Book Recommendation

I desire to purchase a book that presents a balanced approach between the sovereignty of God and man's free will. I realize this is a controversial issue.

I believe there are believers on both sides of the road; this is not an attempt to divide the flock. We as believers have been purchased for a price. Let's look to the One who is worthy of all praise and honor and not devour one another.

Thanks for your suggestions. In Christ! Smile

As an after though: I also want to publicly thank Logos for their software which I think is the best in the market. It's too easy for some of us to take our frustrations out in a public forum. I was on my kindle fire last night encouraged how far Logos has come and anticipate highlighting and note taking soon

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Comments

Josh

God chose us and we choose God.

I don't agree with either side. I agree with the Bible. [;)]

Josh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340471#Comment_340471

This book is in pre-pub but has what you want. In fact, it goes over a number of controversial issues.

http://www.logos.com/product/6070/across-the-spectrum-2nd-edition-understanding-issues-in-evangelical-theology

William Gabriel

Well, it's not in Logos, but J.I. Packer gives excellent treatment to this in his small book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.

Makes me wish there were a complete works collection available for Packer, but I'm glad some of his works are available.

Into Grace

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340475#Comment_340475

Thanks Joshua. I enjoy reading your posts. The book you recommend, “Across the Spectrum" covers a lot of additional contemporary issues facing the church today. It looks like a good read.

Any others?

Robert Harner

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340487#Comment_340487

http://www.logos.com/product/17211/zondervan-counterpoints-collection-upgrade

the above includes the book "Four Views on Divine Providence" which is not bad. There was a book titled "Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views" released in 2001 with 2 of the same authors that I liked better because I thought William Lane Craig's essay was better than the one in the book on prepub.

An excellent book, alas not in Logos yet, is W L Craig's "The Only Wise God." Dr Craig presents the Middle Knowledge view.

Robert Harner

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340496#Comment_340496

BTW, except for the "Four Views" type of books I don't think any one book will have a "balanced approach."

Danny Parker

I found DA Carson's work Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Biblical Perspective in Tension an outstanding book dealing with these issues. It was his disertation. Would be a good addition to Logos collections - hint hint.

See below a review someone posted on Amazon.com

In this book (based on his dissertation) Carson surveys the literature from the time of Moses through the apostles and into the Christian era, examining attitudes toward these two topics frequently posited against each other in Christian thought: divine sovereignty, through which God ordains what will come to pass, and humans' responsibility for what they choose to do. This survey helpfully includes old and new testament biblical sources, but also deuterocanonical and other apocryphal sources, contrasting the development of rabbinic and christian thought over that period. (Carson writes with a protestant christian pressuposition). He closes his book with an honest assessment of the tension between these two axiomatic points of doctrine.

The book is divided into 5 sections:
- Introduction - chapter 1
- Tracing the issue in the hebrew canon - ch. 2 - 3
- Tracing the issue in 'intertestamental' works (including deuterocanonical and other works from that period proper, and rabbinic literature into the christian era) - ch. 4 - 10
- Analysis of the issue in the writings of John - ch. 11 - 12
- Theological reflections given all of the above - ch. 13

Each section is undoubtedly immanently accessible to people familiar with the subject domain. I found the second section very eye-opening, as other works I have read have exclusively focussed on biblical (non-deuterocanonical) sources: it was "tough slogging" to follow the academically oriented text, but rewarding to do so. The review of the new testament works of John, in contrast, is more accessible to any Christian who has thought about this subject, and it also is rewarding for its well-reasoned interpretation. I would heartily recommend chapters 12 and 13 as being well worth the value of the book to anyone not willing to endure the more challenging first 11 chapters.

Intellectual honesty characterizes the work. Carson's conclusions are well argued, dispatching various simplistic "answers" to the tension between the two doctrines (from "hyper-pelagian" to "hyper-calvinist" and many in between) by demonstrating how they reshape rather than resolve the apparent conflict; typically, they address the issue at one point but fail to follow through the logical implications. Carson himself does not end with a tidy, simple resolution to the tension; rather, he:
* clarifies what the bible clearly teaches about these two doctrines (remember my comment above about Christian Protestant perspective), and
* clarifies what presuppositions this apparent conflict challenges.
The reader is left with a renewed appreciation for how one should be humble about the conceptual frameworks we on all have on which we try to structure our understanding of such teachings.

Carson focusses on God's sovereignty from a "purpose", contrasted with a "directly causal", perspective. The only point in the book I find weakly supported is that he defends an asymetry in divine sovereignty between election and reprobation, and generaly causality of good vs. evil. He includes minimal argument; here's hoping he will might explain that position (Dr. Carson, if you reading this, how about an article in 'Modern Reformation' magazine?)

To challenge Carson's work, anyone that wants to take him on must demonstrate how an alternate understanding is more compatible with the biblical texts, rather than demonstrate how it is more compatible with one's presuppositions or how it leaves one with a more "comfortable" answer.

Note, for an easier read that includes an over-view of the conclusions reached here without many of the supporting arguments, consider reading Carson's also excellent book "A Call To Spiritual Reformation" - chapter 9 in particular.

Mike Childs

The problem is that a "balanced approach" is always the approach that agrees with oneself. My approach is balanced. Yours is biased.

I like to read a variety of views. Just watch out for the guy who thinks he is balanced.

Josh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340506#Comment_340506

Either all the positions on this topic are wrong. Or only one of them is right. I'm fine with taking a position on this topic that is paradoxical to human logic because I trust God's Word more than my logic. In fact, we all do this when it comes to the Trinity. Human logic fails to explain such a concept, but we all believe it is true because God's Word says it is.

EDUARDO JIMENEZ

I desire to purchase a book that presents a balanced approach between the sovereignty of God and man's free will.

"When bad things happen to good people", an approach based on the just suffering.

Into Grace

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340519#Comment_340519

Thanks for your opinions. May GOD bless you. [:)]

Brother Mark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340496#Comment_340496

http://www.logos.com/product/17211/zondervan-counterpoints-collection-upgrade

the above includes the book "Four Views on Divine Providence" which is not bad. There was a book titled "Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views" released in 2001 with 2 of the same authors that I liked better because I thought William Lane Craig's essay was better than the one in the book on prepub.

An excellent book, alas not in Logos yet, is W L Craig's "The Only Wise God." Dr Craig presents the Middle Knowledge view.

Take a look HERE for William Lane Craig's perspective. I found the explanation to be somewhat convoluted, but the summary really draws all of his disparate strings together:

God thus providentially arranges for everything that happens by either willing or permitting it, and He causes everything that does happen, yet in such a way as to preserve freedom and contingency.

Robert Harner

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340642#Comment_340642

Take a look HERE for William Lane Craig's perspective. I found the explanation to be somewhat convoluted, but the summary really draws all of his disparate strings together:

That article is also found in Logos resources here: http://www.logos.com/product/7276/apologetics-study-bible on page 1850 ( in1 Peter)

It is difficult to do the subject justice in a few paragraphs.

Into Grace

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340793#Comment_340793

I’ll look into the Molinist approach when I have time. Thanks again. In Christ!