Books: Outliving the conqueror

"The Church," according to the English historian Hilaire Belloc, "is a perpetually defeated thing that always survives her conquerors." Reading these two books convinced me of the truth of that aphorism more than ever before. Though ostensibly about two entirely different subjects, both profoundly underscored the magnificence of God's good providence in history and his purposeful determination of the church's ultimate destiny in this poor fallen world.

D. James Kennedy is one of the most brilliant, articulate, and courageous leaders in Christendom today. Jerry Newcombe is one of the most creative, versatile, and prolific communicators working in Christian media today. In The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail, their second collaborative effort, they combine their considerable gifts to stunning effect. The book details the vicious attack on Christianity by the minions of popular culture, the media, the courts, and public education. Filled with dozens of specific instances and illustrations of anti-Christian bigotry and bias, the book is more than a little unsettling.

But the authors have not simply collected another litany of modern woes. They throw the searchlights of history and scripture on our contemporary concerns, offering us a theology of hope and an agenda of action.

David Hall is a rare breed-a pastor, scholar, activist, and popular communicator. His remarkable electronic journal Premise and wide array of on-line resources-http://www.usit.net/public/ capo/capohome.html -are treasure troves of information, and his several books on church polity are substantial.

With Savior or Servant? he turns his eye upon the realm of the state-and with no less remarkable results. The book may well be the single best volume of Christian thinking on the issue of the increasingly intrusive state since the halcyon days of the Puritans and Covenanters. Examining virtually every passage of scripture as well as every historical and theological movement dealing with the proper place and role of civil government, it is encyclopedic in its scope.

Mr. Hall has given us theology at its best. But more, he has put our current cultural and political difficulties in their proper perspective-thus clearing the way for the church to focus on matters of first importance and to declare the Lordship of Christ over every thing under heaven.