Frederick III loved studying the Word of God.  Through the providential work of God, he became a very important ruler in Heidelberg, Germany.  Most of the people belonged to the Roman Catholic Church and just accepted what the leaders taught them.  The reformation of doctrine through the work of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli brought many good changes, but there was still a lot of unrest and strife.

Frederick desperately wanted to bring peace in his land and to teach the people in a simple way what the Bible really said.  Discover in this book how God used three godly men from different countries to make this possible.

THROUGH THIS STORY CHILDREN WILL LEARN:

• What the Heidelberg Catechism is and why it was written.
• The providence of God in the lives of people to advance the gospel.
• The importance of the truth of God’s Word in the Bible.
• How God uses many difficult circumstances and sorrows to prepare us for His work.
• How godly leadership can influence many people, even nations.
• The blessing of working together as God’s people.
• Where to find the only true and lasting comfort and help.
• The encouragement found in history.

DESCRIPTION:

Written in plain language easy enough for young children to understand, this beautifully illustrated hardcover book will whet their appetites to learn more about God‘s Word and boldly live for the single purpose of glorifying His name through all of life’s ups and downs.  Evan Hughes has done a wonderful job of creating a visual telling of the story through his colorful and well thought out illustrations. 

The Heidelberg Catechism: A Study Guide by G.I Williamson would be a good resource to study with your family after reading A Quest for Comfort.

Review by Tunize Bezuidenhout
Augustine Bookroom
South Africa

TITLE: Athanasius
AUTHOR: Simonetta Carr
ISBN: 9781601781512
AGES: 7-12
RHB PRICE:  $ 14
RETAIL PRICE: $ 18                

Athanasius: A Man Who Stood for the Truth.

Youths face enormous pressure in the world today, with its many snares and temptations to lure them away from the path of righteousness and godly living.  Every wind of doctrine under the banner of Christianity is eager to corrupt their minds with false ideas and philosophies.  This is nothing new under the sun.  From as early as 300 years after Christ, Athanasius was faced with the same challenges. What can we learn from reading about his life?  Will you make a stand for the truth, or be tossed about by the thoughts of men who persuade with their eloquence and determination?    

Church history helps us learn from the examples of many people raised up by God, even from a young age like Athanasius, how we ought to live for Christ in a world of falsehood, trickery, and deceit.  Through church history we see the hand of God at work, the character of God displayed, and the glorious triumph of the truth of God.

The faith of the faithful in the past encourages our faith for the future as we see that the God of yesterday is also the God of today and tomorrow, faithful to His promises, trustworthy to the end, full of grace and mercy for every circumstance we may face.

God used ordinary people just like you and me to accomplish extraordinary things.  You don’t need to be a super human to be valiant for Christ.  Athanasius was a man who spoke the simple language of the common people instead of the complicated language of the Greek teachers.  It was his passion and love for Christ that made him stand out above others, and he was loved by many.

Read this inspiring biography of Athanasius.  Your life will be enriched to learn about the providence and power of God at work to preserve His servant through many tribulations and to let the truth of God’s Word prevail.   

Who was Athanasius?

Athanasius was the bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, best remembered as the Father of Orthodoxy and for upholding the doctrine of the Trinity against the Arian heresy that was based on the idea that Jesus was not eternal, could not be the same as God, and had to be a creature.  In this fascinating addition to the Christian Biographies for Young Readers series, author Simonetta Carr introduces children to the life and times of this courageous and important church father who tirelessly defended the Nicene Creed.  A creed is a document that states what a person or group of people believe.  The Nicene Creed was compiled by about three hundred bishops from different regions of the empire, and it expresses the truth that Jesus is truly God, not created, and equal to the Father.  The life of Athanasius was marked by constant threats, lies, and persecution to ruin his reputation, but during all his difficulties he remained an example of godly faithfulness.  His life ended in years of peace after he completed many important writings, such as “On The Incarnation.”   

The Nicene Creed (as it was revised)  

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

A Quote from Athanasius.

“He became what we are so that he might make us what he is.”
— St. Athanasius of Alexandria

Other books in the Christian Biographies For Young Readers Series, Ages 7-12:

John Calvin
Augustine of Hippo
John Owen

By Tunize Bezuidenhout
Manager
Augustine Bookroom
South Africa

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Phillip Simpson, 

The writings of Jeremiah Burroughs are some of the most readable and engaging Puritan works available.  Like his Puritan colleagues, Burroughs sought to explain biblical teaching in a heart-searching manner. In this biography, Phillip L. Simpson opens a window into the life and times of Burroughs, providing the context for his memorable sermons and writings. What becomes apparent is Burroughs’s consistent application of the principles he preached to the conduct of his life. An ardent call for a gospel-driven life and a peaceable character is reflected in both his books and life, which stand out remarkably in an era of turmoil and revolution. This is the first book-length biography of Jeremiah Burroughs.

Publisher’s Description: During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, a “spiritual brotherhood” formed among the Puritans, shaped by the reforming activity and training of Cambridge. These pastor-theologians initiated a new emphasis within the established church, stirring up a greater understanding of the Reformation doctrines of grace and preaching for conversion and Christian growth and piety. In this study, Paul Schaefer looks at six thinkers in this group who stand out because each was used as the human vehicle to bring the gospel to the next: William Perkins, Paul Baynes, Richard Sibbes, John Cotton, John Preston, and Thomas Shepard. By examining their teaching on the relation between man’s depraved nature and sovereign grace, as well as the distinct but inseparable relation of justification and sanctification, Schaefer demonstrates how the Puritan movement came to focus most intently on the cultivation of Reformed piety within the church.

Endorsements: “All those who would better understand the leading figures and ideas behind Reformed theology and piety as it was forged in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England and as it was adapted in the early colonial period in the New World will be grateful for Paul Schaefer’s most valuable and careful research. We are all in his debt.”

—R. Scott Clark, Professor of Church History and Historical Theology, Westminster Seminary California

 Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Knowing the Times: The Spiritual Brotherhood and Its Puritanism in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Social Contexts
2. William Perkins: The Good Fight of the Heart Redeemed
3. Paul Baynes: Ministering to the Heart Set Free
4. Richard Sibbes: The Union of the Heart with Christ
5. John Preston: The Triumph of Grace on the Inclinations of the Heart
6. An American Epilogue: Looking at Sola Gratia from Differing Angles—Cotton and Shepard and Massachusetts’s Antinomian Controversy
An Afterword
Appendix: Orthodoxies in Massachusetts?
Bibliography
Index

About the Author: Paul R. Schaefer, Jr. is the chair of the religion department and professor of religion at Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania.

The Marrow Controversy and Seceder Tradition: Atonement, Saving Faith, and the Gospel Offer in Scotland (1718–1799), by William VanDoodewaard

 Paperback, 336 pages
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN 978-1-60178-149-9
Retail Price: $25.00
RHB Price: $19.00

Description: After the Reformation, the Marrow Controversy of the eighteenth century is noted as one of the most significant and defining events in the Scottish church. However, until now, there has not been a serious analysis of the theology of the Marrow Men as it relates to churches in Scotland during the aftermath of the controversy. In this important study, William VanDoodewaard identifies characteristic understandings of Marrow theology on the atonement, saving faith, and the free offer of the gospel and traces them out in the theology of the Seceder tradition. In doing so, he presents substantial evidence for the continuity of Marrow theology in the Associate Presbytery and Associate Synod in Scotland during the eighteenth century. He ably demonstrates that while Marrow theology was not the primary cause of the Secession churches, the Seceders were aware of the significance of Marrow theology and consciously made it an integral part of their churches.

Endorsement:“William VanDoodewaard has satisfied a scholarly need by carefully demonstrating the substantial theological continuity between Thomas Boston and the rest of Scotland’s early eighteenth-century Marrow Men and the later churches of the Associate Presbytery and Associate Synod. While this connection has long been assumed, it is now thoroughly demonstrated. The trilogy of doctrines at the heart of VanDoodewaard’s argument—the substitutionary atonement, saving faith, and the free offer of the gospel—are not of merely historical interest, but of perennial necessity for the truth of the gospel and the vitality of the Christian church.” - Philip G. Ryken, President, Wheaton College

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1: Views of the Gospel and Its Proclamation: The Era of the Marrow Controversy
1. The Marrow of Modern Divinity and the Marrow Controversy
2. Views of the Gospel and Its Proclamation: Opponents of the Marrow
3. Views of the Gospel and Its Proclamation: Supporters of the Marrow
4. Conclusions on the Doctrine of the Atonement, Saving Faith, and the Gospel Offer during the Marrow Controversy

Part 2: Views of the Gospel and Its Proclamation: The Secession Churches in Scotland to 1847
5. A Historical Introduction to the Secession Churches
6. Historiographical Evidences for the Continuity of Marrow Theology
7. Theological Evidences for the Continuity of Marrow Theology in the Associate Presbytery (1733–1747)
8. The Associate Presbytery, George Whitefield, and the Cambuslang Revival
9. Theological Evidences for the Continuity of Marrow Theology in the Associate Synod: John Swanston to John Fraser (1748–1770)
10. Theological Evidences for the Continuity of Marrow Theology in the Associate Synod: George Lawson to Henry Belfrage (1771–1799)
11. Departures from Marrow Theology and the Growth of Latitudinarianism in the Associate Synod
12. Conclusions on the Continuity of Marrow Theology in the Associate Presbytery and Associate Synod Secession Churches in Scotland to 1799

Appendix 1: Outline Chart of Ecclesiastical History in Scotland
Appendix 2: A Visual Chronology of Continuities of Marrow Theology
Bibliography
Index

About the Author: William VanDoodewaard is associate professor of church history at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and an ordained minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Enjoy the spiritual feast served in The Beauty and Glory of Christ, a compilation of the addresses given at the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary’s annual conference in August 2010 at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Each essay sets before readers the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ, the hope of our glory and the glory of our hope. Topics include Christ’s beauty prophesied and typified in Isaiah and Song of Solomon; Christ’s glory in His incarnation, earthly ministry, and death on the cross; Christ in historical theology and everyday life; and Christ’s glorious exaltation in His resurrection and in His triumph in the book of Revelation. Contributors include David Murray, Iain Campbell, Richard Phillips, Gerald Bilkes, David Carmichael, Albert Martin, Joel Beeke, William VanDoodewaard, Ray Pennings, and James Grier.

Teaching Predestination: 

Paperback, 208 pages
Page size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches
Retail Price: $25.00
RHB Price: $19.00
ISBN 978-1-60178-148-2

Publisher’s Description:

In Teaching Predestination, David H. Kranendonk focuses on the ministry of an early seventeenth-century Puritan-leaning theologian, Elnathan Parr (1577–1622). Although relatively unknown today, Parr’s works were popular in his own day. Kranendonk’s survey contributes a nuanced picture of this English Reformed pastor and demonstrates that Parr’s scholastic development of predestination, coupled with his pastoral concern for the salvation and edification of his hearers, resists the caricature of Reformed Scholasticism as being a philosophically speculative system. Here one sees the practical use of predestination for the care of souls as Parr and others aimed to help increase the faith and joy of God’s people.

Endorsements:

“In this careful analysis of the Calvinist preaching and catechesis of Elnathan Parr, David Kranendonk reveals the pastoral significance of the teaching of predestination. He convincingly explains how a forbidding doctrine seemingly based on cold logic could be ‘on the ground’ of parish life a spiritually enriching source of comfort and joy. Kranendonk strengthens his argument by his impressive familiarity with Parr’s contemporaries in practical theology and by his emphasis on the exegetical rather than speculative nature of much Reformed piety and theology in early Stuart England.” —Dewey D. Wallace Jr., professor of religion, George Washington University

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Elnathan Parr’s Life and Ministry
3. Elnathan Parr’s Principles of Preaching
4. Elnathan Parr’s Exposition of Romans
5. Elnathan Parr’s Grounds of Divinity
Conclusion

About the Author:

David H. Kranendonk is the pastor of the Free Reformed Church of Bornholm, Onario, Canada.

James Garretson, 

“A Scribe Well-Trained” acquaints us with the life and writings of Princeton Theological Seminary’s founding professor, Archibald Alexander (1772–1851). In the opening biographical sketch, James M. Garretson introduces us to the things that influenced Alexander and how he sought to cultivate godliness in himself, the men he trained, and people to whom he ministered. Garretson reinforces this through fifty-six short excerpts from across the published writings of Alexander, allowing us to experience firsthand the richness of “Old Princeton” spirituality.

Paperback, 208 pages
Retail Price: $10.00
RHB Price: $7.50
ISBN 978-1-60178-147-5

Endorsements:

“James Garretson’s book on Archibald Alexander, Princeton Seminary’s first teacher, is an excellent addition to an important series. Garretson provides a brief but substantive overview of the life and especially the piety of Alexander, offers fifty-six selections from his writings, and concludes with an interesting appendix on ‘Impressions of Dr. Alexander.’  This book will inform the mind but even more stir the heart to greater love for God and deeper holiness of life.” —David B. Calhoun

“Garretson has favored us with a wonderful study on biblical and Christian piety as displayed through the writings of this early American Presbyterian minister and educator. Those who are interested in an introduction on Christian piety need look no further. Here it is!” —Robert L. Reymond

About the Author:

James M. Garretson is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. He has pastored congregations in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian Church in America, served as a professor of practical theology at Knox Theological Seminary, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is author and editor of several volumes examining the biographical profiles of faculty and theology of pastoral ministry embodied at “Old Princeton” Theological Seminary.

John Owen displayed at the San Diego County Library

The Poor Man’s Morning and Evening Portions by Robert Hawker (1753–1827) is a great devotional classic that received its unique name because it was originally published in small “penny” portions so as to be affordable to the poor. Running through numerous editions in the nineteenth century, these devotionals have served as spiritual food and drink for thousands. Hawker excels in Christ-centered, practical divinity. He has been taught by the Spirit how to find Christ in the Scriptures, as well as how to present Him amiably to hungry sinners in search of daily communion with a personal Redeemer. For the genuine Christian, here is daily devotional writing at its best—warmly Christ-centered, eminently practical, personally searching. Unlike most other daily devotional books of Reformed persuasion that consist of fragmented extracts,The Poor Man’s Morning and Evening Portions was composed expressly for such use. You will feel the difference immediately. Each of these 730 devotional portions is complete in itself and speaks directly to you, compelling you to hold soliloquy with your own soul. Read this volume daily; let Hawker bring the Word of God close to your conscience.  Pray for the Spirit to apply these short, savory devotions to your daily and eternal gain.