Do You Know What You Believe and Why? - The Story of Reality by Greg Koukl

Everyone has a worldview, even if they don’t think they do.

And that worldview matters.

It’s the water you swim in. And just like freshwater fish soon discover when they are swimming in saltwater, if you aren’t swimming in the right water, it will inevitably poison you.

What you believe , how you see the world, the story you tell yourself about reality —all of that affects what you do, how you live, the quality of your life and your effectiveness in this world.

So it might be a good idea to understand what it is you (really) think…ya think?

• Especially if, as I once was (and as a recent Barna research study states), you are part of the 94% of 68% of Americans who consider themselves to be Christians but don’t actually have a Biblical worldview.
• Or if you’re not a Christian, but you are curious about what Christians (are supposed to) believe (in order to be correctly defined as “Christian”).
• Or if you think you know what Christians believe, but you also think that “it’s pretty much the same as every other religion” (in which case, oh boy are you in for a ride, if you read this book!)

This book presents the simple, bare-bones comprehensive Christian worldview, in plain language. It’s like the CS Lewis Mere Christianity but for a modern age.

It is…the Story of Reality.

Who this book is for: Anyone interested in worldviews or philosophy in general, or curious about Christianity in particular. Also, cultural Christians who have started to realize they are cultural Christians and who want to know what they supposedly believe, and why.

Scylighter Ratings (5.3/6 stars)

I use 2 criteria to rate every book (out of 6 points each):

1. Content: the ideas in this book are interesting, edifying, and worth learning: ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨
2. Craftsmanship: the work is polished, skillful, and well-written: ✍ ✍ ✍ ✍ ✍ ✍

TL;DR — Best Ideas From This Book

1. The best (or correct) worldview should be both internally and externally consistent. (Chapter 1)
2. Worldviews don’t always have gods. But EVERY worldview contains four elements:
   Creation (how things started)
   Fall (why things went wrong)
   Redemption (how to fix whatever went wrong)
   Restoration (what things would look like if things were repaired)
   And this corresponds to the elements of a good story: Beginning, Conflict, Resolution, Ending. (Chapter 2)
3. 5 words can summarize the Christian Story: God, man, Jesus, cross, resurrection (Chapter 5)
4. Jesus didn’t come to teach people to be good, to be a role model, or to fight for social justice. He also didn’t classify people as rich and poor, oppressed or oppressor. He saw them as proud or repentant. (Chapter 18)

Foreword

In This Chapter

• Writer and philosopher Nancy Pearcey introduces the book
• Exploring why most people don’t understand what Christianity really is
• And how reality (life itself — yours and mine) is actually structured like a story, or a great drama, with a beginning and end, a struggle, a climax, a denouement, and so on.

2016. Nancy Pearcey —

Francis Schaeffer was said to have said that Christianity doesn’t start with “Jesus saves you from your sins,” but “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Meaning, Christianity isn’t reducible to a method for being saved, it’s a story of the structure of reality.

Starting with the concept of sin and salvation is like starting a movie halfway through. And this is why Christianity doesn’t make sense to many people.

In the NT, when apostles spoke to Jews, they had certain background info the apostles could count on.

But when speaking to gentiles, they had to get to a more foundational level.

Like when Paul speaks to Greek philosophers in Acts 17 and talks about “the God who made the world and everything in it” who is not just another idol.

He had to walk them through the idea that God is a personal being who created us as personal beings, and we are to have a personal relationship with him. But we broke his cosmic law, and to heal the breach, we are to repent.

“Notice that it is only after laying the groundwork of who God is, who we are, and our relationship to him that Paul explains sin and guilt, then Jesus and the resurrection.”

“The Christian worldview is logically coherent. Each principle follows the one that went before, like a…carefully crafted storyline.”

“Amazingly, it turns out that reality itself is structured like a great drama: It has a beginning and an end; it features a struggle between good and evil; it reaches a climax and then resolves into a denouement and a finale.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): One of Francis Schaeffer’s most memorable sayings was that Christianity does not start with “Jesus saves you from your sins.”

Last line(s): Enter into The Story of Reality.

• Nancy Pearcey is a great author I’ve read before. Her book, Love Thy Body is fascinating, with its argument that a person’s body is intrinsically a part of their identity, and a good thing we ought to take care of, rather than an obstacle or a “dirty thing” as some people today seem to take it.
• In this chapter, the most important idea is that people don’t understand Christianity because many Christians focus on good works, or on Jesus’ death and resurrection, but for someone without a Judeo-Christian background, all of that is nonsense.
• I like how Pearcey described this phenomenon: “starting a movie halfway through.” Exactly.
• And this intro sets up the book perfectly. The problem? People don’t understand the Christian worldview because they have no context. The solution? This book will give the context, the entire story from beginning to end.

Preface

In This Chapter

• The author gives his own preface to the book, saying that he is about to tell a story. Because reality itself is a story.
• Why the question “why” matters.

Greg Koukl (the author) —

The first question we learn in life is “Why”? And Koukl argues that this is an important question to ask, because there is an answer:

“There are reasons for the way things are, and it’s the most natural thing in the world for us to try to figure out what those reasons might be.”

Children ask Why, and as they become adults, the Whys go deeper. We start to wonder about the whole thing. What is the reason for EVERYTHING?

At this point, people either keep asking until they find a satisfactory answer, or they give up and stop wondering, succumbing to dark desolation.

“But the best way to get accurate insight into any story is to let the author tell you himself. Yes, life is a kind of story and this Story has an Author.”

This book is Koukl’s answer to the Biggest Why question.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): The first question any of us learns to ask about anything — and we usually learn to ask it quite early in life — is “Why?”

Last line(s): In this book I want to tell you that story — the Story of reality — and help you see your place in it. Greg Koukl

• Solid enough intro. Not much to comment on, here. It’s short and clear, which is how Koukl writes.

INTRODUCTION: REALITY

Chapter 1. Confusion

In This Chapter

• How almost everyone gets “religion” (all religions) conceptually wrong.
• Something that everyone has, which guides their lives, that many people aren’t aware they have.

“I want to tell you the story about how the world began, how the world ends, and everything deeply important that happens in between.”

“This story is not a fairy tale, but rather it is the Story all fairy tales are really about.”

“This is the Story of Reality — a story about things that really happened or, in some parts, things that are going to happen.”

Most people don’t think religious stories are “false,” but they don’t think they’re “really true, either, in any deep sense of the word.”

Instead, they treat it like a “spiritual fantasy club” which allows each person to pick and choose what they like.

Some people say Christianity is a religious system to follow, a guide to living a fulfilling life, a way to find peace with God, a relationship with Jesus.

But Koukl argues that those descriptions are all incomplete. 

The answer to the question “What is Christianity?” is:

“A picture of reality. It is an account or a description or a depiction of the way things actually are.”

In other words, Christianity is a worldview.

In the same way atheism is a worldview, and other religions’ competing ideas are worldviews.

And everyone has a worldview.

But not all worldviews are equal.

Some worldviews lack more internal consistency, others have more external inconsistencies. But the best worldview should be both internally and externally consistent.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): I want to tell you the story about how the world began, how the world ends, and everything deeply important that happens in between.

Last line(s): If they are good stories — that is, if they explain many things, especially the most important things, in a way consistent with our normal encounters with the world — then we have more confidence the stories are accurate, which is just another way of saying the worldview is true, at least those parts that fit well.

• Good idea to start from a big picture “why does this matter”? angle.
• I like how Koukl lays out the philosophical ground for what is going on, but doesn’t get too gnarly. Everything is clear and understandable, even for, say, an eighth grader.

Chapter 2. Puzzle

In This Chapter

• The 4 basic questions every worldview has to answer
• Why everyone technically has a religion, even if they don’t think they’re religious
• How religions don’t necessarily have to have gods to be a religion

“Every worldview has four elements…creation, fall, redemption, restoration.”

1. Creation: How did things begin? The reason for our origins.
2. Fall: What’s wrong with the world?
3. Redemption: The solution to what went wrong.
4. Restoration: What the world would look like once things are repaired.

A person’s worldview is part of his religion, even if it doesn’t have gods or temples. Every worldview is trying to make sense of the way the world really is.

Worldviews are like puzzles. Sometimes worldviews are missing pieces, or they steal puzzle pieces from other worldview boxes, but they won’t fit.

For example, the concept of human value doesn’t fit in a Hindu worldview, not really. They’re different puzzles, with different pieces.

On the other hand, the concept of reincarnation does not fit in a Christian worldview.

Christians who don’t understand how their worldview puzzle fits together lack the ability to see clearly and thus get themselves in trouble.

“A worldview is like a story…When you think about it, every story, if it is a good one, has four parts. It has a beginning that sets the stage, telling you who the main characters are and how the story gets rolling. Then something goes wrong. There is conflict that makes the story interesting. The main part of most stories tells how that conflict gets corrected, how the wrong gets fixed. That solution brings a final resolution — writers call it the denouement — where the parts of the plot resolve themselves in a satisfying ending.”

The basic parts of a good story actually match the basic parts of a worldview: b

• Beginning (creation),
• Conflict (fall),
• Conflict resolution (redemption), and
• Ending (restoration).

“Christianity is the Story of how the world began, why the world is the way it is, what role we play in the drama, and how all the plotlines of the Story are resolved in the end.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Every worldview has four elements.

Last line(s): Put another way, Christianity is the Story of how the world began, why the world is the way it is, what role we play in the drama, and how all the plotlines of the Story are resolved in the end.

• This is a really good insight Koukl makes in chapter 2 — that stories and worldviews are one and the same.
• Just as there are 4 parts to every worldview, there are 4 parts to every story: How something starts, how something goes wrong, how the thing that goes wrong is fixed (or not), and how it all ends.
• EVERY good story follows this (very basic) structure. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t hold our interest. We were literally made for this. Meaning-making is our jam. No other living creature tells stories, but we humans do. It’s one of the things that sets us apart.

Chapter 3. True Story

In This Chapter

• Why stories of reality are mutually exclusive.
• Why it’s actually not bigotry to say someone is wrong.

When we say the story of Christianity is true, it’s not just “true for me,” it’s “true to reality.”

“Nowadays, however, there are many people who think this entire discussion is irrelevant because they think such a story cannot be told.”

For these people, “everything is belief and nothing is knowledge.”

But some things ARE true. Just as maps are a picture of reality, and if they’re wrong, you will find out soon enough.

And if this Story is true, other religion stories are not. They may not be “wrong at every point,” but they are overall, taken as a whole, untrue.

It’s not bigotry to say 90% of the world is wrong. It’s logic / mathematics.

In other words: If A and B are mutually exclusive, and it turns out A is true, then whoever believes in B must be wrong, even if 90% of the world believes in B.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Now I want to review a point I have already been making that is so important for you to understand, I want to explain it again from a different direction so you do not miss it.

Last line(s): And those differences simply cannot be smoothed over by invoking, for example, naive stories about blind men and elephants that do not really get to the heart of the matter.

• This point, I think, will be really hard for a lot of people to grasp, because there’s a tendency to reason top down instead of bottom up.
• Meaning people choose to believe things that make them feel good, not believe in things that are true and then let that inform their feelings. Because of this, so many people no longer hold on to objective truth.
• Or at least, they say they don’t. In most areas of life they still have to live as if objective truth exists, or else they couldn’t survive at all. But when it comes to metaphysical things, the most important, intangible things, they don’t want to acknowledge the existence of objective truth or reality, hence the emergence of the idea that it is “bigotry” to say someone is wrong.
• We’ve seen this kind of thinking go way overboard in recent years, as some people have had the audacity to openly claim that things like saying 2+2=4 is “racist.” If even something as easily provable as simple mathematics has become a matter of “opinion,” you can tell that we’ve really missed the boat.  

Chapter 4. Two Obstacles

In This Chapter

• 2 biggest arguments against the Christian Story.

The two most frequent objections to the Christian story are:

1. If God is really all good and all powerful, the world shouldn’t be like this.
2. And if God is really good and they are really good Christians, they should be shielded from harm.

“What isn’t obvious is that nothing is really solved by getting rid of God, though that is the standard move at this point.”

People are upset that the Christian Story seems so narrow. But Jesus himself claimed he was the narrow way. In fact, original Christians were called Followers of the Way.

And there’s a reason why that way is narrow.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Christians have a problem when they fail to understand their own Story.

Last line(s): As it turns out, the brokenness of the world and the unique role of Jesus are connected. The second solves the first. That’s a main point of the Story. It’s one thing I hope you will see, that the two most controversial aspects of Christianity turn out to make complete sense once you understand the Story’s big picture.

• The two objections smell of prosperity gospel teaching…
• Actually, it is interesting why so many of us instinctively think God owes us a good life. It makes sense that we all WANT a good life (free from pain and suffering, full of wealth and happiness), but why we think we DESERVE it, or why we think God OWES it to us…
• If you think with your brain instead of your emotions, it’s pretty obvious that’s not a given. Why should we expect that? What makes us think we’ve earned that?

Chapter 5. Story Line

In This Chapter

• 5 words that make up the Christian Story.

“When you learn a new language, you don’t start at the beginning of the dictionary. You start with common objects and frequently used phrases. You start with the basics and then build upon them.”

In the same way, Koukl doesn’t recommend necessarily reading the Bible from cover to cover.

The Christian Story is made of five words: God, man, Jesus, cross, resurrection (the final resurrection).

Basically: God created man, but man fell, so God rescued them by becoming a human named Jesus who died on a cross (and resurrected) and how people respond to that will determine what happens to them at the end of history.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): When you learn a new language, you don’t start at the beginning of the dictionary.

Last line(s): So now I want to tell you that Story. I want to give you the big picture of Christianity. I want to tell you the Story of Reality.

• I like how Koukl was able to boil down his ideas into five words. One per finger. Very memorable.
• And then he structures the rest of his book by these five words. Very clear, easy to follow. Great move.

PART ONE: GOD

Chapter 6. In the Beginning

In This Chapter

• How the Story starts — rather, with whom.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

The story begins with a person, not a thing. God is the uncreated first being.

Also because God is the main character of this story. Not you, not people, but God.

“The Story is not so much about God’s plan for your life as it is about your life for God’s plan…God’s purposes are central, not yours.”

The basic principle is: If you make it, it’s yours. Since God made everything, everything belongs to him.

“He has proper authority to rule over all because none of it would exist without him. That includes you and me, by the way. We don’t own ourselves — God does.”

So if we try to do whatever we want with our own bodies, that’s stealing.

As CS Lewis says, we are not the landlords of our minds and bodies, but tenants. We don’t belong to ourselves.

(This reminds me of the Gettys’ song “I Am Not My Own”).

The Christian story is different from the Muslim story, because in that story, Allah is not a father, humans aren’t his children. To Muslims, that idea is blasphemous.

Also, nature is not God either.

God made nature, the planet is a thing, not a person. So strictly speaking, you don’t have to respect nature. At least, not directly.

You respect the “Person who made nature” by taking care of nature and the people you live with by not messing up the environment for them.

The kingdom of God is made of two kinds of things: Physical and nonphysical. Both are real.

“When people ask, ‘What is the meaning of everything?’ or ‘What is the point of life?’ or ‘What’s it all about, anyway?’ the Story’s theme provides the answer.”

“Now, I realize the idea that God is in charge is bothersome to many people, but what is the alternative? If someone is not in charge, then no one is in charge, and that seems to be a big part of our complaint about the world to begin with.”

Think of how some homes are dominated by strong-willed children. When that happens, it’s chaos.

“When the whole world is run by children doing as they wish, ugly things happen…Deep inside we hunger, like unruly children do, for things to be different, for someone bigger and trustworthy to be in charge so that good would prevail even though, if we were honest, we’d have to admit that we…are the main source of the problem.”

In the Lord’s prayer there’s a line: Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

“We are hungering for the things we were made for. We are hungering for God’s Kingdom.”

This world wasn’t originally broken. Everything God made was once good.

“This is the heart of happiness — all the world, and everything and everyone in it, working together in perfect harmony just the way God wanted it.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Every story has a beginning.

Last line(s): Everything was just the way it was supposed to be. Which is just another way of saying that everything God made was good.

• It’s an interesting premise: “If you made it, it’s yours.” That does make sense, especially considering things like copyright law, which basically runs on that assumption.
• Of course, it IS an assumption, as far as I can see — one of those a priori statements you have to choose to accept in order for further reasoning to work.
• But there’s no way to avoid such a priori things, and intuitively, it does feel correct. You DO own whatever you make. Unless you sell or give it away, that is.

Chapter 7. Two Objections

In This Chapter

• Who or what created God?

A common objection is: “Who created God?”

This is not a proper question because the kind of God we’re talking about would be UNcreated. An eternal, self-existent Being with no beginning and no creator.

Similarly, “What caused God?” is also a nonsensical question because God didn’t happen. He was always there.

The other concern people have is about miracles.

But if God can create space, time, matter, miracles are nothing to him.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): It might be helpful at this point to pause and address two issues that come up a lot.

Last line(s): The Maker controls the matter, not the other way around.

• This is a common objection I hear online in Q&As and debates with atheists. They often miss the point that the DEFINITION of God is that He is uncreated. If he is a created being, he is no longer omnipotent or the ultimate, meaning he cannot be God.
• At least, not by the Christian definition of God.
• I think part of the confusion is that use of the word, “God.”
• Just like people misuse the word “love” to mean anything from actual, genuine love to sex to warm fuzzy feelings for a favorite sweater, so too people misuse the word God and lump together the Greek pantheon with the Hindu idea of little gods with the Shinto spirits with the Christian God.
• When the difference between the Christian God and all those other “gods” is so vast we might as well be talking about the difference between kangaroos and nebulae.

Chapter 8. Matter-ism

In This Chapter

• The illogic of the first major objection to the Christian worldview — materialism. The idea that only matter exists and mind is an illusion.

God is mind, and He created matter.

But according to the “matterists” matter is all that exists. They believe the only “real” things are physical things governed by natural law.

This sounds like a modern worldview, but it’s really old.

“This is where the story starts, and this is where the story ends, because there is nothing more. No God. No souls. No heaven or hell…Just molecules in motion following the patterns of natural law.”

This is most commonly called “materialism.” Also “naturalism” or “physicalism.”

These people include atheists, skeptics, humanists, Marxists.

“It’s also the story that many non-atheists act like is true, even when they say they believe something else.”

But in this worldview, everything is meaningless. There’s no object or goal to life. As Richard Dawkins says, “no design, no purpose, no evil and no good.”

Or Thomas Hobbes: “life in an unregulated state of nature is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’”

Of course people can come up with their own private purposes, but these meanings while they can sound noble, are no better than self interest.

“Remember too that when people get to make their own purposes, the door is opened to limitless variety, with no individual purpose better than any other.”

Social workers are no better than sex-slave traders because there is no benchmark to measure them by.

If you take materialism to its logical conclusion, life is ultimately empty. This is nihilism. Nothing-ism.

“And when someone starts really believing nothing-ism about themselves and other human beings, bad things begin to happen.”

Which is why Koukl doesn’t think matter-ism is an accurate picture of reality.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): So on the Christian view, God and the world — mind and matter — are two different kinds of things.

Last line(s): These are some of the reasons I do not think matter-ism, taken as a whole, is an adequate picture of reality.

• I like how the chapters are really short and logical, for the most part, but I think it would help if Koukl included some kind of bulleted map before diving into this part of the book, to show the general direction. Because each of these chapters aren’t exactly on the same level.
• What I mean is, he began with the five words: God, man, Jesus, cross, resurrection. He’s going through all five of these words eventually, starting right now with “God.”
• But before getting to “man,” he includes a few (relevant, but subsidiary) ideas about common objections to God, like materialism (Matter-ism, he calls it) and gnosticism (Mind-ism. See next chapter).
• I wonder if it might have been better to have longer chapters broken into subsections than to make them all chapter-level discussions?

Chapter 9. Mind-ism

In This Chapter

• The other objection to the Christian worldview — that only mind exists, and matter is an illusion.

The second alternative competing story against Christianity is “mind-ism,” aka Mind is the only thing that exists, a Divine Mind or Divine Being.

“In the beginning, Mind,” and that’s where the story ends because there is nothing more. Literally.

In this story, the only thing that is real is “God as Mind” and God is not a person, it is an it.

It’s a universal Mind that permeates everything because it is the only thing that exists.

One term is: pan-everything-ism aka pantheism. Technically it is monism (one-ism)

Certain schools of Hindu thought and many Eastern religions promote this idea. New Age does too. It’s very popular among Hollywood types, as well.

The point is that everything is God, including you, which makes you feel important. You are “God,” who has temporarily forgotten its true identity and you can use meditation to remember (this is enlightenment), at which point you will immerse back into the universal God.

But it takes several lifetimes to do this. Ergo, reincarnation is part of this worldview.

And since the universal God is the only thing that is real, everything else is an illusion (maya). You are God in this view, but so is everything else, even cows and insects.

This view is “High on individual freedom and personal self-esteem (again, you are God, after all). Low on personal responsibility since God (you) answers to no one.”

This is what “spiritual, but not religious” is all about. As CS Lewis says: “All the thrills of religion and none of the cost.”

However, there IS a cost to this worldview. If you are the “master of your own fate,” any bad thing that happens to you is no one’s fault but yours. No one higher to answer to means no one higher to turn to when life is tough.

And another problem Koukl points out is that a lot of New Agers try to shove Jesus into their worldview, calling him an enlightened guru. This is NOT the Christian Jesus. But this trick deceives many who think they are Christians.

In the Christian story, God made the world and humans answer to him. In the Mind-ism story, you are part of God, and answerable to no one.

“But a story being attractive and a story being true are two entirely different things. Never forget that.”

“So what do you think of the Mind-ism view?…I’m not asking you what you feel. I’m asking you what you think.”

A logical conclusion of the Mind-ism option is that evil does not exist. Nothing is wrong with the way things are, everything just IS. Morality is just an illusion.

Meaning there is no good or bad, mercy or forgiveness, grace or love. Karma is karma. People get what they deserved.

But Koukl points out that both Matter-ism and Mind-ism cannot make sense of “mankind’s most pressing problem, the problem of evil.”

There’s no good reason to believe Mind-ism is true, as it doesn’t fit the way the world actually is.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): So matter-ism is the first competing story.

Last line(s): Put simply, I have good reason to think it [mind-ism] false — it does not seem to fit the way the world actually is (broken and beleaguered) — and no good reason to think it true. Those are two pretty strong marks against it.

• Koukl does a fantastic job explaining this “mind-ist” worldview, which can be very slippery and hard to understand in real life because it’s so woo-woo.

Chapter 10. Options

In This Chapter

• 3 reasons for why existence even exists.

Here, Koukl says there are 3 main answers to “why are we here?”

1. Some ONE behind it all (God-ism)
2. Some THING behind it all (Mind-ism)
3. NO ONE and NO THING behind it all (Matter-ism)

How do you tell which one is correct?

First, everyone agrees the world isn’t how it is. This indicates that there must be some higher Purpose that isn’t being fulfilled. But Purpose is impossible in a matter-only world.

And Evil is a puzzle piece that is incompatible with Mind-ism, yet most would agree that evil exists.

Neither view answers the most important problems we face.

So this summarizes our first part of the book, about God.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): There are three main answers to the question “Why are we here?”

Last line(s): Absolute goodness makes God absolutely dangerous, for the only ones who are safe are the ones who are good like he is.

• Great laying out of the ideas, one feature at a time, and then summarizing them in this chapter.

PART TWO: MAN

Chapter 11. Beautiful

In This Chapter

• What makes humans valuable and special

The next character in the Story of Reality is man.

Man is made of physical stuff, and has limitations. Yet we’re not mere cogs in a machine.

“We are not little gods, but we are not junk either.”

We have souls, but that’s not what sets us apart from other sentient creatures, who have souls too.

“What makes us special is the kind of souls we have.”

Humans have intrinsic value by virtue of being human. Just as gold is valuable wherever it goes. We cannot gain or lose this value over life, it’s with us as soon as we exist.

“Some essential part of you and me will always be wonderful and beautiful, and nothing and no one can take it away.”

Because of this intrinsic value, we have duties toward each other that we don’t have to other things.

“No rules that man invents by himself can ever be binding in any final or ultimate sense, since the person who makes the rules can simply change them whenever it suits his fancy or whenever the old rules get bothersome.”

But our obligations toward man, which aren’t human-invented, cannot change.

“man’s special value is the only reason we have unalienable rights.” (Rights that can’t be taken)

“If man is not special, if he is not deeply different from any other thing, then there is no good reason not to treat him just like any other thing when it’s convenient for us to do so.”

So it’s not surprising when cultures that say humans are nothing special start denying those same humans any human rights or moral obligations.

But humans ARE special. We have “beauty…built into us,” and we know it. Which is why we’re appalled when people act or are treated like animals.

And no, saying something is “natural” for certain people does NOT excuse or justify their behavior.

This is where the Christian worldview stands out from the others. It tells why humans are special, irrevocably so (because we’re made in the image of God), but also why we’re messed up, which brings us to the next chapter…

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Now it’s time to introduce you to another character in our story.

Last line(s): But the most important thing God gave was himself, that we be continually filled with joy in his presence and find sweet contentment in his provision.

• As we’ve seen play out in Communist countries (which believe in materialism and therefore not in the value of individual humans) losingthe belief that humans are special is devastating.
• Without it, people murder other people indiscriminately because they have no truly legitimate reason not to.

Chapter 12. Broken

In This Chapter

• Explanations for why humans think humans are messed up.
• Why so many people feel guilty

Humans are beautiful, but they’re also broken.

Some people attempt to say this is because it’s society’s fault. People are bad because they lack the right education, or they’re poor, or whatever. But the reality is, the rich and educated are no more noble than the poor and ignorant.

“In tough times like recessions and depressions, it turns out, crime rates frequently drop. Then they rise as people prosper.”

Another explanation some use is that there is no such thing as real objective “badness,” so people are not really bad. Right and wrong are just social constructs, agreed on by what civilized people have agreed on for now, and morality depends entirely on the group.

But think about that for a while and you realize it isn’t true. Social reformers are always in the minority, and they always oppose what the majority think is “good” or “right,” and yet we know sometimes these reformers are the ones who are right.

And of course this view excuses the actions of Nazis because they’d argue that they only did what their society required.

Yet another explanation is Darwinian, which states that human behavior evolved to be what it is, and it’s all a ruse to pass our genes on to the next generation.

But if that’s true, why aren’t lions blamed for hunting and torturing other creatures to death? That’s what they do, they’re not good or evil for it. But when humans do the same thing, we DO blame them for harming other humans.

We all instinctively know that humans aren’t just different in quantity from animals (eg: we’re more highly evolved), but we are different in kind (eg: we were made different), so the moral expectations on us are different.

No, the reason humans are broken, Koukl argues, is because of original sin. “The one doctrine of Christianity that can actually be proven,” according to GK Chesterton.

“It is always more convenient to point the finger elsewhere — at our environment, at our biology, at others, at God. But the fact remains…the brokenness in the world starts with the brokenness in us.”

Most people feel guilty for the bad things they have done. And the reason why is because we ARE guilty, as the Christian Story says.

But Koukl says this wrongness is not just malfunction, like a machine. It’s transgression, like a criminal, and it needs to be forgiven. Because sins must be punished, atoned for.

Now the question is, who are we guilty to? Who do we need forgiveness from?

Some people say we need to “forgive ourselves,” but that’s nonsensical because you have not sinned against yourself, whatever that means.

You can’t let yourself off the hook. It won’t fix your brokenness. You must be forgiven by the one you have wronged, which is the One responsible for Everything — aka, God.

Of course, Koukl points out, this talk about sin and guilt and punishment is uncomfortable, and most people tend to look away or try to minimize it. “Nobody’s perfect” is a common refrain. And: “At least I’m not Hitler.”

But Hitler is not the standard. Perfection is, and compared to that, we are all more like Hitler than we are close to perfect.

Koukl then runs through a few questions based on the 10 commandments, like “have you ever disobeyed/dishonored your parents? have you deceived someone? taken something that was not yours? toyed with the idea of being sexually intimate with someone who wasn’t your spouse?” etc., to show that none of us is pure or righteous.

“When we are forced to look at the true standard, we are not able to fool ourselves.”

In other words, our real problem is a moral problem.

And the world is broken because we are.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Now we must talk about another way humans are special.

Last line(s): The world is broken because we are broken. Our badness made the world go bad.

• Great last line. It really hits home. Resonant.

Chapter 13. Lost

In This Chapter

• How did humans get messed up, and thereby mess up their world?

Koukl begins this chapter with a quick summary of what we’ve gone through so far:

1. Something’s very wrong with the world
2. Humans have an intrinsic beauty that sets them apart from everything else
3. Yet humans are also broken

The argument is that the Christian Story is the only worldview that explains all three points adequately.

So now we turn to the story in Genesis, about the Fall of Man:

God made man, Adam, and gave him a home. He made Eve to be Adam’s counterpart and companion. Everything was good and right, which is hard for us in an imperfect world to even imagine.

Then God gave the humans one rule: do not eat from a certain tree in the garden.

An intruder came in and deceived the people. He told them to disobey God and eat the fruit, which he said would make them become “like God.” They ate.

This one act of disobedience destroyed everything. They rebelled against God and were turned against him, against each other, harmony shattered, blaming each other for their problems.

They were doomed to physical death, but even more than that, they became spiritually dead toward God, cut off from friendship with Him who used to be their source of joy, now interaction with God brought shame.

Some people don’t believe in an actual devil who tempts people to do evil. But Koukl is saying exactly that this being does exist. Satan is real.

Another objection is that “I didn’t eat that fruit so why should I suffer for what Adam and Eve did?” but here we come to a concept that is tricky for modern Westerners to grasp:

Nations, communities, groups, and families, function together as one. No man is an island, after all.

You are familiar with the concept of a representative, standing for the group. That’s what we do in politics. Parents represent their children, their families. Principals represent their schools and act on behalf of their students, leaders who declare war are speaking for their nations, and so on.

It’s the same here. When Adam and Eve rebelled, we as their offspring rebelled. “Our entire race was poisoned by our first parents.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): We have been considering some commonsense aspects of the world and have been asking which story of reality — which worldview — best explains them.

Last line(s): From this day forward, man is “born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.”

• It’s a good idea for Koukl to start the chapter by briefly reviewing what we’ve already gone through so far. Zoom out of the trees to see the forest every once in a while, especially when you’re teaching or persuading.

Chapter 14. Evil

In This Chapter

• Why the “problem of evil” is not just a problem for the Christian worldview
• The actual definition of the word omnipotent

Now, we have a problem.

God would be a weak king if he could not keep control of his own kingdom and keep people from rebelling.

Or else He is powerful, but not good — He is indifferent to the suffering on earth.

This seems like an impossible situation.

But suffering is not just a problem for the Christian worldview:

“Atheism cannot even make sense of the notion of a ‘broken’ world to begin with, so the problem of evil turns out to be just as lethal for atheism as it appears to be for theism.”

Koukl then argues that the above two statements about God’s power vs His goodness is a false dilemma. Because it is NOT true that a perfectly good God would NEVER permit evil. 

First, though, Koukl wants to clear up the definition of the word “omnipotent.” It doesn’t mean God can do ANYTHING conceivable. It means he is able to do anything power is capable of doing.

But He can’t, say, create a square circle, because that is impossible in the logical sense. It’s self-contradictory and cannot happen.

So back to the idea of an all-good God preventing all-evil. Would he do that? Or does God have a “morally sufficient reason” for allowing evil to exist?

In our world, we know of cases where a good person might have to allow evil, even though he could stop it. Koukl gives the hypothetical example of a commando who is dropped behind enemy lines in WWII to destroy the gas chambers in a concentration camp.

As he sneaks in, he sees some soldiers about to execute an innocent man. He must allow the innocent man to die in order to complete the more important mission of destroying the gas chambers, because if he tried to defend the man, he would give himself away and fail at the larger mission.

But another reason a good God may allow evil is because temporary pain may achieve a long-term good, just like how parents will take their kids to get shots and immunizations, which the kids hate, in order to protect the kids’ health in the long run.

“I am not saying that evil can be good, but rather that there may be good reasons to allow bad things. Allowing some evil for a time, for example, may result in a better world in the long run than a world that never had evil to begin with.”

Now, Koukl turns to another point: God didn’t create the world in order to fill in something missing in Himself. He wanted to share his happiness with others, but in order to do that, the others he creates must be capable of love and friendship and relationship.

Which means they need to have more than the “shallow freedom” that animals are capable of. Animals aren’t rational or moral, they cannot be good, they are driven by natural instincts.

But man has “deep freedom,” the ability to make choices that really matter. He has reason and morality. So only man can have the kind of friendship with God that can share in God’s happiness.

Man has moral freedom. He can choose good or evil. That is the very definition of moral freedom, the ability to choose good OR evil, which is why evil must be a real option.

“God’s goodness made possible a world that could have badness.”

But is that a good enough reason? You might ask. In other words, is it worth it?

This is the kind of question we cannot answer on our own. Because we humans do not know all things, we cannot make a fair judgment about whether it is all “worth it in the end.” We don’t know all the factors and variables. This is one of the things we must trust God with.

All we know is that Man has freedom and hasn’t used it well.

“Disobedience destroys, and sometimes the damage is so great it can never be repaired…God gives commands for reasons. When we disobey him, we always break something valuable.”

This is why there is evil and suffering in this world. It’s a broken world.

But a few things to keep in mind:

1. The Christian Story (worldview) doesn’t just explain the evil in the world, it predicts it. “Our world is exactly the kind of world we’d expect it to be if the Story were true and not just religious wishful thinking.”
2. The Story isn’t over yet.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): And now we come to a thorny matter.

Last line(s): Second — and most important — our Story is not over yet. Evil did not catch God by surprise.

• This answer (basically an “I don’t know because I’m not God”) can be a frustrating answer to the problem of evil, for most people. But as Koukl rightly points out, rejecting God doesn’t get rid of the problem of evil, it just shifts it around. It’s still there.

Chapter 15. Wrath

In This Chapter

• Why most people overestimate their goodness.

Now we turn to something people hate talking about in religion: the wrath of God.

First, we don’t like the idea of God judging us for our wrongdoing. Second, we are so used to our own problems that we discount them. We think we’re “basically good people” when we are really not. 

Also, people think the idea of a wrathful/vengeful God contradicts the image of a God of Love.

But God’s love and justice are intertwined. God couldn’t be truly good if he excused evil. He wouldn’t be just. As a righteous judge, He HAS to condemn lawbreakers.

God sees our flaws and sins more clearly than we do. “And this is not good news. Man must pay, but he cannot pay. He must be freed, but slaves cannot free themselves. He desperately needs a rescuer.”

God doesn’t owe man a pardon, but we still have hope, because the third part of the story is about to come in…

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): It is difficult to capture with words the desperate situation man is in.

Last line(s): With man lost and helpless and the world terribly broken, God himself steps into the picture to initiate a rescue operation.

• The “wrathful God” is an aspect of God’s character you almost never hear about nowadays, especially in churches. I don’t ever remember hearing a sermon on the wrath of God in any of the churches I ever attended as a child.
• And it wasn’t until we were assigned Jonathan Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” as a reading in public school, that I even realized God’s wrath was an important concept in the Christian worldview.
• I’d always ignored it or misunderstood it, previously. I knew Jesus had died for our sins, but if you’d asked me “what does that mean?” I wouldn’t have been able to answer you. At least, not correctly. Not even close. Too bad I didn’t have this book when I was younger.
• (Although to be fair I might not have really understood it, back then. Sometimes it’s incredible how blind one can be to stuff in front of one’s own face)

PART THREE: JESUS

Chapter 16. History

In This Chapter

• Why the “Jesus is a result of myths cobbled together” argument is bunk

Koukl begins this chapter by debunking the argument that Jesus never existed.

Some people say Jesus’ life story is just a cobbled-together tale made of recycled bits from pagan myths like Mithras, Dionysus, Osiris, etc., etc.

This is nonsense.

The claim is false in many ways. And anyone can figure it out if they ignore the popular sources and go back to the primary sources.

Those who do will find that the myths that pre-date Jesus’ time have no resemblance to his life. It is only after Jesus’ arrival on earth that the pagan myths start to evolve.

In other words, Jesus’ story influenced the pagan myths, not the other way around.

Another problem with this argument is that even IF Jesus’ story has striking similarities to pagan myths, it doesn’t mean that his story is false.

For example, years before the famous Titanic sinking, a man named Morgan Robertson wrote a novel called Futility, about a giant cruise ship that sinks because it hit an iceberg during a transatlantic voyage.

It had a ton of uncannily similar details that happened years later with the Titanic, but that doesn’t mean the Titanic story is false. It’s a real-life coincidence.

So in other words, the people who argue that Jesus story is false because it sounds like pagan myths have things backwards. You have to prove THAT a story is false before you try to explain WHY. Not the other way around.

You can’t just assume it’s a myth and then work from there.

Another point Koukl makes is that Torah-observant Jews would not have made up the story of Jesus based on pagan myths, anyway, especially when their conception of a Messiah at the time was not about death and resurrection but about defeating the Romans.

So, back to the Bible.

Professional historians agree that the New Testament documents aren’t mythical literature. They’re historical records. Not all historians agree with the supernatural elements, because of their own predispositions to disbelieve in the supernatural, but at least they agree that Jesus of Nazareth really did exist and the Gospels tell his story.

“People who think Jesus never existed are simply not acquainted with the ample research done even by secular historians that provide abundant evidence for his life.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Before we can consider anything important about the life of Jesus, I must first address a concern that, unless it is put to rest, will make it impossible for us to take seriously anything the Story says about Christ.

Last line(s): The idea that Jesus did not exist at all is drivel, and real historians know it.

• What’s kind of amazing is that Jesus’ story — his life and death — is the single most influential historical event of all time. Just think about how many people know about this “poor obscure random dude from a Middle Eastern country.”
• And how many works of art were influenced or inspired by Him, either to praise Him or to deride Him. And how many world leaders and world changers either paid respect to him, or else shook their fist at him, and how either attitude drove their lives until death.

Chapter 17. The God-Man

In This Chapter

• 2 key facts to know about Jesus
• The real reason why Jesus was killed (not the purported reason)
• How the trinity works (more or less)

Now Koukl turns to two important things you need to know about Jesus:

1. Jesus was a human being
2. Jesus is God

In other words, Jesus was a human like all of us, entering the world through birth, growing up like every child does, and so on.

But he also “says things no man is allowed to say, at least not a Jew speaking to other Jews. He says he existed before he was born. He says any sins he pardons is forgiven…He says final judgment in the final day falls on him.”

And here, Koukl says, readers must try to see Jesus as an ancient Hebrew would have.

In those days, God and man were entirely separate concepts. The idea that God could come in the flesh was unthinkable, blasphemous. 

“And here is something else we must not miss. These claims are not about what Jesus’ teaching would accomplish. He does not draw attention to his lessons [but] to himself… ‘Follow Me and live forever.’ ‘Believe in Me and rise on the last day.’ ‘Trust in Me and never die.’”

Because of these kinds of statements, Jesus was executed.

“Jesus was not crucified for what he did. He was crucified for who he said he was.”

Jesus claimed to be literally God. So if he was wrong, he was either a mad man or stupid.

But we know he wasn’t bad or stupid.

People didn’t laugh at him. The soldiers sent to arrest him couldn’t bring themselves to do it, saying “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” The disciples witnessed miracle upon miracle, seeing how even the wind and waves obeyed him.

So who was Jesus?

God, who started the Story, who made everything, came down and became a human. Jesus is God. Not A God, but THE God. Fully human, fully divine.

And now we come to a strange characteristic of God.

Even though God is one, He has more than one conscious self. He can be both in heaven and on earth simultaneously.

It’s not just that part of God stayed in heaven while part of him was on earth, because God isn’t made of pieces. He’s tri-personal. This is what the Trinity is all about.

This seems really strange to us, but it’s necessary because a perfect God must be perfectly happy and satisfied and not needing anything. Before He made humans, God already had friendships within himself, from eternity past.

That’s what makes him a God of LOVE, because “love was shared between the Divine persons from eternity past.”

That’s why Christians say “God IS love.”

If God was a singular person he wouldn’t have been love before the world was made. Because Love isn’t a solitary thing. It can only exist when there are persons sharing it. 

So back to the Story. God came down, putting aside his divine rights to become a human, like a parent getting down on his knees to get to his child’s eye level (but more extreme, of course). He became the man known as Jesus.

This is very different from the Jesus described in other religions.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): There are two important things you need to know about Jesus, and neither have anything to do with his teachings in general.

Last line(s): This is not the Jesus of the New Age. Those are all very different stories.

• I like this quote: “Love isn’t a solitary thing. It can only exist when there are persons sharing it.”
• This is why “love yourself” doesn’t make sense, and also doesn’t work in real life. Because you and I are NOT tripartite beings, by the above definition of love, it is literally impossible to “love yourself” because you are only one person, and love requires at least two separate persons.

Chapter 18. The Rescue

In This Chapter

• What Jesus did NOT come to do (even though too many claim he did)
• The four major discourses Jesus gave, recorded in the Bible.
• Jesus didn’t see people as rich & poor, but this & this — and why Jesus was not promoting “social justice” but something more “radical”

So now the question is: What did Jesus come to do?

To clarify, Koukl emphasizes, Jesus did NOT come to teach us to be nice to each other or restore social justice. 

He did NOT come to “teach us how to live a better life.”

Koukl goes to the Gospel of John, the last biography written of Jesus by his disciple who knew him personally. And there’s nothing in there about helping the poor.

Not because Jesus doesn’t care about the poor but because he has bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

Koukl says Jesus gave four major lectures, if you will:

1. The Sermon on the Mount
2. The Bread of Life Discourse
3. The Olivet Discourse
4. The Upper Room Discourse

And none of them mention poverty. The Sermon on the Mount is about being poor in spirit, not in finances.

Jesus cared about both rich and poor, because he didn’t classify people as rich and poor. He saw them as proud or repentant. THAT’S the key.

“‘Social justice’ is not the Gospel. It was not Jesus’ message. It was not why he came. His real message was much more radical. Jesus’ teaching…focuses on something else. Not on the works of Christians but rather on the work of Christ.”

So we come back to the question of why did Jesus come?

Before answering this, Koukl talks about a dark prophecy that refers to an animal dying. And yet it’s obvious that animals can’t truly pay for human sins.

The old sacrificial system was a “temporary measure to cover man’s moral wound for the moment. It would never do in the long run, and it was not meant to.”

Another sacrifice is needed. Man must pay for man. And only someone who is innocent, who owes no debt himself, can pay the debt of another.

And the only man who could do this was Jesus.

Jesus came to be a human to be the perfect offering to completely save sinners once and for all.

“So, the Story tells us the precise reason the Son came to earth. Not to teach love and peace and care for the poor, but to submit himself to something unspeakably violent and brutal.”

Jesus was a ransom for humanity. What is a ransom? A price paid to buy a hostage or slave. He paid his body in exchange for ours. His life for ours.

“So Jesus came to earth to save sinners. The statement is so common to our ears, it is easy to miss its significance.”

Jesus needed to save us because we were in danger. Danger from what?

Not ourselves, or our ignorance, or our poverty, or our oppressors, but from the Father.

Remember, God is the one who is offended, who is owed a debt because He is the one humans rebelled against, the One we betrayed.

So Jesus came to live the perfect life we SHOULD live but CAN’T. We rebelled, he submitted, we failed, he succeeded, and so he traded his perfect life for our rotten ones.

This is a really hard concept for some people to understand.

But it’s like an attacker about to kill someone, and then you stepped in front of that person and said “don’t hurt him, kill me instead.”

That’s what Jesus did.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Now to our second question: What did Jesus come to do?

Last line(s): It was called Golgotha, the place of the skull. We know it as Calvary, the place of the cross.

• This is a really basic, key concept in Christian thought, but it took me the longest time to really understand this. Of course, the most obvious first question to ask is — why does God have wratch and want to kill us for sin? Why can’t he just wave it away and forgive us?
• And I’m still thinking through this, but the way I’d answer that right now is because God is not like us humans. He is perfectly just, and perfect justice demands consequences for actions, the same way 2+2 demands the answer be 4. So God can’t ignore or hand-wave away human sin. It must be paid for…
• But if humans paid for their own sins, they’d be dead with no recourse and no pathway to resurrection. So the only Being in the universe who can pay for us, because He never sinned and His existence is not contingent on someone or something else, is God. Hence, the need for Jesus to come and die for us.
• I know, it’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around. I’m still mind-wrapping, sometimes.

PART FOUR: CROSS

Chapter 19. Footsteps

In This Chapter

• The oddness of Jesus

Koukl begins by warning readers not to forget that Jesus wasn’t just a mystical figure that popped out of the ether, spouting maxims. He did what he did and said what he said in the context of a normal human life.

Like us, he walked around, ate, slept, laughed, cried, etc.

And yet he was UNlike us in many ways as well. For example, he was born of a virgin, which has never happened before or since.

But he had a quiet childhood (at least nothing outstanding was recorded, contrary to some stories), except for one incident when he is 12. Then he begins his ministry at age 30ish and quickly collects a lot of followers, but most of them equally quickly get disenchanted with him in time.

Jesus is both attractive to people, but at the same time divisive. He irks the leaders (by rebuking religious self-righteousness) and condemns the crowds (for being sinful).

He speaks in obscure parables and laments that the people are interested in him only to get their “stomachs filled,” not for spiritual reasons.

Even with his disciples, Jesus gives them glimpses of his glory and then starts talking plainly about dying. They don’t understand when he says he will rise from the dead, because they can’t even comprehend him getting killed in the first place.

That is his life in a nutshell, and now we will dive deeper into each part in the next chapter.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Before we say anything about Jesus’ death, we must look briefly at some of the steps in his life leading up to it since, as we have seen, what Christ accomplished by how he lived is as important as what he accomplished by how he died.

Last line(s): For Jesus, though, this means betrayal, humiliation, acute physical suffering, and unimaginable emotional agony.

• “What Christ received from us — guilt — brought him death. What we receive from him — goodness — brings us life.”
• Writing-wise, good parallelism and alliteration in this line (the alliteration is in the em-dashes).

Chapter 20. The Trade

In This Chapter

• What is involved in crucifixion.
• Why Jesus had to die.
• Three passions in Jesus’ death, and how it was protected by a prophet who lived hundreds of years before Jesus came.

In Jesus’ time, crucifixions were fairly common. Reserved for slaves and rebels, it involved severe flogging, being stripped naked, and nailed to beams to cause severe pain. Death is slow and agonizing, caused by shock, exposure, and asphyxiation.

In Jesus’ case, there’s more than physical torture. When he was on the cross, “God the Father unleash[ed] his fury upon his sinless Son as if Jesus were guilty of an immeasurable evil.”

But why was Jesus punished?

Koukl says on the cross, Jesus’ “crime” was written on a titulus, an official notice announcing why he was being punished. Jesus’ titulus said “King of the Jews.”

In that culture, debts were made and paid by writing a certificate of debt, and then writing over it tetelestai (paid, done, finished) when the debt was paid or canceled out.

When Jesus was crucified, the debt that he paid was not his own, but the record of debts accumulated by all humans.

Why?

“As we have seen, if God is good, he must punish the guilty, and if he is good he can punish only the guilty.”

Which is bad news for the unrighteous sinners (that would be all of us). But many people don’t realize this because they think they’re “good enough people.”

Yet if all the hidden things in their lives were to come out “you will see a different sight.”

So, as Koukl writes, “In the darkness that shrouds Calvary from the sixth to the ninth hour, a divine transaction is taking place.”

Jesus takes on all human sin as if he is guilty of all. And when that full payment is made, Jesus “simply dismisses his spirit into the Father’s hands and dies” right after uttering the word tetelestai, “it is finished.”

His task has been accomplished.

This task, theologians describe as justification, substitution, redemption, propitiation, but for simplicity’s sake, Koukl in this book calls it the “Marvelous Exchange.”

Then he gives an illustration:

What if a king discovers someone has been stealing from the royal treasury. But when the culprit is found, it turns out to be his own frail mother?

What if then, the king ordered the thief to be bound to the whipping post, but then he took off his royal robes and stood behind her so that the punishment landed on his back and not hers?

That’s what God did for humans.

Koukl points out there are “three passions” in this act:

1. The passionate intensity of God’s anger toward our sins
2. The passionate intensity of God’s love for us
3. The passionate intensity of the agony of the cross, shouldered by God in human form.

All of this was predicted by Isaiah in chapter 53 of his book.

And this is why there is only one way to save man from his terrible trouble. This is why Jesus is the only way to being saved.

Just like most sicknesses require specific treatments, and aspirin cannot fix a tumor, and cutting up credit cards won’t fix a debt already owed, we humans have a similar problem.

The reason we’re broken and our world is broken is because our friendship with God is broken due to our rebellion. Promising to act better in the future won’t erase the crimes of the past.

So Jesus is the only possible source of rescue. No other person or figure could do what he did. Not Mohammed or Buddha or Krishna or anyone else.

Without Jesus, “we are crushed under our overwhelming debt. Without him, every single one of us would have to pay for our own crimes, and that would take eternity.”

Only Jesus can fix what’s wrong with man, and that is the first part of fixing the world.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Now I want to attempt something difficult. I want to explain how a somewhat ordinary execution (and I say “ordinary” only because crucifixions happened frequently in Jesus’ time) turned out to be one of the most significant events of all time.

Last line(s): Jesus has already paid, It can only be received, humbly, on bended knee. You must simply trust him for it. And this is what the Story means by “faith.”

• The story of the judge and his mother is a really strong anecdote. I don’t know if Koukl made it up or got it from somewhere else, but it’s powerful, short, and memorable. Excellent metaphor.

Chapter 21. Trust

In This Chapter

• How “faith” has been mis-defined, and what it really means.
• The difference between believing THAT and believing IN.
• Why “faith alone” is not enough to save anyone.
• Why faith and reason are not enemies.

Here, Koukl tackles the problem with people’s understanding of the word “faith.”

It has been corrupted and words like “blind” or “leap of” have been added to it. But true faith is not that.

As Koukl points out:

“If you want to critique a view, you must critique the view itself and not your own private version of it. Anyone is free, of course, to define faith according to his own fancy, but he is not free to import his fanciful definition into another’s use of the word.”

In other words, “blind faith” is not a Christian concept.

For example: Jesus, before he was crucified, did many signs and wonders in the presence of witnesses to prove his claims.

Another mixup many people have is mistaking “believing facts” with “having faith.”

We use these words interchangeably, but they’re not always synonyms. Here’s Koukl’s delineation:

• Belief = believing that
• Faith = believing in

There are people who can believe THAT something is true, but never rely on it. You could be convinced that insulin injections helps with diabetes (belief that), but if you don’t inject insulin as a diabetic (belief in), you’ll still die.

And so, Koukl propose to replace the word “faith” with “trust.”

Knowing this distinction is important, because:

“The sad fact is, every Sunday, churches are filled with ‘believers’ who are not Christians.”

These people, Koukl says, have fine doctrine, but they’re disconnected from God. They know about Jesus, but they have never trusted in him. And you can see it in the way they live their lives.

But trust alone is not enough.

If you were diabetic and needed insulin, and I handed you something I called insulin, it’s not enough for you to trust me and take the injection. The thing I inject you with also must be insulin, not saline or something else, in order for you to be saved.

In other words, if you trust in the wrong thing, you’re still going to die.

In other-other words, no one is “saved by faith” alone.

They are saved, by faith, in the right thing.

So faith doesn’t save anyone. JESUS saves people THROUGH faith.

“Which is why reason and evidence matter in the Story. It is critical to get certain facts right. Put simply — reason assesses, faith trusts.”

(In a footnote, Koukl notes that he got this idea from David Horner. Basically, Koukl explains that faith and reason are not opposed to each other. The opposite of faith is unbelief. The opposite of reason is irrationality. “It certainly is possible to have a reasonable faith, and it is also possible to have an unreasonable unbelief.”)

So in that sense, Christianity isn’t based on faith. It’s based on the Person Christians put their faith in (Jesus). And that means you have to get the Story right.

“this relationship between faith and fact may be why Jesus had more to say about truth than he did about trust. He said that authentic worship had to be based on truth. He taught that walking in truth was the secret of genuine freedom from sin’s enslaving power. He wanted his followers to be sanctified in truth through God’s Word, which he said was the truth…Jesus was so filled with truth himself, he personally identified himself with it: ‘I am…the truth.’”

Now, Koukl mentions that he knows some religious people who believe that using the mind is the wrong thing to do when it comes to answering spiritual questions. Such people rely more on their feelings, instead.

But this advice is bad, because there are lots of “spiritual lemons” out there, which are deadly.

“Never trust anyone who tells you to rely on experience over careful thinking.”

Feelings are important “they make life beautiful.” But reason “makes life safe.” (Note: I would say, safeR)

Another thing Koukl says:

When you trust Jesus, you are switching loyalties. Your mind changes, your heart changes, your direction changes. You learn to trust Someone you can follow “faithfully in spite of inconvenience.”

In the Bible, this is called repentance, and it’s central to the Story. You’re turning away from a self-centered life to a life where God is the center and you (and everything else) are subordinate to him.

“To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that he says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice.” — CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

BUT you need to get things in the right order.

You don’t change your life in order to follow Jesus. When you follow Jesus, that changes the way you live. Koukl says, “Christ first catches his fish, then cleans them.”

But to be clear, what are we trusting Christ for? Two things:

1. Your sin went to Jesus’ account.
2. Jesus’ goodness went to your account.

As Koukl points out: Because God poured his wrath on Jesus, he is not angry at you any more. “He is emptied of his wrath. He is satisfied. This thought alone could transform your life, if you let it sink in.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): I have suggested that the most remarkable rescue operation in history, the death of Jesus of Nazareth on a cross at Calvary, will do you no good unless you have faith.

Last line(s): What you choose to do about what happened at Calvary and on that first Easter morning with the empty tomb will make the deciding difference for you at the end of the Story. What is that difference? That question is answered with the final piece of our puzzle.

• Koukl is excellent at articulating and then addressing common objections and confusions. Like the idea that “faith doesn’t save — Jesus saves THROUGH faith.” Or “reason assesses, faith trusts.”
• It’s only after reading a book like this that you realize how many things in your life and thinking were muddled and backwards and sometimes just plain wrong. He sorts things out very clearly and makes it look easy.
• I also like his line “Christ first catches his fish, then cleans them.”

PART FIVE: RESURRECTION

Chapter 22. Four Facts

In This Chapter

• The two linchpins of the Christian Story.
• How historians do their thing.
• How to prove a resurrection.

In this chapter, Koukl begins with the minimal facts of the Christian Story. There’s more to the Story that is important, of course, but these two things are the linchpins:

1. The invisible trade between God the Father and God the Son (covered in previous chapters)
2. The resurrection.

Before talking about the second point, though, Koukl warns readers that he’s not about to take a “Bible said it, and that’s the only reason why I believe it” stand on the resurrection.

He points out that some object to the gospels being believable because they were written by believers who had a personal interest in the story.

Fair enough, but consider that Holocaust records are largely written by survivors who also have a personal interest in the story. That doesn’t mean that they made up the Holocaust.

In fact, the reality that the early Christians literally died because of what they said meant that they “staked their lives on the Story’s accuracy.”

No one could have told Jesus’ story better than those who knew him personally and put their own welfare on the line to testify about him.

Because, after all, bias can take two forms:

The first is just the simple fact of having a point of view, which everyone has. If this kind of bias is not allowed, history would not be a discipline, since everyone has a bias of some sort.

The second is when the bias leads people to exagerrate or misrepresent facts for personal gain.

But in this case, the early Christians had nothing to gain personally by making up stories. People don’t get martyred for “myths they make up themselves.”

Then, Koukl tackles the objection some people have that supernatural explanations can never be allowed.

But that’s rejecting things before even examining the evidence. Why should you accept the constraint that the supernatural cannot happen? Better to follow the evidence where it leads instead of disqualifying certain ideas out of hand because you are biased against it.

So Koukl recommends being open-minded and not putting arbitrary obstacles in your own way.

Now, on to how historians do their thing:

Historians use evidence from the past (written documents, archaeological finds, artifacts, etc), to put together not proofs, but probabilities. They are detectives, “determining the most probable account of what took place in light of all the relevant information.”

So to the crux of the matter: How do you prove someone has risen from the dead?

1. First, you must prove the guy was dead (not just passed out or something)
2. Second, you must prove he was alive at a later point in time. If there’s a significant gap of time between death and resurrection (not just a few hours, but a few days), even better.

Here, Koukl says the “vast majority of scholars on the life of Jesus — including those who are entirely secular” (“vast majority” here defined by analyzing 1400 academic papers published since 1975 in three languages) agree on these 4 facts:

1. Jesus died on a Roman cross on Friday and was buried in a tomb.
2. That tomb was empty on Sunday morning.
3. Numerous witnesses testified (at great personal cost) that they saw Jesus alive multiple times after his death. That they met him and ate with him.
4. Even the skeptic James and enemy-of-Christians Saul of Tarsus, were convinced they’d seen the risen Jesus and both died rather than recant.

Now, the problem is most scholars do not believe Jesus rose from the dead. However, they cannot come up with a satisfactory naturalistic explanation for the 4 agreed-upon facts above.

For example, some claim the disciples stole Jesus’ body. But why would the disciples do that, then keep lying about his resurrection to the point where they themselves are tortured and killed for their testimony?

Some say they imagined they saw Christ, but hallucinations are private experiences, like dreams. They can’t be shared with others. Especially not with a crowd as large as the one claiming to have seen the risen Jesus.

What would change a group of terrified men (who’d abandoned Jesus at his arrest) into a group of lion-hearted speakers standing up against authorities and enduring torture and execution for declaring that Christ had risen?

Only one thing: The fact that Jesus really did rise again.

And because he rose again, there will be another resurrection when he returns at the end of the Story,”where all evil is vanquished, and all beauty is restored.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Every story of reality has a theology, so to speak, even those stories that do not seem particularly religious.

Last line(s): And because Jesus has risen, there will be another resurrection when he returns at the end of the story — the first securing the second — the great raising of all humanity for the final chapter, the final resolution — where all brokenness is repaired, all evil is vanquished, and all beauty is restored.

• Koukl makes a great argument here — that you can’t find the true answer to a question if you a priori reject that answer, or the possibility of that answer.
• It’s like the story of the guy who lost his glasses in the bushes, but decided to search for them under the lamppost instead — he’s not going to find his glasses, because he didn’t drop them under the lamppost. And by ignoring the bushes, he will never find the glasses.

Chapter 23. In Between

In This Chapter

• How the Christian Story makes sense of evil.

Koukl begins this chapter by reminding people that evil is not a problem in the Christian Story in the sense that the Christian Story makes sense of how evil came to be.

He also reminds readers that the “problem” of Jesus being the only way seems ridiculously narrow only when you don’t realize the reason why he’s the only way is because a specific problem requires a specific solution, and Jesus is the only one able to fix the problem we specifically have.

But the final restoration doesn’t come quickly. “Complex problems are not swiftly solved.”

Human rebellion broke the world, and that led to guilt. Our debt must be paid, and Jesus has paid for us, but not everyone has accepted that mercy yet. God delays the final curtain because he’s waiting for people to turn to him.

A lot of people complain that God doesn’t end the trouble we face. But in order for him to do that, he’d have to “give the bad people their comeuppance” and yet…we are the bad people.

“And for many people, the future is very dangerous indeed.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): We are nearly at the end of our Story, but first we need to go back to the beginning of our conversation to put the ending in its proper perspective.

Last line(s): At the final event of history as we know it, one of two things will take place: perfect justice or perfect mercy. Perfect justice — punishment for everything we have ever done wrong, and God misses nothing — or perfect mercy — forgiveness for everything we have ever done wrong, and God misses nothing.

• This story is solid and clear like all the others. The only suggestion I’d have is to point out why evil is not a problem in the Christian Story, but it IS a problem in the godless worldview —
• If there is no God, there is no good or evil, and the most heinous of murderers and rapists get away scot-free. Not to mention all of our losses and suffering in life is also meaningless.
• It may make you feel sad, hurt, or mad, but ultimately, your feelings don’t matter because YOU don’t matter as the accidental byproduct of some kind of meaningless evolutionary process. See how that goes?

Chapter 24. Perfect Justice

In This Chapter

• Why most people are not “basically good” as they think they are.
• Three key facts about hell.
• What “eternal destruction” really means
• Answers to objections about hell being a disproportionate punishment

When you see people getting away with bad things, you want justice, and the good news is that justice is coming.

That’s also the bad news.

The problem is, most people think they are “basically good” people. But they are mistaken.

In the end, people will be judged by their conduct on earth. “No unrepentant criminal will get away with anything in the long run.”

And here, Koukl breaks to say 3 things about hell:

1. Hell is banishment from God’s presence.
2. It is a place of unspeakable torment.
3. The conscious torment and suffering of those in hell will never end.

#1 — Many people in this life want nothing to do with God. So if they continue this way, in the end, God will give them what they want. But since God is the source of all good things — pleasure, joy, comfort, satisfaction, wonder — then being banished from him means being deprived of every goodness possible.

The Story describes this banishment as “eternal destruction.” And Koukl says this doesn’t mean annihilation. It means you will be forever ruined for your purpose. You were made for happiness with God, and without him, you will have no goodness of any kind. You will be in agony, in hell.

#2 — Jesus describes hell as a place of “outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth because of the intolerable suffering.”

There may or may not be literal flames, but it will be real and severe suffering.

#3 — It’s hard for us to imagine eternity, even harder to think of a hellish eternity. There is no escape, and no clock.

Here, people often argue that a loving God couldn’t create an eternal hell like this.

But hell is about God’s justice. God’s love is his mercy, the free pardon from hell, and you can deny God’s love, but you can’t escape his justice.

God is love, but love is not God. God is more than love. He is justice as well. And love and justice go together. If God let the wicked go free, he would not be good.

God is both love and justice, wonderful and terrifying.

Now, Koukl addresses another objection:

Why is hell forever? It seems disproportionate to the sins people commit in a limited life.

But Koukl reminds us “the ones who are guilty are not in the best position to assess the gravity of their own crimes. Our moral senses, though intact, are still marred by our own rebellion. We simply do not see our sin for what it is.”

Also, punishments don’t always correspond to how long it took you to commit a sin. Burglaries take minutes, murder can take seconds. But the punishment for murder is many times longer and worse than the punishment for burglary.

The wrongness of an act is determined by WHO it’s committed against.

A child punching another child is not the same as a child punching his parent.

Since God is infinite, the punishment for an offense against him is also infinite, even though we don’t like that idea.

So in the end, only one thing will save you from the punishment you deserve, and that’s Jesus.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): Have you ever wondered why so many people seem to “get away with murder,” as some would put it, why so many terrible crimes and malicious acts and gratuitous injustices seem to pass without consequence?

Last line(s): Here is the Story’s solution to the problem of evil: perfect justice for evildoers, perfect mercy for the penitent; evil banished forever, and everlasting good restored.

• I used to have an annihilationist view of hell, but now I’ve been seriously reconsidering that view. Koukl’s explanation that “eternal destruction” may not refer to annihilationism, but to a eternal ruining of one’s original purpose, make sense.

Chapter 25. Perfect Mercy

In This Chapter

• What to look forward to in the end days.

We are made for another world, which is not to be found in this world or lifetime.

Sometimes the visual descriptions in the Bible of this new world may not be appealing to us (Koukl says he’s not that interested in jewelry and thrones), but that’s because our fallen selves have a hard time understanding or appreciating what it is.

“When a person has always been dirty, it is hard for him to know what it might feel like to be completely clean.”

At the moment, people can BE clean before God because of the trade Jesus made, but the FEELING of being clean can still elude them.

Which is why it’s a good idea to remind yourself of God’s faithful mercy even when your feelings don’t match up. The Bible itself says “though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow.”

One day, everything will be holy, pure, filled with goodness. And that’s because one day, evil will be gone. No more guilt or brokenness or shame or death or night.

And in the final resurrection, people will be changed both inside and outside. There will be no more broken bodies. Instead, bodies will be remade, not just mended. People will still be recognizable as themselves, and those under God’s mercy will be reunited.

When you feel a sense of intense longing for something that this world never seems to satisfy, that’s because you were made for a different world.

Once in a while, we get a taste of that world, through certain fleeting experiences that touch you. A film, a vista, a hug, a poem, a story, a melody…these are “foretastes of Glory.”

And in that day when those who have received God’s mercy are raised again imperishable, that is the end of this Story.

And the beginning of a new one.

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): We are each born with a deep hunger that haunts us our entire life.

Last line(s): In that Story, we will expeirnece life better than the best we ever thought possible since — above all otehr mercies — we shall be his, and he shall be ours. Forever.

• And like all good writers, Koukl doesn’t linger long at the end of the story. He tells the important stuff, and then “gets out while the getting is good.” Haha!

Epilogue

In This Chapter

• A summary of everything learned in the book so far.

Now, Koukl sums it all up, reminding readers that he started the book with a few promises, of sorts:

1. There are reasons for the way things are. There are answers to the big WHY questions.
2. We all know that something is horribly wrong with our world, and that something is horribly wrong with us.

#1 —

The Christian worldview, which Koukl calls “the picture of reality” helps people see how everything significant fits together — how the world began, how it ends, and all the important stuff in between.

Koukl argues that no other worldview answers these questions as satisfactorily.

Because reality is like a jigsaw puzzle, and you need all the right pieces put together in the right way to see the picture clearly. If you’re missing pieces or you’ve added pieces that don’t fit, you won’t have an accurate picture of reality.

All worldviews follow a structure: creation, fall, redemption, restoration.

Just like stories: beginning, conflict, conflict resolution, ending.

#2 —

The two biggest objections people have to the Christian story are:

1. The problem of evil
2. The narrowness of the message

But once you understand the Story fully, you’ll see that the problem of evil isn’t a problem in the way people think. Given the beginning of this Story, it makes sense why the world is broken.

And given what Jesus did, it also makes sense why “the way to salvation is narrow.”

Here, Koukl refreshes the entire story in a few paragraphs:

• God created everything, seen and unseen, and it was all good.
• Then Man, who is not god, but isn’t trash either, was created to relate to God. He was given freedom, but used that freedom to rebel and do evil, breaking his friendship with God.
• Man’s rebellion angered God, but instead of destroying humanity, God stepped into history as a man himself, as Jesus, to “initiate a rescue operation.”
• Jesus was a true human being, but also “the Word made flesh.” He didn’t come for social justice but to live the life we ought to have lived, in order to exchange it for the punishment we deserve.
• Now, God offers mercy freely to anyone who accepts Jesus, and he is waiting for everyone to make their choice. But he will not wait forever. One day, everyone will be raised — the rebels to perfect justice, the penitent to perfect mercy. Heaven and earth will be remade, and evil and sin done with forever.

So the Story has 5 elements:

1. God
2. man
3. Jesus
4. cross
5. resurrection

In one sentence?

“God, the Creator of the universe, in order to rescue man from punishment for his rebellion, came to earth and took on humanity in Jesus, the Savior, to die on a cross and rise from the dead, so that in the final resurrection those who receive his mercy will enjoy a wonderful friendship with their sovereign Lord in the kind of perfect world their hearts have always yearned for.”

And that’s the Story. As Koukl says:

“If you are a Christian, this is your story. If you are not a Christian, this is also your story, because this isn’t a religious fairytale. This is the Story of the way things really are.”

And now you have a choice: To ask for God’s mercy and be welcome into his family, or reject the gift and stand alone at the judgment, paying for your own crimes.

Koukl invites readers to accept their pardon now, while they can, and turn and follow Jesus.

“Because this is not just a story. It’s a true story. It’s the true Story. It’s the Story of Reality.”

Quote(s) & Comments

First line(s): I began this book by making a promise, of sorts.

Last line(s): I invite you to accept your pardon now, while you can, and turn and follow Jesus. Because this is not just a story. It’s a true story. It’s the true Story. It’s the Story of Reality.

• This is a solid summary, containing all the major points. The only suggestion might be to have the summary at the beginning, and then again at the end, like a sandwich. It might be too much, but then again, considering that most people don’t read books in one setting, it would likely be helpful to have the summary twice.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Why I Rated This Book 5.3 Stars

I use this criteria to rate every book (out of 6 points per category):

Star ratings:
1 star = Basically, trash. Or worse.
2 stars = Only worth it if you really like the topic.
3 stars = Average.
4 stars = Quite Good.
5 stars = Worth re-reading more than once.
6 stars = Life-changing.

3. Craft ✍ ✍ ✍ ✍ ✍

Is this work is well-written, and are the ideas clearly and skillfully presented?

Koukl is one of the strongest, clearest writers I’ve seen, in all genres. He makes the concepts introduced sound simple, which is actually not easy.

Because when it comes to worldviews, there tends to be a lot of confusion and obfuscation and misunderstandings.

But Koukl’s method of laying out the material, organizing it logically, and speaking in clear, straightforward sentences, is pretty brilliant.

2. Concept 📖📖📖📖📖

Is this an interesting concept, well-executed? (Are implicit and explicit promises paid off?)

LMA/LDB: This is a “Learning” book, with a touch of “Being.”

In other words, you learn what the Christian worldview is, and at the end, there’s an invitation to take on this worldview for yourself and become a believer.

Also:

Koukl is a great communicator in part because he’s a strong organizer. He says flat out that he can tell the “Story of Reality” in 5 words: God, Man, Jesus, Cross, Resurrection.

And that’s exactly what he does.

1. Core ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Are the worldview, themes, and arguments of this work true, edifying, and worth learning?

As Koukl says, this is the Story of Reality, and he lays it out simply, and accurately. I don’t think I have much else to comment on, here. He’s said it all…

LED Assessment

How did this book Lighten, Enlighten, or Delight the reader (that would be moi, in this case, since I’m writing this review ^^)?

Definitely an “enlightening” book, in the sense that it chases away the confusion and deception to lay out in plain English what Christians really believe (or must believe if they are to accurately label themselves as Christians).

Writing Tips & Practical Application

Because learning doesn’t happen until you change something you do…

• The Five Word Test: Take a topic you want to write about and see if you can boil it down to 3–5 words. Maybe 7 at most. Any more than that and you risk making things needlessly complex.
• Try the sandwich method: Summarize what you’re going to say, succinctly, say it in detail with all necessary supporting evidence, then at the end recap what you just said in a brief summary, and end.

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