Logo

 

Banner Image:   Baptist-Times-banner-2000x370-
Template Mode:   Baptist Times
Icon
    Post     Tweet


Peter: His Life and Letters, by Michael Penny  


Penny writes from the perspective of an extreme form of Dispensationalism; people who want to know more about Peter would do better to look elsewhere  



Peter his life and lettersPeter: His Life and Letters 
By Michael Penny 
Upper Basildon: The Open Bible Trust, 2018 
ISBN 978-1-78364-408-7 
Reviewer: Pieter J. Lalleman 


This book does not offer a character study of Peter and it contains no questions for discussion. Instead it retells the gospel narratives in which Peter occurs and pays much attention to Acts 1-15. In this way we get a brief history of the earliest church from Penny’s perspective. Peter’s two letters only receive attention on five pages each. 

Penny writes from the perspective of an extreme form of Dispensationalism, for which E.W. Bullinger is the great authority. This can be seen in the following: 

  1. He says that at Pentecost nothing new happened; it was not the beginning of the Church. 
  2. He divides the letters in the New Testament into those written “during the Acts period” and those afterwards, creating all kinds of artificial distinctions between the two groups. The former were alleged all written to Jewish Christians. 
  3. Jesus told his followers to obey the law and this command still applies to Jewish believers. 
  4. Jesus did not command the disciples to preach the gospel in all the world. ?Penny can say this because he translates Matthew 28:19 and Acts 1:8 in a peculiar way.  It was only in Acts 10 that the command of world evangelism came.  


In Penney’s own words on page 150: “[D]uring the Acts period there was a great work amongst the Jews and, as numbers of them were repenting, there was still the hope that Christ would return. However, we know that insufficient numbers of them did so … and so at the end of Acts, due to the hardness of Israel’s heart, the nation rendered itself blind and deaf and so God’s Salvation was sent to the Gentiles (Acts 28:25-28).” 

Other tenets of Ultradispensationalists are that the Lord's Prayer, like all of the Gospels, is meant for Jewish Christians and not for the Church, and that the Church and Israel are forever worlds apart, but these are not mentioned in the present book. People who want to know more about Peter would do better to look elsewhere.  

 
The Revd Dr Pieter J. Lalleman teaches Bible at Spurgeon’s College  



 
Baptist Times, 21/09/2018
    Post     Tweet
Mindful Formation by Shaun Lambert
'Blends academic, practical, and devotional content seamlessly - a modern spiritual classic'
Slow Wisdom by Ruth Moriarty
'If taken on board, it should see the church meeting becoming more of what it should be: a dynamic, prayerful, joyful space of listening to God as we listen to one another'
What’s Up, by Joanna Adeyinka-Burford
Recommended devotional book for Key Stage 2 children who have some knowledge of Christianity, created by someone with a strong understanding of the world of the child
Mind Fuel for Young Explorers, by Bear Grylls and Will Van Der Hart
'A brilliant tool to aid our young people as they navigate our changing modern world, non-preachy yet shot through with Christian wisdom'
The Martyr and the Red Kimono by Naoko Abe
'I am personally very grateful to Noako Abe for this outstanding piece of work... Through her assiduous research she has retrieved the whole of Maximilian Kolbe’s life story'
Unforgiveable? by Stephen Cherry
'Explores forgiving and forgivability in the aftermath of serious, traumatic and life-changing harm. An important book, which deserves serious study'
    Posted: 04/10/2024
    Posted: 01/03/2024