Wyatt Graham

Faith | Books | Culture

Review of The Path of Christianity by John Anthony McGuckin

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McGuckin, John Anthony. The Path of Christianity: The First Thousand Years. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017.

Justo González, the author of well-known textbooks on church history, writes this about McGuckin’s book: “An excellent overview of the first ten centuries of Christian history. Unsurpassed in its thoroughness, clarity, and organization. This belongs in the library of anyone interested in the history of Christianity.” González’s praise rings true.

John Anthony McGuckin has written one of the most interesting and detailed church history texts that I have ever read. [Read more…] about Review of The Path of Christianity by John Anthony McGuckin

Is There Hope for Christianity in the Twenty-First Century?

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Wars rage. The vote south of the border has wounded evangelicalism (but hope for reformation lives). The reformed (and broadly) churches battle over the Trinity, Simplicity, Gender, Gender Roles, Social Justice, and more. From an outsiders point of view, the situation looks dire.

But from the throne room of God, the situation looks far different. In heaven, God sits enthroned and his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Rev 4–22).

Something new is happening. While cultural Christianity declines, conservative Christianity is on the rise. While battles over doctrine rage, people are nevertheless thinking about doctrine. 

Is this the beginning of the end? Or the start of something new? [Read more…] about Is There Hope for Christianity in the Twenty-First Century?

Review of Retrieving Eternal Generation Edited by Fred Sanders and Scott Swain

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Retrieving Eternal Generation edited by Fred Sanders & Scott R. Swain. Grand Rapid: Zondervan, 2017.

One of the most beneficial pursuits is the pursuit of the past. In recent days, Christians have particularly benefited from retrieving the spirituality of the past, the wisdom that earlier generations have left for them. And rightly so. Accessing the past’s wisdom is vital to spiritual growth.

Over the centuries, believers struggled to understand their scripture and the life of faith. But the Spirit has not been inactive among the faithful. And so learning from earlier Christian exegetes and from earlier Christian theologians offers great benefit for today. After all, Christianity didn’t appear suddenly in the late second millennium within North America. We have a heritage, a spiritual ancestry.

And this is why Retrieving Eternal Generation is so important. It offers the wisdom of two thousand years of meditation on Scripture and God. [Read more…] about Review of Retrieving Eternal Generation Edited by Fred Sanders and Scott Swain

I Have Never Learned so Much from A Book That I so Strongly Disagree with

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Beck, Richard. The Slavery of Death. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014.

Beck argues that the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15) stands at the centre of life. It is our central problem and the cause of our sin. More than this, Satan uses death to enslave us and entice us to sin. But Christ conquers death for us and frees us from the power of the devil, which is death. Within this paradigm, Beck (who is a psychologist) sketches the spiritual implications of our slavery to death (and freedom from it in Christ).

He draws heavily on Hebrews 2:14–15 for his argument (although not exclusively):

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

His argument, consequently, derives from biblical passages like Hebrews 2. But Beck has failed to account for all the biblical evidence, and I found myself disagreeing with significant parts of his argument. [Read more…] about I Have Never Learned so Much from A Book That I so Strongly Disagree with

John Calvin on Our Mystical Union with Christ

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John Calvin situates our “mystical union” with Christ with “the highest degree of importance.” By our union with Christ, we experience a “fellowship of righteousness.” This is why our imputed righteousness is not some remote thing that comes to us. We experience God’s righteousness in a personal way. We have it in mystical union with Christ. [Read more…] about John Calvin on Our Mystical Union with Christ