Book Review III

The name of this book gives the impression that we would read Scripture and have a teaching  associated with it and then perhaps have some reflection on its application to the world we live in today so that we would have some  kind of edifying instruction on how we should be living today. However that was not at all the case. As is the case with all of Francis Schaeffer's work that I have so far read, this is an exercise in philosophical theology with nearly zero citations of Scripture or teaching. Instead it appears to reflect Schaeffer's thoughts on  Christian orthopraxis, with all of which I tend to agree, but offers absolutely nothing in the way of sound theology. 

Schaeffer was clearly an action-oriented evangelist who had great blessing and success in his lifelong work. His work continues today through others working in the L'Abris foundation and this foundation itself is, in my opinion, what monasteries of the past ought to have been. His work, passion, and character are admirable but his writing lacks theological substance. It is highly philosophical and while the average orthodox believer will agree fully with everything Schaeffer says and admire his zealous work, there is no academically theological value to his writings.

This is the best resource  for Sunday School lessons that I have found yet. It directly addresses  many of the most iconic events and teachings from the Bible in biblically chronological order. Highly recommend this book for teachers and it's also easy to read and follow for the casual Theologian as well. 

This was a great book for having a better understanding to the background into how the KJV was made, but it was mostly the logistics or politics running in the background. There was little-to-no discussion as to exegetical practices, obstacles, or discussions. I was also hopeful to see more content related to the approval process and any specific challenges they faced in the process, but such discussions are apparently not very well documented from antiquity. Still, this book was edifying and informative. 

Every scholar should read The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus, yet few do so in its entirety. It took me nearly 2 years to do so but I am thankful I did, and even moreso thankful that I had the translation by Whiston as my source. Scholars agree that his work is among the best offered today and I rank myself among them. If I'm to summarize the book itself, I would describe Antiquities as somewhat of an OT Survey plus Apocrypha. Wars of the  Jews is a pivotal reading that should be compulsory with any seminary  degree. Whiston's copy also includes tables and charts of weights, measures, numbers, etc. They are all extremely useful tools and, in my  opinion, accurately representative of actual values. 

To the scholar this book will have little value unless being used as a teaching resource. To the student it answers questions you might not have known you had. It can be very insightful and rewarding. 

Excellent resource for general knowledge and also for Sunday School curriculum if conducting a brief survey of Books in the Bible. All content including dates, illustrations with explanations, and specific and general content was very informative and as comprehensive as an overview can be. It was very easy to read and digest. 

This book was more of a philosophy of Apologetics in general rather than a book on Christian Apologetics specifically. 

Johnson is a theistic evolutionist who refuses to admit that apparent truth. Instead he evasively describes himself and his book as not necessarily being  against evolution but certainly being an opponent of Neo-darwinian theory. It's a different slice of the same pizza. The book hardly contends with evolution but mostly philosophises its contention with  Darwinian philosophy. 

Schaff does an excellent job throughout this entire series. The work is thorough and detailed. This work is obviously the result of a lifetime of learning and  research. Schaff uses countless resources for reference and citation. His opinions/conjectures remain objectively true throughout the entire series. Although his son takes over beginning in Vol V, it is still mostly the work of Schaff the elder throughout. I would urge any student to learn Church History well and to do so with this series as the focal  point of study.

Although this series is 8 volumes in length, I will use this review as a sufficient description for all 8 volumes. I will say that there are some printings that are much better than others, so beware of some of the more lower-priced options. They will be missing Greek translations, entire sentences after footnotes, etc.

Very good and precise account of the history and beginnings of the Anabaptist movement in Europe throughout the 16th-17th century. 

In all my years of study, this is perhaps the greatest theological work I've read. The truth behind this book's teaching is well ahead of its time and I was frankly pleased to discover that I was not the only one who felt this way in spite of the modern American Church giving me every reason to feel as though I was.

In 10,000 years nobody is going to care who anyone voted for in 2020 or what country that vote took place in. This is the mindset that not only seems to escape most Americans, it's actually a patriotic heresy to even suggest such a concept.

Boyd was kinder than I would be if I were to write a book on this topic because this is the overall teaching of the NT that stands out beyond all other things. Yet we, in the modern American and Laodicean Church will exhaust every theologically acrobatic feat we can manage to achieve in order to ignore and reason ourselves away from what God's Word truly instructs us to  do.

Boyd has taken a bold step to announce that. Normally I wouldn't find myself in agreement with a Princeton Grad, but this time is simply not the case. This is a book that every professing Christian in America should read. 

Not what I thought it would be. I was expecting a book about the dangers of nominal Christianity: How to identify it, how to engage it. Instead this was a book whose first three chapters were rich in populist ideology; strictly Amero-centric divisive politics, which is a morbidly shallow understanding of the much greater problem in the modern Church.

After chapter 3 the tone took on a much less political feel and trended  toward the overtly satanic-gnostic-new age-shamanistic fringe of bizarre religion and their blatant attempts to overthrow Christianity. While I  certainly agree that these behaviors are presently manifesting in the  world, I do not find them very concerning.

This book was published in 2001. I'm writing this review in 2024, having just finished the book moments ago. Still no Feminist ideology killing God. Fear is the opposite of faith and these scare tactics are so routinely used that, if anything, the absence of their fulfillment is a bolstering agent of individual faith. In other words, works such as these routinely prove their own lack of certainty and value because they exhibit a doctrine of irrational panic.

I'm sure it's useful for someone to read this, but the obvious nature of the content is something that even the nominal Christian would be able to easily identify. The real threat will never be the extreme, excessive, overt evils that prophets of antagonist fear produce, but have always proven to be the subtle, complacent comforts freely offered by Satan. 

A brief and rather obscure work that seeks to understand the truth behind a city named Glen Rose in Texas where giant footprints were found fossilized, popularized, and then very unceremoniously vanished leaving no trace behind including eye-witness testimony. Apparently even inquiring about this at the site's location is treated with contempt.

Creative and fun to read, but no theological value whatsoever. It offers a different perspective, but one that's more fiction than it will ever be realistically applicable. 

Instead of continuing to add page after page and review after review, I want to invite anyone who wishes to know more to visit my Goodreads page at goodreads.com/finaldraftministries. Here you will also be able to comment and add me as a friend as well.