Reviewed by Martine Bates Fairbanks
Greg Koukl. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2017. 189 pp. (Paperback).
Before I even write the first sentence of this review, I would guess any regular readers of The Alabama Baptist have a fair idea of what this book is about. And you are right: the author begins by informing the reader that he wants to tell the story about how the world began, how it ends and “everything deeply important that happens in between.”
OK — but the book is only 189 pages. How is that possible? I’m sure it wasn’t easy; I have struggled with how to do this book justice in a couple hundred words, and I’m not sure I can.
As Koukl points out, Christianity is reality. It also is a worldview — one that has competition from other religions and nonreligions. Worldviews help us answer the most basic questions in life, such as where we came from and where we are going. Every worldview, Koukl contends, is meant to tell “a” (not necessarily “the”) story of reality.
Like a jigsaw puzzle, not all worldviews have pieces that fit together, or even have all of their pieces.
As far as the argument that belief systems are equal — “my truth” versus “your truth” — Koukl demolishes the notion handily, pointing out that, “since believing something can’t make it true (otherwise there’d be no difference between believe and make-believe), it makes no sense calling any belief a ‘truth’ as if they were the same thing.”
Koukl’s premise for the book is that, even though the Christian story of reality is the correct story, many believers have a pile of pieces they aren’t sure how to fit together, or whether they have the right pieces. Koukl, a well-known and skilled apologist, lays out the story in the book with the right pieces in the right places.
In the end, the reader has a story “of how the world began, why the world is the way it is, what role we play in the drama and how all the plotlines” are resolved. I like to highlight important points as I read; my copy of this book has a lot of yellow in it.
___________________
Martine Bates Fairbanks, Ed.D., reviews books and movies for The Alabama Baptist. She is a university professor and retired principal. She is a member of Central Baptist Church, Decatur.
Share with others: