Review: A Contemporary Handbook for Weddings and Funerals and other services

 

Many denominations have liturgies that they put forth for weddings, funerals, and other services. Sometimes these are mandated; sometimes they are one option. If you are of the latter group, you may be helped by A Contemporary Handbook for Weddings and Funerals and other occasions (revised and updated edition) edited by Aubrey Malphurs, Keith Willhite, and Dennis Hillman.

As one would expect from the title, the first two – and major – sections of the book deal with weddings and funerals. Each presents a variety of contemporary liturgies, sample “messages,” and “helps” such as prayers and other “incidentals.”  The funeral section also includes perspectives on death and dying that may be helpful in counseling and service preparation.

The third section deals with other occasion, liturgies, and issues that may arise:  What if you use a bread machine to make the communion bread? How should Christmas be celebrated? There are sample “messages” for Mother’s Day and earth day, the installation of a minister, and the closing of a church, etc.

This book came out of the request from Dallas theological seminary from students and others to provide “fresh” liturgies (13).

The book contains a list of contributors, resources, and a Scripture index.

I have three responses to this book:

First, I am not against new liturgies, so long as they are biblical and appropriate to a worship service.

Second, in using this book, I would not neglect knowing older liturgies and understanding why they were written as they were.

And third, I would caution those who use this book not to simple preach the “messages” in the book. They are there for inspiration and guidance, not to be plagiarized.

That being said, this can be a helpful manual as ministers seek to preside at weddings, funerals, and other occasions.

I received this book for free from Kregel Academic in exchange for an honest review.

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, Kregel.com, and Goodreads.com].

Review: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain takes Huck from his adventures with Tom Sawyer and lets him loose on his own – largely accompanied by the escaped slave, Jim. In his adventures, he learns about being civilized – from Jim, the King, the Duke, the minister, and others. The truly civilized person is Jim – the others are false. Meeting up with Tom at the end of the novel, Huck expresses his thoughts on being civilized.

His thoughts in what it means to be civilized build through the book as the story carries him through his adventures – his conclusions are worth considering.

Twain uses the varying dialects of his South in writing the novel which takes a little getting use to.  Another point that makes this a controversial book for some is the persistent use of the “n-word.”

The latter of these observation leads one to ask the question of the novel:  should it be “banned”? Should it be “sanitized”? Or should it be left as it is as a challenge to understand what Huck means by the word and what the word meant in Twain’s time.

I think the latter is the appropriate choice.  However, reading the text and understanding the use of that word is different from speaking it and using it. That word has come to have a vile and disgusting meaning in our time – far beyond anything it ever meant before. I would argue that if the text is read aloud, the word should be substituted with “n-word,” and I would argue that the word itself should never be used by anyone of any race for any purpose – it is that charged and vile a word today.

I purchased the “Norton Critical Edition” of the novel for the original drawings and because of the explanatory notes and essays, critical essays, chronology, and selected bibliography. I have only scanned these thus far – I believe the primary source should be read and considered first before looked at any secondary sources.

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com].

Review: Reprobation and God's Sovereignty

 

When I saw the title Reprobation and God’s Sovereignty: Recovering a Biblical Doctrine, by Peter Sammons, and I saw that John MacArthur wrote the forward, I knew this was a defense of the doctrine being biblical, and I hoped it would be good. I was not disappointed.

MacArthur writes: “to worship [God] as the one true sovereign God is to worship him for his glory revealed in heaven and his glory revealed in hell” (9).

In the first chapter, Sammons looks at Who God is – His Omnipotence, Holiness, and decrees.

Then he explains the God is Sovereign over damnation. And in the third chapter gives the reader a definition of reprobation: “Reprobation is defined as the eternal, unconditional decree of God for the non-elect. In this decree, he chooses to exclude the non-elect from his electing purposes of mercy and to hold them accountable to the strict standards of justice to display the glory of his righteous wrath” (47).

Sammons relies heavily on Romans 9 as he explains what this means and answers objections. The argument being – in part – that God does not merely elect some to salvation and allow the rest to their own devices, but God actively elects some to salvation and some to reprobation (72).

In chapter six, he argues that there is a distinction to be made between God causing people to sin – which He does not do – and God choosing some to salvation and some to reprobation apart from anything a person does or does not do – for, election and reprobation occur prior to the Creation.

He contrasts Hyper Calvinism with Calvinism (110) and defines the parts of reprobation (126-127).

A major assist in seeing that reprobation is biblical is to understand causality, compatibilism, and concurrence. In these, one sees that God often uses means to accomplish His purposes and God sometimes cooperates with the actions of a creature to accomplish what God would have done. In this, one can understand how God is not the author of sin. God does not force anyone to sin. Yet, sin occurs according to the Providential and Active Will of God (133ff). That is, humans have freedom according to their desires (135).

In chapter 11, he answers the objections of fatalism and reprobation limiting God’s Sovereignty. In chapter 12, he addresses the objections of reprobation demeaning God’s justice.

In chapters 13 and 14, he goes into detail explaining causality and how the understanding of causality is vital in understanding reprobation.

Then he turns to address human volition, will, responsibility, and theodicy. He follows this by looking at the idea of divine abandonment in the Scripture, hardening, and God’s use of personal and non-personal agency in affecting human volition.

The conclusion is a solid summary of the work, which is followed by charts outlining the types of restraints explored in the final chapters, followed by a Scripture index, a terms index, and a persons index.

This is a stunning, biblical, and God-glorifying book which I cannot recommend highly enough to anyone who wants to understand the biblical doctrine of reprobation and to address objections to it. This is the book I will recommend on the subject.

The one item that puzzled me was Sammons seems to indicate that there may be such a thing as an “age of accountability” (44). Perhaps I misunderstood that.

This is not an overbearing academic tome, but it is not something all congregants will be able to handle. Pastors, theologians, seminarians, and college students can and should read this and become aware of how to show that this doctrine is biblical and why it matters.

Excellent – highly, highly recommended.

[I received this book free from Kregel Academic in exchange for an honest review.]