Book Reviews

A short review of books I have read.

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90 Minutes In Heaven (book review)

Title: 90 Minutes In Heaven–A True Story Of Death And Life
Author: Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
Publisher: Revell Publishing
Date: 2004/2014
Pages: 241

90 Minutes In Heaven–A True Story of Death and Life (book review)

Don Piper, with the help of Cecil Murphey, tells this true story of death and life. Don was a minister at a minister’s conference in central Texas. He had left the conference and was driving home, when he was hit head on by a large truck. The emergency team that had arrived on the scene had found him dead in his vehicle, with various body parts shredded.

Another minister came along and felt God lead him to pray for the dead man in the vehicle and then to sing a song. As he was singing, Don began to sing along with him, having come back to life.

Don spent next eighteen months in the hospital recovering with no expectation to every walk again. In this story, Don talks about what he saw in heaven when he died and what it was like. Then he talks about the pain and suffering he went through during the time of recovery and all the questions he had. Later, Don learns how to use what God had allowed him to go through to point others to Jesus and the reality of heaven.

He is now a world-wide traveling speaker telling people about the accident, death, life, time of recovery and that heaven is real and that the only way to it is through Jesus. His focus is more on the need for people to be saved, then just talking about heaven.

Prior to reading his book, I had the opportunity to hear Don Piper in person and meet him directly. I strongly encourage everyone to read this book. It is a short and easy book to read, but it will challenge your belief in life after death, heaven and the need for Jesus to get to heaven.

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Bonhoeffer–Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (book review)

Title: Bonhoeffer–Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Author: Eric Metaxas
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Date: 2010
Pages: 608

Bonhoeffer–Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (book review)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during the time Adolf Hitler rose to prominence and brought on the holocaust. Eric Metaxas writes a biography of Bonhoeffer’s life. It begins with his childhood and ends with his death.

At a very young age, Bonhoeffer had finished getting a college degree in theology. He became a minister and was willing to tell the church that they needed to live their whole life for God, not just a part of it.

Bonhoeffer recognized the dangers of what Hitler was bringing to Germany and warned the church to take a stand against him. Bonhoeffer was not one to just ‘go with the flow’ that everyone else was willing to do. In doing this, he made various church leaders very angry and caught the attention of Hitler. With that attention, Bonhoeffer was eventually placed in prison and later killed for his stand.

While in prison, Bonhoeffer kept his focus upon God. He believed that he had to die to self and to live for God and that the death was the greatest victory for the believer. Death would usher the believer into eternity with God.

Eric does an excellent job at looking at the whole life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer with what can be known about him. Throughout the book, there are many quotes from Bonhoeffer and others. Whole letters that were written by Bonhoeffer are included.

Although this is a long book, I highly encourage one to read it. The life of Bonhoeffer will challenge a believer to take a real stand for God’s word and His truth in this fallen world. One can see many parallels between Germany and Hitler and what is occurring today in America and other places around the world, and how the church responded in both times.

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Uncancelled (book review)

Title: Uncancelled
Author: Phil Robertson
Publisher: Nelson Books
Date: 2022
Pages:186

Uncancelled (book review)

Phil Robertson, famous for the tv show Duck Dynasty, writes a book about finding meaning and peace in a today’s culture of accusations and condemnation. In today’s society there are many groups trying to cancel one another out through accusations both true and false.

He begins by telling his story of how his show was cancelled because of views that he held to that were ‘politically incorrect’ to the powers that are in the media world. Instead of being angry, Phil remembers that this world is not all that there is, and that God is in control.

Phil quickly states that the world is not alone in cancelling people and organizations out, but that the church does the same on a regular basis. Instead of cancelling people out, Phil states that people need to have Jesus in their life.

Throughout the book, he goes back to the basics of belief in Jesus as the most important thing in life. Once that is established, nothing else matters.

This book is an easy, short read that will point a person to Jesus and how to react to being cancelled by the world or being pressured to cancel someone else. Many scripture verses are used to backup what he is saying. It will also challenge your belief in and walk with God in this world.

I highly recommend reading it and allowing God’s Holy Spirit to guide you in how to act and react to the cancel culture that is pervading America and many other nations around the world.

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Is God A Trinity (book review)

Title: Is God A Trinity
Author: Blair Adams with Howard Wheeler and Joel Stein
Publisher: Colloquium Press
Date: 2021
Pages: 440

Is God A Trinity (book review)

Blair Adams with Howard Wheeler and Joel Stein take a look at the age old view of the trinity of God versus the belief that God is One God. The basic belief of the trinity is that God is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit–three Gods as One God.

He begins the book by looking at where the concept of the trinity began and some of the beliefs and philosophies behind it. In his opinion much of the belief of the trinity came about due to the heavy influence of ancient Greek philosophy upon the early church leaders. Throughout the book, Blair points out some of the fallacies of the trinity belief that has come up in the church throughout history. As he looks at the trinity, he also looks at the belief that God is One God and not a trinity.

Blair does an excellent job at using many different sources for his material for and against the trinity. He also uses a lot of biblical verses to show his viewpoint and reasoning.

This book is written at a very high level of reading, though it is a very excellent book to read. Many times I had to reread a passage to understand what he was saying. I also had to look up some words that I did not fully comprehend.

I will not reveal his view on the trinity, you will need to read the book to understand it and know where he stands. On this post I will also not reveal where I stand on the two views. There are some things he states that I fully understand and agree with and there are some things that I struggle with agreeing with.

If you have any interest in understanding the trinity versus One God beliefs, I highly recommend reading this book.

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The Mystery Of The Shemitah (book review)

Title: The Mystery Of The Shemitah
Author: Jonathan Cahn
Publisher: Frontline Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
Date: 2014
Pages: 276

The Mystery Of The Shemitah (book review)

Jonathan Cahn had first written a book titled: The Harbinger. For a short synopsis of that story it is a novel story of a man who reveals seven harbingers (signs) on the judgement of America. In this book he now breaks down in detail the seven signs and more dealing with an ancient mystery that may be tied to America’s fate.

He starts out with getting a full understanding of what the mystery is when it was started nearly 3,000 years ago in ancient Biblical times and reveals how it ties to America today. Part of that mystery is a seven-year cycle set up by God that can be seen to this day in America. Revealing cycles of economic prosperity and depression can be seen as possibly a part of those seven-year cycles. Along with the seven-year cycles, he looks at the significance of towers and their implications throughout history and in America.

Throughout the book he uses a lot of data that can be looked up and verified as correct in the dates as to when it occurred.

Parts of the book does feel like it is very repetitive of what was already said. However, it does open the eyes to the possibility that what he is saying may be true and that judgement by God is starting to be placed upon America due to the choices having been made.

I cannot say that what he is saying in this book is completely accurate and God is judging America, but I cannot deny that it is extremely possible. Since the book was written in 2014 there have been a lot of changes in America that appear that America is choosing to deny God. There has also been events that have occurred since then that line up with the seven-year cycle that Jonathan wrote about.

I highly recommend you read this book with an open mind to its possibilities and be led by the Holy Spirit as to what to do with the information learned in your life and in your community.