What are you reading?

1. Law & Grace by Myron Houghton. I’m becoming less and less convinced that “the dispensations” are a worthwhile way to structure your framework for the whole of Scripture. I think dispensationalism makes a lot of critically important points, but I think we’re better off viewing the Bible covenentally (the real covenants, not the pretend ones!). Look through the dispensationalist books - little to no mention of the New Covenant. Dispesnationalists often don’t even know what to do with the New Covenant. This is awful. Dr. Houghton’s book is very difficult for me - he even disputes the active obedience of Christ! I am identifying less and less with traditional dispensationalism. I have Paul Henebury to thank for that!



2. Personal by Lee Child.



3. Reclaiming Authentic Fundamentalism by MacLachlan. I just finished this one. Good points, but not as good as I remembered it. I was particularly disappointed in his agnostic stance on Calvinism and Arminianism - and his advocacy of an “inscrutable synergism.” I have been cautioned by some good men that MacLachlan went too far. I don’t think he went far enough.



4. Philippians by Gerald Hawthorne (WBC). This is my go-to commentary in a Greek exegesis class I’m slogging my way through. I think Hawthorne did a very good job, even if he went a bit haywire in his translation and interpretation of Phil 3:17-21!



5. Septuagint. I have been doing some translation work from the LXX over the past few months, and been comparing how the NT authors quote from it. I think the LXX is worth a much closer look than many folks give it credit for. I’ve already asked my wife for a print copy for Christmas. A bonus - the LXX interprets the “most holy” (KJV - Dan 9:24) as the “holy of holies” inside the temple, not Messiah.

John Murray, Principles of Conduct: Aspects of Biblical Ethics (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.; Grand Rapids, Michigan 1957)

If you want to read one book on Biblical Ethics, this is my suggestion. Just finished it, although our Sunday School class is still proceeding through it. Excellent.

I’ve been reading Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough. Most of my secular reading this year has been early American history/biography. This one on Teddy Roosevelt is a bit out of that timeframe.

Next up will be The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick.

I’m also reading several commentaries on Zechariah in conjunction with a SS series I am currently teaching: Boda, Boice, Baron, Phillips, and Klein.

I’m trying to read The New England Soul: Preaching and Religous Culture in Colonial New England but so far it hasn’t been much of a page-turner and it’s currently languishing on my bookshelf.

[josh p]

Greatness of the Kingdom- another book on my short list! I just wish it was available electronically.

Is the commentary by Boda on Zechariah from the NAC series? If it is, I think it was the most helpful one of the usual bunch when I preached through the book last year. Feinberg was also good.

I got a couple of books off the clearance shelves at HPB the other day- The Inferno of Dante (Bilingual Edition—although I’m not bilingual), and Up Till Now, William Shatner’s autobiography. Couldn’t resist jumping into them. I’m about 30 minutes from finishing Damsels in Distress by Martha Peace on my Kindle reader. I downloaded an audiobook, Arrival by Ryk Brown, from Hoopla, but haven’t started it yet.

Boda is NICOT and runs over 800 pages! Klein is NAC and I agree he is quite helpful. I have Feinberg but haven’t consulted him all that often. Maybe I should. Richard Phillips, though, is the one who motivated me to tackle this book in a SS series. His sermons in the Reformed Expository Commentary on Zechariah are simply outstanding. Zechariah is a hidden treasure in our OT.

I knew I got the name wrong! I loved preaching through Zechariah. I love the KJV rendering “flying roll” from ch. 5!

Charity Detox: What Charity Would Look Like if We Cared About Results by Robert Lupton