This book is dedicated to eight people whom God sovereignly brought into my life:

Arden and Jean Grudem, my parents, who taught me to believe the Bible, to trust in God, and to speak and write clearly;

A. Kenneth Ham, my Baptist pastor, who awakened in me a love for systematic theology by teaching a class on Christian doctrine when I was thirteen years old, and who taught me by example to believe every word of Scripture;

Edmund Clowney, John Frame, and Vern Poythress, Westminster Seminary professors and friends, who influenced my theological understanding more than anyone else, and who taught me Reformed theology in humble submission to every word of Scripture;

and Harald Bredesen and John Wimber, pastors and friends, who, more than anyone else, taught me about the power and work of the Holy Spirit.