By Colin Dye
Hodder and Stoughton. 195 pages. £4.99
This is a very confusing book. There are good things in it (for example, speaking of faith he says: 'We have to turn away from sin and embrace righteousness. We must turn away from our failure and negative past and begin to live the life of God. That's what faith is all about.' (.p. 57)) yet again and again the context makes clear that Dye is arguing for little (if anything) short of health, wealth and prosperity: 'God has made promises for our personal life, for the health and healing of our body and for our home and family. There are promises four our well being and prosperity. Biblical prosperity is having enough for your own needs so that you can minister to other people's needs...' (p. 56).
This seems to be essence of the book: if we have faith, all our needs (and perhaps wants too - a bungalow by the seaside - p. 14) will be met. Yet on the same page he speaks like this of prosperity, Dye seems to deny it: 'Everything we need for the promotion and development of this new (spiritual) life from God is found in the promises of Scripture' (p. 56). Then, while he includes several good warnings against treating God like a slot-machine and faith as the means to get what we want from him, he goes on to describe instances where faith is 'used' just like that.
Then too, the book contains silly statements: 'Sometimes in Africa it is exceptional for people not to be healed.' (p. 4); and the visualisation technique he describes on page 69 has more in common with Al Koran's Bring out the Magic in your Mind than with the Bible. Dye is apparently aware of the dangers of an 'over-realised eschatology' but sees the bigger danger as an 'under-realised eschatology'.
This is not a good book, and time and money are short; spend them both on something else.
