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Books I Read in 2021 You Should Read in 2022

BY BENJAMIN R. LEE, Assistant Pastor of Oakwood Presbyterian  

     It’s that time of year again. At the beginning of every year, I find myself looking back at the books I read in the previous year and planning for the ones I want to engage with in the new year. I have a growing list of books planned for this year, and a goal for how many I hope to read. We have a lot of book worms at Oakwood, so I’m sure many of you have a similar practice at the beginning of the year. That’s why I’m giving you this list of my favorite reads from 2021. Maybe one of these will find its way on your 2022 book list!

The "Just-For-Fun" Book

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
By JK Rowling

     Harry finds his way onto my list every year, and for good reason. This is the best fiction story of our generation, and it ranks right up there in history with the greats like The Lord of the Rings. Don’t @ me! It’s true. Maggie and I have just recently begun reading the series with our boys, so I’m sure you’ll see another of JK Rowling’s masterpieces again on next year’s list.

The "I’m-Telling-Everybody-About-This-Book" Book

The Puzzle of Ancient Man: Evidence for Advanced Technology in Past Civilizations
By Donald Chittick

     My dad told me about this book, and I am glad he did. The title is pretty self-explanatory, but the content was fascinating. Chittick examines the architectural, engineering, and even artistic accomplishments of ancient civilizations (think Egypt), and argues that these ancient people must have had greater knowledge than we often attribute to them. For example, Egypt’s Great Pyramid is constructed of 2.3 million blocks, each of which weighs more than 1 ton. Historians estimate it took 100,000 men 20 years to build it. If those men worked 10 hour days, 365 days a year for 20 years, they would have to place 31 of those blocks each hour. And that doesn’t take into account the cutting and transportation of those blocks! Modern-day engineers estimate that with today’s modern machinery it would take 27 years just to cut the stone, let alone to build the pyramid. The book doesn’t offer more than hypotheses for how all this was accomplished, but it’s a fascinating read!

The "This-Book-Is-Important" Book

Liberty for All; Defending Everyone’s Religious Freedom in a Pluralistic Age
Andrew Walker

     In recent years Christians, and other religious folks, in America have been asking a question that most of our forebearers were blessed to take for granted, "Will religious liberty endure for the next generation?" The rise of the concept of “sexual liberty” over the last 10 or so years has called this into question. As issues involving gay marriage and “trans rights” have emerged, our culture has been forced to ask how (or if) sexual freedom and religious freedom can co-exist. What we are increasingly discovering is that they cannot. One will inevitably drown the other out. This book makes the argument that for the good of the entire society religious freedom must remain our “first freedom.” Yes, this book is important. I hope you will read this book, consider its ideas, and stand for this freedom for Christians, and for people of every faith.

The "Baptism" Book

Word, Water, and Spirit: A Reformed Perspective on Baptism
JV Jesko

     Oh man, guys. This book is awesome! There are definitely a lot of folks at Oakwood who have questions about our view of baptism. Look no further! Whether you come from a Baptist background and are wanting to better understand what you’re getting yourself into at Oakwood, or you’re happily convinced on the matter and want to dive into the beauty of this sacrament, this book is for you. It is a bit on the academic side of things, but Fesko is a fabulous writer. I don’t think you’ll find it too burdensome. And if you want to skip over the historical stuff on the front end, and skip to the biblical justification for baptism and its meaning, you’ll still gain a ton! Seriously, pick this one up!

The "Theological-Mic-Drop" Book

Simply Trinity; The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit
Matthew Barret

     Sometimes theologians and academic types get into biblical sparring matches that don’t matter all that much in the end. That is not the case with this book. Over the past 10 years, a significant debate has been brewing dealing directly with the nature of the Trinity. Recently, a group of theologians (Most notably Wayne Grudem, Bruce Ware, and Owen Strachan) have argued that there exists within the Trinity what they call “relations of authority and submission.” Their view is variously called “Eternal Functional Subordination” or “the Eternal Subordination of the Son.” Sometimes you see it abbreviated to EFS or ESS. It’s a highly problematic view with wide-ranging implications. First and foremost, if Christ is truly “eternally subordinate to the Father” as they argue, then he cannot be “co-equal” with God as the church has confessed since the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. This book is an attempt to call out this view for what it is: a Christological error bordering on heresy... and it’s fabulous. When I finished the book I thought to myself, “I don’t know how you could read this and still conclude ESS is legitimate. This book is Matthew Barrett’s mic drop on ESS.

The "Books-For-Dads" Books

The Boy Crisis; Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What You Can Do About It
Warren Farrell and John Gray

The Intentional Father; A Practical Guide to Raise Sons of Courage and Character
Jon Tyson

     I couldn’t decide which one to recommend, so I’m just giving you both. As a dad with three boys one thing that regularly crosses my mind is how in the world I’m supposed to develop these goofy and awesome boys into men. So, I’m regularly looking for books with a bit of wisdom to offer. That said, The Boy Crisis isn’t so much advice as it is a look at why so many boys are struggling in our modern world. What makes this book so worthwhile is that after pointing out the many struggles of boys, the authors propose the research-based solution: dads. What is so remarkable about this is that these authors don’t appear to be believers. They’re just researchers who’ve picked up on something that God has written in the fabric of reality: that dads play a key role in their son’s development.

     The Intentional Father is a more practical guide to raising boys. The author, Jon Tyson, is a pastor in New York and his central thesis is that developing boys into men requires more than haphazard, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants attempts. It demands intentionality. The weakness of the book is that Jon is essentially just telling us what he did, though he certainly admits that his way isn’t the only way. This book is not the silver bullet for raising boys, but I think reading what this dad did will generate both ideas and motivation. If you’re raising boys it’s worth the read!

     Well, there you go! I hope you found something here worth checking out. If not, that’s okay too! Enjoy your reading in 2022, and let me know if you find a book you couldn’t put down.

Every Baptism is For YOU

 BY BENJAMIN R. LEE, Assistant Pastor, Oakwood Presbyterian Church 

     When I was in high school, I attended a Christian youth conference in Florida every summer with my evangelical church friends. It was a great time. Lots of preaching and singing and enjoying the wonders of creation on the beach. Because we were hearing the gospel every day it wasn’t uncommon for someone to profess faith for the first time while in Florida. So, just about every summer, we’d gather on the beach for a baptism service before heading home. At the time this practice seemed to make sense. New believers are supposed to be baptized. We had plenty of water at the beach. It certainly was memorable. Why not do it?

     If you’ve been around Oakwood for long, you know we place a specific emphasis on baptism. We want new believers to be baptized. We even want the children of believers to be baptized, just as we believe the Scriptures command (but that’s another blog). But if you were to attend a summer conference with our high school students, you would not see a special baptism service take place on the last day. Nor do we offer “private” baptism services for only the immediate family and friends of the recipient. In fact, the PCA’s Book of Church Order specifically forbids such practices (56-2). The PCA requires baptisms to be performed in the presence of the congregation on the Lord’s Day under the supervision of the session by an ordained minister.

     That might sound like the PCA is full of a bunch of crusty old theologians out to steal your fun, but there is a very good, reasonable, pastoral reason for these restrictions. We practice baptism in this way because we believe baptism, every baptism, whether your baptism, the baptism of a new believer, or the baptism of an infant, is for you.

     I know the ministers in the churches I grew up in had every good intention in baptizing those kids in the ocean, but in keeping these baptisms effectively private, they were withholding a real spiritual grace from their congregations back home. Most of us grew up in broadly evangelical church contexts where baptism was generally thought to be (mostly) about the person being baptized. Most of us grew up thinking that baptism was primarily about the testimony of the one being baptized. It was a way for a new believer to confess his new faith, and commit himself to follow Jesus. Because of that, baptism services were about celebrating the one being baptized. The congregation, if in attendance for those special baptism services, was there to witness the baptism. The congregation could celebrate new faith, and help the recipient to remain committed to Jesus, which are certainly good things. It wasn’t believed that either the recipient or the congregation, received anything. Maybe that’s why baptism services were often so scantly attended.

     The emphasis is different in Reformed churches, though. Reformed Churches do not believe that baptism is primarily a testimony of our faith and commitment to God. We believe that baptism is primarily the work of God where He testifies of His commitment to us in Jesus. That is why our confession speaks of baptism as a “sign and seal of ingrafting into [Christ], of remission of sin by his blood, and regeneration by his Spirit; of adoption, and resurrection unto everlasting life…” (WLC 165). That sign and seal language is important. Baptism is not our sign, that we will be faithful to God, but God’s sign that he has saved us through Jesus and will keep us to the end. Just as importantly, baptism is a seal. The Westminster Confession says that in baptism grace is not only promised, “but really exhibited, and conferred, by the Holy Spirit” (28.6). In other words, through baptism, God confers grace to us so that his promises are sealed, or imprinted, on our hearts as we believe the gospel.

     That emphasis makes a tremendous difference in our practice of baptism. Baptism is for you. Even when you are not the one receiving the sacrament of baptism, baptism functions as a sign and seal of your salvation in Christ. Each baptism is meant to be for your life as a Christian what a nap is to your mid-afternoon. Baptism is a real spiritual grace that offers you spiritual refreshment in the gospel. As the Heidelberg Catechism teaches, in every baptism God wants “to assure us by this definite pledge and sign that we are as truly cleansed from our sins spiritually as we are bodily washed with water” (Q/A 73). This is why the Larger Catechism speaks of “improving” our baptism in question 167. As we remember and reflect upon our baptism and the nature of the sacrament God continues to sign and seal the benefits of the gospel to us, resulting in our growth in the faith.

     That’s why every baptism must take place in the context of the congregation on the Lord’s Day. God wants you to be there so that he can once again sign and seal to your heart the promise of the gospel through the baptism of a new believer or an infant. In every baptism, you receive spiritual grace.

     Remember that the next time we practice the sacrament of baptism on the Lord’s Day. B.B. Warfield once wrote, “Every time we baptize an infant we bear witness that salvation is from God, that we cannot do any good thing to secure it, that we receive it from his hands as a sheer gift of his grace, and that we all enter the kingdom of heaven therefore as little children, who do not, but are done for.” See that baby, or that adult believer, receiving the sign and seal of the covenant of grace and drink in the promises of God applied to you through Jesus. And as you do, rest in Jesus. His blood has been shed for you. He has been raised for you. In Him you have been cleansed from all your sin, and will be raised on the last day.