BOOKS RECEIVED

(Note: Titles in bold indicate reviews will be forthcoming)

VEBUM CORPUS (On Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper). Doctrinal Dissertation by Hartvelt. Price? Publisher, W.D. Meinema, Delft, The Netherlands, 238 pages.

DIVORCE, by John Murray. Publisher, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publ. Co., Philadelphia. Price, $2.50; 122 pages.

I SAW THE LIGHT, By H.J. Hegger (former R.C. priest). Tr. from the Dutch. Publisher, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publ. Co. Price $3.75; 171 pages.

EVEN UNTO DEATH (The Heroic Witness of the 16th Century Anabaptists). Dr. Wenger, Published by John Knox Press. Price $2.50. 127 pages.

NORLIE’S SIMPLIFIED NEW TESTAMENT (In plain English, for Today’s Reader), by Dr. Olaf M. Norlie. Publisher, Zondervan. Price $3.95 ($4.95 after Jan. 1, 1962).

HOW I DISCOVERED THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IN THE BIBLE by Clinton Davidson. Published by Fleming H. Revell Co. Price ? Paper cover, 156 pages.

THE YOUNG CHURCH IN ACTION (A Translation of the Acts of the Apostles), by J.B. Phillips. Published by Macmillan. 103 pages.

Makers of the Religious Freedom in the 17th Century by MARCUS L. LOANE Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. 240 pages, $4.00. 1961.

This hook may be considered a companion volume to Masters of the English Reformation in which author Loane established himself as “a reliable scholar. a gifted writer, and a Christian leader of deep evangelical convictions,” according to Philip E. Hughes of London. In the present volume the author portrays the statesmanship of A. Henderson, the devotion of S. Rutherford, the vision of Bunyan and the learning of R. Baxter in such a way that, though we realize the fallibility and frailty of these men of faith, we are humbled and inspired, disciplined and instructed by their example. The first two “were prominent in Church and State alike, Presbyterians to the back-bone, virtually incapable of all ecumenicity in Church affairs.” Bunyan and Baxter, however, were Puritans who spent many years in forced silence and in prison, but due to their spiritual stature became figures of national importance. All of them were in the forefront of the fight for freedom in their own age. They advocated freedom of conscience and worship, freedom to seek the truth as citizens and Christians. As such they can serve us with their courageous example and their noble ambition.

HENRY R. VAN TIL

An Introduction tot he Science of Missions JOHN H. BAVINCK (translation from the Dutch by David H. Freeman) 323 pp. Baker Book House, price $4.95.

Of making many books also on missions there seems to be no end. Many are worth· while and deserve more attention than they usually receive from the church public. Seldom, however, does there appear a volume so comprehensive in its scope, so thorough in its orientation, and so stimulating in its conclusions as this one. Since its initial appearance in the Dutch language seven years ago, many have urged its translation. The Anglo-Saxon nations, including the United States to a unique degree, are in the forefront of missionary advance through. out the world. More personnel and funds are drawn from these lands than all others together. Yet in the English-speaking world there has been a lamentable dearth of solid missionary study in which justice is done to the full round of Biblical revelation. This book of Dr. Bavinck admirably helps to meet this need.

In this brief review we can only hint at the richness which characterizes nearly every page. With scholarly thoroughness and in complete obedience to the Scriptures, the author introduces us to the missionary calling of the church. The first and most comprehensive section treats the theory of missions. Both Old and New Testament material sheds its light. The work is God’s, although he calIs and qualifies man to be his agent in fulfilling his divine purpose. Not the Christian individual or group but the church must carry out this mandate. Countless problems surrounding mission methodology are faced frankly. The author argues cogently for confronting the non-Christian world with the full-orbed gospel. This “comprehensive approach” he recognizes has been misused, but this does not excuse anyone from limiting himself in missions to an isolated message. The Scriptures do not permit “the view of preaching as an isolated event or activity; it is always included within the larger context of such acts of God that he still performs in our own day” (p. 92). Bavinck also rejects the notion of medical, educational and social services as merely “auxiliary.” This evaluation “views the essential element of the missionary task too exclusively in terms of the preaching of the gospel, or rather: it overlooks the fact that this preaching of the gospel is a very complicated affair that touches man in all his aspects and relationships” (p. 113). For him missions is not just an affair of “winning them one by one.” In this context he addresses himself to such problems as individual and group (clan or tribe) and the place of the church within the national context. The aim of missions he admittedly borrows from Voetius, stressing that the three aspects—the conversion of the heathen, the establishment of the church, and the manifestation and glorification of God’s grace in Christ—are basically one. Through missions God establishes and extends his kingdom among men.

The second main section deals with “elenctics,” the proper confrontation of heathen religion and philosophy and social context with the Christian gospel. In a penetrating way he considers such matters as God’s present witness on the heathen world, “moments of truth” in non-Christian faiths, and points of contact. The discussion at this point breathes the spirit of a dedicated missionary who draws upon his rich experience of twenty years of service on the field and tests his tentative answers in the light of Scripture. The last section is a brief consideration of the essence, place and task of the history of missions and the prospects for this work in our world.

What must he kept in mind is that this book is an “introduction.” Many questions are answered; still more are raised in the reader’s mind. On the conclusions there is room for difference of opinion, also among Reformed scholars. Yet throughout Bavinck demonstrates his loyalty to the Word of God. Here is a rich and rewarding work which deserves widespread dissemination.

PETER Y. DE JONG

Joseph the Prime Minister and Moses the Lawgiver by WILLIAM M. TAYLOR Baker Book House, Grand Rapids 6, Michigan. 241 and 482 pages respectively. $2.95. 1961.

These books are introduced as Bible Biographies and are reprints of an original published by Harper and Brothers in 1886.

The author was born in Scotland, came to America at the age of forty-two, and held the famous pulpit of Broadway Tabernacle in New York for twenty years. He also was the L}man Beecher lecturer at Yale Seminary and the L. P. Stone lecturer at Princeton Seminary. These “biographies” are really a series of expository sermons, rich in instruction and warm with spiritual inspiration. They not only have universal appeal but are rich with homiletical suggestion.

HENRY R. VAN TIL

The Epistle of Romans by JOHN MURRAY Volume I, Chapters 1 to 8 (The New International Commentary on the New Testament). Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, c. 1959. xxv, 408. $5.00.

One of the many outstanding features of Professor Murray’s commentary is the careful use and full knowledge of the best commentaries on Romans both old and new. Here is an author not only familiar with Haldane and Hodge, and Calvin in the Latin, but also thoroughly conversant with such modems as Barrett, Barth and Nygren. But this commentary is no mere citing or sifting of other men’s comments, but a rich and full wrestling with the text and setting forth of its meaning. Even though the work evidences a proper appreciation for the work of the Reformed expositors Calvin and Hodge, the author rightly breaks with them and even opposes them if necessary to remain Scrupulously faithful to the the meaning of the text as he understands it. Compare for example his treatment of 5:12–21 and especially note 22 on page 189.

The great strength of Prof. Murray’s book is that it is exegesis and exposition pure and simple. It seeks above all else to ascertain and set forth the meaning of the text. Here we find no attempt to take the text as a pretext for setting forth his own opinion, be it theological or otherwise. When the author feels it necessary to criticize at length the mistreatment of a portion of tile text by someone such as Barth, he docs so in a separate appendix (Appendix D: Karl Barth on Romans 5). Indeed the appendices are so valuable that they are worth the price of the book itself. Appendices A through D are models of careful word and concept study that equal and excel the best found in Kittel’s Worterbuch. Here we find treated “Justification” (26 pages), the phrase “From Faith to Faith,” and “Isaiah 53:11” as it bears upon our understanding of Christ’s work as set forth in Romans.

Prof. Murray brings his knowledge of the fulness of tho Scriptural revelation and in particular of Paul’s contribution to bear upon difficult passages so that in light of the analogy of Scripture the full and true meaning is seen. The commentary not only gives good word studies, and explains the meaning of verses, but shows the whole thrust and direction of Paul’s thought. The reader sees both the forest in its unity and the trees in their detail. Murray provides the continuity and preserves Paul’s chain of thought by referring both backwards and forwards in the beginning of his treatment of both major and minor sections. This balance is often lacking in other commentaries on this or other books of the Bible; which either explain in detail but fail to carry the thought forward, or give a broad general survey and fail to explain what is actually written. This commentary avoids both extremes and combines both elements.

Another of the most satisfying aspects of this commentary is the fact that the author never avoids or passes over a difficult passage or problem. He carefully :llld fairly presents the pros and COIlS for various possible or plausible interpretations and then cogently weighs the evidence and sets forth the reasons for his own understanding (d., ad 3:23, pp. 112f.). Not only is this done in the exegesis of undisputed textual passages, but also in his able handling of problems of textual criticism. When the author feels the evidence for a textual variant is inconclusive one way or the other, he frankly and honestly says so. Realizing, then, that one or more may be correct, he sets forth what each possible variant, if the correct one, would mean in its context (ad 3:7, p. 97, note 5; ad 4:1, p. 128, note 3).

In line with true faithfulness to the teaching and theme of the book, the author sets forth tile sovereignty and grace and power of God in saving men through faith by grace. Nevertheless, the commentator does not fall into an antinomian extreme, but recognizes fully Paul’s stress on the goodness of the law and the necessity for good works on the part of Christians as a result or fruit of salvation.

The accurate discernment and careful exegetical ability of the author come to the fore in his penetrating treatment of the “Law” (nomos). He rightly recognizes that Paul, as other men, uses words sometimes with different variations or shades of meaning (d. pp. 105ff., p. 110, etc.). Prof. Murray avoids that which has often trapped commentators on Romans by recognizing that Paul uses the word and concept “Law” differently.

“We have here an instructive example of the ease with which the apostle can turn from one denotation of the word ‘law’ to another. The righteousness that is unreservedly without law in one sense of the word ‘law’ is, nevertheless, witnessed to and therefore proclaimed by the law in another sense of that term. Law in one sense pronounces the opposite of justification, the law in another sense preaches justification. This illustrated the necessity in each case of determining the precise sense in which the term ‘law’ is used by the apostle and we must not suppose that the term has always the same denotation and connotation. Exposition has suffered from failure to recognize this variation. Here tho variation is exemplified in two consecutive clauses” (p. 110, ad 3:21–23).

So Murray shows that the meaning of the word law, like any word, must not be determined only and solely by the use over all and elsewhere, but also and primarily by the context.

“‘Through what law? of works? Nay, but through the law of faith.’ These questions and the answer show that the word ‘law’ is used in n different sense from that used hitherto in this epistle. But it is used later on in this same sense (7:21, 23; 8:2). It is obvious that when Paul speaks of ‘the law of faith’ he cannot mean the law in the sense in which it is opposed to faith (cf. vss. 19,20,21,28). For in that event there would be contradiction in the expression, ‘the law of faith.’ This again evinces the flexibility of the word ‘law’ in tho usage of the epistle and how easily the apostle may pass from one denotation or connotation to another” (p. 122, ad 3:22–31).

Professor Murray makes a unique and new contribution to our understanding of Romans in his explanation of the parenthesis of verses 13 and 14 in chapter 5 (pp. 187–191, esp. pp. 188f.).

One wishes that the very valuable summary of contents had not been tucked away on page xxii, and the divisions as to chapters and verses were clearly denned in the table of contents.

This commentary is warmly recommended for both scholar and preacher, minister and layman. It combines accurate scholarship with warmth of spirit and a clear analysis. Its great virtue is that it mines the riches of Romans and drives the reader to Romans and directs him in it. It is surely the best commentary on Romans produced in the 20th century by a Reformed scholar in the English language.

GEORGE W. KNIGHT, III, Frederick College, Portsmouth, Virginia

Near To God by ABRAHAM KUYPER Wm.B. Eerdmans Co., Grand Rapids 3, Michigan, 1961. $2.00.

After reading Near To God, one cannot help but fed near to God. The entire book leaves a deep impression upon its reader as it product of a man who was himself not only an able theologian but a person who himself was a partaker of the riches of being near to God. Experience of God seems to be the heart-throb of the book. The author shows his genius in bringing together his unusual intellectual stature and his faith.

Dr. Kuyper takes certain specific passages of Scripture and dwells upon them meditatively, taking the reader along with him in his reflections. No doubt, this book does “reflect the mystical bent of his mind.” In his treatment of certain passages Kuyper makes a distinction between soul and heart, the theological correctness of which the present reviewer is not adequately convinced. The author is not too clear on this point.

But, to those who want to experience the nearness of God and at the same time read a great mind captured by Christlikeness, Near to God is unhesitatingly recommended.

AUBREY VAN HOFF Senior Calvin Seminarian

De weg der Zending J. BLAUW (paper) 51 pp. J.H. Kok

Of much smaller format but very pertinent for the church today is this contribution to our mission literature, written by the secretary of Netherlands Missionary Council.

Dr. Blauw strives to meet the arguments which many are raising against the possibility of mission interest and zeal in the churches. In the changing political, cultural and religious scene of our age, the church finds herself at a loss how best to prosecute her heavenly calling to preach the gospel everywhere. This is peculiarly pressing for the Dutch churches, whose missionary resources were largely expended on Indonesia, now a closed land for them because of anti-colonial and anti-Dutch sentiment. Many church members come dangerously close to adopting a defeatist attitude. Others have lost interest with the excuse that “our mission” is no longer accessible to them.

The author points to new doors. Likewise, he urges a new approach. TIle churches must rethink missions today in the light of the Christian principles of love and self-denial. Since the book is brief, it seems unfair to criticize the answers which are suggested. Yet at times these are apt to be misleading to the uninitiated. The main thrust is clear and sound. Missions is Christ’s work; therefore it cannot and will not fail.

PETER Y. DE JONG