A review of the book "Christianity in Crisis 21st Century"

After spending about 9 months reviewing some homeschooling products, I must honestly say that I love it. Consequently, I started to wonder how I could continue this adventure after the TOS Crew would be finished… I was very happy to learn – via other members of the crew – that various publishers offer a program “write a blog get a free book” kind of deal. So I contacted some of them and most of the time I was able to choose the product to review myself.

The first publisher I was able to contact was Thomas Nelson. And after signing up and being accepted (they do verify your blog), I was able to choose the product I wanted to review. Back then there were about 5 books available and one jumped out to me. The title is Christianity in Crisis 21st Century by Hank Hanegraaff. After reading a little bit more about this book, I was highly interested in learning more about the subject. So I selected this book for my review.

Within a week the book was home and immediately I dove into it.

Who is Hank Hanegraaff? He is the president of the Christian Research Institute and author of many books. He also can be heard on the Bible Answer Man around the US and in Canada. Two decades ago, he wrote a best-seller titled Christianity in Crisis which was alerting about the dangers of a cultic movement within Christianity. Today, during the 21st century, new dangers – new teachers have emerged and this time the damages might be worse.

This new book is about the dangers of the Faith theology which can teach fallacies to a multitude of Christians. Unfortunately, many fall for the teaching of these people and get hurt in the process when things are not happening as what they have been taught. The consequences can be difficult especially when their belief in God is touched to the point that they reject Him at some point.

But how can people fall for false teaching? Because we are looking for easy answers sometimes and the Faith teaching can be easily taken. Unfortunately, many of the teachers will twists the scriptures and apply it in ways that are not truthful…

At first, Hank Hanegraaff presents the basis of the Faith theology and the various players in this movement. Then he decorticates the beliefs of the Faith movement and gives plenty of examples of why the teaching is erroneous. Going through what Hanegraaff called FLAWS, he exposes the fallacy of the teachings versus the truth of the scriptures. You could see that he is really passionate in bringing back Christians on the right path of their faith in God. Finally, at the end of the book, he brings back the reader to the basics by going through the ABCDE of faith (Amen, Bible, Church, Defense, and Essentials) The importance of prayer, bible, being connected to a community of believers, defending the various aspects of Christ and the scriptures as well as the essentials aspects of Christianity as so important that I think every believers should go through a special course so that we would be fully equipped to face resistance.

During the past year, I was exposed to some Faith theology and inside me there was something telling me that this didn’t add up totally. Now I understand why. I think the Spirit was stirring something in me to not completely and totally believe what I was seeing and hearing. Personally I learned a lot while reading this book and I will revise the ABCDE’s regularly so I can easily converse with a non-believer on these subjects.

Interested in reading more about Christianity in Crisis 21st century? Or do you know someone who has been “burned” by the Faith movement and that you know need to read this book? I strongly recommend it to everyone who wants to know more about this movement and how to keep ourselves from falling into it. You could easily find it at Amazon.ca for 18.14$ Cdn or Indigo.ca for 18.14$ Cdn if you are a ireward member (which is totally worth it – believe me!). Both stores offer free shipping in Canada when you buy for over 39$ Cdn.