We are thanking God for his rich blessings to us!

However, the central point of the book I believe really is needed today.  Christianity is more about the person of Jesus than about religion or dogma.  The authors really hammer this.  They criticize the church for replacing the worship and pursuit of Jesus with all sorts of other things.

I think the message of Jesus being the central point of Christianity is needed.  I think that the church today really does fail to make Jesus central.  So the core message of the book is right I believe.

However again I didn’t feel quite satisfied.  There are many and long passages of scripture cited in the book, but I feel that a message of the centrality of Jesus should include a lot of focus on what Jesus actually said and did when he was here.  This book seems to spend most of its time saying who Jesus was, which is highly important.  But I think they could have spent more time on his teachings and his life.

In total, I feel the book is worth listening to as a starting point for discovering our need to make Jesus central.  The reader does an excellent job and the recording is top notch, as usual.

This review was written for christianaudio.com’s reviewers program.

The audiobook can be purchased from christianaudio.com.

I liked this recent email by Peter Hoover.  It has to do with the myth of overpopulation and the blessings of having children.  Lots of them.

My sister Nancy, married to Bishop Menno Brubacher of the Orthodox Mennonites in Ontario Canada, with nine of her children, in 1983.

Twins Levi and Lydia Anne on the swings, another pair of twins Joseph and Mary feeling shy (with their fingers in their mouths) and a third pair, Menno and Nancy in the double stroller. All together Nancy had five sets of twins and six single births, sixteen children in total, of whom thirteen grew to adulthood. Now most of them are married and she already has around thirty grandchildren.

A classic case of an overworked, underprivileged mother in modern times? Nothing could be further from the case.

Nancy did, and is doing, what she most wanted in life — raising children for the glory of God. A career? Before her marriage she taught grades one to three at a Mennonite school in Yatton, Ontario. Even though her life grew more involving after she had nine children during their first six years of marriage, five little ones in diapers at once, she enjoyed the total support of her husband who worked at home and of many girls from the church community who provided them with steady help. Yes, they laundered all those diapers with a hand propelled cradle washing machine, and preserved enough food to supply them all through the Canadian winter without the help of electricity or modern conveniences. But they had a great time doing it. Every one of their children grew up to love the Lord, get baptised, and become joyful members of the church community to which they belong. This month (25 May) Nancy turns sixty. She travels a good bit with her husband, from northern Ontario to Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Missouri on church-related work. She loves all her grandchildren and continues to do the fine needlework, quilting, and hooking rugs she has always enjoyed, on winter evenings by the fire.

* * * * *

Margaret Higgins also grew up in a large family, in New York. The sixth of eleven children (her mother had seven more that died before or at birth), Margaret spent all her growing up years doing the dishes, washing clothes, minding the little ones and hating it. Not long after she married William Sanger she left him, along with her religion (Roman Catholicism), to become an avowed atheist, a nurse with a mission — birth control — and a consort of Emma Goldmann, the Jewish anarchist. When she got an emergency call to help Sadie Sachs, another Jewish woman suffering from a self-induced abortion, Margaret knew she had to do something to save the suffering women of the world. Several months later, when Sadie died from a second attempt a aborting a baby, she went public.

The Woman Rebel, Margaret Sanger called the monthly paper she founded in 1914 to promote birth control. "No Gods, no Masters" was its proud slogan, portrayed on the front page of every copy. And within it she not only claimed that western civilization had demeaned women by turning them into "mere incubators," but also that the Baptist Church with the YWCA, for their teaching on Christian morality, were "brothels of the Spirit and morgues of Freedom."

When the United States postal service refused to handle the paper and Margaret got arrested, she jumped bail and fled to Europe. Who bailed her out? From the beginning Margaret enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the entertainment world, of John D. Rockefeller, of the Ku Klux Klan and thousands of others with money and power. In France Margaret learned about condoms and on her return to America, after the coast had cleared, she set up a clinic in New York City to actively promote their use.

Along with birth control Margaret Sanger championed the right of women to cut their hair, wear trousers, and smoke. Later, when it became legally possible, she fought for women’s rights to divorce and remarry whom they pleased. 

In 1921 Margaret Sanger and her powerful friends organised the American Birth Control League, later changing its name to Planned Parenthood. In 1927 — by now world-famous — she spearheaded the World Population Conference held at Geneva, Switzerland. People everywhere began to listen and rethink their positions.

For almost two thousand years all Christians everywhere thought birth control immoral, displeasing to God. Under British, Australian, Canadian, American and most other western nations’ obscenity laws, to propagate information about birth control had long constituted a federal crime. But now, convinced of the rising threat of a population explosion, a shortage in world food and resources, one country after the next changed its position. In 1930, the Anglican Church became the first group of Christians to recognise the need for birth control in some cases.

What has happened since?

Church after church changed its position, until virtually all non-Catholic Christians have come to believe birth control in some form or another is absolutely necessary. Christian pastors counsel young people getting married not to have children at once, and not too many. "Be considerate," they say. "God told us to be fruitful and replenish the earth, but one couple must not do it all."

Thanks to their efforts, church after church is dying out. Closing their doors and coming up for sale. The Protestant nations, entire language groups and cultures are threatened — thanks to birth control — in our time. Yet this week the Anglican Church of Australia published an appeal to our federal government, calling for more strenuous measures of birth control and less benefits to parents, as "overpopulation is the greatest threat we face today." In their article they appealed to the eighth commandment, claiming we are guilty — through overpopulation — of stealing space and resources from the rest of God’s creation.

Is that so?

Back in the 1970s we already heard that if we took no drastic measures, the world would have standing room only in a few generations.

To check that out, take your globe and find Tasmania. See how tiny our island looks compared to the rest of the world? Now take only the western quarter of our island, the Circular Head and West Coast region in which we live. On this little part of Tasmania, 14,500 square kilometres, live 13,360 people — that is, slightly more than one square kilometre for each of us. 

Now, what should happen if all 13,360 of us got together and stood at one place, each of us on one square metre of land? We could all stand on a little more than one hectare — that is, on .000007 of the land we own. And what would happen if we invited everyone else from the whole wide world into our Circular Head and West Coast Region? Would it get standing full? Far from it. All six billion, seven-hundred million of us (6,700,000,000) could stand on one square metre each, and our little corner of Tasmania would not be even half full. We could invite twice this world’s population and still have room for almost three billion more, everyone standing on one square metre of land. And if all of our little island of Tasmania were standing full, we would not have room for six billion, but for sixty-three billion people.  

The fact is, the world we live on is still comparatively empty. Not including Antarctica we have thirteen billion, six hundred million hectares of land at our disposal. And the productive land of our planet earth, as it now stands, could easily feed a population many times the size of what we now have — if,  not if we used birth control, but if we used wisely what we had and distributed it fairly. (If you doubt this statement, read The Overflowing Earth, a brilliant statement by our friend of many years, James Landis, a conservative Mennonite farmer in Georgia.)

Whatever the case, we do not expect this earth to last forever. We do not doubt that if it ever got full, God would have another way to take care of things. We trust him but we do not trust Margaret Sanger or anything she said.

Large Christian families are happy families. Children from large families learn better and learn much more than children in isolated or small families. The last thing our young people need to hear is that they should slow down in having children. Their lifestyle cannot sustain it? Let them change their lifestyle.

Let fathers and mothers, young and old people work together, so all of us can sustain and nicely take care of what natural increase the Lord gives us.  

For one hundred years straight, ever since the beginning of Margaret Sanger’s campaign, we have listened to a fearful barrage of information linking most of the world’s ills to overpopulation. Most problems would get fixed, it is claimed, if women only had enough freedom and few enough babies got born. But we old-school Anabaptists do not believe it. We refuse to capitulated to her insane propaganda and raving blasphemies flung in the face of Almighty God. And now, at long last, what is this we hear?

The Quiverfull Movement. A little voice coming straight out of the modern Evangelical world, in Australia, in North America and Europe. A voice we understand and that resonates with everything God has told us too.

Right beside me I have Rick and Jan Hess’s landmark book, A Full Quiver, and I feel deeply satisfied. Like rejoicing and shouting, "Yes! Yes!" For once again, as Balthaser Hubmaier said, "The Truth cannot be killed!"

King Solomon said, "Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them" (Psalm 127). And like Jesus welcomed all children and blessed them, we welcome them too. Not one too many. No mistakes — if God takes care of it all.

We feel especially grateful for seven children born to us (six still living) after more than thirteen years of not being able to have children — during which time we adopted two.   

Moms, keep up your great work with our little ones, and may their love and faithfulness throughout eternity be your reward!

Peter

The Hole in Our Gospel is a well-written book that combines biblical teaching, personal experience, and stories and facts about the world scene.  The subject of the book is the need for Christians to reach out to the world’s poor.

This book was what I would call a very heavy read if it weren’t an audiobook.  In fact, one of my main issues with this audiobook was the sheer volume of stories, scriptures, facts, and powerful statements that require thought to digest.  Because of this, I would recommend that if you want to get the most out of this book, purchase a hard copy.  I found myself wanting to underline or highlight statements of the author.

There is no doubt that attention to the needy is a hole in the gospel of western Christendom.  But  I think that there are plenty of other holes that could be addressed as well.  Richard Stearns, the author of the book and president of World Vision, is understandably in a position to speak to this particular “hole,” and is well worth paying attention to on this topic.

I’ve heard quite a lot of critique of the popular evangelical doctrine of salvation from the view of those who say it lacks an ethos of discipleship.  This book also challenges popular Christianity, but from a slightly different angle.  He calls into question the Christianity that does not produce a genuine love for the poor of the world.  I believe it is a valid point to be made.  You will be convicted by this book and will definitely be more accountable after listening to or reading it.

This review was written for the christianaudio.com reviewer’s program, which does not require reviewers to write positive reviews.

This audiobook can be purchase at christianaudio.com.

There’s something fascinating about a book that interweaves doctrine and good argumentation with personal experience.  I came away knowing not only what Taylor believes but why and how he came to his position.  In other words, you can sort of get to know him as a person through this book.  This particular aspect makes the book very enjoyable to read in my opinion – it’s not a dry religious tome.

The topic of the book of course is nonresistance, the view that Christians should not kill.

Dean and his wife were members of the US Army when they began to deal with this question.

They struggled through the hard issues related to nonresistance and the book offers his conclusions.  He came to see that, on the one hand, conservative evangelical Christians tend to negate the radical teachings of Jesus.  But, on the other hand, liberal theologians tend to remake the Old Testament God into a "nonviolent" deity.  He was not happy with either approach.

He walks through some of the church history that revealed to him that the thread of "nonresistance" runs as far back as the early Christian church.  He discusses the Two Kingdom concept and why he came to believe in it.  He describes the "Theology of Martyrdom" and its power.

Another useful thing he does is address the inevitable hypothetical questions.  I like his approach which you will have to find out by reading the book.

He shares the story of their discharge from the army as conscientious objectors.  Do not miss the incredible thing that happened to the army captain who read them their discharge.

This book is worth buying and reading.  Locals may borrow the book from me since I’m done with it for now. 

It can be purchased from RadicalReformation.net or from Scroll Publishing.

The Hiding Place is like that.  I read it many years ago, probably more than once, but I missed so much.  Our family listened to this entire book a few days ago while on a trip, and it has been a long time since a book moved me so much.

In a wonderful, “grandmotherly” tone, the narrator reads Corrie Ten Boom’s classic story of suffering and imprisonment at the hands of the Nazis.  This rendition will bring tears to your eyes even if the story is not new to you.

A very poignant moment in the story is one in which Corrie is standing before the chief of the Harlem police, whom Corrie learns is working with the resistance to the Nazi occupation.  He tells Corrie that there is an informer working for the Nazis that must be eliminated.  Could Corrie make connections with her underground friends to have him killed?

Her answer (not the exact words) is so typical of her life’s mission.  “Sir, I believe I am called to save life, not destroy it.”  Corrie’s sacrificial love for the Jews suffering under the Third Reich was only one part of the story of her lifelong love for her fellow man, including the handicapped, those scarred by imprisonment in concentration camps, and even the Germans in the postwar period.

This audiobook is not only worthwhile, but potentially life-changing.  Highly recommended as being among the best christianaudio.com has to offer.

If you want to learn what it is like to see hundreds of thousands of your own people slaughtered like animals in only a few short days, and to survive yourself only by a seeming accident of chance; if you want to learn how bewildering and worthless life can seem to be; if you want to grasp the struggle to believe in God and to forgive, then listen to this story.

It is unfathomable what human beings will do to one another.  The depths of hatred and of brutality make life seem not worth living.  How could one experience genocide and have faith in God and hope that life is worth living?

Eric Irivuzumugabe lived through the Rwandan genocide and came to believe in God.  Through Christ he gained a hope for himself and for his people as well.  This book is the story of his struggle to survive physically, and of his spiritual birth.  The book ends with him on a mission to reach out to his fellow Rwandans, particularly the orphans of the genocide.

This book is read very well by the narrator in a soft and gentle style.

This review was written for christianaudio.com, where you can purchase this book.

…if it’s logically impossible for God to create a world in which the future is partly open, then those biblical authors who depict God as speaking and thinking about the future in terms of what might and might not come to pass (e.g. Ex. 13:17) or as changing his mind (e.g. Ex. 32:10-14) or as experiencing surprise and disappointment (Jer 3:7, 19; Isa 5:1-5) must also be asserting a logical contradiction, even if we interpret these depictions as “mere” anthropomorphisms. (Even anthropomorphisms must be logically coherent.) It is certainly difficult to see what it is about these depictions that’s logically contradictory, but not as difficult as it is to explain how passages presumably inspired by God could contain such impossible pictures of him in the first place.

If the above argument is valid, then the assumption that an omniscient God must by definition know the future as eternally and exhaustively settled is demonstrably false. God could create a world with an open future if he wanted to. The unique claim of Open Theism is that, not only is this kind of world possible, but scripture, experience and sound philosophy give us compelling reasons to think that, as a matter of fact, this is precisely the kind of world God created.

I don’t know much about open theism, but the little I have read intrigues me.