Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free by Tullian Tchividjian - 208 Pages

I read Glorious Ruin on a trip we took as a family to grieve and process a loss we suffered this year.

In many ways I found this book similar to C.S. Lewis'  A Grief Observed in the sense that it identifies well the feelings and confusion of experiences of grief, while being slow to offer any explanation or purpose for the suffering.

This was perhaps what I found to be the most helpful aspect of this book - the realization that for God to be good and trustworthy He is not required to give me a detailed explanation of why exactly everything has happened as it did.  The urge to - either from a sanitized "Oprahfied" church culture or an understandable personal desire to suffer as little as possible - to see a silver lining in every cloud is to minimize the depth of real pain that suffering brings.  And to minimize suffering is to minimize the power of the Gospel - a Gospel that is present in suffering and gives us hope in the future sinless, painless eternity with Christ.

Another Gospel-denying response to suffering that Tchividjian points out is the practice of moralizing.  He defines moralizing as interpreting "misfortune as the karmic result of misbehavior. This for that."  In other words believing that all of your suffering is a direct punishment from God for something bad that you did.  This errant view of suffering puts the solution and hope of the sufferer back on their shoulders, making them think that since their suffering was caused by their bad deeds, their good deeds will be what will turn their luck around.  As he states, "Karma puts us in control."  This is a false hope.

Contrasting a "theology of glory" (which sees God only present in situations of victory) with Luther's "theology of the cross" Tchividjian calls the reader to see how suffering unites us to the suffering of Christ, the God Man who suffered on our behalf.  It is by hoping in the power of his suffering, death, and resurrection that we can be assured God is present in our season of suffering and that He will preserve us until the day that He finally wipes away every tear, sickness, and sorrow.


A few quotes:

"The required cheerfulness that characterizes many of our churches produces a suffocating environment of pat, religious answers to the painful, complex questions that riddle the lives of hurting people."

"Thankfully, the good news of the gospel is not an exhortation from above to “hang on at all costs,” or “grin and bear it” in the midst of hardship. No, the good news is that God is hanging on to you, and in the end , when all is said and done, the power of God will triumph over every pain and loss. William James once wrote, “Where [God] is, tragedy is only provisional and partial, and shipwreck and dissolution are not the absolutely final things.”"

"Our point of pain reveals to us our greatest need— our need to be set free from false hopes and to cling to the only hope of the gospel."

"Suffering has a way of stripping all resources away from us so that in the end, all that we have is the only thing that matters: the approval of God based on the accomplished work of Jesus."

What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Qur'an by James White - 311 Pages

This is a great book for interacting with orthodox Muslims.  However it may not be the most effective approach in evangelizing nominal or folk muslims as they may not have the necessary knowledge about their own faith to even interact on a critical level.

James White does here what he does best, and applies his wealth of scholarly expertise in exegesis and ancient manuscript transmission to the text of the Qur'an.  After doing his best to fairly represent the basic tenets of orthodox Islam and history he lays out his arguments.  His basic arguments are:

• The author of the Qur'an did not have accurate understanding of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity:  "The Qur'an's representation of the the Trinity as "three gods" comprised of Allah, Marry, and Jesus is a complete canard..."
• In light of this gross misrepresentation and therefore unnecessary refutation on behalf of the Qur'an, the divine authorship of the Qur'an must be questioned.  This fact "...raises serious questions for the honest Muslim who wishes to believe the Qur'an truthful in all things because its author is Allah.  How could Allah misrepresent beliefs as the Qur'an so clearly does?"
• The claim of the Surah 4:157 that Jesus was not put to death on a cross puts it in clear contradiction with the preceding Scriptures (which the Qur'an claims to be in agreement with) and history itself.
• The Islamic view of Divine judgement, justice, and forgiveness is arbitrary and is in complete disharmony with the Old and New Testament view of sin and grace.
• The claim of many modern Muslims that the New Testament has been corrupted is in direct conflict with the teaching in Surah 5:47 that the New Testament (Injil) was intact in the days of Muhammad and should therefore be obeyed.  We know that the modern New Testament is in line with copies and of the New Testament dating hundreds of years prior to the time of Muhammad.  
• Contrary to Surah 10:94 there is no recognizable prophecy in the Old or New Testaments about the coming of Muhammad.  
• "Finally, the Muslim needs to recognize that the Qur'an has a history, in terms of its utilization of previous sources, which Islam seems intent upon denying, as well as a history of textual transmission" - in contrast to the Islamic claim that the Qur'an has been preserved in the exact form in which it was delivered to Muhammed.

Each of these claims is thoroughly explored and defended, with many (many) references and recitations of the originals sources.  

While I found Dr. White's arguments sound and helpful, perhaps the aspect of this book that most impressed me was the firm but respectful tone in which it was written.  It was clear that the author's intention was not to merely win and argument and shame opponents of Christianity but to seek the truth in the hopes that people will genuinely be set free from deception.  I hope to carry that attitude into conversations I have with Muslims in the future.  

For more good stuff from Dr. White check out his ministry's website:  Alpha and Omega Ministries

The Synthetic Men of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs - 160 Pages

Another solid pulp fiction entry in the John Carter series. Damsels in distress, chivalry, gelatinous mutant flesh blobs, sword play, and space ships - Yes please! I'll be sad to say goodbye to this series in a few more books.