Baby Arrived and Contest Ended!

My new son was born this afternoon at 4:07 pm!!

Mom and baby are doing well.

He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz.

His name is Silas.

Contest results:

Kelly Jack of Statesboro, GA. is the winner of the book contest! He guessed an even 8 pounds.

I really appreciate everyone who participated.

For those who didn't win, you may still obtain a free copy by clicking here! They currently have about 2000 in stock and they are giving them away -just pay postage!

New Baby, Eschatology, and a Book Contest

What on on Earth could a new baby, eschatology, and a book contest have in common?

Let's see if I can tie them all together...

As I write this, my wife is pregnant with our fourth child (our 3rd son) and she's in the early stages of labor. She's already experiencing minor "birth pangs" so our child's arrival is immanent. In fact, the doctor has said that if the baby isn't here by Monday morning, they will be taking her in for an induction procedure.

To celebrate the arrival of my 4th child. I want to give away a book called The Day And The Hour by Francis X. Gumerlock. This book contains hundreds of false predictions of dates for the Rapture and Christ's 2nd Coming, myriad speculations of the identity of the Antichrist and the Beast of Revelation, as well as a host of other eschatological tomfoolery that has been taught within the church by prophecy prognosticators of the past and present.

The chapters chronicle the details century by century. Of course, when the reader gets to the 20th century he will encounter the cream of the date setting crop with the rise of Dispensational Premillennial eschatology.

How can you win a copy of this book?

I will mail a brand new copy of The Day and the Hour to whoever guesses the exact weight of my new son, or comes the closest to the correct weight. It's simple as that!

You may leave your guesses in the comment box or email them to me at rhettswhips at yahoo dot com. Whatever method you choose to use, just be sure I there's a way for me to get in touch with you if you should happen to guess correctly.

Keep this in mind: Our smallest child weighed 7 lbs 12 ounces at birth and the largest was 9 lbs, 9 ounces. So I think the safest bet would be to stay above 7 lbs.

You've got to hurry if you want to have a chance:

The contest ends when the baby is born, so get your guesses in soon!

Surely he comes quickly!!

(If you are a Dispensationalist, you might have interpreted that the "immanent" arrival of my next son means that the baby could arrive within the next 5 minutes or in the next 5000 years, but I assure you, he really is coming quickly so get your guesses in ASAP!)

The Atonement and the Trinity

I have made it no secret that I believe the doctrine of the Trinity is a central tenet of the the Christian faith. Far from being a "secondary issue," I believe how we understand the Bible's teaching on the Godhead will also have huge implications on other areas of our theology.

I recently began reading through the newly released book Pierced For Our Transgressions. Last night I came across a few paragraphs that I believe illustrate how the Atonement (as seen in the Penal Substitution view) was clearly the work of One God who exists in a Trinity of Divine Persons. When seen from this perspective, I think it becomes obvious why the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to Christianity:

"The doctrine of penal substitution states that God gave himself in the person of his Son to suffer instead of us the death, punishment and curse due to fallen humanity as the penalty for sin. This summary can be expanded to give some sense of how the doctrine connects with other important biblical themes.

God the Father gave his Son to save rebellious, God-hating people, knowing that he would be despised and rejected by those he had made, that he would be a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. He spared sinful people from condemnation, death and punishment, but he did not spare his own beloved Son, with whom he was well pleased.

God the Son gave himself, willingly undertaking the task appointed for him by his Father. He veiled his glory in a human body, experienced every temptation we face without succumbing to any, and lived a perfect human life. Yet he took our sin and guilt upon himself and died a cursed death, suffering in his human nature the infinite torment of the wrath and fury of his Father. After three days he was vindicated in his resurrection before being exalted to his heavenly throne. From there he rules his kingdom, awaiting the day of his glorious appearing when every eye shall see him, every knew shall bow before him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

God the Holy Spirit, having been sent by the Father and the Son, now works in our hearts through the proclamation of the gospel to convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment, to draw us to Christ in repentance and faith, and so to unite us to Christ that we may share in every blessing he has won for us.

God the Holy Trinity thus turned aside his own righteous wrath against sinful humanity; endured and exhausted the curse of the law that stood against us; cleansed us of our sin and clothed us in Christ's righteousness; ransomed us from our slavery to sin, the world and the devil by paying our debt, cancelling the devil's power of accusation against us, and liberating us to live new lives empowered by the Spirit; triumphed over all evil powers by punishing evil in the person of the Son; and reconciled us with himself by removing the barrier of sin and enmity between us; in order that we may stand blameless and forgiven in his glorious presence, credited with the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, as adopted children of God, gazing upon his face for all eternity.

God vindicated his truthfulness by remaining faithful to his promise that sin will be punished; he manifested his justice by punishing sin and acquitting the righteous; he glorified his name by exalting his Son and placing all things under his feet; and he demonstrated his love by dying for sinners and reconciling to himself those who were once his enemies." (Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution.pp 104 & 105. bold emphasis added)

Soli Deo Gloria!

Great Price on Reformation Study Bible!

On October 31, Ligonier Ministries is doing a one day promo on the Reformation Study Bible!!

At $15.17, this is the absolute best deal I've ever seen on this Bible!

Even if I was an Arminian, I couldn't pass up a deal like this!!

Click here for more details!

Below is a video about the Reformation Study Bible:

Pierced for Our Transgressions

New Book on the Atonement Now Available from Monergism Books! At a great price too!

Great Deal on Owen Book!

I recently found a website that carries John Owen's A Display of Arminianism at a great price (and I ordered a copy right away)!

The first chapter of this book was quoted in the appendix of another book I have in my library. Having read just that chapter alone, I can tell you this: They sure don't make Calvinists like him anymore!!

You may read or preview this classic work online at this website!

More on Owen: http://www.johnowen.org/

The Eschatology of R.L. Dabney

To my sheer delight, the Father's Day gift I received this year was a copy of R.L. Dabney's Systematic Theology. Dabney was a theologian in the Southern Presbyterian Church. He served in the Confederate Army as Chief-of-Staff to General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. No less a theologian than A. A. Hodge refereed to Dabney as "the best teacher of theology in the United States, if not the world."

Seeing how my last couple of posts have been on Eschatology, I would like to share with you some of Dabney's Eschatological thoughts.


The following comes from pp. 837 and 838 of Dabney's Systematic Theology:


"That doctrine which we hold, and which we assert to be the Apostolic and Church doctrine, teaches, just as much as the pre–Adventists, the literal and personal second advent of Christ, and we hold, with the Apostolic Christians, that it is, next to heaven, the dearest and most glorious of the believer’s hopes: as bringing the epoch of his full deliverance from death, and full introduction into the society of his adored Saviour. This hope of a literal second advent we base on such Scriptures as these: Acts 1:11: 3:20, 21; Heb. 9:28; 1 Thess. 4:15, 16; Phil. 3:20; Matt. 26:64, etc., etc.

Before this second advent, the following events must have occurred. The development and secular overthrow of Antichrist, (2 Thess. 2:3 to 9; Dan. 7:24–26; Rev. 17:, 18:) which is the Papacy. The proclamation of the Gospel to all nations, and the general triumph of Christianity over all false religions, in all nations. (Ps. 72:8–11; Is. 2:2–4; Dan. 2:44, 45; 7:14; Matt. 28:19, 20; Rom. 11:12, 15, 25; Mark 13:10; Matt. 24:14). The general and national return of the Jews to the Christian Church. (Rom. 11:25, 26). And then a partial relapse from this state of high prosperity, into unbelief and sin. (Rev. 20:7, 8). During this partial decline, at a time unexpected to formal Christians and the profane, and not to be expressly foreknown by any true saint on earth, the second Advent of Christ will take place, in the manner described in 1 Thess. It will be immediately followed by the resurrection of all the dead, the redeemed dead taking the precedence. Then the generation of men living at the time will be changed (without dying) into their immortal bodies, the world will undergo its great change by fire, the general judgment will be held; and last, the saved and the lost will severally depart to their final abodes, the former to be forever with the Lord, the latter with Satan and his angels."





In case you were wondering, Dabney was a Postmillennialist!

Prowl: A Manly Man's Christian Novel

I have the pleasure of doing a book review today. The book is called Prowl. The author is none other than my esteemed Reformed Mafia cohort, Gordan Runyan.

A few months back, I won the book in a contest Gordan was running on his blog. I am very grateful to Gordan for doing this, and for Yahoo! Search for helping me to find the correct answers to his contest questions...

Today when I was telling a friend about this book, he remarked that he never knew me to read anything fiction, and he was mostly correct. Historically, the extent of my fictional reading has been books that teach Dispensational Eschatology and browsing the op/ed section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Other than most of my reading time has been spent reading theology and history books.

Honestly, I really cannot say enough good things about Prowl! I could hardly put it down. The book has everything a guy could want: submarine warfare, double agents, mystery, suspense, violence, car chases, shoot-outs, assasins, computer hacking, a troubled marriage, nuclear weapons, and true Redemption -which is the most important thing of all!!

Prowl is a novel for the manly man! It kept me on my toes the whole time and almost made me want to join the Navy and become a submariner! Sometimes I am happy to get to the end of a book, but when I finished Prowl today, I was hungry for more! (hint, hint, Gordan...)

I've said it from the first few chapters and I still say it now: Prowl should be made into a movie!

Do yourself a big favor and get a copy of Prowl today!

The Day and The Hour (Book Review)

Back in December I wrote an article called "Spurgeon on End Times Foolishness" where I addressed how aggravated I get with all the so-called prophecy teachers and their predictions and wild assertions. At the time, my eschatology was Dispensational Premillennial. However, right after I wrote the article, I started looking at some other eschatological options and now I'm currently undecided.

Recently, I obtained a copy of Francis X. Gumerlocks "The Day and The Hour: Christianity's Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the Word." I just finished it today and I have to say it was quite a fascinating read! It is basically a chronicle of End Times predictions that have been made from the first century and up to (and beyond) our present day. Also included are all the false predictions of the Watchtower, Moonies, Mormons, and other cults.

With hardly any commentary from the author, the book clearly shows how every generation has had both gifted scholars and wacko nut-jobs who tried to use current events to predict the 2nd Coming, the identity of the Antichrist, the 144,000, the Two Witnesses, etc, etc,...

I was surprised to learn that Puritan minister Cotton Mather predicted that Christ would return in 1717! One of my favorite stories was about how Pat Robertson planned to go to Israel and film/broadcast the 2nd Coming back in 1979!

The book shows that from the orthodox to the heterdox, way too many people have erred by trying to predict "the day and the hour;" and they all have one thing in common: THEY WERE ALL WRONG!

Regardless of your eschatological persuasion, I highly recommend this book. It's really interesting, fun to read, and will probably help you to be bold in crying foul the next time some clown writes another book setting a date for our Lord's return!

"It is not the one who asserts that He is near, nor the one who asserts that He is not near, who loves the coming of the Lord, but the one who waits for Him with sincere faith, firm hope, and ardent love, whether He be near or far." -Augustine of Hippo, 419 AD

By His Grace and For His Glory

The past few weeks I have been studying the history of the Protestant Reformation and Puritanism, so yesterday I began reading the book By His Grace and For His Glory by Dr. Thomas J. Nettles.

I figure it would be a good idea to go ahead and see what Dr. Nettles has to say about the history and historic theology of the Southern Baptist Convention as well.

I start this book today with an expectation that, by God's Grace, it will be the final nail in the coffin of all the historical/theological revisionism within the Southern Baptist movement.

I thank God that Dr. Nettles and Founder's Ministries have made available this resource for this generation of Baptists! May we not be fooled by those who wish to deny the theological roots of our movement.

Soli Deo Gloria!

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
-Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam

Desiderious Erasmus was a noted scholar and Roman Catholic priest who lived between October 27, 1466 and July 12, 1536. Besides having a very famous, and theologically important debate with Martin Luther over the freedom of the human Will, Erasmus was also responsible for translating the New Testament Scriptures out of Latin back to the original Greek language. This was an important contribution because Erasmus' work was later used by Martin Luther to translate the Scriptures into German and then, in early 1600's, English translators used his work to produce the King James version of the Bible. As you can see from the quote above, books were very important to Erasmus!

I almost hated reading books when I was younger. Now I find myself becoming more like Erasmus in that I'd rather spend my money books than almost anything else. I'm fairly sure that I already spend more money on books than clothes! My wife would probably agree that Erasmus' quote above sounds just like something I would say! Before I was a Christian, I doubt I read a dozen books total, now it seems I read well over a dozen per year. Because I mainly like to read books pertaining to theology, it is really helping me to understand more about the Bible and about the Lord Himself.

Both today and throughout the history of the church, God has raised up teachers and leaders whom he has gifted to have a great deal of incite about the Holy Scriptures and the nature of God. Through the volumes of books they have written, I can virtually "sit at their feet" and learn the great truths that they were taught by the Holy Spirit*. With these thoughts in mind, I want to give a list of books and authors that (in addition to the Bible) I have found to be particularly helpful to my theology, Christian walk, and ministry:

Systematic Theology, by Wayne Grudem

Fool's Gold, edited by John MacArthur

What is Reformed Theology?, by R.C. Sproul

Holy Spirit Power, by C.H. Spurgeon

Chosen by God, by R.C. Sproul

Concise Theology, by J.I. Packer

The King James Only Controversy, by James R. White

Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin

Why I am Not an Arminian, by Peterson and Williams

The Second Coming, by John MacArthur

God Chose to Save, by Joseph Bianchi

Counted Righteous in Christ, by John Piper

The Sovereignty of God, by A.W. Pink

Evangelistic Calvinism, by John Benton

The School of Biblical Evangelism (textbook), by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron

The Cross Centered Life, by C.J. Mahaney

Calvinism, Hyper-Calvinism, and Arminianism (workbook) by K. Talbot and G. Crampton

Have a blessed Weekend!

*Please note: I do do not study these men's writings blindly or without discernment, but in the spirit of the Berean believers of Acts 17, I study the Scriptures to see if their words are so. We must remember that no man is inerrant or infallable!