July 20, 2016 Show with Mack Tomlinson on “Starting a Library: Suggested Building Blocks with the Best of Christian Books”

Iron Sharpens Iron

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October 3, 2016

00:01: Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown
00:08: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors,
00:16: Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
00:23: Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
00:32: Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
00:46: It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
00:57: Now here's our host Chris Arnton. Good afternoon
01:05: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming.
01:13: This is Chris Arnton, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all happy Wednesday on this 20th day of July 2016 and I am delighted that we have back on the program
01:26: Mack Tomlinson. He was just on with us very recently and we have him back to discuss a topic that we did not have time to discuss the last time he was on.
01:38: It was supposed to be part two of our discussion and we just got so involved in our discussion and got so many good questions from listeners that we couldn't move on to the topic that we are discussing today, starting a library, suggested building blocks with the best of Christian books.
01:57: And as I said, my guest is Mack Tomlinson who is pastor of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas and Mack is also going to be discussing a conference that he is not only organizing but speaking at.
02:11: That's the Fellowship Conference New England in Portland, Maine and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron, Pastor Mack Tomlinson.
02:21: Hi Chris, good to be with you as always. Amen brother and I know that reading is a very important part of your life and obviously it should be not only a part of every
02:37: Christian's life but it should be a major part of every pastor's life especially and that should go without saying.
02:46: But did you always have this passion for reading? In fact, I could tell you with myself even though I always all my life got very good grades up until I started experimenting with drugs in high school and that really plummeted me down the toilet as far as the grades but that had more to do with not attending classes and things like that.
03:13: But I was always a smart kid and had good grades but I really didn't become a voracious reader until I became a
03:22: Christian. I don't know if that's the same with you but tell us something about this appetite for reading that developed in your life.
03:30: Well, during my school years, I was a very mediocre student.
03:38: I was not an intellectual. I made probably C's, B minuses and it wasn't until I became a
03:48: Christian when I was 19 years old. At that point, I had a hunger for spiritual truth and I had a pastor who really taught me how to begin reading the
04:02: Bible regularly and as I did, I just grew more and more hungry and soon two different friends put two books into my hands.
04:16: The first year I was a Christian, one book was The Sovereignty of God by A. W.
04:22: Pink and I read the book and it just gripped me so deeply about how great and mighty
04:33: God is in the Bible and it opened up a whole world to me of initially viewing
04:42: God correctly and I immediately realized good books are very important.
04:49: I didn't know hardly anything but that book impacted me so much. It made me say
04:56: I must read other good books like this. The other book that was put in my hands my senior year of college,
05:04: I had become a Christian when I was a sophomore year in college but my senior year in college, someone gave me the little book
05:11: The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer and it's very small, very readable but it so stirred me to show me what it meant to have a heart to seek after God, to know
05:26: Him. A. W. Tozer was one of the specialists in the 20th century on that very subject.
05:35: He wrote probably 50 books and they're all very affordable.
05:41: They're usually small, normally paperback books and you can get Tozer's online for $2, $3 and it's worth collecting all of them.
05:54: Those two books charted my course for loving
05:59: Christian reading and after that as I grew in college and graduate school,
06:08: I just became a regular reader because the reason was it fed me spiritually so much and I learned so much that I realized there is a whole world of good authors out there and good books that I know nothing of but I want to read and learn.
06:29: So that was how I began to have a deep interest in Christian books and reading.
06:36: A. Now what kind of biblical encouragement can you give to our listeners to develop the habits that will also increase an appetite for further reading in their life?
06:48: A. Well I think one of the things to realize is many Christians are intimidated about reading.
06:54: They think, you know, I've never been a reader, I didn't do good in school, I'm not an intellectual and so they're intimidated about reading or they don't even see the value of it.
07:08: But it's kind of like you really don't know what you're missing as a
07:14: Christian until you begin to read some. So Christians I believe should develop a lifelong practice of learning periodically to read books that will help them and there's many ways to find out what are the best books.
07:36: But the biblical encouragement for reading, I wonder if we have often thought of this, and by the way, let me just encourage your listeners, if you're listening today, this program could probably be the most important way
07:53: I could ever help other Christians. And so I encourage you to get a pen and paper or get your iPad or your notebook, whatever, and take some notes today.
08:07: In fact, let me give my email address so that they could also ask you questions. Yeah, you bet. That's chrisarnzen at gmail .com.
08:15: C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Because I encourage readers to listen and take notes, not only of authors and books, but just the things they'll hear today about reading,
08:34: I don't want them to forget. And so they could also obviously come back later and go to the archives of Iron Sherpins Iron Radio and listen to the program again today.
08:47: But biblical encouragement for reading, I don't think we realize how often the
08:53: Bible directly gives references to reading. For example, our
08:59: Lord Jesus Christ often mentioned it in Matthew 12 regarding the
09:05: Sabbath. He said, have you not read what David did in Matthew 19 for regarding divorce and remarriage?
09:13: He said to his hearers, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?
09:23: Concerning true worship, the Lord Jesus said, have you never read out of the mouth of infants and babes you have prepared praise for yourself?
09:34: Matthew 21. After his resurrection in Matthew 21, he said, did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone?
09:46: I could go on and on, but in Luke 10 to a lawyer who was trying to test him, the
09:54: Lord asked the lawyer, what is written in the law? How does it read to you?
10:00: And so the apostle Paul mentioned many places about reading in 1
10:07: Corinthians 1, Ephesians 3, Colossians 4. In fact, to the
10:12: Thessalonians, he knew that reading his letters, he knew they were inspired epistles, but reading the letters of Paul was so important for the churches that Paul commands it with an oath.
10:29: In 1 Thessalonians 5, 27, he says, I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren.
10:38: And then at the end of his life in 2 Timothy 4, he said to Timothy, the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when you come, bring with you and the books, but especially the parchments.
10:54: Now, C. H. Spurgeon commented on Paul in this life about Paul's desire for books.
11:03: Spurgeon said how we are rebuked by the apostle. He had even seen the
11:08: Lord, yet he still wants books. Paul was caught up into the third heaven and heard things not lawful to utter, yet he still wants his books.
11:17: He was an inspired writer, yet he wants books. He had written the major part of the
11:23: New Testament, yet he still wants books. So books are biblical.
11:30: Isn't it amazing that the greatest revelation in all of history that stands alone is a book.
11:39: God loves books and he put his mind and his heart in the way of salvation in a book.
11:46: And so Christians, I've heard Christians say to me before, you know,
11:51: I'm not really interested in reading other books, I'll just read the Bible. But that is an ignorant and a foolish statement, because books teach us not only theology and devotion, but they also teach us about what
12:08: God has done in history. And you cannot learn all that in the
12:13: Bible alone. So… Wouldn't you also say that there are gifts that God has given to the church throughout the centuries where he has placed teachers in our midst.
12:28: Men who have spent their entire lives, sometimes were able to dedicate more of their time to study in centuries past than your average theologian or professor even could today because of the distractions and so on.
12:47: And we have such a wealth, a rich fountain, if you will, of available theologians and teachers who can help teach us what the scriptures mean, who can exegete them and so on.
13:02: And we can find their exegesis in the written pages of these books. And to discount them is the height of arrogance, because you're really saying that you are smart enough and know your
13:12: Bible well enough to do all of this by yourself. Exactly right.
13:18: Well, I think you have a quote at the beginning of your program every time. I think it says basically, those who won't use other men's brains prove that they have no brain of their own.
13:30: Yeah, that's the Solid Grand Christian Books commercial. It's a quote by Charles Adams Spurgeon. And it is the height of arrogance, because if I believe all
13:42: I need is the Bible, just me and God, I am saying I don't need any of my brethren.
13:49: It's the same thing as saying, you know, I won't go to church. I don't need to hear sermons.
13:55: I'll just stay home and read my Bible. It's a delusion that's rooted in arrogance. So that's absolutely true.
14:04: Amen. Well, did you have anything to add about the biblical encouragement for reading? Because I'd also like to know the spiritual benefits of reading.
14:13: I mean, we've obviously just started addressing the fact that there are teachers available to us, great giants of the faith that know the original languages of the scriptures and so on, who have just been a precious help to, they've been a precious help to each other.
14:33: I mean, you read about Calvin and his learning from Augustine, and you learn about Spurgeon and his learning from Calvin and many of the great minds before him through the books that they read.
14:46: Well, that's exactly right. And the benefits are almost more than can be numbered.
14:58: The encouragement that good books gives a Christian when you read, for instance,
15:04: Christian biographies, and I'm going to talk about that a little more in a moment, but the encouragement you get from reading the lives of other
15:13: Christians, and you also see what God has done in history through the lives of other
15:20: Christians, it opens up a whole new world to you. I'll give an example in my own life.
15:29: Years ago, I got very interested in the subject of the
15:35: Holy Spirit's work in the life of Jesus himself. And because I would read in the
15:41: Bible about Jesus coming forth from the wilderness in the power of the
15:47: Spirit, and so I said, I want to see our Lord's example in this more.
15:54: And I read all I could in the Bible, but then for years I've received a monthly magazine called
16:02: The Banner of Truth, a trust magazine. And about the time
16:07: I was interested in this subject on the Holy Spirit, The Banner of Truth had two back -to -back articles by Sinclair Ferguson on the
16:19: Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus. And it was exactly what I was interested in.
16:26: I studied those two articles closely over two months, and it opened up a complete new area of understanding about my
16:38: Lord and his divinity and his humanity that I had never even thought of. And then
16:44: Dr. Ferguson in the article said, for further reading, the
16:49: Puritan John Owen or the Puritan Thomas Goodwin wrote wonderful material on the
16:56: Holy Spirit in the life of Christ. And so then I went to Owen and Goodwin, and they expanded on it.
17:04: And it has been the most precious experience. But if I had not read the writings of others,
17:12: I would have stayed ignorant in that area, because when other men write on the
17:19: Scriptures or on others' lives, the Holy Spirit automatically uses that to instruct us, to teach us, to stir us, to challenge us, and to cause us to grow.
17:33: Those are the real benefits of reading. Amen. Now, let me go ahead and add a negative.
17:43: The negative is, there are so many bad books today in Christian bookstores, on the internet.
17:54: Today, more than ever, Christians need to have real discernment in what they read.
18:01: There's a danger about reading bad books. Many books are dangerous.
18:08: Oh, for instance, some of the best sellers are dangerous books.
18:15: The well -known book, The Shack, or Your Best Life Now, or the recent one,
18:24: Love Wins, Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who's Ever Lived by Rob Bell.
18:31: There are very dangerous books out there that teach heresy, that teach error, and they're best sellers.
18:41: Yeah, in fact, John MacArthur said something excellent about Joel Osteen's book, Your Best Life Now.
18:48: He said, if your best life is now, that means you're going to hell. How else for a
18:55: Christian could he possibly even think that this would be our best life?
19:01: Uh, because if it is, as MacArthur said it very plainly, if this is the best that it's going to get, that means later on, you're going to hell.
19:12: Well, that's absolutely right, and many Christians or professing Christians don't seem to have the discernment that they should have about this, because they hear about a book, it's recommended, someone's excited about it, and so they read it, and they think, oh, this is great.
19:31: Well, many books that seem good are not, so we have to really have discernment, and you know,
19:39: I think knowledgeable Christians should use our knowledge of good books as a bridge to talk to people about bad books.
19:48: Many times when someone has asked me, have you read Your Best Life Now, or The Shack, or some other book,
19:58: I'll use it as an opportunity not to be rude. I'll give you a recent example.
20:05: I saw a truck driver at a truck stop here in Texas, and he was sitting in his truck, and I just wanted to go over to his truck and speak to him and witness to him, so I worked up the courage to do that.
20:23: I walked over to his truck. I climbed up on the step, and I asked him how he was doing.
20:28: I asked him how I could pray for him, and then I said, do you ever get to read on the road or listen to sermons?
20:34: And his answer was, yeah, I listen to Joel Osteen every single day. Well, here's my opportunity.
20:43: I didn't become negative. I said, oh, let me tell you about some men that'll be much better to listen to.
20:52: Alistair Begg is much better, and then I may, I think I named some other couple guys, and I mentioned things for him to read, and so my point is
21:02: Christians should use our knowledge of books as a bridge to talk to other people, because books are, they're not, initially they're not offensive.
21:13: Everybody loves books, so we can use books as great tools if we understand how to be discerning in the use of them.
21:23: Yeah, that was an excellent bridge there. Well, I know that you have, as most
21:31: Christians do, you have your favorite authors that have blessed you throughout your life, and if somebody is, especially if somebody is building a library, and obviously they want to avoid wasting money on the garbage, some of which you just mentioned, and they want to make sure that they are stocking those shelves with the ammunition, basically, that they're going to need to prepare themselves to not only be further equipped to defend their own faith with those that they happen to encounter in public, or even in their own families, or their colleagues at work, or wherever they may be, but they also need to be able to expose the errors of the enemy.
22:22: So if you could let these folks know who are wanting to start this library, or this study in their homes or their offices, what should they start stocking their shelves with?
22:38: Well, let me just mention some categories first. Sure. Because a Christian's reading should be balanced.
22:45: We should not just read devotional books, or we should not read just biographies, or just theology, or just church history.
22:56: We need to have various categories where we build our library of good books in different categories.
23:06: So theology and Christian doctrine is a major important category.
23:17: Commentaries, readable commentaries, and any Christian that wants to get a commentary on a book of the
23:23: Bible, a commentary is just when someone say Romans, the book of Romans, an author writes thoughts or an exposition, he writes a study on Romans to help other
23:37: Christians understand Romans. He's commenting on the book of Romans. So commentaries can be valuable, but it's very important to get direction in the right ones, because some are very technical, or they use the
23:52: Greek or Hebrew. Banner of Truth, by the way, has done some very readable commentaries on many
24:02: New Testament books in their paperback. They're written for the average Christian or the layman, but some of those are even good for pastors.
24:13: It's called a Let's Study series, and so commentaries are a good category.
24:19: Church history and then Christian biography.
24:25: The biographies of the Christians, both men and women, from early church history up into the 20th century of the lives of Christians that God has used in the past.
24:40: Books on prayer. Some daily devotionals.
24:47: A daily devotional is very good to have to read along with your Bible. Some specific ones are
24:53: C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening. The book by Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies.
25:06: William J., Mornings and Evenings with Jesus. There are some excellent daily devotionals, and those are very good to use as well.
25:18: And of course, The Christian Home, Marriage and Family, Parenting and Children.
25:24: There are some excellent books in that category, even that Solid Ground Christian Books has published and have available.
25:32: So these major categories, Christians need to have good books in different areas that will produce a balanced understanding in their
25:44: Christian life. Just like the Bible has got all different kinds of categories of teaching in there.
25:53: You've got all different kinds of literature in the Bible. You have history, you have theology, you even have songs.
26:01: I mean, you have all kinds of things in there. Yes, that's exactly right.
26:06: And so it's important to just see these areas, these topics, these subjects, these categories are important to have gained knowledge and understanding in.
26:22: We're going to be going to a break. I'm sorry, brother. Go ahead. I was just going to say we were going to go to a break right now.
26:29: So this way we could pick you up instead of cutting you off midstream. We can pick you up right where we left off there.
26:37: And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question, and there are a couple of people already waiting to have their questions asked, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.
26:48: C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. I ask that you please give your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the
26:59: USA. And we look forward to hearing from you with your questions for Pastor Mack Tomlinson on the best of books to build a library right after these messages.
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30:55: Where Christ finds people and changes lives. Charles Hatton's version once said, give yourself unto reading.
31:15: The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted.
31:20: He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.
31:26: You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the
31:32: Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future, and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.
31:45: Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God -centered,
31:50: Christ -exalting books for all ages. We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com.
31:58: That's solid -ground -books .com, and see what priceless literary gems from the past to present you can unearth from Solid Ground.
32:07: Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Welcome back, and that was the ad that our guest
32:15: Pastor Mack Tomlinson was bringing up earlier, Solid Ground Christian Books, and we hope that all of you listening will definitely look through their online catalog at solid -ground -books .com,
32:30: solid -ground -books .com, and I'm sure you're going to find many things that Pastor Mack Tomlinson would strongly recommend.
32:40: In fact, I would think that Pastor Mack Tomlinson would probably recommend every single thing that Solid Ground Christian Books offers.
32:47: Also, I want to let you know that Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service is a sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron, and they carry
32:56: Solid Ground Christian Books, as well as the books of every single major publisher that publishes theologically sound literature.
33:07: Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service has many things that they refuse to carry. They may make some exceptions for pastors who need to do research on heretical material, but they are not going to be openly offering it to the general public, and it's one of those wonderful places that you could go to without fear that you're going to be getting some horrible, spiritually poisonous book.
33:33: But anyway, if you'd like to go to cvbbs .com, cumberlandvalleybiblebookservice .com,
33:41: they also have a wide assortment of books. In fact, every single book that you ever hear about on Iron Sharpens Iron can be purchased through Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service at very reasonable rates, and most often probably the lowest rates that you can find anywhere else.
33:58: And before we go back to our discussion, I do want to remind everybody about Pastor Mac Tomlinson's Fellowship Conference New England that is going to be held.
34:09: It's going to be here before you know it this August, August 4th through the 6th.
34:14: It's being held at the Deering Center Community Church in Portland, Maine, and Pastor Mac Tomlinson is one of the speakers, in addition to Pastor Jesse Barrington and Charles Leiter and Michael Durham, and the website is fellowshipconferencenewengland .com,
34:37: fellowshipconferencenewengland .com, and if you could, Pastor Mac Tomlinson, let our listeners know something more about this conference that you are so passionate about.
34:47: Well, there's a real hunger among Christians in New England, I think because the spiritual climate is so dark in New England that Christians that are there are serious -minded and they're spiritually hungry.
35:07: This conference is a small conference, less than, you know, 100, well, less than 200 people, so it's not large like many conferences.
35:19: The registration is, I think, $20 or less. The information on that is on the website, but it's an atmosphere of true fellowship around biblical truth, around the gospel and the glory of Jesus Christ.
35:40: It's a warm -hearted atmosphere. It's loving and encouraging.
35:47: It's not an ecumenical conference in terms of what people would commonly think because we do major on doctrinal evangelical truth.
36:00: The preaching is pastoral. It's edifying.
36:07: It's Christ -centered, and any Christian who is free that week,
36:14: August 4th through the 6th, who could come to Portland, you will find it a delightful experience and very edifying, so we hope you could consider coming.
36:28: Great, and once again, that website is fellowshipconferencenewengland .com,
36:35: fellowshipconferencenewengland .com, and we'll be reminding you about that conference every day until the day of the conference, or at least close to that day, so keep your ears open for more information about that, and we hope that you can attend, and even if you are not in the
36:55: Portland main area, if you have the financial means to jump in a plane or an
37:01: Amtrak, we would urge you to get out there, and that again is fellowshipconferencenewengland .com,
37:08: fellowshipconferencenewengland .com. Now it's up to you, Pastor Mack. We do have several people waiting to have questions asked.
37:15: Do you want to finish a point before we do that, or would you like me to start off with some questions from the listeners?
37:23: I'll go ahead and take the listeners' questions, and then we can move on to other things after the questions.
37:31: Okay, great. Let's see here, we have, well, we have a listener all the way in Scotland listening, and it's spelled
37:43: Kenross Scotland, but usually when I'm speaking to somebody from Scotland or the
37:48: UK, they have a completely different pronunciation for something that looks very easily pronounced, phonetically spelled, two syllables,
37:58: Kenross, but who knows the way they pronounce it, but we have
38:03: Murray in Kenross, Scotland. He's got a couple of questions for you.
38:11: Could you ask Pastor Mack Tomlinson to advise whether the fellowship conference in New England will be streamed live so that those who live further afield might have the opportunity of following?
38:26: And maybe he'll answer that first because he does have a question about books as well. Yes, the plan is for the conference to be live streamed, and so if they go to the conference website or possibly also
38:46: Redeeming Grace Fellowship there in Portland, it will be live streamed,
38:54: God willing, so we would welcome our brother to tune in.
39:03: And of course, Murray, there's also, I'm sure, an airport near you.
39:10: Why don't you jump in a plane and fly out to Portland, Maine and go to the conference? But here we have a couple of other questions from Murray.
39:19: He asks, given the proliferation of cults and sects in recent years, would
39:25: Mack Tomlinson be in a position to recommend a book that maintains the same standard as Walter Martin's Kingdom of the
39:34: Cults, but is more comprehensive in scope? Well, Murray, that's a great question.
39:43: Unfortunately, I do not know of a book right now to recommend.
39:48: There is some more recent updated work in that area.
39:55: Walter Martin's work was wonderful, but it was 20 and 30 years ago at least, and so his work would not be updated at all.
40:08: So I do not know of a book right now to recommend. I apologize. Well, I can say that I know that Walter Martin's Kingdom of the
40:16: Cults was updated even after his passing and entering glory. They did revise that.
40:24: But this is quite providential, Murray, because on August 24th,
40:32: I'm interviewing Bodie Hodge, who is one of the authors of a brand new book that is hot off the press.
40:41: Actually, the volume two is a brand new book. There's two volumes of World Religions and Cults, and we just got into our hands volumes one and two, and you know something?
40:59: I don't usually do this, Murray, because overseas shipping is expensive.
41:05: We usually don't give our giveaway books to folks overseas, but I'm going to get those two books to you somehow, both volume one and volume two of World Religions and Cults.
41:19: And Bodie Hodge works with Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, so I am very confident, even though I have not read these books because I just got them within a day or so, but I trust
41:35: Ken Ham a great deal with his discernment, and I know that he happens to be theologically a
41:44: Calvinist, just as my guest is and as I am. So give me your complete mailing address,
41:52: Murray, and I will make sure that we get those books off to you. I'm going to let Murray have one more question here.
41:59: Is there a definitive modern book covering the thorny issues of marriage, divorce, and remarriage that Mack Tomlinson could suggest?
42:08: I lost my Jay Adams book on the subject many years ago, and assume it is still out of print. Well, that is an amazing question, really.
42:19: Murray is a very, he asks better questions than I can probably answer.
42:27: Well, John Murray, didn't John Murray write a book on that? He did write a book.
42:32: It was a small book. John Murray, the Professor John Murray of Westminster Seminary, wrote a small book called
42:41: Marriage, Divorce, and either Marriage and Divorce or Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage.
42:48: I can mention three books in answering Murray's question.
42:55: Craig Keener, K -E -E -N -E -R, published by Hendrickson Publishers, wrote a book.
43:08: The title of it is And Mary's Another, subtitled
43:13: Divorce and Remarriage in the Teaching of the New Testament. The title is And Mary's Another, Divorce and Remarriage in the
43:22: Teaching of the New Testament by Craig Keener. And then John Murray's book is just titled
43:30: Divorce. It's published by Presbyterian Reform Publishers in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
43:41: Jay Adams' book is worth kidding, Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the Bible, published by Zondervan, at least it was.
43:52: And then Conrad Murrell has a small quality book that if any listener were to email me,
44:01: I will send them a gift copy. Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage.
44:08: So I can hardly recommend these that I've mentioned. Chris Yes, and I failed to mention that our guest, even though we did a past interview on it, our guest today wrote the biography of Conrad Murrell, Grace and Truth.
44:23: And once again, you can get all of these books at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service. Anything that our guest is mentioning, they can get their hands on it.
44:32: And that's… Dr. Murray Well, actually, I should say the biography on Conrad Murrell is not currently at Cumberland Valley.
44:40: Chris Oh, it's not? Dr. Murray No, but anyone could order it from ConradMurrell .com,
44:46: or they can contact me. Let me, before we leave Murray, thank you for your good questions.
44:54: And it just, a call from Scotland warms my heart, because I love
45:00: Scotland. I've been there, I've traveled there, I have dear friends there. And in relation to books,
45:07: Scotland has a history that is almost unparalleled with the
45:13: Scottish Covenanters. And probably my favorite area of reading in historic biography is the 19th century
45:27: Scottish preachers, the lives of Robert Murray McShane, Thomas Chalmers, John Bonar, Horatius Bonar, Andrew Bonar, John Milne.
45:42: They were all contemporaries, and their biographies are the most inspiring biographies
45:50: I've ever read in four years. All Scottish. Now, there is a recent book published by Christian Focus, by Tom Linney, L -E -N -N -I -E, and it is a mammoth book.
46:08: It's published by Christian Focus right in Scotland. It's called
46:14: Land of Many Revivals, Scotland's Extraordinary Christian Revivals Over Four Centuries.
46:22: And Tom Linney has done a marvelous job. It's over 500 pages.
46:29: Wow, is he a living author? He is. He lives in Edinburgh, and his book,
46:34: Land of Many Revivals, chronicles every major genuine revival from 1527 to 1857.
46:49: And this book is phenomenal. If anyone wants to see God's work in the history of Scotland, the power of God, Tom Linney's book is just extraordinary.
47:03: And by the way, Scotland, as well as the country of Wales, are probably the two countries where historic revival has happened more than anywhere else in all of church history.
47:17: Yeah, and I understand they need another one there badly. Very, very badly, as we do in America.
47:23: Yes, yes. My pastor currently at Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is in Scotland right now.
47:31: His daughter's getting married within at least a couple of weeks,
47:36: I believe. And he is from, I mean, I can't pronounce it correctly probably, but it's
47:42: Irishire, I think. And he attended Glasgow University, and then he is a graduate also of Free Church of Scotland College in Edinburgh.
47:54: And he is traveling right there in Scotland now, but he is my pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
48:01: I'm very thankful for him. By the way, have you ever been to Kinross, where our listener
48:08: Murray is? I have not. I've mainly been only coming up from the south from England, traveling up to Edinburgh and around Edinburgh.
48:21: So my experience of Scotland has been too limited, really.
48:27: Okay. Well, I'm going to try to get an interview with Lynnie, because Christian Focus has been encouraging me to interview their authors, and they have sent out books to us from Scotland via their,
48:41: I guess their United States hub. And we would love to see if we could get an interview arranged on that.
48:49: Well, thank you so much, Murray, for those wonderful questions. And as I said, get me your full address, your full shipping address, so we could get to you those books that you mentioned.
49:01: We also have, waiting for his question to be answered, David in Ada, Ohio.
49:09: His question is, should I focus on reading Reformed and Calvinistic authors and avoid dispensational writers?
49:19: For example, should I read Edwards, Pink, Bettner, Sproul, MacArthur, Spurgeon, Calvin, and Warfield versus Dave Hunt, Tommy Ice, Charles Ryrie, etc.?
49:32: Well, it's interesting, David, you might not know this, but John MacArthur is a dispensationalist, but he's also theologically
49:38: Reformed in his soteriology anyway, and he's a wonderful author, one of my favorites, but he is dispensationalist.
49:47: But that's interesting that he asked that, Pastor Mac, because you actually encourage
49:52: Reformed Christians to go beyond the barriers of our
49:59: Reformational heritage to read other writers from different theological perspectives, do you not?
50:08: Pastor Mac? I'm sorry, Chris, yeah, I couldn't hear you for a moment. Could you repeat that?
50:14: You want me to repeat the entire question by David? Can you hear me?
50:21: Yeah, it seems like we're having some kind of phone problem. Can you hear me now? I think I got the question, but I didn't hear the end of what you asked me.
50:30: Oh, well, I remember that you had said, I can't even remember if it was a personal conversation off the air or if it was on the air, but you said that you think that Reformed Christians should also investigate reading the writings of some great men of God who are not theologically
50:51: Reformed and Calvinistic. Absolutely, I do believe in reading.
50:58: Personally, I'm fully Calvinistic in my theology, in my soteriology, but I do not only read
51:10: Calvinistic authors. In fact, you wrote a biography of Leonard Bravenhill, and he was not a
51:17: Calvinist. He is now, of course. But no,
51:24: I think if we only read authors that are in line with our theology,
51:34: I think we miss out on the benefits of other authors.
51:40: For instance, anyone who is interested in good books on a high view of God and true worship, they should read
51:53: A .W. Tozer, but A .W. Tozer was not Calvinist. Yeah, Christian Missionary Alliance was his denomination.
52:00: Right, or books on prayer. You can't go wrong in reading
52:05: E .M. Bounds. Uh -huh. And so, I think we, you mentioned dispensationalists.
52:15: I mean, I don't know if you would want to have on the top of his reading list some of the men that he listed, though.
52:20: He listed David Hunt and Tommy Ice and Charles Ryrie. Tommy Ice is predominantly going to be writing exclusively about eschatology, and David Hunt, although he is in heaven now and knows better, he had some dubious writings.
52:36: In fact, he even later in his life developed the notion that if you came to Christ underneath a
52:44: Calvinistic ministry, you are not saved. He began to hate
52:49: Calvinism so much in his later years, and it's a shame because his middle name is
52:57: Charles Spurgeon. It's Dave Charles Spurgeon Hunt, but he had a vehement hatred of Calvinistic theology.
53:08: And Charles Ryrie, of course, some of his writings, didn't they lend towards the easy -believers in camp and in opposition to lordship salvation?
53:20: Yes, that's exactly true. They did. My personal opinion is that dispensationalism is a hermeneutic that undermines and destroys the unity of the whole message of the
53:39: Bible. Wow. And it's destructive. But wouldn't you say John MacArthur, even though he is a dispensationalist, seems to have overcome that?
53:48: Because most of his work... Right. I totally agree with that. He has overcome that.
53:54: I think, in my opinion is, he's only consistently a dispensationalist now in the area of eschatology, but not in soteriology or how the
54:13: Bible would apply to the Christian life. Right, right. Yeah. And so...
54:18: I mean, he is one of my favorite of all -time authors and still is, and one of my favorite of all -time preachers as well.
54:26: Yes, I can echo that as well. But I recognize, as a reader and a listener to teaching and preaching, that I don't agree with dispensationalism.
54:42: And so I have to hear with discernment, and I have to be careful. Right. As people have often said,
54:49: I'll take the meat and spit out the bones. I could also just give a plug to one of the sponsors of this show.
54:58: And I'm not just saying it because he's a sponsor of the show, but my dear friend Pastor Ron Glass in Wading River Baptist Church is one of the finest preachers
55:07: I know of. He has a radio program called the River of Life that you can hear on the internet wherever you are in the world, but it's aired locally on radio stations in New York.
55:18: But Wading River Baptist Church is a fine church, and he is, Pastor Glass, is a thoroughgoing five -point
55:24: Calvinist. And the bulk of his preaching would be on soteriological issues and things like that, would not be weighted down with end -time scenarios or anything like that.
55:37: But there I've said my speech in defense of some of my Calvinistic heroes here.
55:44: Are we having some sound problems there, Pastor Mack? Because it seems like there's a delay or something.
55:51: Well, there may be. I'm doing my best, so I'm on track with you. Okay. You can hear me well.
55:58: Yes. And let's go to one more question from a listener, and then we'll move on to some of our other topics from your categories here of the best in books.
56:11: Tyler in Mastic Beach, Long Island, New York. Why do you think the church in America particularly is so anti -intellectual?
56:20: How do I answer those who lay the burden down on me for reading good, solid doctrinal volumes?
56:30: Well, I mean, I think we're in an age where there's an attitude of,
56:36: I don't know, spiritual laziness, spiritual ignorance, and in one sense, an anti -intellectualism that many don't see the connection of the mind.
56:58: The truth has to come to the mind and then affect the heart.
57:04: And so I think if I understand his question right, I think those who do see the value of reading and true knowledge and theology, they're by family, by friends, even by church friends, they're going to be misunderstood.
57:25: And I don't think we can make them see and appreciate the value of gaining real benefit from quality books.
57:46: Yeah, like we've said before, when people tell you that you should only be reading the
57:53: Bible and you shouldn't be wasting your time reading books, the very words coming out of their mouth are not in Scripture.
58:01: So they are acting as a teacher, using their own thoughts and giving you bad information, because that is not from the
58:10: Bible, what they told you to do. And the anti -intellectual thing, I don't know if you could broad brush
58:19: America as necessarily being anti -intellectual, but probably, wouldn't you say that the largest, most heavily populated groups of people who profess to be
58:33: Christian are not stressing the intellectual end of the faith, because that is just typically a sign of what's been going on for centuries, that men want something that salves their conscience and makes them happy rather than the whole counsel of God, which is not always pleasant to the ears.
59:00: I mean, I don't have any other explanation. Do you have any clue on that? Are you hearing me,
59:10: Mac? I'm sorry, there seems to be a real big delay here. Yes, yes, and I did hear your question.
59:17: My reply would be, the professing evangelical church in America, and that's a broad term, because that would include charismatic believers, it would include professing
59:33: Christians and mainline Protestant denominations, but when
59:39: I think about that question, I think many professing
59:46: Christians are experience -based. They base their relationship with God strictly on what they experience in terms of encouragement or feelings, and they do not see the importance of Christian doctrine or theology.
01:00:07: They think it's boring. They think it's unimportant. They make no connection. Others, they live in a culture of ignorance about what's out there and what's available in terms of Christian books.
01:00:25: A. W. Tozer used the illustration of someone seeing children in South Africa by a diamond mine, and children were playing marbles with diamonds, and they had no idea what the value was of those things that were right around them.
01:00:48: Well, you know, I've walked into Christian bookstores, and on the discount bookshelf, there was a book by John Calvin and a book right next to it by Norman Vincent Peale, and people have no clue what the difference is, because they're satisfied with the shallow
01:01:12: Christian experience. They're satisfied with shallow knowledge, and so they can go to church on Sunday and hear a 20 -minute sermon that tells some neat stories and has a couple of main points that are funny with some scriptures thrown in there, and they go away saying, well, that was really encouraging.
01:01:34: You know, I love how he speaks. So we live in an ignorant age, and one of the great benefits of knowing good books is they are great gifts to give to people that can really, really affect them.
01:01:52: Everywhere I go, I'll purposely carry books to give away to people, and I'll give you an example.
01:02:02: There's a businessman in Fort Worth, Texas, who was an executive with a large company, and I met him for lunch one day.
01:02:13: I gave him a small book called Today's Gain, the
01:02:18: Triumph of John and Betty Stam. The Stams were a young couple in the mid -20th century who went to China with the
01:02:26: China Inland Mission, and about two years into being in China, the communist soldiers went through China, and they began to persecute believers and missionaries, and John and Betty Stam were trapped in their village, and they were martyred.
01:02:49: They were brought out of their house. They hid their daughter, and she was not found, but John and Betty Stam were brought outside, and they were martyred.
01:03:02: They were both decapitated with a Chinese soldier's sword, and they died together, and this book,
01:03:09: The Triumph of John and Betty Stam, tells the story. It was written by Mrs.
01:03:16: Well, I can't think of the author's name. Do you know where the Stams were from originally? I'm pretty sure they were from Pennsylvania, I think.
01:03:28: It's amazing that you said that, because that is obviously an old family name right in this town that I'm in now,
01:03:36: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, because there are several businesses with that name, S -T -A -M -M, right?
01:03:44: I'm not sure of the exact spelling, but I do know the daughter who survived and lived well into her 80s or 90s, and lived out her life in Pennsylvania.
01:03:57: I would be very interested to find out if they were from this very area, where there's several businesses named
01:04:03: Stam, including an excellent fried chicken restaurant. I've got to go in there and find out.
01:04:09: Well, my point of bringing up that book is, I gave that small book, and anyone can find
01:04:16: The Life of John and Betty Stam easily on the internet. It's a small book, and I gave it to this businessman, and it so ministered to him to see their love and their sacrifice.
01:04:33: It brought him to tears, and it turned his whole Christian life around, where he became much more serious -minded, and he became a reader and a lover of good books as a result of that.
01:04:48: Well, we're going to a break right now. If you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail dot com.
01:04:56: chrisarnson at gmail dot com. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Pastor Mack Tomlinson and the best of books.
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01:08:06: Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted.
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01:09:07: This is Chris Arnzen, and our guest today for the full two hours, with one hour to go, is
01:09:13: Pastor Mac Tomlinson of Providence Baptist Church, I'm sorry, Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas, which is a
01:09:20: Reformed Baptist church. And we are discussing the best in books to build a library.
01:09:28: And don't forget about Pastor Tomlinson's Fellowship Conference New England coming up very shortly,
01:09:34: August 4th through the 6th in Portland, Maine. And for more details, go to FellowshipConferenceNewEngland .com.
01:09:42: FellowshipConferenceNewEngland .com. We have a listener, John, in Peoria, Illinois, who is with Samaritan Ministries, who wanted to know the website address for World Magazine.
01:09:57: John, that is wng .org forward slash iron sharpens, wng .org
01:10:07: forward slash iron sharpens. But always remember, if you hear an ad that has any kind of a website or a phone number or anything like that, and you didn't hear it correctly, or you don't remember it, just go to ironsharpensironradio .com,
01:10:24: ironsharpensironradio .com, and scroll all the way to the bottom. And all of our ads are there, are banner ads that you can click on, and they have hyperlinks directly to the sponsor's own websites.
01:10:38: So don't forget to just do that anytime you hear an ad, and if you don't hear or don't remember the website or contact information, you could do that.
01:10:48: Before we go on to continue another category of your book recommendations,
01:10:56: Pastor Mac, one of the last callers, it was
01:11:01: David, I believe, was asking about should he stick with reformed books, and you said that reformed people should reach out and really start investigating the lives of great men who are authors who are not reformed.
01:11:19: But for the newer Christian, don't you think it might be wiser for the newer Christian to perhaps stick with the reformed writers?
01:11:28: I do think that is accurate, because the new
01:11:34: Christian is just getting in there, they're a spiritual babe, and they're getting their foundation laid properly, and so I think they can read biographies of non -reformed
01:11:49: Christians, such as perhaps Amy Carmichael, or I could name others, but as far as doctrine and theology, though, that would be accurate.
01:12:02: I think it is important to, because you can get very confused quickly if you're reading books that seem to be written well, and they seem plausible, but they're teaching error.
01:12:18: So I would say that that would be right. Well, go ahead.
01:12:24: In that regard, let me, I'm sorry to interrupt. That's all right. I always say one of the greatest books any new
01:12:31: Christian could read is a book that is on basic Christian doctrine of what salvation is in the
01:12:41: Christian life, and the book is entitled The Christian Life, a
01:12:47: Doctrinal Introduction by Sinclair Ferguson, published by the
01:12:52: Banner of Truth. We have taken young people through that study many times. I give that book out regularly, and I tell,
01:13:02: I always say in various places, the single most important book outside the
01:13:09: Bible that a new Christian could read, in my opinion, is that book, because it is written in such a way that any
01:13:19: Christian will get grounded in what the truth of what the Bible teaches about salvation and how to grow as a
01:13:28: Christian. Amen. In fact, Sinclair Ferguson is one of my favorite preachers.
01:13:34: I've seen him preach probably 10 times at least. He used to come out to Long Island, New York in my early years of Christianity in the 80s and 90s.
01:13:46: He used to actually fly out from Scotland at that point. And then he not long ago preached at Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, and I would recommend everything that he has written.
01:13:58: I can't even think of a book that he has written that would not be worthy of promoting.
01:14:04: And Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service definitely has that book, because Banner of Truth is one block away from Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, and since Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service is our sponsor,
01:14:17: I'm going to plug them at cvbbs .com, cvbbs .com.
01:14:23: But thank you for the recommendation. And well,
01:14:29: I think it would probably be good to continue promoting some of the best authors that you cling to.
01:14:39: In fact, if you want to, we could go through the different denominations or theological backgrounds in categories.
01:14:48: Like for instance, why don't we go through some of your favorite Baptist authors, and then we could go perhaps to Presbyterian and Anglican, because those seem to be the three greatest sources of Calvinistic literature anyway.
01:15:03: Yes, well it's at this point that I would really encourage listeners to have that pen and paper ready, or their iPad, because these have become my favorite authors over the last four decades of being a
01:15:21: Christian, and I've found that they're the most edifying, the most biblical, the most helpful authors in all of the
01:15:33: Christian church. So I want to talk about groups, authors, and then particular books.
01:15:40: You mentioned Baptists. You know, John Popper is a contemporary Baptist that is a very edifying author, and though Reform Christians may not fully agree with some of his views,
01:15:55: I understand that completely. It's more like his decisions rather than his views. Well, my point is, some of his books that he's written in the past 20 years are simply very helpful, from the basic Desiring God to all the way to his book on,
01:16:17: I believe it's The Justification of God, on an exposition in Romans 9. So as a
01:16:24: Baptist contemporary author, John Popper is very helpful. D .A.
01:16:32: Carson is one of the finest theologians and Americans in the world.
01:16:39: His books are simply incredibly helpful. Yeah, I've interviewed him. You go back in history, some of the better Baptists in history to read,
01:16:49: Andrew Fuller, the English theologian. He was a pastor, probably the greatest
01:16:55: Baptist theologian England ever produced, or Britain ever produced.
01:17:01: He was a part of the British missionary movement. So Andrew Fuller would be a great historic
01:17:09: Baptist to read. J .P. Boyce, who was the founder of Southern Seminary in Louisville, Boyce's Abstract and Systematic Theology is a single -volume systematic theology that's very, very good.
01:17:25: Of course, the well -known British Baptist, Kate Spurgeon, is one of the greatest, most prolific
01:17:33: Baptist authors in history. Go back before him, John Bunyan is one of the most incredible authors in all of Christian history, and he was a part of the
01:17:50: Bedford Baptist Church there in Bedford, England, where he lived and died.
01:17:57: Those would be some favorite Baptists. And I'm sure that you wouldn't disagree if I were to plug a man who's written about a number of the men that you listed.
01:18:10: That would be Tom Nettles, Dr. Tom Nettles, who is a Baptist historian and has written about some of those folks.
01:18:17: In fact, he wrote a biography of J .P. Boyce. And we also have
01:18:25: Michael Haken, who has been on this program as well a number of times, who's a Baptist historian and author.
01:18:31: Yes, well, both of those men are two of the best contemporary, both historians, but they're both actually true theologians as well.
01:18:44: One large book Dr. Nettles in recent years wrote, and it's probably his greatest book that he'll ever write.
01:18:57: It's almost 700 pages, Living by Revealed Truth, A Live Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
01:19:06: So that's a phenomenal book to benefit.
01:19:11: But moving on to other categories, even though I'm a Baptist, I have probably benefited more from Presbyterian authors than any other category.
01:19:23: Going back to, I would say, the earliest
01:19:29: Presbyterian authors that I really began to read would have been in the,
01:19:35: I would say, the 18th century and then into the 19th century. Of course, the Princetonian theologians,
01:19:43: Archibald Alexander I is one of the great American Princeton theologians, and he was a powerful preacher.
01:19:52: He preached around Virginia as a circuit -riding evangelist, and he saw a powerful revival in Virginia.
01:20:03: But after Archibald Alexander, B .B. Warfield, the
01:20:10: Hodges, Charles Hod and his sons, they were all at Princeton together, and their influence theologically on America and on the world has just been beyond description.
01:20:26: And by the way, there is a marvelous two -volume History of Princeton Seminary by Banner of Truth written by David Calhoun that is superb.
01:20:39: It's the History of Princeton Seminary by David Calhoun, and it not only shows the glory of Princeton theology, but it also shows how
01:20:50: Princeton turned liberal in the first half of the 20th century and basically began to deny the truth.
01:20:58: So other Presbyterian authors of more recent years, the
01:21:05: Presbyterian Scotsman John Murray, his book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, is one of the top five books
01:21:14: I've ever read. It's a smaller paperback. I would encourage any
01:21:20: Christian who's not read it and wants to understand the work of the
01:21:26: Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in our redemption and how redemption was accomplished and then how it's applied by the
01:21:36: Holy Spirit, that book is immensely helpful. Yeah, especially for those who are struggling understanding limited atonement or definite atonement or particular redemption.
01:21:46: Yes. Very good. A contemporary of Murray, a little older than him, was
01:21:53: J. Gresham Machen, the great apologist and New Testament scholar, and though he died in 1937, he was one of the big influences, along with Lloyd -Jones and Francis Schaeffer later, to expose
01:22:15: Neo -Orthodoxy in America when it was gaining inroads. Machen and Lloyd -Jones and Francis Schaeffer were the three leading voices to expose
01:22:28: Neo -Orthodoxy and its influence on the church. So Machen was one of my favorites.
01:22:34: Yeah. In fact, he was so much one of my favorites, I named my last son after him,
01:22:39: Richard Machen Tomlinson. Wow. And then my most current favorite
01:22:48: Presbyterian author, hands down, is Sinclair Ferguson. He is so helpful, not only as a preacher, but as an author.
01:22:57: All his books are really designed to help
01:23:04: Christians grow and understand the truth. And though he's a brilliant technical theologian, he brings it right down where anyone can get it.
01:23:13: So he has many good books, and I recommend them all. Yeah.
01:23:18: In fact, I want to quickly plug a CD series that you could get from Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island.
01:23:30: They transferred the old cassette tapes of Sinclair Ferguson's preaching from the 90s onto CDs, and you can get the series called
01:23:42: Dealing with Remaining Sin by Sinclair Ferguson at gracereformedbaptistchurch .com,
01:23:50: gracereformedbaptistchurch .com. And ask specifically for Dane Morgan in the sermon audio room.
01:24:02: So they should be able to get that series out to you.
01:24:08: The phone number there is 516 -379 -2408. 516 -379 -2408.
01:24:15: 516 -379 -2408. That was my former church. So I just wanted to plug them, especially since they have that great resource there.
01:24:25: And also, I don't know, have you ever read my friend Fred Zaspel's biography of B .B.
01:24:31: Warfield? I have not, but I've heard about it. Yeah, so I'd like to plug that as well.
01:24:37: In fact, I'll have to have Fred get you a copy of that. Well, let me take some time here to mention a few
01:24:45: Anglican authors. My favorite is obviously
01:24:50: J .C. Ryle. He's one of my favorite authors there is in all of Christian history, because that seems to be the major influence that he left on the church.
01:25:06: Of course, he was a contemporary of Spurgeon. He pastored two places in England before he became the bishop of Liverpool.
01:25:17: And of course, during that ministry in Liverpool, he did not pastor. He was the bishop for that region of England.
01:25:25: And I think he had over 80 churches under his care. He is one of the best writers any
01:25:34: Christian could read. His book on holiness is probably the best ever written on the subject.
01:25:40: His book, Practical Religion. His book, Christian Leaders of the 18th
01:25:46: Century. It's a collection of biographies on Christian leaders in the century before him.
01:25:54: And Ian Murray recently has completed, and it's available with Banner of Truth, a wonderful smaller biography on J .C.
01:26:06: Ryle called Prepared to Stand Alone. And it's a very, very good look at J .C.
01:26:13: Ryle. I have that. I just got it recently in the bookstore at my own church. Of course, another
01:26:20: Anglican, a man who now is in his elderly years, is
01:26:26: J .I. Packer. And he's written some marvelous books, Knowing God, Knowing Scripture.
01:26:33: Another one, God's Words. And that's plural, W -O -R -D -S, God's Words.
01:26:40: It's a miniature systematic theology. And so J .I. Packer and his books are very valuable, even for a brand new
01:26:50: Christian to read. I could go on now if you want me to, and begin to speak about some authors, specifically in books.
01:27:01: Oh yeah, definitely. Just quickly though, since Solid Ground Christian Books is one of my sponsors,
01:27:07: I just wanted to plug, as far as Anglicans are concerned, Stephen H. Ting, T -Y -N -G.
01:27:13: I don't know if you've read anything by him, but Mike Adosh has brought back into print some excellent works by Stephen H.
01:27:19: Ting, a 19th century Anglican Calvinist Episcopalian who was a pastor for at least a portion of his ministry in New York City.
01:27:29: And he is phenomenal, and he has lectures on the law and gospel, and also
01:27:34: The Christian Pastor, which is a book that I gave to every pastor at one of my previous pastor's luncheons years ago.
01:27:42: And Solid -Ground -Books .com is the website for them.
01:27:48: Solid -Ground -Books .com. But I'm sorry, Pastor Mike, go ahead. That's fine.
01:27:55: Well, at this point, if the listeners have their pens available, I just want to mention some of my favorite authors.
01:28:03: They're not chronological, they're not in any necessary older up to contemporary, but John Bunyan, Jerry Bridges, who just recently in the last few months passed away.
01:28:20: Jerry Bridges is a wonderful author, and his book, The Pursuit of Holiness, and any book by Jerry Bridges is really wonderful.
01:28:30: Jonathan Edwards, of course, was an American Puritan in the 18th century, and his theological writings are very deep, sometimes hard to understand, but he's very helpful in some areas, particularly on the nature of true revival, and how do you discern between a counterfeit work of the
01:28:54: Holy Spirit and what is genuine. His book, Religious Affections, addresses that.
01:29:01: And so Jonathan Edwards, and his sermons especially, are very solid and useful.
01:29:10: Martin Lloyd -Jones may be one of my top two favorite authors, the 20th century
01:29:17: London pastor. Any books, I tell young preachers, read everything you can by Lloyd -Jones.
01:29:24: Mm -hmm. And he has helped me in particular areas more than any other author.
01:29:35: A man who knew Lloyd -Jones and ended up writing his two -volume biography is
01:29:42: Ian Murray from Scotland. He's actually an Englishman, but he was the founder of the
01:29:48: Banner of True Trust. All of Ian Murray's books should be read by hungry
01:29:54: Christians and by pastors and preachers, because most of them are biographies.
01:30:01: The Lloyd -Jones biography, he's written two on Spurgeon, The Forgotten Spurgeon, and then the one later,
01:30:09: Spurgeon vs. Hyper -Calvinism, The Battle for Gospel Preaching. And then he wrote a recent, small, wonderful biography on Amy Carmichael called
01:30:19: Beauty for Ashes. And what encouraged me about Ian Murray writing this book is
01:30:25: Amy Carmichael was a famous woman missionary. She was in India for 50 years, never took a furlough.
01:30:34: She died there. She was buried there. She was from Northern Ireland. But she was not Reformed. She was not fully
01:30:40: Calvinistic. But Ian Murray, having the heart and the right, broad perspective that he always has, he saw the beauty and the fragrance of her life live for Christ and her devotion.
01:30:58: And so he saw the value, not only of her ministry, but of actually writing a biography on her.
01:31:04: It's very, very much worth reading. It's about 170 pages, very easy to read.
01:31:15: But Mr. Murray's other biographies, he wrote a biography on John Murray, the man we previously mentioned.
01:31:24: He's also written two collections of biographies. One is called Heroes. Lastly, three collections of biographies.
01:31:33: One is called Heroes, and these are all published by the Banner of Truth. And in the book
01:31:40: Heroes, there are seven biographies that Mr. Murray addresses.
01:31:46: Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Newton, Thomas Charles Welchman, and then a story that I did not know until I read it,
01:31:58: Two Men in an Island. These were two Scottish Christians who went to the island of Madeira in South America, and they suffered severe persecution, but they saw a real work of God in historic missions.
01:32:14: And then the sixth chapter is Charles Colcott Jones.
01:32:21: This was a very moving account of a southern rich plantation owner who became a
01:32:31: Christian, entered the ministry, and he became a missionary to blacks among the slaves in Georgia and the
01:32:41: Carolinas. And God poured out a great revival among them. He loved them, they loved him.
01:32:47: Well, this is a small biography in Ian Murray's book Heroes. I would also mention his book,
01:32:57: The Scottish Christian Heritage, which is a collection of Scottish Christians and a chapter on different Scottish Christians.
01:33:08: And then one final one I'll mention by Mr. Murray, as far as biographies, is
01:33:13: Wesley and the Men Who Followed. Ian Murray has a proper appreciation even for John Wesley, his devotion, the great courage, and the passion that the early
01:33:28: Methodists had. And that book is a biography on Wesley and shows the other
01:33:34: Methodist preachers that were under him and how God really used them. And of course,
01:33:39: Mr. Murray does not condone Wesley's Wesleyan Arminianism, but they were good things.
01:33:49: And so that's a great book. And there are other very valuable books by Mr.
01:33:56: Murray. A more recent one is Evangelical Holiness. And it's a small paperback book.
01:34:04: And it's very, very helpful. Chapter one talks about what is evangelical holiness and spirituality.
01:34:12: Chapter two is the liberal attack on the Bible in the 19th and 20th century and how it happened.
01:34:22: The book is worth the price of the book just for that chapter. So it's obvious that I'm saying
01:34:32: Ian Murray is one of my all -time favorite authors. He's probably helped me more than any other author view church history right.
01:34:40: Well, let me move on. I mentioned Amy Carmichael. She wrote many books.
01:34:47: And in the history of Christian missions, the books by the China Inland Mission, and there were many,
01:34:55: Mrs. Howard Taylor was the daughter -in -law of Hudson Taylor. She became the official biographer of the
01:35:02: China Inland Mission. Every Christian should search and find the books by the
01:35:07: China Inland Mission because the two -volume Life of Hudson Taylor is probably one of the top five biographies ever written.
01:35:17: Amy Carmichael's books, all of them, are very worth getting, and they're very affordable.
01:35:26: I could move on or I could pause if you want me to. Yeah, we actually have to pause for our very last break, but I just wanted to say something about that very quickly.
01:35:36: You mentioned a book by Ian Murray about a pastor who had an outreach to the slaves in Georgia, was it?
01:35:45: Yes, it's actually his book Heroes. Okay. And that man was John Colcott Jones.
01:35:52: It's chapter six in the book, and it's just a story of his work in the
01:35:59: South. Did you say his nickname was Coldcut, like at a deli? No, Colcott, C -O -L -C -O -C -K, that was his middle name.
01:36:12: The only reason that it just immediately sparked into my mind, another book that Mike Gadosh publishes,
01:36:18: Religion and Shoes, the Christlike Life and Ministry of Brother Brian of Birmingham, Alabama, and that is a book that Mike Gadosh has brought back into print about James Alexander Brian, who there's a homeless shelter down there that Mike ministers at that is named after him, and he was a white pastor down there that had an enormous outreach to the black community there, and also to some of those that would be considered untouchable members of society, like prostitutes and so on, and quite a courageous thing for a man in the late 19th century and early 20th century who was white in the
01:37:02: South to be doing. And again, I just want to keep plugging Mike's website, it's solid -ground -books .com,
01:37:11: solid -ground -books .com, but we have to go to our final break right now, and we're going to be right back after these messages with Mack Tomlinson and more of his recommendations, so don't go away.
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01:39:31: Welcome back, this is Chris Arnsin, and if you just tuned us in for the last 90 minutes in the next half hour or so to go, we have been interviewing today
01:39:42: Pastor Mack Tomlinson of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas.
01:39:48: We've also been promoting his fellowship conference, New England, August 4th through the 6th in Portland, Maine, and if you want more information on that, go to fellowshipconferencenewengland .com,
01:40:01: fellowshipconferencenewengland .com, and before the break you were just about to go into another category of literature, so I'd like you to do that now.
01:40:13: Well, I just want to, I mentioned other authors that I would encourage any
01:40:22: Christians who hear the name of these authors. These authors are the most trustworthy authors
01:40:30: I know, which means any book you can get by them will be good and edifying and trustworthy.
01:40:38: Everything by A. W. Tozer is edifying and very profitable.
01:40:45: Everything by Martin Lloyd Jones, everything by E. M. Murray, as I've said.
01:40:51: E. M. Bounds, 19th century, he was a chaplain in the
01:40:57: Civil War, and he was a pastor, and he wrote many books on prayer, and though some of his statements at times
01:41:05: I don't quite agree with, his books on prayer are so stirring and beneficial that they're very encouraging.
01:41:17: Some specific other authors, Faith Cook is a pastor's wife in Britain, and she has written a number of wonderful biographies.
01:41:31: One is titled Singing in the Fire. It's a collection of Christian leaders and women and children, and then she's written several other good books.
01:41:43: One is a good biography on John Bunyan. All of her books are very edifying, and ladies and younger girls would especially enjoy her books, but they're very beneficial, and she's an excellent, excellent writer.
01:42:06: R. C. Sproul's books, Leonard Ravenhill, as I said,
01:42:15: J. C. Ryle, and D. A. Carson. Steve Lawson, he's a contemporary
01:42:21: Baptist, and he's doing some very good work.
01:42:26: In fact, he just wrote a book on Martin Lloyd Jones, so that's kind of killing two birds with one stone there.
01:42:35: Yeah, well he's written recently some smaller biographies on different men,
01:42:41: Whitfield, and some others, and some good books on preaching as well.
01:42:46: So Steve Lawson's is very, very much worth reading.
01:42:54: Let me mention just a few individual books that have impacted me greatly over the years.
01:43:01: One of the earliest ones, the summer my wife and I got married in 1978, that summer
01:43:07: I read the studies in the Sermon on the Mount by Martin Lloyd Jones, and it was like a watershed for me, because I had been under dispensational teaching.
01:43:18: It taught me that the Sermon on the Mount was not really for us today, it's for a future time for the
01:43:25: Jews, but Martin Lloyd Jones destroyed that concept, and he showed me that the
01:43:34: Sermon on the Mount is really Christ showing us what a true Christian is, and what it means to live the
01:43:41: Christian life. It's kingdom life. In fact, I think Sinclair Ferguson's book on the
01:43:47: Sermon on the Mount is called Kingdom Life. So I could not recommend more
01:43:55: Lloyd Jones book studies in the Sermon on the Mount, and also Lloyd Jones' book
01:44:00: Spiritual Depression is a very valuable book.
01:44:07: It's been recently republished by Granted Ministries in Hannibal, Missouri, and the uniqueness of their reprinting that book, they have the original sermons by Lloyd Jones, his series on spiritual depression, the actual sermons, in a sleeve in the back of the book that is an mp3 of those sermons.
01:44:35: And the book itself is the best book I've ever seen to help Christians deal with what does depression mean?
01:44:43: What are its causes? What are the remedies? It's just a book that's helped thousands of people deal with the subject of depression.
01:44:58: Moving on, every Christian should read John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
01:45:06: Spurgeon read it, I think, 300 times. My old friend Ernie Reisinger, who's now with the
01:45:12: Lord in heaven, I think he read it a hundred times. It's just the value of the
01:45:19: Christian life that that book shows is beyond description. Every Christian should read closely the
01:45:27: Pilgrim's Progress because it's just a picture of conversion and living the
01:45:33: Christian life and having to persevere through this world until you die and go to heaven.
01:45:41: Another book, Thoughts on Religious Experience, by Archibald Alexander, is one of the greatest books
01:45:50: I've ever read, and it shows what the true nature of genuine
01:45:56: Christian experience is, and how God works within the heart and soul of a person.
01:46:09: Go ahead. I was just going to say, while you were thinking, since you mentioned the late
01:46:14: Ernie Reisinger, there is a wonderful biography of him
01:46:19: I'm sure you are aware of that Jeff Thomas from Wales wrote, which was published by Banner of Truth, and that's another great book to get a hold of.
01:46:32: It is really wonderful. Ernie was such a joyful man, and even though he was fully
01:46:38: Calvinistic, I think every day of his Christian life he was speaking to someone individually about coming to Christ.
01:46:47: Did you know that he founded the church that I'm a member of now? Yes, I did know that.
01:46:53: In fact, let me tell you a story about Ernie Reisinger. I went to Cape Coral, Florida in the summer or fall of 1997, and I spent a week with him.
01:47:13: One day we went out one morning to go have breakfast, and we stopped at his cleaners that take clothes to be laundered, and it was owned by a
01:47:24: Chinese couple. When we walked in there, this couple just started beaming with a big grin because he had been so kind to them and so loving that they loved it when he came in.
01:47:39: He had shared Christ with them many times, and while we were in there, he took another 30 seconds again to ask them if they had read what he had given them.
01:47:52: He spoke to them about the Lord. That's the way he lives. Ernie Reisinger's biography by Jeffrey Thomas, The Banner of Truth book, is a very wonderful book on a great man's life.
01:48:10: Yes. By the way, when you were having that stroll with him, was that in Florida or here in Carlisle? No, it was in Cape Coral, Florida where he lived in his final years.
01:48:21: There's another book. It is a small paperback book. It's a collection of biographies.
01:48:28: It is one of the best I've ever read. Fair Sunshine. It's published by The Banner of Truth.
01:48:36: The author is Jock Purves, P -U -R -V -E -S. Jock Purves or Purves, Fair Sunshine.
01:48:45: It's a story of the Scottish Covenanters and how they lived and how they died.
01:48:51: The book will bring you to tears. It's so moving, and it does show what
01:48:57: God did in Scotland over many years. There are three books by Alexander Strach.
01:49:05: I think it's Alexander Strach. Biblical Eldership is probably the best book
01:49:13: I know on that subject. His own church publishes that book, and they shipped me a copy for every single pastor that came to my most recent pastor's luncheon.
01:49:25: It's a wonderful book for pastors or churches that are looking to move from a single pastor model to having an eldership.
01:49:38: The book is very helpful. Two other books he wrote, Love or Die. It's a wonderful book about the commands to love in the
01:49:47: New Testament. Love or Die. Then he wrote a good book called
01:49:52: Hospitality Commands. It's a book on biblical hospitality. Very, very good.
01:50:02: Two good books on prayer. Two of the best. J .C. Rall, A Call to Prayer, and D .M.
01:50:11: McIntyre. He was a Scottish pastor. He wrote my favorite book of all time on prayer,
01:50:20: The Hidden Life of Prayer. David McIntyre or D .M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer.
01:50:30: Another book that's very valuable on the work of the Holy Spirit and the subject to revival is
01:50:37: Ian Murray's book Pentecost Today. It deals with the biblical understanding of the doctrine of revival and the work of the
01:50:46: Holy Spirit. It shows what is genuine as opposed to what is not genuine.
01:50:53: It's the very best book on the theology of the Holy Spirit I think there is to read anywhere.
01:51:01: Then I think of a few others and then I'll be quiet. The biographies of Robert Murray McShane, Memoirs and Remains of Murray McShane by Andrew Bonner is one of the top five.
01:51:20: It's better than I can even describe it. Then the
01:51:26: Life and Diaries of Andrew Bonner, published by the Banner of Truth.
01:51:33: The Autobiography of John G. Payton, P -A -T -O -N, that's published by the
01:51:40: Banner of Truth. John G. Payton was a 19th century Scottish man who went to the
01:51:46: South Sea Islands in the South Pacific. He took the gospel to the cannibals for 30 years and they never got him.
01:51:56: He lived and ministered there 30 years, saw revival. He saw whole islands come to Christ almost at times.
01:52:06: Then he came back, he buried his wife there, buried his first daughter there. He came back and he was buried in Scotland.
01:52:13: But the Autobiography of John G. Payton, it's like reading a true adventure.
01:52:24: It's a page turner. It's so good. The Life of Jim Elliott is very good by his wife,
01:52:33: Elizabeth Elliott. Also, one of my favorite biographies is the
01:52:39: Life of Amy Carmichael by Frank Halpton, H -O -U -G -H -T -O -N.
01:52:45: Now there's another good one written on her by Elizabeth Elliott, but Frank Halpton, his book is better because he knew
01:52:56: Amy Carmichael and it's simply a marvelous book. And then one final one, several years ago
01:53:04: I read the Life of John Newton by Jonathan Aiken. It's published by Crossplay Publishers.
01:53:12: Jonathan Aiken, A -I -T -K -E -N. That biography on John Newton is simply phenomenal.
01:53:21: I cannot say how good it is. And here's some thoughts real quickly on the value of reading
01:53:31: Christian biography. When we read the biographies and the lives of Christians from the past, they show us that we're not the only ones that face problems.
01:53:43: For instance, Spurgeon faced severe depression and he was also ostracized and persecuted and criticized by many other
01:53:52: Christians. Or Adoniram Judson, the missionary to Burma, he lost three wives and children on the mission field to death.
01:54:05: And so he suffered great loss and emotional turmoil. So when you read these lives, you see that others have suffered and they have endured and they've continued to be faithful to Christ.
01:54:19: You also learn that God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary purposes and that God is still at work in our day as he was in the past.
01:54:34: Amen. Well, you know, I'd like you in the remaining four minutes to just unburden your heart and leave our listeners with what you most want etched in their hearts and minds before they leave this broadcast today.
01:54:50: Well, I would just say if you've been stirred about a little bit today about or encouraged about reading, then just take some baby steps.
01:55:03: Contact Solid Ground Christian Books. Contact Chris Arnzen.
01:55:10: You're welcome to contact me. And we have available lists of recommended reading lists, how to start.
01:55:20: Don't be intimidated. Read a small book and learn and then go from there.
01:55:26: If I could start my reading again from 40 years, if I could start it over again,
01:55:32: I would read more systematically. I would always have a book going and I would just work my way through it.
01:55:41: There's no hurry to get through a book. I would also read more prayerfully.
01:55:48: As I said earlier, I would read with more discernment and be careful what I read.
01:55:54: And I would let one book lead me to other very good books because they will always do that.
01:56:03: And it'd probably be a good idea to have at least a small bookshelf in your bathroom. Absolutely.
01:56:14: And it's really been a real blessing for me today because not only did you introduce me to some new things that I wasn't aware of, but you've lit the fire under me to return to some of the authors who
01:56:31: I've read, but to read other works by them, or even revisit some of the great works that I have already read, but it has been a long time.
01:56:43: And Pastor Mack, I know it's just, for me, it's always a joy to have you back and I look forward to you continue returning to Iron Sharpens Iron.
01:56:53: I wanted to make sure that our listeners have your church website. It's providencedenton .org,
01:57:01: providencedenton .org, the New England Conference, Fellowship Conference, New England website that you are participating in that conference,
01:57:13: August 4th through the 6th in Portland, Maine. That website is fellowshipconferencenewengland .com,
01:57:22: fellowshipconferencenewengland .com. And I know that you announced just before, you have a specific website for the
01:57:29: Conrad Murrell book. Pastor Mack?
01:57:34: Yes, it's just conradmurrell .com. Conrad Murrell, and that's spelled
01:57:41: M as in Michael, M -U -R -R -E -L -L .com. Conrad, of course, is
01:57:46: C -O -N -R -A -D -M -U -R -R -E -L -L .com. And of course, you also have written the biography of Leonard Ravenhill, In Light of Eternity.
01:58:00: And I want to repeat the fact that the vast majority of the books that we mention here on Iron, Sharp, and Ziron can always be ordered through Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service at C -V -B -B -S .com.
01:58:16: That's C -V for Cumberland Valley, B -B -S for BibleBookService .com. And last but not least,
01:58:22: Solid Ground Christian Books, as Pastor Mack Tomlinson is fully aware, is a great wealth of treasures from the past and present for you to get a hold of.
01:58:34: And that website is Solid -Ground -Books .com, Solid -Ground -Books .com.
01:58:43: Let me just make you aware of a couple of wonderful upcoming interviews that we have scheduled here.
01:58:51: Jason Wallace of Christ Orthodox Presbyterian Church is going to be here
01:58:56: Friday to have a further discussion on the video that he produced on Mormonism.
01:59:05: It's a documentary exposing the lies and heresies of Mormonism. And that video, you can watch free of charge at LDS .video.
01:59:16: LDS .video. And Todd Friel of Wretched TV and Wretched Radio, he's going to be on August 15th to discuss his new book,
01:59:28: Stressed Out. So I hope that you join us for that as well. In fact, that's a book that I definitely need to get a hold of, because that is definitely a problem in my life, getting stressed out far too easily.
01:59:40: Well, thank you, Pastor Mack Tomlinson, and thank you for everybody who listened, especially those who wrote in.
01:59:47: And I hope you always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.