THE BEAUTY AND GLORY OF GOD’S WORD
Edited by Joel R. Beeke
Reformation Heritage Books. 142pp. $25.00
ISBN 978 1 601 784 803
This slim volume represents a robust assertion of a Reformed Evangelical view of Scripture. Most of the contributors teach at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The book’s ten chapters, each based on a biblical text, are addresses delivered at the Puritan Reformed Conference of 2015. The material is largely expository and much of it will prove useful to preachers.
The concern of the writers is to correct what they see as a slide into liberal views of the Bible among some contemporary evangelical scholars – in particular, they attack the view that Adam and Eve may not be historical figures. They insist that only a literal, historical reading of Genesis 1 and 2, including a six-day creation and the making of Adam from the dust and Eve from his rib, is true to the teaching of the Bible and compatible with a correct doctrine of Scripture.
All we need to know
It is admitted that not all of Scripture is clear to every reader, that certain passages are difficult and that external aids are sometimes needed to understand it, but its essential message – all that we need to know to be saved – is crystal clear. Where its meaning is obscure, this is due to the historical circumstances or intellectual and spiritual condition of its readers, not to any lack of clarity on the part of the Bible.
The book itself is accessible and clear, and easy to understand for the general reader. Yet there are a few caveats. One contributor asserts that God has revealed everything about himself, ourselves, salvation and life – that he has left absolutely nothing to our imagination – but another observes that the Bible does not speak on every detail of church life, for example, and lists various matters of importance on which it is silent. On several topics, this reviewer felt that different positions were dismissed rather summarily without the issues being adequately addressed. And many readers will question the suggestions that same-sex desires are sins, or that suffering depression is being disobedient to Scripture.
