Book review: A Conversation with God: If you could ask God any question, what would it be? By Alton Gansky
Beginning preachers are told to “keep the cookies on the lowest shelf.” It means to be simple and clear in your explanation of what a passage of Scripture means. Without becoming simplistic, a preacher should strive to make the difficult things of Scripture clear and understandable to his congregation.
Alton Gansky has taken that same advice and applied it to the field of theology in his latest book. He seeks to answer questions relating to God, Jesus, the Bible, Heaven and Hell, Future Things, and problems of daily living. But rather than write a typical theological treatise, he employs a question and answer approach.
The book is written as if an average person were presenting his/her questions to a panel of “experts.” The questions include “Can I lose my salvation? What is Heaven like? How can we believe you created us? and many others. However, the “experts” are God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and a number of people from the pages of Scripture.
One of the strengths of the book is that the author takes difficult theological terms—justification, reconciliation, etc.—and defines them in everyday English. He puts the cookies on the lowest shelf.
I could see the book being used in two ways—one would be a resource for apologetics, answering the questions posed by critics; the second would be as a tool to disciple a new believer.
While the book is easy to read, it deserves time and reflection to process the insights.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com http://BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.