Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we are joined once again with our friend Dr. John MacArthur. Dr. MacArthur, it's great to see you.

Thank you so much. Wonderful to be here. I'm going to give you a little bit of a dream. We're going to let you go off to a deserted island. If no pressures, you can set the work aside and you can just read. Now as you go, what five books would you take with you to this deserted island?

This will take you back to a conversation we had about books. I remember that and remember that and I told you at the time that the book that sort of introduced me to Puritans was Stephen Charnock's existence and attributes of God.

And I said at the time that I read it that that's a book to be read your whole life. And R.C.'s favorite response to the question, what's the greatest need among evangelicals, the greatest need in the church is the knowledge of God.

I think it's an inexhaustible treasure to go back through that. I would like to have that depending on how long you're going to leave me there.

Stay as long as you want. Okay, because it would take me a while to get through that. I have found another book that has been an incredible treasure to me. Obviously, I'd have a Bible, but that is Treasury of Scripture knowledge, which is basically a list of Bible verses categorized around the same idea in a verse.

Not the same word like a concordance, but the same idea. So you read while we were yet enemies Christ died for us and it lists all the scriptures where that similar notion is considered in Scripture.

And it allows you to move through the Scripture single author inspired and tie everything together. And I've always felt for me, I am so desirous of seeing the big picture of how everything comes together.

So Treasury of Scripture knowledge would be another one. And what a rich resource that is that perhaps many in the current generation coming up aren't aware of. So thank you for mentioning it.

Yeah, and I mentioned that also because I don't know how long I'm going to be there. And that's inexhaustible again with the Bible and that. And Charnaq, that's that's pretty inexhaustible. You just have a one way ticket to just call when you want us to come pick you up.

Okay, I'm trying to think about theology and I think I would stash some of Edwards in theology. I don't know that you could pin me down on exactly what, but I think he brings forward the Puritans and also adds new dimensions of richness in theology that I don't know that anybody's really improved on since him.

And we'll let you take the two volumes. And as a bonus, I'll even let you take along your dear friend Ian Murray's biography of Edwards. So you can have all of those as your third.

That would keep me happy for a long time. And your fourth book.

Oh, now you're pressing on me. I will, I will give an ode to my friend John Piper. He has a new book on Providence. And I need to take it because I'm only 150 pages in and it's 650 pages long.

And so far it's it's a treasure of scripture. What it is is a basically a biblical theology. There are a lot of ways you can do biblical theology. There are a lot of themes you can use to drive through scripture themes of redemption or the kingdom or whatever.

But he takes, as you would expect, for the sake of the name, for the sake of the name, for the glory of his name, for the praise of the glory of his grace. And everything connects from Genesis to Revelation, for the sake of the name, and for the glory of his grace.

And he has all the scriptures linked together all the way through. As I said, I'm 150 pages in and I'm loving it. So I got to take it so I can finish it.

And that leaves you one more. Yeah, and that's that's a little bit difficult. I don't know, maybe those four would do me for a while since you gave me three of Edwards.

We'll count those as as worthy of two. Okay. Well, we're going to leave you be now. You can enjoy these books. And I just want to thank you again for spending this time with us and reminding us of these great books both from the church's past, from the church's present as well.

Well, thank you for sharing those books with us. Hope you enjoy your time there. And I'm Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining us for five minutes in church history.