Introduction to Works of Arthur Pink Volume 1

I grew up reading scripture. I had—have—this ancient New International Version New Testament, published in 1975. The subtitle is “Illustrated Children’s Edition with Memory Margin”. This New Testament measures 6 and a half, by 9 and an eighth, by 1 and a quarter inches. I estimate the font to be about 14 pt. Maybe I was partially blind when I was a child. By New Testament standards, this book is very large. Not sure where I was going with this. I also had a complete bible. This other bible was a children’s edition sprinkled throughout with pictures of various events. That thing is lost forever.

I’m guessing I learned to read about the same time as most other children. The Bible being one of the first books I possessed, that was what I read. One of the earliest stories I remember reading was “David and Goliath”.

Like many of the stories in scripture, we find in this story much that inspires us. David tended sheep. He was young, probably in his early teens. He was handsome. He was brave, even perhaps a little obnoxious. The details and the conflict between David and his older brother lend to the credulity of the story. David went to the frontlines of the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines and brought food to the soldiers. There, he heard the challenge of the Philistines’ gigantic champion, Goliath, as he defied the armies of God, and God himself. “Who does this guy think he is?”, David asked. We all know how the story ends. David executes an unconscious Goliath with his own sword. That is how the story of David and Goliath ends. The future king of Israel, the ancestor God chose through which he would send the Savior of Mankind—David the Shepherd executed an unconscious man without trial or pretense of any kind.

“But this was war,” you object. Exactly right. The gory, violent details give the story credulity. Unlike the gory, obscenely perverse details of the Grimms’ fairy tales, the details in scripture match the overarching narrative. In war, the victor executes the defeated.

Scripture contains many details that we choose to ignore, or that we forget, or that we decline to emphasize with equal weight as the “inspirational” details:

Men are depraved. Jeremiah 17.9

God controls what we think and desire. Proverbs 21.1

God hates certain groups of people. Psalm 5.5; Proverbs 6.16-19.

God hates certain individuals. Malachi 1.3; Romans 9.13

God destines some to eternal destruction. Romans 9.22; 1 Peter 2.8

Why do we expect the Creator of the Universe to be eternally benign, inoffensive, and ever-pleasant? Do we know any human beings like this? If we do, do we honestly trust that this is who they are?

Arthur Pink refused to ignore any single part of scripture that he found unpleasant. The Sovereignty of God describes a God who rules all, every detail of all of creation, every action, every event, every decision of every man, woman, and child. The sovereignty of God must be our starting point for all of scripture, for all of theology. Without it, there is no scripture. If God is not sovereign, then his word has no meaning. How can he keep his promises? How can we trust him? Why even bother to worship him, if anything we decide can thwart whatever he decides? If our measly and minuscule intentions, these things we do daily by happenstance or stupidity or ignorance, can ruin the plans of the God of the universe, what is the point of God? What meaning is there in anything we do or say or believe? But if God is sovereign, then everything has meaning. Every failure, every thought, every intention that enters our heart has a purpose, and the purpose is not our purpose, but God’s. If God is sovereign, then he can be trusted, and his word can be proclaimed without fear and without compromise.