October 2009

Sexual Detox I: Pornifying the Marriage Bed

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/26/09
  • 65

Note (11/08/09) - This complete series is now available for free download. Click here to learn more.

This week I am going to devote most of the articles on this site to the topic of sex. I want to speak especially to young men, those who are teenagers or dating or engaged or newly married. However, I do hope that anyone can read and enjoy the series, even if the teen years are far behind you. I want to talk to young men as an older man. I would like to think that I’m in a sweet spot between young and old—where I am young enough to remember the troubles and travails of youth but old enough to bring a measure of maturity. I want to be forthright with you and yet I also want to be discreet; I often think we, as Christians, talk entirely too much about sex and in too much detail. You may accuse me of the former simply because I’ve written this series but I hope to remain innocent of the second.

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A La Carte (10/26)

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/26/09
  • 8
Teen-Friendly Dawkins
Atheist Richard Dawkins “is penning a new book which will target his most impressionable audience: teens. The controversial atheist, scientist and avid Darwin supporter, is planning to write, What is a Rainbow, Really?, an illustrated book which will take a myth-busting approach to questions about the natural world.” Dawkins ought to read Mark 9:42 before sending the book to his publisher.
The Next Fireproof
“The makers of the surprise hit Fireproof (Provident Films/Provident-Integrity Distribution) plan to reveal their follow-up to the top independent movie release of 2008 next month.” I find these words a bit troubling: “Their prayer hasn’t been for a good movie; it’s been for a God movie…”
Abortion and Genocide
This is both startling and sickening: “Abortion kills more black Americans than the seven leading causes of death combined, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2005, the latest year for which the abortion numbers are available.”
Deals of the Day
Here are a few deals that made their way into my inbox overnight. While We Sojourn is giving away t-shirts in honor of Reformation Day. 22 Words is giving away ESV Study Bibles an giving you 22 ways to win. And Monergism Books is offering free shipping on orders over $30 sent to US addresses. Use coupon code reformationday.

Music Roundup

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/25/09
  • 2

I realized the other day that I have a growing stack of CDs around here awaiting some kind of attention on the blog. So today let me draw your attention to a few noteworthy new albums.

Nate Fancher: The Cross of Jesus - I wasn’t quite sure how to describe the sound of this EP, but found some help at Nate’s site: “A catchy and classy pop/rock genre graced with rhythmic arrangements, ambient guitars, percussive keyboards, and soul lifting melodies might help describe the music of Nate Fancher. And if you call yourself a fan of ‘modern worship’, you’ll feel right at home.” That sounds about right. If the music reminds me of anything else in my collection, it is probably the Passion albums with their big choruses and “loud” instrumentation. You can hear several of the tracks at Nate’s MySpace.

Sovereign Grace Music: Sons and Daughters - You may well be familiar with the Sovereign Grace albums—there are quite a few of them now. As time goes on, it seems to me that the songs are getting a bit tighter and the instrumentation a little bit more varied. I take this as a good thing. For example, you can give a listen to “God Delights in You” and you’ll soon realize that this song would not have been likely to appear on any of their previous albums. There are some new songwriters and some new musicians and that is helping to keep this line of albums fresh. You can find information about the album here.

Sovereign Grace Music: To Be Like Jesus - One of the first Sovereign Grace albums I listened to was Awesome God, one that was targeted at children aged 7 and up. A thing I enjoyed about the songs on that album was that they were deliberately focused at kids who were raised in Christian homes but who were perhaps not yet Christians. So rather than having songs that said, “I’m so glad I’m a Christian” they were songs that simply spoke of how Christian kids ought to behave. In this way they leveled a real challenge to the children. The follow-up to that album, To Be Like Jesus, is much the same. It “contains twelve worship songs that teach the fruit of the Spirit in a creative and memorable way.Through these songs kids will learn that Jesus is our perfect example of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. More than that, they’ll discover that we can’t be like Jesus unless we trust in the power of his cross to forgive us and the power of his Spirit to change us.” read more here.

Daniel Renstrom: On the Incarnation - As you may guess from the title, this is a Christmas album (which releases on October 27). Renstrom reminds me, both in voice and in musical style, of Derek Webb (though without the cussing). The new album has eight tracks split between originals and traditional Christmas songs. Be sure to also check out his previous album Adore and Tremble. Both of them are fantastic. You can read more at Daniel’s site.

Indelible Grace Music: By Thy Mercy - Surely you know Indelible Grace Music by now. They have just released a new album and this time around it is an acoustic album. As with the others, it features a series of hymns set to new or mostly-new melodies written and performed by a variety of artists. I am not the biggest fan of this kind of acoustic music, but still enjoyed this album. It’s a fitting addition to the series. Check it out at igracemusic.com.

The Case for God

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/24/09
  • 19

The Case for GodIt is a rare occasion that I find it difficult to point out any redeeming features in a book-when I struggle to find a single positive to write in a review. Unfortunately Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God is one of those books-one that is so monstrously bad, so hopelessly awful, so wretchedly miserable, that it took concerted effort just to finish it. Heck, even the cover stinks-a pile of religiously-significant books hovering at a strange angle over a plain background. I tell you what: I will concede the font. The book is set in Granjon, a very nice, classical font that is very consistent with the earliest Garamond type faces. It is classy and classical but without being antique. But that is as good as the book gets.

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Free Stuff Fridays

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/23/09
  • 5

Free Stuff Fridays

Well, another Free Stuff Fridays is upon us. This week’s sponsor is Evangelical Press, a non-profit publisher whose mission “is to place sound Christian books and sound biblical teaching within reach of as many people as it can across the world.” Today they are offering to place a brand new book with five readers of this site. The prize they are offering is the newly published Who Made God?: Searching for a Theory of Everything. This is a 304 page hardcover book that goes head-to-head with today’s popular new atheists.

Who Made God?The author is an esteemed scientist (just check out the list of letters that follow his name: Professor Edgar H. Andrews BSc, PhD, DSc, FInstP, FIMMM, CEng, CPhys.) who is Emeritus Professor of Materials at the University of London and an international expert on the science of large molecules. Says the publisher, “If you’ve been waiting for a really effective riposte to the ‘new atheism’ of Richard Dawkins and others (or even if you haven’t) here it is - gently humorous, highly readable, deeply serious, razor sharp, and written by an internationally respected scientist. Who made God? dismantles the arguments and pretensions of scientific atheism and presents a robust biblical theism as a positive, and altogether more convincing, alternative.”

The book has already been widely praised and looks primed to make a splash. You may like to read more about the author and his work at whomadegod.org. “A book written by a distinguished scientist about the existence of God, which has chapter headings like ‘Sooty and the universe’, ‘Steam engine to the stars’ and ‘The tidy pachyderm’, has to be different. It is. Addressing profound questions of science, philosophy and faith with an amazing lightness of touch, Edgar Andrews exposes the pretensions of the ‘new atheism’ of Richard Dawkins and others, blending incisive arguments with gentle humour. As Fay Weldon writes, the result is ‘Thoughtful, readable, witty, wise …’”

Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.


Great Truths

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/23/09
  • 9

If you were one of the four million people to read the bestselling book Freakonomics, you will pretty well know what to expect from the long-awaited sequel SuperFreakonomics. It has five chapters, each of which stands on its own and each of which ties varied economic data into some kind of a cohesive whole. It is just as interesting as its predecessor and sticks very closely to the formula that made the first book such an unlikely hit.

The first chapter is titled “How Is a Street Prostitute Like a Department-Store Santa?” and this chapter is a lengthy look at the economics of prostitution. The authors draw out all kinds of interesting conclusions about prostitution and especially about how prostitution has changed over the years. For example, they show that the wages for prostitutes have fallen drastically over the past hundred years. The reason is pure economics and goes back to the law of competition. “Who poses the greatest competition to a prostitute? Simple: any woman who is willing to have sex with a man for free. It is no secret that sexual mores have evolved substantially in recent decades. The phrase ‘casual sex’ didn’t exist a century ago (to say nothing of ‘friends with benefits’). Sex outside of marriage was much harder to come by and carried significantly higher penalties than it does today.” In other words, in decades past women held closely to their virginity and were unlikely to give it away to anyone but their husbands. Today a man has, in the words of the authors, “a much greater supply of unpaid sex.” According to the laws of supply and demand, prices must then fall. In our generation only 5% of men lose their virginity to a prostitute; in days past it ran as high as 20%. Today more than 70% of men have sex before marriage; in days past it was just 33%. Premarital sex has proven a free substitute for prostitution. Once the domain of the professional (at one time one in every fifty American women in their twenties was a prostitute!) premarital sex is now the realm of any woman. This has driven down wages through a strange but sad kind of free market force. I guess this gives us something to think about the next time we hear about the falling levels of prostitution. Though we rejoice when prostitutes find another line of work, it does not necessarily mean that we have cured one of society’s ills. It may point to changing market forces based in turn on declining morality.

There was something else in this chapter that gave me a lot to think about. In their research the authors found that certain sexual acts have always commanded a premium; some are more costly than others. That is no surprise. Acts that are taboo in society are going to cost more than acts that are considered “normal.” What is interesting, though, is to see that this is a moving standard. As society has become increasingly sexualized, acts that were once taboo are now considered bland or boring. What once commanded a premium is now considered barely worth thinking about. This got me thinking about sin and about the very nature of sin. Have you ever had one of those moments where you found that sin was suddenly taking charge of you? If you think about it I’m sure you can come up with a moment when you realized that it was no longer you who was in charge, but sin. Sin had taken over; sin was taking the lead and you were just following along. It is a terrifying place to be! Sin always wants more, always demands more. It is progressive, beginning with something small but always demanding more and greater. Give it an inch and it will take a mile. The economics of prostitution shows the progressive nature of sin. Just in a brief look at rates and wages we can see how society has changed as women have become more willing to give their bodies away and as the vulgar and invasive and degrading has become mainstream.

This book illustrates why I love reading and why I always seek to read widely. I rarely regret reading Christian books and have benefited from such books immeasurably. But I would be impoverishing myself, I think, if I were to read only Christian books. Here in a book that is not in any way “Christian” I found all sorts of interesting facts, interesting ideas, that I can grapple with. They are issues that I can think about within my Christian worldview and use them to uncover great truths about people and about the God who created them.

A La Carte (10/23)

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/23/09
  • 5
The Problem With Our Economy
As usual Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes fame) gets it just about right.
The USS New York
This is a brilliant PR move, not to mention a great way of reusing material. “The Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship, the USS New York was built with 24 tons of scrap steel recovered from the World Trade Center attacks. New York Governor George Pataki requested that the ship, one of five which was already under construction at the time, be named in remembrance of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.”
The Answer to Everything
Julian talks about background research for a sermon series and how it led him to the Apostle Paul’s answer to, well, everything!
Friday Deals at Amazon
In case you’re not aware, Amazon always has different items for sale on Fridays. It is always an eclectic group of items (varying this week from candles to mechanic’s gloves). The usual caveat applies: if you buy something you weren’t otherwise going to buy, you’re not saving yourself any money!

Reading Classics Together

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/22/09
  • 44

It has been a few weeks now since we finished reading The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, the most recent entry in Reading Classics Together.

The impetus for this project was the simple realization that, though many Christians want to read through the classics of the faith, few of us have the motivation to actually make it happen. This program allows us to read them together, providing both a level of accountability and the added of interest of comparing notes. Those who have participated in each of the programs will now have read Holiness by J.C. Ryle, Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen, The Seven Sayings of the Savior on the Cross by A.W. Pink, The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Real Christianity by William Wilberforce and The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs. That is quite a solid collection of classics! I have benefited immensely from reading these books and know that others have, too. The format is simple: every week we read a chapter or a section of a classic of the Christian faith and then on Thursday we check in at my blog to discuss it. It’s that easy: one chapter per week.

I’d love to have you participate in this next effort. Keep reading to find out how you can do that…

The next classic we will read together is Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray. In this book Murray explores the biblical passages dealing with the necessity, nature, perfection, and extent of the atonement, and goes on to identify the distinct steps in the Bible’s presentation of how the redemption accomplished by Christ is applied progressively to the life of the redeemed. It is, then, an overview of the biblical account of salvation as understood by Reformed Christians. Monergism Books says it is “One of the best, most concise, theologically sound and helpful expositions of the atonement ever produced. John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied should be required reading for every Christian. At just under 200 pages, Murray offers page after page of devotional and scholarly study that is nearly unparalleled in its clarity, usefulness and theological depth. Read this book, re-read this book and keep it close at hand.”

At a time when so many people are discovering or re-discovering Reformed theology, this book offers us an opportunity to turn to Scripture to see if all that we are being taught, all that we believe, truly accords with Scripture. And even if you have no love for this New Calvinism, you may like to read along to at least ensure that you have a correct understanding of its theology.

We will begin reading the book on November 12. So if you would like to read along, read chapter 1 by November 12 and then check in here on that day.

You can purchase the book at:

Amazon | Westminster Books | Monergism Books

It is not unusual for the “next classic” to sell out really quickly at the various stores, so if you’d like to read along, go ahead and order it ASAP.

Do let me know if you are planning on participating. Obviously I will not hold you to anything; it is just nice to get a sense of how many people will be joining in the fun.

A La Carte (10/22)

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/22/09
  • 1
Should Christians Say Their Aim Is Conversion?
John Piper asks this question—a good and fair question in today’s climate.
Beware Your Seminary Professors
Jonathan Leeman offers some good reasons to have a certain wariness toward seminary professors. “None of the rules for academic engagement are bad, per se. But they become bad in the Christian academy when they’re divorced from pastoral sensibilities. This struck home, to speak frankly, by the utter lack of pastoral carefulness demonstrated by many of the speakers, a carelessness which I’ve witnessed too often in Christian academic circles.”
What if I Can’t Have Children?
This question comes up at the True Woman blog as this month they focus on children. Mindy Kroesche: “I’m not writing this post to tell you how painful infertility can be. You already know that. Instead, I want to share some ways to cope and ways God used this suffering in my life to shape and mold me into the woman He wants me to be.”

Outgrowing the Need for Grace

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/21/09
  • 13

Last night was one of those nights where the kids kept me up for pretty much the whole thing. This morning I tried to do some writing but my brain was still clearly lying in bed. Therefore I am going to post something I wrote a couple of years ago; it is a topic that has been in my mind a good bit lately and I hope you can benefit from it.

It’s no secret around here that I love the book of Proverbs and consider it my “home page” in the Bible. I read through Proverbs at least once a year and, whenever I’m not sure what else to read, I turn to it. And while I love Proverbs and envy the wisdom of Solomon I find something really sobering about his life. Whenever I consider Solomon, I am faced with the question of how a man of such great wisdom and discernment could end his life so far from the Lord. How did such a wise man become so foolish? How did such a discerning man stray so far? If Solomon was the most discerning man who ever lived (besides Jesus, of course), and discernment is the application of wisdom, then how do we account for his spiritual digression? How can a truly discerning man be disobedient? How did Solomon, who was so wise and so discerning, end up so far from the Lord?

Solomon’s wisdom is unparalleled by any other human. The Bible tells us that the Queen of Sheba once came to Solomon, having heard of his great wisdom, and “told him all that was on her mind.” There was nothing she asked that he could not answer, for “Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her.” We know that “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men…” In the history of mankind, there was no one like Solomon. He was extraordinarily gifted by God.

“Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.” He was richly blessed, with wealth and power beyond measure. “He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.”

When the Queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon’s wisdom and gazed at all his wealth, the Bible tells us that there was no more breath in her. She was completely overwhelmed. I have felt the same as I’ve read about his life and have read his proverbs. The man’s wisdom and discernment is clearly unsurpassed among men. And yet there is more to the story.

It is always a shock to turn to the tenth chapter of 1 Kings and to read about Solomon’s downfall. It is awful to hear how a man with such wisdom strayed so far from God. “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.” I find the next verse instructive. “For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.” His wives turned away his heart so that it was not wholly true to the Lord his God. Solomon’s heart was at first divided between women and God, but it soon turned away altogether. He allowed the lust of his heart to overcome and overwhelm his love for God.

This is sobering, is it not? A man with the wisdom of Solomon, a man who had had the Lord appear to him twice and who had heard the Lord directly command him not to turn after other gods, turned away nonetheless. Though he was a wise man, the Lord told him “you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you.” How could this happen?

Ironically, I believe that we can find the key to Solomon’s downfall in one of his own proverbs. In Proverbs 19:27 we read “Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” There are some proverbs that are multi-layered and which require great thought. This is not that kind. That meaning of this one is plain. Those who cease to listen to wise instruction, instruction based on the fear of the Lord, will quickly stray. While we cannot know for certain, I am increasingly convinced that this is what happened to Solomon. While he was young, he was visited by God and was endowed with great wisdom and discernment. When he was only a young man, but still a king, he called out to God in what seems to be a healthy apprehension of the difficulties he would face as king:

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

God was pleased with Solomon’s request, replying “I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” Solomon knew his weakness and, in humility, cried out to God and asked for His strength. As a little child cries to his father for help Solomon cried out in dependence on God. God was pleased to hear, pleased to answer, and pleased to give to Solomon far more than he asked. Solomon asked for discernment, but was also given great wisdom, great wealth, and great power. God lavished gifts upon him.

But as Solomon grew older, he began to depend less on God. I believe he began to depend on his own wisdom and to stray ever-further from God’s instruction. Where there was once humble dependence on God, there was now dependence on himself. In so doing, he strayed from words of knowledge, and strayed from God Himself. John Anderson once preached a sermon in which he said, “Erring from the words of knowledge is direct rebellion against the authority of God, whose law binds us to believe whatever he reveals. The language of obstinate error is, I prefer my own wisdom and my own will in such a particular to the wisdom and will of God himself.” Solomon preferred his wisdom to God’s wisdom, his ways to God’s ways. The whole earth once “sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.” But I believe Solomon soon allowed his own earthly wisdom to overtake his mind. He ceased hearing instruction and strayed from words of knowledge. He strayed from wisdom. He strayed from God.

Wisdom and discernment, then, are character traits that, like the moon, can wax and wane. They are gifts of God, but gifts that we can throw away. They are gifts that need to be nurtured and maintained. We cannot take them for granted, taking refuge in the fact that we may be wise and discerning right now. We need to continue to strive after them and to seek them. We need to learn from Solomon that even the wisest man today may be the greatest fool tomorrow. We depend on grace, even to sustain our wisdom and discernment.

If Solomon could stray so far from the Lord, I know that I can too. This is a sobering thought. This is a terrifying thought, even. But the solution to avoiding the folly of Solomon is clear. I need to take care that I never cease to hear instruction. I must live with an intense focus on God’s Word, never believing that I have learned enough, never believing that I’ve arrived. I must know that from this day to the day I die, I need to maintain a humble dependence on God. I must trust that His words of instruction will continue to edify and strengthen me, protecting me from straying from the words of knowledge. I will never outgrow my need for His sustaining grace.