TOTAL FORGIVENESS
By R.T. Kendall
Hodder & Stoughton. 177 pages. £7.99
ISBN 0 340 75639 X
Advice from Josif Tson challenged R.T. Kendall so much that it set him on a personal journey of discovery about what it means to totally forgive. This book is the fruit of his personal heart-searching and Bible study.
Its message is for the market place where believers struggle to understand what God requires, and want to know how to put it into practice. The author testifies that total forgiveness has released him, and many believers known to him, into greater peace and usefulness.
He begins by defining his subject carefully, both positively and negatively. He then unpacks key Scripture passages including the account of Joseph forgiving his brothers and our Lord's teaching. He concludes that forgiveness is central to healthy and holy Christian living.
Health and forgiveness, as taught by secularists, works! RT acknowledges that fact while clearly demonstrating that total forgiveness is more than a psychological trick - it is a divine command.
The chapter entitled 'The art of forgiving ourselves and forgetting' promised to be more difficult to this reviewer than it actually was. The all-too-self-conscious approach to dealing with personal guilt that the title suggested was worked out within a biblical framework which meant that the author escaped most, if not all, of the pitfalls.
With so many believers and churches in crisis because of the breakdown of relationships, this book is well worth reading and applying, whatever reservations you may have about RT and his friends, whom he quotes with approval in its pages.
Bev Savage,
General Secretary, FIEC
