Heath Lambert: We are in the last ten podcasts that I will host as the Executive Director of ACBC and as the host of the Truth In Love podcast. What we did for these last ten is to ask the staff of ACBC some of the topics they thought I should address, and one of the topics they thought I should speak about is the issue of influential books. Sean Perron, our Operations Director at ACBC, is here this week to talk about influential books and how various books have impacted me. Sean, we’re glad you’re on the podcast.
Sean Perron: Heath, we are aware that one of the questions that people ask you all over the country is, “What is your favorite book?” We know how much you dislike this question. We actually want to ask you this very question, but we want to ask it as it relates to the various categories that you talk about in your lecture “The Calling of All Christians,” which you give at all of our counseling and discipleship training events. What are your favorite books in relation to the categories that have influenced you in ministry?
Heath Lambert: Sean, you are being very kind to a lame duck Executive Director and asking me this question, because I do hate the question, “What is your favorite book?” It’s like asking me which of my children is my favorite child. I love my children more than books by the way, so don’t write a letter. It is more helpful for me to talk in terms of categories, and you’re right that at our counseling and discipleship trainings at ACBC I do talk about the five different divisions of theology. One of the ways that it is helpful for me to arrange my favorite books is according to those divisions of theology. I’ll talk about those and give a few influential books in each category.
The first category that I talk about is exegetical theology, and when we talk about exegetical theology, we’re talking about a study of the words and phrases of the text of Scripture. We’re talking about getting as close to the meaning of the words and phrases in Scripture as possible. When I think about books in the division of exegetical theology, there are a number of books that stand out to me as having been really influential in my life that I would mention in the context of this podcast.
First of all is Robert Stein’s commentary on the Gospel of Luke, and the reason that one stands out to me is because it was actually the first commentary that I ever read. I was a college student and was thinking about pursuing the Lord in Christian ministry. I was actually at a college that was fairly liberal and did not hold a high view of Scripture. But when I read the commentary by Bob Stein on the Gospel of Luke, I was aware that he did hold to a very high view of Scripture, and I didn’t know that there was such a thing as biblical commentaries. It was so incredible for me to read Stein’s work and see how he just went through verse by verse in the Gospel of Luke and explained it, holding up a high view of the text of Scripture. Then it was even more wonderful when I graduated college and then went to seminary and actually had the opportunity to study with Dr. Stein.
I would say the Gospel of Luke commentary by Bob Stein, and then a second book that I would say is the Revelation commentary by Greg Beale, the big first one that he wrote. I love that book. I think the Book of Revelation is an important book. Every book of the Bible is important, but Revelation is important to study because it’s so misunderstood by so many people. I think that his treatment of John’s apocalypse is so full and robust, and I end up agreeing with many of his interpretations throughout the book. Even when I disagree with Beale’s interpretation of the text of Scripture, I always am amazed at how he has studied the text. He relates it to the larger revelation in Scripture, and I think it’s just an incredibly wonderful book. So in exegetical theology there are two books that have been influential.
The second category of theology that we can talk about is biblical theology, and when we talk about biblical theology, we’re talking about taking the words and phrases and verses of Scripture and understanding them in the context of the overarching storyline of Scripture. So every verse of Scripture means what it means, but the question of biblical theology is, “What is the overall message of Scripture?” This has been an area of great interest of mine over the years. I’ve read a lot of books on it.
I would say the one’s that stand out to me as very influential are, first of all, Abraham’s Four Seeds by John Reisinger. I think Reisinger thinks very clearly about issues of biblical theology. In that little book, Abraham’s Four Seeds, he uses the four seeds of Abraham, the language of seed or seeds, as a case study for how to put the Bible together and understand the Old Testament in light of the New. I remember reading that years and years ago and having an experience like scales falling off of my eyes as I had worked so hard to try to figure out whether I was a covenant theologian or a dispensationalist. Reading so much in those two areas and seeing John Reisinger treat the text of Scripture in a way that was more organic and more faithful to the actual words of Scripture influenced the way I saw those two other theological systems. I’d say Abraham’s Four Seeds.
Another book more recent than that is Kingdom through Covenant by Stephen Wellum and Peter Gentry, a book that is nearly magisterial in its treatment of these issues. Reading that book was so influential for me because I had actually studied with Dr. Welham and Dr. Gentry in my seminary studies. And, in fact, after a lecture on the Old Testament from Dr. Gentry, I went up to him and just said, “You have to write this down or I can’t imagine that you’d be faithful to the ministry that the Lord has given you,” because he was just answering so many questions I had. Then of course, years later once the book was published, he came up to me and asked me graciously—and with his tongue in his cheek—if he was now a faithful man for having published this book. I assured him that I was just really thankful that his thoughts were in print and the way that they are in that book. Kingdom through Covenant is a thicker read than Abraham’s Four Seeds, but it is so thorough in how it seeks to understand the Old Testament in light of the New. It was very helpful to me.
The third category of theology that we could talk about is systematic theology. If biblical theology has been an interest of mine, then I always say that systematic theology was my first love in terms of theology. I’ve read more in the area of systematic theology and studied more in the area of systematic theology than any of the other areas. It’s really hard to answer this question. I would say that, in trying to answer it, that two books have been very influential to me.
One is Jonathan Edwards’ The Freedom of the Will. I remember reading that book 15 or 20 years ago. I read it having a busy schedule, but stayed up late to read the book. I was reading it in the old Puritan type and the double column, and it was hard to read because it was so small. I would shine the light on it and try to keep up with it, and it would have been impossible except that the content was so riveting and kept driving me forward and answering questions that I had for years. It answered questions that I never knew that I had as I read Jonathan Edwards’ The Freedom of the Will. It just really was powerful in framing my theological thinking about how the human will works with divine sovereignty.
Another book, much more modern, I would say would be John Frame’s book, The Doctrine of the Word of God. Any book by John Frame is worth your time. He is a masterful theological thinker, but The Doctrine of the Word of God is an incredibly powerful book. J.I. Packer and his commendation of the book refers to it as a “magisterial work on the Word of God,” and I think that that is true. He deals with all of the major categories as it relates to the doctrine of the Word of God and would be profitable for anybody who wants to grow more in their study of Scripture.
A fourth category of theology would be historical theology. In historical theology, we are looking at what the church has believed and what the church has done in the years past. In the area of historical theology, I’ll mention two books.
Arnold Dallimore’s two-volume work on George Whitfield was incredibly helpful to me. It’s very well written; it summarizes Whitfield’s life and ministry in incredibly powerful ways. It just had a tremendous impact on me reading about the ministry of the great revivalist preacher, George Whitefield.
Another book different than the biography of Whitfield would be Gregg Allison’s book Historical Theology. It’s a companion volume of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. Dr. Allison just does a masterful job in taking important categories of systematic theology and tracing them back through the history of the church and surveying what the church believed. It’s a big book, but I remember I bought it when it first came out, and I plowed through it in just a few days. It is a helpful, encouraging read that anybody who’s interested in growing in what the church has understood about the key doctrines of the Christian faith ought to read.
Then finally in practical theology: this is where ministry happens. This is where biblical counseling happens. This is an area that a lot of Christians are going to have read in. I would split practical theology up into three different disciplines: preaching in the public ministry of the Word, the private ministry of the Word in thinking about our own walk with Jesus Christ, and then the personal ministry of the Word as we do conversational ministry and counseling.
In each of those, I would say that the most influential book I’ve ever read on preaching is Preaching and Preachers, by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Anybody who wants to be a preacher or who is a preacher and hasn’t read that book ought to stop what they’re doing right now and go get it and read it.
Second category: the private ministry of the Word where we’re growing in our relationship with Jesus Christ. There are a number of really helpful books for me personally, but I would say probably the most influential is John Piper’s book A Hunger for God. I’m a different man today because I read A Hunger for God however many years ago. It is a book that masquerades as a book about fasting but it’s really a book that is about trading in every gift the world has to offer to know Jesus more. I am so thankful that I read that book.
A third category: the personal ministry of the Word in counseling. It is risky business for the executive director of a biblical counseling organization on a biblical counseling podcast to recommend just one book on counseling, but I will take the risk since I’m down to my last two months. Out of all the books that are commendable, I will recommend Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams for a personal reason and for a historic reason.
For personal reasons, it was the first book on biblical counseling that I ever read as a sophomore in high school, and Adams’ argument is essentially if you’ve got the kind of problem that requires counseling, you need the kind of counseling care that is centered on Scripture. That’s his fundamental thesis. He says a lot of other things. He says a lot of controversial things. He says a lot of things that many folks are going to agree or disagree with, but it was the first book I read. I believed then and continue to believe now that his thesis is fundamentally correct.
For a historical reason, it was the first biblical counseling book that really launched the biblical counseling movement. It was the first book in a hundred years that offered an approach to counseling that was distinctly biblical. As a matter of fact every single person involved in the biblical counseling movement today has Jay Adams’ and his work in Competent to Counsel to thank for it.
In fact, I’ll tell one story. I was having dinner with Paul Tripp years ago, probably ten years ago in Chicago, and we were talking at dinner. He said, “When I go back and I pull my old dog-eared, highlighted, note-covered copy of Competent to Counsel off the shelf and review what Jay Adams wrote all those years ago, I see the seed of everything I’ve ever written in any book I’ve ever published.” Even somebody like Paul Tripp who’s very influential in the biblical counseling movement and beyond today would say, “I have Jay Adams to thank for containing the seed form of every idea that I’ve ever written.” I don’t think there’s any denying the import of Jay Adams’ work. Those are some of my most influential books.
Sean Perron: In other categories that we’ve not yet talked about such as biography and fiction, what would you recommend as your favorite or close to favorites in those categories?
Heath Lambert: Biography is really hard for me to answer. I love biographies. They are some of the best things to read. In fact, if you’re listening to this right now and you’re not a reader, start with biographies. There’s lessons to learn, stories to hear. The non-Christian biography I would say is Manchester’s three volumes on Winston Churchill called The Last Lion. He writes with an amazing ability to give an incredible amount of detail while still having it be riveting storytelling. You’re reading about war strategy and planning, but you’re still interested. He’s still carrying you through the story, and it’s a dramatic and a wonderful picture of Winston Churchill that I would commend to anyone who is interested in biography in general, World War II or Churchill in particular.
As far as fiction, I’ll give two. One is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde, an incredibly broken, sinful man, wrote a book just out of the overflow of common grace about how sin catches up with you and sin shows itself in your experiences in ways that it’s impossible to cover up. Anyone just interested in the effects of sin on a life should go read that novel. It’s written by an unbeliever, but by an unbeliever who, because of God’s common grace, has a penetrating insight into human existence.
Another one just for fun would be to read anything by P.G. Wodehouse. He is the British author from early in the last century. I have never read a novel by P.G. Wodehouse that is not hysterical. It’s British humor, so if you read it, you’ll think I’m a loser. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What I like you don’t have to like, but I found Wodehouse to be hysterical, particularly his series about Jeeves, who is a butler to an idiotic rich man named Bertie Wooster. It is hysterical. In fact, just to keep the biblical counseling theme going, I’ll tell a story on my good friend David Powlison. He was, years ago when he was my PhD supervisor, in Louisville for a few days. I lived there at the time and before he went back to Philadelphia, I gave him a gift of a P.G. Wodehouse book called Joy Comes in the Morning, which is probably the first one you ought to read if you’ve never read any Wodehouse or any Jeeves and Bertie. I gave him a copy of it and said, “This is not serious. This is not high-flown theology or personal ministry. This is just kicks and giggles. Go read this on the airplane.” I gave it to him, and I heard from him when he got back to Philly that he did indeed read the book at the airport and on the airplane, and he told me that he laughed so hard, he thought he was going to be arrested by the police. You heard it here first: Joy Comes in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse.
Exegetical Theology
The Gospel of Luke by Robert Stein
The Book of Revelation by G.K. Beale
Biblical Theology
Abraham’s Four Seeds by John Reisinger
Kingdom through Covenant by Stephen Wellum and Peter Gentry
Systematic Theology
The Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edward’s
The Doctrine of the Word of God by John Frame
Historical Theology
George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore
Historical Theology by Gregg Allison
Practical Theology
Preaching/Public Ministry
Preaching and Preachers by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Private Ministry
A Hunger for God by John Piper
Personal Ministry
Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
Biography
The Last Lion by Manchester
Fiction
The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Novels by P.G. Wodehouse
