I recently found that I had forgotten/lost some stuff from my last Presbytery meaning. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that. I hate this especially because I had intended to read and review for you Dr. Peterson’s (full disclosure: he was one of my systematics professors at my alma mater) Election & Free Will–which I acquired at that meeting. I have looked through it but haven’t sat down and taken notes to give it a thorough review.
However, I can tell you this: Typically, I have recommended two resources on the doctrine of unconditional election to eternal life, and then recommended augmentation for both. The two are Lorraine Boettner’s book and R. C. Sproul’s. The problem was that Boettner’s is too much for many. Sproul’s is much better as a short introduction (it is my standard in teaching the doctrine in Sunday School classes). But neither is especially thorough in their Biblical Theology. At this point, I think Peterson’s is going to become my standard recommendation because it is both thorough and accessible and and much more devoted to surveying the Bible in a wholistic fashion. I highly recommend it. Next time I lead any kind of book study on the subject, this will be the book.
Of course, if you’re not a fellow calvinist, I can’t say you will necessarily appreciate the book as I do. But you never know! Why not give it a spin?
Postscript: Since I have neglected to write a real review, I’ll direct you to another blogger who did it right. However, I emphatically disagree that the book contains an “optional” chapter, or if it does, that it is the one Challies selects as such.
