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CTF 2025 10 - Optional Pre-Read Materials

Jim Butler · 2024-12-20 · 573 words · 4 min

CTF 2025 - Preview

Speak a little, maybe, to Dozol 
and Renahan's books and resources they have available. If someone's 
interested in pre-reading or pre-work, what would you recommend 
for them? Well, I think for Dolezal, a good pre-read would be his 
book, All That Is In God. It's a very helpful book. It covers that material that 
he delivered at one of the Southern California Reformed Baptist Pastors 
Conferences. It was an excellent conference 
and an excellent set of lectures by Dr. Dolezal on the content 
of of chapter 2, and so a very good preview would be to read 
through that book. I believe Matthew Barrett also 
has a book, Simply Trinity, and in chapter 1 he talks about Trinity 
Adrift, how did we get here. Would you recommend that book 
as a slightly more accessible? you know, read for chapter two, 
and if you can, summarize chapter one, which would help people 
understand why we should be at this conference. Yeah, yeah, 
very good. I mean, that connects well with 
Trinity Adrift, the, you know, sort of the, not sort of, the 
subject matter of that particular chapter. It's exactly what he's 
dealing with, you know, largely modern departures from the historical 
doctrine of the Trinity, you know, something happened, you 
know, for, for, you know, what can we say 19 centuries, there 
was a, there was a soft, we dropped the ball, something happened 
in that 20th century. But, but for century upon century, 
there was very largely and clearly a common consensus on the doctrine 
of God, on the content of chapter 2 of our confession of faith. And so, you know, something happened, 
and Matthew Barrett sort of outlines that. What happened in churches? 
What happened in seminaries? What happened with you know, 
with theological writings in the 20th century, and what can 
we see? What can we observe? What can 
we learn? And how can we simply get back 
into the meat and potatoes of our received theological heritage 
that many have seemed to have departed from? And that's, I 
think, you know, in a nutshell, the subject matter of that, and 
it connects well with our conference, That's in part what we're trying 
to do here is to show what the Bible teaches with regards to 
the doctrine of God and to demonstrate, again, that we are the inheritors 
of that received theological heritage that our forebears have 
passed on throughout the ages and that we should receive well 
as the truth that concerns our blessed triune God. Yeah, I think 
that Trinity Adrift sets the stage and then the rest of the 
book, Simply Trinity, deals with the positive presentation. We 
don't need to subordinate Jesus eternally to provide a basis 
or rationale for distinction. The Church has always recognized 
it's the eternal relations of origin that distinguish the persons 
one from another. So that's a good book. I would 
say Scott Swain's Introduction to the Trinity has been very 
helpful. I think Fred Sanders' book on the Holy Spirit and Introduction, 
though not as probably connected to Chapter 2, is very helpful. 
And then by Dr. Sam Renahan, both those books 
I mentioned, God Without Passions, The Primer, and The Reader, very 
helpful. He has another one called Deity 
and Decree, where he deals with chapters 2 and 3. So, yeah, very 
good stuff that would be a helpful precursor or pre-read before 
coming to the conference.