Arthur W. Pink Books: A Reading Guide and Where to Start
Arthur W. Pink (1886–1952) wrote more than forty books, most of them first printed in his monthly magazine Studies in the Scriptures, which he edited from 1922 until his death. His best-known titles today include The Attributes of God, The Sovereignty of God and his studies in Genesis, Exodus and Hebrews. TheWay Library has four of his early books, all free to read, written between 1917 and 1921 while he was a young pastor and Bible teacher in the United States. For his life story, see who was Arthur W. Pink.
Where to start
If you want the book Pink is famous for, start with The Sovereignty of God. It's demanding, but it's the heart of his teaching.
If you'd rather begin with something shorter and easier:
- To strengthen your trust in Scripture: The Divine Inspiration of the Bible.
- To see Christ in the Gospels: Why Four Gospels?
- On the second coming: The Redeemer's Return.
Every quotation below is checked against the book it comes from. For many more, see our collection of Arthur W. Pink quotes.
Theology
The Sovereignty of God
Pink's forceful case that God rules over all things. This is an early edition (1918, with his foreword to the second edition), not the shorter revised edition many readers know from the 1960s.
He begins by lamenting that God's sovereignty, once a common theme in the pulpit, now sounds like a dead language. He defines it simply: God being God. Then he traces it through creation, the government of the world, salvation (election, the purpose of Christ's death and the Spirit's call), reprobation and the working of all events. He argues that the sinner's will is free only to do what it pleases, which is to sin; that human responsibility is still real; and that prayer is not changing God's mind but asking according to His will. Later chapters set out the right response (godly fear, obedience, resignation and worship), answer objections, and show how much comfort the doctrine gives. Appendices treat the will of God, the case of Adam and the word "world" in John 3:16.
Pink writes as a man arguing hard, and some of his strongest statements, especially on reprobation and on God's love, were softened in later editions. Read it slowly and with your Bible open.
To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God.
The Sovereignty of God, Chapter I
The Bible
The Divine Inspiration of the Bible
Fourteen short chapters laying out the case that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Pink argues that people need a written word from God, and then gives the evidence: the Bible never grows stale; its writers tell their own failures honestly; its teaching on God, sin and salvation is beyond human invention; its prophecies came true; its types point exactly to Christ; written over sixteen centuries on two continents in three languages, it's still one book; it changes lives; it's complete; and it has outlasted every attempt to destroy it. He closes with the inward witness of the Spirit, a defense of verbal inspiration, and a call to the reader.
It's a good book to give a young Christian or a questioning friend.
Christianity is the religion of a Book.
The Divine Inspiration of the Bible, Introduction
Read The Divine Inspiration of the Bible.
Why Four Gospels?
Why does the New Testament tell the story of Jesus four times? Pink, building on the earlier work of Andrew Jukes, answers that each Gospel shows Christ in a different character: Matthew as the King of Israel, Mark as the perfect Servant, Luke as the Son of man, and John as the Son of God. He shows how each Gospel's contents fit its theme. Matthew opens with a royal family line; Mark has no family line at all, because a servant's birth and pedigree are of little interest, and keeps saying "straightway"; Luke dwells on Jesus' birth, prayers and sympathy with outcasts; John begins before creation with the eternal Word.
It's the easiest of the four to read and one of the most helpful for Bible study. Compare J. N. Darby's Notes on the Gospel of Luke, which reads Luke the same way.
He saved Himself not from death, but out of it; not from the Cross, but the Tomb.
Why Four Gospels?, The Gospel of John
Prophecy
The Redeemer's Return
Pink's 1918 study of the second coming, written, as he says, mainly for beginners. Its ten chapters cover why Christ must return (creation groans, Israel waits, the church is incomplete and the world is unjudged), the believer's hope, the Scripture proofs that He will come in person, the time and the nearness of His coming, the signs, who will benefit, and the results for the church and for the world, ending with His people sharing His reign. Pink held at this time the premillennial view that Christ will first come for His saints and later appear with them. In later years his views on prophecy changed.
The Lord Jesus has gone up into heaven, but He is not to remain there for ever.
The Redeemer's Return, Chapter II
Read The Redeemer's Return. For more on this subject, see our guide to the best Christian books on the second coming.
A note on these editions
All four were restored from scans, and all four have scanning errors, especially in the first letters of chapters, where the large decorated capitals were misread (for example "CHE" for "THE"). Why Four Gospels? and The Divine Inspiration of the Bible show this most. The body of each chapter reads well.
Why read Pink today
Pink makes you think about God as God. He has no patience with a small, sentimental idea of the Lord, and he sends you back to Scripture for everything. You won't agree with every line, and he'd want you to test him by the Bible. Begin with The Sovereignty of God or, for a gentler start, Why Four Gospels?. All four books are on the Arthur W. Pink author page.