Tag Archives: Wayne Grudem

Grasping God


I am currently reading Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology and last night I came across a section on God’s incommunicable attributes.  This refers to the fact that God possesses certain attributes that he has not shared or passed on to mankind.  For example, God is eternal and infinite in his being, having neither beginning nor end.  However, man is finite and has a definite beginning.  God is independent in that he does not depend on any source outside of himself to sustain his existence.  Since he created all things he does not require creation to ‘Be’.  Man cannot claim this attribute.  These traits are opposite of his communicable attributes, or those qualities of God that he has shared or passed on to mankind.  Examples of this would include God’s love, justice, and mercy.  Man has the capacity to express each and everyone of these divine attributes, though not to the degree and scope that God does. Continue reading →

Year End Book Review – Part 1


I love to read.  However, I am not a speedy reader.  Christian bloggers such as Tim Challies can knock down a hundred or so books a year – and manage to to review them all, but I’m lucky if I read a dozen.  Accordingly, I can lump all my reviews for the past year’s reading into a couple of manageable posts.  Let me first begin with all the books I have my hooks into but have not yet finished.

Books in Progress

  • Lectures to My Students by Charles Haddon Spurgeon – I put this one down last Christmas because of the influx of new books I received and was eager to tear into.  Spurgeon gives some timeless wisdom for all prospective preachers and pastors in this wonderful volume. Though I’m not likely to get into full-time ministry, I found his knowledge insightful and useful, even for a simple Christian layman.  I definitely will pick this one back up.
  • The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owen – Maybe the most difficult volume I’ve ever attempted to read.  I grew exhausted about halfway through, though I actually did learn much from his treatise on Christ’s Particular Redemption of the elect.  I have since read other works by Owen, carried along by a little helpful editing and modernization of the text that I found very readable.  Is there a version of Death of Death similar to Justin Taylor’s and Kelly M. Kapic’s wonderful Overcoming Sin and Temptation?
  • The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller – Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.  He boasts nearly six thousand attendees in the very heart of Vanity Fair. This book is an Apologetic treatise answering seven of the most difficult questions non-believers pose about God and the Christian faith.  It then delves into the reasons for faith in the one true God.  I’m only a quarter the way through but so far this is one outstanding read.

On to the Reviews: Continue reading →