, contains a collection of apologetic essays on over 20 issues that are relevant to Christians today. Issues such as the inerrancy of the Bible, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, miracles, evolution, interpretation of the Bible, and many more are included.Mulitiple authors' writings were compiled into a topical format for this book. So each topic is addressed by an individual author. The book is formatted in an organized fashion in the table of contents so that it is easy for the reader to refer directly to the topic they are interested in.
Honestly, I have been dreading posting this review because I really don't know what to say about this book. And, being completely honest, I didn't even read this whole book. I started it with the intention of reading straight through from beginning to end (which is how I read every book that I read for review purposes), but I found the first few chapters dry and boring. So I began to skip around a bit and read on topics that were of interest to me. But, honestly, reading this book felt like a chore to me.
Having said that, some of the topics are more interesting than others. There were some that I simply could not focus on and found my mind constantly wandering. Honestly, I don't know if it was because the author wrote in a random way or if because I just didn't find the information interesting. This is why I have dreaded writing this review.
Another thing that I found to be a potential problem is that the book uses the Bible as its main source of evidence. This is fine and dandy for me, since I do believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. However, for a critic who is out to disprove Biblical accounts, they will simply tear this book to shreds. How can you try to prove the truth of the Bible by using the Bible (the book you're trying to prove) as the main source of proof and evidence. And, again, by saying this, I am not in any way discounting the accuracy of the Bible. I fully believe in the Bible and its truths. However, I know that someone who does not already have that deep-rooted belief is not going to find the supporting evidence this book provides to be anything substantial.
Having said that, this book was okay. Some parts were very interesting, and other parts were very dry and exhausting to read. I don't think that this would be a good book to give to a non-believer with the attempts of trying to persuade them to believe in the truth of the Word. However, this book does contain some interesting facts for a believer who already believes in the truth of God's Word.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book from New Leaf Publishing in exchange for my honest opinion.)
2 comments:
I might have to pick this one up. Apologetics fascinates me, and my favorite classes I've taken have discussed topics like the ones in this book.
I, too, believe in Biblical inerrancy. But also, I believe we Christians often don't give scripture enough credit for it's power. The Bible tells us the word IS God (John 1:1) and also it is "living and active, sharper than a double edged sword" (Heb 4:12). The Holy Spirit definitely works through the scripture, so the fact that this book uses Biblical evidence frequently would actually possibly help the unbeliever, in my opinion, and possibly be a good chance for the Holy Spirit to reach them.
I love your book reviews! Keep them coming...
A great book for apologetics is called, "A Case for Christ". Sorry for not remembering the author's name. This book is authored by a former atheist and in his attempt to disprove Christianity, he found himself believing. He began recording his research findings and his notes/recordings are what make up his book.
He uses sources outside the Bible and compares them. He also took into consideration the translations and errors from being translated over multiple languages, eras, context, etc. and was still unable to disprove the Bible.
My husband is an extreme critical thinker and what he found most impressive was how within this book, even science was used as a reference of timeline for Jesus' life and the author found himself proving the Bible as accurate- proving the case for Christ, hence the book's title.
Personally, I hope to read this book. My husband couldn't say enough good. Occassionally he would stop and discuss with me what he was reading (he never does that) because he was so impressed with the book.
I love the reviews, Amber. You've inspired me to rethink what I'm spending my "reading time" on.
Ashley
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