The Persian Gamble

I don't usually read Joel Rosenberg but a friend told me that I would like his new book.  It is a political/spy thriller taking place in the current time period with conflict between the governments of the U.S., Israel, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

The summary from the inside book cover reads: "Shot out of the air in enemy territory in the middle of the greatest international crisis since the end of the Cold War, former U. S. Secret Service agent Marcus Ryker finds himself facing an impossible task. Not only does he have to somehow elude detection and capture by Russian forces, but he must convince his own government to grant safe passage to the one man responsible for the global mayhem - Russian double agent and assassin Oleg Kraskin. While frantically negotiating with his contacts in the U.S. government, Marcus learns that the North Korean regime plans to use the international chaos as a smokescreen to sell nuclear weapons to Iran."

I thought that this was the perfect thriller except for one problem. 300+ pages into the novel his hero starts reading his Bible, Proverbs, and thinking about the grace of God right before he is going into a mission and will kill people. Is the author serious? How many international assassins muse over God's grace an hour before a kill? The hero keeps this Bible reading up for the remaining 200 pages. Is the author trying to convince the reader that an assassin is a Christian? I am pretty sure he is not. This is why I never read Rosenberg. Why take a perfectly plotted and written 500 page thriller and ruin it with 20 pages? This is disappointing!

He loses 1 star.   4 out of 5 stars.

Seven Days that Divide the World

The author, John C. Lennox, is a professor of mathematics at Oxford University.  I read this book for the Christian Reading Challenge based on a recommendation from a friend.  My friend stated that the author would  be able to prove through science that God created the world in 7 days.  While I disagree with the author's ability to provide proof, he certainly shot holes in the arguments of the New Atheists against creationism as well as coming up with quite a few interesting points about the Genesis Chapter 1 story. This was such a fascinating book that I read its 184 pages in an hour and a half and then reread it a week later and a third time one month later.

The author begins by stating he is a scientist who believes in both science and in the Bible. He says that you can draw scientific implications from the Bible but that does not mean that the Bible is a scientific treatise from which you can deduce Isaac Newton's laws or Einstein's equations.  The Bible was not intended to explain the origins of the universe in a detailed scientific language. It was intended to teach people about God.

A discussion over young earth and ancient earth creationist views is expanded on to point out that the definition of the word "creationist" has changed over the centuries. Originally it referred to someone who believed in a creator with no implication for how the creating was done. Today, a creationist is usually referred to someone who believes in a young earth. Also, these viewpoints are not new. They have been debated since times before Christ by Jewish scholars. Whether the 6 days in which God performed his creation were 24 hour cycles or epochs of unspecified lengths changes the age of the earth. See Psalm 90:4 "For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past..." Then there is the question of what is meant by "earth." Is it a planet, dry ground, or something else? Consider whether you are interpreting the Bible from the era it was written in or the era you are currently living in. That changes everything too. In addition, there is a grammatical point to be made about English versions of the Bible where the creation days are rendered "the first day," "the second day." Genesis was written in Hebrew. While the Hebrew language has a definitive article (ha) it is not used in the original for days one through five.  Thus the beginning of time is "one day" rather than "the first day. "  It makes a difference in how you interpret the chapter.

Another interesting discussion in the book concerned the word "literal." What does it mean to literally interpret the Bible? The definition of this word has also changed over the centuries and the author shows how there are different levels of literality.

All of these discussions were further expanded upon in the book. In addition, there are five appendices that dispute several theories of the New Atheists concerning the Genesis text. The book gets extremely technical here. I won't go into detail about these issues even though the book appears to have been written to debunk the theories of the New Atheists.  That was not the reason that I read the book.

The main thrust of the author's argument is that there is a way to understand Genesis 1 that doesn't compromise the authority of Scripture and at the same time take into account our increased knowledge of the universe.  I thought this was fabulous! Many of his discussions were above my ability to understand. I am not a mathematician or a scientist. I was impressed though with what he had to say.

I cannot remember a time when I was excited to read Genesis but John Lennox has made it seem important to study.  He has highlighted the creation story for me in such a fascinating manner.  I highly recommend this book!

Irresistible

In Irresistible-Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World, the reader in invited to embrace the original form of Christianity, the version that turned the world upside down 2,000 years ago. The author, an Atlanta, Georgia pastor, shows how a shift from faith in the resurrection of Jesus to a Bible-centric faith has left Christians with an anemic version of the faith that is not very interesting to those outside the faith or even inside the faith.

The premise of the book is that the first century Christians, not having any Scriptures other than the Jewish Scriptures spread the faith with their eye witness accounts of the resurrection. Succeeding generations similarly used their zeal over the resurrection event to gain new converts to the faith. It worked. The faith spread like wildfire even though getting caught and having to admit it meant that you would be put to death by the legal authorities. The author wants us to regain that zeal for the resurrection that our predecessors in the faith had. He believes it will transform how outsiders view the church and Jesus himself and bring people to Jesus as well as bring backsliders back into the church.

The author spends a lot of time distinguishing between the old covenant between God and Israel and the new covenant between God and everyone willing to participate in the new covenant. He explains that when the church became organized, rules and customs were set that were a blending of the two covenants. The two covenants were never supposed to be blended as after the resurrection the old covenant was ended because a new one had been created. Forty years later when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD and animal sacrifices could not be made any longer, ancient Judaism ended. Here he produced a considerable amount of Scripture and history as proof of his thesis.

He continues that the church today still blends the old covenant with the new covenant with Bible focused preaching and reading requirements. However, today's preachers are failing to tell their parishioners that the Old Testament was a means to an end. It brought Jesus to the world. The author is critical of those who pull passages and promises from the Old Testament and apply them to themselves when the passages apply to ancient Israel. This is also what he calls blending the two covenants. The final third of the book deals with how Christians should handle themselves with each other and with those outside the church in a new covenant manner, all backed up with Scriptural references.

The topic was well researched.  Stanley presented Scriptures from Genesis through the New Testament as well as historical references from ancient Israel and the early church as proof of his interpretation and conclusions. He knows the material well.

The writing style of the author is poor. He writes in the same way that he speaks. Unless you are a member of his congregation and are accustomed to this approach you will find the writing disconcerting. Consequently, I found it difficult to connect the points as I got bogged down in the writing method.

Irresistible is the first book of Stanley's that I have read.  I was expecting a serious book given the title and the back cover blurb. The writing style subtracted from the strong ideas that Stanley presented. Having said that, the author did do a good job of setting up major points in a dramatic fashion. However, he then fell into his culture-specific speaking style. He should, in the future, realize that his audience reaches far beyond the culture of his own congregation and city and adjust his writing accordingly.

This is an intellectual book written in an unintellectual manner.  Because it has strong arguments that the church should hear, I would like to refer it to it to a few friends.  I believe the book's message is important.  However, I am not sure that they will read a book that does not appear to be serious in the beginning section. They might give up and put it down.

Irresistible counts as a selection for the 2019 Christian Reading Challenge as a book that was a 2018 bestseller.  I would have rated it 5 stars for the thought content but due to the writing problems I can only give it 3 out of 5 stars. 

Leading Lives that Matter: What We Should Do and Who We Should Be

Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass have put together an anthology of readings from 61 individuals who found a way to lead lives of substance and significance.  They try to answer the questions "must my paid employment define who I am?" and "is a balanced life possible and preferable to a life focused primarily upon work?"  The readings endeavor to help the reader to make better judgments about their own life by exploring three vocabularies: authenticity and individualism; virtue and character; vocation and the divine.

The individuals referenced in the book cover a time period from 300 B.C. to the twentieth century. However, most of the individuals are from the twentieth century. Instead of giving actual advice to the reader, the authors offer a wide range of material from fiction to philosophy to biography to poetry as an example for the reader to figure out for themselves how best to deepen their own life.

One of my favorites was the Martyrdom of Perpetua. Since I am not a Roman Catholic, I was not aware of Perpetua before reading this book.  Vibia Perpetua was a North African Christian who was martyred in the year 203. The story of her imprisonment, torture and death was written shortly after her death by Tertullian.  At the time of her arrest she was 22, newly married with an infant son and a new convert to Christianity.  When led to the prisoner's dock her father pleaded with her to renounce her belief in Jesus for the sake of her family who would be destroyed if she was killed.  However, when asked by the soldiers whether she believed in Jesus she said yes.  She was led back to prison and a few days later she was led to the amphitheater where she was fed to several beasts naked in front of a live audience.  I was in awe of her decision.  I probably would have lied to save myself.   How could someone new to the faith be so sure of herself?  I found this astonishing.

This is a book that you should own and re-read throughout your life.  It can bring clarity to your decision making on play, study, love, sexuality, leisure, family, friendships, and worship.  It is not just about working and surviving.  There is another book titled "Callings" written by the late Rev. William Placher that follows the same format as this book but uses the lives of people who lived in the past twenty centuries.  I am looking forward to reading that book because Leading Lives that Matter has been thought provoking for me.

Definitely 5 out of 5 stars!

2019 Christian Reading Challenge