Contending for Our All: Defending Truth and Treasuring Christ in the Lives of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen (Piper, John, Swans Are Not Silent)

Contending for Our All: Defending Truth and Treasuring Christ in the Lives of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen (Piper, John, Swans Are Not Silent)
Average customer rating:

To the Glory of God!

A glimpse into the lives of some great saints of the faith

Good introduction...

Not just a history lesson--a book for spiritual benefit

Well Worth Reading

Contending for Our All: Defending Truth and Treasuring Christ in the Lives of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen (Piper, John, Swans Are Not Silent)
John Piper
Manufacturer: Crossway Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Religious | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Inspirational | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Piper, John | ( P ) | Authors, A-Z | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Piper, John | ( P-R ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Roots of Endurance: Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce (Swans Are Not Silent)

The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd (The Swans Are Not Silent, 2)

The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God's Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin (The Swans Are Not Silent)

What Jesus Demands from the World

God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself

ASIN: 158134676X

Book Description

Athanasius. John Owen. J. Gresham Machen.

Each of these men stood for the truth of God’s Word in the face of opposition—all out of a deep love for Christ and a desire for people to know God in his fullness. Popularity was not a concern, and they took no joy in controversy for argument’s sake. However, these men were willing to suffer for the sake of guarding the sanctity of the gospel. Many threats, years of exile, deaths of loved ones, opposition from friends and authorities, sickness and pain—none of these setbacks could keep these three from maintaining their efforts for the furthering of Christ’s Kingdom or quench their zeal for Christ himself.

In his fourth book of The Swans Are Not Silent series, Contending for Our All, John Piper has given us biographies of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen—bishop, pastor, and seminary founder. In the life of each one, personal holiness was emphasized publicly and privately despite suffering. They were true soldiers for the sake of the cross, and each man offers life lessons for Christians today.

Athanasius

The deity of Christ and all its worth consumed Athanasius. He devoted his life to defending it. The great adversary was the Arian heresy. Athanasius would be banished by the emperor five times. He was contending for his all—the essential, life-giving truth of Christ and his gospel.

John Owen

Communion with Christ was the focus of John Owen’s vast intellect and expansive heart. He battled Christ-belittling errors of the mind and heart with passion and skill. Going deeper in the understanding of Christ was for him the key to going deeper in fellowship with him.

J. Gresham Machen

Representing Christ in all his fullness with all of Scripture drove J. Gresham Machen. He saw in the liberal Christianity of the early twentieth century another religion. His exposure of its subtleties and his emphasis on the facts of history are astonishingly relevant for our time in the early twenty-first century.

The Swans Are Not Silent

When Augustine handed over the leadership of his church in A.D. 426, his successor was so overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy that he declared, “The swan is silent,” fearing the spiritual giant’s voice would be lost to time. But for 1,600 years Augustine has not been silent—and neither have those who faithfully trumpeted the cause of Christ after him. Their lives have inspired every generation of believers and should compel us to a greater passion for God.

Customer Reviews:

To the Glory of God!.......2007-05-01

John Piper has given his life, I am convinced after reading this book, to the supremacy of God in all things through a spread of the pure gospel. In this insightful volume, which is part of the "Swans are Not Silent", Piper looks at the life of Athanasius, the beloved bishop, John Owen, the greatest mind of the puritans, and J. Gresham Machen, one the last great theologians of the old Princeton Theological Seminary.

Each biographical sketch surrounds what was pivotal in the lives of these men. This volume is by no means a detail work, but it is nevertheless a powerful one. It is a primer for the reader to be engaged in the lives of older saints, who surrendered their all for the cause of Christ. Buy and Read!

A glimpse into the lives of some great saints of the faith.......2007-02-27

The fourth book of Piper's The Swans Are Not Silent series on the lives of the great saints of the faith, Contending for Our All exposes the reader to the lives of three great warriors who battled for truth against great odds and in the face of great persecution. Athanasius, one of the early church fathers, became bishop of Alexandra in 328 and passed away in 373. He was almost single-handedly responsible for the battle against the heresy of Arius who claimed that Jesus, as the son of God, was a created being; not one with the Father from time and eternity. Athanasius fought this false doctrine and his teaching and influence resulted in the creeds from the Council of Nicaea as well as the Council of Constantinople shortly after his death.

Piper next explores the life and teachings of Puritan pastor John Owen, a man tremendously influential in the lives of some of today's outstanding Christians leaders such as J.I. Packer and Sinclair Ferguson. Some, including Gordon-Conwell Seminary professor Roger Nicole, consider Owen to be the greatest theologian who has ever written in the English language - even greater than Jonathan Edwards. Owen's most outstanding works are The Death of Death in the Death of Christ and Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers. In addition to his writing Owen was a pastor, the Vice Chancellor at Oxford, and heavily involved in the affairs of Parliament. He also suffered the death of his eleven children during his lifetime. Owen is buried next to his contemporary John Bunyan in London.

Finally, Piper tells the story of the short, but controversial life of J. Gresham Machen, a man who stood at the turn of the century here in America and sounded the alarm regarding the liberalization of the church. As a professor at Princeton Seminary, Machen was in a key position to witness this cultural shift that he called "modernity" and that he defined not as a subset of Christianity but rather as a hostile competitor to the traditional and historical faith grounded in Scripture. Machen watched as Princeton Seminary "died," so he and several others left the once-great seminary to start Westminster Seminary. Machen was not only a New Testament scholar, but also one of the first cultural apologists whose influence shaped the life of the great Francis Schaeffer among others.

This series by Piper is quite extraordinary giving the reader a glimpse into the lives, struggles, victories, personalities, and ministries of some of the great saints of the faith. I highly recommend these books to every Christian wanting to know more about the Christian faith and the men and women included in the "great cloud of witnesses."

Good introduction..........2006-12-27

This book gives a good introduction to these three men; Athanasius, Owen and Machen. It walks through their lives and a little on their theology. I guess I was hoping for a little more on their theology but since the book is less than 200 pages what can you expect? Very concise and easy to read and follow and like most of what Piper does, there is good application to what these men lived and believed. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to be introduced to these three vital men of Christendom.

Not just a history lesson--a book for spiritual benefit.......2006-04-19

This is the fourth book in Piper's series, "The Swans Are Not Silent," and follows his pattern of looking at three "swans" of church history through the lens of a central theme. The three presented here are Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen; the theme is the subtitle, Defending Truth and Treasuring Christ.

I was immediately captivated by Piper's Introduction, so much so, that I read portions of it aloud to several people, prefaced by an excited "Listen to this!" His discussion of truth, controversy, and humility sets the tone for what is to come. Piper lays out the historical background for his treatment of Athanasius by discussing the nature of orthodox theology in the fourth century, particularly with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity and the heresy of Arianism. In the second half of this first chapter, he gives seven practical lessons we can learn from the life of Athanasius, and shows that old battles are still being fought, but with new terminology.

John Owen is the only "swan" I had read previously. Piper begins his discussion of Owen by relating the impact Owen has had on men like J.I. Packer, Sinclair Ferguson, and on Piper himself. He gives a brief biography of Owen, including a short definition of Puritanism. He sees the heart of Owen's life and ministry as the mortification of sin and personal holiness: "Be killing sin or it will be killing you." I particularly loved Piper's comment about the relationship between private spirituality and public ministry:

One great hindrance to holiness in the ministry of the Word is that we are prone to preach and write without pressing into the things we say and making them real to our own souls. Over the years words begin to come easy, and we find we can speak of mysteries without standing in awe; we can speak of purity without feeling pure; we can speak of zeal without spiritual passion; we can speak of God's holiness without trembling; we can speak of sin without sorrow; we can speak of heaven without eagerness. And the result is an increasing hardening of the spiritual life. (p. 109)

Piper's final chapter is about J. Gresham Machen and his valiant battle against the Modernism of the early 20th century. After saying that it is not much different from the postmodernism of our day, Piper lists twelve lessons from Machen's life and work applicable to today, and is not shy about bringing up his flaws. In fact, the final section of the chapter is titled "Hope in God's Sovereignty Through Human Shortcomings," an encouragement to us all.

The Conclusion is a gem. With a brief nod to another "sweet-singing twentieth-century swan," Francis Schaeffer, Piper reminds us that passionately standing for the truth is inextricably linked to love. He discusses several Scripture passages where this is taught. He then closes the book with "Our Prayer In a Time of Controversy." This brief prayer, combined with the Introduction and Conclusion, are, in my mind, reason enough to read Contending For Our All. This is not just a history lesson, but also a book for your spiritual benefit. - Pam Glass, Christian Book Previews.com

Well Worth Reading.......2006-03-20

Each year at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, hosted by Bethlehem Baptist Church of Minneapolis, John Piper delivers a biographical address dealing with a notable Christian figure from the history of the church. Every few years, several of these addresses are compiled into a book as part of "The Swans are Not Silent" series. The most recent of these titles is Contending For Our All, subtitled "Defending Truth and Treasuring Christ in the Lives of Athanasius, John Owen and J. Gresham Machen."

Transcripts of the speeches delivered by Piper are available online. It might be reasonable to ask, then, why anyone would care to pay for them. The best reason is that appended to these transcripts are a preface, and introduction and a conclusion, also written by Piper. Within the introduction he discusses why he has chosen to publish the three speeches together. In this book we learn that the common theme of Contending for Our all is that Athanasius, Owen and Machen all stood for the truth of God's Word in the face of opposition. None of them delighted in this controversy, and none was concerned with his popularity. What bound them together, even through almost two millenia of history, is their willingness to suffer for what they knew to be right in their defense of the gospel.

The thrust of each of the sections is to help the reader understand the lessons each of these men offers the church today. Piper does not offer mere biography, but biography that leads to lessons in practical theology.

Contending For Our All is a welcome addition to this series and is a book that is well worth reading. Any believer will benefit from reading about these great men of the faith, whether they do so through purchasing the book or from reading the biographies online.

Book Description

It's larger and better than ever, substantially revised with almost 200 additional, previously unseen World War Two color photos--more color aviation photos than have ever before appeared in one place! Mostly taken by members of "Mighty" Eighth Air Force, this wonderful selection portrays the American aircraft and their crews deployed to Britain in 1942. The daring, danger, and exhilaration of those days comes across in a uniquely personal perspective, because these fliers took photos of everything around them: their base, buddies, aircraft in action and on the ground, favorite nose art, and airfields and countryside from high above. Altogether, about 600 photos, arranged alphabetically by home base. A must-have for all military, aviation, and photography, enthusiasts.

Customer Reviews:

The Mighty Eighth:The Color Record by Roger A Freeman.......2001-10-11

The work of Roger Freeman's has all of the Eighth Army Air Force Units here. Both Bomber Groups and Fighter Groups of the 8th AAF
are represented. This book takes you through East Anglia in by Bomb Group or Fighter Group in alphabetical order. from two to four pages per Group are given. If you are looking for a 8th AAF Group.....it will be here.

Average customer rating:

Mighty Eighth: The Colour Record
Roger Freeman
Manufacturer: Cassell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSBJ94

Amazon.com

Never in the history of the human race have so many had so much to do in so little time. That, anyway, is the impression most of us have of civilized life at the end of the millennium, and Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything only sharpens it. Elegantly composed and insightfully researched, Faster delivers a brisk volley of observations on how microchips, media, and economics, among other things, have accelerated the pace of everyday experience over the course of the manic 20th century.

Author of the pop-science triumph, Chaos, James Gleick brings his formidable writing skills to bear here, creating an almost poetic flow of ideas from what in other hands might have been just a mass of interesting facts and anecdotes. Whether tracing the modern history of chronometry (from Louis-François Cartier's invention of the wristwatch to the staggeringly precise atomic clocks of today's standards bureaus) or revealing the ways the camera has sped up our subjective sense of pace (from the freeze frames of Eadweard Muybridge's early photographic experiments to the jump cuts of MTV's latest videos), Gleick manages to weave in slyly perceptive or occasionally profound points about our increasingly hopped-up relationship to time. The result is the kind of thing only an accelerated culture like ours could have come up with: an instant classic. --Julian Dibbell

Book Description

From the bestselling, National Book Award-nominated auhtor of Genius and Chaos, a bracing new work about the accelerating pace of change in today's world.

Most of us suffer some degree of "hurry sickness." a malady that has launched us into the "epoch of the nanosecond," a need-everything-yesterday sphere dominated by cell phones, computers, faxes, and remote controls. Yet for all the hours, minutes, and even seconds being saved, we're still filling our days to the point that we have no time for such basic human activities as eating, sex, and relating to our families. Written with fresh insight and thorough research, Faster is a wise and witty look at a harried world not likely to slow down anytime soon.

Download Description

If one quality defines our modern, technocratic age, it is acceleration. We are making haste. Our computers, our movies, our sex lives, our prayers -- they all run faster now than ever before. And the more we fill our lives with time-saving devices and time-saving strategies, the more rushed we feel. In Faster, James Gleick explores nothing less than the human condition at the turn of the millennium. He shines a light of enterprising and analytical reporting -- as well as sly wit -- on the newest paradoxes of time. His journey takes us through the bunkers and trenches of a war we barely knew we were fighting: to the atomic clocks of the Directorate of Time, to the waiting rooms that focus our impatience, to the film production studios that test the high-speed limits of our perception, to the air traffic command centers that give time pressure new meaning. We have become a quick-reflexed, multi-tasking, channel-flipping, fast-forwarding species. We don't completely understand it, and we're not altogether happy about it. Faster is a mirror held up to our times -- and a mordant reminder of why some things take time.

Customer Reviews:

Faster: A List of Facts and Speculations.......2006-12-29

I obviously did not conducting enough research before buying this book. I am seventeen and this was an easy read, but I was hoping for and expecting a philosophical examination of our speedy lives. Instead I was bombarded by semi-interesting, useless facts about how our world has been struck by "hurry-sickness" and how everything has been accelerated (a fairly obvious fact).

If you are consious enough of our world to buy this book (because of its title) for yourself, it will not raise you conciousness with any deep philosophical questions or with any solutions. The only people who will benefit from this book are the ones who will never buy it for themselves. Therefore I believe this book is basically useless and slightly boring.

I disagreed with the entire premise of this book.......2006-07-09

Gleick would like us to feel that everything, EVERYTHING is going faster. Ultimately, whetever you are doing now, it will happen faster tomorrow.

Sure, life is getting faster, but that's not the ultimate goal. People want to do MORE, they do not want to simply go faster.

To ignore the need for more is to miss the entire point of why we want to do some things faster: so that we have the leisure to do other things more slowly! I would like to finish my work faster so I have more time to cook a gourmet meal. I like to commute via bicycle so I can combine my workout and commute, but I certainly don't rush!

This book has a lot of anecdotal data, which is all very interesting, but doesn't amount to much. Some of the individual chapters give very detailed analysis of specific people or technologies, but Gleick never pulls it all together.

In short, interesting data, but not enough to support his position. And certainly not nearly enough to appease a skeptic.

" The faster we are forced to go, the slower we may need to go".......2006-05-01

This book has a lot of insights about various ways in which the ' pace of life and learning' have since the Scientific Revolution accelerated. In other words it is a book which gives one much to think about.
The problem is that it also suggests that given the vast increase of information available to us, the vast increase in 'possible alternatives' for our attention, that we will probably have our minds moved away from the insights so rapidly as to not even absorb them.
The obvious reply to such an intense barrage upon our consciousness, is to withdraw. And when we withdraw and close out all that is accelerating around us, we begin to try and make a pace and story of our own within ourselves.
The faster we are forced to go, the slower we may need to go.
I think a companion volume , or perhaps a contradictory volume should be written on all those human activities which might be aided by our ' going slower in them'. And along with this volume should be advice and recommendation of how to keep out of our life these seemingly endless intrusions which disrupt our living by our own rhythm.
"Run slowly, slowly horses of the night".

Couldn't wait to finish.......2005-11-01

Though I'm a great fan of Gleick's other books, I found Faster annoying in the extreme. True, it is replete with fascinating facts and insights. After a couple of chapters, however, many of its fascinating facts and insights -- not infrequently organized into endless prose lists -- began to feel like so many bricks to the skullcap, waterdrops to the forehead, ... Enough was enough was enough. I listened to Faster (audiotape) on my commute to work. Mornings 3-8 felt like Groundhog Day. F(un/interesting 15 page magazine article) + C(affeine) + OCD + T(ime) +/- P(er-word-payment) = Faster.

You will recognize your life in this book.......2005-03-25

No one who lives in our modern world needs to be reminded that things are going faster. However, the fact that we don't need to be reminded does not change the fact that we should have that fact pointed out on occasion. Gleick does that, and reminds us that there were advantages to the old days. When round-trip communication took a few hours or even days, there was the opportunity for reflection. If you sent out a nastygram, you had the opportunity to reflect on what you wrote. The very act of putting ink on paper took some time and forced you to do the proverbial "count to ten."
As all of us who use it know, that benefit does not apply to e-mail. When something happens, we send off an e-mail without thinking it through and then are forced to apologize or beg forgiveness later. The nuances in our speech and nonverbal communication also help us determine what the actual message is and is lacking in e-mail. The inclusion of emoticons helps, but they simply cannot replace what we are so accustomed to. One of the most amazing statistics in the book is the report that Americans spend slightly more than four minutes a day engaged in sex. Either we are not doing it often or are awfully quick when we do. No other statistic more accurately describes how fast things are going. This also means that a large number of people spend ten times more time reading e-mail than engaged in sexual activity. I personally know some people who live in the same house that communicate more via e-mail than face to face.
As accurate as Gleick is in his descriptions, the book was written before the advent of the ubiquitous cell phone. In fact, I could not find the phrase "cell phone" in the index. Therefore, things are now even worse than the descriptions in this book. While waiting for stoplights, I regularly observe the drivers going through the intersection. The results of my informal experiment are that approximately fifteen percent of drivers are talking on their cell phone. It makes you wonder how many people engage in sex while conversing on their cell phone.
This is one of the most accurate descriptions of modern life that you will ever find. Everyone who uses modern "conveniences" will recognize their daily life being described in these pages.

Faster : The Acceleration of Just about Everything

Average customer rating:

Faster : The Acceleration of Just about Everything
James Gleick
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLXCS2

Average customer rating:

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything
James Gleick
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000R0WY6G

James Gleick faster the acceleration of just about everything (1999)

Average customer rating:

Move over John A. McPhee, coming through

James Gleick faster the acceleration of just about everything (1999)
Gleick James
Manufacturer: Vintage Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0375724761

Customer Reviews:

Move over John A. McPhee, coming through.......2004-11-10

The master of important trivia, John A. McPhee "Oranges" ISBN: 0374226881, is about to be surpassed by James Gleick, "The Acceleration Guy." The history of chronometry will never be the same. His insights on elevators are uplifting. He discuses the type-A personality and its misconceptions. I will not go through every subject as you do not have TIME to read this review, but I was surprised to find out what "God's speed" meant.

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything.(Review) (book review): An article from: ETC.: A Review of General Semantics

Average customer rating:

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything.(Review) (book review): An article from: ETC.: A Review of General Semantics
Martin H. Levinson
Manufacturer: International Society for General Semantics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, published by International Society for General Semantics on March 22, 2000. The length of the article is 550 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything.(Review) (book review)
Author: Martin H. Levinson
Publication: ETC.: A Review of General Semantics (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2000
Publisher: International Society for General Semantics
Volume: 57 Issue: 1 Page: 115

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Living Faster and Faster.(Brief Article): An article from: The Futurist

Average customer rating:

Living Faster and Faster.(Brief Article): An article from: The Futurist
Dan Johnson
Manufacturer: World Future Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on March 1, 2000. The length of the article is 551 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Living Faster and Faster.(Brief Article)
Author: Dan Johnson
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2000
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: 34 Issue: 2 Page: 18

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Measuring Our Escape Velocity as We Exit the 20th Century.(Brief Article)(Review) (book review) : An article from: Strategic Finance

Average customer rating:

Measuring Our Escape Velocity as We Exit the 20th Century.(Brief Article)(Review) (book review) : An article from: Strategic Finance
Michael Castelluccio
Manufacturer: Institute of Management Accountants
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Strategic Finance, published by Institute of Management Accountants on November 1, 1999. The length of the article is 944 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Measuring Our Escape Velocity as We Exit the 20th Century.(Brief Article)(Review) (book review)
Author: Michael Castelluccio
Publication: Strategic Finance (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 1999
Publisher: Institute of Management Accountants
Volume: 81 Issue: 5 Page: 89

Article Type: Brief Article, Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Average customer rating:

Faster the Acceleration of Just About Everything
James Gleick
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000X62NEM

Average customer rating:

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything
James Gleick
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NSDI0I

The Birds of North America: A Personal Selection
Average customer rating:
The Birds of North America: A Personal Selection
Eliot Porter
Manufacturer: Bristol Park Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Nature's Chaos

ASIN: 0884860701

BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA A PERSONAL SELECTION
Average customer rating:
BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA A PERSONAL SELECTION
Eliot Porter
Manufacturer: Galahad Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWHXKY

Birds of North America, A Personal Selection
Average customer rating:
Birds of North America, A Personal Selection
Eliot PORTER
Manufacturer: Dutton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O8Z5CQ

Birds of North America: A Personal Selection
Average customer rating:
Birds of North America: A Personal Selection
Eliot Porter
Manufacturer: Galahad Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O6MLDE

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books