Title: The Deadliest Monster
Author: J. F. Baldwin
Publisher: Fisherman Press/Worldview Academy
Date: 2011
Pages: 271
The Deadliest Monster (book review)
The author, J. F. Balwin, is the co-founder of Worldview Academy located in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. It is an organization that works in training students in having a proper biblical worldview.
He begins this book with looking at two very famous stories about human character and monsters. Those stories are: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Frankenstein. In these stories one can easily see the two main worldviews of every person in the world. One is that man is does good but is really bad and with enough work can make himself better. The other is that man tries to be good, but evil overcomes and all mankind is bad in the end.
Following up with this, Mr. Baldwin looks at ten of the rival worldviews found throughout the world. Some of these are: Islam, Buddhism, Atheism, Hinduism, Jehovah’s Witness, New Age, Marxism and more. He points out clearly how each one is all about building up self and self being in complete control. As he does this, he points back to the stories of the two monsters.
In one of the chapters, he talks about how the worldviews are focused on man being good and striving to make oneself better. Each of the views on making self better is shown to fall flat and fail. All of them are focused on self and are selfish motives.
Bringing it around to the bible, Mr. Baldwin shows how Christians view themselves as bad and evil but can be changed by the power of God. Mankind is a monster that cannot help self and is evil. Those who choose to believe in Jesus are made into a new creation, a new person with a new character. Outside of God’s help, one cannot be good and will always fail and fall short.
This book will open your eyes to seeing many of the worldviews that are commonly held by people and see how they fail to accomplish what they claim to try to do. It will also help you see how the Bible shows what mankind is really like and how mankind can be redeemed or changed when selfish motives are removed, and God is placed upon the throne.
I highly recommend reading this book. It is an easy read, not too long and does not require a college education to understand what he is saying. It will also challenge to really look at what your worldview looks like and how it matches up the biblical worldview, one with God’s set of rules in sight.
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