Kenneth > Recent Status Updates

I can't help but notice that Hammett repeatedly refers to secondary sources with appeals to the authority of people like John Piper, Mark Dever, and Benjamin Merkle. I wonder if readers of this book would be better off reading those other authors. Perhaps one thing this book does that others usually do not is examine the historical precedent for each topic covered in this book.

I appreciate this book recounts history chronologically. The statement of facts are a bit boring though.

Unnecessarily and overly complicated. I'd recommend any number of more accessible apologetic books that present the same concepts.

This book quotes Dever a lot, but Hammett does say some thing I've not heard before in a book on ecclesiology, so it thankfully is not just a regurgitation of 9Marks materials.

Parts 1 and 2 were interesting, part 3 just felt so slow. This book seems to straddle the line between making history interesting and making it boring.

I'm rather disappointed that this second edition (published 2019) did not update its references. Several citations point to first editions of books that have received at least one major revision. There are also citations to pastors who have disqualified themselves from ministry as if those pastors are still authoritative. Certainly what they said might be true, but there are better sources that could be used.

Good insights if you read each daily reading as a stand-alone advent devotional. I wonder if the days could have been rearranged to tell a more cohesive story of Jesus’s birth and reason he came. As is, that overall flow feels disjointed with little connection between subsequent days.

Two critiques of this book:
1) given how important eschatology is to the majority of views presented in this book, there should have been a section in each chapter about end times
2) there needs to be a chapter on 1689 Federalism (or federalism in general)

I may be biased, but Progressive Covenantalism is the only view so far that seems to rely strictly on the Bible without violating its own hermeneutical practice. The paragraph explaining how Israel's land is a typological feature of the new heavens and new earth by quoting Hebrews 11:9–10 is a compelling rebuttal to the dispensationalist understanding of promises to the nation of Israel.

Great job so far not only explaining the various theological systems but also helping the reader to understand how people arrive at their conclusions. What may seem initially to be incompatible with Scripture is shown to be a well-reasoned theological conclusion. This book should aid Christians to better understand each other.

Seems like each chapter in Part 2 is roughly 20% introduction filler, 50% biblical explanation, 30% theological implications

Nothing in the hermeneutical principles presented in Part 1 were new to me. I’m interested to see how the authors apply the principles to Scripture in Part 2.

This books is surprisingly approachable and enjoyable to read. Even though this is a textbook, it is (thus far) a great resource for any Christian or someone curious about the cultural, religious, and historic background of the Bible.

Having got past the overly professional and academic front-matter, the content is now much easier to read

Dense, academic, thorough.
Difficult to read