Through the New Life movement, pastor and author Jack Miller became the pioneering captain of an expansive network of gospel-centered, Reformed leaders who taught in seminaries, planted new churches, revitalized existing churches, and recruited and trained missionaries who were sent around the world. His influence is felt today through their work, his writings, and ministries such as Serge (previously World Harvest Mission) and the Sonship curriculum.
Drawing on extensive interviews with Jack’s friends, family, colleagues, and critics, as well as archival material, biographer Michael Graham gives us a full picture of Jack Miller—from his difficult childhood, early atheism, and conversion to his later teaching and ministries—showing how he pressed through grave challenges to bring the joy of God’s omnipotent grace to some of the most influential leaders in the church today.
Endorsements
“Jack Miller . . . taught me how to preach grace. Whatever the subject and whatever the text, people were being changed by being brought into connection with the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. He taught me to preach grace no matter what the text. . . . There would never have been a Redeemer Church in New York City without the impact of Jack and Rose Marie Miller on our lives and hearts.”
—Timothy Keller, Founding Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Manhattan; Chairman and Cofounder, Redeemer City to City (CTC)
“You are about to meet one of the most amazing people of the twentieth century.”
—Dan B. Allender, Professor of Counseling Psychology and Founding President, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology
“In this remarkable book by Michael Graham, you’ll see how joyful zeal and sturdy doctrine should always reside together. I give this wonderful work on the life and teachings of Jack Miller a double thumbs-up!”
—Joni Eareckson Tada, Founder, Joni and Friends International Disability Center
“The writings of Jack Miller have had a profound impact on both my personal spiritual walk and my ministry as a pastor. . . . This book tells the story of Jack’s life and ministry, and it’s a wonderful read for anyone desiring to dwell in those secret places of the Most High.”
—J.D. Greear, Pastor, The Summit Church, Durham, North Carolina
“[Cheer Up!] is a vivid and accurate portrait of a . . . repentant sinner whose heart was captivated by God’s grace in Christ and by the powerful presence of his Spirit. . . . I’m glad that, through Pastor Graham’s research—especially his interviews with those close to Jack—many others can now meet this extraordinary, controversial trophy and ambassador of divine grace.”
—Dennis E. Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology, Westminster Seminary California
“Michael Graham has engaged in an epic journey of research into the historical events and personal experiences of Jack Miller to capture an era of the church, the spirit of the man himself, and the grace of God that made this jar of clay such a vessel of influence for the advancement of the glories of the gospel.”
Michael Graham (MDiv, Covenant Theological Seminary; PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is pastor at Hickory Grove Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, and director of The Jack Miller Project.
Over the course of his life, teaching, and ministry, Jack challenged Christians to address a key question found in Galatians: “What has happened to all your joy?” (Gal. 4:15 NIV). He explained this question by saying that “I relate to it because many times I have lost my joy. . . . I have forgotten the power of grace, the joy of sonship.” In that spirit of gospel joy, Jack memorably declared, “Cheer up! You are far worse than you think” and “Cheer up! God’s grace is greater than you’ve ever dared hope”—connecting pervasive depravity to irresistible grace.*2 “The best news you ever heard,” he said, “is that original sin is true. If original sin (the curse) is true, then the grace is true. The love of God is shallow unless there is depth to which it reaches.”
Several other “cheer up” statements are equally important to an understanding of Jack Miller: “Cheer up! God’s Spirit works in your weakness,” “Cheer up! God’s Kingdom is more wonderful than you have ever imagined,” and “Cheer up! Come on, let’s die together! It’s a great way to come to life.” Together, these statements are a fitting way to understand the whole of Jack’s life, teaching, and ministry.
This book fittingly begins with grace. Chapter 1, “Cheer Up! God’s Grace Is Greater Than You Ever Dared Hope,” introduces readers to Jack Miller’s early life through 1949. During this time, Jack discovered that “faith alone” means “faith all the way,” in the sovereign preeminent Christ, for the glory of God’s omnipotent grace.
Chapter 2, “Cheer Up! You Are Far Worse Than You Think,” covers events that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. During this time, as a teacher, church planter, pastor, and scholar, Jack developed a critical theological and cultural apparatus that uniquely qualified him to serve on the faculty at Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS).
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 form the heart of this biography. Chapter 3, “Cheer Up! God’s Spirit Works in Your Weakness,” focuses on the joy that Jack experienced as God’s Spirit worked through his weakness and, as a result of that work, magnified the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ all the more. Chapter 4, “Cheer Up! Justification Is by Faith Alone, Even in the Twentieth Century,” shows the theological development that took place within Jack during the controversy that raged from 1974 to 1981 over Norman Shepherd’s teaching at WTS regarding the role of works within justification. Chapter 5, “Cheer Up! God’s Kingdom Is More Wonderful Than You Ever Imagined,” focuses on Jack’s rapid expansion of his ministry activities and covers several new mission fields that he opened in the 1980s.
Chapter 6, “Cheer Up! Come On, Let’s Die Together; It’s a Great Way to Come to Life,” ends on the highest note as Jack Miller, a dying man, preached God’s amazing grace to dying men.
*2. Timothy Keller, in turn, often repeats these two most familiar of Jack’s “cheer up” statements—for example, he has written, “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God (New York: Dutton, 2011), 48.
We can grasp the game plan of this poem’s author at a glance by looking at the opening words of its successive stanzas. The paradigm on which the poem is built is that of addresses that are directed to separate entities, each of which is accompanied by a directive for that entity to perform an action. Simply listing the groups that the stanzas address reveals that they were the key players in the drama of the first Christmas and its aftermath: angels, shepherds, the wise men or sages who followed a star to the manger, saints who were waiting for Christ, and all creation. Whereas most Christmas poems have a specific focus, this one is expansive and includes as many groups as possible.
The poetic technique that underlies this strategy is called apostrophe—a direct address to someone who is absent as though he or she is present and capable of hearing and responding. It is a standard way to express strong feeling. What all the addressees in this poem share is that they are part of the Christmas story in some way. With that constant factor firmly fixed in our minds, our attention naturally turns toward seeing how the poet matches the content of the addresses to the specific group that each one names. As we explore the logic of the different stanzas, we can see the skill with which the poet carried out his plan.
The poem opens on a soaring note by addressing the angels, who are described as coming from “the realms of glory”—an epithet for heaven that fires our imagination and awakens our longing. From time immemorial, angels have been viewed as winged creatures that fly over the entire earth on missions from God. Just as the angels sang at creation (see Job 38:7), it is fitting for them to proclaim an even greater act of creation: Christ’s birth. The second group that is addressed, the shepherds abiding in their fields by night, keeps our imaginations rooted to the original Christmas night. The shepherds are not explicitly commanded to do anything, but by pointing them to the light where the Christ child lies, the poem implicitly directs them toward Bethlehem. In the meantime, we the readers are reminded that the significance of Christ’s birth is that God is now residing with people (the God with man theme).
Next this pageant of snapshots from the nativity shifts to the wise men from the East. They are commanded to leave their accustomed practice of searching for wisdom and instead to follow the star of Bethlehem to the Christ child. Imagery of light informs this stanza. The pageant continues in the fourth stanza with a reference to pious Jews like Simeon and Anna, who lived in anticipation of the appearance of the infant Jesus (see Luke 2:25–32, 36–38). The statements they made when they saw Jesus in the temple sweep into our awareness here.
Just as the nativity story in Luke is permeated with cosmic imagery, here the poet commands all creation to praise the triune God in the final stanza. In keeping with the expansive vision of the poem, the entire Godhead is brought into the address and time expands to all eternity.
The poem is carefully crafted, and we can relish the simplicity of its scheme. It exhibits a balance of complexity and subtlety in its five apostrophes as it molds the content of each one to a specific group and ties in evocative Scripture references. This poem exhibits the virtue of being carefully thought out.
Because this poem keeps shifting its frame of reference from one part of the Bible to another, it is a little arbitrary to choose a single part of Scripture as a corroborating text for it. Hebrews 1:1–2 follows the same pattern that the poem does of presenting Christ as the fulfillment and replacement of earlier things:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Reconciling the existence of God and evil has been a long-standing conundrum in Christian theology, yet a philosophical approach—rather than a theological one—dominates the discussion. Turning to the Bible’s grand storyline, Scott Christensen examines how sin, evil, corruption, and death fit into the broad outlines of redemptive history. He argues that God’s ultimate end in creation is to magnify his glory to his image-bearers, most notably by defeating evil through the atoning work of Christ.
Endorsements
“Scott Christensen has a real gift for answering difficult theological questions plainly, thoroughly, and above all biblically—with colorful, engaging writing that readers at practically any level can easily comprehend and learn from. If you’re troubled by the question of why a good and omnipotent God would create a universe that includes evil—or if you are a Christian struggling to explain the problem of evil to someone else—you will greatly benefit from this book.”
—John MacArthur, Pastor-Teacher, Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, California; Chancellor Emeritus, The Master’s University and Seminary
“Christians take the problem of evil more seriously than anyone else. This book avoids simplistic philosophical solutions. Instead, the author appreciates that the historical fact of Christ’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and return provides the only hope when we just don’t know all the answers.”
—Michael S. Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California
“Christensen gets beyond the more traditional approaches to the problem [of evil] by reminding us that God’s wisdom pervades everything he ordains so that the very existence of evil serves his purpose of maximizing goodness and glorifying himself. Of course, Romans 8:28 and other verses say that this is true. But Christensen shows us how it is true. . . . I commend this book to readers who seek a serious and thoughtful treatment of this issue.”
—John M. Frame, Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy Emeritus, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando
“Why is there evil in the world? Scott Christensen shows that this difficult question is bound up with two larger questions: ‘Why did God make the world?’ and ‘Why did God the Son become a man and suffer evil?’ Scripture gives the ultimate answer: to manifest the glory of God. Christensen’s articulate, inspiring, and gospel-driven presentation of the ‘greater-glory’ theodicy explores a significant way that God’s Word addresses the problem of evil to strengthen our faith and evoke our worship.”
—Joel R. Beeke, President, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Immanuel Kant’s stature in the history of Western philosophy is almost unparalleled, and his sophisticated, complex works have impacted us in profound ways we barely recognize today.
Because his system of philosophy led to the secularization of society, Kant has often been considered a modern archenemy of Christianity. Writing firmly in the Reformed tradition, philosophy professor Shao Kai Tseng offers a reinterpretation and critical appreciation of his thought that shows his significance in art, science, and modern conceptions of human dignity, gives an overview of his philosophy, and closes with a critique from an orthodox Reformed perspective.
Endorsements
“Immanuel Kant is unquestionably one of the most significant and influential figures in the history of philosophy. Summarizing and assessing his thought in a concise, accessible, and responsible fashion is no easy task, yet Alex Tseng has accomplished it. While offering his own distinctively Reformed critique of Kant’s philosophical system, Tseng exemplifies scholarly integrity by challenging and correcting what he takes to be some interpretive missteps by earlier Reformed writers. The result is a fresh and thought-provoking introduction to a titan of Western philosophy.”
—James N. Anderson, Carl W. McMurray Professor of Theology and Philosophy, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte
“Immanuel Kant’s influence reaches far beyond that of nineteenth-century theologians, and contemporary scholars are still considering the ways in which religion and philosophy interact in his approach. In this excellent introduction to Kant’s work, Alex Tseng illuminates Kant’s ideas and contributions with pertinent and broad-ranging philosophical and religious back-ground, particularly on how Kant influenced theology as science. Even readers familiar with Kant will benefit from this fine neo-Calvinist response to one of the greatest and most influential figures in Western philosophy.”
—Annette G. Aubert, Lecturer and Visiting Scholar of Historical Theology and Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary
“This short book packs a punch. In it, Tseng moves from historical exegesis to constructive theologizing, all the while in an accessible style, and with a clear commitment to his own branch of the Reformed tradition. For Reformed Christians looking both for a primer on Kant and for a guide to how their tradition might equip them to interact with him, this book makes a very useful contribution.”
—James Eglinton, Meldrum Senior Lecturer in Reformed Theology, University of Edinburgh
Gilles Deleuze gives us a sophisticated account of what happens to truth and ethics in a system that does not rely on God—and his thought makes visible how our society understands everything from knowledge and truth to sexuality and identity.
Christopher Watkin, a scholar of French literature and philosophy, presents Deleuze’s work in a way that is accessible to non-philosophers and brings his writing into sustained conversation with prominent biblical themes and with motifs from Reformed theology. As you engage with Deleuze’s thought, you will discover a model of cultural engagement that you can use to understand any contemporary or historical thinker or school.
Endorsements
“Watkin affords the Christian believer another fine entrée to participate in the philosophical life to which all humans are born: to understand both how Gilles Deleuze profoundly voiced our time, and also how very cool (adding to Peter Leithart’s designation of ‘weird’!) is the philosophizing that Christianity engenders. Christianity’s welcoming approach of the gospel breaks in and breaks open human thought and culture, as David Kettle describes it, winsomely rendering it more itself than it could otherwise be. And that’s true of Deleuze just as it was of Plato.”
—Esther Lightcap Meek, Professor of Philosophy, Geneva College; Author, Loving to Know: Introducing Covenant Epistemology
“A dear friend of mine in France seriously questioned his faith by reading Gilles Deleuze. He did return to the gospel, but might have done so sooner had he been able to read Watkin’s excellent volume. The author carefully and masterfully introduces us to Deleuze. One of the philosopher’s great appeals is his creative alternatives to typical atheism. Some of it sounds Christian: his celebration of difference; his critique of the chain of being; his appeal to dynamic, rather than static, ways of living. But it all ends up a brilliant caricature, and Watkin helps us see where Deleuze misses the boat. To boot, his presentation of the Christian worldview is marvelous. Why should any of this matter? If you think you have not been influenced by French poststructuralism, you need to think again. It’s in the cultural air we breathe. Watkin helps us clear away the smog. As someone I sat next to during a rather technical speech told me: ‘I don’t understand a lot of this, but I’m glad the speaker is on our side!’ Watkin does understand it, and he is on our side.”
—William Edgar, Professor of Apologetics, Westminster Theological Seminary
“Cutting through the often-impenetrable language of French poststructuralism, Chris Watkin has done us all a service. Few philosophers of the past fifty years have carried forward Nietzsche’s ‘inverted Platonism’ (i.e., nihilism) more compellingly than Deleuze. Besides letting Deleuze’s own views come through clearly, Watkin supplies an astute critique and hopeful alternative in Christian eschatology.”
—Michael Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California
