Book Review of "Prayer Revival - A Textbook on Prayer, Fasting, and Revival" by Benny Beckum

     I obtained my copy of the book (autographed) some ten years ago, after hearing the author preach. He seems a very fine fellow and I estimate that he would be a valued friend. I took the book off my shelf and began to read it as part of my daily devotional read several months ago, reading and reflecting on the material carefully.

     It is a rather comprehensive book, reaching back to the 19th century in the Introduction. Although I had not intended to review the work when I began to read it, my progress through the book resulted in a present compulsion to write this review. I fear this review will cost me.

     The tenor of the book bothered me more and more as I read through it. I have read numerous books on the topic of prayer, including "All The Prayers Of The Bible" by Lockyer, "Only A Prayer Meeting" by Spurgeon, "Prayer" by John Bunyan, "Affirmative Prayer In Action," by Adela Rogers St. Johns, "Prayer - Asking And Receiving," by John R Rice, "Exploring Prayer," by Jack Hyles, and "Power Through Prayer" by E. M. Bounds.

     As you can see from that partial list, the books I have read on prayer are from across the theological spectrum. It is important to note that any author's thrust on the topic of prayer can and sometimes does deviate significantly from how he defines prayer, aside from his best intentions to reflect his stated definition.

     My concern with the book arises from how it reflects the theology of Charles G. Finney, who so dramatically influenced 19th century American Christianity, both the practice of evangelism and the theology of salvation. Since he wrote only three books, Finney's positions on important matters is very easy to discover and evaluate in light of the Bible. Sadly, few take the time to evaluate Finney's positions or impact, forcing me to write on the devastation of his and Horace Bushnell's legacies.

     Though the word and the concept it reflects is a concept not explicitly identified in Beckum's book, synergism is a patently unscriptural distortion of the Biblical doctrine of salvation. I well remember extended discussions with my friend, the late Roland Rasmussen, on the issue of monergism versus synergism. How passionate he was about the issue. And how accurate!

     That this book on prayer does not distinguish between monergism and synergism is unfortunate, because the topic of prayer as seen from one perspective cannot be the same when seen from the other perspective. And the positions embraced by Rice, Hyles, Bounds, and Finney on one hand, are most definitely not embraced the men listed in the book's bibliography; Spurgeon, Bunyan, Bonar, Brooks, Cairns, Edwards, Mack, Murray, Pink, Piper, and Whitefield.

     My point? These men profoundly disagree what prayer is and what prayer accomplishes, as a result of their differing position on monergism versus synergism, something the author does not address. That is unfortunate.

This installment is titled “The History & Theology of Calvinism” by Curt Daniel, Chapter Thirty-Three, The Depth of Depravity.

“The gap between God and man is not only infinite regarding size and sovereignty but also holiness. Jonathan Edwards said, ‘Fallen man is infinitely different from God in both respects; both as little and as filthy.” God is infinitely and transcendently holy. Man is abysmally depraved. In this chapter we will explore the depths of his depravity but will not touch the bottom. It is beyond exaggeration or comprehension. But praise the Lord, there is a cure.”

This chapter is divided into 10 subsections.

Man Is Spiritually Dead. Seven paragraphs. “Pelagianism says man is alive and well. Arminianism says man is sick. Calvinism says man is dead. The first to agree that man is alive, which is one reason why Arminianism can easily lead to liberalism and Pelagianism. Reformed theology emphatically states that fallen man has no spiritual life: ‘If thou art a bad man, certainly thou art a dead man.’ There may be degrees of health for the living, but there are no degrees of death for the dead. One corpse cannot be deader than another. There is a world of difference between a person who is barely alive and one who is recently deceased.” “The Arminian Dave Hunt fails to see the point that the Bible regularly makes regarding spiritual death. He says that if we are dead, then we could not only believe and obey God, but we could not even disbelieve and disobey God, for a dead man cannot do anything at all. He thereby casually brushes aside the Bible’s whole teaching on spiritual death. But according to the Bible, spiritual death does not mean nonexistence or non-activity. It is unbelief, disobedience, and unrighteousness, while spiritual life is faith, obedience, and righteousness. When God says we are spiritually dead, He does not mean we cannot do anything at all – He means that we cannot do anything spiritually good at all. A corpse cannot sing, but it can putrefy. A sinner cannot get better, but he can get worse (2 Timothy 3:13). As Spurgeon said, ‘You will remember while the sinner is dead in sin, he is our lives so far as any opposition to God may be concerned.’ Conversely, a spiritually alive person is dead toward sin (Romans 6:4 – 13).”

Earthy Bible Descriptions. Three paragraphs. “Scripture uses a number of earthy and blunt pictures to describe fallen man – none of them are complementary!” Several dozen descriptions and Scripture references are provided.

Man Is Worse than Animals. Five paragraphs. In addition to Scripture citations, quotes from Thomas Watson, John Calvin, George Whitfield, Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, and Abraham Kuyper are cited.

Children of the Devil. Three paragraphs.

Lovers of Sin, Haters of God. Eight paragraphs. Many Scripture references, and comments by Jonathan Edwards, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Rousas Rushdoony, John Calvin.

Calvin’s Analysis. “In all theological literature, no writer has examined the depths of human depravity deeper or more accurately than John Calvin. Here are excerpts from just one book, Sermons on Genesis, 1:1–11:4 with page numbers in parentheses.

·         “For man is only a mass of filth and villainy, a sinking vessel, until he is renewed.” (146)

·         “As many desires and lusts as are in us, that is how many raging beasts there are still chained up within us, growling and gnashing their teeth or pawing the ground.” (162)

·         “We are submerged in total stench, for if we were not just on a dung heap, but in the deepest and foulest smelling privity in the world, we would not be in a more horrendous pit than we are, in this confusion in which we now find ourselves.” (239)

·         “Subsequently, all our desires and appetites are perverse and filled with iniquity.” (244)

·         “Everything that comes out of us will be putrid and filthy and can only increase his wrath.” (363)

·         “We will always find a subtle infection which grows in our hearts.” (378)

·         “Satan […] drags them about where he wishes and makes them like animals so they fall into such a state of madness they have no scruples about fighting against the living God.” (389)

·         “If they could spit on God’s Majesty, they would do it, so carried away are they in their madness.” (468)

·         “Now a different image followed that one original image of God, for Adam disfigured himself, as if someone had thrown mud on outstanding image in the world and the world had spat upon it and had become covered with filth and contagion.” (489)

·         “There is no vermin in the world that is not worth more than we are.” (490)

·         “We are born as Satan’s slaves under the tyranny of sin, sold into evil, like an animal that one sells and loads and drives where he wishes.” (495)

·         “But if we are recalcitrant and act like untamable animals, shall not such ingratitude have to be punished more grievously?” (526)

·         “There will be enough to condemn hundreds of worlds.” (548)

·         “It would be like spitting at heaven, but it would not reach God, and we would be splattered with our own spittle.” (552)

·         “That we have defaced God’s image in us and remain contemptuous of him surpasses all the world’s murders.” (565)

·         “The devil takes possession of us and puts us through our paces and makes us trot, not only like wild animals, but like monsters.” (634)

·         “It is certain that we deserve to be eaten by wild animals, indeed by vermin.” (744)

·         “All our imaginations are rebellious and perverse, and that all the compartments of man’s soul, his reason, his thoughts, all his desires, and all his affections, are workshops for forging weapons to battle against God. That, I say, is what we are by nature.” (846)

Further Descriptions. Five paragraphs.

Miscellaneous Observations. Five paragraphs.

Extreme Evil. Three paragraphs.

Conclusion. Four paragraphs. “Those who oppose the Reformed view of total depravity would do well to heed the exhortation of Anselm as he rebuked Boso’s rejection of the Anselmian theory of atonement: ‘You have not yet considered the exceeding gravity of sin.’ Calvin echoed this in a rebuke to those who minimize the evil of sin and think they can satisfy God themselves: ‘I say that those who talk such nonsense did not realize what an execrable thing sin is in God’s sight.’ It is not a matter of objectively studying the subject like a high school biology student dissecting a frog. We are the sinners and hence both the subject and object of self-examination.”