1Both books are available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
A Heavenly Conference between Christ and Mary, by Richard Sibbes, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 183 pages, £5.00.
Those who know what it is to say of Christ, “I sought Him but I found Him not”, will find much which resonates with their experience in this work by Sibbes; it is taken from volume 6 of Sibbes’ Works. In the early part of the book he deals with Mary’s experience of seeking, and eventually finding, the risen Christ at the tomb. As we are told in the address “To The Reader”, we learn how diligent Mary was to seek, and how ready Christ was to be found. Sibbes expounds the truth beautifully and applies it to the reader throughout. In referring to Mary’s mistaking Christ for the gardener, he suggests that it is “the hardest matter in the world for a distressed conscience to apprehend God aright, and to apprehend Christ aright”.
The book then takes an almost unexpected turn and proceeds to a more doctrinal exposition of the commission which Christ gave to Mary: “Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God” (Jn 20:17). If the early part of the book provides “milk”, the remainder brings out “meat”. Numerous doctrines are drawn out of the text, including the believer’s relationship to Christ as one of His brethren, the significance of Christ’s ascension, the Fatherhood of God with regard to Christ and His people, and God’s covenant relationship to Christ and His people.
Sibbes gives the reader sublime views of the love which God the Son has to His people under the sweet title, “My brethren”. For example, the timing of their being called Christ’s brethren is significant. We are told: “They had dealt most unbrotherly with Him, for everyone had forsaken Him, and Peter had denied Him; yet, ‘Go tell My brethren’. One would think this water would have quenched this fire; this unkind and unbrotherly dealing would have quenched this love in Christ’s breast”, but “nothing could conquer it”. No less glorious is his view of the love of God the Father to those who are united to Christ. He tells us that “fathers on earth are but poor fathers, and they be but beams of the fatherly affection that is in God. God will let us see by these beams of compassion that is in a father to a child what real compassion He beareth to us. The true reality of fatherhood is in God.”
A few sentences here and there read a little awkwardly, but overall, simplicity of style complements profundity of matter. Careful and prayerful readers will discover that in the field of this book, “the stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold” (Job 28:6). (Rev) ID MacDonald
The Quest for the Historical Adam, Genesis, Hermeneutics, and Human Origins, by William Van Doodewaard, published by Reformation Heritage Books, hardback, 369 pages, £19.99.
This book will not appeal to everyone but, for those who are interested, it helpfully brings together a large amount of information about how Adam has been viewed over the Christian centuries. The question addressed here is: Are we to take the Genesis account of Adam literally or should we view him as nothing more than a mythical figure? The author is in no doubt that the first of these is the correct, scriptural position.
The author chronicles departures from the literal view over the past few centuries and examines particularly deviations from Scripture revelation in more recent times within the Evangelical camp. The author, a professor in an American theological seminary, instances Peter Enns2 as one of those who, “driven by arguments and conclusions from the scientific community . . . now argue that Adam is merely a mythical representative of early humanity” (p 2). There is no doubt some men from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, such as Charles Hodge and B B Warfield, otherwise highly-respected theologians, were overly concessive to the advance of evolutionary theories – though neither of them would ever question the historicity of Adam.
2Professor Enns taught in Westminster Seminary in the USA until, in 2008, after considerable criticism, not least of a volume on inspiration, he left the Seminary.
The author notes that one’s position on Adam “impacts a wide range of doctrinal and practical issues” (p 311); it is therefore a much more serious matter than may at first sight appear, for creation is a thread that runs right through Scripture. It is significant that “through the first eighteen centuries of Christian church history, commitment to a literal understanding of human origins was nearly monolithic among exegetes and theologians” (p 281).
The writer refers to the opposition of American twentieth-century theologian Louis Berkhof to theistic evolution (the idea that God used evolution to bring the universe, and this world in particular, to where it is today). Berkhof is further quoted to sum up the matter: “God created Adam and Eve as the beginning of the human species”. This is what the Bible teaches; accordingly, those who submit to the authority of Scripture should be in no doubt about the historicity of Adam, and that is the testimony of this book. However confidently scientists put forward theories of evolution, we should rest satisfied with God’s infallible testimony about His work, as found in Scripture.