by
Roger Steer

Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999, 368 pages.

The title of this book is somewhat misleading, as it is not a study of Stott, Packer, and McGrath. Rather, it is a historical survey of evangelicals within the Anglican Church on both sides of the Atlantic, i.e., in its birthplace, England, and in America, where it is known as the Episcopal Church. In the section on the 20th century, it does look very closely at these three individuals, who are perhaps the most well known Anglican evangelicals. In fact, when the book was first published in 1998 in England, it was titled Church on Fire: The Story of Anglican Evangelicals (Hodder and Stoughton). The author says in the Introduction that “this is the story of a brand of Christianity which, at its best, has burned with the fire both of holiness and evangelism” (page 9). Further, he feels the title (the original one) “captures the zeal, commitment, and burning spirituality which have characterized the best manifestations of Anglican evangelicalism from the days of Wycliffe and the Lollards to the era when the present Archbishop of Canterbury found Christ in an evangelical parish church” (page 9).

So, first: what is an evangelical? Alister McGrath, perhaps the most prolific author among the current generation of Anglican evangelicals, lists the following four key elements: “1) A focus, both devotional and theological, on the person of Jesus Christ, especially his death on the cross; 2) The identification of Scripture as the ultimate authority in matters of spirituality, doctrine, and ethics; 3) An emphasis upon conversion or ‘a new birth’ as a life-changing religious experience; and 4) A concern for sharing faith, especially through evangelism.” (page 11).

And next, what is Anglicanism? It is a “system of doctrine and practice of those Christians who are in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury” (page 11), which today comprise nearly 70 million members of the Anglican Communion in 36 self-governing Member Churches or Provinces in more than 166 countries (page 11). The Archbishop of Canterbury is not like the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church, but he is regarded as “a unique focus of Anglican unity”. The Anglican tradition is a significant Reformed tradition within world-wide Christianity, which has a “loose federation of churches” thereby avoiding the extremes of hierarchism on the one hand and Nonconformism on the other (page 11).

The story of this “chain of men and women…who have taken Biblical Christianity intensely seriously” (page 13) begins in 1330 with Part One: “Church on Fire with Reforming Zeal (England, 1330-1700)”. This covers the era from the birth of John Wycliffe until the time of the glorious revolution under William and Mary at the end of the 17th century. Wycliffe was born nearly 200 years before Luther posted his 95 theses on the door at Wittenberg. Wycliffe asserted that everyone had the right to read the Bible for themselves, argued against transubstantiation, taught that the Bible was the sole criterion of doctrine, organized a body of traveling preachers (who became known as the Lollards), and began a translation of the Bible. Although the authorities tried to suppress his writings, his influence continued until the Reformation in the 16th century, when many of the Reformers quoted his writings. Next we meet William Tyndale, who had to leave England and go to Europe to fulfill his dream of translating the Bible. In Antwerp, he was eventually kidnapped by his enemies and burned at the stake. Later we meet two other martyrs, who were also burned at the stake as heretics: Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley. At the stake, Latimer made his famous statement to his fellow bishop: “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out” (page 34). This section of the narrative also takes us “into the courts of kings and queens as the story of the establishment of the reformed Church of England gets entangled with Henry VIII’s divorce and remarriage” (page 13). Here we meet Thomas Cranmer, who as Archbishop became King Henry’s chief instrument for overthrowing the Pope’s rule in England. In composing his Prayer Book, which later became the Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer provided the Anglican Church with a liturgy which was thoroughly Biblical, and which provided a “text and ethos for worship which would remain almost unchanged for 400 years” (page 40). However, Cranmer’s days were numbered from the moment that the strongly Catholic Queen Mary took the throne. Charged with heresy, and under great stress and depression, Cranmer recanted his protestant beliefs. However, at the moment of his execution, he repented of his earlier recantations, and shouted, “Forasmuch as my hand offended…writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall be punished therefor” (page 39), and he stretched out his hand into the fire for all to see. Then followed the reign of Protestant Queen Elizabeth, who oversaw the writing of one of the historic formularies of the Church of England: the 39 Articles. Elizabeth was succeeded by James VI of Scotland who ruled as James I of England. James had been brought up in the Calvinist Presbyterian Church of Scotland and it was he who ordered the translation work that eventually became the King James Version of the Bible. In 1642 came civil war and Oliver Cromwell, and the eventual disestablishment of the Church of England and arrest and execution of King Charles I. However, in the midst of that turmoil, the Westminster Assembly began meeting in 1643, producing “the definitive statement of Presbyterian doctrine in the English-speaking world…(which) embodied Puritan theology in its classical form” (page 68). Also during this period we find Richard Baxter, the great Puritan and minister at Kidderminster, and author of the classic book, The Reformed Pastor. In the latter portion of this era, the Church of England regained its position as the established church under Charles II. His successor, James II, was Catholic and very unpopular, leading to the Revolution of 1688, known as “The Glorious Revolution’. This resulted in the crown being offered to William (the Dutch Protestant Prince William of Orange, who had been invited to come and deliver England from its Catholic king), and his wife Mary (who was the daughter of the English King James II). Further, the Toleration Act of 1689 gave Nonconformist churches the freedom of worship and marked the end of the Church of England’s claim to be the national, all-inclusive church of the English People.

In Part Two we find the “Church on Fire in Revival: England, 1700-1800.” The author begins with England in the early 18th century characterized by widespread drunkenness, immorality, cruelty, and crime. The church was weakened by the loss of Puritan enthusiasm, and characterized by dilapidated parish buildings, money-seeking clergy, and sermons which were either too learned or too dull for the congregations. But a small flame was being kindled at Oxford University, which would in time become a mighty fire in both England and America. It began with a group called the Holy Club, founded by Charles Wesley for the purpose of taking their religion seriously. The group eventually included Charles’ brother John, and George Whitefield. From this small group eventually sprang a mighty revival that shook both England and America. Despite being credited with founding the Methodist denomination, John Wesley never left the Church of England, and saw his role as seeking to purify and strengthen it, not to form a new denomination. Other leaders of revival within the Church of England whom we meet in this section are John Fletcher of Madeley (called the Saint of Evangelicalism), John Newton (the former slave trader), Thomas Scott (writer of a commentary on the whole Bible), and Charles Simeon. John Stott has said that Simeon has always been one of his heroes, one reason being his emphasis on the truth not being “at one extreme or the opposite extreme, or in a confused admixture…(but rather) at both extremes even if you cannot reconcile these extremes” (page 133). Stott has found that thought helpful in the controversy between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Another very colorful character we meet is William Grimshaw, who helped to establish Anglican evangelicalism in the northern part of England. Grimshaw’s preaching was aimed at “debasing man and exalting my dear Lord” (page 112). Many of the leaders of the 18th century English revival preached from Grimshaw’s pulpit: Whitefield, the two Wesleys, Henry Venn, and William Romaine. Grimshaw, in giving a statement of his theology, said he was “a Calvinist on his knees and an Arminian on his feet, and he tried to strike a balance between the two” (page 116).

In Part Three we find the “Church on Fire in the New World: North America, 1730-1900),” beginning with the young British colony of Virginia. In this chapter, we see the influence of George Whitefield and the American revival known as “The Great Awakening” upon the Church of England. We see the golden years of Anglican evangelicalism in mid-19th century America under Joseph Pilmore, Alexander Griswold and others. However, in the latter part of the century, the Anglican church came under a cloud, and the chapter ends with the former evangelicals in the Episcopal Church having become liberals, as liberalism, Biblical criticism and Darwinism gained ascendancy in the denomination’s educational institutions.

Part Four finds the “Church on Fire in 19th Century England”, as Anglican evangelicalism became a power in England. Here we meet the Clapham Sect and watch as William Wilberforce works patiently to end the slave trade in the British Empire. Organizational movement was afoot as the Church Missionary Society, the Bible Society, and the Keswick Convention were founded. John Henry Newman left his position as vicar of an Anglican parish, and became a Roman Catholic. He moved toward the Oxford movement, which charged evangelicals with being obsessed with justification by faith, and downplaying such passages as the Sermon on the Mount with its high standard of Christian righteousness and its obvious absence of reference to the atonement. Among evangelicals, one man stood “head and shoulders above his contemporaries” (page 196). That man was J.C. Ryle, the bishop of Liverpool. Spurgeon called him “the best man in the Church of England” (page 197). He stated the evangelical position with clarity on many issues. He once said: “I have no love for men who have no distinct opinions, theological jellyfish without bones, brains, teeth or claws” (page 197). Ryle (and in a later century, Packer) criticized the Keswick teaching on holiness, a passive approach summed up as “let go and let God”.

Next is Part Five: “Church on Fire in 20th Century England”. Here we see the evangelical reaction to theological liberalism, and we meet and spend some time with the two most influential Anglicans of this century: John Stott and James I. Packer. For many years, Stott was rector of All Souls, Langham Place, London. He is a prolific writer, and sees the cross at the center of Christian faith and life. He said that “more of his heart and mind went into the writing of The Cross of Christ than any other book”. Jim Packer, who was greatly influenced by Puritan thought, is also a prolific writer. By 1997, his books had sold over 3 million copies worldwide, and have “inspired young scholars with the intellectual coherence of Christianity itself” (page 216). Other significant events covered in this chapter include non-Anglican Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ unsuccessful call for evangelicals within the Anglican Church to leave the church due to liberal dominance, a move which put him at odds with both Packer and Stott. Then there was the growth of the charismatic movement, and Oxford Professor James Barr’s launching of a major attack on conservative evangelicalism in his book, Fundamentalism. Barr charged evangelicals with picking out from the mass of Biblical material certain themes, passages, contexts, and emphases, and representing those as the core doctrines of the Christian faith. He said that the Bible taken alone and as a whole does not lead to the evangelical position. Among the doctrines he took issue with are inspiration of Scripture and justification by faith. Surprisingly, Barr did not consider his position to be a liberal one. The chapter ends with George Carey (who some have considered an evangelical though he does not claim that label for himself) at the helm as Archbishop of Canterbury, and the church dealing with the controversy of the ordination of women.

Then we come to Part Six: “Church on Fire in 20th Century America”. By the beginning of the 20th century, “evangelical Episcopalianism… had virtually died out…(as) after 1900 the American Church went liberal in two directions: liberal Catholic and liberal evangelical…(and) no classical evangelical party existed from 1900 until the 1960s” (page 269). However, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a resurgence of evangelical enthusiasm, much of which came from a growing charismatic wing. In addition, this period saw the founding of an evangelical seminary, Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, which was the outworking of one man’s faith in the power of prayer; that man was Alf Steinway, a man who “never missed his daily quiet time in 40 years” (page 275). Trinity was ultimately located in Ambridge, PA, and Stephen Noll and Peter Davids are two evangelicals assocated with Trinity whose names have become prominent in evangelical and academic circles. Another interesting event was the founding of the White Horse Tavern, an internet mailing list for the purpose of “vigorous discussion carried on within the reasonable bounds of courtesy and decorum” (page 285). One surprising event during this era has been a move of evangelicals from other traditions into the Episcopal Church in search of a worship experience and a strong church tradition. One of the first was Robert Webber, son of a Baptist minister, graduate of fundamentalist Bob Jones University, professor at Wheaton College, and ordained minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Webber joined the Episcopal Church, and documented his experience and that of six other evangelicals, along with his theological reasons, in the book Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail.

Finally, in Part Seven, we find the “Church on Fire Over Sexuality”, and the book examines the evangelical approach to homosexual partnerships and the ordination of practicing homosexuals, burning issues not only in the Episcopal and Anglican churches, but other mainline denominations as well. John Stott’s position affirming the Church’s traditional teaching on marriage and opposition to homosexual activity has been widely accepted among Anglican evangelicals. His argument and its Biblical basis are set forth at some length. We also meet Bishop Spong, the controversial bishop of Newark, NJ, who has ordained a number of homosexual clergy, and has argued publicly for the permissibility of sexual activity outside of marriage for both homosexuals and heterosexuals. In his book Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Spong denied that Jesus was born of a virgin and disputed the Church’s traditional understanding of the resurrection of Jesus. McGrath is quoted as saying that Spong’s “somewhat modest theological competence…(is) vastly exceeded by his ability to obtain media attention” (page 309). This chapter concludes with the 1998 Lambeth Conference of the worldwide Anglican fellowship, which voted by a large majority for “a resolution that surprised the world by its adherence to traditional teaching about homosexual behavior” (page 321). The positive vote was due in large part to the strong reaffirmation of the Biblical position by the bishops from Africa and the southern hemisphere.

In Part Eight, “Gospel People for the 21st Century?,” Steer brings the book to a conclusion with a reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of Anglican evangelicalism, and “the pros and cons of loyalty to the doctrines and ethos of a single strand within Christianity” (page 14). He also focuses on the role evangelicals might play in the Anglican Church of England and the American Episcopal Church in the new millennium.

by
Misty Bernall

Nashville: Word Publishing, 1999, 142 pages.

This is the story of the 17-year old high school student who was killed when she answered “yes” when asked if she believed in God. This of course occurred during the April 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The person asking the question was one of the two troubled classmates who entered Columbine with the intent and purpose of killing as many of their fellow students and teachers as they could. Before ending their own lives, they killed Cassie plus 12 others.

The book was written by Cassie’s mother, and I read it on September 18, 1999, only a few days after a similar incident occurred at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, TX. In that latter incident, a troubled man entered that church and began shooting randomly, ultimately killing seven before turning the gun on himself. Reading about Columbine in the shadow of the recent incident made it even more chilling.

But the heart of the book is not the story of Cassie’s death, but rather her deliverance from an even more fearsome fate: unbelief and rebellion against God. It was this earlier deliverance that transformed (and perhaps led to) her martyr-like death. For before she died, Cassie had entered that relationship with God which deprives death of its sting.

The events that led to her transformation began about two and a half years earlier when Cassie was in the ninth grade, with her teenage rebellion growing more serious. One day her mother found in Cassie’s room some letters written by Mona, Cassie’s best friend. What she found horrified her. The letters contained unprintable sex talk, along with Mona’s expressed desire to murder one of her teachers, inviting Cassie to help her. There were other allusions to occult symbols and spells, drugs, self-mutilation, and the adventures of a classmate who went to a satanic church. One of the letters advised Cassie to kill her parents, and had grisly drawings portraying them being “strung up” and stabbed. Misty later learned from Mona’s mother that Cassie had written similar letters to Mona.

Having found the letters, Misty and her husband Brad were shocked into the realization that there was a whole side of Cassie’s life that they knew nothing about, although there had been signs. In fact, she said that Cassie “had been sliding away from us ever since the fifth or sixth grade, when she first began latching onto Mona and ignoring her other friends” (page 41). Earlier attempts to restrict contact between Cassie and Mona had met with opposition from Cassie and had been dropped.

This time though, Misty and Brad took action, contacting not only Mona’s mother, but also the sheriff’s department and their pastor. The letters were filed with the sheriff’s office.

They then confronted their daughter with their discovery of the letters. Her response was extreme anger, as to her mind her parents had overreacted, violated her privacy, and showed they had no love for her. She then said she would relieve them of the burden by running away and killing herself.

Pursuing their course, Misty and Brad met with Mona’s parents at the sheriff’s office. The detective supported their desire to obtain a restraining order to bar Mona from further contact with Cassie. Unfortunately, the response of Mona’s parents to the revelation was hostility toward Misty and Brad. In fact, it was later learned that they were ready to take Cassie into their home if she decided to run away.

The next months were rocky. Her parents immediately removed Cassie from the public school she was attending and put her in a private Christian school. They also imposed constraints on her activities, and even decided to move (ending up in a smaller home) in hopes of keeping Cassie away from her former friends. Misty later found vindication for their actions from Jamie, a friend Cassie met at the private school:

According to Jamie…Cassie herself said that her violent fantasies were more than talk. She felt gripped by a very real power of darkness, and it had taken her months to break free. Part of it was that she had apparently given her soul to Satan (page 63).

Although Jamie said she didn’t know if the transaction was real or symbolic, she said it didn’t matter, because in Cassie’s mind she had really put herself into that bondage. In fact, in an autobiographical essay Cassie later wrote, she said that during that period of her life “she hated her parents and God with the deepest, darkest hatred” (page 63).

When Cassie first met Jamie at the Christian school, her parents were somewhat uncomfortable at Jamie’s appearance: “Jamie had a short, bleached-blonde haircut, and big chains and metal beads around her neck, and was wearing the sort of grungy attire that alternative types buy from places like Goodwill”. Jamie was, according to Misty, “not my idea of a nice Christian girl” (page 72), and seemed to represent the “alternative” lifestyle that they were trying to get Cassie away from. However, in this case, appearances were deceiving, as it was Jamie’s invitation to Cassie to attend a youth retreat sponsored by her church that provided the circumstances that God used to cause a complete turnabout in Cassie’s life.

The themes of the retreat were overcoming the temptations of evil and breaking out of the selfish life. During a nighttime praise-and-worship service, Jamie recalls that “it was the singing that for some reason just broke down Cassie’s walls…it really seemed to change her” (page 81). Cassie was crying and asking God for forgiveness. After the service, Cassie, Jamie and several others went up the road, and stood out under the stars, “totally in awe of God…the bigness of God was so real” (page 82). Jamie later said that “Cassie’s whole face had changed…there was something new about her” (page 82).

When her parents picked her up after the retreat, Cassie came to her mother, hugged her, and said: “Mom, I’ve changed. I’ve totally changed. I know you aren’t going to believe it, but I’ll prove it” (page 82-83).

Her mother was at first skeptical, but later recalled:

From then on, Cassie became a totally different person. She never talked much about that weekend, and we never pressed her…Cassie still wore her heavy bead necklaces and her old clothes, but somehow those things didn’t matter much anymore. The important thing was the change in her spirit—her gentleness, her humility, and her happiness. She seemed to have found a freedom she had never had before. (page 85).

Cassie even regarded the date, March 6, 1997, as a sort of second birthday—the day she was ‘re-born’ (page 89).

It’s not that she was all-of-a sudden perfect. But she was all-of-a-sudden changed. There were the normal struggles, but her parents were spared further drama, and the last two years were uneventful. At the end of the summer of 1997, her parents had allowed Cassie to transfer from the private school to Columbine High. As she told her mother, she could witness and reach out to more kids in a public school than in her Christian school.

She also was active in the youth group at her family’s church, and was profoundly moved by some of the books on discipleship that they studied. She was well aware of her own imperfections, and a saint would likely have been the last thing she would have called herself. But the person who faced her killer on that fateful date in April of 1999 was a radically different person than she had been only slightly more than two years before. In fact, in a note written to a friend the night before she was killed, and handed to her friend the next morning at school, Cassie said: “Honestly, I want to live completely for God. It’s hard and scary, but totally worth it (quoted from preface).

As her mother said:

To lift up Cassie as a martyr…is unnecessary. It won’t change the facts of her life. For Brad and me it is enough that, whatever the reason, Cassie stood up for what she believed…The real issue raised by Cassie’s death is not what she said to her killers, but what it was that enabled her to face them as she did….She didn’t have a death wish, I’m sure, and it would be obscene to suggest otherwise. Yet when tragedy struck her out of the blue, she remained calm and courageous. She was ready to go (pages 118-119).

This is a timely book with a timeless message of what God’s grace can do in the most hopeless of situations. No one is so far lost as to be out of the reach of the Great Shepherd’s searching arms.

Reviewed by:
Ron Maness

by
Erwin Lutzer

Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1999, 188 pages.

This is a very fine book on the centrality of the cross. The author begins by acknowledging that “it is tempting to wrap the cross of Christ in the flag, to equate the American dream with God’s dream for this nation”. He further says “we have attached a myriad of agendas to the cross of Christ, often clouding the one message that the world needs to hear with clarity and power” (pages 8-9).

Thus he feels that if you asked an average American what Christians believe, you will get a number of answers, but “few will say that the central doctrine of Christianity is that Christ came into the world to save sinners.” He asks if we have forgotten that “God’s power is more clearly seen in the message of the cross than in any political or social plan that we might devise” (pages 8-9).

Lutzer says his book is based on two fundamental premises:

1. That the problems of America are too far gone to be remedied by a change of administrations in Washington, and

2. That our so-called cultural war is really a spiritual war…(so that) as always, our greatest challenge is theological, not political or cultural (page 10-11).

Individual Christians should certainly be involved in our culture, working with other groups to attack the rampant evils in society, but we are not to “replace the primary mission of the church with these kinds of political or moral pursuits”, for gains brought about through legislation “will always be minimal” (page 140).

Some of the chapter titles include The Cross and Culture Clash, The Cross and the Flag, What God Thinks of the Cross, What Man Thinks of the Cross, The Cross-The Basis of Moral Sanity, and The Triumph of the Crucified. He closes the book with a quote from Peter Marshall:

It is better to fail in that which will ultimately succeed than to succeed in that which will ultimately fail (page 188).

In other words, it is better to fail while fighting for the city of God than “to succeed in promoting the city of man…we do not have to triumph in this life in order to triumph in the next”. Rather, we need to simply “be faithful in doing what God has asked us to do” (page 188).

Reviewed by:
Ron Maness

by
Iain Duguid

Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1999, 167 pages.

This book is the first in a new series called “The Gospel According to the Old Testament.” In a quote contained on the book cover, D.A. Carson says that “one of the most urgent needs of the church is to grasp how the many parts of the Bible fit together to make one story-line that culminates in Jesus Christ…(and) this series of books goes a long way to meeting that need.” Sinclair Ferguson was quoted as saying “at last a series on the Old Testament designed to provide reliable exposition, biblical theology, and a focus on Christ.”

In the Foreword (pages x-xi), series editors Tremper Longman III and J. Alan Groves state the aims of the series as follows:

The Gospel According to the Old Testament Series is committed to the proposition that the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is a unified revelation of God, and that its thematic unity is found in Christ. The individual books of the Old Testament exhibit diverse genres, styles, and individual theologies, but tying them all together is the constant foreshadowing of, and pointing forward to, Christ. Believing in the fundamentally Christocentric nature of the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, we offer this series of studies in the Old Testament with the following aims:

• To lay out the pervasiveness of the revelation of Christ in the Old Testament
• To promote a Christ-centered reading of the Old Testament
• To encourage Christ-centered preaching and teaching from the Old Testament

They also state that they have decided in most cases to focus on Old Testament characters, rather than on books or themes.

In his Introduction, the author takes us back to Jesus’ post-resurrection Emmaus road sermon, given to disciples who were distraught and perplexed over Jesus’ death on the cross, and who did not yet recognize their fellow traveler on the road. To them, Jesus said:

O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27 KJV).

So Jesus said that the theme of suffering followed by glory is woven throughout the scriptures, beginning with the Pentateuch and extending through the prophets. Further he indicated that if they understood the Old Testament rightly, they would not have been so shocked at his crucifixion.

Surely in his sermon, especially that portion from the Pentateuch, Jesus talked about Abraham, who we know is referred to throughout the Bible as the exemplar of faith. In particular, his faith was demonstrated by the way he lived in the reality gap, i.e., the gap between promise and reality. But in this book, Duguid says he wants not only to show Abraham as the man of faith, but also how he acted as “a forerunner and a shadow, pointing forward to Christ …(as this) is, after all the central thrust of the Emmaus road sermon” (page 4). Jesus was interested in the writings of Moses and the prophets primarily because “they spoke of him” (page 4).

Specifically, they spoke of his sufferings and the glory that would follow. The whole Old Testament is thereby declared to be a thoroughly Christocentric book. This is true, not simply because there are superficial parallels between certain Old Testament events and events in the life of Jesus, but more profoundly because the whole Old Testament was designed by God to provide a context within which to understand the sufferings and glorification of Christ (pages 4-5).

So, the book’s first chapter begins with Terah, Abram’s father, setting out from Ur of the Chaldees for Canaan. Terah took his family with him, including Abram and his wife Sarai, who were childless (Gen 11). This was part of God’s plan that from the beginning was to “preserve for himself a godly line, through whom the promise of a redemptive offspring of Eve (Gen 3:15) would ultimately be granted” (page 10). Terah was a descendent of the line of Shem (the son of Noah). In the genealogies of Gen 5 and 11, it is the tenth name that is of key significance. Noah, through whom Adam’s line was preserved at the flood, was the tenth patriarch in the line from Adam, while Abram was the tenth patriarch in the line of Shem. So this is a key that God was planning another deliverance through Abram.

In the next chapter of the book, Abram receives the first installment of the promise, as God promises to make him into a nation, to make his name great, and to bless all peoples through him (Gen 12:2-3). But Duguid notes that this is not just about Abram, but points toward Christ, as stated by Paul in Galatians 3:16:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ (KJV).

So Paul tells us that the promises made to Abram already have Christ in view. Abram “functions as a miniature picture, a representation of Christ ahead of time” (page 25). Abram left his home to go a faraway, backward land; Jesus left heaven to come to an insignificant town on earth. Abram and Jesus both did so on the strength of God’s promise. Abram received a great name, but Christ received the name that is above every name (Philip 2:9-10). God would curse those who curse Abram, and those who cursed Christ would themselves be cursed. When God said he would give the land to Abram’s offspring, it was Christ who was ultimately to be the heir.

Further, Jesus found that “following the way of promise took him through the reality gap” (page 26), the gap between promise and fulfillment. The exalted Son of God, who was to inherit all things, lived a life in humble circumstances, without a place to lay his head, was reviled by those he came to save, was judged by the Jewish court, and condemned to die an ignominious death on the cross. Yet in the resurrection, “the reality gap was bridged once and for all…(as) there the firstfruits of the glories that would follow Christ’s sufferings were revealed” (page 27).

In Gen 13, Abram demonstrated faith by allowing Lot to have first choice of the land to settle. Materialistic Lot chose the land “near Sodom,” which was “like the land of Egypt” (verse 10). That turned out to be a very bad choice. But Abram’s faith was rewarded by a renewed promise as God told him to look in all directions: “For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever” (Gen 13:15), and further his offspring would be as numerous as the dust of the earth.

Yet he never did receive the full ownership of that property here on earth. Like Moses after him, Abram looked to an inheritance ultimately beyond this world…Abram’s hope had to be in something more substantial than a nice piece of property…It was an eternal hope. He was looking for a city with foundations, which God himself would build (see Heb 11:10) (page 37).

Jesus also made a choice, when the Devil tempted him with an offer of all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would just bow down and worship him. As Duguid says: “Satan was offering Jesus the promised land without the cross” (page 38). But unlike Lot, who chose to “take the money” (page 38), Jesus chose the path of faith, obedience, and suffering before glory.

In Gen 14, Abram functioned as a king (see “In the Days of Good King Abram,” page 41) as he gathered an army and pursued the allied armies of the king of Shinar (Babylonia) and three other Mesopotamian kings, who had kidnapped Abram’s nephew Lot. In rescuing an undeserving Lot, Abram reminds us of Christ. As Duguid says: “In all of this, do we not see a picture of Jesus Christ? He did not sit idly by in heaven, waiting for us to deserve to be redeemed” (page 45). Further, Duguid says of Abram, who was at this time a wandering nomad:

In this chapter, however, the veil is lifted for a moment, and we see Abram in his true colors, acting as the king of the land that is his by right, and that will be inherited by his offspring. This is Abram’s mount of transfiguration, when his glory is clearly—if briefly—revealed to those closest to him (pages 41-42).

After the victory, we see some very heavy Christology, as Melchizedek, king of Salem, came as a priest to bless Abram. In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews picks up on this idea, and spends considerable space showing how Melchizedek prefigured Christ, especially in his priesthood. Hebrews gives us three points of comparison between Melchizedek and Jesus (see pages 49-51), and in Hebrews 6:20 Jesus is declared to be a “high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

As we saw Abram as a king in Gen 14, we see him as a prophet in Gen 15 as he received a direct message from God. Though still childless, Abram “received a renewed promise of a son and of descendants like the stars” (page 55). Asking for a sign, he received the covenant commitment of God (verses 18-21), sealed by a strange ceremony (verses 9-17).

If we saw Abram the king in the previous chapter and Abram the prophet earlier in this chapter, here we see Abram the priest getting all the necessary items ready for the covenant ceremony (page 58).

So in these chapters of Genesis, Duguid sees a picture of Christ in his three offices of prophet, priest and king.

Moving along, we see Abram’s faith stumble in Gen 16. Tiring of waiting for God to fulfill his promise, Abram heeds his wife’s suggestion that in order to obtain an heir, he impregnate her Egyptian servant, Hagar. He follows this advice, and as a result Ishmael is born. But this child is the son of the flesh, not the promise, and he will not be the one through whom God’s promise is fulfilled (see Gal 4:22-31).

Despite Abram’s failure, God in Gen 17 renewed his covenant with Abram and gave circumcision (the cutting off of the flesh) as a covenant sign. In reaffirming the covenant, God also changed Abram’s name to Abraham.

As God in human flesh, Jesus fulfilled the picture of Gen 15; as the seed of Abraham, he fulfilled the picture of Gen 17. He was cut off for our sin, which enables our relationship with God, threatened by our sin, to stand (page 81).

So onward Duguid journeys chapter by chapter through Gen 25, demonstrating how the gospel and Jesus Christ are revealed in the book of Genesis. The high point, especially from the standpoint of Christology, is Gen 22. Isaac, the long-promised son had been born to Abraham and Sarah. But now God put Abraham’s faith to the ultimate test, commanding him to take Isaac to the mountain and sacrifice him. Then, just as he was preparing to plunge the knife into the chest of his beloved son, the Angel of the Lord told him to stop, that his faith had been shown to be real. And God provided a ram to take the place of Isaac.

So here is revealed the principle of substitutionary atonement. And by that principle, Jesus was offered in our place, to take upon himself our deserved punishment, and to die the death that should have been ours.

He could look up to heaven and see the knife in the Father’s hand poised above him, knowing that for him there would be no last minute reprieve. For him there would be no substitute, for he was himself the Lamb of God (page 138).

This book is a rich study, and is recommended as a means of gaining a deeper appreciation of the book of Genesis, and of learning to see how Christ and the gospel are revealed in it.

I might also note that a second volume in this series is also available: Faith in the Face of Apostasy: The Gospel According to Elijah and Elisha, by Raymond Dillard.

Reviewed by:
Ron Maness