I do recommend this book to Christian men as a good example of what biblical masculinity is all about. This book restores the male's role as protector and provider and also does no disservice to the woman's role. Wilson explains both roles and relates that they are designed to be different but to work together in unity. One role is not superior or inferior. They are just different.
This book also restores the importance of children growing up with fathers. Male figures that hold strongly to their Christian beliefs should be the foundation for Christian families. I loved that the author showed a very admirable, strong, masculine role for men to embrace. I hope more men embrace this role and more wives LET and ENCOURAGE their husbands to take the lead role and not to usurp that role.
The only part of this book that could really be improved was the beginning was slow and the wordiness of the book. Sometimes it took a lot of words to get to a point or to paint a picture. I didn't highlight nearly the amount of sentences as I normally will in a good book. So, this book had good points, but nothing new from John Piper's books on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. So, if you've heard it before, you probably won't get too much new from this book.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
PASS: One Devil to Another by Richard Platt
At first I thought "Okay, a book from a demon's perspective trying to trick humans into never finding God could be interesting." I thought this could be a clever little marketing idea and thought seeing the tricks demons use could be interesting. But when I actually started to read this book, I realized how dangerous and misleading the teachings of this book are - they destroy the character of God subtlely and almost unnoticably. Without careful discernment, the reader will miss all the clever insinuations that God is really not good. While reading this book, I felt like Satan himself wrote this to trick Christians into a false view of God and I felt this book was blasphemous and disrespectful to God. While bashing demons, this book subtely also bashes God. So while we all already know demons are bad, what good can come from a book that teaches God is "The Adversary, dishonest, a liar, not powerful, weak, sneaky, etc"?
This book is all from the first person perspective of a demon. So our "main character" is a demon and the whole book is written from his evil eyes. This idea alone isn't that dangerous because we expect the demon to be evil. The problem comes when God's character is destroyed and God is painted throughout the book as "evil" "the Adversary" "dishonest" "a liar" "a trickster" "unscrupulous" "breaking God's own rules" "not all powerful" "not in control" "helpless" etc. What good can 180+ pages of lies about God help us love and worship our God? And what's with a full page drawing of a demon on every other page? Yuk... What Christian gets enjoyment out of drawing demons? And not just one. Try like 15.
This book destroys the character of God! And I think many younger Christians will not catch the false unbiblical teachings in this book. This book pretends to teach Christian ideas but fails. It asks "Why do bad things happen to good people?" But it never gives us a real true biblical answer. In fact, it avoids the answer and claims that God permits bad things but doesn't want them. This makes God a weak god who can't even create a world that works the way He wants it to work. This is a sort of Arminianism.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
This book is all from the first person perspective of a demon. So our "main character" is a demon and the whole book is written from his evil eyes. This idea alone isn't that dangerous because we expect the demon to be evil. The problem comes when God's character is destroyed and God is painted throughout the book as "evil" "the Adversary" "dishonest" "a liar" "a trickster" "unscrupulous" "breaking God's own rules" "not all powerful" "not in control" "helpless" etc. What good can 180+ pages of lies about God help us love and worship our God? And what's with a full page drawing of a demon on every other page? Yuk... What Christian gets enjoyment out of drawing demons? And not just one. Try like 15.
This book destroys the character of God! And I think many younger Christians will not catch the false unbiblical teachings in this book. This book pretends to teach Christian ideas but fails. It asks "Why do bad things happen to good people?" But it never gives us a real true biblical answer. In fact, it avoids the answer and claims that God permits bad things but doesn't want them. This makes God a weak god who can't even create a world that works the way He wants it to work. This is a sort of Arminianism.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
BUY IT: The Truth About Forgiveness by John MacArthur
The Truth About Forgiveness from John MacArthur is a deep book about sin and our need as humans to be forgiven by a holy perfect God. This book is not really about humans forgiving each other, but our need for God to have mercy upon us. Every single Christian needs to read this book because this is what the gospel is about. This is what our salvation is about. It's full of deep truths about salvation and sin. MacArthur addresses society's ways of excusing sin and sweeping it away under psychology labels like "addition". He explains how people blame everyone but themselves for their sinful conditions and then they deny that these are sins by claiming they are outside of one's control as addictions. If we humans could see that our bad habits are actually sins and could fall upon Jesus Christ to save us, we could be free of those sins that we call addictions. That is what this book is about. It points out the true human condition of sin.
Quotes that summarize this book:
"These days everything wrong with humanity is likely to be explained as an illness. What we used to call sin is more easily diagnosed as a whole array of disabilities. All kinds of immorality and evil conduct are now identified as symptoms of this or that psychological illness. Criminal behavior, various perverse passions, and every imaginable addiction have all been made excusable by the crusade to label them medical afflictions. Even commonplace problems, such as emotional weakness, depression, and anxiety, are also almost universally defined as quasi-medical, rather than spiritual, afflictions."
"But assume for the moment that the problem is sin rather than sickness. The only true remedy involves humble repentance and confession (the recognition that you deserve the chastening of God because you alone are responsible for your sin)—then restitution, and growth through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, communion with God, fellowship with other believers, and dependence on Christ. In other words, if the problem is in fact spiritual, labeling it a clinical issue will only exacerbate the problem and will offer no real deliverance from the sin. That is precisely what we see happening everywhere."
"The sad truth is that disease-model treatment is disastrously counterproductive. By casting the sinner in the role of a victim, it ignores or minimizes the personal guilt inherent in the misbehavior. “I am sick” is much easier to say than, “I have sinned.” But it doesn’t deal with the fact that one’s transgression is a serious offense against a holy, omniscient, omnipotent God."
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
Quotes that summarize this book:
"These days everything wrong with humanity is likely to be explained as an illness. What we used to call sin is more easily diagnosed as a whole array of disabilities. All kinds of immorality and evil conduct are now identified as symptoms of this or that psychological illness. Criminal behavior, various perverse passions, and every imaginable addiction have all been made excusable by the crusade to label them medical afflictions. Even commonplace problems, such as emotional weakness, depression, and anxiety, are also almost universally defined as quasi-medical, rather than spiritual, afflictions."
"But assume for the moment that the problem is sin rather than sickness. The only true remedy involves humble repentance and confession (the recognition that you deserve the chastening of God because you alone are responsible for your sin)—then restitution, and growth through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, communion with God, fellowship with other believers, and dependence on Christ. In other words, if the problem is in fact spiritual, labeling it a clinical issue will only exacerbate the problem and will offer no real deliverance from the sin. That is precisely what we see happening everywhere."
"The sad truth is that disease-model treatment is disastrously counterproductive. By casting the sinner in the role of a victim, it ignores or minimizes the personal guilt inherent in the misbehavior. “I am sick” is much easier to say than, “I have sinned.” But it doesn’t deal with the fact that one’s transgression is a serious offense against a holy, omniscient, omnipotent God."
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
BUY IT: John MacArthur's The Truth About The Lordship of Christ
The Truth About The Lordship of Christ from John MacArthur is a 100% must read book! This is the kind of book every single Christian needs to read because it is just that good. It's full of deep truths about salvation and sanctification, the process of becoming Christlike. It also explains that the true gospel is one that includes the Lordship of Christ and that non-Lordship teachings are unbiblical and false.
One of my favorite parts: "He was saying that if you’re a true disciple, you’ll be willing to create a division in your own home. That goes against all of our instincts because we want peace in our homes more than anywhere else. That’s our refuge, that’s where the people we love the most and know the best live. We don’t want to be at odds with them. But when we commit ourselves to Jesus Christ, we’ll be true to Him, even if it destroys our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities, or our nation. If that’s the price, we’ll pay it.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
One of my favorite parts: "He was saying that if you’re a true disciple, you’ll be willing to create a division in your own home. That goes against all of our instincts because we want peace in our homes more than anywhere else. That’s our refuge, that’s where the people we love the most and know the best live. We don’t want to be at odds with them. But when we commit ourselves to Jesus Christ, we’ll be true to Him, even if it destroys our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities, or our nation. If that’s the price, we’ll pay it.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
BUY IT: John MacArthur's The Truth Of Grace
This book is filled with a beautiful overview of how the grace of God affects all aspects of Christianity. When nearly every Christian book is preaching a false inadequate gospel, MacArthur sticks to the gospel truth and explains to readers the difference between God's true gospel and today's easy-believism gospel that doesn't even save! This book is so important to read and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
The part of this book that stood out the most to me was when MacArthur went into the difference between true salvation and false assurance of salvation and how these relate to sin. If we receive the true gospel, we will receive the Holy Spirit and this Spirit will change our hearts to desire the things of God (truly, not just halfway). By the grace of God, we are given faith, repentance and a desire to obey God's law (in deed and in spirit/heart). If we receive the false easy-believism gospel, we will never really receive the Holy Spirit but only think we have. And so all our good works will be from our own efforts. We will have no Holy Spirit to help our good works. These will be self-righteous works, just like the Pharisees. Works from the hands of human achievement. MacArthur rightly points out, the good works of a Chrisitan are from God. All good things are from God. I think it is so important to know the difference between NOT accidentally trying to earn your salvation through works vs actually living for God and because of your love for God and His things (His law), then good works naturally flow from a believer. The motivation and power from which good works flow are different in a believer and unbeliever. This is so key. Please read this book because your salvation or someone you know will need to know this true gospel and realize that they may have been tricked into false assurance of salvation all along.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
The part of this book that stood out the most to me was when MacArthur went into the difference between true salvation and false assurance of salvation and how these relate to sin. If we receive the true gospel, we will receive the Holy Spirit and this Spirit will change our hearts to desire the things of God (truly, not just halfway). By the grace of God, we are given faith, repentance and a desire to obey God's law (in deed and in spirit/heart). If we receive the false easy-believism gospel, we will never really receive the Holy Spirit but only think we have. And so all our good works will be from our own efforts. We will have no Holy Spirit to help our good works. These will be self-righteous works, just like the Pharisees. Works from the hands of human achievement. MacArthur rightly points out, the good works of a Chrisitan are from God. All good things are from God. I think it is so important to know the difference between NOT accidentally trying to earn your salvation through works vs actually living for God and because of your love for God and His things (His law), then good works naturally flow from a believer. The motivation and power from which good works flow are different in a believer and unbeliever. This is so key. Please read this book because your salvation or someone you know will need to know this true gospel and realize that they may have been tricked into false assurance of salvation all along.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
Pass: Max Lucado's Great Day Every Day
I guess I shouldn't have expected a deep book, considering the author, but I didn't expect Max Lucado's Great Day Every Day to be so "devotion-like". I felt like I was reading a feel-good devotional. Or reading Joel Osteen, with all positive thinking, positive messages. I have read some of Lucado's books before and although I wouldn't call them deep, at least they have a little substance. This book was shallower than most.
Like all his other books, this book includes the false easy-believism gospel. Lucado teaches that all we need to do is believe in who Jesus is and what he did and we will be saved. But the gospel that Jesus preaches in the Bible is all about dying to self, conviction of sin, and repentance. Why else did John the Baptist and Jesus keep going around saying "Repent! Repent!" Lucado does not include repentance in his version of the gospel. A gospel without the core message is no gospel at all.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
Like all his other books, this book includes the false easy-believism gospel. Lucado teaches that all we need to do is believe in who Jesus is and what he did and we will be saved. But the gospel that Jesus preaches in the Bible is all about dying to self, conviction of sin, and repentance. Why else did John the Baptist and Jesus keep going around saying "Repent! Repent!" Lucado does not include repentance in his version of the gospel. A gospel without the core message is no gospel at all.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
PASS: The Jesus We Missedby Patrick Henry Reardon
This book will make you think and question your current beliefs about WHO Jesus Christ is. We usually assume Jesus is God and so Jesus wouldn't have all our gross or weak human traits, but Patrick Henry Reardon's book is all about pointing out those things that we aren't comfortable considering. Although we quickly admit Jesus was fully man also, we are not comfortable really thinking about Him like this. Example: Being fully human, Reardon and Russell D. Moore point out that Jesus would probably get sick, get an upset stomach, vomit, etc. Of course, to most of us, this sounds blasphemous, if not just disrespectful to consider. But, that's what this book is about. Seeing Jesus as fully human and attempting to fill in some of the blanks in Jesus' life story, growing up as a child, and how Jesus developed into a powerful man of God.
When I saw Russell D. Moore wrote the forward to this book, I assumed this would be a good book. But I enjoyed this book. It was slow, boring and I had to re-read some parts just to get through it, as my eyes kept glazing over. I didn't really find much in this book that wasn't said before - many times over. In fact, the author starts off the book saying that he hopes nothing in this book is new. Well, he did a good job of accomplishing that. There was not much new in this book and that made it boring.
One neat part was when the author drew the conclusion that Matthew and Luke must have gotten the Nativity and Jesus' early years stories from Christ's mother, Mary. He assumed this because Mark and John don't include these stories and Mary or Joseph would have been the only witnesses. This was a neat idea, but not worth reading the book for! I didn't care for how the author assumed "Joseph died". I couldn't find that story in my Bible but I certainly heard it among Catholic legend. I had hoped such an indepth analysis of Jesus' missing childhood would stick to the Bible only, not legend. And if the author was going to mention legend, he should tell us his source. Instead he just writes "Jesus remained at home with Joseph, eventually taking over the workshop when Joseph passed away." Next Reardon declares "If Jesus really was the Messiah, there was no outward sign of it." I cannot agree with this statement at all! If Jesus was sinless and a perfect human model of God, ever action or lack of action would be screaming signs to his entire family! Not only did his parents know the prophecies, meet the angels, be inpregnated by the Holy Spirit, but they knew their son was the destined Messiah. And Jesus was the only one of their sons and daughters who was sinless and perfect. How could a parent not notice this?
In the end, this book is an interesting read because it challenges your current ideas about Christ, but I feel the author was not careful enough in his conclusions and statements. I also feel he didn't back up enough of his statement with good solid logic and bible verses or references. Slow and boring but not without some benefit in challenging us to think outside of the box.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
When I saw Russell D. Moore wrote the forward to this book, I assumed this would be a good book. But I enjoyed this book. It was slow, boring and I had to re-read some parts just to get through it, as my eyes kept glazing over. I didn't really find much in this book that wasn't said before - many times over. In fact, the author starts off the book saying that he hopes nothing in this book is new. Well, he did a good job of accomplishing that. There was not much new in this book and that made it boring.
One neat part was when the author drew the conclusion that Matthew and Luke must have gotten the Nativity and Jesus' early years stories from Christ's mother, Mary. He assumed this because Mark and John don't include these stories and Mary or Joseph would have been the only witnesses. This was a neat idea, but not worth reading the book for! I didn't care for how the author assumed "Joseph died". I couldn't find that story in my Bible but I certainly heard it among Catholic legend. I had hoped such an indepth analysis of Jesus' missing childhood would stick to the Bible only, not legend. And if the author was going to mention legend, he should tell us his source. Instead he just writes "Jesus remained at home with Joseph, eventually taking over the workshop when Joseph passed away." Next Reardon declares "If Jesus really was the Messiah, there was no outward sign of it." I cannot agree with this statement at all! If Jesus was sinless and a perfect human model of God, ever action or lack of action would be screaming signs to his entire family! Not only did his parents know the prophecies, meet the angels, be inpregnated by the Holy Spirit, but they knew their son was the destined Messiah. And Jesus was the only one of their sons and daughters who was sinless and perfect. How could a parent not notice this?
In the end, this book is an interesting read because it challenges your current ideas about Christ, but I feel the author was not careful enough in his conclusions and statements. I also feel he didn't back up enough of his statement with good solid logic and bible verses or references. Slow and boring but not without some benefit in challenging us to think outside of the box.
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the publisher but I am not required to give a positive review in exchange for the book. This is my critical review of the book as if I had bought the book with my hard earned money.
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