"This books begins in a surprising place: with a love poem."
So opens Kevin DeYoung's new book, Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me. At first, it does seem like a surprising place to start the book. A love poem? But once you read even a little bit further, you'll see that it is certainly strategically intentional. This love poem comes in the Bible. In fact it's the longest chapter of the Bible (if you count verses) - Psalm 119. This is a poem of ardent love of God's Word.
Says DeYoung in "Chapter 1: Seeing, Believing, Feeling:"
"I want to convince you (and make sure I'm convinced myself) that the Bible makes no mistakes, can be understood, cannot be overturned, and is the most important word in your life, the most relevant thing you can read each day."
This is why Kevin DeYoung wrote Taking God at His Word. And that's why you should read it.
Taking God at His Word is short. It's readable. It's accessible. It's broken down into eight chapters on things like the sufficiency of Scripture, its surety, its clarity, its authority, its necessity, and its unbreakableness. DeYoung want us to trust the Bible and see its importance in the practical grind of our daily lives. But he also wants us to love the Bible, just like the psalmist in Psalm 119. And I came away from this book feeling just like DeYoung had hoped, and just like another pastor named David Platt. In his endorsement of this book, Platt wrote,
"My trust in God's Word is greater, my submission to God's Word is deeper, and my love for God's Word is sweeter as a result of reading this book."
The Bible is the best-selling book on the planet. It's also the most controversial. And for the Christian, it should be the most precious. DeYoung's new book is a powerful and excellent resource on it.
In the final chapter, "Chapter 8: Sticking with Scripture," DeYoung writes:
"They [the Bible] are the words of truth, the words of life, the never-failing, never-falling, Christ-exalting, Spirit-inspired, God-breathed words of Holy Scripture ... We trust the Bible because it is God's Bible. And God being God, we have every reason to take him at his word."
Buy Taking God at His Word here.
*I received a copy of this book from Crossway through their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review.