Though I didn’t watch this year’s Emmy Awards show, I know it was controversial. The show changed the way it memorializes TV stars and staff who have died in the past year. Special segments were devoted to five persons, including Cory Monteith, a young star who died tragically of a drug/alcohol overdose. In giving special honor to him, a number of veteran TV names who garnered many Emmys and influenced TV over a long period of time were passed by, including Jack Clugman, Larry Hagman, and David Frost.

For those of you who don’t care about TV, how about music? Look up lists of the top 10 or top 100 songs of all time, and you’ll often notice they are skewed toward what is recent and popular (or notorious). They are often biased by the context. For example, Rolling Stone’s list of top songs doesn’t include anything prior to the rock era. We might not expect them to, but then their list isn’t really the top 500 songs of all time, is it? It is simply the top 500 songs they care about.

Uncomfortably, there are actually lists of the top 10 saints of all time. Seems like that is a list that ought to be left to God, doesn’t it? But we love to make our own judgments. And yes, there are lists of the top 100 people in history. Astonishingly, in the book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (1978), which has sold a half million copies, Michael H. Hart lists Muhammed as number one, followed by Isaac Newton and then Jesus Christ. His contention is that Muhammed penned the Koran while Jesus collaborated with others like the Apostle Paul in forming Christianity. I suppose the final revision of that list would be better done after the Final Judgment.

What if we were to compose your top 10 lists? Who are the actors you watch most, and why? What are the top 10 songs you have listened to, and why? What are the top 10 web sites you’ve visited in the past month? the top 10 writers you’ve read? the top 10 people you’ve followed on Facebook and Twitter? Where are you receiving your daily news of the world? Where are you getting your recommendations for reading material?

If you’re like me, you often make those decisions in the moment. It’s wise to step back and think about why you have made these decisions and how they affect your life, and then to think about what should change and how.

A new edition of a book is coming out by J. G. Vos (1903-83), whom some RPs have said is the premier RP theologian. But we haven’t made any top 10 lists, and that wouldn’t matter much anyway. I suppose Dr. Vos wouldn’t have wanted to be on such a list.

The thing to know about J. G. Vos is that he had a passion for pointing people to God and His Word, and he had a knack for communicating deep systemic truths of God’s Word in clear, everyday language. That makes his writings, even 50 years later, very helpful to us all. See an excerpt of his book on Romans in this issue.