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Title: The God Who Justifies by James R. White ISBN: 0-7642-2288-0 Publisher: Bethany House Pub. Date: August, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Outstanding Presentation of the Gospel
Comment: For those who want to understand the historic Protestant (and Biblical) understanding of justification this book should be the first place to start. White does an excellent job presenting the Gospel in its purity and wholeness without compromise. The structure of the book is well organized and easy to follow through. The first half of the book (pp. 17-123) deals with important themes related to the concept of justification. This includes topics like man's total depravity, sin, transgression, the meaning of justification, the reason for justification by faith alone, the grounds for our justification, and imputation of righteousness. The second half (pp. 125-374) is an exegetical defense of the historic Protestant understanding of justification. White goes over passages in Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, James, 2 Corinthians, and Titus. He makes a convincing and exegetically sound argument for the historic Protestant view of justification by faith alone. Though White gets very technical and detailed in his exegesis of these passages, even a layperson will have no trouble understanding what White is saying. Particularly valuable is his exegesis of James 2:14-26. Roman Catholics and pseudo-Protestants have often used this passage to attack the traditional Protestant understanding of justification by faith alone. However, White does an excellent job explaining what James REALLY meant to say in this passage (e.g., true faith is demonstrated before men by actions). This book is refreshing considering that in recent years the doctrine of justification by faith alone has not only been attacked by Roman Catholics, but also by those who claim to be evangelical Protestants! Yes, pseudo-Protestants are everywhere these days. This book, however, should set the record straight on what the Bible really teaches regarding justification. In fact, after reading this book one will realize that many groups who claim to be evangelical Protestants are actually NOT at all (e.g., Wesleyans, Holiness people, neo-Reformed groups, etc.). White has done the Body of Christ a great service by writing this book. This is an invaluable work that needs to be in every Christian bookshelf.
Rating: 2
Summary: Preaching to the Choir
Comment: Like most of James White's books, if you already start with the notion that reformed theology is true than you will be happy with the book. This book, like his others, starts with the assumption that reformed theology is true and proceeds from there. Great if you already are a believer, not so good if you are searching for truth.
I gave it two stars for its nice format.
Rating: 3
Summary: Very articulate, but ultimately unconvincing...
Comment: In "The God Who Justifies" James White does an admirable job of trying to rally Evangelicals behind Sola Fide (whether any of them were there in the first place, from the Reformation onward, is another interesting question... but I digress...). In typical Reformed fashion he beats to death the Pauline corpus and virtually ignores the rest of the New Testament. James is tossed on stage, briefly, summarily brutalized, and then hastily tossed away. Possible alternate explanations of Paul are largely left unaddressed. Dozens of references in the Gospels and the rest of the NT to "... and they will be judged according to what they have done" or verses explicitly saying that salvation depends on obedience (ex. Matt 16:27,Rev. 20:12, Jesus' words to the Rich Young Man or the entire Sermon on the Mount) were ignored. The author has loudly in several places complained about various people who don't agree with Sola Fide "not interpreting the context" of various passages, but I can't help but wonder if a group of theologians who so consistently ignore unambiguous passages with frightening regularity are examples of the pot calling the kettle black.
I was also throughly disappointed with White's failure to interact in a meaningful way with some of the most important arguments in Robert Sungenis' book "Not By Faith Alone."
For example, the "explanation" for why no one believed Sola Fide for such a long time also failed to convince me. He virtually admits that no one believed Sola Fide from Paul until Luther in the opening sentence of this explanation, saying: "There are only a few valid contextual citations ... that can be mustered in reference to justification by grace through faith alone in the writings of the early church." Then his first "valid contextual citation" divorces a quote from it's context in Clement's Epistle (in the Epistle he maintained that people were "justified by works, and not words"). It only goes down hill from there and one is left wondering how anyone got to heaven before the 16th century.
His supposed answer to the "Phineas dilemma" (Phineas is the only other person in the OT that was "credited" with righteousness, and it was based on his works, Psalm 106:31) doesn't even address the fact that his "answer" makes Paul yet another one of those people who don't "interpret in the context" (in Paul's case, he would be guitly of selectively quoting the OT to fit one's theology). Morevoer, Dr. White makes a laughable error by saying that Phineas' "crediting of righteousness" was not his initial encouter with God, unlike Abraham in Genesis 15:6 (I guess Genesis 12-14 is not in Dr. White's Bible). This leads to one of three uncomfortable conclusions: either Dr. White made an error that any good Sunday School student could point out (which is unlikely, since he cites Genesis 12 and Hebrews 11:8 elsewhere) or he is being purposefully deceptive (which I hope would not be the case) or something else(?!?).
The one positive thing I enjoyed about the book is that it was better in every concievable way to the Soli Deo Gloria publication "Justification by Faith Alone."
In conclusion, while Mr. White can be very forceful and articulate in many places when arguing for the Reformation principle of Sola Fide, on the whole, I found his analysis unconvincing.
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Title: The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief by James R. White ISBN: 1556617259 Publisher: Bethany House Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: The Potter's Freedom by James R. White ISBN: 1879737434 Publisher: Calvary Pr Pub. Date: 15 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Roman Catholic Controversy by James R. White ISBN: 1556618190 Publisher: Bethany House Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper ISBN: 1581344988 Publisher: Crossway Books Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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Title: Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification by R. C. Sproul ISBN: 080105849X Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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