Book Review: The God of Promise & The Life of Faith

I really hate it when you take a class, only to discover that the professor has assigned one of his own books as required reading. It always seems at least a tad shady to me - you have to wonder what the motive really is. Well, this book was one of those - I'm taking a Biblical Theology course (via extension) presented by Dr. Scott Hafeman and he assigned his own book.

So right off the bat we're off to a less-than-glorious start, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't get much better from there...

Don't get me wrong, the book's not bad. I've had the privilege of listening to Hafeman lecture on a similar subject and have found him to be a very engaging and passionate speaker. His writing... not so much. Some folk are simply better writers than others. Hafeman is a fine man, but writing is just not his forte.

Having said that, I should also note that I fundamentally reject his paradigm for doing Biblical Theology. He has specifically set himself up as neither Dispensationalist nor Covenant, rejecting both primarily because of both systems present a Law/Gospel contrast that he maintains is false. Without getting into too many of the particulars, Hafeman (like Covenants) fails to distinguish between Israel and the Church in such passages as Jer. 31:31-34. As a Dispensationalist (Revised, if you wish to further categorize me), the distinction between Israel and the Church is one of great importance. I'll admit that in the past (and even now) there has been an over-emphasis on this distinction (hence my position as Revised, not Classical), but it's still a distinction I find Biblical.

Hafeman does make some excellent points in his book, and it got better as it progressed - one of those "hard to get into" kind of books. For example, this (from page 175):

Modern and postmodern culture revolves around a this-world orientation; the only long-term "future" our culture hopes for is retirement. This pervasive preoccupation with living as long as possible, as healthy as possible, and as wealthy as possible [this last of which, I should note, is a more modern than postmodern phenomenon] has dramatically influenced the church in the West.

Or this (from the next page):

The future, then, the kingdom of God, has already broken into this "present evil age", but because it is not yet here in all its fullness, our complete enjoyment of God's perfections must wait until the future... Only with such an "already-but-not-yet" view of the kingdom and salvation will we be able to resist the world's temptations.

All said, I can't really recommend this book, but neither would I recommend people stay away from it. How's that for a politically correct review?

Hatushili