I have never been so disappointed in a book.  The author comes well-recommended by readers of his earlier work, Twelve Ordinary Men, a book of essays about each apostle.  So when I picked this one up, I expected more of the same.  I did not get it.

Since I have made a lifelong study of the women of the Bible, I first used it sporadically, reading the women I was studying in particular when they intersected those in this book.  As luck would have it, that meant I only read the essays on Mary and Hannah, two of the four I subsequently deemed acceptable when I finally sat down to read it all.  By "acceptable" I mean more right than wrong.  The other two were Anna and Mary Magdalene.  In fact, Mary M almost got an even higher rating because of the excellent job Mr. MacArthur does in debunking many of the wrong beliefs about her.  On the other hand, his view of her possession by seven demons left me shaking my head and saying, "Huh?" 

I was especially sad to see scriptural errors in the book.  When he correctly states that Isaac was born when Ishmael was 14, then says that he was weaned at 2 or 3, so Ishmael was 14 at that time, I had another head-shaking moment.  In fact, I had quite a few in the whole Sarah essay, which eventually garnered a "NO" next to it in the table of contents.

The larger problem I have with this book is the theology he tries to cram in where it does not belong.  Women who pick up a book like this, especially with the subtitle "How God Shaped Women of the Bible and What He Wants to Do with You," are not looking for a treatise on original sin or the direct operation of the Holy Spirit.  They want something practical, something they can use every day as they face their own particular trials or their own individual searches for meaning in their discipleship.  They do not need lessons on Calvinism, which is what the essays on Eve and Lydia are all about.  As someone who is not a Calvinist, they left me out in the cold.

Let me say this however:  the Introduction on God and the Bible's view of women is outstanding.  If it weren't for all the Calvinism, it would be worth the price of the book alone.  So, if you find it in a bookstore, stand there and read it.  Take notes if you have pen and paper.  It is that good.  But when I have only 4 "yeses" next to essays, along with four "nos," only two "Oks" and one "maybe", I am not sure you should be wasting either time or money on it.

Twelve Extraordinary Women is publilshed by Nelson Books, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishing.
 
Dene Ward

Much has been written about the reason for four Gospels.  The explanation I have seen most often is that they each wrote to different audiences and had different purposes.  Ric Keaster agrees but takes it a step further.  He also believes it may be God's attempt to reach all personality types by choosing four different personalities to write the same story.
            First, the author spends close to half of this small book (only 91 pages) showing us that throughout history, in several different centuries and in several different societies, those with the insight and education to do so have always divided humanity into four basic types.  Imagine that—always and only four!  They may call them by different names and identify them by different characteristics, but they always come up with four.  (We are completely ignoring the bogus outliers.  See previous reviews.)
            Finally he chooses one set of labels, Analytical, Structural, Conceptual, and Social, and proceeds to classify the four gospel writers.  He uses their choices of sermons, miracles, and parables, and even word counts to prove his point.  It is all interesting and makes you want to sit down right then and read through all four to find these points yourself.  Then it makes you wonder, which one am I?  In fact, if you find one gospel "speaking" to you more than another, you may have just found your personality type in this book.
            As I said, it is a short and easy read, and one that should provoke a lot of thought afterward.
            In Our Own Language is published by DeWard Publishing Co.
 
Dene Ward

After teaching an overview of the prophets in my Ladies' Bible Class, I really wanted to do a deeper study of Jeremiah.  But Jeremiah is a daunting book.  Perhaps not as daunting as Zechariah or Revelation, but close.  It does not help that the book is not chronological.  That means that even if you know your Bible history fairly well, you find yourself a bit confused in this book of figures, parables, sermons, and disordered historical events.
            So when I came across this little (just over 200 pages) book by this brother of excellent scholarly reputation, I was anxious to give it a try.  It has certainly delivered.  However, that does not mean this is an easy study.  What the author has done is make a study of Jeremiah as easy as it possibly can be. 
            Brother Mott divides Jeremiah into sections that are easily manageable by someone with limited time, sometimes one chapter more or less, sometimes two.  Each section in turn is divided into smaller sections.  My system went as follows.  I read the introduction to the entire section in the book.  Then I read the first small section in Jeremiah, usually four or five verses.  After that, I read brother Mott's comments on those few verses, plus any other verses he may have referred to.  I kept going in that manner through the section, then at the end, read the larger section one more time through.  The questions I had were largely answered and my confusion about the time-frame straightened out.
            But I am not finished with this book.  Now I want to go through the whole process again, this time with a spiral notebook, making notes as I go so I will have a handy reference of my own in the future.  After that I might even want to teach the women a whole class on Jeremiah.  That's how good this handy guide is.
            Thinking Through Jeremiah is published by DeWard Publishing.

Dene Ward

George Matheson was a blind Presbyterian minister in Scotland, born in 1842.  Perhaps that accounts for the egregious errors in this book—he couldn't read the Bible due to his blindness and so his speculations took him far afield from the written facts.  Probably not, but I am trying to give him some sort of excuse for what he has written.
            In this book you will read that Eve was just wandering around the Garden like all the other creatures, with Adam having no idea who she was and why she was there until, as recorded in Genesis 2 (the author says), he fell asleep and had a dream in which God took his rib and made a woman.  When he woke up, he suddenly understood that Eve was his equal and his companion and began to treat her that way.
            You will read that Abraham was afraid to ask Sarah to go with him when God called because they would have to leave all their family and all their belongings and he didn't think she would do that.  Finally, he did ask, and the two of them left Ur, alone and penniless, and their journey to Canaan was their honeymoon!
            You will find out that Rebekah already had a proposal of marriage from a Hittite (which the author has living in Haran instead of Canaan) and she had to choose between a wealthy Hittite and a decidedly unambitious Isaac.  Then you will read how she loved Isaac like a mother when they first met—despite the fact (the scriptures tell us) that he was old enough to be her father!
            You will find out that Jacob was a hot-blooded young man when he first saw Rachel (though you can easily figure out that he was 77 at the time), and that Rachel was the blameless sister—despite stealing her father's idols, among other glaring faults.
            You will learn that Deborah sullied her white robes by praising Jael for her actions against Sisera—this in her inspired song, by the way.  And just what would he have had Jael do, completely alone in her encampment?  Meet the enemy army captain in a "fair fight?"
            You will also discover that Mary's job in raising Jesus was to keep him grounded in his humanity because otherwise, he might have starved to death. He couldn't be bothered to do such mundane things as eat and drink in his human body because of his important spiritual mission without her constant reminders.
            The best essay in this book is the one about Mary Magdalene, which the author includes as an appendix.  But it is only two and a half pages, so he didn't have time to speculate and embroider as he did in the others, which run roughly 20-25 pages each. 
            This author is best known for writing hymn lyrics, particularly those to "O Love that Will Not Let Me Go."  I have to tell you this.  After reading this book, I will go look at those lyrics carefully before I ever sing that hymn again.  There is no telling what odd notions I might have missed.
            This particular edition of Portraits of Bible Women was published by Kregel Publications.
 
Dene Ward

Did you read The DaVinci Code, or watch the movie starring Tom Hanks?  If so, you owe it to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to read this book!  The sub-title says it all:  Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy, and that is exactly what the author does in what we will call a playful, rather than sarcastic, tone.  He quotes Dan Brown's book at the top of his introduction:  "The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great."  In that vein, he sets out to introduce us to all the witnesses in this so-called conspiracy, even going so far as to call them conspirators and co-conspirators, and systematically tears down not only Dan Brown's statement, but several well-known modern scholars' conspiracy theories as well.  By the time you get to the last chapter you are absolutely sure that this conspiracy theory is just like most others—a bunch of hooie.
            Here is the best thing about this book:  Professor Hill, evidently at the behest of his wife, has set out to write an "accessible" book, that is, one that the layman can read without too much difficulty.  You do not have to be a scholar to understand it.  If you can follow all the characters in one of those thousand page fictional sagas so many read, or pick up the clues in a complex murder mystery, you can follow this list of characters, moving from one to another in a logical way, each chapter building upon the previous ones.  You do need a brain in your head, but it does not have to be a particularly astounding one.
            And when you can finally answer the question in the title of this book, it will build your faith in that much more important Book.
            Who Chose the Gospels? is published by Oxford University Press.
 
Dene Ward

The long subtitle says it all:  "How my minister father molested kids in our home and church for decades and how I finally stopped him."  Let that sink in for a minute.  Then chew on this for a while—churches of all stripes (and that includes "us" as many of my readers might define it) have become havens for pedophiles.  This book tells the story of a man who refused to have it so and fought back.
            Along the way you will read his heartbreaking story, discovering that a father he loved and admired was one of the wolves Jesus constantly warned about, devouring the innocent of the flock again and again.  Then you will find out about the courage it took for him to turn his father in and the toll that took on him.  Everyone pays a price when they are related to the Devil.  And finally you will read about the flack he takes from leaders in churches, who constantly want to welcome and shield the abusers while shunning the victims, all in the name of grace.
            This quote is typical:  "It's strange to me when church leaders' theology is 'grace for all' except for victims who were raped as children and have the guts to speak up about it.  Many survivors have told me that they, not their abusers, were removed from church because they were 'causing problems' by speaking up about their abuse and crying out for help." 
            Every preacher, elder, and deacon in the Lord's church, and perhaps every parent, need to read this book, no matter how unsettling it may seem.  Our children are worth it.
            Mr. Hinton regularly consults with churches who call on him.  He is ready at the drop of a hat to train a congregation in spotting pedophiles.  He has a blog called jimmyhinton.org with relevant posts.  Click on services to contact him.
            The Devil Inside is published by Freiling Publishing and is available on Amazon.
 
Dene Ward

This is one of half a dozen books I used as reference for the study of Psalms I wrote for our Ladies' Bible Class.  Every scholar seems to have his own labels for the different varieties of psalms, but they all pretty much agree on what they are and how they are organized.  It's the details that matter.  Professor Longman makes the Psalms accessible for the average Christian with both his terminology and his explanations.
            Although this small book (149 pages) may not be as complete (or complex) as something like Bullock's Encountering the Book of Psalms, or certainly not as much so as the two volume work on Psalms that Zorn has written, it will make your reading of the psalms mean more than it ever has before.  In Part 1, besides explaining the genres, the author also gives us a brief history of their development and use in Old Testament times, then carefully explains how we as Christians can sing or pray the same psalms they did.  Part 2 gives us an easily understood explanation of the characteristics of Hebrew poetry, an explanation that makes the psalms themselves easier to understand, adding to the benefits we gain from reading them.  Part 3 includes his analysis of three different kinds of psalms which not only make those particular psalms come alive, but also helps us in our own analysis as we continue to read through that beautiful book of the Bible.
            How to Read the Psalms is worth the short amount of time it will take you to read it.  I have read it twice now and gained even more the second time through.  It is published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois.
 
Dene Ward

Have you ever tried to study the book of Proverbs?  The most I have ever managed is to just read the thing through, and then instantly forget most of it.  Yes, I know the last discourse in Proverbs 31 fairly well, and Proverbs 7 too.  I use both of them in classes often.  But the rest of the book seems like a list of unconnected maxims.  When I cannot see a structure, I usually do not understand what I am reading, and when I don't understand, I don't remember.  I always thought it was me and my penchant for charts—I see them in my mind practically everywhere, but never in Proverbs.  Evidently others have the same problem with this book.  I certainly never thought about it as something theological.
            Enter Professor Longman and suddenly Proverbs makes much more sense to me.  Although he admits that it is difficult to see, he actually shows you some structure.  Then he explains the theology behind it and you suddenly feel a need to actually study this book.  In the process he also explains Hebrew poetry, the right and wrong ways to view a proverb, and how to apply something that was originally meant for a young man to your own life.  He will help you find both the Proverbs in various Biblical narratives, and then discover Christ in the Proverbs.  Finally, he leads you in "following the themes" in Proverbs, choosing three and laying them out before you.  This short (163 pages) guide will change how you view Proverbs forever.
Each chapter ends with questions for thought, which makes it a good book for both personal and class study. 
            How to Read Proverbs is published by InterVarsity Press Academic.
 
Dene Ward

Today's review is by guest writer Keith Ward.

While home during Christmas break in 1971, my first year at FC, I discovered a commentary on Revelation in a barbershop bookstore.  I ventured the $1.00 cost as I was to begin that class the next term. When I asked Homer Hailey whether it was worth reading, he responded, “Where did you get this? It has been out of print for years!” Then he added with a self-deprecating grin, “Until I write mine, it is the best commentary on Revelation out there.”  I have used both Pieters’ and Hailey’s for years and declare that Pieters is superior and especially for a beginning student of the Apocalypse.

From his preface:  “Verse by verse exposition is not attempted.” For that, I highly recommend HH as a supplement. “I have had constantly in view two kinds of readers. First and chiefly, intelligent Christian people without theological training.” This book is understandable to the average reader.  “To read the Revelation is such blind work that they rarely open it. I cannot expect to make all its mysteries plain to them—they are far from being all plain to me—but I think I may succeed in giving them some idea what kind of book it is, and how it is to be approached so that they will get some apprehension of its beauty and its teachings.”

Pieters’ greatest contribution is to cause one to see John’s method of writing and the pictures he communicated. He makes clear the broad meanings of the pictures John painted with words, John says,"I saw" 47 times. As noted, he makes no attempt to explain each word or verse. As a result, he is free to make clear the teaching and value to us of a picture painted by many verses. Most of us need that much more than an understanding of every phrase.

The only criticism to offer is that his illustrations come from pre-WWII America which may not be familiar to the modern reader. However, the point of his use of the illustrations is so clear that one should be able to substitute modern ones easily.

Most will find this book to be a fairly easy read. 

This book is now published by DeWard Publishing Company.
 
Keith Ward