Top Ten books of 2024
Each year I try to read a variety of books, and the last few Decembers I’ve tried to choose my top ten of the books I’ve finished. Here’s my list for 2024, along with a few words and a quote.
Delighting in the Trinity, Michael Reeves. This one gets my “book of the year” vote. Reeves can flat write, and better yet, his writing is theology that informs the mind and warms the affections. We have a desperate need of trinitarian theology, and this is the best I’ve read on the subject.
“The triunity of God is the secret of His beauty. If we deny this, we at once have a God without radiance and without joy (and without humour!); a God without beauty.”
Crisis of Confidence: Reclaiming the Historic Faith in a Culture Consumed with Individualism and Identity, Carl Trueman. Some Christians have announced their doctrinal stance to be, “No creed but the Bible!” The whole book is a defense of the use of creeds, and in my view, a convincing one.
“I argue that creeds and confessions are, in fact, necessary for the well-being of the church, and that churches that claim not to have them place themselves at a permanent disadvantage when it comes to holding fast to that form of sound words that was so precious to the aging Paul as he advised his young protege Timothy.”
Reformed Preaching, Joel Beeke. A mix of philosophy of preaching, biography, and theology. Beeke studies the reformers and the puritans and shows their philosophy of preaching. The first section on experimental preaching is masterful, and I have wondered if it would be better as its own individual book.
“Application is the major emphasis of experiential preaching. The Reformers and Puritans spent many times more effort in application than in discrimination. Many preachers today fall short in this area. They have been trained to be good expositors, but they have not been trained in the classroom or by the Holy Spirit to bring the truth home to the heart.
Leadership and Emotional Sabotage, Joe Rigney. I found this to be an important (albeit short) book addressing an important topic. John Piper warned about “emotional blackmail” years ago, writing “Emotional blackmail happens when a person equates his or her emotional pain with another person’s failure to love.” Rigney recognizes how all leaders will face this, and provides some help for leading through it.
“The cure for our fever is sober-minded leaders who are grounded in the glory of God, and therefore possess clarity of mind, stability of soul, and readiness to act…Such leaders are able to weather anxiety storms, resist social stampedes, reject blameshifting and excuse-making, and maintain their integrity in an age of anxiety, agitation, and turmoil.”
8 Errors Parents Make and How to Avoid Them, Michael Brock. I like good practical books on parenting. Brock introduces the biblical principles in the first chapter, then spends the rest of the book in providing practical ways the principles work. Chapters are short. Immediately after I finished I started it with my wife.
“Good kids aren’t a matter of luck. Bad kids aren’t, either.”
The Mystery of Christ: His Covenant and His Kingdom, Samuel Renihan. This was a soul-stirring look at the biblical covenants. It comes from a covenantal perspective, so although there were some parts I took issue with, much of it was straight from the text and helpful in grasping the flow of the biblical story.
“Who can sail such a vast sea and not go off course? Who can climb such a tall mountain and never slip? Who can explore such a deep forest and not forget some of its paths? Who can know the mind of God and explain the mystery of His will, the mystery of Christ? Whatever success the believer has, it is only by God's assisting grace illuminating and enabling such a one to sail straight, climb high, and learn the limits of the forest. The one who takes this knowledge and draws a map for others can make no boast and gain no glory because if they succeed, they are only highlighting the majestic glory of God’s wise purposes.”
Know the Creeds and Councils, Justin Holcomb. This one was a good blend of history and theology. Tracing the history of Christian thought from the beginning is helpful in understanding the issues of our own day. Holcomb also wrote Know the Heretics, which I read after this one.
“This book aims to provide an accessible overview of the main creeds, confessions, catechisms, and councils of Christian history. It is an introduction to some of the most important theological declarations in the Christian tradition. It is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to all creeds, councils, and confessions; that would take nothing less than an encyclopedia. However, I hope that after reading this book, you will come away with a deeper and better understanding of how the church has wrestled with major doctrinal questions and has emerged stronger as Jesus continues to build his church.”
Reforming Marriage, Douglas Wilson. Pastor Wilson is often in the eye of the storm of controversy, but there’s no denying that his work on marriage and family is some of the best in evangelicalism.
“But a man who has not been the head of his home must confess his abdication as sin - He must treat it the same way he would treat theft, or adultery. It is disobedience.”
The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, D.A. Carson. On one hand, the love of God seems like the most elementary of Christian beliefs. On the other hand, as you begin to grasp more doctrine, it becomes harder to answer. Does God love everyone? In what sense does God love the reprobate? Carson deals with these questions by careful exegesis and provides satisfying answers.
“In generations when almost everyone believed in the justice of God, people sometimes found it difficult to believe in the love of God. The preaching of the love of God came as wonderful good news. Nowadays if you tell people that God loves them, they are unlikely to be surprised.”
Compel them to Come In: Calvinism and the Free Offer of the Gospel, Donald Macleod. Should preachers, particularly those who hold the doctrines of grace (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints), offer the gospel freely to sinners? Does the gospel include an invitation? These are important questions if we want to do all things according to God’s word. Seasoned Reformed scholar Donald Macleod shows how Scripture answers a resounding “Yes!”
“Today, there are still those who raise their voices against preachers who, they think, are too free with their evangelistic appeals; and, conversely, there are preachers who are inhibited in their evangelism by fear of such critics and by the feeling that they must always tread warily in relation to such doctrines as predestination and limited atonement. But the problem doesn’t lie in these doctrines themselves. Men like Whitefield, Spurgeon, and Chalmers believed in such doctrines as total depravity and unconditional election as firmly as any hyper-Calvinist…but they refused to follow the hyper-Calvinist in drawing from these doctrines inferences which Scripture itself never drew: the inference, for example, that since there was no universal redemption, there should be no universal appeal.”
