Recommended Resources
Here is a list of several books, articles, blogs, and the like that have educated and helped us with church life, recovering from church abuse, studying Scripture and understanding God.
Online
Ligonier Ministries
www.ligonier.org
This is the teaching ministry of R.C. Sproul, who has been running a radio program called Renewing Your Mind for quite some time. There are several hours of audio and video lectures on here for free, as well as thousands of hours for nominal fees. The content is all Reformed (if you’re not sure what this means, watch or listen to this).
Grace To You
www.gty.org
This is the teaching ministry of John MacArthur, who has been running a radio program by the same name for quite some time. There are thousands of hours of audio, video, and transcripts of sermons and articles on here—all for free.
Books
The Holiness of God
by R.C. Sproul
This book helps us to see, from the biblical perspective, how importance the holiness of God is. It defines holiness (since it tends to be a throwaway word in Christian circles these days), shows how God regards holiness, and shows how man should regard holiness. It was a fantastic start for my wife and I in understanding an attribute that we had never really been taught in our first decade of church.
Purchase This Book from Ligonier.
Purchase This Book from Monergism Books.
Twisted Scriptures
by Mary Alice Chrnalogar
A book on scripture twisting and other cult-like activities that happen in a lot of churches today. The author is a counselor that helps rescue people from cults. The book describes leadership practices and teachings of churches ranging from those with cult-like tendencies to known “Christian” cults of today. This book really helped us realize which parts of what we were involved in were completely unhealthy. It also helped by validating some of the things we were feeling, coming out of a cult-like environment, and helping us realize what we were feeling was completely normal.
Purchase This Book from Amazon.
Healing Spiritual Abuse: How to Break Free from Bad Church Experiences
by Ken Blue
Similar content to Twisted Scriptures, though written by a pastor and has a bit more of a biblical perspective rather than a psychological perspective.
Purchase this book from Amazon.
ESV (English Standard Version) Study Bible
This is a fantastic Bible that was specifically created to help people understand the Bible in a deeper way. For us, this Bible has been an amazing tool in our own study for helping to understand things like, context, original languages and cultural meaning. We HIGHLY recommend anyone get this Bible and read it!! It has really helped clear up a lot of common misconceptions about certain commonly used out-of-context verses in the modern/charismatic church, among other things.
Purchase this book from Monergism Books.
The Gospel Driven Life
by Michael Horton
In an effort to refocus us, Michael Horton writes on why Purpose Driven should never be the priority—in fact, it should be that we wonder how to live a life that is Gospel Driven. His writing is entertaining and very intellectual.
Purchase this book from Monergism Books.
Knowing Scripture
by R.C. Sproul
This book explains how to interpret and read Scripture correctly for lay people. That is, it is an ideal tool for someone who is just beginning to wonder what Scripture means in its original context and intention, and what to do in order to find that meaning. Obviously not a comprehensive guide to hermeneutics, it provides a fantastic foundation for general study while recommending excellent resources for more in-depth study.
Purchase this book from Monergism Books.
Systematic Theology
by Louis Berkhof
A very well-researched book on Systematic Theology. Louis Berkhof is an excellent scholar of theology and provides a great deal of information on all passages of Scripture, the attributes of God, and so on. This is a recommended reference item for anyone who is serious about study.
Purchase this book from Monergism Books.
People in Glass Houses: An Insider’s Story of Life In and Out of Hillsong
by Tanya Levin
This memoir dives into the life of Tanya Levin and her growing up at Hillsong church in Australia. It exposes much behind-the-scenes as she watched Hillsong go from a small community church to the multi-million dollar money making machine it is today. This book is very eye opening to the world of modern church as Hillsong has become one of the major examples many churches follow. While we don’t agree with her stance in the end regarding institutionalized church, she provides a useful back door view of the inner workings of one of the largest church movements in the world today.
View a preview of this book on Google Books.
Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol. I & II
by John Calvin
This is an excellent resource for the person who wants to delve into deeper study. John Calvin takes decided positions on all issues and shows the processes by which he has come to them. This particular translation tends to be the more accurate, but, as such, is not an easy read for the lay person. Once understood, the concepts outlined by Calvin are definitely worth the effort!
Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church
by Michael Horton
Recognizing that many churches have abandoned some or all of the true gospel, Michael Horton talks about the true gospel, and how the subtleties of modern Western church are slowly turning into historical heresies.
Purchase this book from Monergism Books.
The Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historic and Contemporary Evangelicalism
by Carl R. Trueman
Carl Trueman investigates, through several essays, what has happened in evangelicalism, both in the distant past and the not-so-distant past, as the different forms of media, governments and politics, and cultures themselves have impacted it.
Purchase this book from Monergism Books.
Articles
Why Theophostic Prayer Ministry is Neither Prayer Nor Christian Ministry
a commentary by Bob DeWaay
This is an excellent article for those of us who have participated in or have been confused by any kind of psychologically themed Bible study or ministry. It explains why psychologically based “ministry” is not biblical, and further explains what the Bible does say in response.
