Evangelical Truth (english)

Heey! I am now finished with book number 2 on my curriculum (thank you, thanks), and I was so satisfied with this book that I actually decided to write a blog post about it. I like having a blog, cause it means that I don't have to actually talk to other people in order to spread Christian propaganda. I can just write a blog post!

The book, Evangelical Truth, is written by a guy named John Stott. This guy really knows what he is talking about! He was a very important Christian leader in England, and he also been an important leader for the evangelical movement (I don't want to spend too much time writing about this, but the specially interested can always read about John Stott and The Lausanne Covenant on Wikipedia or something). He has written more than 50 books, and he was, pretty much, just awesome...


This book is, as the subheading indicates, a personal plea for unity, integrity and faithfulness. In today's Christian society, there are plenty of topics of disagreement. Most Christians have their own view on issues such as baptism, spiritual gifts, the woman's position in the church, evolution/creation etc, and we are incredibly good at discussing these things forever, and in this way create separations between us. John Stott's purpose in writing this book is to present the essential truths in the evangelical Christian faith. We can disagree on a lot of things, but there a few things that you really have to confess as truths in your life, if you want to call yourself an evangelical Christian. The three things (or the three R's) are the Revelation of God (mainly through the Bible), the cross of Jesus (Redemption) and the community of the Holy Spirit (Regeneration). These are essential for the evangelical faith and are, quoting John Stott, "of first importance".

These other things come second in line, and there can actually be space for disagreement regarding these things. I can quote John Stott's very complicated English (I hope you are able to understand the main point of this): "Whenever equally biblical Christians, who are equally anxious to understand the teaching of Scripture and to submit to its authority, reach different conclusions, we should deduce that evidently Scripture is not crystal clear in this matter, and therefore we can afford to give one another lliberty." Pretty logical, don't you think? In Paul's letter to the Philippians, he asks them to "stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel" (Phil. 1:27), and this is what drove John Stott to write this book. The message is: unity in the truth, liberty in the non-essentials, charity in all things.


All in all, a very good book, written by a man with a lot of knowledge, which I would recommend to all Christians who long for a stronger unity in today's Christian society.