"Young, Restless, and Reformed" I am trying to put it down!

But i just can't. I will put my own book review of this book, but in the meantime here is a review about the book.

"Young, restless, and reformed" is a 2 year study by Collin Hansen that takes a look at a resurgence of Calvinistic Theology among young people. Why is it so attractive? This book attempts to answer that question. Here are a few reviews that i have come across... my review will come later:

From places like John Piper’s den, Al Mohler’s office, and Jonathan Edwards’s college, Christianity Today journalist Collin Hansen investigates what makes today’s young Calvinists tick.

Church-growth strategies and charismatic worship have fueled the bulk of evangelical growth in America for decades. While baby boomers have flocked to churches that did not look or sound like church, it seems these churches do not so broadly capture the passions of today’s twenty-something evangelicals. In fact, a desire for transcendence and tradition among young evangelicals has contributed to a Reformed resurgence.

For nearly two years, Christianity Today journalist Collin Hansen visited the chief schools, churches, and conferences of this growing movement. He sought to describe its members and ask its leading pastors and theologians about the causes and implications of the Calvinist resurgence. The result, Young, Restless, Reformed, shows common threads in their diverse testimonies and suggests what tomorrow’s church might look like when these young evangelicals become pastors or professors.

“Collin Hansen invites us on a voyage of discovery, learning how our restless youth are discovering anew the great doctrines of the Christian faith. Weary of churches that seek to entertain rather than teach, longing after the true meat of the Word, these young people are pursuing doctrine. Discover how God is moving among the young, the restless, and the Reformed.”
Tim Challies, author, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment; blogger at Challies.com

“Young, Restless, Reformed is the product of some outstanding research. This book will help the reader gain valuable insight into the growing Reformed movement in America.”
Jerry Bridges, author of The Pursuit of Holiness

“Collin Hansen has uncovered a fresh movement of young Christians for whom doctrine fuels evangelism, kindles passion, and transforms lives. Read it and rejoice.”
David Neff, editor-in-chief, Christianity Today media group

“A number of strategic ministries have been quietly upholding the doctrines of grace, planting churches, seeing people converted, teaching the whole counsel of God. It is time for quiet gratitude to God and earnest intercessory prayer that what has begun well will flourish beyond all human expectation.”
D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“This lively account is must reading for ministry leaders working with young adults. A wake-up call to baby boomers to move beyond the superficial faith they taught their children and to grow with them in the knowledge and love of God.”
Douglas A. Sweeney, Associate Professor of Church History, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Can you lose your salvation?

(The following article was pulled from monergism.com)

Can a Christian lose his or her Salvation?

One major debate within Christian circles is the question of whether or not a Christian can lose his or her salvation. Arminians argue that true believers can sin so much that they lose their faith and perish. Some Christians respond by arguing that once a person professes faith in Jesus, he is eternally secure in his salvation and—even if he commits complete apostasy (“falls away”) and vocally rejects Jesus Christ—will still go to heaven, for “once saved, always saved.” In light of the biblical doctrine of predestination, how should we understand the security we have under God’s care? There have been three main approaches to the question:

1. Classic Arminianism

• One must persevere in faith to be saved.

• True believers can lose their faith.

• Those dying without faith in Christ are condemned.

“The believer who loses his faith is damned.”

2. Antinomianism

• One need not persevere in faith to be saved.

• True believers can lose their faith.

• Those who lose their faith are saved, since they once believed.

“The believer who loses his faith is saved.”

3. Classic Calvinism

• One must persevere in faith to be saved.

• True believers cannot lose their faith, since it’s God’s gift.

• Those dying without faith in Christ are condemned.

• Those who “lose” their faith never had it to begin with.

• God will preserve true believers and they will be saved.

“The ‘believer’ who loses his faith never really had it—or at least it wasn’t in Jesus.”

Proponents of the first two approaches quote biblical references, but each must strain to explain away the other group's biblical data. How can an Arminian read Romans 8, then tell true believers that they may screw up and go to hell??? Then again, how can Charles Stanley read Hebrews 6 and 10 and tell unbelievers who once professed faith not to worry, that they will be saved??? Any true biblical teaching must “fit” with ALL the biblical data, without pitting one text against another and without having to explain away a single “jot or tittle” of God's inerrant Word. I believe that only the classical Calvinist model takes into account all of the biblical data.

Arminians are right when they say the Bible teaches that only those who persevere will be saved, and they’re right in accusing Antinomians of easy-believism and cheap grace. Antinomians (they wouldn’t use the term) are right in telling committed believers that they are secure in Christ and “once saved, always saved.” But both of these views are wrong is assuming that a true believer can lose his faith and fall away from Christ. Faith is “a gift of God—not by works, lest any man boast.” Paul was confident that, since Christ had begun a good work in believers, He would continue that work until completion (Phil. 1). John said that those who fell away were never really true Christians, since true believers don't leave the faith (1 John 2:19).

Scripture teaches that believers must persevere until the end, but also that believers will persevere until the end by God's grace. As the Westminster Assembly concluded, Christians might temporarily yield to Satan's temptations, even to excess, but like Peter when he denied Christ three times, God will still restore and preserve the faith of the Christian, a faith which God gave in the first place! Peter went on to be chief among the apostles! Two biblical principles must be held side-by-side:

1. You Must Persevere until the End: God's Requirement of His People

God does not merely command us to begin to believe for a time, and then fall away. He requires us to continue to believe until the end, living lives of repentance and covenant faithfulness. Granted, He does not ask for a perfect faith, but He does ask for a real faith, one that produces real, lasting change.

• Colossians 1:21-23

• 1 John 1:5-10; 3:3-6

• Hebrews 10:26-31

• Hebrews 12:1

2. You Will Persevere Until the End: God's Preservation of His People

We will persevere because God preserves us. God will keep us from falling—not one will be lost of all those who belong to the Son. True believers are not able to leave Christ, for Christ is at work within them.

• John 6:38-40

• John 10:28-29

• Romans 8:28-39

• Philippians 1:4-6

• Philippians 2:12-13

• 1 John 2:19

This first set of texts cannot be used to refute the second (Arminianism); nor can the second set of texts be used to refute the first (cheap grace). The point that makes the two compatible is the biblical teaching that faith (while commanded of everyone) is a gift from God to His elect. If faith is simply a human action of a free will, then it can be lost. But if saving faith is God's gift, then it cannot be lost. Can professing Christians fall away? Yes, and they will perish. Can true Christians fall away? No, for they are kept by the invincible power of God in Christ. The Bible teaches us that professing Christians who leave the faith were never truly believers (1 John 2:19; and notice the qualification even in Hebrews 10:39).

I hope this article helps those who struggle with this question.

Why is reformed theology growing interest amongst young people?

Lately, there seems to be growing interest in the resurgence of Calvinism and Reformed Theology among the younger generation of Evangelicals. Persons from within Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism, as well as outsiders, are taking note, and wondering what could be fueling the phenomenon. I was recently approached by someone asking for possible reasons or motivations underlying this resurgence among younger evangelicals, and after a little deliberation I came up with five motivations that I see at work, as listed below. I am sure there are others, but these seem highly instrumental to me. What do the rest of you think?

1. Dissatisfaction with the theology and religious environment of our parents. The milieu in which we grew up was characterized on the one hand by a high-stress, high-guilt, man-powered striving after sanctification, evangelism, etc., that left a great deal of burned-out and disillusioned Christians all around us. On the other hand, the services and worship were often characterized by a frivolity and superficiality that left us unsatisfied and longing for more substance. The combination was virtually unsustainable for the long term. We were constantly
striving to obey a long list of rules and standards, by our own efforts, feeling the crushing weight of guilt for our many failures, for all the unevangelized people around us whom we passed on the streets without sharing the gospel, and whose blood was therefore on our hands, and so on. And then, on Sunday, to be recharged and equipped for another week of will-motivated strivings, we sang a handful of trite and trivial choruses. It just didn't cut it. When Reformed doctrine came into the picture, it was the most liberating and captivating thing that could be imagined. All of a sudden, my salvation, sanctification, acceptance with God, and so on, wasn't dependent on me. God was responsible for my salvation, from beginning to end. I
didn't produce faith from my own dead and hardened nature in the first place, even that was a gift of God; and what God had begun, God would finish. And then, in proportion as my view of myself diminished, my view of my Savior increased, to such an extent that gazing on his manifold perfections truly was an unending source of delight and nourishment for the Christian race. My rest became my strength, my despair in myself became my confidence in Another, my
confidence apart from my works became the motivation by which my works abounded as a labor of love and not a torture of guilt.

2. Desire for a rootedness and connectedness with the historic faith. We also became quite dismayed over the fragmentation of the Evangelical Church, the consumer-minded, individualistic shopping for the denomination, worship style, and points of doctrine which are “right for you,” which is so characteristic of the American protestant culture. The Reformed
tradition has a rich legacy of unbroken doctrinal tradition from the days of the Reformers, who
themselves labored to show their connectedness and continuity with the Church fathers and apostles.

3. The resurgence of Puritan literature. There is no greater motivation to become Reformed than reading the light-and-heat writings of Edwards and others, who evinced a doctrinal depth, exegetical precision, and ardor of heart like no one else. Banner of Truth Trust, J. I. Packer's intros and popularizing, etc., are having a tremendous impact.

4. John Piper. He is probably the major reason that there is such a high percentage of Reformed Baptists in the modern resurgence. But many paedo-baptists also love him and have learned much from his passionate and articulate recasting of Reformed Theology for the
Church of today.

5. The internet (and Monergism in particular). Monergism was the website which introduced me and many of my friends to the Reformed worldview, and it continues to have an impact on our thinking, studying, etc. Just the growing availability of reliable resources on the internet has been phenomenally helpful, and sites like Monergism, where all the best contemporary and classic resources of historic Christianity are available at the click of a button, has greatly facilitated the desire to be "always reforming" (semper reformanda).