Defending The Gospel - A Book Review

Matthias Media are having a book sale during the month of June. The titles in their Guidebooks for Life series have all been discounted by 33%. Titles include: A Sinner’s Guide to Holiness; Prayer and the Voice of God Normally; Guidance and the Voice of God; Faith; Encouragement; A Foot in Two Worlds; and Defending the Gospel. None cost more than $10.

Late last year mgpc participated in a survey of our church life. Training in gospel outreach and evangelism were noted as weaknesses in our overall ministry. Defending the Gospel speaks to this need.

Defending the Gospel is subtitled: ‘What to say when people challenge your faith’. The author is Kel Richards, known to many from his longstanding career as a journalist and broadcaster, predominantly with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Richards recounts his first response when his faith was challenged. Beginning his working life an equally young colleague mentioned that ‘Religion is a crutch’, to which Richards responded ‘No, it’s not.’ Needless to say his presentation and defense of the Gospel has come a long way.

The book uses the well known Gospel presentation ‘Two Ways To Live‘ as its model. It is helpful to have some familiarity with this outreach tool. The six propositions put forward in Two Ways To Live are explained in six chapters. Part of that explanation seeks to defend the propositions against typical questions and objections.

Much of this material is helpful and straight forward. As a model for evangelism Richards does not spend extensive time dwelling on these issues. He contends the Gospel is the central thing, so the contentions of the Gospel must be returned to and side-tracks avoided. Richards interacts well with the thoughts of other apologists.

I was bemused by his contention that the Bible (and particularly Genesis) tells us that God made all things but provides no details of how He made them, emphasising instead why God made all things. The basic line is one prevalent in much of Sydney evangelicalism. His position does not negate the usefulness of the book for those who would disagree with this evaluation of Creation.

All his other material is well thought out and expressed and could lead to much more detailed reading and study.

Someone having reading and thought through the material in Defending the Gospel will be in a position to deal constructively with a lot of basic objections to Christianity. Positively they will also be able to present a cogent account of the Gospel.

A quote:

‘Of course, there are plenty of unbelievers who will remain unbelievers even after the gospel has been explained and defended. But those people God changes, he changes using the gospel: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16) It is the gospel itself that is the “power of God”, not the cleverness of our answers or reasons.’

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