Westminster Reference Bible, published by the Trinitarian Bible Society, hardback, 1691 pages, £14.95.
This new edition of the Authorised Version of the Bible is very welcome. First, it is newly reset in a clear, readable typeface. Those with failing eyesight will need larger print than this edition provides, but most people will find it very easy to read. In comparison with many other Bibles, it is neither small nor light; most people would probably use it at home rather than for carrying around.
Second, it contains much useful information to help the reader grasp the message of Scripture. (1) Compared with the traditional reference Bible, the number of marginal references has been greatly increased, many of them coming from John Brown of Haddington’s Self-Interpreting Bible. The margins also contain the meanings of words that have gone out of use since 1611, when the AV was originally published. (2) The volume contains a concordance, a daily Bible-reading guide, and tables explaining the units of money, weight and other measures used in Scripture. There are also eight pages of attractively-drawn maps of the Middle East, Israel and the eastern Mediterranean, appropriate to the various periods of biblical history.
This edition is published in two different covers: one black, the other coloured. An edition in black calfskin has just been published at £49.95.
Born of God, Sermons from John, Chapter One, by D Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 479 pages, £17.50.
This book contains a series of 32 sermons preached in 1962-63. They do not, as in many of Dr Lloyd-Jones’ other books, provide a continuous exposition of the chapter. Instead they focus on two particular verses and two particular topics. One topic includes the abiding relevance of the law of God to all, including believers, and also the relation of the law to grace. He stresses that believers “are put into a position in which now, by the power of grace, [they] are enabled to live and to practice the law of God”.
The other main topic is the assurance of faith. The preacher comes at the matter from a number of angles, seeking to encourage believers, on the basis of Scripture, to recognise what the Lord has done for them. Dr Lloyd-Jones does, however, seem to go too far when he encourages someone who has backslidden seriously but is beginning “to feel that this worldly life is wrong”. What he describes may in particular cases be the beginning of conviction of sin rather than the beginning of a return from backsliding. It is worth bearing
1Everything reviewed here is obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
in mind a remark of Archibald Cook when speaking of assurance: “It is not while asleep that one reaches it”.2 The backslider must return to the Saviour before he can expect to find assurance of his salvation.
This book contains much useful exposition and practical application of Scripture, and one would not wish discomfort about a particular passage, which is less than a page long, to overshadow the rest of the volume.
My Beloved, by Cathie MacRae, published by Andrew and William Murray, booklet, 64 pages, £2.00.
This is a reprint of a booklet written by a woman from Wester Ross who spent most of the last 16 years of her life in hospital suffering from tuberculosis. She died in 1948, aged 41. She writes frankly about her unconverted years and recounts her time of seeking salvation and her deliverance.
She comments on her illness and her spiritual experience, but the emphasis is on her spiritual experience. She refers to a number of other patients and some staff who shared her outlook; she valued their company. At another time she writes, “How I longed for the fellowship of a Christian friend! But what friend can take the place of my beloved Saviour, to whom I can turn at all times and who knows all our weaknesses and infirmities, for ‘in all [our] afflictions He was afflicted’?” The diary-type entries in the second half of 1945 become shorter and then cease completely. Presumably she was not well enough to continue.
This is a welcome example of a piety that was once far commoner in the Scottish Highlands than, sadly, it now is.
Protestant View
Rome Plans a Resurgence
The Church of Rome, at its Twenty-fifth Synod of Bishops in the Vatican last month, discussed the decline in its membership and how to spread its teachings – by what it calls, “The New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”. One Synodical document shows that millions of lapsed Roman Catholics, especially in the West, have joined other religious groups or become “nonbelievers”. “In Latin America,” says the CathNews website, “the Church has sustained massive losses to Pentecostal and evangelical Christianity, estimated at 8000 defections per day during the 1990s.”
What is the cause? In addressing the Episcopal Conference of Colombia in June, the Pope did not say that it was, for example, the priestly abuse
2In the forthcoming translation of his Gaelic Sermons (Free Presbyterian Publications).
scandal. Rather, as Leonardo De Chirico points out on the Reformation21 Blog, he “explicitly refers to ‘Pentecostal and Evangelical communities’ as very active realities and primary agents for this change”. He adds: “Ratzinger quotes the document drafted by the 2007 Conference of the Latin American Bishops. . . . The relevant section . . . can be summarised in this way: most people in Latin America leave the Roman Catholic Church, not because of what the ‘non-catholic’ groups believe, but because of how they live. . . . In other words, the challenge that Pentecostals and Evangelicals represent for the Roman Catholic Church has little to do with their different doctrines of the Bible, authority, sacraments, the Church, salvation, etc, but with the quality of life they seem to live.”
What is Rome to do? The Pope’s answer is simple, says Dr De Chirico. “There is nothing to change as far as the doctrine of the R C Church is concerned. The challenge is to become ‘better’ Catholics: more hospitable, more inclusive, more compassionate.” This is to be achieved by promoting “adherence to the traditions of the Church, the deepening of Marian spirituality, and the practice of a richer devotional life. The cure is not less Roman Catholicism and more Evangelicalism, but instead more Roman Catholicism.” No doubt, Dr De Chirico’s insightful analysis of the Papal self-cure will be confirmed by the outcome of the Synod of Bishops.
More Roman Catholicism will not really stem the decline; nor will it draw lapsed Rome Catholics back from Evangelicalism (however that may be defined). Rather, it will contribute to the predicted demise of the Papacy. “The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands” (Ps 9:16). NMR