March 18, 2019

• Book reviews

  Here are some recent book reviews.  For more, see http://tim223.xanga.com/category/book-reviews/ .

  One by One, Welcoming the singles in your church, by Gina Dalfonzo
  I was hoping this would be a book about how to do singles ministry.  However, it was 90% a book about the difficulties of being single, and the sociological reasons why there are so many Christians who have never been married in the modern American church (e.g. due to the courtship movement, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye", etc), and how the church often treats single people insensitively.  As such, the book might be useful for married people and pastors who want to understand how to be more inclusive of singles, but there is only a little that is directly useful for single people themselves.  Chapters 11 and 12, about how the church does and can help single people in their lives and walk with Christ, are excellent, and worth reading for everyone.
  Here are two interesting excerpts:
  From the chapter "What the Church Gets Right":
  "And there is nothing that gives a person a stronger self-image than knowing he or she is God's beloved creation, made in His image, redeemed by His sacrifice.  This knowledge is one of the most precious, most valuable gifts my faith has given me.  I'm not talking just in terms of my sexuality now; this is a knowledge that applies to and enhances every aspect of life.  It came originally from the pages of God's Word, but this belief would not be nearly so strong - it might not even have lasted this long - had it not been reinforced in me all my life by Christian pastors and teachers and friends and the Christian community in general.  In other words, by the church."
  From the chapter "We Need Each Other", an anecdote by one of her friends:
  "I personally have dealt with my never being married.  After years of asking why and crying or getting angry, I have felt pretty content.  I have accepted the way the church is toward me.  I had no issues at all... until I went to lunch with a single lady - never married - no kids.  She broke into tears and I saw myself all over again.  It broke my heart. I knew and she knew she had no support from the church, no one that genuinely wanted to hear her struggles.  At that point, I knew I had to start speaking up."

  Out of a far country, by Christopher Yuan and Angela Yuan
  This tells the story of Christopher's walk away from God, into a life of drugs and gay sex... and also his mother's story, struggling in her own marriage and life.  They alternate chapters back and forth, telling the story from their points of view.  They tell how they eventually found Jesus.  His mother came to know Jesus first, and then prayed for her son for many years, and eventually he became a believer in Jesus too.  He went to prison for several years, and God used that time to open his eyes to the truth.  After coming out of prison, he studied at Moody Bible Institute and eventually became a professor there.   This is a great book.   The writing is fast-moving and interesting, and there is a good balance of facts and emotions.  Perhaps a good book for any parents with a prodigal child to read... ?

  The Devil's Delusion - Atheism and its scientific pretensions, by David Berlinski
  Berlinski asks whether atheism, Darwinism, materialism, etc, have any reasonable ideas for the origins of life, species, information, the uniqueness of man, etc.  This is an enjoyable book, but the underlying content is quite simple... it is his beautiful, sarcastic, hilarious prose that is amazing.  His prose ranks up with C.S.Lewis as some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read.  Berlinski has an amazing way with words. The content, again, is ok and reasonably up-to-date (in its criticisms of evolution), but not the best I've read.   Berlinski also has a lot of great quotes from Dawkins, Hitchins, Dennett, Harris, and many other evolutionists.  Berlinski is a secular Jew, so while he shows a lot of respect for God, it is missing the warmth that a theist (like C.S.Lewis) brings to the discussion.  This might be an interesting book for a philosophically-inclined atheist to ponder.

  101 Secrets for your twenties, by Paul Angone
  This is a collection of funny sayings trying to express truths about the decade of our twenties.  It had some nice and helpful ones, about the fact that people from this generation have overly-high expectations, compare themselves to others too much, etc.  It had some good advice for how to choose a spouse.  But overall, this book was lacking the eternal perspective.  It seemed very much an Ecclesiastes-type secular perspective book.  As such, there is some usefulness, but little truly deep advice.

  What if... Jesus meant what He said?  ,  by Nate Bramsen
  This book asks a bunch of questions about the implications of Jesus' radical call to discipleship, interspersed with scriptures, and illustrations from Nate Bramsen's missions experiences in Africa and around the world.  It is a little scattered, but has excellent questions, worth thinking about.  It might be good for a discussion group or devotional, where each chapter does not need to build on the previous one.  He also has some great thoughts about singleness in chapter 12.

  When a Jew rules the world, by Joel Richardson
  This book is about the Bible's prophecies about the end times, when Jesus will rule over the whole world, from Jerusalem.  It describes the two main theological positions Christians have taken: restorationism, and supersessionism.  Restorationism is based on a literal reading of the prophecies, and takes most of the prophecies about the Kingdom of God to be in the future, yet to be fulfilled, to the Jews, as God will fulfill His promises to the chosen nation of Israel (with the Church being a mixture of Gentiles who have been grafted in, to the Jewish tree).  Supersessionism is the view that the Church has replaced Israel, and God has abandoned his promises to the nation of Israel.  Supersessionism takes allegorical views of most of the prophecies, saying that they have already been fulfilled in the church, or will be fulfilled in the church.
  Richardson shows the history of anti-Jewish persecution from supersessionists like Luther, Calvin, and many others (going back to ~300AD), culminating in the Russian pogroms and Nazi Holocaust.  He also shows that the Bible strongly supports restorationism (God always keeps His promises) and denies supersessionism.
  It is an excellent book, worth reading... not only if you enjoy prophecy, but if you care about where the (Gentile, evangelical, millennial) church is headed in the future.

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