{"id":6043,"date":"2011-01-05T17:12:26","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T23:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=6043"},"modified":"2011-01-05T17:12:26","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T23:12:26","slug":"book-review-radical-by-david-platt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2011\/20110105-6043.htm","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: \u201cRadical\u201d by David Platt"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the chapter titles of David Platt\u2019s Radical<\/i> were written to describe the contents of said chapters, they might read as follows:
\nChapter 1<\/strong>: A challenge to comfortable Christianity
\nChapter 2<\/strong>: A radical gospel which requires a radical response
\nChapter 3<\/strong>: The American way of self-reliance vs. God\u2019s way of Christ dependence
\nChapter 4<\/strong>: God\u2019s purposes in the world aren\u2019t just for YOU, they\u2019re for the WHOLE WORLD
\nChapter 5<\/strong>: God\u2019s goal is reproducing disciples, not isolating followers
\nChapter 6<\/strong>: Following Christ means selling all we have and giving to the poor
\nChapter 7<\/strong>: If we don\u2019t share the gospel with the world, the world is damned.
\nChapter 8<\/strong>: As radical followers of Christ, we have a guarantee of risk and a guarantee of reward
\nChapter 9<\/strong>: A challenge for believers to become radicals by 1) praying for the entire world, 2) reading through the entire Word, 3) sacrificing money for a specific purpose, 4) spending at least one week in another context, and 5) committing their lives to a multiplying community<\/p>\n

All in all, it\u2019s a decent book. It is effective at promoting its main point, that is, to issue a wake up call to comfortable American Christians. It\u2019s highly readable, with lots of stories to make the page-turning even easier.<\/p>\n

On the down side, Radical<\/i> has the potential of de-emphasizing the gospel of salvation by grace alone<\/i> through faith alone<\/i> in Christ alone<\/i>. Platt\u2019s emphasis on the radical response of a true believer through actions such as selling possessions and giving to the poor, taking the gospel to the whole world, and taking risks for the sake of Christ may cause some readers to miss that this is only the RESPONSE to the FREE gift of God in Christ Jesus. One is not saved BECAUSE one sells all of his possessions\u2014he sells all his possessions BECAUSE he has been saved freely. <\/p>\n

Furthermore, Platt\u2019s emphasis on \u201cexciting\u201d radicality through social justice activism may cause believers to undervalue and therefore ignore the less-exciting but no less radical actions that Christ calls His followers to. Christ has not only called his followers to give to the poor. He has also called them to live lives of radical forgiveness, of radical dependence, of radical trust. These things are just as radical as the showy actions of social justice\u2014perhaps even more radical because they\u2019re silent, they\u2019re unlikely to result in the world\u2019s (or the church\u2019s) acclaim. They\u2019re what Kevin DeYoung might call \u201cfaithful plodding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Platt\u2019s Radical<\/i> is a good book, but believers should be careful to not consider it the be-all, end-all of the radical Christian life. Read this book. Let it issue a challenge to your comfortable Christianity. But then turn your eyes towards the word of God and see what radical acts God might be calling you to through the pages of Scripture.<\/p>\n

\n

Rating:<\/b> 3 stars
\nCategory:<\/b>Christian Living
\nSynopsis:<\/b>Platt issues a challenge to comfortable Christianity–and the illusion that the Christian life equals the American dream.
\nRecommendation:<\/b> Worth reading, but ultimately, take your view of what “radical” Christianity looks like from the pages of Scripture rather than simply taking Platt’s angle on it.<\/p>\n

\n

Visit my books page<\/a> for more reviews and notes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the chapter titles of David Platt\u2019s Radical were written to describe the contents of said chapters, they might read as follows: Chapter 1: A challenge to comfortable Christianity Chapter 2: A radical gospel which requires a radical response Chapter 3: The American way of self-reliance vs. God\u2019s way of Christ dependence Chapter 4: God\u2019s … Read more Book Review: \u201cRadical\u201d by David Platt<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[36],"tags":[47,322,408,497,918,1017],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}