Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous
Journal: Grace Journal
Volume: GJ 07:3 (Fall 1966)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous
GJ 7:3 (Fall 66) p. 46
Book Reviews
Things Which Become Sound Doctrine. By J. Dwight Pentecost. Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, N.J., 1965. 159 pp., $3.50.
This book is the product of a series of sermons preached by the chairman of the Department of Bible Exposition (Dallas Theological Seminary) at the Grace Bible Church of which he is the pastor. The chapters deal with the fourteen key words of the Christian faith which were expounded in the series: depravity, grace, regeneration, imputation, substitution, repentance, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, justification, sanctification, security, predestination, and resurrection. Although each chapter is a unit in itself, each relates to the other chapters in the series. Each chapter contains an excellent exposition of the word involved and is clearly outlined for the reader.
Since the sermons were geared for the layman, he will receive much profit from this book. The book will also provide a good refresher course for the trained minister and layman and a model for similar series that could be preached by pastors. After reading the book, the reviewer desired an opportunity to preach such a series.
Robert Gromacki
Cedarville College
The Plague of Plagues. By Ralph Venning. The Banner of Truth Trust, 78b Chiltern Street, London, 1965. 284 pp., $1.50, paper.
The Plague of Plagues is a reprint of a treatise on sin by a seventeenth century non-conformist pastor in London. Basing his work on Romans 7:13, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the writer is burdened to so expose sin in all its ugliness that his readers may flee every form of evil.
He treats the subject by first pointing out the sinfulness of sin in its “contrariety” to God and to men, and then summons at length the witness against sin, being God, angels, man, creation, law, and even sin itself. Venning concludes his study with an application of the Doctrine of Sin in the lives of his readers.
The striking feature of this book is the author’s thorough grasp of Scripture, and his ability to bring together passages from both Old and New Testaments which bear on his discussion. Each page of the book is full of Scripture used either directly or in allusion or illustration.
I found this book, therefore, to be a valuable exposition of the Biblical teaching of sin, and in good accord with literal and historical interpretation. However, having been composed in the seventeenth century, the book does not lend itself to fast reading, and upon occasion the style is ponderous and the words difficult. This is small difficulty compared with the compensations of a refreshing and thoroughly Biblical expo...
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