The Chasm - A Book Review

I found The Chasm by Randy Alcorn sitting on my kitchen table in the Multnomah packaging at about 12:30pm MST today. At about 1:15pm I set the book on the coffee table and had read the entire book in one sitting. The last time I did that was with John Piper's The Supremacy of God in Preaching and that was because I love non-fiction. I rarely finish fiction that I start so for me to read this book in roughly an hour is an amazing thing. This is not a boast in my reading ability however, but rather a tribute to how well this book draws the reader in to what is a very familiar story.

Initially, the book didn't grab me. Chapter 1 was slightly confusing and I started to think that this book would be added to the "unfinished fiction pile" that sits in my office. However, I just kept reading hoping it would all become clear. The somewhat confusing beginning almost makes sense in light of what Randy Alcorn is trying to do. He is telling a story of a man who is both sure of himself and unsure of his path at the same time.

Without giving away too much of the story the main character, Nick Seagrave, is on a journey to find the city of Charis, although throughout the book he questions whether he actually wants to go there or not. He finds himself having to choose between multiple paths before him and has several guides along the way. These guides however are either at work to help him or hurt him and their motives are not entirely clear to Nick until about halfway through the story. All the while Nick is realizing more and more with every step he takes, and finally reaches a full understanding of his journey when the story comes to its weighty climax.

In a nutshell, Randy Alcorn is walking in the footsteps of C.S. Lewis in the Narnia series and The Great Divorce as well as John Bunyan and his Pilgrim's Progress. This story is a very well done allegory of a person's path either to eternal death or eternal life. While it is shorter than the books I just mentioned it gets the point across quite well, and as I read it I saw myself in the main character. For a reader to feel that type of pull while reading is quite the feat and Randy Alcorn should be commended for this little book.

Another inclusion in this book is a handful of illustrations that match up with the text on the page. In all honesty I found these both helpful and somewhat irritating. While they are well done for the most part some of the expressions on people's faces as they plummet into the chasm are almost comical. I hate saying that because most of them are quite good, but there is something about them that didn't quite match up with the picture I had in my mind. Truly the book is so well written that there is really no need of illustrations. Here is a passage that I thought was particularly vivid:

Later, alone, I climbed a hill. Glancing down, I was surprised to see a huge figure, a giant in a flowing black robe, standing on the hillside, looking down over the roads...The ominous black-robed being cast a long shadow across the hillside, and when he moved and the shadow fell over others of the little people, I heard howls and whimpers. The man - or was he a great beast - stood smiling, gloating, taking pleasure in the pain he saw on the roads below him. He took out a lyre and played music and sang an otherworldly song. It sounded compelling, yet at moments seemed like a fraud, a counterfeit of some truer and deeper song. He laughed and pointed his finger at the sprawling misery and played his music like a cosmic Nero, fiddling while a world burned. He blew smoke out his nose. Then, to my horror, I saw him putting little people into his mouth. He smoked men as if they were cigarettes. Soon he had a half dozen in at once, a macabre sight that turned my stomach and made my knees tremble.

The book is full of imagery like this and it really made me feel as if I were there.

If you are the type of person that enjoys fiction, and better yet allegorical fiction, you should pick up this book. It will remind of you of Lewis and Bunyan and even more importantly it will remind you of how desperately we need a Savior. I'm glad I read this book and hope others find it as enjoyable and helpful as I did.

(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. Thanks WaterBrook!)

If God Is Good Review

Let me start off by saying this. The first time I ever heard of Randy Alcorn was at a Desiring God conference a few years ago on the perseverance of the saints. My initial impression was not entirely positive (probably due to my immaturity in a lot of areas at the time), but since then both myself and my wife have read a fair amount of his books and really enjoyed them. His fiction is well written and in some cases, very inspiring and helpful. Safely Home was one of the better books I read two years ago and while I haven't read Heaven (eventhough I own a copy), I am sure I will be greatly helped by it.

Since the years since the Desiring God conference I have experienced pronounced suffering in various forms. It seemed that if it wasn't physical it was mental. If it wasn't mental it was emotional. If it wasn't emotional it was something else. The valley that God had me in (and still does to some extent) was very painful and many questions arose in my mind that if not for the grace of God, may have shipwrecked what little faith I had left. This last December I was sent a copy of If God Is Good and slowly made my way through it. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this book is a blessing to the church.

One thing I noticed instantly when receiving the book was its size. This book is large. However, the chapters are really very short and easily read in under 15-20 minutes. This makes reading a book of this size a real pleasure. While the content is heavy and thought provoking, it is given in small doses which is really quite brilliant. It gives you time to meditate on the stories shared and the arguments made.

The subject matter ranges from refuting atheist ideas to personal stories that have helped the author over the years. All in all I was very impressed with the research that went into writing this book and, even more so, the care that was taken in delivering it in a loving and sensitive way. I think that for anyone dealing with any sort of suffering (which is all of us) or the weight of evil in the world this is a great book to have in your collection.

I have heard people say recently that churches these days are not taught how to suffer well. I think reading this book is a great step towards alleviating that problem and moving us towards a more healthy view of both suffering and evil and the God who is Lord over all of it.

(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. Thanks WaterBrook!)

Meet the Puritans Review

When I attended the Desiring God conference last fall I could not believe the amount of books that were in the conference bookstore. Thankfully, we arrived early enough to see the bookstore completely stocked and so we were able to walk around and take our time deciding how we wanted to liquidate our bank accounts.

After picking up all of the books that I wanted to purchase (they really need shopping carts at these conferences), I checked out and carried the 200 lbs of books I purchased to each session and then back to our hotel. The next day I went back to the bookstore to see if I had missed anything worth reading. At the end of one of the tables was a pile of large blue books. For those of us who love reading, a large book is almost always appetizing! This large book was Meet the Puritans.

I must commend Joel R. Beeke and Randall J. Pederson for the amount of effort and care that they put into this book. What a tremendous undertaking this must have been! At a mere 839 pages (plus an extensive glossary) this is a comprehensive beginner's guide for anyone interested in the lives of the Puritans. This is not a general overview of Puritan theology, piety, etc., but it is rather the individual biographies of various Puritans throughout Europe and North America. Each biography is relatively short but incredibly informative. You will not walk away with the feeling that you haven't learned anything, that's for sure! The biographies are in alphabetical order and are seperated into three sections: English Puritanism, Scottish Divines, and Dutch Further-Reformation Divines. Each biography also contains a list of modern reprints of that particular Puritan's works. This is simply a great resource. The works of the Puritans range from the purely theological to the utterly practical. You want a guide to parenting? It's in this book.

The English Puritanism portion is the bulk of the reading, while the Scottish and Dutch sections are written in as appendixes. Why they are appendixes I do not know, because for me the book didn't end until I had read every single biography as well as the final appendix containing a concluding paragraph written by none other than J.I. Packer.

As I mentioned before, the book also contains a well written glossary that, for those of us who are unfamiliar with terms such as antinomianism, neonomianism, etc., was very helpful indeed. I even found myself reading the glossary for fun, which definitely says something!

Most would recommend that a book of this size should NOT be read from front to back. I would disagree. The format is such that you really can meet a few puritans everyday and not get burned out. I started reading this book in November and finished it in February. Piece of cake. I must admit that during the Dutch section I started to feel that my Puritan high was running low, but that is to be expected with any book that contains close to 1,000 pages.

In summary, I loved this book. It was money well spent, and I would probably buy it again if something happened to my current copy. If your only view of the Puritans is your high school history class, please buy this book. The Puritans are often treated as strict, careless, hard-hearted, and anti-sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. These men loved their flock, loved the gospel, and loved their wives. Most of these guys had 8 kids! They loved Christ, and spent their lives teaching and preaching the glory of salvation. Their ability to connect theology with practice was incomparable, and it is something that many of us can learn from. These men knew God, and I am so thankful that we can reap the fruit of their devotion in books like these.

Buy This Book

Review of Amazing Grace

First off, let me just state that I am NOT a professional movie critic, nor would I ever claim to be. However, after watching the movie 'Amazing Grace: The William Wiberforce Story' I felt a strange urge to review it. So without further ado, I present my review.

The movie begins with our protagonist, William Wilberforce, riding in a carriage during a rainstorm. As his carriage moves further down the road he witnesses two men whipping, and kicking their black horse that has collapsed on the side of the road. William stops his carriage, and goes to reap some moral justice on the men. He says one sentence and the men stop beating the horse and almost instantly the collapsed horse starts to move. Here we see the set up for the theme that runs through the entire movie. Through his wit and passion, Wilberforce goes through storm after storm to stop the brutality of the slave trade in England.

William is plagued by dreams and visions concerning slaves and the terrors of the slave trade. He is also ill with a disease that is referred to in the movie as colitis, which causes him to take opium to soothe the pains of the illness. His powerful voice is all but gone, and his passion has faded into a quiet frustration. In order to 'heal' William's pains, his friends introduce him to Barbara Spooner. In the movie, Barbara is shown to be a strong-willed, politically driven young woman. While we do not know much about the real Barbara Spooner, what we do know is that she was a strong Christian, and very devoted to faith in Jesus Christ. William Wilberforce was also a Christian at this point in the movie, yet the director chose to make politics the driving force that brings them together, rather than their common love for God. I cannot say that I am surprised by this, but to be fair, this movie was clearly made as a political victory story for England, rather than a story about the driving power of faith in Christ. It was set up as a politically minded story, and that is exactly what it is.

The movie makes frequent use of 'flashback' scenes where we see the young Wilberforce arguing in the House of Commons. He is shown to have the ability to quiet the loudest opposer, and he accomplishes this with one liners that are both witty and humorous. This, I am happy to say, is most likely a true representation of the real Wilberforce. He was known to be quite brilliant in his speech, as well as passionate. While the Wilberforce in the movie was tall, dark, and handsome, the real Wilberforce was no more than 5 feet tall! All criticisms aside, Ioan Grufford was a great Wilberforce by my estimation.

At this point William has not yet been introduced to the horrors of the slave trade, and is mainly arguing for the conclusion of the war in America. However, at a late night poker game between William and a merchant slave trader William is shown to already have a distaste for slavery. We see this more accurately when the merchant tries to gamble against Wilberforce with a slave that the merchant had purchased. William is disgusted and leaves the gentlemen's club, followed by his close friend and future prime minister, William Pitt. The Williams have a short conversation about slavery and a great quote is born from this discourse. Wilberforce refers to witnessing slavery in this way:

"For me it's like arsenic. Every dose doubles the effect."

Pitt is more concerned with becoming prime minister than anything else, but Wilberforce is determined to do something about the slave traders in the club, and we then witness either one of the most powerful scenes, or the most cheesy. Wilberforce walks into the club, stands on a table, and sings the song Amazing Grace. His voice, while a little shaky, quiets the roar of the merchants and some of them even appear moved by the display. I couldn't get past the cheese factor, but it was a meaningful scene. How true it is, I am not sure, but it was comforting to see Wilberforce stand up for his faith even among wolves.

We go back a little further to see Wilberforce lying in the grass speaking to God. One of William's servants sees him lying there, and William admits how strange he has been acting. His explanation is simply, "It's God". I was so glad to hear how Wilberforce talked about his salvation in this short conversation between himself and his butler.

Butler: "You found God sir?"
Wilberforce: "I think He found me."

While this is just a small moment in the film, it speaks loudly of Wilberforce's theology. He was known to be of the Calvinist bent, and was known to be in total awe of the design of God. Needless to say, this made me smile. To the film's credit, Wilberforce had a fair amount of 'defending my faith' scenes. For instance, William Pitt brings a group of political activists to Wilberforce's house to convince him to be the the point man for the abolition of the slave trade instead of being a full time minister of the gospel. Another great quote comes from this scene and it is this:

'We understand that you are having a difficult time deciding on whether to be a minister of the Lord or political activist. We humbly suggest that you can do both."

This quote actually struck me on a very deep level. As I've come to love God more and seek after Him more, it is natural that I would take the view that full time ministry is the end all be all. To be devoted to a secular interest would be more humanistic and man centered than God centered, so full-time ministry is the way to go! However, this quote stirred that thought in my mind and helped me to realize that God does make every man to do a specific work for Him. For some that may be eldership, and for others it may be caring for the poor, orphans, etc. Wilberforce most likely thought the same way I did, until he realized that God could possibly use him in an even greater way as an activist, than as a pastor. And did God ever use him! William Pitt even asks him in the film:

"Do you intend to use your beautiful voice to praise the Lord, or to change the world?"

Wilberforce truly did both. In real life WIlberforce was still driven by his faith and was very dedicated to study and theology. While this is harder to maintain in the public eye, he was able to persevere in his faith regardless. I would argue that Wilberforce's driving force behind abolishing slavery was his desire to do the will of God, and his convictions as a believer. This however, was only lightly touched on in the film.

John Newton was represented decently in the movie, but I must confess I was a little disappointed. Albert Finney was a terrific Newton, and to his credit he is a great actor. I really believed that he could be John Newton, but the delivery was a little disconnected from the actual personality of Newton. For instance, Finney played Newton as a somewhat sarcastic, somewhat hurt, and somewhat angry old man that could not let go of his past sins against slaves when he himself was a trader. While this helped the film, Newton was considered to be a joyful man that was very gentle and very loving. He most likely carried the burden of his past sins with him, but from what I've read of him it wasn't to the degree displayed in the film. Later in the movie, when Newton is blind, he is represented in a much more accurate light. In fact, one of his lines was very moving and I was actually suprised to see it in the film.

"I remember two things very clearly. I'm a sinner and Christ is a great savior."

Of all the things that they could have had Newton say, I am so pleased that this was in the film. This scene truly captured the heart of Newton's and Wilberforce's lives and mission, and I am so thankful that it was spoken so obviously. He also had a very humorous line that I can imagine the real Newton saying after he had gone blind.

"God decided I'd seen enough."

Pure gold.

As you have noticed, I have stopped reviewing in a timeline fashion, and have moved to a more character driven review. I want to touch on one more character in more detail and then I will conclude.

Barbara Spooner had the best lines in the entire movie. They were more powerful than William's and Newton's and to be honest they stuck with me more after the movie had ended. I also see great parallels to Christianity in her quotes, and they would be very useful if speaking about sin, trials, etc. Here are a few of the quotes:

"Seems to me that if there is a bad taste in your mouth, you spit it out. You don't keep swallowing it."

"I told my friends there was actual slave blood in every lump of sugar"

These are just a few, but honestly, Barbara had the best quotes in the entire film, and I was convicted by almost every one of them.

Finally, Wilberforce was driven by two goals. The abolition of the slave trade, and the reformation of society. While the film mainly touched on the slave trade, it is important to note that after the bill to abolish the trade was passed, Wilberforce continued for 18 more years attempting to abolish the use of current slaves throughout England. Three days before he died, this bill was passed as well. For the last quarter of his life he couldn't even stand under his own power and required some sort of hard under-suit that could keep him upright! It just goes to show that God brings you home when you are done, plain and simple. No matter how weak the flesh, God still brings change to the world and ultimately glory to Himself.

I really did enjoy this movie, even though it was different than I expected. The title makes it out to be a blatant Christian film, but as stated before, this isn't the case. The film itself was obviously about political victory, and this was done very well. While there were moments of cheese, there were also moments that were moving and convicting. If you haven't seen this film, I would highly suggest that you give it a chance. If you are a Christian, or you love history, this movie is for you, but I do believe that anyone can enjoy it.