The American Puritans, by Dustin Benge and Nate Pickowicz. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2020. Pp xvi + 208. Paperback. $18.00. Reviewed by Douglas J. Kuiper. This book is not about Puritan theology but about seventeenth-century American church history. Each chapter sketches the life story of one prominent figure in early American Protestantism. Featured are two colonial governors (William Bradford and John Winthrop), six pastors (John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, John Eliot, Samuel Willard, and Cotton Mather), and the poetess Anne Bradstreet. Anyone of high school age and older who is interested in church history during the American Colonial...

Letters from Katie Luther: A Novel, by Shirley Casemier. Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2020. $14.95. 208 pp. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. Ronald Cammenga.] Letters from Katie Luther is a delightful book. It is a book written for young people by an author, who although in her eighties, is young at heart—very young at heart. Not only will young people profit from this book about the life of Katie Luther, but readers will learn much about her famous husband, the great Reformer Martin Luther. Through Katie’s eyes, we are given insights that only a wife and mother could have....

Unfolding Covenant History: From Samuel to Solomon (vol. 6), by David J. Engelsma. Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2020. $28.95. 224 pages, hardcover. [Reviewed by Rev. David Noorman, pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Wyoming, Michigan.] As any reader of the first five volumes of the Unfolding Covenant History series would expect, volume six lives up to its name as a treatment of Old Testament history from a covenantal perspective. The latest volume, From Samuel to Solomon, covers an important and exciting development in the history of God’s covenant: the manifestation of God’s covenant in the structure and...

The Whole Armor of God: How Christ’s Victory Strengthens Us for Spiritual Warfare, Iain Duguid, Crossway, 2019. 127 pp. Paper, $14.99. Reviewed by Charles Terpstra. The Christian life is a battle. We are in a daily struggle against the world, sin, and Satan. But God didn’t leave us to fend for ourselves. He gave us His own armor—armor that Jesus has already worn on our behalf all the way to the cross. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is now at work inside of us. This book unpacks each of the pieces of spiritual armor Paul describes...

The New Testament Canon, by Michael Kruger. Sanford, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2019. DVD, 138 minutes. $30.00. Reviewed by Douglas J. Kuiper. How do we know that God intended the New Testament to have only 27 books? Did God intend the church to have these 27 books, or did men foist them on the church? Might these books be forgeries? Should other books that are not currently in the New Testament be added? If these questions serve to remind us that God’s revelation is complete and that God has providential­ly preserved His revelation for the church of all ages, we can...

Born for our Salvation: The Nativity and Childhood of Jesus Christ, Martyn McGeown, Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2019. 288 pages, hardcover, $26.95. [Reviewed by Stephan Regnerus, pastor of Lynden Protestant Reformed Church in Lynden, WA] Rev. McGeown’s latest book, Born for our Salvation: The Nativity and Childhood of Jesus Christ sets forth the rich and comforting history of the birth of Jesus Christ. We are all familiar with the narrative; most readers have celebrated the birth of Christ every Christmas for as long as they have been alive. So the question may legitimately be asked: what is the value of...

Dating Differently: A Guide to Reformed Dating, by Rev. Joshua Engelsma. Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2019. 160 pages, softcover. $16.95. [Reviewed by Rev. Cory Griess] The message of this wonderful little book is that if one is going to be Reformed (that is biblical), then all of life will be re-formed according to the Word of God. Dating too will be done differently. Rev. Engelsma covers this topic in nine chapters, each titled as a question. The first, “Is There Help?” establishes the need for help in dating and identifies the source of that help as the Word...

The Pursuit of Glory, by Jeffrey D. Johnson. Reformation Heritage: Grand Rapids, MI, 2018. Paperback, 113 pp. $12.00. [Reviewed by Dr. Julian Kennedy.] This book is useful as an evangelistic tool and as a spur to believers. By read­ing it, I believe, we will find that God uses it to answer the prayer of David in Psalm 139:23–24 to search us and know us and lead us in the way everlasting. This book, like Scripture, is a sharp sword (Heb. 4:12) to expose our motives, why we do things, knowing God looks at our hearts. By covering all the basic...

Graciousness: Tempering Truth with Love, by John Crotts. Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018. 137 pp. $14.00. ISBN 978-1-60178-586-2 [Reviewed by Brenda Hoekstra] Most SB readers have heard of and believe that they live by the scriptural truth of Ephesians 4:15, ‘speak the truth in love.’ When the truth is a real part of you because you wholeheartedly believe it, your zeal can actually get in the way of the very truth you are trying so fervently to present. When we are bringing important things that need to be said to others, when we are delivering truth, graciousness is...

Can We Trust the Gospels? by Peter J. Williams. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018. ISBN 978-1-433552-9-53. 153 pages. $17.99. Softcover. [Reviewed by Prof. Douglas Kuiper.] Subscribers to the Standard Bearer believe the four gospel accounts to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God and, therefore, trustworthy. Peter Williams does also; his answer to the question expressed in the book’s title is “yes.” It is unfortunate that this book does not have a subtitle that lets the reader know his position. This book falls into the category of apologetics, which is the defense of the Christian faith. The book defends the...