Book Review – Love, Prayer, and Forgiveness: When Basics Become Heresies

All thanks to be the Lord God for blessing this world with people who stand up for the truth of God’s Holy Word even in the midst of universal deceit. Amen.

One such person who stands for the sanctity of the Holy Scriptures is the Christian author Michael C. Snow. I can say this because he has defended the authority of the entire Bible against those who misinterpret it by taking it out of context by favouring only certain scriptures while ignoring the rest.  And this shows all throughout his simple to grasp and simple to understand book called ‘Love, Prayer, and Forgiveness: When Basics Become Heresies‘.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

At times people incorrectly assume that they are going well in their walk with Christ so as long they put only a select scripture verses into practice. For example, a man might say he loves God so he is going to have a pleasant afterlife, while referring to verses about love. However, he is not willing to stop worshipping false idols and refuses to acknowledge verses warning about idolatry. Obviously, he is lost and not heaven bound. A simple lack of faith in certain commands of God is as good as complete disobedience to God. No wonder Mr. Michael has correctly stated in his above mentioned book that “God’s word holds these things dear and holds them closely together: love and obedience; prayer and exhortation; forgiveness and repentance.  Our failure to hold these essentials together is a failure to hold to God’s word and to honor it by our diligent study and attention.”

Love, Prayer and Forgiveness: When Basics Become Heresies is an apt reminder to Christians no matter where they are and no matter how basic or advanced their comprehension of the Word of God, that adding worldly wisdom to the Holy Scriptures is as great a sin as removing the connection between the verses of the Bible. Michael has specifically stated this connection between the verses of the Bible as ‘the holy conjunction’ which is the word ‘and’ in the Scriptures. There are many verses that have the word ‘and’ which completes the meaning of the verses.

Yet, some people only consider the words before or after the holy conjunction. Micheal also states there are others make an unholy conjunction for themselves which basically means they add bible verses to things unbiblical and end up creating heresies. Many examples are in his book explain these concepts with the utmost clearness and simplicity.  In just about 140 pages spanning just five chapters namely; Love and Obedience, Prayer and Exhortation, Forgiveness and Repentance, Sin and Silence, & Revival and Holiness he’s shown the connection among them and also how things should actually work out so that the people of God truly walk giving glory to Christ in the fullness of truth. Here are few things from his book which stood out and got me thinking:

• In the Rabbinic writings, reference is made to an interloper, “evil desire,” which stands between men and their study of the Scriptures. We need to ask what interloper keeps us from a true study of God’s word. And even more, we need to ask, “What desires keep us from obeying God’s word?”

• We must not allow prayer to become our only response to anything and everything, whether that be the sin in the church or the Mormon missionaries.

• God’s word encompasses both positive and negative commands. And in love, we obey our Father’s word. As Augustine prayed, “For what am I to myself without Thee, but a guide to mine own downfall?” Seducing spirits will drive false notions into our minds if (through excuses like, “that’s so negative”) we leave a void for them. As Pascal observed, “It is natural for the mind to believe, and for the will to love, so that, for want [lack] of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.”

Going over such words of his book with great relish, I’ve concluded that this one’s definitely an excellently good one. In a time of the spirit of apostasy and widespread sin which tries to trap those who follow Christ, such a book is essential to gain a better and clear understanding of the Word of God. This book has been a blessing to me and I’m sure it’ll be a blessing to you.

One’s thing certain, this book will challenge you to get to consider the whole counsel of God manifest in the Holy Scriptures and most importantly follow God’s will in the right context!

(End of review)

Front cover – print version

 

e-book version front cover

Note: If you want to visit Michael’s blog just click here.  The electronic or PC version of the book comes for about $3. Now if you want to buy the e-book version of the book Love, Prayer, and Forgiveness: When Basics Become Heresies you can visit any of links below as per your needs.

• Barnes & Noble (format : Nook Book)
• Smashwords (formats: epub, mobi, pdf, rtf, lrf, pdb, txt, html)
• Amazon ( format: Kindle Edition)

For those who prefer a print version of this book, one can visit their local Christian bookstore or simply buy this via any of the below links, depending on their location:

• Amazon (Worldwide)
• Barnes & Noble (UK)

P.S : I personally thank Mr Michael C. Snow for giving me a great opportunity to do this review. And by the way dear readers, thanks for taking the time out to read my first ever official review. Christ be with you!