old Heresy for the New Age, by Peter Jones. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 1992. 112 pages. $6.95 (paper). [Reviewed by the Editor.] Presbyterian theologian Peter Jones makes a convincing case for his contention that the New Age movement is the reappearance of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism. The apostles themselves and the early post-apostolic church opposed and condemned Gnosticism. “The New Age,” writes Jones, “is in fact a modern form of ancient Gnosticism” (p. 7). The reader learns something both about the old Gnostic error and about the New Age error. Both deny...