"Earth's Catastrophic Past: Volume 1" by Andrew Snelling

Special thanks to Bro. Paul Lowe for loaning me this book!

I have long had a keen interest in the realm of the Creation/evolution controversy. As far back as I can remember, my parents were watching videos and reading books with me about the dinosaurs, the flood, Creation, and evolution. We attended several presentations and debates on the subject in my younger years.
I'm not sure why this fascination is in me.... I have a whole shelf full of books on the subject, and dozens of videos.

Anyway, so I wasn't dreading the task of reading this book - even though I knew it would be highly technical in some parts. This first of two volumes written by Andrew Snelling is a very thorough introduction to the scientific feasibility studies of Noah's Flood (more appropriately, the Genesis Flood). The first 200 pages are not terribly technical, and I believe most Christians would be greatly blessed and have their faith strengthened by reading this book (and other good books on the subject - send me a message if you would like some recommendations).

While the book is too lengthy to provide a point-by-point review, I will say that the author answered some questions about the Flood that I had never even thought about. Numerous possible critiques that could be used by skeptics are thoroughly covered here.

Let's be honest... many times as Christians we are guilty of merely blindly accepting what the Bible says... While we SHOULD believe the Bible as legitimate, accurate, and trustworthy history (even if we don't completely understand it), nowhere does God ever tell us not to try to figure out how things possibly took place. This book makes a very bold attempt in that regard.

One of the best parts of the book was the walk-through of the first few chapters of Genesis. It was like a bit of a scientific Biblical commentary - very interesting. The last 150 pages or so, however, were so technical in the geologist's language that I had no choice but to "skim" those pages for nuggets of truth. There was just no way I could comprehend all of the terminology and calculations that are peculiar to the field of geology.

I've been told that volume 2 is even better... We shall see. But don't expect that review any time soon... It took me several months to finish THIS volume!

Please visit these excellent websites for more info on this subject:
http://www.icr.org/
http://www.answersingenesis.org/
http://www.equip.org/

"Firsthand" by Ryan and Josh Shook

Well, it has been quite a while since I reviewed any books! Since I've had such a long break, I'm not sure whether to write a whole bunch, or to cut to the chase....

This book is targeted to a very specific audience: the young people that evacuate the church sometime after their magic 18th birthday. (We've all heard the statistics...) The theory postulated by the authors (themselves young adults) is that the reason these young people are leaving the church is that they have only managed to procure an "inherited faith" from their parents, Sunday School teachers, etc. Therefore, they are starting on a shaky foundation. Christianity isn't real to them because it is just spoon-fed information that they assume to be true. The authors sort of diagnose this problem (using real life examples from a study survey they did... I was one of the people surveyed! Cool, huh?); then they set about to show young "disillusioned" Christians how to rectify it.

I applaud the authors for attempting to tackle an apparently large problem in the church. Their passion for seeing young people become dedicated Christ-followers is truly commendable. But to be honest, I struggled to read this book. It was downright boring and cliche. The writing style was pretty weak, but the content itself left a lot to be desired.

First and foremost, I felt that the authors failed to make the case that their theory was valid.  Sure, they had lots of testimonies from people about how they never had "their own" faith... But that doesn't prove anything. There was only a small amount of outside research referenced in the beginning of the book. This gave me the feeling that they were fabricating a PROBLEM to fit the SOLUTION they had already decided upon. (I'm not accusing them of dishonesty - I'm just saying that's the feeling I got from reading the book).

Secondly, their remedy for the problem is overly simplistic. Again, not a lot of outside sources referenced... Just a kind of made-up list of stuff from Ryan and Josh Shook that will supposedly help the disillusioned young adults.... I'm seriously not trying to mock them, but why should we take their word for it? They failed to give us any reason to trust them (other than their own experiences). Not only that, but they didn't use very many Scripture references (in my opinion). A book like this should be chock-full of Bible verses.

In spite of the fact that !!!!I myself am quoted in this book!!!! (seriously... at the end of the chapter called "Question Everything."  It says, "John from Spring Lake, North Carolina" - they used one of my survey answers!); the book didn't really speak to me at all.

I'm not trying to be a killjoy - I hope some young people read this book and it makes the difference in their lives between being a "former believer" and a committed Christian. That would be amazing. I'm just saying, the book was disappointing to me. So, I'd have to give it half a star (because they quoted me). :o)