Thursday, August 6, 2009

"An Uncommon Christian" now available @ Reformation Heritage Books . . . Joel Beeke, Baruch Maoz and Israel . . . Is today's Judaism still Jewish?

































Among other online options, An Uncommon Christian: James Brainerd Taylor, Forgotten Evangelist in America's Second Great Awakening (University Press of America, 2008) is now available through Reformation Heritage Books. Click here to view RHB's web page for An Uncommon Christian, and here to view other biographical Christian books offered by RHB.

Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Reformation Heritage Books was founded in 1994 with the purpose of distributing sound, Reformed, experiential literature, such as that which flourished in the Puritan Era (c. 1550-1700). RHB's mission "is to glorify God and strengthen His Church through the publication and distribution of Puritan and Reformed literature." To read RHB's insightful and edifying "Heritage Booktalk" blog, click here.

Other online buying options in the U.S., Canada and overseas for An Uncommon Christian--including Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com--are viewable at Uncommon Christian Ministries' website. This is also the same for the second recent book on Taylor (an edited anthology), Of Intense Brightness: The Spirituality of Uncommon Christian James Brainerd Taylor (University Press of America, 2008).

** NOTE ABOUT (AND FROM) ISRAEL **

On a somewhat related note, and among other places worldwide, RHB's editorial director, Dr. Joel Beeke, has spoken at a conference sponsored by Grace and Truth Christian Congregation in Rishon LeZion (Rishon LeTsion), Israel. I have attended this Tel Aviv-area congregation several times since my arrival here in Israel on May 8, 2009. (As a pastor, church historian, Puritan scholar and author, Dr. Beeke was 1 of 22 international endorsers of An Uncommon Christian.)

Grace and Truth Christian Congregation was founded in 1976 by a group of Israeli Christians, including longtime pastor Baruch Maoz (1976-January 2009). Today it is largely made up of veteran Israelis and immigrants from the former USSR and other countries, with some non-Jewish persons and an Arab family. The Reformed (Calvinistic) Baptist church also serves expatriate students or workers from various parts of the world, and a growing deaf community. Grace and Truth is one of Israel's oldest churches and thereby has showed the way for other churches in the country. It has led a successful international campaign against efforts to restrict religious freedom in Israel.

Click here to read a good article about the church's history and challenges by the now-retired Pastor Baruch Maoz. And here to read Pastor Maoz's response to a review of his 400-page book Judaism Is Not Jewish: A Friendly Critique of the Messianic Movement (2003). Pastor Maoz's website, "Soli Deo Gloria (Israel): Creating Reformed Literature in Hebrew," can be found here.

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