Between Two Worlds

"I'm not sure I know of another church that better exemplifies what I would like to see in churches than Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia." With these words, Mark Dever concludes his largely biographical interview with Phil Ryken, Tenth's Senior Minister. From an average week in this busy pastor's life, to his passion for ministry in the city, there is much to glean from this exchange.

Today and tomorrow, the FamilyLife Today radio show is broadcasting two programs featuring C.J. Mahaney's message "The Main Thing." This message became the basis for C.J.'s first book, The Cross-Centered Life. Today's program is titled "Keep the Gospel in Your Daily Grip." Good Friday's program is "No Condemnation." To listen online, read transcripts, or find stations in your area that carry the broadcast, visit FamilyLife Today's website.

• Contents
• Foreword, Introduction, and "The Whole Bible: What Does God Want of Us?"

“For many Christians the Old Testament is daunting and confusing. The books are long and speak about a culture dramatically different from ours. Mark Dever’s sermons do not substitute for reading the Old Testament, but they do provide a wonderful help in understanding it. Dever unpacks the major themes of each book with remarkable clarity, and the book also shines in conveying the message of the Old Testament for today. Here is a survey to the Old Testament that is accessible and spiritually edifying.”
—Thomas R. Schreiner
Professor of New Testament, Associate Dean of Scripture and Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“To hear the Bible tell its own story in its own way—this is the obvious but all-too-rare strategy for reading the Book of books. I thank Dr. Mark Dever for showing us how. We are immeasurably enriched.”
—Ray Ortlund, Jr.
Senior Pastor, Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville

“This is a bold project, some might say foolhardy, but Mark Dever has brilliantly succeeded. This is no mere textbook; it is powerful preaching. We are not only introduced to the sweep and message of each book of the Bible but, above all, confronted by our great God and called to obey his living word.”
—Vaughn Roberts
Rector, St. Ebbe’s Church, Oxford, England, Author of God’s Big Picture

“In these distinctive overview sermons, Mark Dever manages to bring together around the core issues of each biblical book three concerns that ought to occupy every faithful preacher of God’s Word: theological content, exegetical wisdom, and pastoral application. Here is a walk through the Bible that is well worth taking!”
—Timothy George
Dean, Beeson Divinity School, Executive Editor, Christianity Today

“Mark Dever has done the Christian community a great service in publishing these sermons. The material is academically informed but presented in a very accessible way with relevant application. With its Christological focus and careful Christian application of the Old Testament, this book enables readers to get into the theological heart of the message of each biblical book.”
—David Peterson
Principal, Oak Hill College

“Mark Dever has written a needed book and written it well. With a pastor’s heart, a scholar’s mind, and the intimacy of a friend, Dever introduces the reader clearly and creatively to a book that has changed the world but to which contemporary culture remains largely unexposed. This book is warm, engaging, straightforward, and profound. It will be a valuable resource for individuals, study groups, churches, unbelievers and believers alike. Dever takes the reader on an unforgettable journey into the most remarkable and moving book ever written.”
—John Shouse
Professor of Christian Theology, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary

“This is a good book, written by a pastor/scholar for people in the pew. Clear, concise, thoroughly readable. Buy two and give one to a friend.”
—Alistair Begg
Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Chagrin Falls, Ohio

“I have long desired a book that would unlock the richness of the Old Testament—assisting both the pastor in the pulpit and Christians in their devotions. This is that book.”
—C. J. Mahaney
Sovereign Grace Ministries

One of the reasons why the education given by our schools is so frothy and vapid is that the American people generally—the parent even more than the teacher—wish childhood to be unspoiled by pain. Childhood must be a period of delight, of gay indulgence in impulses. It must be given every avenue for unimpeded expression, which of course is pleasant; and it must not be made to suffer the impositions of discipline or the exactions of duty, which of course are painful. Childhood must be filled with as much play and as little work as possible. What cannot be accomplished educationally through elaborate schemes devised to make learning an exciting game must, of necessity, be forgone. Heaven forbid that learning should ever take on the character of a serious occupation—just as serious as earning money, and perhaps, much more laborious and painful . . .

Not only must we honestly announce that pain and work are the irremovable and irreducible accompaniments of genuine learning, not only must we leave entertainment to the entertainers and make education a task and not a game, but we must have no fears about what is “over the public’s head.” Whoever passes by what is over his head condemns his head to its present low altitude; for nothing can elevate a mind except what is over its head; and that elevation is not accomplished by capillary attraction, but only by the hard work of climbing up ropes, with sore hands and aching muscles. The school system which caters to the median child, or worse, to the lower half of the class; the lecturer before adults—and they are legion—who talks down to his audience; the radio or television program which tries to hit the lowest common denominator of popular receptivity—all these defeat the prime purpose of education by taking people as they are and leaving them just there.

All mental work tends to weary and to depress, for much study is a weariness of the flesh; but ours is more than mental work -- it is heart work, the labour of our inmost soul. . . . It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus.

Lovely in his person—in the glorious all-sufficiency of his Deity, gracious purity and holiness of his humanity, authority and majesty, love and power.

Lovely in his birth and incarnation; when he was rich, for our sakes becoming poor—taking part of flesh and blood, because we partook of the same; being made of a woman, that for us he might be made under the law, even for our sakes.

Lovely in the whole course of his life, and the more than angelical holiness and obedience which, in the depth of poverty and persecution, he exercised therein—doing good, receiving evil; blessing, and being cursed, reviled, reproached, all his days.

Lovely in his death; yea, therein most lovely to sinners—never more glorious and desirable than when he came broken, dead, from the cross. Then had he carried all our sins into a land of forgetfulness; then had he made peace and reconciliation for us; then had he procured life and immortality for us.

Lovely in his whole employment, in his great undertaking—in his life, death, resurrection, ascension; being a mediator between God and us, to recover the glory of God’s justice, and to save our souls—to bring us to an enjoyment of God, who were set at such an infinite distance from him by sin.

Lovely in the glory and majesty wherewith he is crowned. Now he is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; where, though he be terrible to his enemies, yet he is full of mercy, love, and compassion, towards his beloved ones.

Lovely in all those supplies of grace and consolations, in all the dispensations of his Holy Spirit, whereof his saints are made partakers.

Lovely in all the tender care, power, and wisdom, which he exercises in the protection, safe-guarding, and delivery of his church and people, in the midst of all the oppositions and persecutions whereunto they are exposed.

Lovely in all his ordinances, and the whole of that spiritually glorious worship which he has appointed to his people, whereby they draw nigh and have communion with him and his Father.

Lovely and glorious in the vengeance he takes, and will finally execute, upon the stubborn enemies of himself and his people.

Lovely in the pardon he has purchased and does dispense—in the reconciliation he has established—in the grace he communicates—in the consolations he does administer—in the peace and joy he gives his saints—in his assured preservation of them unto glory.

Publisher Description:

While history shows that evangelical political engagement in America has been consistent, its impact has been checkered. This new work offers a brief history of evangelical political thought over the past fifty years and assesses recent evangelical forays into politics.

J. Budziszewski examines the theological, political, and ethical reflections of four key figures--Carl F. H. Henry, Abraham Kuyper, Francis Schaeffer, and John Howard Yoder--to whom today's evangelical political perspectives can be traced. While appreciative of the contributions of each of these thinkers, Budziszewski feels each failed to develop a systematic political theory as compelling as those offered by the secularist establishment. He then offers his recommendations for the evangelical political movement, arguing that, in addition to Scripture, the evangelical political movement should be informed by the tradition of natural law.

Summary chapters from four expert respondents follow: David L. Weeks (Azusa Pacific University) responds on Henry, John Bolt (Calvin Seminary) comments on Kuyper, William Edgar (Westminster Seminary) responds to the Schaeffer section, and Ashley Woodiwiss (Wheaton College) offers remarks on the Yoder portion. The book includes an introduction by Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and an afterword by Jean Bethke Elshtain, who summarizes the dialogue and offers her own keen observations.

Endorsements:

"Evangelical Christians have long been faced with a paradox. The dynamism of their faith moves them irrepressibly in the direction of its public expression, as is evident in evangelicalism's long history of reform activism. But their faith has generally been formulated in ways that fail to supply a clear and consistent framework for the sustained engagement of public issues. Hence the energetic but also piecemeal and ad hoc quality of much evangelical political activity. This valuable book, a critical but constructive look at four of the theorists upon whom American evangelicals have relied in the past, begins to sketch out paths that might lead evangelicals past the paradox. As such, it will be required reading."--Wilfred M. McClay, SunTrust Chair of Excellence in Humanities, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

"A clearly argued, provocative, and important contribution to a growing, increasingly sophisticated, evangelical reflection on political philosophy."--Ronald J. Sider, professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy, Palmer Seminary

"Contrary to public opinion, evangelical political thought is not a monolithic reality. Evangelicals in the Public Square provides clear evidence of this fact, as it guides us through the strengths and challenges of some of the movement's most influential thinkers. Though some readers will not buy Budziszewski's natural law perspective, they will be enriched by the lucid and insightful dialogue of this important work."--Dennis Hollinger, president and professor of Christian ethics, Evangelical School of Theology

• written an introduction to Owen's life and theology
• provided overviews of the thesis and arguments for all three books
• footnoted difficult vocabulary words or phrases and collected them into a glossary
• Americanized the British spelling (e.g., behaviour to behavior)
• updated archaic pronouns (e.g., thou to you)
• updated archaic verbs (e.g., hath to have)
• updated archaic verb endings (e.g., requireth to requires)
• updated some archaic word forms (e.g., concernments to concerns, surprisals to surprises)
• modernized some of the punctuation
• placed Scripture references in parentheses
• added Scripture references in brackets when Owen quotes or alludes to a passage but does not provide a reference
• transliterated all Hebrew and Greek words, moving the original font to a footnote and providing a translation if Owen didn’t provide one
• translated all Latin phrases that Owen leaves untranslated
• provided sources for quotations and allusions where possible
• removed Owen’s intricate numbering system which functioned as an extensive outline
• added headings, italics, and extensive outlines to aid the reader in following the flow of Owen’s thought

• What is Depression? (April 3, 2006)
• Suffering Well (April 4, 2006)
• Help for the Depressed (April 5, 2006)
• Strategies for Dealing with Depression April 6, 2006

To find this broadcast on a FamilyLife radio station near you, click here.