An Almost Indispensable Book on the Bible
Where can you find a book about that Bible that is both pastoral and theological? It’s rare. But one has arrived. It is John Frame’s opus: The Doctrine of the Word of God.
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to what Dr. J. I. Packer says.
“Recently a former student wrote to me as follows: ‘Dr. Packer, is there a reasonably recent work on the nature of Scripture that you would consider magisterial or close to indispensable, other than the Bible?’ At that time, I could not name a book that met these specifications. But now I can, and this is it.”
Packer continues: “The big idea that holds everything in this big book together is pastoral, and that to my mind is as it should be. As I was writing this foreword, I learned of a Chinese lady, a seventy-year-old watermelon grower named Jin, who said, ‘Reading the Bible is like having God talk to you.’ This is precisely the truth that Frame follows through, start to finish.”
• The main contention of this volume is that God’s speech to man . . . is very much like one person speaking to another. . . .
• My thesis is that God’s word, in all its qualities and aspects, is a personal communication from him to us.
Packer concludes: “So where are we? ‘Magisterial’? Yes. ‘Close to indispensable’? Yes again. Would John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Kuyper, and B. B. Warfield, Reformed theology’s Fabulous Four (in my book, anyway), enthuse about this volume as I have done? Pretty much, I think. There, I have had my say. Now read on, and taste the good food for yourself.”
In my view, The Doctrine of the Word of God is vital for every Christian. It will be especially significant for everyone interested in biblical counseling. In addition to the themes developed throughout the entire book, Frame has an entire section on The Sufficiency of Scripture.
For a free forty-six pages overview of the book, go to WTS Books.
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