Sam Harris is an atheist who doesn’t think much of Christianity. He wrote a book called Letter to a Christian Nation that has become a best seller. As the title suggests, it is written as a letter to Christians (in America in particular), to try to show them the error of their ways.

I had heard of Sam Harris (and this book) as one of three well known ‘new atheists’ – Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, whose writings are selling briskly. In preparing for a new Christian apologetics preaching series in the fall, I thought it would be good to read what these new atheists are saying, to get a firsthand understanding of their complaints against Christianity. The book I had read previous was William Lane Craig’s Reasonable Faith, a 400+ page, strong intellectual defense of the Christian faith. So I picked up Letter to a Christian Nation, which is a much shorter book at just over 100 pages, thinking that I needed something lighter for a change.

However, I didn’t imagine how light it would be. I somehow thought that it would be a small but tightly written, poignant attack on the Christian faith, which would cause me to think and challenge me on why I believe what I believe.  Instead what I found was a poorly written rant against Christianity, thoroughly lacking in both rhetorical power and actual substance. Harris meanders almost aimlessly from topic to topic, with many moments that I guess are supposed to be ‘gotcha’s’, but that anyone with a basic knowledge of Christian apologetics could brush aside without much effort. I don’t just say this as a Christian pastor, I say it as a human being – this is a weak book. I do a fair bit of reading, and even if I disagree with something, I can give credit to a well written argument. But Letter to a Christian Nation is just not a worthy book and if I were an atheist I would be embarrassed by it. “Is that the best ya’ got?” is the question that comes to mind. Christianity isn’t in much danger if this is the best the new atheists have to offer.

The first thing that struck me about Letter to a Christian Nation was the amount of white space on the page. I think there is more white space in the margins than actual type. While this does not speak directly to the substance of the book, it does underline how little Harris actually has to say. I also noticed a lack of footnotes or endnotes (but later discovered endnotes at the end of the book – they are not noted in the actual text so you just have to guess that this would be a good place for a note and then flip to the back to see if Harris includes an endnote or not). But these formatting choices are mainly just nuisances. Let’s get into the text itself, looking at a sampling of the arguments he uses against Christianity.

He starts off by cherry-picking passages from the Bible, some dealing with OT laws that involve seemingly  harsh penalties, and some dealing with NT passages talking about God’s judgment (and note that later Harris accuses Christians of cherry-picking Scripture, just as he has done. Afterword, p105). Harris points out that God not only talks about love, but also about punishment. Any person who has read the Bible knows that God is a judge who punishes sin, but Harris treats it like he has found some secret that Christians have been desperately trying to hide, until our brave new atheist discovered these terrible, dark secrets and revealed them for all to see (Isn’t that kind of like the plot of The Da Vinci Code?). Yes, Sam, God punishes sin, and no, it isn’t pretty. That’s why we Christians run around the world telling people of God’s love and warning them of His judgment. We want people to trust in Jesus, love God and avoid hell. We also build schools, hospitals, wells, micro-businesses, and other nice things along the way.

A little further on in his book, Harris describes how a pro-lifer scratching skin their nose should be seen (by the pro-lifer) as an equivalent “Holocaust” to the destruction of a three day old human embryo (pp29-30). No, I’m not making this up. He really says this. Atheists are always bragging about how scientific they are, but on this one Harris seems a little weak in the science department, being unable to distinguish the difference between nose skin and a three day old human embryo. Maybe that is where atheism takes you!?

In one section he describes several countries as being ‘among the least religious societies on earth.’ (p43) He includes my own dear country of Canada on this list. According to a recent Ipsos-Reid survey (in the past five years or so), about 84% (if memory serves me correct) of Canadians believe in God. Canada has thousands of churches and millions of Christians, not to mention hundreds of thousands (millions?) practicing other religions. We have Christian radio, Christian TV, Christian schools (including government funded Catholic schools), Christian politicians saying “God bless Canada”, etc, etc, etc… Oh we irreligious Canadians! What more can we do to show how irreligious we are?….If Canada is supposed to be an example of one of the least religious societies on earth, then it seems Harris must be scraping the bottom of the barrel for examples. I point all of this out to say that Harris needs to be watched on his facts.

Around the middle of the book, Harris defines atheism as follows:

“Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious…Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs” (p51)

Where to start…’an admission of the obvious’…’reasonable people’…’unjustified religious beliefs’.  Now there are arrogant Christians, arrogant Muslims, etc…. but it’s not the main point of their religion. Humility is encouraged and celebrated in Christianity, for example. With Harris’ brand of new atheism, arrogance seems to be a virtue. His definition of atheism could be summarized by saying. “Smart people are atheists. Brainless people are religious.” Because of course it so obvious that atheism is true, as all reasonable people can see since religious beliefs are unjustified. To use Harris’ own statistic, 87% of Americans must be pretty dim-witted, including current and past presidents, since they must not be reasonable people who can see the obvious fact that atheism is the way to go, due to their unjustified religious beliefs.

Yes, I realize that drips with sarcasm. But c’mon Sam, would it have hurt you that much to respond to real arguments of real theists, who have shown themselves to be reasonable, and often brilliant people, who have written in favour of belief in God for centuries before you wrote your book? Do you really think that you, as an atheist, are the intellectual superior of all us simple folk who believe in God? Contrary to your assertion, it is in fact quite easy to argue that it is obvious to most people, not that atheism is true, but that there is a God. It actually takes a lot of work to turn people into atheists (and thus atheists have to keep writing books like yours to persuade the masses of how ‘obvious’ atheism is).

Harris goes on to discuss the conflict between science and religion, pointing out how foolish it is to use faith as a reason for justifying belief (pp66-67). He gives examples of things us crazy religious people take on faith such as the “origin of books like the Bible and the Koran,…the resurrection of Jesus” (p67).  Now you would think that Harris would address some of the readily available Christian arguments for the origin of the Bible or the resurrection of Jesus, and consider whether they pass historical tests or not. Try for example, the chapter on the resurrection in Craig’s Reasonable Faith, or Habermas’ & Licona’s The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Both present strong arguments for the historicity of the resurrection, not from blind faith, but from historical data that is generally agreed upon by liberal and conservative scholars. Craig even delves into probability calculus, giving mathematical reasons for the probability of the resurrection. However, Harris does not even bother to address these or other worthwhile Christian arguments (which can be convincing to Christians and skeptics alike). He just makes assertions about how right he is and how terrible Christianity is, without even trying to respond to the strong arguments arrayed against atheism. Such blatant omission is intellectually weak on Harris’ part. He must know better. But I don’t think his book is meant to be balanced or thoughtful. He is every bit as dogmatic (and even more so) than those whom he seeks to attack. Many Christians are thoughtful and willing to hear opposing arguments. But Harris is an atheist on an ideological tirade – he is ‘religious’ in his passion against Christianity, and it skews his objectivity and makes him so narrow minded that he does bother to deal with legitimate arguments by those with whom he disagrees.

So generally speaking, I don’t recommend A Letter to a Christian Nation, not just because I disagree with it, but primarily because it is not a very good book. But if you are Christian, wondering if atheism has anything to offer, then you may want to check it out. It will strengthen your Christian faith when you see Harris’ weak and one-sided arguments.  If you do happen to find a question that he raises for which you need an answer, a good place to start would be Ravi Zacharias’ response to Harris, The End of Reason. I will be reviewing it in the near future on this blog and hopefully will remember to insert a link here.

Not Recommended (except as a negative example of the weakness of atheism!).

Harris, Sam, Letter to a Christian Nation, Vintage, Toronto, 2008, 120 pages.

I am planning a preaching series on Christian Apologetics in the fall so I have started collecting several books on the subject, including Dr. William Lane Craig’s Reasonable Faith, 3rd Edition. Dr. Craig is a well known Christian apologist, having effectively defended the Christian faith for many years on university campuses across Canada and the United States (and no doubt around the world).

Let me say right away that Reasonable Faith is not light reading. It is 400+ pages filled with deep philosophical discussions about issues in Christian apologetics. That being said, Dr. Craig’s book is excellent and well worth the effort.

It  is divided into five parts with eight chapters: (with latin (I assume) in the titles, and my best guess translation in brackets since I don’t know latin but the words look familiar enough to guess)

Part One: De Fide (faith)

1. How do I know Christianity is True

Part Two: De Homine  (man)

2. The Absurdity of Life Without God

Part Three: De Deo  (God)

3. The Existence of God (I)

4. The Existence of God (II)

Part Four: De Creation (creation)

5. The Problem of Historical Knowledge

6. The Problem of Miracles

Part Five: De Christo  (Christ)

7. The Self-Understanding of Jesus

8. The Resurrection of Jesus

For each chapter (combined in chapters 3&4), Craig gives a history of the development of Christian apologetics for the topic being discussed. I found it very helpful to see the development of thought over time, and to know that Christians have been discussing and defending the faith for a very long time. It is also helpful to understand that some current apologetics issues are rooted in centuries-old debates that keep resurfacing.

For example, the issue of whether or not miracles can happen relates to Deism, the idea that God exists but is basically uninvolved in His creation.  In a Deist’s view of God, miracles are normally impossible. Today we often hear of Bible scholars who rule out large portions of the Bible as unhistorical. Their reason is because there is a miracle involved in the story, and that automatically disqualifies it as history, since miracles are impossible. Notice that there is no historical investigation done, it is just assumed that the story is untrue because they have already concluded that all miracles are impossible!  It is then helpful to know that this way of thinking is rooted in Deism from two hundred years ago, and that while there are few who would call themselves Deists, today, their thinking still lurks behind the scholarly work of many Biblical scholars.

After giving a historical overview, Craig gives the state of the debate today, and gives his best arguments in defense of the Christian faith. He interacts with different viewpoints, and explains why he believes his argument is correct. Sometimes it can get a little confusing, such as when he gets into discussions of multiple universes, string cosmology, theories of how time works, probability calculus, and reasons why infinity does not work in reality as it does as a mathematical abstraction (with the bizarre Hilbert’s Hotel of infinite capacity creating paradoxes when people check in and out in certain patterns…if you care to know what this has to do with the existence of God, see chapter 3). By the end of the book I think I was starting to grasp the probability calculus, and it is pretty cool in giving strong evidence for the resurrection using mathematics that were not available back when the famous philosopher David Hume declared miracles to be impossible.

But if you are now thinking, there is no way I want to read this book with confusing stuff like that, please don’t be dismayed, there are lots of other parts of the book that are much more understandable. For example, I jumped to the last chapter on the resurrection when I was about halfway through the book, in preparation for the Easter Message I preached at the Tab last month. It was extremely helpful and interesting, and I made much use of it in the message.

At the end of each chapter, Craig gives a ‘Practical Application’ section. I always enjoyed getting to this part, not only because it meant I was about to finish a long chapter, but because it was interesting to hear Dr. Craig’s less scholarly, more practical and more personal comments about the material he had just finished so meticulously presenting. He is very candid, admitting that some chapters have more practical value than others when dealing with everyday people. As a suggestion for improvement if there is ever a fourth edition, I would say that the Practical Application section was much too short and I would not have minded if it had been several pages longer in each chapter. I would also suggest reading Greg Koukl’s much shorter book, Tactics (my review is here), in combination with Reasonable Faith. Tactics gives very practical tools for how to use Christian apologetics information, such as the material contained in Reasonable Faith, in every day conversation, so that you don’t walk away from an evangelistic opportunity thinking of all the things you wished you had thought to say in the conversation.

One more note: I have a copy of the second edition of Reasonable Faith, and it contains a good chapter by Craig Blomberg, a respected evangelical scholar, about the reliablity of the New Testament. This chapter was omitted from the third edition, for reasons given by Craig in the preface (to keep the book’s length down, and to keep with his conviction that proving the historical reliability of the NT is not necessary to mount a strong apologetics case for the core truths of the NT (but note that Craig does have a high view of Scripture!!) ).

In addition to his book, Dr. Craig has put together a free website of the same name, that offers even more helpful Christian apologetics material – www.reasonablefaith.org . The other day I read a debate on the site between Dr. Craig and Dr. Bart Ehrman (click here for it), and it was interesting to see how Dr. Craig used the material presented in Reasonable Faith to counter the arguments of a leading skeptic in a live debate.

In summary, as I said a the beginning of this review, Reasonable Faith is a excellent book on Christian apologetics. I am happy to recommend it to you.

Recommended.

Craig, Dr. William Lane, Reasonable Faith Third Edition, Crossway, Wheaton, 2008, 415 pages.

Right now at Prairie Tab we are in the process of receiving a Faith Promise Offering for our Building Fund. If you are not familiar with a faith promise offering you can read about it in this document that was given to our congregation. I also preached a message about it that you can listen to here, or read the notes here.

Our elder chair, Steve Ibbotson, has an interesting story here at his blog, where he tells about how the Lord has provided for he and Sarah already, within a week or two of making their faith promise.

Praise God!

Check it out!

In our weekly staff meeting we are reading through Will Metzger’s book on evangelism, Tell the Truth. We have been at it for a couple of weeks and have completed the preface, introduction and chapter one. Already we have found it to be a challenging and encouraging book. I read most of this book last year but found I did not digest everything in it and this time through I am already catching much more than I did the first time. In chapter one (p30), Metzger quotes Martin Lloyd-Jones, the famous Welsh preacher (who, I am told, visited Three Hills to speak at Prairie Bible Institute, many years ago), giving his foundational principles of evangelism. Here they are below, with my comments in italics:

1. The supreme object of the work of evangelism is to glorify God, not to save souls.

This makes sense in principle, but I have to admit that it is easy to neglect in practice. I need to keep this principle before me! It is easy to have tunnel-vision on the soul-saving part and forget the God-glorifying part.

2. The only power that can do this work is the Holy Spirit, not our own strength.

Since I don’t feel like I have much strength as an evangelist, this principle is easy for me to accept!

3. The one and only medium through which the Spirit works is the Scriptures; therefore we “reason out of the Scriptures” like Paul did.

This underlines the priority of speaking words of Scripture as central to our evangelist efforts. I have been thinking recently of how to share Scripture in the flow of my normal conversation, instead of pausing to say the reference, or ‘the Bible says’. My thought is that the appeal to authority (the Bible, God) is not meaningful to many people today, so rather than distract them with it, it may be better to share the Scripture in natural conversation and let the Holy Spirit apply it to their hearts, whether or not they realize it is Scripture they are hearing. I am wrestling with this thought a bit and would appreciate any thoughts you have about it – maybe introducing a quote as being God’s Word is important (this certainly happens a lot when the NT quotes the OT, though many OT allusions are not introduced directly – this would be an interesting study). What do you think?

4. These preceding principles give us the true motivation for evangelism-a zeal for God and a love for others.

I have thought for a while that a lot of challenges to evangelize place love for neighbour above love for God. I have been encouraged by John Piper’s book on missions, Let the Nations be Glad, where he writes, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t”. Our motivation for missions (and evangelism in general) is the greatness of God and our desire for others to worship Him. It is not that saving people from hell is not also an important motivator (it is!), but it is not the most important motivator.

5. There is a constant danger of heresy through a false zeal and employment of unscriptural methods.

If saving people from hell holds higher priority than the worship of God, then it seems to me that we will do anything to get someone saved, and that ‘anything’ which we employ may not be scriptural, and may not honour the Lord.

Thoughts? Comments?

Last week I attended the 2009 Simeon Trust Preaching Workshop, hosted by Southview Alliance Church in Calgary (March 24-26, 2009).   The workshop format was a mix of teaching, preaching and small group time. This was my third consecutive year attending, and as in past years, I was blessed by the Lord through it.

This year’s book of the Bible was Zechariah, a book that I have read when I go through the Bible, but not one that I have ever studied (though I always enjoy the part at the end (ch14) where the Lord touches down on the Mount of Olives!). This year’s presenters were Kent Hughes , Barry Webb and Carey Hughes (more on the speakers at the bottom of this post).

Small group time is always fun because each person takes two turns presenting previously assigned passages from the book we are studying. David Atmore and I (David is vice chair of our elders board), were both in Barry Webb’s group. Barry has written a commentary on Zechariah in the Bible Speaks Today series (a series I have found to be quite good), so he knows a thing or two (i.e. a lot!) about the book. What made it especially interesting was that I come from a pre-millennial, dispensational perspective on my eschatology, and that was not the interpretive approach taken at the workshop (I realize that ‘dispensational’ can be a loaded term for some, so for now just understand that I believe the millennium is the literal, future, 1000 year reign of Christ on earth, and that God still has a future for the nation of Israel and there are biblical promises yet to be fulfilled for her). Zechariah is a prophetic book complete with horseman, chariots, lampstands, flying scrolls, etc…, capped off by the Lord’s grand return in chapter 14 to the Mount of Olives to judge the nations and to reign over the whole earth. Zechariah contains lots of promises for the future of Israel, that I expect will be literally fulfilled one day, but some interpret them as being promises for the church. It was really interesting and helpful for me to see how a highly respected OT scholar handled the passages. I was appreciative of Barry’s humble style and helpful insights into the text. I also appreciated his graciousness in interacting with David and I on some of the interpretive issues, where we had different perspectives.

I was blessed by the large group times as well. A highlight for me was hearing Kent Hughes preach an encouraging message for pastors, from 1 Timothy 4 (Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching). Carey Hughes challenged us to feed on the word of God, in order to feed others, from John 21 (Feed my sheep).  Barry Webb preached two messages from Zechariah and also provided instruction on how to study and preach from it.

There was also some good question and answer time. It was great to hear about Kent Hughes’ sermon preparation process, and also to hear who could bench more, Kent or Carey (Thanks to Carlin for asking that  ‘pressing’ question that no doubt was on everyone’s mind!). Barry Webb graciously answered my question about the difference in approach that a pastor coming from a pre-mill perspective would take, in preaching through Zechariah.

A final highlight was the interaction with all the other pastors.  It was great to meet people and reconnect with others,  and to talk about preaching, and about ministry in general with other pastors from all around the province, from different church backgrounds. Baptist, Alliance, Associate Gospel, Anglican and Non-denominational churches were all represented. There were about forty-five or so people in attendance, giving it a lot more personal feel than a larger conference. It’s also great for interacting with the workshop leaders as you have time and opportunity to ask them questions.

All in all it was a good workshop and I’m glad I went again this year. I should add what a great job Clyde Glass and the team at Southview Alliance do each year in hosting it and keeping us well fed!

PS: Here’s a little more about the main presenters:

Kent Hughes pastored in Wheaton for 40 years at College Church and he founded the Simeon Trust. I have been blessed through his Preach the Word commentary series, specifically the volumes he authored on The Sermon on the Mount, Colossians and John (just used it for last Sunday’s message), and I had the chance to thank him for the series. Barry Webb is an OT theology professor from Moore Theological College in Sidney, Australia. He is a widely respected theologian and author (including being the contributor for the introduction and notes for the book of Esther in the new ESV Study Bible). Carey Hughes is the Assistant Pastor at Christ the Redeemer Church in Spokane, Washington where he leads youth ministries and preaches as well. He studied under Barry Webb at Moore College. He is  a gifted preacher and has a great sense of humour. He grew up in a pastor’s home and you may be able to guess which other presenter is his father!

PS#2: For more about the Simeon Trust and for information about future preaching workshops, click here.

PS#3: Someday, maybe I’ll blog more about eschatology – premill, amill, etc… For now here’ the book review I did of Kim Riddlebarger’s A Case for Amillennialism.

I often read Tullian Tchividjian’s blog. Tullian is the pastor of New City Presbyterian Church in Florida.

Recently, he was invited to be the Senior Pastor of the nearby Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, a large, well known church whose former pastor was the late D. James Kennedy, who founded Evangelism Explosion, an evangelistic training ministry that has reached all around the world.

Tullian responded to their invitation by saying he would only consider the position if his whole church could come with him! Both churches agreed to investigate this option and for the past while have been holding merger talks, to see if they could agree to a merger. I have appreciated how Tullian has kept his congregation (and anyone who visits his blog) informed of the progress after each merger meeting, to keep rumours to a minimum and to keep everyone ‘in the know’. His humility and openess in the whole process has been a great blessing to me. This past Sunday, Tullian preached at Coral Ridge and afterwards the membership voted 91% in favour of calling him and merging the two churches. Coral Ridge has about 2200 people and has only had one senior pastor and New City has about 600 people, is a five year old church plant and I assume they have only had one senior pastor as well!

There’s another interesting note. Tullian is the thirty-six year old grandson of Dr. Billy Graham. He is an author and a very interesting blogger as well. I think it will be exciting to see what the Lord has in store for Tullian and the merged congregation at Coral Ridge. I’m sure they would appreciate prayer as they work out the details of the merger and prepare for their first Sunday together, on Easter Sunday. Praise God for this exciting work He is doing in Florida!

Click here to read the official press release, and I’m sure you will also enjoy reading some of Tullian’s past blog entries.

Tactics, by Gregory Koukl,  is a Christian apologetics book with a difference. It does not focus on issues in Christian apologetics (like, for example, Lee Strobel’s excellent The Case for Christ books). Instead it focuses on strategies for having productive conversations with people about these apologetic issues.

If you have ever walked away from a conversation, thinking about all the things you wish you had said but did not think of at the time, this book is for you. Koukl gives you the tools to say the things you would want to say at the time when you need them, not half an hour later. This is why the book is called Tactics. He is giving you tactics for having productive conversations about your faith.

Christians are often confronted with broad statements that are meant to discount the Christian faith in one sentence. Here are a few examples: “The Bible is full of errors”, or “All religions are basically the same”, or “It is arrogant to think that your view is the right one.”  Koukl notes that most Christians stumble over their words to try and refute these broad claims, instead of asking the person to provide evidence for such broad statements. His approach reminded me of Tim Keller’s challenge to skeptics, to doubt their own doubts (see Keller’s book The Reason for God. I reviewed it here).

Koukl’s basic tactic is called ‘the Columbo’ (named after the famous TV detective), where he asks the question “What do you mean by that?” His purpose in asking this question is to clarify what the person is saying, making sure he understands it, and making sure they themselves understand it, since many people are just repeating statements to which they have not given much deep thought. It also gives you time to think.

His second part of the Columbo has to do with the burden of proof. Here he asks the person to support the opinion they have expressed. As Koukl puts it, “It’s not your duty to prove him wrong. It’s his duty to prove his view.” The question that Koukl uses is “How did you come to that conclusion?”

Koukl’s two Columbo questions, “What do you mean by that?” and “How did you come to that conclusion?” are simple but powerful. Instead of having to squirm and feel bad because you are not an expert on every area of apologetics (thinking to yourself, ‘If only Ravi Zacharias were here to help me!’), you make the other person squirm by asking them to explain and justify their statement. You don’t really have to know much about the apologetics issue they have raised, since you are just asking them to elaborate and support their opinion. (Koukl would still certainly encourage readers to learn more about apologetics, but his point is that you don’t have to know everything about an issue to be able to challenge a person’s statement.)

Koukl notes that many people can’t answer these two basic questions and it quickly becomes evident that they are uninformed and cannot support the statement they have made. His goal when interacting with people is to metaphorically ‘put a rock in their shoe’, causing them to walk away thinking about the conversation in a way that challenges them to reconsider their view of Christianity, and that draws them them one step closer to the Lord.

Koukl’s explanation of “The Columbo” takes up about half of the book. The second half deals with how to handle various forms of self-refuting statements. Koukl does a great job helping you to identify this type of statement (for example: “You can’t know anything for sure”, Koukl’s response: “Are you sure about that?” )

I really enjoyed this book. It is an easy read and I gobbled it up in just over a day. The tactics are practical and the examples are helpful in illustrating his points. He provides a summary at the end of each chapter, and the book’s main points are easy to remember.

I would strongly recommend this book to any Christian who is interested in being ready to share their faith in an intelligent and effective way, by learning tactics to respond to challenges to their faith that will inevitably come.

Koukl, Gregory, Tactics, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2009, 207 pages.

You can purchase Tactics here from chapters.ca

I’m  a premillennialist. It’s part of Prairie Tab’s statement of faith. I’ve wondered why some people hold to other eschatological positions.

I discuss it a few times a year when I teach a membership class and I walk through the statement of faith with candidates for membership. I find that there are usually people in the class who are unsure what premillennialism is, and others confuse it with pretribulationalism.

Recently I’ve come to see that there are some evangelicals far smarter than I who hold to amillennialism and I decided I wanted to understand why they hold to this position. So I looked around online and found Kim Riddlebarger’s A Case for Amillennialism to be a strongly recommended, recent defense of the position. I tried to find a strong argument, to read it with an open mind, and to understand the position.

Riddlebarger presents amillennialism as the middle position, with postmillennialism on one side and premillennialism on the other. He grew up in premillennial circles but later became convinced of amillennialism.

The book is divided into three sections:

Part 1 First Things First

Part 2 Biblical and Theological Concerns

Part 3 Exposition of the Critical Texts

The first section “First Things First” is helpful in defining terms and laying the groundwork for the discussion. If you want to understand the difference between premillennialism, postmillennialism, amillennialism, historic premillennialism, progressive dispensationalism, etc…, this is the section for you.

I found the second section “Biblical and Theological Concerns” to be long and tedious to get through, as it walked through some long theological arguments. The section is filled with Biblical references, and the arguments are primarily theological.

Key arguments include:

1. Covenant theology is an important theological framework for understanding the amillennial position.

2.The Bible talks about ‘this age’ and ‘the age to come’, leaving no room for a literal 1000 year millennium in between.

3. The final judgment happens when Christ returns, not 1000 years later

4. Other arguments are presented relating to the kingdom of God (some based around George Ladd’s ‘already’/'not yet’ understanding of the kingdom – Riddlebarger says that post mill is too much ‘already’, pre mill is too much ‘not yet’).

The final section, “Exposition of the Critical Texts”, was good reading as it did what the title suggested, exegeting the texts most relevant to the discussion. Riddlebarger looks in detail at Daniel 9, Matthew 24, Romans 11 and Revelation 20. While I did not agree with many parts of his exposition, I did find it helpful to understand where an amillennialist gets his theology! Also, I found it helpful to learn that some amillennialists do see a future for ethnic Israel (I had previously thought that all amillennialists saw no future for ethnic Israel). I found the exposition of Revelation 20:1-6 to be painful reading, because it seems to me that there are a lot of hoops an amillennialist has to jump through, which appear to avoid the plain meaning of the text.  For example, the text says that Satan is bound and put in the pit which is sealed over him for 1000 years. Amillennialsts believe the 1000 years refers to right now (the millennium being symbolic of an extended period of time between Christ’s ascension and his return). The problem is that Satan appears to be anything but bound and locked in a pit right now. So the amillennialist responds that Satan is like a wild animal tied to stake – he is bound, but still dangerous if you get close. This explanation just doesn’t do justice to the text of Revelation 20 which says Satan is bound and locked away, which suggests he could have no influence on earth. Another example is the explaining away of the two resurrections. Amillennialists are so committed to one resurrection only, that when they hit Revelation 20 which seems to plainly talk about two, one before the millennium and one after, they have to spiritualize one of them away to keep their theological system intact.

I found it frustrating that the exegesis of key Bible texts was left until the end of the book, after the theological discussion of part 2. I recently taught a hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation) course and two of the basic principles are 1. Revelation is progressive and 2. The Bible text gives you your theology, and your theology is not the grid that interprets the Bible text. It seems that by the time an amillennialist gets to Revelation 20, he has such a big theological system built that he cannot let the text read plainly. So when we have the latest piece of biblical revelation in Revelation 20 regarding the millennium, it is not allowed to speak, and is instead forced to fit with the theological system.

In conclusion, I found A Case for Amillennialism to be a helpful book in understanding the Amillennial position, and also for a better understanding of the postmillennial position. It is well written, but heavy reading, and while it is not overly technical, neither is it a popular treatment of the subject. I would recommend it for someone who wants to better understand the amillennial position. After reading this book, it firms up my premillennial position even more, as I did not find the arguments convincing, but it also gives me a better understanding of the position of fellow believers with whom I disagree.

Below is a list of the books I read in 2008. Looking it over, I would say I didn’t quite read enough, and that I got bogged down in a few that I just found to be tough reading. Maybe I’ll put those sort down this year so that I don’t spend a month or two on one book, or maybe I’ll get more disciplined and plow through them! We’ll see. I guess 16 books isn’t too bad, but then again I recently read that US President George Bush read something like 50+ books last year, all while leading the free world on the side.

Here’s my list, with some links to reviews I wrote on some of them.

1. The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel – I read this near the beginning of last year – like all of Strobel’s “Case for…” books it was interesting and helpful (but his apparent downplay of biblical inerrancy in one chapter was a bit troubling). I enjoyed it and read it quickly. Recommended with that one caution regarding inerrancy.

2. Epicenter by Joel Rosenberg – This is an end times / prophetic book with speculations about the future in light of the prophesied war of Gog and Magog (see Ezekiel 38-39). It was very interesting though if you don’t have a premillennial dispensational bent, you probably won’t like it. It was by far the most viewed page on my blog in 2008 (over 1000 hits), as I think a lot of people bought and read this book and wanted to learn more, being shocked by what Rosenberg wrote. My review is here. Recommended (but take it for what it is – interesting but speculative.)

3. The Gospel According to the Apostles by John MacArthur – I really enjoyed this one. It is MacArthur at his best. My review is here. It was one of the most visited page on my site in 2008, which is interesting considering that this book is about 15 years old. Recommended.

4. The Courage to be Protestant by David Wells (no not the former Blue Jays southpaw). This book summarizes his previous three books about the troubled stated of the evangelical church. I found it to be good, but difficult reading at times, due to some wordiness to make a point. I don’t think I read the entire thing, but I did get through most of it! Recommended.

5. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer – This book is considered a classic on evangelism. It isn’t very long but it is very good.  My review is here. Recommended.

6. Why We’re Not Emergent by Two Guys Who Should Be by  Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck   – I found this book very interesting as it deals with an area that concerns me in the evangelical world – the emergent church (calling some emergents ‘evangelical’ is probably generous, but the impact is definitely felt in evangelical churches). The authors put some of my concerns into words and I found it to be easy but stimulating reading. Best line in the book (paraphrase): “So I’m riding with D.A. Carson in my Toyota Echo.” There’s just something really funny to me about the idea of Carson riding around in a Toyota Echo. Recommended.

7. Tell the Truth by Will Metzger – This is a book about evangelism that I found very good, but I also found it to be tough slogging to get through it. I haven’t actually finished it yet, but plan to, sometime…. Recommended.

8. The Future of Justification by John Piper – Piper’s book is a theological work responding to the well known theologian N.T. Wright.  My review is here. Recommended, but probably not for everyone. There are other John Piper books you will want to read first, such as Don’t Waste Your Life.

9. The Shack by William P. Young – I had little desire to read this book but with everyone in evangelicalism reading it, I felt I had to read it to get a firsthand opinion of it. It is a big mish-mash of good and bad theology and it is often hard to separate the good from the bad. I know…it’s just a novel, not a theological treatise. For years the postmodern folks have been telling us we need to use stories to communicate theology to this generation (instead of propositions), so Young goes and does just that, and critics are told to ‘chill out’, it’s a story not theology. You can’t have it both ways. My review is here. It has been one of the most read reviews on my blog in 2008. Not recommended.

10. The Case for Amillennialism by Kim Riddlebarger – I’ve often wondered why some people believe in amillennialism, and since many of them are smart people (well otherwise smart people…hehe… just kidding, no letters please), I thought I would read a book about it that gets good reviews from the amillennial camp. It is well written but at times tedious (one thing you gotta say for dispensational premillennial books is that they are usually pretty exciting!). I am about 3/4 of the way through it – I find it hard to read more than 20 pages in one sitting. I am enjoying the exegetical part in the end more than the theological argument in the beginning. I’m curious what he’s going to do with Revelation 20. Recommended, with caution that I think amillennialism is the wrong position, but the book is good for a better understanding of amillennialism.

11. Progressive Dispensationalism by Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock. This is a book about a modified form of dispensationalism. I did my best, but this one was dull. I gave up about 2/3 in. Maybe someday I’ll finish it. Perhaps it would be more interesting to someone with a better handle on the intricacies of the ongoing debates between dispensationalism and covenant theology. I can’t recommend this one not because it doesn’t have good things to say but because it was just so dry. Not recommended.

12. Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper – Our staff team has been reading this one devotionally in our staff meeting. We haven’t quite finished it, but I thought I’d put it under 2008 anyway. It’s a great book, and a challenging one – Piper at his best. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover but this one is an exception – I love the cover (the original one with the cross, not the new edition with the parking lot). Recommended.

13. Culture Shift by Al Mohler – This is a short little book that deals with cultural issues, especially in the USA, but they are mostly relevant here in Canada as well. A quick, good read. My review is here. Recommended.

14. The Reason for God by Tim Keller – This highly anticipated book by Tim Keller is written primarily for non-Christians to take a reasoned look at Christianity. However it is a great apologetics book for Christians as well. Though I didn’t always agree with Keller, I found it very helpful overall. My review is here. Recommended.

15. Money, Possessions, and Eternity, by Randy Alcorn – I read this book as part of my studies for the “Where Your Treasure is” sermon series (You can click here for this and other sermon series on the Prairie Tab website).  I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t read it cover to cover, but I jumped around quite a bit. Alcorn really gets in your face about what the Bible has to say about finances and I appreciated his insights and his forthrightness. Recommended.

16. Before God’s Wrath by H. L. Nigro – This is a book that explains the pre-wrath rapture position on the end times. I think the position has some merits, but also some problems that I won’t get into in this brief review. The book is a bit wordy and probably a little too long, but I enjoyed it. Recommended, with the caution that it needs to be read a bit critically and in comparison with other rapture views.

Well that’s all I can remember for now, aside from a few others that I looked at in my studies for preaching, but most of which I only read smaller sections.

What did you read this year? Feel free to post your favourites in the comments below.

This past Sunday Crystal Kraaikamp put a kind note of thanks and appreciation in the Prairie Tab church bulletin, and I asked permission to publish it on my blog for the people who have been praying from all over the world who might not otherwise see it. Here it is below:

Dear Prairie Tabernacle,

We have been so blessed by all the concern, prayers, meals, visits, love and support shown by all of you.  Duane’s plan had been to do a video of thanks to the congregation, but I will do the honours on his behalf.

Where to start?  We have been overwhelmed by the prayer support here and throughout the world for Duane and our family.  Even though the trial was long, almost every week at church there was encouragement to remember our family in prayer.  Duane felt those prayers and was greatly encouraged because of them.  There were many times that I am sure we never would have made it through if not for our faithful friends on their knees on our behalf.  Duane was also encouraged by the video messages sent by many friends after the congregational meeting.

We have special appreciation for those who have helped in Duane’s areas of ministry when he was too sick to continue working.  Duane and I have always felt a distinct call on our lives to be at this church.  Duane felt a deep burden for the people of this congregation and was always lifting you up in his prayers.  His heart was always to see those in Christ draw closer to Him and for those without Christ in the Three Hills community to find Him.  It is good to see the church catching and continuing on in that vision.

Our good friends, Pastor Tim & Carol, and Pastor Pete and Miriam have gone above and beyond for Duane and I, especially these last few weeks.  I also wish to thank the board for their kindness and support throughout Duane’s medical leave.  They were very understanding and showed Christ’s love to our family.

Thank you to those in Mom’s Time Out for your support, as well as the many who have organized and brought food to the house when it was the last thing on my mind.  There have been so many acts of service, donations, cards, gifts and encouragements that we are overwhelmed by your generosity.  This church truly is part of our family.

I also wish to thank everyone who was involved in Duane’s funeral.  The music, slideshow, tributes and food, all were just the way he would have liked it.  I realize that there were many behind the scenes people who made that service the real tribute that it was.

The past nine months have been a real trial and made both Duane and I relook at everything that we believe in and come out stronger in the Lord through it all.  God has been faithful to our family, never once did we feel abandoned.  God has used your hands, words and hearts to extend His love to us and for this we are extremely grateful.

Love in Christ,

Crystal, Morgan, Liam, Vaughn, and Avery Kraaikamp

P.S.  I would like to make a memory book for the boys about who their Daddy was.  I would appreciate if you would take a moment to write down any personal stories, encouraging comments or observations you may have about Duane to go in the book.  A copy of any pictures of Duane or our family would also be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for your help.