Deserted Island Top 5: Mark Dever

Stephen Nichols (SN): Today on 5 Minutes in Church History, we are returning to our deserted island. And this time, we're going to put Dr. Mark Dever on our deserted island. Dr. Dever, it's nice to have you with us.

Mark Dever (MD): Steve, it's wonderful to be here and it's far warmer on your deserted island than in D.C. I think I like your island, but I don't want it to be deserted anymore.

SN: You're going to like this island very much. This island has a lot of books on it, and you get to bring five books with you. You don't need to worry about sermon prep, you don't need to worry about all your pastoral duties; you can just read books.

MD: And there's a Bible that's already there?

SN: You've got a Bible; you've got the works of Augustine. This is a very theological island. We've got Calvin, Luther, and Edwards.

MD: Complete works?

SN: Complete works. Now, it's up to you. What five books would you bring with you to your deserted island?

MD: Well, I think I'm going to grab Morning and Evening by Spurgeon. Or did you say all Spurgeon is already there?

SN: No, but maybe we need to think about that.

MD: That's a real oversight.

SN: Sorry.

MD: We'd save a bunch of time if you'd just add Spurgeon to the island and I wouldn't have to include him in my five.

SN: Well, lo and behold, there he is.

MD: OK, that's as it should be. I think I would bring The Pilgrim's Progress. I'll also bring J.I. Packer's Knowing God; it just repays reading again and again.

SN: Do you remember the first time you read that book?

MD: I read that book during the first semester of my freshman year at Duke. So, fall of 1978. It had been out for about five years and everyone was reading it on campus, all the Christians. And as an ex-Calvinist who didn't realize he was an ex-Calvinist, it reformed my theology afresh.

SN: What's your third book?

MD: Now, these are really just for me, right? I'm not trying to do anything else with them?

SN: They're just for you.

MD: Oh, man. Well, there's a set of books that I want to read that I haven't read and then a set of books that I've read and I know I enjoy. So, from the second set, I'm going to take the two-volume Spurgeon autobiography. No, it's there because you've got the works of Spurgeon. Well, then, I'll grab the two-volume biography of George Whitefield.

SN: The Arnold Dallimore biography. He's very inspiring, isn't he?

MD: Yes, so I'll have that with me. Two biographies I'd bring with me would be Robert Remini's biography of Henry Clay done in 1991. Good historian, fascinating life.

SN: I've read Remini on Andrew Jackson.

MD: Well, that's his field, and it was good for the guy who was the Jackson scholar to write about his archnemesis, Henry Clay. And it was a fascinating biography. And I'll probably bring Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs. It's one of the best-written autobiographies that I've read.

SN: So, let's go back to Spurgeon just for a second. We've got his Morning and Evening.

MD: Well, we've got his sermons on the island.

SN: We've got his sermons.

MD: Not one of which is anything other than superb. I mean, before I die, I will not have read all of his sermons, but I have never read one of his sermons that is anything other than superb. It's like the man could not preach a bad sermon.

SN: So we've got his sermons, we've got Morning and Evening. What about Lectures to My Students? What are your thoughts on that book?

MD: You know, we have an internship program at our church and I used that once. It's too long for the good that's in it. There's a lot of good humor.

SN: You need to be a really dedicated student.

MD: These were Friday-afternoon lectures; they were casual, they were informal, they were very practical, they were humorous. It doesn't have the weight of Charles Bridges' The Christian Ministry. But, you know, there were four volumes of it originally. And there are enough good observations in it that it could fill one very serious book the size of Lloyd-Jones' Preaching and Preachers.

SN: Well, how about this, we'll come back and get you off the island?

MD: But I'm liking it here. It's warm.

SN: OK, we'll leave you on your island. Enjoy your reading.

MD: Thanks, Steve.