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What Is The Gospel? (2010)

by Greg Gilbert(Favorite Author)

4.13 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1433515008 (ISBN13: 9781433515002)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Crossway Books

review 1: As I read this, I couldn't help but think of a passage in Lord of the Rings about hobbit genealogical books: "Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate: they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions." Unfortunately, this book may suffer as did the books in the Shire: "all but Hobbits [read: Christians] would find them exceedingly dull."Don't get me wrong: I think this book lays out the meat and potatoes of the gospel, along with some sharp seasoning, better than most anything else I've read. I just think its use and appeal is geared more towards those who already identify themselves as Christians than to those who are uninitiated or unwilling. For that purpose, I still think Mere Christianit... morey by C.S. Lewis still sets the standard.
review 2: This book is an extremely short read, and the introduction provides a compelling vision for what you are about to go through. Unfortunately, in my estimation, it ultimately fails to live up to the task. I agree with many of Gilbert's assertions (the gospel has become way too muddied, confusion, and ultimately uninteresting), and I do appreciate his effort to trim it down to an easy-to-communicate style. However, my main struggle is that I didn't leave the book with a simpler vision of what the Gospel is. Similarly, I struggle with hyper-reformed, penal-substitution-centric rhetoric, and this book is absolutely chock-full of it. He goes so far as to claim that you can't have the gospel without penal substitution, and an entire history of orthodox thelogians (Athanasius, Irenaeus, George MacDonald) would heartily disagree. Overall, I'm really in the middle of the road on this book. I can't say that I recommend it, but nor would I discourage anyone from reading it. less

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