Chapter 1
1. This chapter was adapted from Chapter 3 of Reckless Faith (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994).
2. Jay E. Adams, A Call to Discernment (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1987), 46.
3. Ibid., 75.
Chapter 3
1. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002). “Purpose-Driven” is a registered trademark.
2. William Lobdell, “Pastor with a Purpose,” The Seattle Times (September 29, 2003): A3.
3. Warren does discuss some of these issues later in the book. However, it is surprising that he does not include them here (in Day 7), since this is the book’s primary gospel presentation.
4. This “deeper-life” emphasis seems to be outlined in Chapter 10 where Warren says, “The Bible is crystal clear about how you benefit when you fully surrender your life to God” (p. 82, emphasis added).
5. Bob DeWaay, “The Gospel: A Method or a Message?” Critical Issues Commentary (January/February 2004); www.twincityfellowship.com/cic/articles/issue80.htm.
6. Rick Warren, “An Interview with Rick Warren,” Modern Reformation, 13/1 (January/February 2004); www.modernreformation.org
7. It is recognized that this distinction (between doctrine and duty in Paul’s epis-tles) is somewhat artificial. In this case, however, it seems an appropriate description of a Pauline priority structure—where right living is a result of right theology.
8. DeWaay, “A Method or a Message?”
9. “Purpose-Driven Life,” Internet Discussion Forum (June 10, 2004); www.livejournal.com/community/christianleft/51855.html.
10. Although they are outside of the scope of this review, more complete evaluations of The Purpose-Driven Church, as well as the seeker-sensitive movement, are avail able for those who want to learn more. Our reason for briefly mentioning them here is simply as a warning. The present author has written two related articles: “A Review of The Purpose-Driven Church,” Pulpit (September/October 2003) and “The Gospel According to Hybels and Warren,” Pulpit (November/December 2003). They are both available online at www.shepherdsfellowship.org.
Chapter 4
1. N. T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997).
2. I’ll leave it to others to answer the New Perspective on historical grounds. D. A. Carson has made a good start on answering the claim that Protestant interpreters have historically misrepresented first-century Judaism. He is editing a two-volume academic work titled Justification and Variegated Nomism. The first volume, subtitled “The Complexities of Second Temple Judaism,” is already available, answering the historical argument about the nature of Judaism in Paul’s day. A second volume, subtitled “The Paradoxes of Paul,” will deal with the exegetical issues raised by the New Perspective.
3. Sydney D. Dyer, “Tom Wright’s Ecumenical Teaching,” Katekomen (14/1). Published online at www.banneroftruth.org/pages/articles/article_detail.php?195.
4. Ibid.
Chapter 5
1. John Eldredge, Wild at Heart (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001).
2. Jim Rosscup, “Review of Wild at Heart,” Pulpit (September/October 2003).
Chapter 6
1. Revolve: The Complete New Testament (Nashville: Transit Books, Thomas Nelson, 2003).
2. Ellen Leventry, “Extreme Makeover: A Teen Take on the New Testament”; www.beliefnet.com/story/131/story_13171.html.
3. Agnieszka Tennant, “Ten Things You Should Know About the New Girls’ Biblezine,” (September 16, 2003); www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/137/21.0.html.
4. Wolf Blitzer, “Book Publisher: Amazing Response to Bible Magazine,” Interview Transcript, (September 2, 2003);www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/books/09/01/cnna.etue/index.html.
5. Tennant, “Ten Things.”
6. David Roach, “ Revolve New Testament Trivializes Gospel Message, Moore Says on MSNBC” (September 16, 2003); www.religionnewsblog.com/news.php?p=4444&c=1.
7. Ibid.
8. Os Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2003), 15.
9. Kate Etue as cited in a Thomas Nelson Press Release issued in Summer 2003. The release was titled “Eye Candy for Bittersweet Times”; located at www.bookpros.com/Clients/Revolve/Revhome.htm.
10. Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness, 54.
Chapter 7
1. John Macarthur, Joni Eareckson Tada, Robert and Bobbi Wolgemuth, Great Hymns of Our Faith: O Worship the King (Wheaton, IL, Crossway, 2000), O Come, All Ye Faithful (2001), What Wondrous Love Is This (2002), and WhenMorning Gilds the Skies (2002).
2. Many new hymns have been written and published since 1940, of course, but none of them has become standard church fare.
3. Robert K. Brown and Mark R. Norton, The One Year Book of Hymns (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House), 1995.
4. J. C. Pollock, Moody: A Biographical Portrait of the Pacesetter in Modern MassEvangelism (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 132-133.
5. Written by Julia H. Johnston (music by Daniel B. Towner).
6. I do think the style must be appropriate for the content, and for that reason I would object to some contemporary Christian music on stylistic grounds. But my first concern—and the point I’m addressing in this article—has to do with content, not style.
7. Lyrics by C. Austin Miles (1868-1946).
8. Isaac Watts, John Rippon, Augustus Toplady, and Charles Wesley are a few of the well-known hymn-writers who were first of all pastors and theologians.
9. The familiar hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy,” for example, is a recitation of the divine attributes, with a particular emphasis on the doctrine of the Trinity. “Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts,” an ancient but familiar hymn, is a hymn of praise to Christ filled with teaching about Christ’s sufficiency.
10. In Luther’s best-known hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” each stanza builds on the previous one, and the stanzas are therefore so inextricably linked that to skip a verse is to destroy the continuity and the message of the hymn itself. It’s not the type of hymn where only the first and last stanzas may be sung.
11. “How Great Thou Art” would be a prime example.
12. This concern is precisely what provoked Joni Tada, the Wolgemuths, and myself to write O Worship The King and the other books in the Great Hymns of Our Faith series (see footnote 1).
13. Charles Hodge, Ephesians (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991 reprint), 302-303.
14. Those who argue for exclusive psalmody (the view that no musical forms should be employed in the church other than metrical versions of the Old Testament Psalms) often claim that the expression “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” is a reference to the various categories of Davidic psalms in the Septuagint. But if the apostle Paul’s intention had been to limit music in the church to the Old Testament psalms, there are many less ambiguous ways he could have made the point. On the contrary, what he is calling for here is a variety of musical forms—all employed to honor the Lord by admonishing and teaching one another with the truths of the Christian faith. Exclusive psalmody undermines that by limiting all church music to Old Testament expressions. If we follow that view and allow no lyrics in church music to go beyond the Old Testament psalms, then some of the most glorious truths at the heart of our faith—such as Christ’s incarnation, His atoning death on the cross, and His resurrection—could never be explicitly featured or fully expounded upon in our music.
15. Taken from the unpublished notes of a friend who was researching church growth and worship styles in a few representative megachurches.
16. Leonard R. Payton, “Congregational Singing and the Ministry of the Word,” TheHighway (July 1998); www.gospelcom.net/thehighway/articleJuly98.html.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Lyrics by Walter Chalmers Smith (1824-1908). Smith was a pastor and one-time Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland.
Chapter 8
1. Cited in Iain Murray, Pentecost Today (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998), 51.
2. Jim Ehrhard, “The Dangers of the Invitation System” (Parkville, MO: Christian Communicators Worldwide, 1999), 15.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., 12.
5. Ibid.
6. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1972), 274.
7. Ibid., 274-275.
8. Ibid., 277.
9. John MacArthur, sermon, “Commitments of a Powerful Leader,” Audio Tape GC-56-3, 1992.
Chapter 9
1. “The Light of the World,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 19 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1873), 241.
2. Ibid., 244.
Chapter 10
1. Michael Horton, Made in America: The Shaping of Modern Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1991). Cited from C. J. Mahaney, “A Passion for the Church: Why We Gather Corporately,” audio sermon (Gaithersburg, MD: Sovereign Grace Ministries, 2003).
Chapter 11
1. Cited by John MacArthur, “How We Got the Bible,” The MacArthur Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), xviii.
Chapter 12
1. This chapter was adapted from Chapter 3 of Reckless Faith (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994).