“Paul’s life was a prophetic book for Jews to read and see how to be saved, so our lives should be an easy to read book for the lost on how they can easily be saved.” — Ken Ham
“What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.” — J. C. Ryle
“Dreams don’t work unless you do.” — John C. Maxwell
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” — Sir Richard Steele
“True education is not giving in the answer, it’s in showing them how to find it.” — Kelly Crawford
“A ship in the harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for.” — John Shedd
“We should never do what we cannot pray God to bless.” — James Smith
“[T]he ministry of Satan is employed to instigate the reprobate, whenever the Lord, in the course of his providence, has any purpose to accomplish in them...” — John Calvin (Institutes 2.4.5)
“The cold water of persecution is often thrown on the church’s face to fetch her to herself when she is in a swoon of indolence or pride.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“I’m not lost.” — Frank Churchill
“I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.” — Jackie Mason
“Non-Christian investigators of nature are as successful as they are because they work with stolen capital.” — Cornelius Van Til
“[N]ot one particle remains to man as a ground of boasting. The whole is of God.” — John Calvin (Institutes 2.3.6)
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“Man does not need to know exhaustively in order to know truly and certainly.” — Cornelius Van Til
“Self-righteousness is being more aware of and irritated by the sins of others than you are conscious of and grieved by your own.” — Paul Tripp
“One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one covetous action, may cut the throat of many a sermon. Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine.” — Richard Baxter
“Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.” — Elias Boudinot
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they simply make the best of everything they have.” — Unknown
“When she married you, she gave you her life to spend. Are you spending your life wisely?” — Dan Horn
“Question everything but Scripture.” — Geoff Botkin
"When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy." — Corrie ten Boom
“I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book.” — Groucho Marx
“The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.” — La Rochefoucauld
“Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.” — Paxton Hood
“If you don’t fear God, you’ll fear everything.” — Dan Horn
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." — Edmund Burke
“I began my education at a very early age—in fact, right after I left college.” — Winston Churchill
“Even if you are on the right track, but just sit there, you will still get run over.” — Will Rogers
“Heaven is eternity in the presence of God through a Mediator. Hell is eternity in the presence of God with no Mediator.” — Tony Reinke
“People fall in private, long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it, is often not discovered until it is down on the ground.” — J. C. Ryle
“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” — Martin Luther
“A lot of men have a wishbone where they ought to have a backbone.” — Unknown
“The measure of a great teacher isn’t what he or she knows; it’s what the students know.” — John C. Maxwell
“Some people get an education without going to college; the rest get it after they get out.” — Mark Twain
“You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” — C. S. Lewis
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.” — St. Augustine
“TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they’ll have with twenty-six. Open your child’s imagination. Open a book.” — Unknown
“Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.” — George Washington
“Luther once said, ‘The devil hates goose quills,’ and, doubtless, he has good reason, for ready writers, by the Holy Spirit’s blessing, have done his kingdom much damage.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.” — Martin Luther
“Drag and Drop for Windows users: DRAG your peecee off your desk, and DROP it in the trash.” — some forum member’s tagline
“Thanks, modest girls. Appreciated by a male whose time studying the ground is proportional to each degree of rising temperature.” — Unknown
“Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your own living room by people you wouldn’t have in your house.” — David Frost
“People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.” — Thomas Sowell
“The very familiarity of blessings sometimes makes us insensible to their value."— J. C. Ryle
“I will keep the ground that God has given me and perhaps in his grace, he will ignite me again. But ignite me or not, in his grace, in his power, I will hold the ground.” — John Knox
“People will not look forward to posterity who will not look backward to their ancestors.” — Edmund Burke
— September 15th, 2012 —
What Then Shall I Read?
Several months ago, I approached Mr. Doug Phillips, Mr. Kevin Swanson, and Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr, three men I very highly esteem, all leaders in the biblical home education movement. I asked them a rather straightforward question: “I’m nineteen, I’ve graduated from high school, I have no job, no wife, and no children. Since I don’t have time to read everything, could you help me prioritize and provide me with the names of the most important books I should be reading in this season of my life?” They all kindly took the time to answer, and I’d like to pass on their answers to you, with the hopes that they’ll help guide your reading.
DR. R.C. SPROUL, JR.
Bondage of the Will, by Martin Luther
Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman
Postmodern Times, by Gene Edward Veith
Christ of the Covenants, by O. Palmer Robertson (I’ve read this one and it is the book on Covenant Theology)
The Conservative Mind, by Russell Kirk
DOUG PHILLIPS
He said to read Theologies, Histories, and Biographies
He said to read the writings of the Puritans and Reformers: John Calvin, Jeremiah Burroughs, John Owen, Richard Baxter, Thomas Watson, John Bunyan
Authentic Christianity by Dr. Joe Morecraft—a hefty, five-volume commentary on the Westminster Catechism
On histories, he gave me three sub-categories: Church History, American History, and Ancient World History
Listen to 2,000 Years of Christian Theology, audio lectures by Dr. Joe Morecraft
For biographies, he said to read not only those of aforementioned church fathers and Reformers, but also ones of great historical leaders, political leaders, and significant missionaries (John G. Paton, as one example)
KEVIN SWANSON
The Bible
The Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin
He said to read church history
He said to read the apostolic and church fathers (Justin Martyr, Clement, etc.)
Confessions and The City of God, by St. Augustine
Revolt Against Maturity, by R.J. Rushdoony
Foundations of Social Order, by R.J. Rushoony
When I explained my personal vision for reforming an aspect of our culture, he said I ought to continue reading books on culture, and recommended All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes by Kenneth A. Myers
DR. JOE MORECRAFT (I approached the other three men as a result of a conversation I had with Dr. Morecraft)
Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof
An Eschatology of Victory, by J. Marcellus Kik (click here to read my review of this excellent book)
Knowing God, by J.I. Packer
Pushing the Antithesis, by Dr. Greg Bahnsen
Always Ready, by Dr. Greg Bahnsen
The Sovereignty of God, by Arthur Pink
The Puritan Hope, by Iain Murray
He Shall Have Dominion, by Dr. Ken Gentry
Thus their thoughts—and I’m very thankful that they took the time to answer my question. I’m afraid I’ve got my reading cut out for the next ten years!
— July 4th, 2012 —
Book Review: “George Washington’s Sacred Fire,” by Peter A. Lillback
“What sets George Washington’s Sacred Fire apart from all previous works on this man for the ages, is the exhaustive fifteen years of Dr. Peter Lillback’s research, revealing a unique icon driven by the highest ideals. Only do George Washington’s own writings, journals, letters, manuscripts, and those of his closest family and confidants reveal the truth of this awe-inspiring role model for all generations.
Dr. Lillback paints a picture of a man, who, faced with unprecedented challenges and circumstances, ultimately drew upon his persistent qualities of character—honesty, justice, equity, perseverance, piety, forgiveness, humility, and servant leadership, to become one of the most revered figures in world history.
George Washington set the cornerstone for what would become one of the most prosperous, free nations in the history of civilization. Through this book, Dr. Lillback, assisted by Jerry Newcombe, will reveal to the reader a newly inspirational image of General and President George Washington.” — from the back cover
This is not a biography of George Washington, but rather a scholarly, gracious defense of his Christianity. Totaling around 957 pages of the main text and nearly 200 pages of endnotes, this book is, I think, the greatest, most cogent defense of George Washington’s Christianity penned yet. I really don’t see how it could be otherwise: authors Dr. Peter Lillback and Jerry Newcombe simply bury the arguments against Washington’s Christianity “under an avalanche of facts”, as one reviewer states on the back of the book. That reviewer is right. The authors of this book leave no stone unturned in their meticulous research.
Lillback conducts extensive word studies, analyzing all the “religious” words and phrases Washington used and how many times they were referenced; and what Bible verses were referred to both explicitly and implicitly. We read of the many sermons Washington owned and appreciated. We learn of the dozens of prayers he wrote for so many different causes and reasons. The authors touch on alternate biographies of Washington (such as that written by Parson Weems) as well as the famous story of Washington and the cherry tree.
But Lillback also deals with objections, those that claim that Washington didn’t take communion, that Washington was a Freemason, that Washington had a temper, that Washington owned slaves. But Lillback and Newcombe always weigh the evidence carefully against the objection to determine the validity (or lack thereof) of a particular objection, instead of letting their personal feelings interpret the evidence.
As Walter A. McDougall has said of this book,
Secular historians ignore George Washington’s ward Nelly Custis, who wrote that doubting his Christian faith was as absurd as doubting his patriotism. But they cannot ignore this mountain of evidence suggesting Washington’s religion was not Deism, but just the sort of low-church Anglicanism one would expect in an 18th century Virginia gentleman. His “sacred fire” lit America’s path toward civil and religious liberty.
It’s a long book, and the pages are salted heavily with superscript numerals referencing the exhaustive endnotes. But in the end, it’s well worth the journey—especially in an age of history revisionism where the heroes of yesteryear are thanked for their sacrifices by getting their names dragged through the mud.
Highly recommended.
INDECENCY: None.
LANGUAGE: None.
AGE RANGE: All ages.
© 2012 Kyle Shepherd | All Rights Reserved | All images property of their respective owners
Body text set in Fanwood Text Regular & Italic; header set in Nevis.