Book Reviews

Authors: Daphne Spraggett with Jill Johnstone
Published by: Authentic USA / 2001 / Paperback  ISBN-13: 978-1-932805-91-8

About this book

There are about 230 countries in our world, and the people who live in them belong to thousands of smaller groups that speak different languages and have different customs. These are all called people groups. In India alone there are at least 4,635 people groups and 1,652 different languages.

In this book you’ll read about some of these countries and the people groups. There are chapters, too, about special groups like missionaries’ children, street children and refugees. Each chapter has stories, information and pictures to help you learn a little about them. When you have read the chapter, find out more about the country or people group by reading books and magazines, watching news and educational programs on TV, looking on the Internet and asking questions. The more you know and understand, the better you can pray!

God has answered lots of prayers since the first edition of this book was written, so I have included some things to thank God for. As you pray, keep your eyes and ears open for the answers. Your prayers are helping to change countries, people groups, situations and individuals. That’s exciting! And remember to thank god for answering your prayers.

Acknowledgements

A great many people and Mason agencies have helped in the production of Window on the World and I want to thank each of them for the part they have played.

First of all, my thanks to everyone who has prayed for this project. Among them are my own precious grandchildren and their parents as well as friends, colleagues and acquaintances all around the world. They have prayed because they know God hears and answer to prayer and are convinced that children have a special part to play in praying for the world in which they live

Mission agencies and Christian workers all around the world have graciously answered my questions, provided information, stories and pictures, and have checked their results. Their letters have often been a great source of inspiration. Tara Smith, who edited the material, has been a constant encouragement.

Others have encouraged me as they have told me how much their families, children’s groups and churches appreciated the first edition. It gave them a glimpse of a world in need and helped the even small children to pray for the world.

The greatest encourager your of all is God himself. Time and time again he has given fresh vision, new joy, answers to my prayers and verses from the Bible that have spoken to my heart. And as I have worked, I have discovered that he has answered many of the prayers included in the first edition.

My thanks to each one and may we encourage one another to change our world through prayer.

Daphne Spraggett

Author: Beverly Lewis
Published by: Bethany House / 2009 / Paperback / ISBN: 0764205714

In the seemingly ordinary Amish home of Grace Byler, secrets abound. Why does her mother weep in the night? Why does her father refuse to admit something is dreadfully wrong? Then, in one startling moment, everything Grace assumed she knew is shattered. Her mother’s disappearance leaves Grace reeling and unable to keep her betrothal promise to her long-time beau. Left to pick up the pieces of her life, Grace questions all she has been taught about love, family, and commitment. Heather Nelson is an English grad student, stunned by a doctor’s diagnosis. Surely fate would not allow her father to lose his only daughter after the death of his wife a few years before. In denial and telling no one she is terminally ill, Heather travels to Lancaster County–the last place she and her mother had visited together. Will Heather find healing for body and spirit? As the lives of four wounded souls begin to weave together like an Amish patchwork quilt, they each discover missing pieces of their life puzzles–and glimpse the merciful and loving hand of God.

Know Your Bible: All 66 Books Explained and Applied
By: George Knight
Barbour Publishing / 2008 / Paperback / ISBN: 1602600155
Know Your Bible is a concise, easy-to-understand guide to God’s Word-giving you a helpful and memorable overview of all 66 books. For each person, Know Your Bible provides data on the author and time frame, a ten-word synopsis, a longer (50-100 word) summary, thoughts on what makes the book unique or unusual, a listing of key verses, and a “So, What?” section of practical application. It’s a fantastic resource for individuals and ministries!

Author: Francine Rivers
Title: Redeeming Love
Printed by: Waterbrook Press, Multnomah Publishing Group, A division of Random House, Inc.

Redeeming Love is a fictional romance between a man and woman that parallel’s God’s love for mankind and His plan for freedom.

The main character is Sarah who hid herself in a woman named Angel, and who eventually became an Angel of God because of God’s grace.

The author examined various spiritual topics while telling Angel and Michael’s story. She explored ideas of freedom, amazing grace, accepting grace (self doubt in salvation), the peril of judging others without the lens of God, forgiveness, the worth of godly friendships and many more gems I probably missed.

Angel was a woman who had been abandoned and rejected many times in her life. She was rejected by her father and grandfather and unknowingly sold into child prostitution by her stepfather when her mother died. She remained a prostitute as an adult and ended up in a gold-rush town called Pair-a-dice.

As Angel went through the motions of her life, she yearned for freedom. Freedom, as the author explored in the novel, a simple concept by God’s standard is often complicated by human misconceptions. Angel was mentally enslaved by false teaching. At seven years old, she was told a grave untruth about God and the world. Her caretaker Cleo had shared her version of God’s truth on pages 30-31: that first, all men want to do is use you (women) and second, nobody cares about anybody in this world – we are all just out to use each other for self gratification. This made it hard for her to recognize God’s provision of freedom for her life.

God had planned her physical and spiritual release. He provided a man named Michael Hosea for her husband and her physical savior. We know his purpose by the clever choice of name by the author. Michael in Hebrew is Mi Kah el which means – “Who is like God?”. His last name Hosea is a variant of the Hebrew Hosea meaning “salvation”. After he freed her physically, Michael the man – in love – pointed Angel to God who is the only one that can give spiritual freedom. The use of the name Michael Hosea isn’t the only instance of purposeful character naming by the author. Other examples include Susanna and Priscilla who were helpers in the bible and in this story.

While Angel was still a sinner (prostitute), Michael loved her and paid a high price to rescue her from the brothel. He married her and called her his own even when she did not understand what that meant. The sections in the novel about when Michael repeatedly tried to rescue Sarah from the brothel reminds you of God calling out to a Christian while he is still in the dead in sin. Angel, like the sinner, cannot understand what is happening and does not recognize that he is being saved. But then, there is God’s amazing grace, available for acceptance.

Chapters seven through twenty-eight described Michael’s desperate attempt provide a loving home for Angel. When he took her from Pair-a-dice, she was broken: four broken ribs, dislocated shoulder, cracked collarbone and a concussion among other injuries. She was so bitter to be there, he called her Mara. As they got to know each other, Angel realized this was no ordinary man and that concerned her. There was no way for her to break him and she feared that he would break her. Sarah was determined to protect herself from Michael. She even tried to unmarry him by taking off the wedding ring. The only way to protect herself was to get away from him. For every step Michael made towards getting to know the real Angel, she took five steps back.

On the other hand, the author showed us that Angel was constantly haunted by her past, and because of it, probably didn’t understand love. Her molester was always lurking in her dreams, convincing her she was under his control. One night she had a nightmare about Duke (her molester). He approached her and referred to himself as the Alpha and Omega (page 135). He then went on to tell her “when you cease to exist, I’ll still live. I am timeless (page 135).” You start to think she was trapped forever in her past. The author used such powerful words I found myself praying for Angel and screaming at the book. I screamed “Run! He’s a counterfeit! God is the true Alpha and Omega! He’ll protect you, even from Duke! You are now safe with Michael. Angel didn’t hear me.

She did run, time and time again, but away from Michael and God. When she was home on the farm, she had everything she needed. Each time she ran away, she left more behind. At first, she just left Michael and the farm behind. Even when the Lord provided them great godly friends in the Altman family, Angel loves them, but can’t bear to stay even with their support. The author was kind to provide a seemingly good excuse for Angel running away, as we always find ourselves good excuses for running away from God. There was another character who was constant thorn in her side. He was Michael’s widower brother in law Paul. He had been to Pair-a-dice and knew who she used to be and reminded her of it. Paul persecuted Angel every time he saw her, just as Saul used to persecute the Christians before Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. Even after Rivers provided that good excuse in Paul, she compels us to recognize that no one could remove the love of Michael from Angel; not even Paul.

In Chapter 28 Angel ran way again but this time, Michael was instructed by God not to go after her. God himself would rescue her that time. God explained to Michael that even though he had not idolized Angel, she idolized him.

Angel finally accepted God’s grace one morning at church. She then started a training and boarding house for women who wanted to leave prostitution. She still went by the name Angel, but now she was an Angel of God by grace to help those women. By a strange twist of events, she and Paul reconciled and Angel returned home to Michael for good. When she returned home, she revealed her true identity that her name was Sarah. She was finally freed. Michael and Sarah lived happily ever after in God’s love.

This book was definitely a page turner. Almost every word caught my attention. I already highlighted Rivers’ careful selection of names of characters. She also chose interesting names for the places like “Pair-a-dice”. She used humor and empathy. I had real emotions reading this book that caused me to examine my own relationships with people and with God. I would recommend this sacred romance to anyone looking for a good read.

Our thanks to Cavene Vanhorne for writing this review.

Breakfast Book Club at FBC-Tempe

Author A. James Reimer
Title: Christians And War: A History of Practices And Teachings (Facets) (Paperback)
Printed by Fortress Press (January 1, 2010)
Review from Amazon.com

Religion has often been blatantly invoked to support and oppose war and violence of all kinds, including terrorism and ethnic cleansing. Christians are deeply divided over whether and when such violence is justifiable.

James Reimer offers a fair presentation of these controversial standpoints, especially the three classical Christian attitudes toward war: crusading or holy war, just war, and pacifism. His thoughtful survey of Christian teachings and practices on issues of war, violence, and the state takes readers from classical Greco-Roman times to the present. Arguing that the church’s responses to war can only be understood through the church’s changing relationship to culture, Reimer concludes with an analysis of the contemporary debate and proposes criteria for legitimate and illegitimate use of force by nation-states.

Author: Glenn Beck
Title: The Christmas Sweater
Printed by Threshold Editions, 2008

Being a fan of Glenn Beck’s, and hearing all the hype about his book, I naturally picked up a copy to read. As I think more and more about it, it has become one of those books that I have very mixed feelings about. The story is drawn heavily from the actual events of Glenn’s childhood, but he has made some dramatic changes for the sake of making a good story. My first criticism is that I found it readily apparent that Mr. Beck is a talk show host first, and an author second. He makes use of a lot of clichés and predictable writing. I admire his desire and intentions in writing an inspirational novel, but I can’t say that I was as gripped by his writing as I was by Hemingway or Tolkien (this may seem like an unfair comparison, but given the subjective nature of literature review, the best authors become the standard bearers).

Glenn writes about a young boy, Eddie, who lives an average, if somewhat poor life with his ever-loving mother after his father has died. We learn of Eddie’s upbringing as he reminisces about the earlier years of his life, while eagerly awaiting the upcoming Christmas holiday. Eddie is extra excited this year because he is confident that he has earned the right to receive the bike he has wanted for so long for Christmas. His hopes are dashed when he finds a sweater under the tree, and Eddie’s life takes a turn for the worse. He begins to distance himself from his family and from God. His adolescent years are filled with turmoil and strife as he blames everyone else for dragging him down and causing all the problems in his life, but God, embodied in a famer named Russell, slowly leads Eddie back to a realization of how life really works. I applaud Glenn for all of the life lessons and words of wisdom he is able to pack into this book in all the characters that Eddie interacts with. The reader is reminded of the importance of responsibility and hard work, not making yourself into a victim, cherishing family, appreciating life’s blessings, and much more.

In the second to last chapter of the book, Eddie finally has to “face the storm” that he has created for himself in life. This is the most well written chapter in the book in that it creates an emotional tension and climax to the story that can draw you in and really cause you to examine yourself. Unfortunately, he follows it with a concluding chapter that, in my opinion, was not worth reading. Without giving away the story, I can say that the last chapter seems to take the tangled mess of emotions and toils that have built up and, rather than weaving them into a beautiful tapestry, it just throws them away and starts over. In addition to that, the words of wisdom that Glenn admits he learned in his thirties, are put into the mouth of a young boy, making them seem far-fetched and out of place in a 1950’s family TV show kind of way. I think it is a bad ending to the book, but maybe it falls into Glenn’s plan. Maybe he wanted to push the message that in Christ, we have the opportunity to start over and throw away our old self. In any case, I think it could have been done better.

Another complaint I have is concerning the vagueness with which Glenn presents his religious message. Most of you may know that Glenn Beck is a Mormon, so it may be a good thing that he didn’t include too much detail in religious doctrine, but his theology is especially vague and misinformed when he has the God figure, Russell, try to explain ‘Atonement’ to young Eddie. “Atonement,” he says, “is a chance to fix the unfixable and to start all over again. It begins when you forgive yourself for all you’ve done wrong, and forgive others for all they’ve done to you” (Pg. 250-251). There is no mention of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, only of human relationships. I cannot see how a proper view of atonement could be equated with “forgiving yourself”. Glenn seems to think that we have power over our own salvation. But what makes it more confusing is that he goes on in a note to his readers at the end of the book to say that atonement is the greatest gift that God gave to men, and of Jesus he says that “Without his death, the birth is meaningless” (Pg. 271). With those words, he begins to hint in the right direction, but he never develops his theological ideas enough to really understand exactly what his message is.

The best message I encountered in this book, which I can proudly applaud Mr. Beck for, is also found in his post-novel not to readers, where he says, “I guess the real lesson that I learned that last Christmas with my mother was that the greatest gift is any gift that is given with love. I so clearly remember the look in her eyes as she saw my sweater rolled up in a ball on the floor of my room, and I remember realizing all that she had done for that gift. I refuse to stand at His [God’s] feet and see Him with the same look in His eyes as he asks me, ‘Son, is that the gift I gave you?’ Pick up your redemption. Cherish it. Wear it. Share it. It has the power to transform lives.” This is a powerful and inspiring picture that Glenn’s book presents.

I’m sure my ambivalence towards this book is apparent in my review. There is good and bad to be found in its reading, and I caution you to crosscheck any religious ideas with the ultimate authority, God’s word. That said, Mr. Beck has written an admirable inspirational novel, and a good source of wisdom in story form. It’s a good choice for adolescents and for fans of Glenn’s radio show, as it offers a peek into some of his past.

Our thanks to Jeremy Oglesby for writing this review.

Author: William P. Young
Title: The Shack
Printed by Windblown Media, 2007

A.W. Tozer once said that, “What we think about God is the most important thing about us.” In his wonderfully emotional and powerfully written novel The Shack, William P. Young paints for us a beautiful picture of what he thinks about God.

The Shack is loaded with an all-encompassing philosophy of life containing Young’s beliefs about God, humanity, the world, and how they all work together to produce what we know and experience, what is true and false, what is real and what is only an illusion.

There are many excellent ideas propounded in this novel, and Young does a wonderful job of explaining many of the difficult concepts and situations that we deal with in a language that is clear, simple, and to the point. There are many themes and notions espoused in this book that I think are brilliantly expressed and well applied. We are constantly reminded throughout the story about the power and importance of love and relationships in our lives. Deep theological issues are tackled like the nature of sin and death, and the working out of freedom in our lives as we give up our independence and choose the life that Christ offers. We are given a clear conception of how the law that once condemned us was fulfilled in Christ and no longer has power over us. A marvelous picture is painted of how the Holy Spirit works in our broken and messy souls to bring us peace with God and to help us come to terms with the hardships we face. And in a wonderful climax of emotion, the main character of the story has an encounter with the wisdom of God, and we experience the folly of human judgment and our inability to properly judge right and wrong.

I am sure there are other inspiring concepts that I have forgotten at the time being, but rest assured that there are plenty in this book for even the wisest in our congregation to enjoy.

Despite all these glowing aspects of Young’s fabulously crafted story, no human conception of God will ever be complete or wholly right. And as Tozer indicated, it is important that we work through the rough spots in our theology and philosophy. Understanding our limitations as broken humans, we must always be sure that the Word of God is our standard for what is true and right.

With that in mind, I would like to examine a couple of the ideas Young presents to us in The Shack, the first being that God the Father was in Christ as he hung on the cross and has scars in his wrists just like Christ. Young defends this idea by citing II Corinthians 5:18-19 (“…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…”), and I presume his sole motivation for making this assertion was to present us with a Heavenly Father who is fully capable of empathizing with human suffering. The first problem I see in this is that it implies that the Father could not empathize with us had he not been on the cross with Christ. If we believe that God is both all-powerful and all-knowing, I see no problem with trusting that he could empathize with us at any time, in any way, without any limitations or conditions. Instead, Young decided to invoke a concept that I don’t believe holds up to scripture. In his appeal to II Corinthians 5, I feel that he misinterprets the phrase “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” to mean that God was literally in Christ when what it really communicates is that “God was, by means of Christ…” or “God was, through Christ…” In addition to this, just a few verses later in that chapter it says that, “For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin.” Paul clearly communicates in all of his letters that sin is the very thing that separates us from God because it cannot be tolerated in the holiness of his presence, and Young even echoes this truth in his novel. But Young seems to miss the connection that if God made Christ to be sin, and God also cannot tolerate the presence of sin, then it seems we can trust that when Christ cried out in agony, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” he had good reason to do so… the Father had turned his back on his son so that his son would suffer the death that results with separation from the God of Life; the death that we, as sinful men deserve; the death which only God himself can overcome. So Christ, as our empathizer and lawyer before the Father, certainly bears the marks of his suffering as a human. The Father, however, as the only one worthy to judge humanity, bears no scars of human, fleshly suffering. Rather, the Father has an emotional scar, one which very few men (like Abraham) can even begin to understand.

Another assertion that Young makes in The Shack, which doesn’t sit well with me, is that God has no expectations of his children, and consequently cannot be disappointed in them. There are potentially many semantic issues, that is, issues dealing with the definitions or meanings of words, which are embedded in this statement and its implications. I will only address a couple which are readily apparent to me here. Young seems to be inconsistent when he says in chapter 14 that God is never disappointed in us, but earlier in chapter 8 claims that God does in fact get angry with us, as a parent would. This implies that the emotions of anger and disappointment are mutually exclusive, which I think is false. It seems that the two are very close in relation and are often the catalyst for each other; often times our anger with one another is brought about by disappointment. And if disappointment is a consequence of expectations, then it seems anger would be also, and there are plenty of examples in scripture of God becoming angry with an individual or group of people, which we can presume resulted from their failure to meet expectations. Some examples that come to mind are the Israelites as they wandered the desert for forty years, or Jonah when God asked him to prophecy to Nineveh.

There are two senses in which we can think of the Father having expectations of us: expectations that will lead to our salvation and expectations that will lead to Christ-likeness. Young fails to make this distinction, but I would argue that God does have expectations in both cases. In Leviticus 11:45 God says, “For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” In the same way, God expects us to be holy and blameless in order to have relationship with him (see James 1:19-20), BUT, he does not expect us to achieve this by our own efforts, which is why Christ met the expectations for us. Once we have received salvation through Christ, I believe we can still properly think of God as having expectations of us in order for us to model Christ and be used for his will. As Young accurately points out, we are no longer condemned under God’s law, however Christ still asks us to let our light shine before men, and even to keep the commandments (Matthew 5). These sound to me like expectations, even if God’s grace never fails to cover our unfaithfulness in living up to them. And Young doesn’t mention anywhere that, “God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance,” (Romans 2:4) not to give us a free pass to live as though nothing is expected of us. Young is right to claim that it is God’s joy to cure us of our sin, but it is also God’s joy to lavish us with the rewards that result from obedience to his will.

For those reasons, I think it is incorrect to say that God does not have expectations of us and cannot be disappointed in us. While these may seem like minor issues that could be resolved by reinterpreting certain words or phrases, it is highly important for us to always remember the power of deception that Satan possesses. He can take seemingly harmless mis-truths and use them for great evil. We must be careful with our words and diligent to know what we believe and why.

As for Young’s views on politics, economics, and religion, these are much more abstract ideas which have many possible alternatives, but I don’t think we ought to allow his book to make us feel bad for being a part of a community of believers or for having a systematized conception of who God is and how he works.

In closing, I want to encourage anyone who is interested to read The Shack and to consider the ideas Young presents for themselves. But I also urge you to seek wise council concerning them, most specifically in God’s word itself.

Our thanks to Jeremy Oglesby for writing this review.

Author:Jerry B. Jenkins Title: Riven

You must read Riven for yourself. It is an unforgettable book! At first I thought it was rather predictable, but it certainly is not!

Darby is, a young man raised in a dingy trailer park by a mother who doesn’t seem to care about anyone but herself, certainly not Darby or his younger brother. Carey is a defeated pastor who finally settles in a job as a prison chaplain. Their lives cross through a series of events and twists and turns that send Darby to prison.

The way this story ends is most unpredictable and certainly unforgettable. The characters and message of Riven will stay with the reader for a long time. This book is not to be missed. A very unique story.

Our thanks to Anne Hutton for writing this review.

Author: Sherwood G. Lingenfelter & Marvin K. Mayers – Both of whom are professors of Intercultural Studies at Biola University, and authors of several books apiece.
Title: Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships
Printed by Baker Book House, 1986

I was talking to a good friend of mine (to whom I go for advice most often) one day and asked him, “Do you think God ever chuckles to himself when he hears us use and sees us live out the old American adage ‘time is money’?” My friend immediately went to his bookshelf and picked out this thin little paperback (a little over 100 pages, depending on the printing edition) and handed it to me. After reading through it, I can say that it definitely helped me to better understand how to handle the circumstances that had motivated me to ask that question in the first place.
Topics:
- Jesus as the Model for Relationships
- Different mindsets about Time
- Different mindsets about Judgment
- Different mindsets about Handling Crises
- Different mindsets about Goals
- Different mindsets about Self-Worth
- Different mindsets about Vulnerability

Review:
Dr. Lingenfelter seeks to lay out a model for relationships, both cross-cultural and in our everyday lives in this short and easy read. Throughout the book, he tells the story of his and his family’s experience as missionaries on the Isle of Yap in the midst of the Micronesian Islands. The cultural differences he encountered there laid the groundwork for the ideas he presents here. He contrasts the general American mindset concerning the topics listed above with that of the Yapese, as well as other cultures. For each topic, he identifies two contrasting paradigms, pointing out that usually the further a person falls into a particular paradigm, the more foreign and ‘wrong’ the opposite paradigm will seem to them. Dr. Lingenfelter uses effective visuals to demonstrate the idealness of a balance between these paradigms, where Jesus achieves the ultimate balance and stands as our model and goal.

This book truly challenged my presuppositions and forced me to realize the differences that are inherent, not just in other cultures, but in the personal mindset of every individual. If you have a child that just doesn’t seem to be interested in completing tasks before starting a new one, a spouse who doesn’t mind being late so much as you do, or a co-worker who seems more interested in forming relationships with everyone around the office than in working, then this book will help you to understand them with a more loving heart. Dr. Lingenfelter will encourage you to work on moving yourself toward a balanced paradigm, rather than forcing your orientation on others. It is claimed that the ideas presented in this book have helped people “in clarifying problems between husbands and wives, between coworkers in the church, and between friends and coworkers in the community.” (Preface, pg. 10). I’m certain that it will make a difference in the way you view other people as it did for me, and ultimately move us toward our ultimate goal here on earth as children of God… to love, and to love well.

Our thanks to Jeremy Oglesby for writing this review.

Author: Steve Farrar – Author of more than 10 books, Founder & Chairman of “Men’s Leadership Ministries”.
Title: Finishing Strong: Going the Distance for Your Family
Printed by Multnomah Publishers, 2000

This book was given to me by the pastor who married us the day before we got married. It was the first book that I read as a married man. I am so glad that I was able to read this book early in my marriage since it focuses on the importance in ministry of a man’s family. In this roughly 250 page book, Steve presents three parts and ten chapters that eventually will reach every man at whatever stage he is in life, whether married or divorced.

Topics:
• Part One: The Priority of Finishing Strong
• Part Two: The Perils of Finishing Strong
• Part Three: The Prototypes of Finishing Strong

The basic thesis of this book is that it doesn’t matter if a man has come out to a great start in the Christian life or if you have stumbled time and again or even if you have fallen flat on your face. What matters most is how you finish.

Review:
Chapter one titled “One out of Ten” refers to the number of men who will finish strong. Steve says, “In the Christian life, it’s not how you start that matters. It’s how you finish” (pg. 17). The reason so many men will not finish strong is because it is a long hard road. According to Steve, “… it’s endurance that separates the men from the boys. It’s endurance that determines whether or not a man finishes strong. And endurance is the fruit of godly character. The Christian life isn’t a hundred yard dash. It’s a marathon. It’s a long race, and long races don’t require speed. They require grit, determination, and finishing power” (pg. 21). He then goes on to discuss those who think it is too late to finish strong and reminds them the grace of God is still available. This chapter effectively sets up the rest of the book.

In the following chapters, Steve goes on to discuss that all men must accept the fact that we are leaders. If you are a husband then you are a leader. If you are a father then you are a leader. He then discusses various ambushes men will have to face as we attempt to finish strong. The ambushes are: the ambush of another woman, the ambush of money and the ambush of the neglected family. The neglected family is probably the hardest one to recognize since a man can be doing well meaning and good things but his focus on those things cause him to neglect his own family. For Steve one way to not fall into these ambushes is to have your life’s mission statement be simply “don’t screw up”. We all fall short of being the perfect husband and father but if we can avoid the major screw ups then we are on track to finishing strong.

Conclusion:
In his book, Finishing Strong, Steve Farrar challenges every Christian man to take the long hard road and be determined to finish strong. This can only happen if we keep our eyes on Jesus. This book provides real life practicalities that will benefit every man. It uses several Biblical and historical stories to support the central theme. Perhaps some of the historical references can be seen as the greatest weakness of this book since all men don’t share the same interests. Overall, I believe this book could help men of all walks of life. It is challenging and gives every man the truth that is needed to be the one out of ten that finishes strong.

Our thanks to Thomas Linton for writing this review.

Author: J.P. Moreland – Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology
Title: Scaling the Secular City – A Defense of Christianity
Printed by Baker Book House, 1987

C.S. Lewis once wrote: “To be ignorant and simple now- not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground- would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

This is a fitting quote to forward Moreland’s book Scaling the Secular City, as this is precisely his goal in writing it; to provide good philosophy for his Christian brethren who lack the time to spend studying it, so that they too can have a defense. In this roughly 250 page book, Moreland covers at least seven of the most pressing issues that the church is faced with today on the intellectual front, also touching on some of the subtle intricacies behind them.

TOPICS:
Moreland uses logical, topical chapter divisions, and covers the following topics.
- Cosmological Arguments for the existence of God
- Arguments from Design for the existence of God
- Arguments for the Mind/Soul and their relation to God
- Arguments for the existence of God from the Meaning of Life
- Support for the Historicity of the New Testament
- Arguments for the Truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
- A Defense of the Harmony of Christianity and Modern Science

Each of these sections individually work to move the reader toward a view that belief in God and adherence to the Christian Faith are in fact rational. All of them taken together give the reader a solid rational framework with which to flesh out the Truth of the Christian world view.

STRENGTHS:
Moreland’s greatest strength is his stunning expertise in the areas of philosophy and apologetics. He has spent almost two decades studying and teaching these subjects at BIOLA’s renowned Talbot School of Theology, and is a foremost expert in the field. Another strength of this book in particular, however, is that he relates these highly technical topics in very easy to understand language, thoroughly explaining each step of each argument so that, whether you are a philosophy professor yourself, or a middle school student, it is easy to digest and understand. This ease of comprehension is complimented by Moreland’s expertise in writing skill. The book is fluid from cover to cover, making it quite enjoyable to read.

Scaling the Secular City appeals to an introductory level of philosophy and apologetics, making it great as a starting place for the fledgling apologist, young Christian, or general interest readers. The two greatest features of this book are the conclusive chapter, which provides a recap of the important points of all the previous chapters, as well as a wonderfully organized, topical bibliography. The benefit of this style of bibliography is that, if a reader is interested in further study of one topic that Moreland covered in particular, all the books that Moreland referenced while writing on that topic will be clearly listed in association with that topic. This is what really solidifies Scaling the Secular City as an awesome springboard into a deeper study of apologetics.

WEAKNESSES:
There were a couple of slight annoyances (so to speak) that I encountered while reading this book. Every so often one will encounter a technical term (one that is mostly specific to the field of philosophy) that Moreland fails to define. The best example of this is what seems to be his favorite word: antecedently. Another down side was that Moreland chose to use very detailed footnotes; sometimes too detailed, causing them to fill half the page. At times I wondered why he chose to explain a theory/subject/phrase/etc. in a footnote instead of just integrating it into the text. Many of the footnotes were a hindrance to the flow of my reading because they were so long and detailed.

CONCLUSION:
While it has some slight stylistic setbacks, Scaling the Secular City is a solid defense of the Christian faith, offering trustworthy answers to the questions that many of us face daily. It is an excellent choice and an easy read for any Christian who wants to be prepared when the Evil one attacks their mind with lies.

Our thanks to Jeremy Oglesby for writing this review.