Musings of a Snickerdoodle

Christ's Prophetic Plans is an excellent introduction to Dispensationalism or as the authors also entitle it, "Futuristic Premillennialism".   John Macarthur, Michael Vlach, Richard Mayhue, Nathan Busentiz and Mathew Waymeyer team up to defend the grammatical-historical hermeneutic in the interpretation of prophecy.   They start by removing misconceptions about Dispensationalism, such as the idea that Premillennialists believe that there are two-ways of salvation, and they define what Dispensationalism/Futuristic Premillennialism really is.    " … dispensationalism shapes one's eschatology and ecclesiology.   That is the extent of it.   Pure Dispensationalism has no ramifications for the doctrines of God, man, sin, or sanctification.   More significantly, true Dispensationalism makes no relevant contribution to soteriology, or the doctrine of salvation." They then go through and show that their eschatology is exegetically derived from Script...

"Every truth claim is narrow.   Why?   Because truth itself is narrow.   If you jump off a tall building with no ability to remain aloft, you will fall to the ground, yet no one would say belief in the law of gravity is being narrow-minded."     The authors of this book are very good at demonstrating the exclusiveness of truth, and our need to know the 'true-truth'.   Answering 10 questions about Christianity, the authors build their argument, 'closing in' on the truth as the book moves on.   Starting very basic, they demonstrate the logic of there being truth and that truth must be exclusive.   Then, after pointing out the obviousness of the existence of   a god, they narrow down to what god that is and if there is only one.    The rest of the book demonstrates that the God who exists is the God of the Old and New Testaments and upholds those Scriptures as the truth by answering questions about their composition and co...

What is the best remedy for the issues in the Church today?   What will be the best means to focus Christians upon what really matters and who they really are?   Do we have grand, 1 hour period of inspiring music and   then a 30 minute exposition of the Bible? What is the best way to worship God in our Church 'services'?   How can we get a new reformation started?    As Lawson says, "there are no new remedies for old problems.   We must come back to old paths.   We must capture the centrality and pungency of biblical preaching once again." In this book, Lawson uses Calvin as an example of the right way to edify, grow, and convict Christians, by his preaching of the complete Word of God.   He puts forth Calvin's book-by-book, verse-by-verse method of preaching as the best way to exposit the Scriptures and to teach Christians.   "This verse by verse style - lectio continua, the 'continuous expositions' - guaranteed that Calvin would p...