Battle for Sovereign Grace in the Covenant, The Declaration of Principles, by David J. Engelsma. Re­formed Free Publishing Association, Jenison, MI. 2013. [Reviewed by Justin Smidstra.] The Battle for Sovereign Grace in the Covenant is a timely publication. The book provides an ex­amination of the controversy over the doctrine of the covenant. This treatment is merited not only by the present need to preserve the history of the schism of 1953, which becomes more distant with each passing generation, but also by the present ecclesiastical landscape, a landscape in which conditional covenant theology is rampant even within the walls of...

Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays. Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Copyright, 2012 third ed., 506 pages. [Reviewed by Peter VanDerSchaaf.] J Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays are professors of Bible at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. In Grasping God’s Word they set out to fill the gap that exists between popular guides to under­standing the Bible and the graduate-level texts on herme­neutics. The book is intended to help serious believers learn how to read, interpret, and apply the Bible. They wrote Grasping...

Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat, by James D. Bratt (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013). Pp. xxviii + 455. $30 (paper). [Reviewed by David J. Engelsma.] In his own biography of Abraham Kuyper, which served the purpose of introducing Kuyper to “the general reader” (Abraham Kuyper, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), Frank Vanden Berg acknowledged the fact and expressed the confidence that “the definitive biography of Dr. Abraham Kuyper must still appear, as it undoubtedly will eventually” (301). With the publication of James D. Bratt’s Abraham Kuyper, the definitive biography of that great, indeed astonishing, man has appeared. Bratt is well qualified...

Don Stephens, War and Grace (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2005). Pp. 288. $12.47. [Reviewed by Sarah Mowery.] “To ra, to ra, to ra!” Our six-year-old son listens intently as I read about Japanese Commander Mitsuo Fuchida signaling the launch of the attack on Pearl Harbor. As we finish the book, I tell him that Mitsuo Fuchida was converted to Christianity later in life and that the number of people who heard his testimony as a child of Jesus Christ far surpasses the number killed in the infamous air raid. I know this, not from the library book in my hand,...

Dr. Kennedy is a member of Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland. Holding Hands, Holding Hearts, Richard and Sharon Phillips. P&R Publishing 2006. Paperback. 183 pages. [Reviewed by Dr. Julian Kennedy (NI).] This is an excellent guide for young and not-so-young people contemplating marriage, looking for a mate, or already embarked upon courting. The authors are Presbyterians who rightly state that our ultimate satisfaction is in God alone, not a mate, and that He is the sovereign Matchmaker. They speak from their own personal experience and from their seeing and advising many couples. They start with creation and God’s...

Mr. Kalsbeek is a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins. Bantam Books, 2006. ISBN: 0-618-6800. [Reviewed by Jeff Kalsbeek.] Richard Dawkins grew up in the Anglican Church of England. Both of his parents were scientists, and he too became interested in science, getting a degree in zoology. He became assistant professor at the University of California, Berkley and later taught at the University of Oxford, England. He is a proponent of the theory of evolution and a self-proclaimed atheist. He has authored a number of books regarding evolu­tion in biology and genetics....

Nadzieja: The Story of a Girl Named Hope, Na­dzieja Jadwiga McMillan. (Crown & Covenant Pub­lications: Pittsburgh, PA, 2012). 413 pages. ISBN: 1884527345. [Reviewed by Elizabeth Ensink.] Imagine how you would react if your mother left you at an orphanage full of strangers without say­ing good-bye. Imagine what it would be like to go to America but leave all your friends and family behind in poverty. Imagine uprooting your family and mov­ing across the country countless times for the sake of the church. Finally, imagine an elderly woman named Nadzieja sitting in her small apartment room writing down these amazing events...

The Intolerance of Tolerance, D.A. Carson. (Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids, MI, 2012.) 196 pp. ISBN: 0802831702. [Reviewed by Matt Kortus.] Throughout Western culture, more and more emphasis is being placed on the importance of tolerance. However, as society has elevated the posi­tion of tolerance in recent history, it has simultaneously changed the idea of tolerance to mean something subtly different from the formal definition. This shift in the meaning of tolerance has produced an ideology that is largely intolerant of true Christianity, and thus relevant to the Reformed believer. Donald Carson, Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,...

Michael G. Brown and Zach Keele, Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored (Grandville, MI: Re­formed Fellowship, 2012). Pp. 165. $12.00 (paper). [Reviewed by David J. Engelsma.] The purpose of this book is commendable: an overview of the biblical doctrine of the covenant that will introduce this essential truth to Reformed and Presbyterian believers. Sacred Bond gives brief explanations of all the important aspects of the covenant, from the source of the covenant in the “covenant of redemption” to the new covenant, including also the covenant with Adam in Paradise, the covenant with Noah, the Abrahamic covenant, the Sinaitic covenant, and the...

By the Vision of Another World: Worship in American History, ed. James D. Bratt. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2012. 221 pages. Paper­back. $25.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-6710-0. Reviewed by Douglas J. Kuiper. The heart of this book consists of seven essays, each of which explores worship in a particular time in American history, and by a particular subculture. The first essay focuses on the worship of the Puritans in the 1500s and 1600s; the second on worship in American Methodism in the 1700s; the third on the worship of Our Lady of Guadalupe by the San Antonio Texans in the...