Shepherd the Flock

[This is not intended to be a full, in-depth review of the book; this is simply meant to introduce you to the subject at hand and allow you to ask questions regarding the author’s argument and presentation.]

From beginning to end, this book is John MacArthur (and Phil Johnson) at his best. The Truth War, Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception, was exactly what I expected it to be.

If you’ve ever read a book by John MacArthur, you’ll understand when I say that this book is ‘classic MacArthur’. Dr. MacArthur, in doing what he always does, defends the truth of the gospel against postmodern relativism, and issues a call to arms for Christians to stand up for the objective truth of the gospel. Fittingly, my live-blog of Phil Johnson’s sermon last week covered the thesis of this book to a ‘T’.

The essence of the message is rightly captured in the introduction: Why Truth is Worth Fighting For. From here MacArthur takes us through the short epistle of Jude; he examines Jude’s command to ‘contend earnestly’; he demonstrates how false teaches sneak into the church under the guise of orthodoxy just as in Jude’s day; and he aptly applies these exhortations to today’s culture.

The Emergent Church plays a smaller role in the book than I was led to believe from the publicity, but it is still there. Brian McLaren garners a good bit of attention as well. Overall, however, MacArthur does an excellent job summing up some of the main errors of these movements, errors that many on the orthodox side fall into as well. Consider this quote when discussing how many today are so allergic to standing up for the unpopular truths of the faith:

“Contemporary Christians are determined to get the world to like them –and of course in the process they also want to have as much fun as possible. They are so obsessed with making church seem ‘cool’ to unbelievers that they can’t be bothered with questions about whether another person’s doctrine is sound or not.”

But the book can be essentially divided up in this way: absolute truth is found only in the God of scripture; why we must contend for the faith; how false teachers sneak into the church; how absolute truth in the Christ’s authority is subtly challenged; how other believers have survived similar errors down through church history.

As much as I enjoyed the topic at hand, there are clearly some shortcomings in his presentation, but a thoughtful reader will catch onto this as well. For example, MacArthur is often overtly assertive in his argumentation. That is, he sometimes firmly asserts his argument before actually proving the argument. This leads to another shortcoming: his proof-texting. At least a dozen times throughout the book, MacArthur would make a statement, attach a verse at the end of the sentence, and upon examining that verse I would be at a loss as to how he got his argument from that one verse. For a man who is so thorough in his preaching with not taking things out of context, I certainly observed many statements where the verse tacked on at the end had nothing to do with the point he was trying to make.

Doctrinally, however, MacArthur is right on, and I couldn’t agree with him more. We must fight for the truth, and since there is so little being written on this subject today, I heartily commend this book to you.

Overall, I give this book a good 8 out of 10 stars. It’s definitely a book you’ll want to give to a friend who might be caught up in the popular mindset that everybody’s opinion has at least some weight to it –no matter how radical or heretical it may be. It’s simply a good overall introduction to subject of the exclusivity of the gospel.