A. W. Pink and unique Work influence

A long time ago I recommended Arthur W. Pink's Attributes of God, so I'm not new to him, but lately I've come into more awareness of him. He really is ME in his understanding of doctrine, and other things. Or, we're of the same school (and that school just happens to be the most on-the-mark, I'm not joking).

All his writings are available here.

On Wikipedia I read this interesting detail of his life:

"Though born to Christian parents, prior to conversion he migrated into a Theosophical society (an occult gnostic group popular in England during that time), and quickly rose in prominence within their ranks."

This is interesting just because someone into that back then might likely have the unusual background that one associates with what the Work terms magnetic center. Not that Theosophy of course is anything of worth like the Work, but it IS in the general environment and on the common path to that, if you don't get stuck there.

Pink also (though I've not been able to find anything on this) has been mentioned here and there (on blogs and forums I've read) as being one that renounced participation in churches (visible churches). He pastored churches himself, but later in life he seems to have considered the visible churches to be taken over by what he calls the Gospel of the Devil (in so many words, all that). So that is similar to the approach I naturally fall into.

He is also a classical covenant theologian. And he doesn't seem to write much about ritual sacraments (which is telling as well), and he does write alot about regeneration and sanctification.

Anyway, his Sovereignty of God is a pure Work book. It's a foundational classic of theology (modern or ancient), but to a Work person it is a very valuable work. It's a work that has been tinkered with in a strange way too, which to me is a sign it has a unique place and power. That the world would actually re-write it and delete a chapter from it. The Banner of Truth edition is guilty of this (it's a famous scandal among Christian publishing). The Baker Books edition is the complete edition, if you acquire the book. The website edition in the link above is the complete book too. But the book itself is like strapping armour onto yourself. It is New Thinking from the mysteries and hard doctrine of the Bible itself, and Pink gets into all the questions and gives sound answers. All the subject matter of the tension and mystery involved in God's sovereignty and foreordination and man's freedom and will and responsibility. It is really, the subject matter and the presentation, a pure Work influence.

Pink also is treated by mainstream Christianity as an outsider. His writings are difficult for the mainstream to ignore altogether, because of their obvious clarity and on-the-mark worth, but as the Wikipedia article says he is never mentioned in dictionaries of biography of theologians and things like that. He kind of edges into the order realm.