If God has spoken, then the hightest human aspiration must be to hear what the Creator has said. God has indeed spoken, through the Ten Commandments, and Al Mohler explores this revelation of God and the implications for His people. The promise is to hear, to obey, and to live. These "Ten Words" tell us who God is and what His people should look like.
Words From the Fire
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About the Author
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world. He also serves as Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Seminary and as Editor-in-Chief of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, as well as on the boards of several organizations including Focus on the Family and The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Dr. Mohler has been quoted in the nation's leading newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He has also appeared on such national news programs as CNN's Larry King Live, NBC's Today Show and Dateline NBC. He and his wife, Mary, have two children.
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R. Albert Mohler Jr. (PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as the ninth president of Southern Seminary and as the Joseph Emerson Brown Professor of Christian Theology. Considered a leader among American evangelicals by Time and Christianity Today magazines, Dr. Mohler hosts a daily radio program for the Salem Radio Network and also writes a popular daily commentary on moral, cultural, and theological issues. Both can be accessed at www.albertmohler.com.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Could Be Mohler's Best,
By
This review is from: Words From the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments (Hardcover)
The Ten Commandments was among the first lengthy passages of Scripture I ever committed to memory. Like most children, I was told to memorize the commandments and did so. Every week they were read in church, ensuring that they remained fresh in my mind. And yet, as I've grown older, I've realized that I think little about these Commandments, usually convinced that I am living by the letter of the law but rarely pausing to consider whether I live in the spirit of them. I'm a New Testament Christian, I suppose, often seeing little reason to look back to these laws, given so long ago. And it is to my shame, I'm sure. So it was some interest that I turned to Words from the Fire, a new book in which Al Mohler calls Christians to hear the voice of God in the Ten Commandments.
The great crisis of our day, of the postmodern times in which Mohler writes the book, is one of knowledge. It is an epistemological crisis that goes to the very root of how we can know anything and, continuing on from there, what right we have to tell other people what is true and what is false. Mohler summarizes the question in this way: "How do we know and teach what we claim to know and teach?" The great challenge for Christians, in face of such questions, is to "make certain we know on what authority we speak, and know, and teach." As Christians our claim is not that we have something to say or that our words merit attention. To the contrary, we claim that God has something to say and has chosen to say it through us. We speak only because he has spoken and we ought to speak only what he has spoken. The format of the book is dead simple and really exactly what you would expect--after an Introduction there are ten chapters for ten laws. This Introduction is excellent, structured around eight "if's." If we grant that God has spoken as Creator to his creation, there are eight things we must now acknowledge: that we now do know; that we know what we know only by mercy; that we too must speak; that all of creation is about God; that God has spoken for our good; that we must obey; that we must trust; that we must witness. "We are here because God has spoken, not only in the fire, but also in the Son--in whose name we gather as the church and in whose name we serve. The voice at Horeb points to its ultimate fulfillment in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate. For beyond the miracle of Israel hearing God's voice and surviving, we can now know the Word of God made flesh...and be saved." And from this starting point Mohler consistently shows how the Ten Commandments are relevant to us today and how God calls us to obey them; he shows how they are all a work of God's grace. And always he points to the ultimate fulfillment of these commandments in Jesus Christ, the one in whom the law has been fulfilled. These are commandments we can know and obey and delight in today in a way that the ancient Israelites could not even imagine. As I considered reading the book I was particularly interested in Mohler's teaching on the fourth commandment. I was raised in the Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed traditions, both of which insisted on a real continuity between the Old Testament Sabbath and the New Testament Lord's Day. Though I am now a convinced Baptist, I have still found it difficult to reconcile the Ten Commandments with a non-Sabbatarian view of the fourth commandment, a position Dr. Mohler refers to as Lord's Day observance. I found his arguments here logical, convincing and convicting. The main issue in this commandment, he insists, is what we are to do rather than what we are not to do. That simple observation, combined with his other teaching, shows me that I can be a non-Sabbatarian and actually have a higher view of the Lord's Day, just as a New Testament Christian should have a higher view than his Old Testament equivalent of any of the other commandments. "Are there things we ought not to do on the Lord's Day?" he asks. "Certainly there are. Anything that would detract from our worship should not be done on the Lord's Day. Anything that would rob the Lord's Day of priority worship should not be done. Anything that would be on our minds when we are worshiping, as if we can only get done with this in order to go do that, is a matter of sin, no matter what it is." If I were to point out a potential weak point in the book I'd say that strangely and rather surprisingly, I noticed several little editing oversights--a missing quotation mark here, a missing word there, an overuse of a word in a few other places. There are only a few such things, but still more than I would have expected. It is certainly not enough to detract from the message of the book but still enough that I made a note of it. We've seen a steady stream of books come from Mohler's pen in the past couple of years. I have read them all and am quite comfortable saying that this one is the best of the bunch. Logically, consistently, biblically, Mohler looks to the Ten Commandments and then calls us to live in light of those laws, not as people burdened by rules, but as a grateful people acting in love toward a great God. "Understood rightly, these commandments lead, not to our despair that we fall short of them, but to our thankfulness for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ comes to save lawbreakers like ourselves. Thus, we see the commandments themselves as grace to us. But our confidence is not in our ability to keep these commandments, for we will surely fail. Our confidence is in Christ, whose perfect obedience fulfills the law."
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Words from the Fire, by Al Mohler,
This review is from: Words From the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments (Hardcover)
Dr. Mohler has served as the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Louisville, KY since 1993. Dr. Mohler brought reformation to the then liberal seminary and has returned the seminary to teaching the theology of the Southern Baptist founders---the theology of the Bible.
In Words from the Fire, Dr. Mohler expounds the 10 commandments for us. The purpose of the 10 commandments has been a debate for a long time. Calvin and Luther disagreed on this issue and evangelicals today continue to disagree. We can all agree that the law was given to us to point to Christ and to guide our secular law. However, the debated question is does the law teach Christian today? Mohler points out an interesting fact that although Luther denied this third use of the law, he still practiced this use of the law. Mohler concludes the law does teach us today, which is the basis for the rest of the book. Throughout Words from the Fire, Mohler does an excellent job at showing Christ in the commandments. Jesus is there in each commandment, thank you for showing Him to us Dr. Mohler. Another common theme throughout Words from the Fire is God's glory, and rightly so, God's glory is a theme throughout scripture as well. Mohler clearly declares the chief end of man: "We are called to know and love the God who made us for His glory. And that is the highest privilege any human being can know." Yesterday I covered Mohler's discussion on images of Christ separately. I completely agree with his exposition of the second commandment and commend him for taking a stand on a sin so prominent among Christians. I also agree with Mohler on his discussion of the fourth commandment, the Sabbath. However, he left me a bit disappointed in his conclusions here as I was hoping to get some more clear direction. Being the only commandment not reinforced by Jesus in the New Testament, I can understand the confusion around the commandment. Mohler tells a story of washing his car on the Lord 's day as a young man and was lectured on Sabbath breaking by his mother for doing so. Mohler concludes by saying he still does not know if this was a sin. I do not know either, but when I read this chapter, I was hoping he knew. I do not see a clear affirmation of the SBTS Abstract of Principals in Mohler's exposition of the fourth commandment. I doubt washing your car is a work of necessity or mercy. XVII. THE LORD'S DAY The Lord's Day is a Christian institution for regular observance, and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private, resting from worldly employments and amusements, works of necessity and mercy only excepted. Mohler's work is presented well and is theologically sound. His contribution will surely edify the church for many years. My only criticism is the few places where no concrete position is taken. I may not have a concrete position either, but I am not writing a book. That being said, I highly recommend Words from the Fire, and I am adding it to my list of possible teaching material for my Sunday school class. I believe it would make for a great 10 week series of Sunday School classes.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ten Commandments are as relevant as ever,
By
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This review is from: Words From the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments (Hardcover)
In this book, Mohler, who is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes an exposition of the Ten Commandments, explaining how each is still vitally important to us today, even though we live under the covenant of grace, and not under the law. Jesus, after all, was the fulfillment of the law, and we are to be like him. While Jesus' sacrifice allows us to come to faith by the free gift of God's grace -- even though we are guilty of breaking every commandment He has ever given us -- we are still called to live according to God's Will. Jesus didn't remove the law, though he removed it's power over us. Rather, he raised the bar, setting an even higher level of expectation for those who bear His name. It is not enough to live according to the letter of the Law. We are to live according to its spirit, through the power of the Spirit which enables our obedience.
The purpose of the book, says Mohler, is to answer the question: "How do we know and teach what we claim to know and teach?" His answer is that God is a God who speaks. Previously, He has spoken through the law, but now He has spoken through the Living Word, Jesus Christ. This leads to what he calls "several realities that should frame our thinking". He offers eight such realities that must be true regarding the question "How do we know?" if we operate under the assumption that God speaks, and that He has spoken: If God has spoken, then (1) we do know; (2) we know only by mercy; (3) we too must speak; (4) all He has spoken is about God, and it is all for our good; (5) it is for our redemption; (6) we must obey; (7) we must trust; and (8) we must witness. Mohler then devotes a chapter to each of the commandments. I was amazed and challenged by the depth of his insights, particularly in regard to our worship. His focus is entirely on Jesus, and this makes the 10 Commandments more "relevant" now than ever! Mohler's summary in the penultimate paragraph of this book is spot on: "Understood rightly, these commandments lead, not to our despair that we fall short of them, but to our thankfulness for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ comes to save lawbreakers like ourselves. Thus, we see the commandments themselves as grace to us. But our confidence is not in our ability to keep these commandments, for we will surely fail. Our confidence is in Christ, whose perfect obedience fulfills the law." This book would make an excellent resource for small group discussion, as well as for personal reading.
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