Reformation Heritage Reformed Theology Collection (9 vols.)

by Michael P. V. Barrett; Joel R. Beeke; James Dolezal; William Bradshaw

and

6 more

Publisher:

Reformation Heritage

, 2017–2019

Overview

Reformation Heritage Books mission is, by the Spirit’s grace, to aim for the conversion of unbelievers and equip the saints to serve Christ and His church through biblical, experiential, and practical ministry, via books, tracts, and other resources. RHB aims that reading material be God-glorifying and be in accord with the Scriptures and historic Reformed creeds for the promotion and defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe that this purpose is well-served by providing instruction and training that develops knowledge and skills as well as the personal piety and Christian character that is essential for a faithful and growing life in Christ.

This collection combines a variety of studies in doctrine and the history of Reformed theology. These volumes explore issues including human nature, death, and the Reformation.

Key Features

• Emphasizes the continuing relevance of the Reformation for the contemporary church
• Provides, pastoral, theological, historical, and practical insights
• Contains a selective historical treatment of significant theological works

Product Details

• Title: Reformation Heritage Reformed Theology Collection (9 vols.)
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Volumes: 9
• Pages: 2,218
• Christian Group: Reformed

A Tender Lion: The Life, Ministry, and Message of J. C. Ryle

• Author: Bennett Wade Rogers
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 400

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John Charles Ryle became the undisputed leader and spokesman of the evangelical party within the Church of England in the last half of the nineteenth century, and his works continue to be read by evangelicals of various denominational stripes more than a century after his death. Accordingly, he is often portrayed as “an old soldier” of a heroic cause. While this view of Ryle holds some merit, it often obscures the complexity and dynamism of a most remarkable man.

In this intellectual biography, Bennett Wade Rogers analyzes the complicated life and times of a man variously described as traditional, moderate, and even radical during his fifty-eight-year ministry. Ryle began his ministerial career as a rural parish priest; he ended it as a bishop of the second city of the British Empire. In the time between, he became a popular preacher, influential author, effective controversialist, recognized party leader, stalwart church defender, and radical church reformer.

I am so thankful for Bennett W. Rogers’s A Tender Lion: The Life, Ministry, and Message of J. C. Ryle. When I was a teenager, Ryle’s Holiness came into my hands. I have been a Ryle fan ever since. In my work as a pastor, Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels were a companion to me as well as a constant source of devotion and application as I preached through Matthew, Luke, and John. This book introduces the reader to the man behind a writing ministry that lives on over a century later. I commend it warmly.

—J. Ligon Duncan, chancellor, CEO, and John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi

Bennett Wade Rogers (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a pastor and teacher in Mississippi and has written several articles on J. C. Ryle and John Bunyan.

All That Is in God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism

• Author: James E. Dolezal
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2017
• Pages: 176

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Unknown to many, increasing numbers of conservative evangelicals are denying basic tenets of classical Christian teaching about God, with departures occurring even among those of the Calvinistic persuasion. James E. Dolezal’s All That Is in God provides an exposition of the historic Christian position while engaging with these contemporary deviations. His convincing critique of the newer position he styles “theistic mutualism” is philosophically robust, systematically nuanced, and biblically based. It demonstrates the need to maintain the traditional viewpoint, particularly on divine simplicity, and spotlights the unfortunate implications for other important Christian doctrines—such as divine eternality and the Trinity—if it were to be abandoned. Arguing carefully and cogently that “all that is in God is God Himself,” the work is sure to stimulate debate on the issue in years to come.

Very few volumes of theology have stirred my profound intrigue as James Dolezal’s All That Is in God. The book describes the heart of classical theology in its brilliant defense of the catholic view of the nature and character of God. It also chronicles the contemporary drift among some evangelical and Reformed scholars away from the orthodox understanding of God’s simplicity and immutability. A must read.

—R. C. Sproul, Founder of Ligonier Ministries and author of The Holiness of God

James E. Dolezal is Assistant Professor of Theology in the School of Divinity at Cairn University, Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

Beginning at Moses: A Guide to Finding Christ in the Old Testament

• Author: Michael P. V. Barrett
• Edition: Revised
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 322

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For many Christians today, the Old Testament is difficult to understand, seems outdated, and has questionable relevance. But, as Old Testament scholar Michael Barrett points out, all Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit and we must read it by faith, seeing that Christ is the key to unlocking the Old Testament’s message. With great knowledge of and contagious passion for the Old Testament, the author shows readers how to identify basic characteristics of Christ and where to look for Him throughout the Old Testament. The author challenges us: “God’s promise throughout the Bible is that those who seek Him will find Him. Beginning at Moses and ending with Malachi, we want to be on Christ alert.”

This book is well-written, thoroughly biblical in its approach, and presents Christ Jesus as the key to understanding the Old Testament and all Scripture. It focuses on Christ Jesus—the coming Prophet, Priest, and King—who will fulfill all Old Testament promises and expectations, especially that all nations will be blessed through the redemption that He purchased. This book will help scholars and laymen alike. I recommend this useful book.

—Russell T. Fuller, professor of Old Testament, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Michael P. V. Barrett is vice president for academic affairs, academic dean, and professor of Old Testament at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Dying and Death: Getting Rightly Prepared for the Inevitable

• Author: Joel R. Beeke and Christopher W. Bogosh
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 120

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Can any good come from thinking about death? Our natural tendency is to answer that question no! But what if our meditation on death was informed by a theological understanding of death, a recognition of the comfort Jesus’s death affords Christians, and ethical guidance for dealing with death in these complicated days of modern medical developments? Rather than being morbidly unhelpful, authors Joel R. Beeke and Christopher W. Bogosh contend that meditating on dying and death can be profitable, even necessary, for us. Are you prepared to say that your death will be “gain” (Phil. 1:21)?

What these two gifted authors—Joel Beeke and Christopher Bogosh—provide us in this volume is a must-read for everyone. Contained in these pages is the gospel message, written especially for those facing death. There is no greater opportunity for the gospel to do its work than when someone is facing death. Likewise, there is no greater time when the blessed assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ is more needed than when a person is consciously aware that they will be soon passing from this world to the next. Wherever you find yourself today, you need to read this book and embrace these truths.

—Steven J. Lawson, president, OnePassion Ministries, Dallas, Texas

Joel R. Beeke is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; a pastor of the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan; editor of Puritan Reformed Journal and Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth; editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books; and a prolific author.

Christopher W. Bogosh is the director of education for the Reformed Anglican Church; serves as an associate pastor at Resurrection Anglican Church in St. Augustine, Florida; and continues his work as a registered nurse and pastoral counselor specializing in medical decision making, home health case management, mental-spiritual health and wholeness, and palliative care.

Human Nature From Calvin To Edwards

• Author: Paul Helm
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 352

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Paul Helm breaks fertile ground in this survey of theological anthropology in the Reformed tradition. Acknowledging the rich patristic and medieval heritage available to Reformed theologians, Helm works through a representative range of authors and materials during the period 1550 to 1750 in order to identify certain ways of thinking as well as elements of development and change. Addressing topics like the relation of body and soul, faculty psychology, and moral agency, Helm develops a compelling picture of Reformed thought on human nature that is sure to encourage more studies on this topic for years to come.

Paul Helm’s Human Nature from Calvin to Edwards is an important book that will make a major contribution to our understanding of early modern Reformed thought, specifically because it takes on the difficult and previously un-examined question of how Reformed writers from Calvin to Edwards understood human nature in the general “anthropological” sense of the term. This analysis should have preceded the efforts of a host of scholars to come to grips with the problems of the fall, sin, grace, and human freedom, given that human nature as such is the subject of the entire discussion of all of these theological problems. In other words, Helm provides the context for further analysis of a host of theological issues. The book also, by examining the anthropological thought of a well-chosen series of writers, including Aristotle and Aquinas as well as various early modern Protestants, both illuminates the philosophical backgrounds of Reformed thought and draws our attention to a series of significant but often neglected thinkers.

—Richard A. Muller

Paul Helm is a teaching fellow at Regent College, Vancouver, where he was previously the J. I. Packer Professor of Philosophical Theology. Before going to Regent he was professor of history and philosophy of religion at King’s College in London. His books include Eternal God, The Providence of God, Faith with Reason, John Calvin’s Ideas, and John Calvin: A Guide for the Perplexed.

Preparing for the Lord’s Supper

• Author: William Bradshaw and Arthur Hildersham
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 192

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Preparing for the Lord’s Supper presents practical instruction from two Puritans. William Bradshaw’s contribution explains the dangers of taking Communion unworthily and how to prevent it. His work concludes with a set of questions to aid Christians in self-examination as they prepare for the Lord’s Supper. Bradshaw’s piece is supplemented with Arthur Hildersham’s thorough catechetical tool for understanding and properly partaking of the sacred meal. These treatises exemplify what Puritan ministers taught to common people in ordinary, obscure towns and villages as they prepared to take the Lord’s Supper. They are a similar challenge to us today to prepare ourselves thoughtfully and prayerfully before coming to the Lord’s Table. In the broadest sense, they supply a helpful guide for proving our faith through self-examination. As Bradshaw says, “The duty of trying and examining a man’s self is of use to the best of Christians.”

Bradshaw’s book, and that part of it more especially wherein are laid down certain marks and signs of faith and repentance, has been, as far as I am able to deem, the only outward instrument[al] means of my conversion, through the gracious cooperation of God’s Spirit working powerfully and efficaciously upon my heart in the reading thereof.

—Thomas Foster, a seventeenth-century Bedfordshire mercer, on Bradshaw’s A Preparation to the Receiving of the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood

William Bradshaw (1570–1618) graduated from Cambridge University and quickly became a target for anti-Puritan authorities within the Church of England. He spent most of his ministry as a household chaplain for Alexander and Katharine Rediche. He preached regularly at the local church of Stapenhill and was also engaged with Hildersham and others in the preaching exercises at Burton-upon-Trent and Ashby. In addition to his devotional writings, Bradshaw published controversial works on justification, Puritanism, episcopacy, separatism, and baptism. He died in London in 1618 at age forty-eight.

Arthur Hildersham (1563–1632) completed his studies at Cambridge University and was invited to minister at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, in 1587. He was a ceremonial nonconformist and one of the main organizers of the Puritan Millenary Petition, presented to King James I in 1603. Hildersham suffered greatly for his Puritan convictions, being dismissed from preaching, excommunicated, heavily fined, and even sent to prison. In 1625, on the death of King James I, Hildersham was relicensed as a minister and was enabled to preach again in Ashby. He died on Sunday, March 4, 1632, and was buried two days later in the chancel of St. Helen’s Church, Ashby.

Still Protesting: Why the Reformation Matters

• Author: D.G. Hart
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 224

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In this book, D. G. Hart investigates what was at stake in the sixteenth century and why Protestantism still matters. Of note is the author’s recognition that the Reformers addressed the most basic question that confronts all human beings: How can a sinner be right with and worship in good conscience a righteous God who demands sinless perfection? Protestants used to believe that this question, along with the kind of life that followed from answers to it, was at the heart of their disagreement with Rome. Still Protesting arises from the conviction that the Reformers’ answers to life’s most important questions, based on their study of the Bible and theological reflection, are as superior today as they were when they provided the grounds for Christians in the West to abandon the bishop of Rome.

Protestants, by God’s grace, did what needed to be done in the sixteenth century. This book calls us, by God’s grace, to keep at it. Dr. Hart offers a robust critique of Rome, a winsome case for Reformed Protestantism, and a delightful tour of the Reformation. Through it all, Hart brings a laser focus to the singular question posed by Luther and still relevant five hundred years later: Is Christ alone sufficient? Keep protesting yes.

—Stephen J. Nichols, president of Reformation Bible College, chief academic officer of Ligonier Ministries, and coeditor with R. C. Sproul of The Legacy of Luther

D. G. Hart lives in Michigan with his wife, Ann, and their two cats, Isabelle and Cordelia, where he teaches history at Hillsdale College.

The Beauty & Glory of the Reformation

• Author: Joel R. Beeke
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 208

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The essays in The Beauty and Glory of the Reformation call you to be grateful to God and to grow in appreciation for the rich biblical, doctrinal, experiential, and practical heritage passed on by the great sixteenth-century Reformation. Through these studies, you will be challenged to treasure basic Reformation principles such as Scripture alone, Christ alone, and the glory of God alone, as well as to grow in awareness of what amazing spiritual mentors and models of godliness a variety of Reformation stalwarts were and what they can still teach us today. These include Martin Luther, William Tyndale, Hugh Latimer, and William Perkins; lesser-known pastors in Geneva; and women such as Katherine Luther, Katharina Zell, Anna Bullinger, Katherine Willoughby, and Catherine de Bourbon. You will also discover the reformers commitment to propagate the gospel to all nations and the riches of the Reformation view of missions. Finally, you will be treated to insightful essays on Augustine as an important backdrop to the Reformation and on the beauty and glory of the Christology of the Reformation. The authors pray that these essays will help you increasingly become genuine sons and daughters of the Reformation by following the Reformers’ lives and teachings insofar as they followed the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Protestant Reformation never gets old. It is a riveting story, full of courageous and inspiring characters who were willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the gospel. In this fresh compendium of Reformation sketches, written by an array of gifted and notable authors, the thoughtful reader’s soul will be stirred by the accounts of the brave men and women who stood fast in the truth—no matter the cost. Historically gripping and devotionally rich, this volume makes a wonderful addition to every Christian’s shelf.

—Jon D. Payne, pastor, Christ Church Presbyterian, Charleston, South Carolina

Joel R. Beeke is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books, and editor of the Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth. He has written, coauthored, or edited over 70 books.

The Path of Life: Blessedness in Seasons of Lament

• Author: J. Stephen Yuille
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 224

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Psalm 119 is noted for its call to delight in the word of God. But we must not fail to realize that this great psalm is also infused with great lament. In The Path of Life, J. Stephen Yuille follows the psalmist through his many ups and downs in order to see how he gives voice to the song in our soul. Here is comfort for bearing sorrow, strength for enduring difficulty, trust for facing uncertainty, and peace for overcoming anxiety. Even in his extremity, the psalmist finds joy in the blessed God. This is how Jesus persevered through trials and endured the cross. And in Christ, you too can take up this psalm, follow the path of life, and find blessedness in your seasons of lament.

Stephen Yuille highlights lament as a distinct and crucial feature of the Psalter. Indeed, God gave His people the Psalms as powerful expressions of the very real suffering and trials His people face. The psalms of lamentation, as Yuille reminds us, give Christians a much-needed theology of suffering through which to see our sovereign God working all things, even our suffering, toward our good and for His glory.

—R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky

J. Stephen Yuille is the vice president of academics at Heritage College and Seminary, Cambridge, Ontario. He also serves as associate professor of biblical spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.