Summer book recommendations: history, sports, cars and more

My only trouble with this non-fiction list is where to start!  I’ve never been disappointed with any of Mohler’s recommendations.  Just wish I could read as fast and as long as he does.  But I better get going because he is promising a second list in July!

 

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The Catholic Catechism vs. The Reformation Solas

From Justin Taylor:

Scott Manetsch (associate professor of church history and chair of the church history department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the associate general editor of IVP’s  Reformation Commentary Series) explains why it is “impossible to reconcile the classic Protestant solas with the teaching of the Catholic Catechism.”

• For Roman Catholics, Scripture and Tradition are two distinct but equal modes of revealed authority which the magisterium of the Roman Church has sole responsibility to transmit and interpret.
• For the early Protestant reformers, the holy Scripture provides final normative authority for Christian doctrine and practice, standing as judge above all institutions and ecclesial traditions.

• For Roman Catholics, sinners are justified because of inherent righteousness.
• For the mainstream Protestant reformers, sinners are accepted on the basis of the righteousness of another—namely, the alien righteousness of Christ imputed to them.

• For Roman Catholics, sinners are both justified by unmerited grace at baptism and (subsequently) justified by those infused graces merited by cooperating with divine grace.
• For the magisterial reformers, sinners are justified before God by grace alone.

• For Roman Catholics, sinners are justified by faith (in baptism), but not by faith alone.
• For the sixteenth-century Protestant reformers, sinners are justified by faith alone.

• For Roman Catholics, justification is a process of renewal that affords no solid basis for Christian assurance in this life.
• For reformers such as Luther and Calvin, justification is God’s decisive verdict of forgiveness and righteousness that assures Christian believers of the acceptance and love of their heavenly Father.

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Grace parenting

A 20 minute conversation with Paul Tripp and Elyse Fitzpatrick that  will. . .

• Remind you that the worse thing our children need are parents who think we have graduated from grace
• Remind you that you are not the fourth member of the Trinity
• Remind you that you are not your child’s Savior
• Teach you how not to make your children smarter sinners

Want more of this kind of teaching? You can get Elyse’s book (Kindle Edition) at a great price for a limited time.

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B. B. Warfield on Romans 8:28

B. B. Warfield’s writes on Romans 8:28

The fundamental thought is the universal government of God. All that comes to you is under His controlling hand. The secondary thought is the favour of God to those that love Him. If He governs all, then nothing but good can befall those to whom He would do good.… Though we are too weak to help ourselves and too blind to ask for what we need, and can only groan in unformed longings, He is the author in us of these very longings…and He will so govern all things that we shall reap only good from all that befalls us.

Most don’t understand that this theologian spent thirty-nine years caring for his wife Anne who was injured on their honeymoon. Because of his constant care, he rarely left home for more than two hours at one time  over four decades of love.  ’

So his understanding of Romans 8:28 wasn’t written from some academic high tower but was also lived out every day of his adult life.

Read Randy Alcorn’s further comments here at “God’s Good Work.”

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The deadening effect of popular culture

Joshua Harris:

David Kinnaman writes an article for Christianity Today entitled “The Rise of Digital Urban Tribes” on discipleship of the next generation. I found these two paragraphs provoking:

…we underestimate how much young people are shaped by the massive power of the digital tools, consumer culture, and media of the broader American culture. Thomas Bergler’s work in The Juvenilization of American Christianity gives us a fabulous phrase for this: “the deadening effect of popular culture.” Of course, many Christians recognize and bemoan the impact of media and technology on young people. Many, however, miss how much the influence is increasing and how much every age group is feeling its effects. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the typical teenager is using more than 10 hours of media per day, far more than previous generations. Is it any wonder when you mix and stir human nature, reality television, and social media that one-quarter of today’s teenagers believe there is a “definite” or “probable” chance they will be famous or well-known by age 25? Call it the American Idol effect….

In addition, our research shows that typical parents are just as “addicted” to media and technology as are their teenagers, just in different ways. In an ironic and telling shift, the teenagers we interviewed complained that their parents’ use of technology was inhibiting quality family time.

Read the full article.

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