Can we know the truth? This entry in the Gospel Coalition series of booklets seeks to briefly answer that question. Phillips addresses both the postmodern assertion that truth is unknowable and its predecessor (the modern notion that human reason could discover ultimate truth by its own power), showing how each philosophy is intrinsically flawed. While imperfect beings can never know truth perfectly, that does not invalidate the reality that God’s truth is revealed and is knowable.

The crisis of the postmodern position is that it cannot believe or live out its own claims. Postmodernity has nothing to believe, including its own unbelief, despite the aching need of humans to know and believe … their claim against truth is itself a truth that postmoderns do not believe, so that postmodern epistemology becomes a maze in which the builder is himself forever lost. [11]

Christianity presents a legitimate third way over against the modern and the postmodern. With the moderns we believe that truth exists and is accessible, though we steadfastly reject that we can exhaustively know truth by our unaided reason. With the postmoderns we are skeptical that finite, fallible humans are the agents of truth, though we insist that truth is real and that we can know it. A successful Christian epistemology, then, not only responds to evangelical Christian belief but also enables us to communicate our doctrine of knowing to a world that both doubts and greatly desires to know truth. [12]

The biblical teaching that God made humans in His image includes our capacity to reason in a way that is analogous to God’s reasoning; humans image God not in an unknowing way but through the knowledge of God that is the end of both creation and salvation. [14]

Christians freely admit the limitations of finitude, in addition to our ongoing struggle with sin, that keep any man or woman from knowing truth perfectly or completely. Yet by virtue of God as creator and revealer, Christians insist that there is truth, that truth corresponds to God and His created reality, and that we may know truth because God has revealed Himself to us in His creation. [15]

Christians emphasize the truth of God’s Word because God is Himself true. As the infinitely perfect God, He reveals Himself in Scripture without error and with divine authority. Christians uphold the truth of God’s Word not because we are able to answer every objection to the Bible’s veracity (although good explanations exist for virtually every objection), but by appealing to the perfect nature of the God who reveals Himself in Scripture. Since the perfect God reveals Himself in the Bible, we can trust the Bible as true and have no need or warrant to set aside portions of the Bible deemed objectionable or too difficult. [16] 

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This collection of addresses from the 2010 Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology focuses on the ‘last days’—a period that began with the resurrection of Christ and will continue until His return. Specific emphasis is put on the Christian hope amidst this present age of evil. Featuring contributions from a wide range of authors, this book has some strong chapters and others that fall a bit short of the mark, but the overall effort is helpful.

For a believer, death is not the end, but it is in the middle. Death is not something into which we go, but something through which we pass. [126]

Theistic evolution is a process in which the creative engine is death. And if, in Genesis 1, after beholding what He has created and pronouncing it ‘very good’ (Gen. 1:31), God is describing a process of natural selection that includes death, then God is pronouncing death to be very good. But the Bible does not look upon death and say it is good. Just the opposite is the case, in fact. The Bible teaches that death is the result of sin, of something evil and corrupt. Death is so wrong that Paul says it is the last enemy to be destroyed. [128]

The traditional Christian practice in dealing with the dead is burial and not cremation … Christians, looking forward to the resurrection, usually refrain from inflicting damage upon the dead body, but reverence it in burial. [134]

In Paradise Lost, Milton has the devil say that it is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Many people today seem to think that the devil does indeed reign in hell. Let me assure you, however, that nobody is reigning in hell expect Christ. That’s right: Christ is reigning in hell. Hell, to be sure, is utter loneliness. There is just utter darkness, but the Lord Jesus Christ is still present in all of His terrifying power. [139] 

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Five authors swipe their brushes to collectively paint a canvas of adoption. They begin with God’s adoption of His children in Christ and then extend to our adoption of orphans. A proper understanding of God’s adoption, they argue, is necessary for seeing how our adoption of others is to play out. This is a poignant resource, full of gospel-centered truths and reminders for all of those who are considering adoption—and for those who should be. 

Our relationship to God as adopted children with all the rights of heirs is not based upon our sanctification. Instead, adoption is simply a legal change of status: if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has bestowed upon you the status of son of the most high God. This status does not depend on whether you did you devotions or how you feel about yourself: it is a legal declaration, a change in status. [60]

God the Father longs for you to talk to Him, and you have access to Him in Jesus Christ. What makes your prayer effective is God’s love for you and His bond to you in the gospel. [62]

I know of no more beautiful expression of the gospel in our culture than for an unloved and maybe even unlovable child to be seen and loved by Christian families and Christian churches simply because of God’s great love for them. That love is now within us, so we adopt that child and bring that child into our love. We raise that child in the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. What more glorious, more wonderful thing can we do? [68]

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In this booklet from the Basics of the Faith series, Phillips examines the atonement. Specifically, he addresses the centrality and terminology associated with this doctrine, as well as surveying various theories about the nature and extent of the atonement. While the format allows for only an introduction to these truths, Phillips manages to begin building convincing arguments. Given that this issue that has spurred quite some controversy through the ages, this booklet is a helpful primer. 

Jesus died as the propitiation for sinners, but only those who renounce their works, humbly confess their sins, and trust in His shed blood are justified before God’s holy throne. [12]

The Christian doctrine of propitiation does not say that sinners must provide a sacrifice for God’s wrath to be turned away, but rather that sinners must trust the sacrifice God has graciously provided in the person of His own Son, to turn aside His wrath over our sins. [13]

The good news of Christ is not that believers have no sin, but that Christ’s blood deals effectively with our sin. Christians have an answer for sin in the cleansing blood of Christ. [16]

According to the Bible, the controlling issue in salvation is the problem of sin. God overcame our sin not by a cosmic contest with evil powers, not by a positive moral example, but by sending His Son to bear our sins on the cross. [29]

A careful consideration of Scripture will lead us, then, to the following conclusions regarding the extent of the atonement: (1) the scope of God’s saving intent in the atonement was limited to the elect; (2) Christ’s atonement, which the Holy Spirit applies to the elect by means of the gift of saving faith, was unlimited in its efficacy for His own people, actually redeeming them from their sins, and, (3) Christ died specifically for those given to Him by the Father, atoning for their sins once and for all. [34] 

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Election and predestination, though both clear teachings of Scripture, often find themselves at the heart of controversy and confusion. In this booklet, Phillips does an excellent job of briefly explaining and discussing these critical teachings, even answering common objections that arise. Also useful are Phillips’ explorations of what the doctrines of election and predestination mean for believers. Part of the Basics of the Reformed Faith series, this booklet is a helpful reference to an important issue.

All the blessings we enjoy as Christians are grounded in the sovereign choosing of God—His sovereign election—which took place in eternity past, long before we were born and even before creation itself. Here is the foundation on which the salvation of every believer rests: God’s own free and gracious choice of us. This is the strongest, firmest foundation possible—God’s own eternal purpose. [6]

Election is the Bible’s teaching and not man’s—and this is the very reason that people often find it so hard to accept. It cuts across the grain of the humanistic teaching in which we are so steeped; it offends the wisdom of this world; it puts to death the human pride so native to our flesh. [11]

God’s eternal work in our salvation—a project higher and grander than any devised in the minds of men—rests wholly on Him alone. Only God can bear the demands of our justification and our sanctification and ultimately of our final glorification in heaven. If at any point these rest on us—on our character or our constancy, on our desire or our performance—then the whole tower is doomed to come crashing down. [16]

What a difference it makes, what peace and joy it brings, to realize that our salvation depends on God’s love for us. For God’s love is eternal, unchanging, and almighty. God, having loved us in eternity, predestined us for adoption as His sons, choosing us to be holy in His sight, all in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. [22-3]

It is not as if God looked down on a neutral humanity, deciding to make some believe and others reject Him. Rather, He looked upon a humanity already guilty in sin and unbelief. This is why election is ‘in Christ,’ because it is joined with God’s intention to send His Son to die for the sins of the elect. God passes by some sinful rebels, allowing them to continue their chosen hell-bound course to the praise of His justice. Others He saves to the glory of His mercy. [26]

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Amidst debate over how and when to observe the Lord’s Supper (and even what happens when we do), it is clear that Jesus commanded His followers to practice it. This brief booklet outlines the major differences concerning particulars but focuses mainly on Christ’s clear instruction. Phillips’ most helpful contribution is his discussion of the pastoral applications of celebrating communion. Speaking from a wealth of experience, he encourages a proper and necessary participation in the Lord’s Supper.

The challenge before today’s evangelicals, and especially those who embrace Reformed Theology, is that we should give the Lord’s Supper the place intended for it by our Lord. This will mean affirming a primacy in our ministry of the Word of God, as demonstrated in the example of the apostles. But it also means restoring to our worship and our approach to spiritual growth a grateful and believing partaking of the Supper of our Lord. [6] 

In keeping with the finished work of Christ’s atoning death, this new sacrament required no altar. Furthermore, in line with the universal character of Christ’s salvation, no central location was prescribed. While the symbolism remained essentially the same—propitiation through atoning blood—the symbols were changed to represent the newness of a saving event that would explode the bounds of Israel’s prior redemptive experience. [11] 

The spiritual benefits we receive in the sacrament are analogous to those benefits received by the body through eating and drinking. In the Lord’s Supper, then, the believer is strengthened and fed, receiving sustenance and life. In keeping with the sacrament as a sign, we gain from it a strengthened faith; as a seal of Christ’s covenant, we gain increased assurance of salvation and communion with God. [18] 

While the sacraments are not necessary to the initiation of saving faith, the Lord’s Supper in necessary, along with the Word and with prayer, for our spiritual nurture and our proper Christian growth. [21] 

Worthy partaking, then, does not mean making the sacrament “work” in our own spiritual strength, or to present a supposed righteousness of our own, but instead to ensure that ours is a faith that is credible and real...wise ministers will not only press forth the command to partake worthily, but will urgently remind those present that God’s grace is for sinners and not the righteous, for the weak and not the strong, for bad people and not good people. [29] 

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