It was a delight for me to receive a professional and insightful book review from BookLife, a part of the Publishing Weekly magazine group. It really excites me to share this awesome book review with everyone. I found it interesting that the reviewer was cognizant enough to tie the review of my latest book, God’s Existence: Deeper Thoughts for Greater Insights, to my first book, God’s Existence: Truth or Fiction? The Answer Revealed. Of course, there is a relationship between the two. Since BookLife also reviewed my first book, they took the initiative to look at the first book in the process of writing the review for the latest book.
My latest book started with a summary of my first book and expanded on my Direct Life hypothesis in which I suggested all life–human, animal, and plant–is directed instead of being non-directed and subject to accidental growth or growth at random. My latest book expounded on the issue of evolution and then delved into some of the most significant issues of Genesis and Exodus as well as seek the answer why the writers wrote the Old Testament. That is a significant point, I believe, in understanding the Old Testament. When we look at that issue, we better understand the significance of the Old Testament. In other words, we put everything–all the Old Testament books–into a clearer picture or context of what it is all about. As a result, we can evaluate better what we are reading in the Old Testament books, certainly in Genesis and Exodus, in particular, and why the writers wrote what they wrote.
As I learned about the fragmented groups of Israelites and their efforts to unify all the various groups into one unified people, I also realized that the Christians went through a similar experience of trying to establish their identity, unity, and validity as they started to grow as an organized religion. Christians competed with numerous sects that claimed legitimacy over Christians. We know some of these sects, including the Pharisees, Sadducee, Essene’s, and others.
Consequently, I want to make the BookLife book review available to everyone. Here is the book review:
Both open-minded and rooted in faith, Lindberg’s thoughtful follow-up to God’s Existence: Truth or Fiction? The Answer Revealed finds the author continuing to explore fresh intersections of science and scripture. Lindberg digs deeper into his conviction that God’s existence is clearly affirmable, arriving at points of reconciliation between evolution and the creation of Genesis, and examining the first two books of the Old Testament with an eye toward the kinds of questions the biggest—but often most overlooked—questions: who actually wrote them, when, and why? And why, despite occasional sensational headlines, has archaeology failed to dig up definitive proof of the existence of, say, Moses?
“I don’t know if we will ever find archaeological evidence” of Moses, Lindberg notes, “but that does not mean he did not exist.” Driven by a passion for the historical and scientific methods, plus classical reasoning, Lindberg’s approach to Genesis and Exodus is an informed and awed acceptance of their errancies—they were written, he argues, by humans inspired by God, but only one human, in his reckoning, has ever been perfect, so there’s no reason to get hung up on points of confusion like whether Moses parted the Red or the Reed Sea. Rather than reject complexities or confusions in the Bible’s accounts of history, Lindberg brings logic to their mystery. His passages concerning the possibility that a “day” of God (as in the six days of creation) could in fact span millennia is impassioned apologia, a demonstration of faith stoked hotter through the challenge.
This title expands on arguments from Lindberg’s first, especially his “Directed Life Hypothesis,” which in its contention that life’s complexity and diversity demands a conscious creator echoes Intelligent Design. Lindberg, though, challenges ID proponents as much as he does “modern scientific people” by not disavowing evolution entirely. In fact, he argues “that evolution was a principal way God conducted the entire creation.” This is encouraging middle ground.
Takeaway: Thoughtful reconciliation of the creation in Genesis and evolution.
Comparable Titles: Bruce Glass’s Exploring Faith and Reason, Peter Enns’s Evolution of Adam.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+
I hope you enjoy reading this book review, and are interested enough to pick up a copy today at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BookBaby.com, or your favorite online bookstore. Enjoy!