5 - Counter Culture, David Platt, 289 pages

Most who are familiar with David Platt know him from his breakout book, "Radical." After reading Counter Culture, I believe I will have to pick up this book to read in the future. Platt has a Bachelor's degree, a Master's degree, a PhD, and became the youngest head pastor of a Mega Church in America, located in Birmingham, Alabama... all before he was 26. He is a brilliant man and theologian and his writing style reflects this.

Counter Culture must pick up where Radical leaves off. The subtitle for that particular book is: "Taking back your faith from the American Dream." The thesis of Culture essentially asks, how do Christians respond to American ideals that deny the Gospel message? Platt's introductory chapter outlines the Gospel message and why it is important to Christians. For the rest of the book, he demonstrates how Christians living in a perverse culture should approach a variety of issues looking through the lens of the Gospel. He takes us through: the world of poverty, same-sex marriage, racism, sex slavery, immigration, abortion, persecution, orphans and pornography (as the subtitle says). 

This book has a tendency to be incredibly convicting. As authentic Christians, we perceive the world through a Christian worldview, a subject that is covered in Nancy Pearcy's book, "Total Truth" (which I wrote a book review on last year) and is a theme of Dr. Al Mohler's daily program, "The Briefing" (both of which I recommend you read/listen). When we see issues like sex slavery and poverty, we see them through the Christian worldview and we inherently know they are a result of a fallen world. However, the Bible and the Christian worldview tells us that we, as Christians, have a responsibility to respond to these atrocities. This is the disconnect between intellectual understanding and action. Often times when we see homeless people, we harden our hearts and tell ourselves, "I'm not going to help him out; he needs to get a job." Political reasons often cloud our views of immigration when are commanded several times in the Bible to treat such people with compassion and love. While we may lament the tragic fact of sex slavery, very rarely do we do anything beyond having a sense of remorse for such evil's in the world. 

This is contrary to our purpose of being "salt and light" as Christians in this fallen world. Platt calls Christians to action with a series of challenges. He begins each chapter with a brief summation, usually of a real life example, of the issue. He then approaches the issue through the Gospel: why it is wrong and demonstrates this (typically) from a passage in the Bible. He moves to why this is important to Christians and how we should respond to it. At the end of each chapter, he has a list of things that we should be doing to act "countercultural": Pray, Participate, and Proclaim.  He also set up the website for the book to offer ways that you can get involved in these various areas. 

This reminds me of the passage in Acts 17:6 where the text says, "And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, 'These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.'" The Christians at that time acted in a way that was so against the norm of the culture, they believed they had "turned the world upside down." This should be the pattern for all Christians in every culture. There are unique challenges in a nation of such luxury and idolatry as America and Platt expertly addresses some of those challenges. We are living in a nation on the cusp (if not already) of a "post-Christian" society and now more than ever we need to hold firm our convictions to be in the world and not of it. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend you read it!

4 - The Apostle: A Life of Paul, John Pollock, 302 pages

Well I haven't been keeping up with regular book reviews simply because I have hardly had the time to sit down and read through an entire book as of late. Working through school, I have four books that I have to read in 8 weeks and I've been working through several other books that are near completion. So look for more reviews coming soon!

The Pauline Epistles, I have to say, are my most favorite in the New Testament. The ubiquitous Apostle Paul, formerly Saul the persecutor, is a classic story in the book of Acts about a pharisee turned Christian that has a timeless element to it. His writings have been pondered by millions of Christians, theologians, philosophers, and lay people to where his influence stretches 2,000+ years. It was the sixth chapter of Romans that sparked the interest of the great Augustine of Hippo to turn from his evil past and accept by faith the risen Savior Jesus Christ; Luther's study of Romans sparked the dawn of the Reformers against the Catholic Church; John Wesley, in turn, read Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans and was converted. The legacy of Paul the Apostle resonates throughout history and the ripples of his influence are still being felt today.

A biography of Paul has it's own unique challenges. Largely Paul's first biographer, Luke, is one of the only reliable sources we have to ascertain the life of Paul. What John Pollock does so well is he puts into context the historical events surrounding Paul as well as the pervading culture. From this, we see a different side of the Apostle.

What is also interesting is that Dr. Pollock meshes the accounts in Acts with the corresponding Epistles that Paul penned, showing the connection between what Luke wrote about Paul and how that connects with what Paul wrote himself. This enhances the perspective of the Pauline Epistles, particularly when you look at a letter like the one he wrote to the Philippians. You see the joy ooze out of every word in that letter, and you see why in the corresponding narrative in Acts. In turn, you see the time spent with the Galatians and the heartbreak Paul experienced in his letter to the Galatians when they turned away from what he preached there.

Many read the Pauline Epistles and find a jaded man with a temper that lashes out with passion. But the character of Paul taken in it's entirety shows the love and empathy he has not only for the Gospel, but also for those whom he stayed with and in a way, all of humanity. Imagine living amongst these converted Christians for years at a time and the friendships that developed for the sake of the Gospel. Particularly moving to me was the largely forgotten Epistle to Philemon, which, lacking the theological depth of some of Paul's other Epistles, shows a side of Paul's deep love, compassion, and even humor.

But a book about the Apostle Paul cannot be written without some controversy. For example, we do not possess any solid evidence of the life of Paul after the last chapter in Acts. Some believe he went onto Spain. Others, Britain. Dr. Pollock, and I in turn, believe he died in Rome. There was just one are where I disagreed with Dr. Pollock. He elaborated on Paul's thorn in the flesh, making the connection that it must have been some kind of physical ailment. I do not believe this: in fact, I believe in the text (2 Corinthians 12:7) he says that it is a "messenger from Satan." This would led us to believe it was not something physical, but rather a person that was spreading a false Gospel. This is certainly open for debate.

The other warning I would give to those interested in this book is that Dr. Pollock at times extemporizes the narrative to make it interesting. He utilizes his imagination to paint a picture of what the scene might have actually looked like but things that the text does not explicitly say. He might talk about how the wind moved through the temple as a cool breeze on a hot summer's day in Ephesus, or picking up the writing utensil to write in his own writing in the Epistle to the Galatians. This is a matter of semantics, but nonetheless important.

Overall, a fine look at the life of the Apostle Paul.

Warrior Culture

There has been a lot of controversy over the movie, "American Sniper," directed by Clint Eastwood, that has made news headlines across America. If you live under a rock, Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, Navy Seal who became one of the most lethal snipers in the history of the United States Military. After he got out of the Navy, he wrote a book of the same name which I wrote a review about last year.

Much of the criticism over sniper is coming because Kyle fought in a war that has seen itself mired in controversy. But also because in the book and the movie, Kyle says some controversial things. In the book and in the movie, Kyle calls the people he was fighting "savages," as he does in this interview on a late night talk show. Further, in the book he says he has a clean conscious in regards to the people he has killed and believes that he was justified in killing them, specifically because their death represented fewer Americans being killed. Not only did he believe he was justified, but in the book he says that he actually enjoyed his time there; he enjoyed killing people.

You can see why this is controversial I'm sure. But the purposes behind writing this is to unearth a hidden perspective that Hollywood cannot put into a movie, and that people cannot put into autobiographical books.

Speaking of this first scene in the movie, Michael Green of Arizona State University says:

"But the movie does not pause to register the tragedy of their deaths. The drama in the scene – and throughout the movie –- turns on the crisis for Kyle, of the moral and emotional consequences of the war for him. The woman and child, like all Iraqis in the film, are rendered as conspicuously “other”: distant, dangerous, unknowable and malevolent. In this scene, for example, Eastwood does not show us their fear or anguish. Filming the action from Kyle’s point of view keeps them at a remove from the viewers’ sympathies."

What Mr. Green fails to register is this is not a movie about the Iraq plight. This is not a movie about the political situation underpinning the war in Iraq. This is not a movie about the demonizing of Arabs. This is a movie about Chris Kyle. Part of being a Navy Seal, or any militaristic occupational force that has invaded another country, is the harsh reality of doing things that are morally questionable. The point of this scene is to provide an understanding to people who have, in most cases, never experienced war. Most people have not made life or death decisions that if they choose wrongly, could result in the death of even more people. These are the psychological battles that the warrior must consider when he is in battle. If someone is trying to kill you or people that you are entrusted to protect, is it lawful to kill them before they kill you (or worse, other people who you're providing watch for), even if said person is a woman or child? 

As you progress along in the movie, you will see that Chris Kyle begins to experience post traumatic stress disorder, which is common for those who have seen as much bloodshed as Kyle did. This demonstrates that while he may have been off the battlefield thousands of miles from danger, he was still fighting battles with the demons that haunted him. Imagine living with the knowledge that it was because of you someone, or many someones, is eating alone tonight because you couldn't save their spouse? Living with the thought that some little girl or little boy is going to grow up never knowing his or her father? 

In a different article entitled, "Killing Ragheads for Jesus," by Chris Hedges, Hedges quotes a retired Air Force Mikey Weinstein:

“The movie never asks the seminal question as to why the people of Iraq are fighting back against us in the very first place,” said Mikey Weinstein, whom I reached by phone in New Mexico. Weinstein, who worked in the Reagan White House and is a former Air Force officer, is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which challenges the growing Christian fundamentalism within the U.S. military. “It made me physically ill with its twisted, totally one-sided distortions of wartime combat ethics and justice woven into the fabric of Chris Kyle’s personal and primal justification mantra of ‘God-Country-Family.’ It is nothing less than an odious homage, indeed a literal horrific hagiography to wholesale slaughter.”

The problem with this statement is, again, this movie is not a political commentary on the war in Iraq. This movie is about Chris Kyle. The word "service" has many different meanings. In America, if someone asks you, "Are you in the service?", this connotation typically means the person is asking if you are in the military. We call it "service" because quite simply, one serves his country by volunteering to be in the military. In America, unlike some other places like the Republic of Korea, military service is not mandatory. It is an act of courage and heroism that young men and women volunteer to go to war on behalf of our country. Therefore, we have designated the term "service" to link this understanding that, under no obligation, one is willing to fight for America and her enemies. In this way, Kyle perhaps had a political opinion about the war in Iraq; I'm almost sure he did. But where we go wrong is to suggest that the war in Iraq defines these encounters. What I mean is these political commentators are looking at this movie not from the lens of an autobiographical account of Chris Kyle, but through a politically motivated attack on the idiocy of the Iraq War. Kyle didn't ask to go to war. Kyle didn't go into the President's office in Washington and say, "We should go kill some Iraqis sir." He was merely in the right place at the right time that when his country went to war, he went to war. This is important to keep in mind when looking at the story of Chris Kyle because people keep trying to say "We should never have been in Iraq in the first place." Well, this simply was the purpose of the movie. In any case, we were in Iraq (a fact that you can't change) and Kyle was merely following the orders of his superior officers. So Kyle isn't the one to blame here. If one wants to make a political statement about the Iraq War then by all means: but leave Chris Kyle, a "service" member who was fulfilling his own personal obligations to be a Navy Seal, out of it.  He didn't ask for it and he didn't have much to do with the political aspects of the war.

In any case, many are also (as I pointed out with Mr. Green's article) trying to portray the Iraqis as innocent victims of the cruel ironies of war.  In some cases, I would wholeheartedly agree. However, Kyle saw a lot of action in a place called Fallujah. In 2004, the Marines launched a campaign called "Operation Phantom Fury." The insurgents had basically taken over the city of Fallujah and the Americans came to stomp out their fire. Days before and leading up to the operation, calls for civilians were made to leave the city. Many did. But many also came in. In the book, Kyle talks about how there were insurgents who weren't even Iraqi that came into the city to fight alongside their brothers. This is an important point when commentators try to provide the innocence of the Iraqi people: not all the people that Kyle killed were necessarily Iraqi.

What the main issue here however, is worldview. A worldview is essentially the way we perceive the world. There divide is widened between American commentators because they lack the proper worldview to see the Iraqi people. But even a more concerning issue is the lack of perspective of a warrior culture. Hedges says this later in his article:

"The book is even more disturbing than the film. In the film Kyle is a reluctant warrior, one forced to do his duty. In the book he relishes killing and war. He is consumed by hatred of all Iraqis. He is intoxicated by violence. He is credited with 160 confirmed kills, but he notes that to be confirmed a kill had to be witnessed, “so if I shot someone in the stomach and he managed to crawl around where we couldn’t see him before he bled out he didn’t count.”

He goes on to discuss how much of a brute Chris Kyle was. But this isn't the full truth on the subject. Let me explain:

In every culture, some are politicians, some are farmers, some are workers, and some are warriors. This has been true nearly throughout all of human history. The ancient Romans had a warrior class, as did the Spartans. The warrior culture today is often misunderstood. Being a Marine, I have some firsthand experience with this. Here in America, you have 18-19 year old kids being shipped off to war only to come back and have to deal with the consequences of that war. This is a traumatic experience to say in the least, something that you cannot fully comprehend unless you've been to war. Even before they go off to war however, they are inculcated with the ideals of a warrior. From day one at boot camp until they graduate from the School of Infantry, Marine grunts are essentially learning how to be a warrior. The culture that goes along with this is not pleasant: if you were to spend one day as an invisible person with the grunts you might be horrified at some of the things they do and say.  In a longer quotation, this is Hedges concluding thoughts on the film American Sniper:


"The culture of war banishes the capacity for pity. It glorifies self-sacrifice and death. It sees pain, ritual humiliation and violence as part of an initiation into manhood. Brutal hazing, as Kyle noted in his book, was an integral part of becoming a Navy SEAL. New SEALs would be held down and choked by senior members of the platoon until they passed out. The culture of war idealizes only the warrior. It belittles those who do not exhibit the warrior’s “manly” virtues. It places a premium on obedience and loyalty. It punishes those who engage in independent thought and demands total conformity. It elevates cruelty and killing to a virtue. This culture, once it infects wider society, destroys all that makes the heights of human civilization and democracy possible. The capacity for empathy, the cultivation of wisdom and understanding, the tolerance and respect for difference and even love are ruthlessly crushed. The innate barbarity that war and violence breed is justified by a saccharine sentimentality about the nation, the flag and a perverted Christianity that blesses its armed crusaders. This sentimentality, as Baldwin wrote, masks a terrifying numbness. It fosters an unchecked narcissism. Facts and historical truths, when they do not fit into the mythic vision of the nation and the tribe, are discarded. Dissent becomes treason. All opponents are godless and subhuman. “American Sniper” caters to a deep sickness rippling through our society. It holds up the dangerous belief that we can recover our equilibrium and our lost glory by embracing an American fascism."

I hope you are as disgusted with this as I am. Because Hedges misses the point of a warrior culture: these are the men and women that are learning how to kill people. I won't spruce it up, that is essentially what their whole job will be: To kill the bad guys and bring the good guys back home. Regardless of the political situation or intent of a war, this is what Marine grunts, Navy Seals, Army Soldiers etc. train to do. The culture that is built around this idea includes things that are not deemed acceptable to our politically correct culture like hazing. It also lacks the individuality of other careers because you work as a team: if the team loses a member everyone is affected.  

This is one facet of the warrior culture. I'm not saying that is correct or that it should be praised, I'm saying that understanding the worldview of the warrior culture is essential to interpreting this movie. Chris Kyle's job was to kill people. Do you think that the psychological sociological implications of that may tend to warp the status quo on what is "accepted" in a culture? The answer is a most resounding yes! For example, Chris Kyle said that he enjoyed killing. Understanding the warrior culture, one would have no problem with this statement. But since people like Chris Hedges are examining Kyle's occupation without this fact aligned with his perspective, he casts Kyle in an incredibly negative light. This isn't without it's problems however. For example, a huge problem in the American military is sexual assault, i.e., non consensual sex in the last 10 years. This could be contributed to the pent up male aggression one see's in long deployments working with mostly all males. Other factors contribute but this is certainly a negative side to the warrior culture (one that I believe we need to expunge from our ranks). Another example is the tendency to get into fights at bars. Hedges criticizes Kyle for getting into bar fights while on leave from deployments. Do you think understanding the warrior culture could explain why instances like this happen? The man had just experienced six months of grueling combat. Not all aspects of the warrior culture are commendable, but understanding it gives light to these complex social situations Kyle is being hanged for.

The warrior culture is nothing new, as I have said. Every culture has given the responsibility of national defense and war to a group of individuals in this caste. Without warriors, empires fall and nations crumble. Is those who want to be a part of something bigger than themselves that willingly join the "service" in order to protect those whom they love. For this reason, I believe every service member is a hero. And they bear within themselves the horrors of war. This is the most tragic aspect of the warrior culture. When you cease to examine American Sniper for it's political message, you will see that the point I believe that is trying to be conveyed is the tragedy of American Service members trying to battle their own demons after the war. [Spoiler Alert[ You can see at the end of the movie Kyle dies trying to help a fellow service member who was dealing with his own inner battles. Not only this, but relationships are strained: throughout the movie there is a constant tension of trying to be a father and a husband to his dear wife and kids while at the same time fighting a war. These are the situations that American Sniper is trying to convey: not these stupid political messages the media is trying to shove down our throats to vindicate their outspoken beliefs when these events transpired. 

In all, I believe that when seen through the correct lens, American Sniper is a really moving and beautiful movie. In November, I had the honor for playing for Mr. Clint Eastwood in California. He said that American Sniper was the best movie he has made. And I would agree with him.

3 - The Glory of Heaven: The Truth about Heaven, Angels and Eternal Life, John MacArthur, 224 pages

As par the course, I've gotten a late start on book reading/reviewing in 2015. Taking three classes and being stymied by coursework and course reading has greatly slowed my progress thus far. But never fear; I feel a resurgence coming on strong so stand by for much more to come!

In Colossians 3:1, the Apostle Paul encourages believers to seek heavenly things when he says, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Some Evangelical Christians have taken this perhaps a little too far with a genre of books that is becoming increasingly popular to both Christians and Non-Christians alike: the ascension-into-heaven genre. Pastor Todd Burpo, for example, is making millions off of his child's claims that he went to heaven, first penning a book, "Heaven is for Real" and, more recently, a feature film. Even more recent, last week the publishing company "Tyndale House" (who publishes Christian fiction and non-fiction alike) pulled the book "The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven." Kevin Malarky wrote the book, after his son (who is now a quadriplegic after a tragic car accident) visited heaven. After a story leaked from the boys mother that both she and her son protested against the facts of the book, Tyndale pulled it from their shelves. There are others: 90 Minutes in Heaven, 23 Minutes in Hell, To Heaven and Back, among other. Clearly American is consumed with the afterlife. According to a poll in 2013, over 74 percent of Americans believe in Heaven. But this is the problem with this simple 'belief" and these stories: are they real? As you can see, the subtitles for most of these books include a sentence that says, "a true story."

If you know me at all, you will know that Dr. John MacArthur has heavily impacted my life, and I often attribute my salvation to his ministry. In this book, he delves into these miraculous occurrences and debunks these accounts by expounding on what the Bible tells us Heaven will be like and then compares this to the model that these writers have described. It is no small wonder that after reading this book, these accounts of Heaven are superficial, dangerous, confused, and little Biblical support.

While I don't want to regurgitate all the problems of these books, I want to stress an interesting point that Dr. MacArthur makes: very few people in the Bible see Heaven. When God does give man a glimpse into Heaven, the notion isn't one of irreverence as most of these books portray. I haven't read any of them personally, but from reading snippets, one can see that most people treat Jesus as their "buddy" and God is in the form of some kind of man or light. The picture of Heaven in the Bible when men do see in it is one of extreme reverence and even fear. For example, Issaiah glimpses into Heaven in chapter 6 of the book of the Bible with the same name, and after seeing the glory of God, he says,

"And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

None of the characters in these books ever has a reaction like this, and yet this happens also to the Apostle John when he sees Heaven in Revelation. The point is that Heaven is often a place that people trivialize and fail to see what the Bible actually says about it. Even when you say the word "Heaven" out of it's context ("That [insert whatever] was so heavenly), we often times use it to describe the most wonderful thing we can imagine. And while that is what Heaven will be like, it will not be full of things that make us happy in this life.

No, Heaven will be much more grand for the Christian. Not only will we be in new, glorified bodies, but we will do nothing wrong, have no evil thoughts: indeed, we will be perfect. What is even more awesome than this, is that we will be with God, the creator of the world where there won't even need to be a sun because of His glorious light. And we will, for eternity, glorify Him.

There is a lot more to it than that, but if there's anything that Dr. MacArthur brought to my attention, it was that people like the Apostle Paul were Heaven minded. As he says in the Epistle to the Philippians, he longs to be in Heaven! The Heaven of the Bible will not be a boring place or a place where all our selfish desires are fulfilled, but it will be a place where the truest desires of the Christians heart will be fulfilled. As the Westminster Catechism puts it, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." That will become a reality in Heaven someday.

I strongly recommend this book for both Christians and Non-Christians who desire to know what the real Heaven will be like.

2 - Here I Stand: A LIfe of Martin Luther, Ronald Bainton, 336 pages

When I first became a Christian, I remember being recommended a book by Tom Nelson of Denton Bible Church called, "What Did Christianity Ever Do For Us?" by Jonathan Hill. In this book, one topic he speaks of is the legendary Martin Luther. This vignette (that I will share with you later) swept me smitten into loving the man of Martin Luther. Not only was he a great man, but if it were not for him, it is very possible the nation of America and it's mighty ideals may not even have ever been.

So I read this book on Martin Luther. Luther was born into a Catholic family (as all people in Europe did in those days) and his father was a miner. They prayed to God, Mary, and St. Anne, a saint who was thought to protect the miners. Luther's life changed one day as he strolled through a meadow on a cloudy day. At the time, he was going to school to become a lawyer. But after a fierce thunderstorm (for some reason, Luther was deathly afraid of thunder), he made a pact with God that if he survived, he would dedicate his life to the service of the church. He did indeed survive and to the chagrin of his father, he became a monk in the Augustinian Cloister.

While a monk, Luther had two awakenings: the first had to do with the excesses of what the monastic life had become after a trip to Rome. He saw the debauchery of the monkery and was astounded by the superficial nature of what had become of the monastic life. The second awakening he had was to the idolatry of indulgences.

At the end of the Medieval times, the Catholic Church believed (see: fabricated) the idea of purgatory. This was a place one went to after he died to make penance for unforgiven sins. After awhile here, that person would then ascend into heaven based on the severity of the crimes in your life. the indulgences were twofold: 1) They were items that were from the times of Christ like strands of hair or the bones of Peter. One could see these items and have his time in purgatory reduced. 2) They were payments made to the church to reclaim a lost soul from purgatory.

Luther received a doctorate degree in theology and soon became a professor at a seminary in Wittenberg, Germany. There, he encountered a scoundrel named John Tetzel. This man sold indulgences, and is said to have come up with the rhyme, "when a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs." This enraged Luther, who had recently studied the book of Romans and believed that the only way to heaven was through justification by faith. As a result, on the eve of "All Saints Day," Luther posted the famous 95 theses' that changed the world.

He was summoned by the Pope to Wurms to stand before a Diet where he they wanted him to renounce his theology and his books. Failing to do so, Luther spoke these words:

"Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me, Amen!"

It is said that the words that form the title of this book, "here I stand," Luther did not actually say. But I don't care; it makes the story much more interesting!

From this started a revolution that would change the world. The Protestant Reformation is one of the most important events in recent history, if not the most important, particularly for Christians. But, more of this discussion to come: I am finishing up a book on the Reformation as we speak!

Much more could be said about this great man Luther, but I think this is enough for now. If you would like to know more, you'll just have to pick the book up yourself!

Edit: I almost forgot to write what Jonathan Hill said about Luther. Well, check this out: the other quirk about the Medieval Church was they only had the Bible in Latin. It was forbidden to read or translate in anything else (even though the original is in Greek in Hebrew.. Awkward..). Well, Luther thought this to be very wrong since God spoke through the Bible and thus everyone should have the ability to read it. So he translated the Bible into German. This translation proved to be the basis of the German language that is spoken and written in Germany today. Pretty cool!

1 - Culture Shift: The Battle for the Moral Heart of America, Albert Mohler, 208 pages

Well, the start of the new year has begun, and I am getting a head start on reading. As of this writing, I've already read 3 books with another half-way completed! The first book of the year is a man I discovered just about a year ago and has come to be one of my most favorite authors, bloggers, and theologians: Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Seminary.

Dr. Mohler (or "Al" as I like to call him) has a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, that looks at a few news headlines and comments on them from a Christian worldview called, "the Briefing." This is an incredible resource and only takes about 20 minutes of your time. I typically listen to it in the morning when I'm getting ready for work or driving somewhere. I highly recommend Christians download just a few: you will be hooked!

The book, "Cultural Shift" reads a lot like a daily edition of "the Briefing." The message that is coherent through the book is the massive departure of Christianity from our culture. Early on, Dr. Mohler talks about how a few individuals would like to secularize politics, meaning that every political decision that is made must be from the lens that is without a religious background. This of course, as he states, is absurd. It is impossible to have a stance on controversial issues like abortion without a worldview that works in tandem with your religious beliefs (or lack thereof).

Dr. Mohler's book is less like a conventional book and more like a series of essays on many various issues that plague our culture as "controversial" but that also demonstrate the massive shift in political and social thought away from a Christian worldview and into that same secular agenda. For example, one of the most interesting "essays" was on our youth: Dr. Mohler cites many professionals who believe that Americans make weak 18 year olds, but strong 30 year olds. He uses bloated GPA scores form colleges to affirm that parents today are interfering with so much in their childrens lives that they are part of the problem in the weakness of tomorrows leaders: kid gets a "C" in math class, parents are on the phone the next day with the college professor, telling him he must have made a mistake, for example. He talks about how important it is for children to make mistakes, get hurt, learn from doing. The departure from this conventional wisdom, (where parents used to sit on park benches, now they are playing with their kids to ensure they will not injure themselves) he says, makes weak 18 year olds and in a lot of ways, I agree with that. The reason why we make great 30 year olds is because once children or young adults are outside of their parents influence, they do make mistakes in our dog-eat-dog, capitalist society; not only do they make mistakes, but they learn from them.

This is just one example (with way more citations and way more eloquent) of the various issues Dr. Mohler looks at: it speaks to the vast hole we are digging ourselves into as a culture and how that culture has shifted away from God so much, that is crumbling from the inside. With all the statistics and arguments Dr. Mohler makes, it's hard to disagree with him. I highly recommend this book!

End of the Year Review

Well the end of the year has come and I have fallen just two books short of my goal! Either way, this was an eye opening experience no doubt. This year I read over 20,000 pages, mixed books of both fiction and nonfiction, gotten better at reading, immersed myself in interesting topics and books, and expanded my already rather large (considering I am only 25) library. I also fell only 11 or so book reviews short of my goal and I hope to remedy this next year as well. The following is my list of books read this year:

1) Cross of Christ 

2) Washington 

3) Strange Fire 

4) When We Were a Consuming Fire 

5) Starship Troopers 

6) Mao

7) Refugee 

8) The Story of Christianity II 

9) Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring 

10) Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers 

11) The Courage to be Protestant

12) Lord of the Rings: Return of the King 

13) Total Truth 

14) The Japanese and Christianity

15) First to Fight 

16) Strange Glory 

17)  Black Hawk Down

18) Rainbow 6

19) Why We're not Emergent 

19) The Last Stand of Fox Company

20) Without Remorse 

21) John Macarthur: Minister of the Flock 

22) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

24) I heard my Country Calling

25) Animal Farm

26) 1984 

27) Fight Club 

28) Mission at Nuremberg 

29) Lion At the Gate 

30) A Good Spy 

31) Those Who Are Dead and Those Who Are Dying 

32) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

33 ) Daniel Commentary 

34 ) Titan: John D. Rockefeller 

35 ) The Automobile 

36 ) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 

37)- American Sniper 

38)- No Easy Day 

39)_ Level Zero Heroes 

40)- A Christmas Carol 

41) The Giver 

42) The Aviators 

43) American History 

44) Debt of Honor

45)- The Hobbit 

46)- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

47)- My Men Are My Heroes 

48)- The Last Battle 

49)- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

50)- Saving Leonardo

51) S. - done

Altbough I say I fell two books short, this is not exactly true. Some of the books I read (including books for school and others I did not put on my list or forgot about) I have not included here. So suffice it to say that this is a monumental accomplishment in my short life that I am pretty proud about. My goal for this next year is to start completely over and I hope to read at least 60 books this year! 

Thanks for everyone who took time to read my blog on book reviews. The most popular was ironically also my first: the Strange Fire book review by John MacArthur with over 51 views. The second most seen was the book, The Cross of Christ  by John Stott with over 30 views. Altogether, over 890 views have been recorded on this blog. That is fantastic! I never thought I would even see 100 views so thank you again for reading! A happy New Year to all!