{"id":48588,"date":"2019-02-05T13:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/uk\/?p=48588"},"modified":"2019-02-05T12:56:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T12:56:34","slug":"why-christians-must-be-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banneroftruth.org\/uk\/resources\/articles\/2019\/why-christians-must-be-readers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Christians Must Be Readers"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee,\u00a0and the books, but especially the parchments.’<\/em>
\n— 2 Timothy 4:13<\/p>\n

Paul is in prison and in a short time is to lose his life at the instigation of\u00a0the Roman Emperor Nero. But in prison he invites Timothy to bring\u00a0with him books and parchments. It is a most interesting scene. Here is a\u00a0great man, full of the Spirit of God, with a life of fruitfulness almost unparalleled\u00a0in the history of mankind. Soon he will leave this world and go to\u00a0be with Christ. But in his prison cell he longs for something which Timothy\u00a0can bring — books and parchments.<\/p>\n

We cannot know for sure what these books and parchments were. They\u00a0might, of course, have been the Scriptures of the Old Testament. We bear in\u00a0mind that the New Testament Scriptures were only beginning to exist at this time as a collection of books. They certainly were not yet put together in the\u00a0form of a completed New Testament. So in all likelihood these books and\u00a0parchments included the Old Testament Scriptures. But Paul was a prolific\u00a0reader and an indefatigable student. It is probable that amongst these books\u00a0and parchments were other books, perhaps commentaries on Scripture or even\u00a0secular books written by Greek writers of the pagan world. You will know\u00a0that on two or three occasions Paul reveals his familiarity with pagan Greek\u00a0literature. He evidently did not despise the best of the Greek literature.<\/p>\n

At this point we might ask a question of our text. If it was the Bible of the\u00a0Old Testament that Paul was asking to be brought, my question would be,\u00a0\u2018Why did he need it?\u2019. He had a consummately good memory. He had\u00a0studied the Scriptures from his childhood, and he must have been almost\u00a0able to quote the Old Testament from memory. Some people have achieved\u00a0something similar.\u00a0 Why then would he need the Scriptures, if he had them\u00a0stored away in his own mind?<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if it was not the Bible of the Old Testament he was\u00a0asking for, but other books, one might ask, \u2018Why would he want them?\u2019 He\u00a0was, after all, so close to death and to glory. Soon he would see his Saviour\u2019s face and receive his immortal honours from Christ. You would hardly think\u00a0that such a man would be interested to read anything but divine, spiritual\u00a0and inspired literature. But whatever it was he wanted, and whatever it was\u00a0he needed, he asked for these books to come. So we are faced with the question:\u00a0Why?<\/p>\n

Let me suggest three reasons.<\/p>\n

First, I would suggest that if a man is once a reader, he is always a reader.\u00a0And a prison cell to a reader becomes a home from home when there are\u00a0books. A small shelf of familiar books is like a small cluster of familiar\u00a0friends. How the apostle in prison at Rome would have rejoiced to see these\u00a0old \u2018companions\u2019 beside him!<\/p>\n

And then, as a second reason, it does not matter how advanced a Christian\u00a0is in knowledge, grace, wisdom and experience; in this life he has not yet\u00a0come to perfection. The apostle was forever pressing on to that perfection\u00a0which was his desired goal.<\/p>\n

Even as the shadow of eternity fell upon him, he was anxious that his\u00a0dying days should be also learning days and days of progression. Evidently\u00a0there were still things he had to learn, and he was humble enough to indicate his readiness to learn from books.<\/p>\n

Let me offer to you a third reason. I would suggest that the apostle includes\u00a0these words for Timothy\u2019s sake, as though to say to Timothy, \u2018You must be a reader, Timothy. You are taking up the work that I am laying\u00a0down.\u2019<\/p>\n

Technically, Timothy was what we call an evangelist. An evangelist in the\u00a0New Testament sense is what we would call an apostolic helper. He did not\u00a0have plenary divine inspiration as the apostles did. Whenever the apostles\u00a0opened their mouth officially to preach, what they said was infallible, conveying\u00a0the very Word of God. But Timothy did not have that gift. His work\u00a0was the consolidation of the churches of Christ, and it was essential that\u00a0amongst other responsibilities that Timothy would take upon himself was\u00a0reading the best books.<\/p>\n

So I do not think it is straining the passage to say to you that the doctrine\u00a0from these words is surely this: A Christian man or woman must be a reader,\u00a0all his or her life. We are to be readers to our dying day.<\/p>\n

No book is remotely comparable to the Bible. So it is most important that\u00a0in talking about books we say something first about the way to read the Bible\u00a0to greatest profit. When we read the Word of God, I believe we should try\u00a0to memorise it and try to learn it off by heart. We cannot know the Bible too\u00a0well.<\/p>\n

We know nothing compared to some of our forefathers in the faith. You\u00a0would have heard of the Waldensians. They were the evangelicals of the\u00a0Middle Ages. They lived in northern Italy in remote and inaccessible valleys\u00a0and hillsides. They maintained the Word of God in its integrity and purity\u00a0for centuries. Their ministers more or less had to learn the New Testament\u00a0by heart before they entered the ministry, and often they knew the Psalms\u00a0also. We know our Bible so little compared with them. We feel so humbled\u00a0to compare ourselves with them. The Waldensians are an inspiration to us to\u00a0learn our Bible. It is not enough just to read it. We are to imbibe it until, like\u00a0John Bunyan<\/a>, our very blood is \u2018bibline\u2019 and the mind of Christ fills our\u00a0whole conception of everything. Judge of everything by this book. That is\u00a0the way in which we are to use the Bible.<\/p>\n

Then, let me say, read the Bible so as to consolidate your theology. What\u00a0is missing in many Bible readers today in the world is that they have not\u00a0understood the theology of the Bible, and that is an incalculable loss. What\u00a0is the theology of the Bible? It is the distillation of all its teachings. Put the\u00a0Bible in the crucible, heat it up, distill it to its essence, and what you have is\u00a0what the world has learned to call \u2018Calvinism\u2019.<\/p>\n

The system of theology of the Bible is the system of grace which is enshrined\u00a0for us in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, and in similar\u00a0statements of religious doctrine and belief. We must see that and have that\u00a0consolidated more and more in our minds.<\/p>\n

You will forgive me for being a little parochial in saying that there is\u00a0one very good thing in the Highlands of Scotland that we could export\u00a0to Christians all around the world. After the evening services and prayer\u00a0meetings on a week-night and on the Lord\u2019s Day they frequently gather\u00a0together in one or other of the homes of the congregation to talk about the\u00a0Word of God. One of the men, let us say, will ask the questions, and another\u00a0of the men will volunteer answers; and then other people will be drawn in to\u00a0speak from their own experience about things relating to the text of Scripture\u00a0that is being discussed.<\/p>\n

God did not make us to be mindless. We begin with the mind. True religion\u00a0begins with the mind, and that is what is so wonderful about Calvin<\/a>, the\u00a0Puritans, and those who followed on in the same linear succession. They\u00a0begin with the mind. They address the mind. They give factual, propositional\u00a0instruction to the intellect of man.<\/p>\n

Then the Puritans addressed the heart. The mind is the first thing, but not\u00a0the only thing. What we believe must affect our emotions, and that is what\u00a0they believed in: the religion of the heart. Their books deal with such subjects as keeping the heart, and watching the heart, and resisting the devil and\u00a0temptation. This is the practice of the Christian life. They dealt with every\u00a0aspect of the believer\u2019s life: prayer; meditation; how to listen to sermons; how\u00a0to sanctify the Sabbath day; our conduct in divine worship; family worship;\u00a0the instruction of children; the Christian\u2019s daily walk and conversation;\u00a0knowing your adversary the devil and his wiles.<\/p>\n

In Scotland the Puritans were known as \u2018Covenanters\u2019 for reasons I will\u00a0not go into just now, though you will probably know them. If you want to\u00a0know more about the Scottish Covenanters, then do read some of the books\u00a0which the Banner of Truth has brought out. The best of these is Men of the\u00a0Covenant, by Alexander Smellie<\/a>.1<\/a><\/sup> Then there is another book which has\u00a0recently come out called The Scots Worthies<\/a>, by John Howie<\/a> of Lochgoin.\u00a0They were wonderful men and women and children.<\/p>\n

Many of the best books written in the nineteenth and early twentieth\u00a0centuries have come from Princeton Theological Seminary. I would like to commend to you two fine books written by Professor David Calhoun<\/a> on\u00a0Princeton.2<\/a><\/sup> If you haven\u2019t read them, then you have a treat in store. The first\u00a0volume talks about Princeton in its heyday, and the other, sadly, is about\u00a0Princeton in decline, when liberalism began to invade the faculty and the\u00a0students.<\/p>\n

But those writers who come from the old Princeton tradition deserve to\u00a0be highly loved and respected: Archibald Alexander<\/a>, Charles Hodge<\/a>, A.A.\u00a0Hodge<\/a>. This pure religion came back to Britain through the influence of Dr D.\u00a0Martyn Lloyd-Jones<\/a>. At an early period of his ministry Dr Lloyd-Jones was in a\u00a0bookshop when he saw two volumes of a writer he did not know called Jonathan\u00a0Edwards<\/a>. The sheer power and spiritual vitality of the writer was astonishing\u00a0to him and had a formative influence upon his whole subsequent ministry.<\/p>\n

I should say that between the two world wars the Puritan books were\u00a0worth next to nothing in England. You could go to a secondhand book\u00a0dealer and ask for these books, and if there were any there to be had you\u00a0could get them for maybe a shilling a volume. Nobody wanted them. They\u00a0were simply being thrown out. Indeed, during the wartime they were being\u00a0pulped by the government. You would receive a shilling or something for\u00a0every ton of books that you turned in to some government agency, and they\u00a0just pulped them for the war effort.<\/p>\n

So thousands of the best theological books vanished in that way. But in 1957\u00a0a small start was made to reprint some of these great old books. You may\u00a0know some of the early books that were published by the Banner of Truth\u00a0Trust. When some of us who were young Christians in that period (as I was)\u00a0started to read these books, it was like beholding a lost continent! It was like\u00a0standing on the edge of a new world!<\/p>\n

The Banner continued its work, and it grew and grew and grew. When\u00a0they first began to publish Puritans and to reprint Spurgeon<\/a>, some Christian\u00a0publishers said with a smile, \u2018It\u2019s a waste of time, because nobody is going to\u00a0buy these old books!\u2019 But they did, until it literally came to the stage that the\u00a0demand for some of the books they published outstripped the supply! They\u00a0could not get them out fast enough!<\/p>\n

Some of these books are the very best books the world has ever seen. Scarcely\u00a0any language in the world has had such books as the English language. Today\u00a0if you go to countries which are influenced by the gospel, the first thing these\u00a0other countries have to do is to read our language. In Korea today and other\u00a0countries Christians are learning our language because they want access to\u00a0the Puritans!<\/p>\n

I was very touched recently while in Korea to meet a number of young\u00a0people who said to me, \u2018We have started a Puritan club.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said, \u2018What\u2019s that?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018We get together and one of us reads from one of the Puritans to all the\u00a0rest,\u2019 (translated into Korean, of course).<\/p>\n

I thought, What an extraordinary thing! Young people gathering to read\u00a0the Puritans. But you see, my point is this: You and I don\u2019t need to learn the\u00a0English language. We have it; we were born with it. It is our mother tongue.\u00a0Shame on you and me if, having the language and having the books and\u00a0having the means of getting them, we do not fill ourselves with this divine\u00a0knowledge. Through reading the Word of God and the best books, the smell\u00a0of heaven should be felt by others to be in our hearts and homes.<\/p>\n

\n

This article was first published in the March 2000 edition of the Banner of Truth<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

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Notes<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Men of the Covenant\u00a0<\/em>is now out of print and only obtainable second-hand or from libraries. The Scots Worthies<\/em>, by John Howie (ISBN 978 0 85151 686 6, 672 pp., cloth-bound, \u00a317.95\/$35.99) is available from the Trust. Fair Sunshine<\/em>, by Jock Purves (ISBN 978 0 85151 136 8, 208pp., paperback, \u00a33.95\/$8.99) is also well worth reading.<\/li>\n
  2. David B. Calhoun, Princeton Seminary: Faith and Learning, 1812\u201368<\/em> (ISBN 978 0 85151 670 X, 528 pp., cloth-bound, \u00a317.95\/$35.99) and Princeton Seminary: The Majestic Testimony, 1868\u20131929<\/em> (ISBN 978 0 85151 695 5, 592 pp., cloth-bound, \u00a315.95\/$32.99)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n
    \n

    A Few Banner Classics<\/h3>\n