God's Not Dead Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty Book Review

A Review by Clark Bates

 

            In his book God's not Dead, author and pastor Rice Broocks steps away from his many years in the pulpit as a minister and church planter and into the realm of theology and apologetics.  Interspersing his work with anecdotes from his many travels, Broocks seeks to take the reader on a whirlwind tour through the major apologetic challenges facing the modern church and provide concise, yet informed, responses to each. 

            The positive facets of this book are many.  The author provides the audience with thorough summaries of the most common arguments leveled by unbelievers, giving them a starting point from which to better prepare themselves.  In addition to covering these talking points, Broocks delivers simple but educated responses to each.  Further, the author's many citations of both skeptics and theologians provides the reader with an ample index to draw from if they should desire to further their learning on each issue.  Broocks' writing tackles difficult subject matters like the “reality of good and evil”, “The origin of the universe”, “The life and resurrection of Jesus” and “the authenticity of Scripture”.  All things considered, a reader new to the world of defending their faith will come away from this work with a stable footing and a clear understanding of the most common doubts and detractions facing Christians today.

            That being said, there are also negative facets to this work.  As one might ascertain, the subject matter that Broocks attempts to cover is far too broad to be given due diligence in only 242 pages.  Simply put, each objection presented in this book has been covered by thousands of pages delivered by other authors.  The consequence of trying to condense such voluminous information into each chapter, is that the reader can come away feeling overwhelmed and under prepared.  Also, as is common with writings such as this, the chapters read as essays on each topic prepared separately, and therefore, while the overall flow of the book points to a decided end, the content of each chapter is often repetitious.  The book as a whole points the reader to the cross, recognizing the stability and reliability of the Christian faith as it's stepping stones, but this overall feel can be lost in the overload of information contained within the text.

            In the end, this book will serve to hopefully wet the appetite of those seeking to start learning apologetics.  It will deliver plenteous amounts of information and resources from which the seeker may access more detailed discussions on each topic.  For those already actively educated and involved in defending their faith amidst the current culture wars this book will not present anything new nor provide resources or information with which they are not already familiar.  This book is most useful as an appetizer for the uninitiated, wetting their appetites for a deeper understanding of the modern objections to the faith, and prayerfully it will do just that.