Four Letter Words by Dr. Bill Giovannetti

If you are like me, you have trouble answering some people's questions about faith. Perhaps they see Christian faith as a sign of weakness. Maybe they are asking how God could allow some evil.

“The core beliefs of the Christian faith have become today's four letter words,” he writes. He has written this book to help us turn challenges to our faith into opportunities to share God's love. Giovannetti says the church needs a new breed of Christ followers: alert to today's touchy ideas, able to make a clear case for the Bible's worldview. He has written this book so that believers can speak boldly without backing down.

The words he writes about are TRUE, KNOW, PAIN, OUCH, EVIL, WORD, DAMN (hell), WAIT,and HOPE. For each four letter word, Giovannetti lists “touch ideas” and “touchy Scriptures” on the topic, then speaks to the issues. He ends each section with “talking points,” suggestions and techniques for continued dialogue.

TRUE: Giocannetti shares his experience with modernism and post-modernism, spending some time on the characteristics of the latter. For Christians, “truth is reality as God sees it.” (32)

KNOW: Giovannetti attacks knowledge, faith and epistemology. He shows how empiricism and rationalism both start with a leap of faith.

PAIN: He critiques various theodicies, dealing with the issue that may keep more people away from God than any other issue.

EVIL: He deals with moral standards and their origin. He investigates the real inconsistent triad.

WORD: Rather than defending the Bible, he looks at its beauty and love, comparing it to texts of other religions.

DAMN (HELL): He reviews the five views on hell and looks at the ramifications if hell is not real.

WAIT: God is pro-sex (after all, He designed the body). He explains the limits God placed on sex and why waiting for it makes sense.

HOPE: He explains his own source of hope and how those with Christian faith have given hope to others.

Giovannetti's “talking points” are very effective. He is great at pointing out the hidden assumptions and inconsistencies in thinking. He has really thought through the issues and the potential arguments others might put forward when questioning Christianity.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting an effective resource is defending the Christian faith.

This book is one of the first fully QR enabled books. You can use any smartphone to scan the codes throughout the book for more resources. Most lead you to pages on the website www.fourletterwords.org.

Dr. Bill Giocannetti is a professor at A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary and the senior pastor of Neighborhood Church of Redding. An experienced speaker and author, he enjoys life with his wife and two kids in northern California. For more information about him, visit http://maxgrace.wordpress.com and http://fourletterwords.org.

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