KJV Creedal Bible Tom J. Nettles Review by S. Craig Sanders In an age marked by staggering biblical illiteracy in the pews and even less awareness of historical theology, retired Southern Seminary professor Thomas J. Nettles delivers in the newly-published KJV Creedal Bible a brief commentary of the early church’s four seminal creeds and a defense of…
EDITOR’S NOTE: In what follows, Robert L. Plummer, professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Seminary, talks with Towers writer Andrew J.W. Smith about the new intermediate grammar he co-authored, Going Deeper With New Testament Greek. AJWS: Most intermediate grammars tend to be more technical and don’t have all the things this book has — exercises, practice sentences,…
If you, as a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, have taken Greek Syntax and Exegesis, you know required books for the course seem to be as numerous as all the principal parts you have to memorize. Not only are there are plenty of substantive intermediate-level Greek grammars for professors to choose, from Robertson…
Four Views on Hell Preston Sprinkle, ed. Review by Andrew J.W. Smith Five years removed from former pastor Rob Bell’s book on hell, Love Wins, the doctrine of hell is still an incendiary topic. In the newest installment of Zondervan’s Counterpoints: Bible & Theology series, Four Views on Hell, four evangelical scholars offer their interpretation of biblical teaching about…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Below, William F. Cook, professor of New Testament interpretation, discusses his new commentary, John: Jesus Christ is God, with Towers writer Andrew J.W. Smith. AJWS: There’s been so much written about the gospel of John. Why write this commentary? WC: When I wrote this commentary, I realized that some of the great commentaries in recent years…
In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783 Mark A. Noll Review by S. Craig Sanders One of the more interesting recent studies on the Protestant Reformation, historian Mark A. Noll’s In the Beginning Was the Word explores how the printing of the English Bible, its dissemination, and biblical authority shaped colonial…
Theodore Beza: The Man and the Myth, Shawn D. Wright (Christian Focus 2016, $14.99) Despite being one of the great figures of the Protestant Reformation, not much is known about Theodore Beza, French theologian and acolyte of the more famous John Calvin. In fact, what is known is often mythical and exaggerated, such as the erroneous perception…
Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer, Scott H. Hendrix (Yale University Press 2015, $35) Review by S. Craig Sanders The approaching 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation will result in a deluge of scholarly and popular works examining the life and influence of Martin Luther. But I doubt none will be as freshly insightful as Scott H. Hendrix’s…
Essential Evangelicalism: The Enduring Influence of Carl F.H. Henry, Matthew J. Hall and Owen Strachan, editors (Crossway 2015, $22.99) Review by Jeremiah Greever Even though much well-deserved respect and admiration has been given to Billy Graham, another 20th-century leader deserving similar accolades who forever made his imprint on evangelicalism is Carl F.H. Henry. Though he didn’t have Graham’s…
As the only evangelical in his college’s Introduction to the Bible course, Jonathan Arnold found his beliefs challenged frequently in a class teaching the gospel from an extremely liberal point of view. While the hostile environment opened the door for him to share the gospel and participate in debates over major cultural issues, Arnold learned…
One God in Three Persons: Unity of Essence, Distinction of Persons, Implications for Life, Bruce Ware and John Starke, editors Review by Jeremiah Greever The eternal relationships between the three persons of the Trinity have historically been a topic of discussion for both academics and theologians. In One God in Three Persons, edited by Southern Seminary…
Last November, when Matt Bevin won Kentucky’s gubernatorial election he joined elite company in Southern Seminary history. The Bevin Center for Missions Mobilization, which the businessman turned governor endowed in 2012, is named in honor of his late daughter Brittiney and sends student missionaries to international and domestic fields of service in addition to local…
When the next Star Wars movie comes out, go to a showing and talk to 20 people standing in line. You’ll hear 20 different stories about the first time they saw the movies — one a 12-year-old with his brother, another a 7-year-old at the cinema for the first time, another a ’90s kid watching…
When John R. Sampey was named president of Southern Seminary in 1929, he inherited a brand new Lexington Road campus with $992,000 in related debt (about $13 million in today’s money).1 Only a few months later, a stock market crash initiated the Great Depression. Fortunately for the seminary and the denomination, Sampey was a capable…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Below, Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Southern Seminary, discusses his book Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification with Towers writer Andrew J.W. Smith. AJWS: As we approach the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, do you think the Lutheran understanding of justification “by faith alone” still holds…
God & Churchill, Jonathan Sandys and Wallace Henley (Tyndale Momentum 2015, $26.99) Review by S. Craig Sanders Sir Winston Churchill is widely regarded as the greatest leader of the 20th century, but biographers have often struggled to identify what exactly set Churchill apart from his contemporaries besides his at times lone opposition to Adolf Hitler. In…
Decades before he became Southern Seminary’s fifth president, John R. Sampey possessed an evangelical conviction for Baptist churches and their pastors. In October 1887, a 24-year-old Sampey delivered his inaugural address as assistant professor of Hebrew, Greek, and Homiletics. This address, entitled “The Proper Attitude of Young Ministers toward Issues of the Day,” exhorted his…
When William Hoagland was stuck with a needle during his surgical residency, he panicked. The patient he was working with had tested positive for AIDS, which had only recently been discovered. He feared the comfortable life he was pursuing as a doctor was gone. “I was just devastated,” he said, crediting the AIDS scare as…
