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Lewis Speaks to You

The work is massive. The author is wordy, has long sentences, demands careful attention, and has a propensity to come up with lists of 7.  Nevertheless, I read and re-read Lewis Sperry Chafer's Systematic Theology regularly.  Hop on over to Amazon if you want to pick up a copy for the bookshelf.  Otherwise Logos will sell it to you and you can put a copy in your library.  By the way, the Logos version is a lot easier to carry around.

 One of the things Chafer does that I like is that he speaks to the student of scripture more or less directly.  In fact, Logos tells me he addresses the student 174 times.  I like this because it gives me some guidance and direction in my study of Scripture.  I thought his addresses to students might be motivating, or at least interesting, to some of you. So here are a few of my favorites.  Note this is a list of 7 in honor of Dr. Chafer.
  1. "No student of the Scriptures should be satisfied to traffic only in the results of the study of other men." (1:vi)
  2. "The student must learn to establish context boundaries regardless of the mere mechanical chapter and verse divisions." (1:117)
  3. "The student must face his individual responsibility in attaining, by prayer and meditation and by the illuminating power of the Spirit, to right thoughts and worthy conceptions of God." (1:180)
  4. Concerning types that anticipate the sufferings and death of Jesus:  "...the student should be so saturated with these marvels of God’s message that the whole being is set aglow with that spiritual radiance which can never be dimmed." (3:118)
  5. "The ambitious student, bent on excelling as an effective and accurate preacher of the gospel, would do well to learn—even by tireless effort—the great doctrine of imputed righteousness." (3:220) 
  6. "The student who meditates on the Person of God, the eternity of God, the omnipotence of God, the sovereignty of God as Creator of, and Ruler over, all things, and the elective purpose of God, will be fortified against that form of rationalism—subtle in character and natural to the human heart—which imagines that, in His creation, God has unwittingly so tied His own hands that He cannot with that absoluteness which belongs to infinity realize His eternal purpose." (3:235) (I warned you in the second sentence about this!)
  7. "The student, like Timothy, is enjoined to study to be one approved of God in the matter of rightly dividing the Scriptures.) (4:185)
Even if you don't rush out and buy this set there are seven things from Chafer that can help every student of scripture.

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