My Book Review Of: The 21 Toughest questions your kids will ask about Christianity by Alex McFarland

I would like to share another book review with you. This review is on the book, The 21 toughest questions your kids will ask about Christianity. In an added note of comfort, the title also continues; & how to answer them confidently.

                This work is well written by Alex McFarland, published by Tyndale House Publishers and is a Focus on the Family resource. 

                Before I continue into this review I want to begin by asking you a question. Two actually and the first is: Are you a Bible believing Christian who desires to pass on the truth and help win people to Christ as well as help strengthen fellow Christians in their belief? If so then continue on to the next question. The second question is as such: Do you have a child or children, nieces or nephews, grand children or any influence or contact with young people in school age that you love and care for and who know and believe in the Lord? If you answered yes to this question then this book is a book I fully recommend for you.

                There is a sad statistic today on how many young Christians are leaving Christian homes and entering the secular education and secular world on their own and are losing their faith. What is the cause of this loss of faith? It is not because we do not believe in a true magnificent God and creator of the world; it is neither because they never heard the truth nor where taught such truths while young, in school and living at home. The answer lies in a more spiritual world then ours. Satan will use every tactic he can to destroy ones belief and his first means to do this is doubt. Our young people today are simply not equipped and given the means to defend their faith, stand for what they believe and show how logically we can be assured of our faith.

                Alex McFarland has written this book specifically to fight this statistic. Yes, one could take many scholarly university level courses on defending the faith, however, not many are geared or adapt at this level of education. What about the father, mother or grandparent who desires to help nurture their child in truth and prepare them for the attacks of the secular world? This work, I will call “21 Questions” for short, could be your greatest help.

                Mr. McFarland wrote “21 Questions” in a very easy to understand format target to parents as well as children themselves. It is focused on children within upper grade school levels and as the title proposes it answers 21 questions. These questions that the book focuses on are common every day questions that young Christians face every day in the secular world. They are the very questions that Satan uses within non-believers to cast seeds of doubt into young believers minds.

                These questions include topics such as; God and Jesus, the validity of the Bible, Biblical contradictions, why is there evil in the world, why does God allow suffering and many more.

                Alex McFarland toned down what usually encompasses hours of seminary lectures into easy to understand answers for parents. With this work, “21 Questions” can help give you the encouragement, references, words and arguments to confidently answer those questions your children or young Christians may have.  This book may also spark the motivation in you to initiate these discussions with your children and loved ones as well even before those seeds of doubt are cast at them to help them prepare and build a defense and strengthen them in their own personal faith.

                Alex McFarland’s writing is out of his desire to help keep our Christian youth from simply becoming another statistic and to help promote a stronger more educated Christian faith within our youth. Not only will our youth grow stronger through his work, you just may as well find answers to questions you have had yourself. Why are these 21 questions so hard to answer? Many times its because we simply do not know the answers ourselves.

                “21 Questions” by Alex McFarland is among the top of the recommended books within my shelf. I recommend it for all parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, older siblings, mentors, youth directors and pastors alike. 

Thank you for reading.

C. Speakman

Free to sin or Free from sin?

The following is from our ministry web page's blog at http://www.sacredpearlministry.com/

The following is an essay on what important truths for a believer can be pulled from Romans chapter 6. This chapter is an amazing chapter that touches on the topics of why we should not continue knowingly in sin after salvation as well as the symbolic importance of baptism.

                Romans Chapter 6 reads:

Romans 6:1-23  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  (2)  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  (3)  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  (4)  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  (5)  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:  (6)  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  (7)  For he that is dead is freed from sin.  (8)  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:  (9)  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.  (10)  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.  (11)  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (12)  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.  (13)  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.  (14)  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  (15)  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.  (16)  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?  (17)  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.  (18)  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.  (19)  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.  (20)  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.  (21)  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.  (22)  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.  (23)  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

                In verses 1 and 2 Paul starts off asking “shall we continue in sin?” after our salvation through Christ. We find the best answer in verses 8 through 14. In these verses Paul explains that even though our sin was paid for by Christ’s death and sin no longer has dominion over us, we are still to “Live with Him [Christ]” as stated in verse 8. We have a debt to Christ since He covered our sins. We as believers are to present ourselves as alive to God and we do this by being obedient to Christ.

                Verse 16 through 23 of Romans describes this obedience to Christ and aligns it with a slave/master concept. Before our death to sin and salvation we where slaves to sin, as saved Christians paid for by Christ we are to be obedient to Him like a repayment of our gift thus becoming slaves, or servants to righteousness and God’s word and Christ’s teachings and commandments. Our obedience to God allows us to bear fruit, the product of the Holy Spirit within us, which we are unable to do if we are still slaves to sin and this fruit we will reap in our everlasting life with God. 

                Baptism is also explained in this chapter in verses 3 through 7. Christ died physically on the cross for our sins. Like Christ, we are able to die along with Him through baptism. The act of baptism’s full submersion in water is our uniting in a fleshly death and burial with Christ. The resurrection or the bringing forth from the baptism water is our resurrection from death and the grave and our rebirth as a child of God cleansed and resurrected in the liking to Christ rising from the grave.

                As Christ was killed bearing our sins, buried in the ground we are to take our fleshly body and old sinful man to Him and burry it, and as Christ rose from the grave we are to be resurrected from the water as a new born, a new man free from our sins. This baptism is not a requirement of salvation but should be an important second step after salvation for a believer. It is this baptism that acts as a testimony to others and a statement of our faith as well as an example of our obedience to God.

                In our new lives as members of Christ’s kingdom we are then to honor Christ as our Lord and be obedient to Him as this obedience allows us to bear fruit of righteousness for the honor and glory of that sacrifice made on our behalf granting us through grace our everlasting life free from our slavery to sin and death.