Category Archives: books

Needed: A dose of moral courage

Posted on by
Reply

Moral courage is an endangered species in these days, where the T-Rex of political correctness freely roams and seemingly rules the land. I shared the following this morning at our Iron Man Fellowship breakfast as we took up the topic.

“There is among all sorts of persons a crying need to take a dose of moral courage. The need is not for more cleverness or more education, nor for more analysis or more research into man’s problems. It is for more straightforward speaking. It is for more openness. It is for more boldness to call things what they are and to set them in the light of God’s Word. The man who will courageously refuse to play the popular game of deception is the man who will win the title of prophet to this generation.”
~ Maurice Roberts in The Thought of God, page 121.

"The Thought of God" by Maurice Roberts
(Banner of Truth Trust, 1993)

British Pastor Rev. Maurice Roberts was the minister of Ayr Free Church of Scotland from 1974 to 1994, and since then has been the minister of Greyfriars Congregation, Inverness, a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing). He was editor of the Banner of Truth magazine from 1988 to 2003. This older brother in the faith has deep, spiritual insights into life in this present world and is able to preach and write clear words of biblical direction. I have long cherished his brief articles and editorials in the Banner of Truth magazine, which have been available in book form now for several years. Many of his sermons are available online (such as here at the Monergism site, or at SermonAudio.com). Having met him on a few occasions, I have been struck by his personal holiness, his love for the truth and his passion for the glory of God. I’ve often thought this dear brother walks in the manner of the great puritan divines whose theology he shares.

The Bible is not a newspaper

Posted on by
2

“Unfortunately, many Christians treat their Bibles as they would their local newspapers,” writes Anthony Carter, “because they have been taught to do so by their preachers.” I read this today in his fine book, Experiencing the Truth, Bringing the Reformation to the African-American Church (Crossway 2008), loaned to me by good friend Brian Spivey.

Here’s the rest of the passage from Anthony Carter (emphasis added) —

The faithful preacher, however, understands the Bible differently. A newspaper is a composite of many parts and sections. There is the front page, the business section, the sports page, the living and entertainment section, and so on. All of these sections make up the one newspaper. And yet, no section is actually dependent upon the other. A person can read the sports page and completely understand the issues and concerns of the day in sports without ever looking at the front page. Likewise a person can read the entertainment section and understand it fully with little to no knowledge of the goings on in sports. The Bible is no such book. …

The Bible is indeed a collection of sixty-six separate writings. A person could indeed read one of the sections of the writings and get a sense of what is happening without much knowledge of other sections. However, that same person would never really know what any section of Scripture was communicating unless that person were interested in knowing how that particular section fits into the grand, overall picture the Bible is painting.

More than a newspaper, the Bible is a literary portrait. The subject of the portrait is Christ. Each division of the Bible adds something important and indispensable to the portrait. And while a person may be able to make out the picture without all the sections together, what a glorious experience it is when one sees all the sections fitting together! This is the role of the artist. This is the calling of the preacher. He is to show that the Bible, from cover to cover, is painting a picture of Christ…

(page 66)