Over a year ago, our pastor did a sermon series based on concepts in the book What If Jesus Was Serious by Skye Jethani. The book is based on the Sermon on the Mount. Up until that series, I had never heard of the book or of the author. Pastor Jeni’s sermon series was very good. So when the pastors of our church put together a space where we can borrow some of their books. I checked, this one was available, so I borrowed it. And I’m glad I did.

The book consists of seventy-two chapters, each two pages long, dealing with a small part of the sermon. Jethani’s point is that, if Jesus was serious in what he said, and we really think about what each point means, we will have to change our lives. Each chapter includes a sketch—a doodle—at the start that illustrates the point.  A number of these doodles are on the book cover.

The Sermon on the Mount is worth studying over and over. To see it from different eyes, hearing a little different take on it, is good. Jethani brought out points I never thought of, so that’s good. I found only one area I disagreed with him on. In Chapter 21, he said that guardrails (i.e. self-imposed barriers to our behavior) are good, but living at such a higher plane that you don’t need guardrails is better. I’ve read too many accounts of Christians in the limelight have benefitted from having established rigorous guardrails for themselves to agree with Jethani. At the same time, stories of Christians who haven’t established and lived by guardrails have had moral failures. Maybe Jethani is right, and not needing guardrails is superior to living by guardrails, but I’m not convinced.

The main thing I didn’t like about the book was the short chapters. I think I’d have liked 3 or 4 page chapters with a little more examination of the scripture point. On more than a few chapters, I was left a bit confused at Jethani’s point. Some more explanation would have benefitted me.

Oh, and I must say that Pastor Jeni’s sermons were much better than the book. Of course, she had more time to go into each point than the books did. And, no, the sermon series was not seventy-two weeks long.

My rating? If I could put 3.5-stars, I would. But, sticking to whole numbers, I give it 4-stars. Since I read this in a borrowed book, whether or not it’s a keeper isn’t a question. But I won’t be acquiring a copy for my library.

Lynda and I are in the process of selling books. Not books I’ve written, but books in our personal inventory: books we inherited from parents or bought though the years. One man who bought one book from me wanted to browse what we had. In a box tucked away in our basement storeroom was a book Astronomy and the Bible. It was published in the 1980s, but I don’t remember seeing it before.

The author, Donald B. DeYoung, is a scientist and university professor of physics and astronomy. In his years of teaching and speaking at many events, both academic and Christian, he’s had to answer many questions. How are star distances measured?  Has the earth’s tilt changed? What is a quasar? What is the Anthropic Principal? The book consists of these questions and DeYoung’s answers.

I found the book fascinating, and easy reading. The format of questions and answers facilitated quick reading, DeYoung’s answer style also made for easy reading. I was able to finish the book before the buyer came to pick it up.

Since the book was published in 1989, the two deep-space telescopes have been implemented by NASA. We know a lot more about the universe than we did at the time of publication. A few of his answers would be somewhat different in 2024 than they were in 1989. But except for that, the book seems accurate even today.

DeYoung is a professing Christian, and a believer in a young earth. He says there is some evidence in the cosmos for creation about 10,000 years ago. But he does a good job of presenting both old earth and young earth evidence. The reader can decide, taking DeYoung’s answers with other works, both scholarly and popular, and come to their own conclusions.

I give this book 5-stars. It’s a short read, and a good read. But it is sold, so I will likely never read it again. If you’re interested in the subject, and happen to find a used copy of this 35-year-old work, go ahead and read it. I recommend it.