Top Five Books of 2008; #3 "The Reason for God"

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I hope as many people as possible will read this book. I have bought several to give out to peeps, both Christians and non-Christians alike in hopes of just having additional conversation with both groups.

Tim Keller is an amazing pastor in NYC. I can't give this five stars b/c I'm not 100% on board with all his theology (His section on evolution for example). That said, his thoughts are very well laid out in a format of 2 sections:



Section 1 - The Leap of Doubt (doubts raised)

1. There can't be just ONE true religion

2. How could a good god allow suffering?

3. Chrisitanity is a straitjacket

4. The church is responsible for so much in justice

5. How can a loving God send people to hell?

6. Science has disproved Christianity

You can't take the Bible literally



Section 2 - The Reasons for Faith

8. The clues of God

9. The knowledge of God

10. The problem of sin

11. Religion and the Gospel

12. The (true) story of the cross

13. The reality of the resurrection

14. The dance of God



GOOD QUOTES FROM THE BOOK

Evil and Suffering Isn't Evidence Against God

It is a mistake, though an understandable one, to think that if you abandon belief in God it somehow makes the problem of evil easier to handle. God takes our misery and suffering SO seriously that He was willing to take it on Himself.

If you say all truth-claims are power plays, then so is your statement.

Freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions.

A central message of the Bible is that we can only have a relationship with God by sheer grace.

The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.

What strikes us as overly fanatical is actually a failure to be fully committed to Christ and His Gospel.

Those who believe goodness naturally feel that they and their devotion and moral goodness naturally feel that they and their group deserve deference and power over others. The God of Jesus and the prophets, however, SAVES COMPLETELY BY GRACE. He cannot be manipulated by religious and moral performance - He can only be reached through repentance, through the giving up of power.

We believe so deeply in our personal rights in this realm that the very idea of divine Judgement Day seems impossible. ...this belief is tied to a quest for control and power that has had terrible consequences in recent world history.

Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference... God's wrath is not a cranky explosion, but His settled opposition to the cancer... which is eating out the insides of the human race He loves with His whole being. -Beck Pippert, from the book "Hope Has It's Reasons"

I urge people to consider that their problem with some texts might be based on an unexamined belief in the superiority of their own historical moment over all others.

If you don't trust the Bible enough to let it challenge and correct your thinking, how could you ever have a personal relationship with God?

Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination. So an authoritative Bible is not the enemy of a personal relationship with God. It is the precondition for it.

Jesus was the most moraly upright person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.

If I was saved by my good works then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with "rights" - I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if I am a sinner saved by sheer grace - then there's nothing He cannot ask of me.

Repentance - Confessing the things besides God Himself that you have been relying on for your hop, significance, and security. That means we should repent not only for things we have done wrong but also for the motivations beneath our good works.

Christians are people who let the reality of Jesus change everything about who they are, how they see, and how they live.


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