My Favorite Books of 2014
Below are the 10 most stimulating, edifying and/or inspiring books I read last year. Before I proceed, let me recommend Goodreads to you. It’s a fun way to keep track of your own reading progress in individual books; to maintain an ongoing list of books you’ve read, along with the dates when you finished them; and to connect with friends so you can share reviews and suggested titles. Check it out here.
Pastor Bob O'Bannon
Below are the 10 most stimulating, edifying and/or inspiring books I read last year. Before I proceed, let me recommend Goodreads to you. It’s a fun way to keep track of your own reading progress in individual books; to maintain an ongoing list of books you’ve read, along with the dates when you finished them; and to connect with friends so you can share reviews and suggested titles. Check it out here.
Goodreads even reminded me of all the books I read last year, which helped me prepare this list of top 10 titles:
Winston Churchill once said Harry Truman did more than any other man to save western civilization. That’s a grand statement for a man who didn’t even earn a college degree. I am so impressed by McCullough’s engaging writing style that I’m already planning to read another of his books in 2015.
Regarding those who struggle with same-sex attraction, Allberry asks, “Wouldn’t it be great if, of all people, it was their Christian friends they felt most able to approach” about the issue? This book could help make it so. It avoids both liberal permissiveness and conservative self-righteousness.
We live in a crazy busy culture, so it is helpful to be reminded that busy-ness does not equal holiness, and that not even Jesus did everything. Best of all, the book is short, so you shouldn’t be too busy to read it.
4. Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)
Reflective story of the pleasures and challenges of personal relationships — between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, friends and enemies. There are skeletons in closets that only grace can heal.
Pastors in the reformed tradition love to talk about grace, and rightfully so, but a formulation of grace apart from a strong Christology can unwittingly allow some “unwelcome guests” into one’s theological home. This is an excellent corrective to any presentation of grace that does not involve a call to obedience to Christ and His Lordship.
6. Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior is Changing Everything (Robert Reilly)
Reilly argues that the aggressive activism of gay rights supporters is motivated by a desire to rationalize their behavior. Gay activists want much more than a right to their private sexual practice; even more, they want public acceptance and community approval, as a rebuke to their own consciences.
7. Expositional Preaching (David Helm)
A compact treatment of just about everything you need to know in order to prepare a decent sermon. Great for beginners or for experienced pastors needing a refresher.
8. Delighting in the Trinity (Michael Reeves)
Presents the triune God of the Bible in contrast to the “single person” God of Islam and the distorted straw-man god that is regularly attacked by the new atheists. This would be a good starting point for someone seeking to understand more about this essential Christian doctrine.
9. Five Points (John Piper)
“I go to bed at night quietly confident that I will be a secure believer in the morning not because of my free will, but because of God’s free grace,” Piper writes. This book not only defends the five points of Calvinism, but shows why it matters.
This is not the book to read to work out your doctrine, but it is a good book to read if you’re cynical about religion and looking for a very frank and gritty defense of the Christian faith.
4 Misconceptions About Calvinism
While reading John Piper’s excellent new book, Five Points, it occurred to me how many misconceptions there are about the five points of Calvinism. My guess is that the main reason many people reject the five points, otherwise known as the “doctrines of grace,” is because they assume something that Calvinists actually don’t believe. Here are some common misconceptions:
Pastor Bob O'Bannon
While reading John Piper’s excellent new book, Five Points, it occurred to me how many misconceptions there are about the five points of Calvinism. My guess is that the main reason many people reject the five points, otherwise known as the “doctrines of grace,” is because they assume something that Calvinists actually don’t believe. Here are some common misconceptions:
Misconception 1: Calvinism teaches there is no such thing as free will.
Not really. This depends entirely on what one means by “free will.” Calvinists hold that unbelievers do not have the “freedom” or ability to come to Jesus on their own (John 6:65), to submit to God’s law (Rom. 8:7), or to understand spiritual things (I Cor. 2:14). These all constitute some level of limitation on a person’s freedom. But Calvinists do hold that unbelievers have the freedom to do what they want, say what they please, and think what they like. People do what they want – which is the essence of freedom. The problem is that they don’t want the right things, and will be enslaved to their sinful desires until God gives them new spiritual life.
Misconception 2: Calvinism teaches that Christians do not choose Christ.
It’s true that a person cannot choose Christ unless God first chooses him, as Acts 13:48 and John 15:16 state. But it does not follow from this that a person is excused from the responsibility of choosing Christ. Instead, we might say that the first evidence that a person has been chosen by God is when that person freely and gladly chooses Christ. Here is how the Westminster Confession of Faith 10.1 puts it:
All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call…and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.”
Those God chooses will come to Christ, and they will do so “most freely.” In other words, they will make a choice.
Misconception 3: Calvinism is a deterrent to evangelism.
Actually, it’s quite the opposite. The fact that God’s elect are out there, waiting to hear the Gospel, and that God has promised that He will save everyone He has determined to save (John 6:39), without exception, gives me the assurance that when my Gospel proclamation falls on the ears of one of God’s sheep, there is nothing in all creation that can keep that person from believing (maybe not at that moment, but eventually). That’s why Jesus told Paul to keep preaching the Gospel in Corinth: “I have many in this city who are my people” (Acts 18:9-10).
Misconception 4: Calvinism is a deterrent to righteous living.
Here’s how the argument goes: If a person is taught that he/she cannot lose his/her salvation, as Calvinism teaches, then what’s to keep that person from living an unrighteous life? With salvation in the bag, why not live according to the flesh? Why not ignore God’s commandments? The answer to the argument is that the Bible says those who live according to the flesh will die (Rom. 8:13), and whoever says he is saved but ignores God’s commands is a liar (I John 2:3-6). It is important to keep each of the five points of Calvinism together. The fifth point, “perseverance of the saints” (which teaches that a person cannot lose his salvation), presupposes the earlier points. The second point, “unconditional election,” teaches that Christians have been chosen to be “holy and blameless” (Eph. 1:4). The fourth point, “irresistible grace,” teaches that the Spirit gives new hearts to sinners that they might “devote themselves to good works” (Titus 3:5-8).
Calvinism is not a perfect system. It has its own difficulties to explain. But the points listed above are misconceptions, and should keep no one from embracing these glorious doctrines.