Knowing the Trinity: Practical Thoughts for Daily Life, by Ryan M. McGraw: A Review

Dr. Ryan M. McGraw has written a valuable book entitled Knowing the Trinity: Practical Thoughts for Daily Life (Lancaster, PA: Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, 2017).  I asked (and received) a review copy of the book and believe that it is a valuable book on the Christian's fellowship with the Triune God.  Too many Baptists and other professing believers recognize the Trinity as an important doctrine, but Trinitarianism has little impact on their practical lives or on their view of Christian piety.  This is a very unfortunate and unbiblical situation.

The chapters of Dr. McGraw's book are as follows:

Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. What Is Trinitarian Piety?
2. The Trinity in the New Testament
3. The Trinity and the Plan of Salvation

Knowing the Father
4. The Trinity and How the Father Saves Us

Knowing the Son
5. The Trinity and How the Son Saves Us
6. The Trinity and Christ’s Incarnation
7. The Trinity and Christ’s Life and Ministry
8. The Trinity and Christ’s Death
9. The Trinity and Christ’s Resurrection
10. The Trinity and Christ’s Ascension

Knowing the Spirit
11. The Trinity and How the Spirit Saves Us
12. The Trinity and Adoption
13. The Trinity and Prayer Meetings
14. The Trinity and the Church
15. The Trinity and Spiritual Gifts
16. The Trinity and Worship
17. The Trinity and the Gospel Ministry
18. The Trinity and Baptism
19. The Trinity and the Lord’s Supper

Conclusion
20. The Blessing of the Triune God

Appendix: Triadic Passages in Scripture

The twenty chapters are brief, as the book is only 137 pages; thus, it is easier to follow and grasp than John Owen's tremendous classic Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (summarized here), to which McGraw acknowledges his indebtedness.  McGraw writes his book with the "aim that believers will recover the rich Trinitarian theology of the New Testament that will lead to devotion to the Triune God. . . . The Lord has used this book to promote this goal in my family, in my former congregation, and in myself" (pg. 14).  I believe that the book would be helpful to men to leading their families in family devotions, as well as useful for Christians in general.  (We went through it in our family worship and it was a blessing to us.)  The truths in the book should be ones with which all pastors and teachers should be very familiar, but too many are not.  I would consider assigning it were I to teach my college class on Trinitarianism again as a simple summary of how the Trinity influences so much of Biblical Christianity, and knowledgeable leaders could use it, and the study questions following each chapter, in connection with Sunday School, although I would not recommend giving copies to everyone in Sunday School or assigning it to everyone in church because of the following problems.

While the book is valuable, Dr. McGraw, as a Puritan-type Presbyterian who teaches at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, in a few areas allows erroneous doctrine to influence his book.  Occasional references to limited atonement (pg. 44), a wrong view of Spirit baptism and Luke 11:13 (pgs. 68-69; see the study of Spirit baptism and Luke 11:13 here for the true view), of the office of the evangelist (pg. 90; in contrast to McGraw, the evangelist is one who evangelizes for the purpose of seeing new churches established), a failure to affirm the Filioque, the truth that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (although it is not denied either, pg. 96), highly problematic statements on baptism connected with the false doctrine that it is a seal of grace (pgs. 100-104) and the false doctrine of the Lord's Supper as a seal (pgs. 105-107), connected with the idea that baptism and the Supper are sacraments, not ordinances, and use of Bible versions other than the KJV (pgs. 115-137) should be noted. (See the exposure of these errors in the ecclesiological studies here.) There are also some distracting typos.

If one watches out for the problems mentioned in the paragraph above, the Biblical truth in Dr. McGraw's book could be instrumental in the Father's strengthening discerning Christians spiritually through the Son by the Holy Ghost.  I would recommend anyone buying a copy from the large online bookstores to click through portals such as the ones here first to reduce the (relatively low) price of McGraw's book, although portals do not work for buying hard copies from a publisher such as Reformation Heritage Books. With the qualifications mentioned in the paragraph above, I recommend the book highly.

-TDR