The Riddleblog

I was already well along in my journey to becoming Reformed back in 1981 when Sinclair Ferguson’s Know Your Christian Life appeared on the InterVarsity book rack in our store. Now out of print (and replaced by several more recent books from Ferguson on various aspects of the Christian life), this tome offered a succinct and devotional take on the major Reformed doctrines—including justification and sanctification. At the time, I was wrestling with a host of theological issues. I was working full-time, and commuting to Escondido, and I was feeling sort of wrung out from having so much of what I had always believed turned upside down during my studies at Westminster Seminary California. It was nice to read something about these same doctrines in a different context—one framed by John Owen and the Puritans now coming from the pen of someone new on the Christian publishing scene, Sinclair Ferguson. J. I. Packer described Ferguson’s book as, “Reformed theology of the older, riper, deeper sort.” That it was. It was also a great supplement to my initial seminary course work. Ferguson made it clear that in the Reformed tradition head and heart were not at war with each other. This breakthrough came to me at the very time when my anti-Calvinist evangelical friends were warning me that Calvinism was nothing but “head knowledge.”

I was so impressed with the book, I actually wrote to Dr. Ferguson at Westminster Theological Seminary, thanking him for it. I received a very nice reply, and have benefited from his work (especially his preaching) ever since.

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Books Which Didn't Change My Mind

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels was the first honest to goodness piece of critical scholarship I ever read—for a student paper at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law. If I recall correctly, it was suggested by John Warwick Montgomery as a recommended book for a student review, which was required for his History of Christianity course. Of course, we did not carry it in our Christian bookstore, but I found it at Walden Books—remember them? I almost felt like I was sinning when buying and then reading it, but then I got my dander up and gave it, let me just say, a less than stellar review. Little did I know it would be the first of many works I would read by critical scholars over the years. D. F. Strauss’s Life of Jesus, Critically Examined, and Ernest Renan’s, Life of Jesus were far and away the worst. Burton Mack’s (of the Jesus Seminar) stuff was pretty bad too.

Pagels argued that the famous discovery at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945, of “lost” and long buried ancient Christian writings revealed a much more diverse set of authentic Christian writings than those included in our Bibles. Her claim is that orthodox Christianity was not so orthodox after all. Those accepted and esteemed biblical texts in our Bibles were more or less the product of political and ecclesiastical power struggles among those who determined which books made it into the canon, and which groups among these diverse Christian communities were to be regarded as orthodox. In Pagels’s estimation, the various Gnostic communities and their teachings were unjustifiably excluded by those with power—bishops with political connections. If the term existed when Pagels’s book was published, these suppression efforts in opposition to the Gnostic texts and groups would be labeled the “deep church.”

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Books Which Changed My Mind

I don’t remember when I first read Arthur Lewis’s short monograph on the presence of evil in the millennium—it was sometime during my journey from dispensationalism to Reformed amillennialism. But I’ll never forget how the force of Lewis’s argument finally struck me. The presence of evil in the millennial age was a serious error and the fatal flaw in all forms of premillennialism (whether historic or dispensational). Ignore this unintended consequence as they might, it is—and remains—the Achilles' heel of premillennialism. If evil is present on the earth during a millennial age after Jesus returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and usher in the new creation, then people must somehow pass through Christ’s return in natural bodies with sinful natures and repopulate the earth in a manner completely contrary to Jesus’s words in Luke 20:34–36.

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Gettysburg 160

Today marks the final day of the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg—the largest land battle ever fought on the North American continent.

On the afternoon of July 3, 1863, Pickett’s charge—an event many contend was the turning point in the Civil War—got underway only to be smashed by Union defenders on Cemetery Ridge. Pickett’s failed assault wrapped up three days of fierce fighting in brutal Pennsylvania heat. The day after Pickett’s charge, the exhausted, depleted, and demoralized Confederate army packed up, headed south, and crossed the Potomac River back into Virginia. The war would last nearly two more years, but for all intents and purposes, the South could never recover and would not invade the North again.

Allen Guezlo’s book on the Gettysburg campaign and battle is a wonderfully written volume, and must reading for anyone interested the Civil War or curious about this battle. I highly recommend it.

This is from my review, which you can read in its entirely here: A Review of Allen Guelzo's Gettysburg

If you've read Michael Shaara's Killer Angels or have seen the glue-on beard marred epic movie "Gettysburg" (which actually isn't that bad, except for Martin Sheen's horrible portrayal of Robert E. Lee as some sort of Eastern mystic), then you probably believe that the South's failure to capture Little Round Top toward the end of the second day’s fighting (July 2) was the turning point of the three-day battle. Not true.

To read my review and/or order Guelzo’s book, follow the link below

Book Reviews, History and CultureKim RiddlebargerJuly 3, 2023 Comments

A Few of My Favorite Books on World War One

World War One is not on the radar of many Americans. In many ways the Great War ends the cultural optimism and colonialism of the nineteenth century. American emerges as a true super-power. The Great War marks the dawn of the modern age. If I have piqued your interest, here are a few suggested titles readers of the Riddleblog may enjoy. All but one of my choices deal with geopolitical consequences of the war, not with battles, tactics, or weaponry. That list of recommendations might come later. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments section.

To read my recommendations, follow the link below

Review of Tim Bouverie's "Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War"

Tim Bouverie: Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War (London: Vintage, 2019) 497 pgs.

I know, it sounds cliche. If you look in a dictionary under “appeasement” you will likely find mention or a picture of Neville Chamberlain—possibly both. Yet, as Tim Bouverie contends in his recent book, Appeasing Hitler, there is far more than “appeasement” to the story of Neville Chamberlain’s diplomatic efforts as English Prime Minister in the eighteen months or so before World War Two. The disaster which everyone feared was coming, yet could do nothing to stop, was at hand. Chamberlain tried and failed to prevent it from happening. Postwar history has not been kind to him. His name is synonymous with political appeasement and naivete.

A political journalist now writing in the field of history, in Appeasing Hitler, Tim Bouverie covers the period from Hitler’s rise to power in Germany (January 1933) until England’s declaration of war on Germany (September 1939). Bouverie recounts the behind the scenes diplomatic efforts made by the British government to prevent the Second World War. If you’ve watched any of the recent Churchill movies (i.e., The Darkest Hour, which, for the most part, is outstanding) and wondered about the tensions between Neville Chamberlain (the current PM), Lord Halifax (the king’s personal friend and the likely P.M. after Chamberlain), and Churchill (the loudest voice opposed to Hitler, but discredited in the eyes of his contemporaries due to his role in the Gallipoli debacle of 1915), Bouverie gives the backstory to the distrust (if not dislike) between Chamberlain, Halifax, and Churchill. Appeasing Hitler is well-written and cogently argued. Bouverie captures quite well the sense of futility on the part of the British government which went with trying to change the mind of a megalomaniac (Hitler) with nothing available to them to stop him but Chamberlain’s best of intentions.

To read the rest of the review, Tim Bouverie: Appeasing Hitler

A Review of Allen Guelzo's Biography of R. E. Lee

Allen C. Guelzo. Robert E. Lee: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. Pg 588. $ 35.00

In August of 2017, white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the impending removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park. The statue was placed in the park in 1924, during the high water mark of white supremacy and Lost Cause sympathies. But the riots in Charlottesville reveal that the public image of R. E. Lee remains controversial. On the one hand, Lee is seen by many as a heroic figure and military genius who staved off northern aggression against impossible odds in a audacious defense of States Rights and Southern heritage. Yet, on the other, Lee is seen as a defender of slavery, a symbol of white privilege and racism, a man whose legacy has become a glaring offense to progressive sensitivities. Although there are a number of capable biographies of General Lee already in print (Emory Thomas’ 1995 volume, Robert E. Lee: A Biography stands out), it is time for a thorough re-assessment of R. L. Lee and his legacy. Allen C. Guelzo is the ideal historian to write such a volume.

Guelzo is an award-winning Civil War era historian, who previously taught at Gettysburg College. Currently, Dr. Guelzo is Senior Research Scholar in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. He is a three time Lincoln Prize recipient, and in 2013 was awarded the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize for Military History for his 2013 book, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, in which Robert E. Lee plays a major role. Guelzo is uniquely suited to take a fresh look at a man who is far more complicated than his hagiographers (i.e., Douglas Southall Freeman’s four volume, R. E. Lee) or his critics (Thomas L. Connelly’s 1977, The Marble Man), have indicated.

To read the rest, click here: A Review of Guelzo's Robert E. Lee: A Life

Kevin DeYoung Interviews Allen Guelzo

Kevin DeYoung interviews Allen Guelzo regarding his new book on Robert E. Lee. Outstanding! DeYoung asks great questions, and Guelzo gives great answers. Well-worth your time.

To Listen, follow the link below.

History and Culture, Book ReviewsKim RiddlebargerOctober 9, 2021Allen Guelzo, Robert E. Lee, Kevin DeYoungComment