Thy Word Is Still Truth

31 Oct


Thy Word is Still Truth

Thy Word Is Still Truth
ed. by Peter Lillback & Richard Gaffin
WTS Price: $33.0

This new collection of Reformed thinkers’ writings from the Reformation to today brings together key documents on the inerrancy of Scripture in one readable volume.

Albert Mohler:
“We have needed this book for a long time. In Thy Word Is Still Truth, Peter Lillback and Richard Gaffin have drawn together the comprehensive witness of the church on behalf of the total truthfulness and inerrancy of Scripture. No serious reader can doubt the case for inerrancy made so consistently and clearly in these pages, and no serious defender of Scripture can be without this vital volume that amounts to the most massive arsenal of documentation for the inerrancy of Scripture ever assembled in a single book.”

What’s Inside?
In addition to including all the major confessions and catechisms, Thy Word Is Still Truth includes seminal articles on the doctrine of Scripture from the following authors:

Oswald T. Allis, William Ames, Herman Bavinck, Louis Berkhof, Henry Bullinger, John Calvin, Edmund P. Clowney, William Cunningham, Raymond B. Dillard, Jonathan Edwards, Sinclair B. Ferguson, John M. Frame, Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Louis Gaussen, Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, Archibald Alexander Hodge, Charles Hodge, John Knox, Peter A. Lillback, Martin Luther, J. Gresham Machen, Adolphe Monod, John Murray, John Owen, Vern S. Poythress, Moisés Silva, Charles H. Spurgeon, Ned B. Stonehouse, Francis Turretin, Zacharias Ursinus, Cornelius Van Til, Geerhardus Vos, Bruce K. Waltke, Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, Robert Dick Wilson, John Witherspoon, Edward J. Young, and Ulrich Zwingli


Table of Contents (Major Sections):

Part One: Sola Scriptura: The Reformers’ Rediscovery of the Written Word of God.
Part Two: The Reformed Confessions
Part Three: The Early Reformed Interpretation
Part Four: The Doctrine of Scripture in Reformed Orthodoxy
Part Five: The Doctrine of Scripture in the Scottish and Dutch Legacy
Part Six: Other Nineteenth-Century European Contributions
Part Seven: The Doctrine of Scripture in the Theology of Old Princeton
Part Eight: The Theology of Scripture of the Founding Fathers of Westminster
Part Nine: The Birth of Biblical Theology
Part Ten: The Authority of the Old Testament and New Testament Canon of Scripture
Part Eleven: The Challenges to the Reformed Doctrine of Scripture
Part Twelve: The The Westminster Controversy
Part Thirteen: Conclusion

Read the detailed table of contents and the introduction here:


TWISTA Special Opportunity:

Donate $200 or More to Westminster Theological Seminary and receive this beautiful, limited edition, leather bound copy of Thy Word Is Still Truth signed by the editors.

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(217 copies remaining as of 09:50EST, 10/31/13)

Old Guy Kindle Deals: Lloyd-Jones, Owen, Historical Theology, and More

29 Oct



Preaching and Preachers
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Kindle Price: $3.99

‘Some may object to my dogmatic assertions; but I do not apologize for them. Every preacher should believe strongly in his own method; and if I cannot persuade all of the rightness of mine, I can at least stimulate them to think and to consider other possibilities. I can say quite honestly that I would not cross the road to listen to myself preaching, and the preachers whom I have enjoyed most have been very different indeed in their method and style. But my business is not to describe them but to state what I believe to be right, however imperfectly I have put my own precepts into practice. I can only hope that the result will be of some help, and especially to young preachers called to this greatest of all tasks, and especially in these sad and evil times. With many others I pray that ‘The Lord of the harvest may thrust forth’ many mighty preachers to proclaim ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ!”



Historical Theology
Gregg Allison
Kindle Price: $5.99

Most historical theology texts follow Christian beliefs chronologically, discussing notable doctrinal developments for all areas of theology according to their historical appearance. And while this may be good history, it can make for confusing theology, with the classic theological loci scattered throughout various time periods, movements, and controversies. In Historical Theology, Gregg Allison offers students the opportunity to study the historical development of theology according to a topical-chronological arrangement, setting out the history of Christian doctrine one theological element at a time. Such an approach allows readers to concentrate on one tenet of Christianity and its formulation in the early church, through the Middle Ages, Reformation, and post-Reformation era, and into the modern period. The text includes a generous mix of primary source material as well, citing the words of Cyprian, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Barth, and others. Allison references the most accessible editions of these notable theologians’ work so that readers can continue their study of historical theology through Christian history’s most important contributors. Historical Theology is a superb resource for those familiar with Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology or interested in understanding the development of Christian theology.



A God-Sized Vision
Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir
Colin Hansen & John Woodbridge
Kindle Price: $3.99

Can God stir revival by his Holy Spirit, even in our culture today? Do we really believe he can? In a day of diminished expectations, A God-Sized Vision: Revival Accounts That Stretch and Stir recounts global examples of prior revivals, beginning with the Reformation and the Great Awakenings. It continues with the Welsh and Azusa Street revivals and those that occurred simultaneously in Asia, followed by the East Africa Revival of the 1930s. More recent revivals in North America that instigated parachurch or evangelistic ministries like those of Billy Graham and the revivals in China, particularly in Henan Province over the last forty years, give further evidence of church renewal. These stories enlarge our hearts, expand our minds, and empower our witness to the power of God at work in human history. Christians with a deep evangelistic commitment who realize that there is more to church growth than field-tested techniques will expand their vision by remembering God’s vision, as it has been revealed throughout history. Hansen and Woodbridge mine these stories of renewal to suggest how to get ready for revival today.



Lectures to My Students
Charles Spurgeon
Kindle Price: $.99

“My college lectures are colloquial, familiar, full of anecdote, and often humorous they are purposely made so, to suit the occasion. At the end of the week I meet the students, and find them weary . . . and only in a condition to receive something which will attract and secure their attention, and fire their hearts.” Though best remembered as the most popular preacher of the Victorian era, C. H. Spurgeon was also founder and president of the Pastors College in London. He supervised the training of over 800 students, presided at an annual conference for ministers, and, on Friday afternoons, delivered regular lectures on every aspect of pulpit ministry.



The Atonement
In It’s Relation to the Covenant, The Priesthood, the Intercession of Our Lord
Hugh Martin
Kindle Price: $.99

Hugh Martin (1822-1885) modestly begins this work by acknowledging that it is not a systematic treatment of the Atonement. Whilst this is true, his approach provides answers to all the key questions regarding the necessity, extent, and nature of the Atonement. As the subtitle suggests he insists that a clear biblical view can only be arrived at when it is seen in the context of the eternal Covenant of Grace, Christ’s role as both Offering and Offerer, the ongoing work of His Intercession, and how our sin is imputed to Christ and His righteousness to His people. The Atonement is always under attack and this volume provides a framework against which erroneous views may be measured and rejected. Since modern denials simply repackage the same false ideas that Martin combated in his day, the arguments he advances remain relevant and necessary.



The Glory of Christ
John Owen
Kindle Price: $.99

The Glory of Christ is a book designed to declare part of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is revealed in the Scripture and proposed as
the central object of our faith, love, delight, and admiration. The knowledge of
Christ and His glory, John Owen says, is to be preferred above all other wisdom,
understanding, and knowledge. Why is it to be preferred? Why should we become engaged
in a study of the glory of Christ? The author answers the question well when he
writes, “For if our future blessedness shall consist in being where He is and beholding
His glory, what better preparation can there be for it than a constant previous
contemplation of that glory as revealed in the gospel, that by a view of it we may
be gradually transformed into the same glory?

John Calvin – Scripture’s Authority Arises Not From the Church

26 Oct

A most pernicious error widely prevails that Scripture has only so much weight as is conceded to it by the consent of the church. As if the eternal and inviolable truth of God depended upon the decision of men! For they mock the Holy Spirit when they ask: Who can convince us that these writings came from God? Who can assure us that Scripture has come down whole and intact even to our very day? Who can persuade us to receive one book in reverence but to exclude another, unless the church prescribe a sure rule for all these matters? What reverence is due Scripture and what books ought to be reckoned within its canon depend, they say, upon the determination of the church. Thus these sacrilegious men, wishing to impose an unbridled tyranny under the cover of the church, do not care with what absurdities they ensnare themselves and others, provided they can force this one idea upon the simple-minded: that the church has authority in all things. Yet, if this is so, what will happen to miserable consciences seeking firm assurance of eternal life if all promises of it consist in and depend solely upon the judgment of men? Will they cease to vacillate and tremble when they receive such an answer? Again, to what mockeries of the impious is our faith subjected, into what suspicion has it fallen among all men, if we believe that it has a precarious authority dependent solely upon the good pleasure of men!

~John Calvin~






Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volumes 1 & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) Vol. 1.7.1. p. 75.

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B.B. Warfield – We’ve Never Been Without a Canon

25 Oct

In order to obtain a correct understanding of what is called the formation of the Canon of the New Testament, it is necessary to begin by fixing very firmly in our minds one fact which is obvious enough when attention is once called to it. That is, that the Christian church did not require to form for itself the idea of a “canon,”—or, as we should more commonly call it, of a “Bible,”—that is, of a collection of books given of God to be the authoritative rule of faith and practice. It inherited this idea from the Jewish church, along with the thing itself, the Jewish Scriptures, or the “Canon of the Old Testament.” The church did not grow up by natural law: it was founded. And the authoritative teachers sent forth by Christ to found his church, carried with them, as their most precious possession, a body of divine Scriptures, which they imposed on the church that they founded as its code of law. No reader of the New Testament can need proof of this; on every page of that book is spread the evidence that from the very beginning the Old Testament was as cordially recognized as law by the Christian as by the Jew. The Christian church thus was never without a “Bible” or a “canon.”


~B.B. Warfield~




The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield: The Canon of the New Testament: How and When Formed (Philadelphia, PA; American Sunday-School Union; 1892) p. 3-4.

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Charles Spurgeon – Where Are Your Hearts?

24 Oct

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Let me appeal personally to you in an interrogatory style, for this has weight with it. Sinner! why art thou at enmity with God? God is the God of love; he is kind to his creatures; he regards you with his love of benevolence; for this very day his sun hath shone upon you, this day you have had food and raiment, and you have come up here in health and strength. Do you hate God because he loves you? Is that the reason? Consider how many mercies you have received at his hands all your lives long! You are born with a body not deformed; you have had a tolerable share of health; you have been recovered many times from sickness; when lying at the gates of death; his arm has held back your soul from the last step to destruction. Do you hate God for all this? Do you hate him because he spared your life by his tender mercy? Behold his goodness that he hath spread before you! He might have sent you to hell; but you are here. Now, do you hate God for sparing you? Oh, wherefore art thou at enmity with him? My fellow creature, dost thou not know that God sent his Son from his bosom, hung him on the tree, and there suffered him to die for sinners, the just for the unjust? and dost thou hate God for that? Oh, sinner, is this the cause of thine enmity? Art thou so estranged that thou givest enmity for love? And when he surroundeth thee with favors, girdeth thee with mercies, encircleth thee with loving kindness, dost thou hate him for this? He might say as Jesus did to the Jews: “For which of these works do ye stone me?” For which of these works do ye hate God? Did an earthly benefactor feed you, would you hate him? Did he clothe you, would you abuse him to his face? Did he give you talents, would you turn those powers against him? Oh, speak! Would you forge the iron and strike the dagger into the heart of your best friend? Do you hate your mother who nursed you on her knee? Do you curse your father who so wisely watched over you? Nay, ye say, we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. Where are your hearts, then? Where are your hearts, that ye can still despise God, and be at enmity with him? Oh! diabolical crime! Oh! satanic enormity! Oh! iniquity for which words fail in description! to hate the all-lovely—to despise the essentially good—to abhor the constantly merciful—to spurn the ever-beneficent—to scorn the kind, the gracious one; above all, to hate the God who sent his Son to die for man! Ah! in that thought—“the carnal mind is enmity against God,”—there is something which may make us shake; for it is a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. I would I could speak more powerfully, but my Master alone can impress upon you the enormous evil of this horrid state of heart.


~Charles Spurgeon~




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, Vol. I (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 154-155. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: The Carnal Mind Enmity Against God; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, April 22nd, 1855.

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Old Guy Kindle Deals: Spurgeon, Owen, Sibbes, Goodwin, Turretin and More

23 Oct



A Puritan Theology
Doctrine for Life
ed. by Joel Beeke & Mark Jones
Kindle Price: $9.99

A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life offers a groundbreaking treatment of the Puritans’ teaching on most major Reformed doctrines, particularly those doctrines in which the Puritans made significant contributions. Since the late 1950s, nearly 150 Puritan authors and 700 Puritan titles have been reprinted and catalogued by Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson in their 2006 collection of mini-biographies and book reviews, titled, Meet the Puritans. However, no work until now has gathered together the threads of their teaching into a unified tapestry of systematic theology.



The Heart of Christ
Thomas Goodwin
Kindle Price: $2.99

The Heart of Christ’ was first published in 1651, and was the Puritan Thomas Goodwin’s most popular work. In the works Goodwin shows how Christ though now in heaven has the utmost love, concern, and tenderness toward those that are his on earth. This work would help comfort those who feel that Christ has no concern for them or has abandoned them.



The Death of Death in the Death of Christ
John Owen
Kindle Price: $.99

If you have wondered what the death of Christ accomplished or who Christ died for this work from John Owen is for you. He shows that Christ’s death saves, that God himself saves, without condition. It will strengthen your faith to be reminded that Christ died for you Christian and so your salvation is secure.



Glorious Freedom
The Excellency of Gospel Above Law
Richard Sibbes
Kindle Price: $3.99

In this work the puritan Richard Sibbes, author of ‘The Bruised Reed’, shows how God “sets us at liberty at the first in calling us…sets us at liberty when we are justified…sets us at liberty when he sanctifieth us…sets us then at liberty fully in glorification.”



Lectures to My Students
Charles Spurgeon
Kindle Price: $.99

“My college lectures are colloquial, familiar, full of anecdote, and often humorous they are purposely made so, to suit the occasion. At the end of the week I meet the students, and find them weary . . . and only in a condition to receive something which will attract and secure their attention, and fire their hearts.” Though best remembered as the most popular preacher of the Victorian era, C. H. Spurgeon was also founder and president of the Pastors College in London. He supervised the training of over 800 students, presided at an annual conference for ministers, and, on Friday afternoons, delivered regular lectures on every aspect of pulpit ministry.



The Atonement
In It’s Relation to the Covenant, The Priesthood, the Intercession of Our Lord
Hugh Martin
Kindle Price: $.99

Hugh Martin (1822-1885) modestly begins this work by acknowledging that it is not a systematic treatment of the Atonement. Whilst this is true, his approach provides answers to all the key questions regarding the necessity, extent, and nature of the Atonement. As the subtitle suggests he insists that a clear biblical view can only be arrived at when it is seen in the context of the eternal Covenant of Grace, Christ’s role as both Offering and Offerer, the ongoing work of His Intercession, and how our sin is imputed to Christ and His righteousness to His people. The Atonement is always under attack and this volume provides a framework against which erroneous views may be measured and rejected. Since modern denials simply repackage the same false ideas that Martin combated in his day, the arguments he advances remain relevant and necessary.



The Atonement of Christ
Francis Turretin
Kindle Price: $.99

Turretin’s writings had a formative influence on theologians of the calibre of Charles Hodge and others. His work on the Atonement of Christ demonstrates a depth and clarity of thought that makes it as relevant today as when he first wrote it. Its defence of all that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on behalf of His people, furnishes principles that effectively counter even contemporary attacks on the biblical doctrine of the atonement that Turretin himself could not have anticipated.

John Calvin – We Must Come to the Word

23 Oct

We must strive onward by this straight path if we seriously aspire to the pure contemplation of God. We must come, I say, to the Word, where God is truly and vividly described to us from his works, while these very works are appraised not by our depraved judgment but by the rule of eternal truth. If we turn aside from the Word, as I have just now said, though we may strive with strenuous haste, yet, since we have got off the track, we shall never reach the goal. For we should so reason that the splendor of the divine countenance, which even the apostle calls “unapproachable” [1 Tim. 6:16], is for us like an inexplicable labyrinth unless we are conducted into it by the thread of the Word; so that it is better to limp along this path than to dash with all speed outside it.

~John Calvin~






Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volumes 1 & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) Vol. 1.6.3. p. 72-73.

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Charles Spurgeon – High Treason

22 Oct

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He [God] is the creator of the heavens and the earth; he bears up the pillars of the universe; his breath perfumes the flowers; his pencil paints them; he is the author of this fair creation; “we are the sheep of his pasture; he hath made us, and not we ourselves.” He stands to us in the relationship of a Maker and Creator; and from that fact he claims to be our King. He is our legislator, our law-maker; and then, to make our crime still worse and worse, he is the ruler of providence; for it is he who keeps us from day to day. He supplies our wants; he keeps the breath within our nostrils; he bids the blood still pursue its course through the veins; he holdeth us in life, and preventeth us from death; he standeth before us, our creator, our king, our sustainer, our benefactor; and I ask, is it not a sin of enormous magnitude—is it not high treason against the emperor of heaven—is it not an awful sin, the depth of which we cannot fathom with the line of all our judgment—that we, his creatures, dependent upon him, should be at enmity with God?


~Charles Spurgeon~




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, Vol. I (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 154. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: The Carnal Mind Enmity Against God; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, April 22nd, 1855.

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Herman Bavinck – It’s Hard Work to Be An Atheist

16 Oct

It therefore requires a certain effort not to believe in a personal God: “No one disbelieves the existence of God except the person to whom God’s existence is not convenient.” There are no atheists so thoroughly sure of their unbelief as to be willing to die a martyr’s death for it. Since atheism is abnormal and unnatural, based not on intuitions but on inferential proofs and fallible reasoning, it is never sure of its causes. The arguments for the existence of God may be weak, but in any case they are stronger than those advanced for its denial. It is even impossible to prove that there is no God. To accomplish that feat a person would have to be omniscient and omnipresent, that is, to be God!

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 2: God and Creation John Bolt and John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI; Baker Academic; 2004) p. 59.

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A Note From a Respected Christian Bookstore

10 Oct

The Westminster Bookstore

To our partners in the gospel,

I am writing to express deep appreciation for your continued support of our ministry and to update you on our current challenges. The Westminster Bookstore ended its fiscal year on June 30, 2013 facing a very significant financial loss. The bookstore is a wholly owned ministry of Westminster Theological Seminary, and, were it not for your gracious response to the Seminary’s financial appeal last Christmas, the Seminary would have had no choice but to close the bookstore’s doors. These donations enabled critical Seminary operations — ongoing educational programs and scholarships — to continue, and also provided time for the administration to consider the future of the bookstore.

Our great challenge is that we continue to exist in an environment where Amazon — the industry leader — is allowed by Wall Street to function without regard for their short-term profitability. Some of you may be aware that Amazon recently reported a $7 million loss on $15.7 billion of revenue. Next quarter, they are forecasting a loss of between $65 and $440 million. Despite this, their stock is up about 20% this year, indicating investor willingness to sustain Amazon’s loss-leading business model. As I ponder economic history, I can’t name another 21-year old company with which Wall Street has been this patient.

Amazon’s results show that, despite their buying power, technology, management skill, and income from non-book products and services, they are unable to post a profit given their current pricing model. This reality is made all the more striking given that competitive forces like Borders and independent bookstores have gone out of business while Barnes & Noble and other retailers struggle to carve out an existence. It is important to emphasize that we do not believe that Amazon’s business practices are necessarily inappropriate or immoral, but that they are — by virtue of their size and scope — creating an economically challenging environment that has significant consequences for the promotion of Christian books.

Our prayer at the bookstore is for the Lord to sustain our ministry as long as we are useful to His Church. Our conviction is that without alternatives to Amazon, important gospel-centered and biblically faithful resources would not receive the attention they deserve, or even worse, would not be published at all. Our ambition is to increase the reach and demand for theologically sound books so that publishers and authors are encouraged to produce and invest in like-minded projects. Examples of projects where the Lord used our bookstore as the primary tool to drive significant national distribution include:

Moving forward, we are working hard to minimize costs while continuing to deliver excellent selection, speed, and customer service. The Lord has encouraged us in the beginning months of this fiscal year with modest profits, and it is our ambition to achieve break-even status by next fiscal year.

Thanks again for your support of our ministry. We deeply value your continued partnership. If you do have occasion to pray for us, we would appreciate prayer for the following:

  • Faithful discernment as we review and assess a variety of books and resources.
  • Operating wisdom as we continue to drive efficiencies and invest in opportunities for superior customer experience and service.
  • Guidance for the Seminary’s senior administration and Board as they continue to monitor the economic environment and the bookstore’s viability.

——————————————–

From The Old Guys Blog:

Next time you are looking to purchase a book consider buying through WTS. They generally are priced slightly lower than Amazon and their packaging is done with great care. Find them online at www.wtsbooks.com.

If you have room in your budget after supporting your Church, know that a donation of any size will continue to make a material difference to the Seminary. Let’s help keep this wonderful bookstore in business! Make a donation here.

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