A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
Table of Contents
1 The Christian’s Duty in a Hostile World
2 Our Testimony as Salt and Light
3 Praying for the Lost
4 Who is God?
5 The Reliability of Scripture
6 Amazing Prophecies
7 The Reality of Sin
8 The Virgin Birth and Deity of Jesus Christ
9 The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
10 The Great Commission
11 How to Witness
Summary
Introduction
Throughout most of her history, America has been blessed to receive the influence of a strong Christian witness and the teaching of God’s truth. Today, however, the church’s witness is weak and society is drifting into moral relativism, atheism, and other anti-Christian worldviews. As celebrities, political leaders, and other people with influence openly blasphemed God and denigrated Scriptural teachings, many Christians responded with anger. The culture war was fought to try to moralize non-Christians without seeking their conversion to Christ. As such, it was doomed to failure. It is the mission of the church to proclaim the good news of salvation to the lost: nothing else can matter for eternity. Temporal, superficial societal reforms will never last without hearts being turned to Jesus. Peter’s words in 1 Peter 3:15 are highly relevant today, since we live in an anti-Christian society and we must stand firm on the truth that Jesus is Lord. This must be done, as Peter says, with gentleness and reverence. At this time in history it is imperative that we stand on nothing but the whole truth of God.
Chapter 1: The Christian’s Duty in a Hostile World
Our contemporary society has descended to the level of the reprobate mind, and every manner of depravity is openly manifested without shame. We live in an era of fast-paced change, and so it is more important now than ever to resolve to stand on God’s unchanging truth and the unchanging message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church needs to consciously follow Scripture and repudiate all the worldly strategies that have infected our philosophies of ministry and church practice. We need to eschew pragmatism, seeker-sensitive approaches that simply affirm worldly desires, and the false gospel of easy-believism.
One great motivation to do our duty before God is to remember the return of Jesus Christ. Scripture teaches that we are already in the last days, and the return of Christ is sooner than ever before. Since Christ’s return is imminent, we must live holy lives, honor the Lord in all that we do, and share the message of salvation with the lost. Knowing that Christ is returning and we will meet him in the air, we are exhorted to pursue righteousness. We do not want to meet him unprepared or be ashamed of how we have been living our lives. Peter instructed the church to be of sober mind and sound judgment; godly thinking and spiritual alertness are essential. As the recipients of God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are to love one another, caring for one another deeply in the church. This love is to be extended to non-believers, as we genuinely love them and long for them to repent of their sin and become disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. . . .
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