Review of Taking God at His Word

I am a big fan of Kevin DeYoung he is very insightful and one of the best writers of this generation. This book is good but not great I would have loved to have seen him take things slightly a bit deeper. This was a good read that helped solidify my appreciation of Scripture. With that being said I am a seminary student that does a lot of reading and has a deeper understanding of Scripture than your average person on the street may have. I would recommend this work to anyone in my church to help them grow in their understanding of the power of Scripture.

This book is not an extremely long work, I was able to read it in less than a week getting through a chapter or two a night, made quick work of the eight chapters. DeYoung started his work off with a focus on Psalm 119 and ended it focusing on the authority of 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  In an attempt to be completely fair to this book I would say that this book is excellent for the average reader. DeYoung lays great ground work for a greater understanding of Scripture and the  uses of it in out lives. Hey says of God and his word that, "He does not give orders so that we might be restricted and miserable. He never requires what is impure, unloving, or unwise. His demands are always noble, always just, and always righteous."(location 167 in Kindle) That is just one of the many highlights I made in this book. He lays out four major areas that protestant theologians have highlighted as essential characteristics of Scripture, they are: clarity, authority, sufficiency, and necessity. 

He offers a chapter to each of these characteristics. Today as I sat in a home going service for a child not even a week old I heard his mother proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture to comfort her in this trying time. It was as I listened to her that this book came to mind, and the power that Scripture holds. This was a time when all four characteristics shown true.

With all that being said I would recommend this work to just about anyone except for those who hold advanced degrees in Christian ministry. For the new believer this work is great to establish a respect and understanding of Scripture that would take years to come to with out it. For the more mature Christian this work will help to solidify an appreciation Scripture. I was given a copy of this book for review by Crossway's Beyond the Book program in exchange for a fair and honest review.