James R White on the Qur'an

We live in an area where there are many Muslims. Opportunities to speak are few and far between but I feel it is important to at least know something about Islam. James R White's book What every Christian should know about the Qur'an is probably a correct title as well as an eye catching one. He painstakingly works his way through the material writing about Muhammad and the supposed revelation of the Qur'an, what it says about the Trinity, the cross, salvation, the gospel and other matters such as supposed prophecies about Muhammad in the Bible and how the Qur'an reached its present form. He writes firmly but fairly and if any suitably educated Muslim would sit and read this book they would be forced to stop and consider many things. It is also very helpful to Christians in informing us on the things we need to know and showing where the argument needs to take place. This book is well worth getting hold of. For a proper review see Themelios 38:3.

Evangelical Seepage

I think of myself as rather cynical but now and again I catch myself out being naïve. I am always surprised by departures from evangelical truths by evangelical men, even though they come at regular intervals. I was just reading the review article in the June Banner of Truth magazine by Bill Schweizer of Bruce Waltke's collection of articles The Dance between God and Humanity. Schweizer is particularly concerned with Waltke's concessions on the matter of evolution and women ministers but is also anxious about the whole drift in Waltke's approach which does not bode well.

Even more disturbing to read is a review article in the current Themelios (here) by Bob Yarbrough of a work edited by Wheaton scholars Christopher Hays and Christopher Ansberry (Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism) that is even more radical in its concessions to liberal scholarship. It is depressing to know of such slippage. Yet it is the sort of thing that has happened down the years and the very thing we are warned about again and again in Scripture.

New Themelios

You can see the new online Themelios here. Song of songs and John Owen are among the topics covered with loads of reviews as ever.

Not unaware

A review of Focus on the family radio theatre's DVD of C S Lewis's Screwtape Letters can be found in the latest Themelios here. The review includes this interesting summary of Screwtape's letters to Wormwood about how to defeat the Christian.

1. Make him preoccupied with ordinary, “real” life—not arguments or science.
2. Make him disillusioned with the church by highlighting people he self-righteously thinks are strange or hypocritical.
3. Annoy him with “daily pinpricks” from his mother.
4. Keep him from seriously intending to pray at all, and if that fails, subtly misdirect his focus to himself or an object rather than a Person.
5. Don’t hope for too much from a war [here WWII ] because the Enemy often lets our patients suffer to fortify them and tantalize us.
6. Capitalise on his uncertainty, divert his attention from the Enemy to himself, and redirect his malice to his everyday neighbours and his benevolence to people he does not know.
7. Keep him ignorant of your existence, and make him either an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist who regards his cause as the most important part of Christianity.
8. Make good use of your patient’s series of troughs and peaks (ie “the law of undulation”), and beware that the Enemy relies on the troughs more than the peaks.
9. Capitalise on trough periods by tempting him with sensual pleasures (especially sex), making him content with his moderated religion, and directly attacking his faith as merely a “phase.”
10. Convince him to blend in with his new worldly acquaintances.
11. Understand the four causes of laughter (joy, fun, the joke proper and flippancy), and shrewdly use jokes and flippancy.
12. Don’t underestimate the power of “very small sins” because “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one.” 13. Don’t allow him to experience real pleasures because they are a touchstone of reality.
14. Make him proud of his humility. Use both vainglory and false modesty to keep him from humility’s true end.
15. Make him live in the future rather than the present.
16. Encourage church-hopping.
17. Encourage gluttony through delicacy rather than excess.
18. Convince him that the only respectable ground for marriage is “being in love.”
19. Understand that the Enemy does not genuinely love humans. (But we don’t know what his real motive is.)
20. Don’t give up if your direct attacks on his chastity fail. Try to arrange a desirable marriage.
21. Convince him to use the pronoun “my” in the fully possessive sense of ownership (eg “my time,” “my boots,” “my wife,” and “my God”).
22. Understand that the Enemy has filled His world full of pleasures and that you must twist them before you can use them.
23. Encourage him to embrace a “historical Jesus” and to treat Christianity as merely a means to a political end such as social justice.
24. Confuse him with spiritual pride for being part of an elite set.
25. Replace “mere Christianity” with “Christianity And” by increasing his horror of “the same old thing” and thus increasing his desire for novelty.
26. Sow seeds of “unselfishness” during his courtship.
27. Twist his prayers.
28. Guard his life so that he grows old because real worldliness takes time.
29. Defeat his courage, and make him a coward.
30. Capitalise on his fatigue and manipulate his emotions with the word “real.”
31. His end is inexplicable, but we must win in the end.

Themelios

It is good to know that Themelios is available once again. Check out this link which itself give the needed links to Themelios online. (Thanks Guy and before that Martin)