Ultimate Realities:
Finding the heart of evangelical belief
By Robert M. Horn. IVP. 95 pages. £3.99
ISBN 0 85110 882 2
STUDENTS, READ THIS! CHRISTIAN UNION LEADERS, READ THIS! If you are in a student Christian Union and not a leader then buy this book for the committee and press them to make it a book to study and read. If you have students in your church then buy them one with a note attached saying that it might be a good idea to use this book as a basis for a CU series.
The book is a brief and easy-to-read explanation of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) basis of faith. Sounds dull? Well it isn't. As the writer says: 'This book has the aim of introducing core Christian beliefs. Those beliefs have saved lives, changed lives and cost lives.' 'The truths outlined in these chapters can change us from being self- or problem-centred to being God-centred. They can root out obsession with short-term cures and set us on the road to long-term spiritual health. They can lift us from the valleys of our own (little?) troubles, to the high ground of loving God and knowing his love poured out into our hearts by his Spirit.'
The author clearly shows that doctrine, far from being irrelevant and dry, is the very thing that sets us free to bear fruit in this confusing age. 'Let my teaching ('doctrine' in some versions) fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.' Deuteronomy 32.2. According to Moses (and the whole Bible), truth and teaching are the absolute and exact opposites of dryness and lifelessness. They are in fact the antidote to dried up, parched lives.'
Every year, thousands of students sign the UCCF basis of faith. If they truly understand the power of those doctrines and lived in the light of what they signed then there would a revolution in our places of education. This book very briefly and clearly adds a little flesh and explanation to that basis of faith. It pleads with us to stand firm on the real issues and then go out and proclaim them.
