Introduction
The book “Think Biblically” by John MacArthur can be acclaimed as an appeal to the audience to view the occurrences of modern culture through Biblical teachings. In the following paper, the strong and the weak points of this book will be discussed along with the value of the book for the spiritual growth as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Overall, “Think Biblically” appears to be a strong piece of scholarly work on God’s wisdom shown in the Bible with an inviting style rather easy for comprehension and accepting by the most diversified audience, an interesting layout, and sustainable research data.
Main body
First, summarizing the contents of the book under consideration, it should be stated that its main idea is in the vindication of God’s word given to people through the Bible over all the transient worldly philosophies. In this book, the Bible is represented as God’s word to people aimed to help them guide their steps in the world subjected to the influence of devilish propagation. Through the book’s pages, John MacArthur and the other biblical scholars and researchers discuss the way of thinking dominating in the world along with its materialism and low level of morality. The Bible is shown as the best guidance for such important categories in human life as gender, nationalism, prejudice, psychology, science, economics, government, history, literature, and education. In the beginning, the author gives a huge portion of the book to the arguments proving Biblical authenticity and inspiration as God’s word. He mentions a number of biblical places written thousands of years ago where the wisdom presented to the reader greatly exceeds all the findings of science of those days which proves that the source of this wisdom is highly above, and this source is the Creator of humanity Himself. Through the whole book, the audience may find an abundance of recommendations on forming Christian way of thinking in such areas of human life as cultivating faith in God, developing proper attitude to sin, maintaining good relationship in the family, building proper view of secular government and education, raising balanced view of economic matters, and glorying and pleasing God by one’s way of living. The book is full of Biblical quotations along with their scholarly interpretation which helps readers with the most diversified backgrounds come to an understanding of God given wisdom rendered in those places of the Bible.
Next, evaluating the book’s strengths, its honest approach to the Bible should be mentioned. The book quotes a lot of Biblical verses doing so in such a way that enables the readers to explore the context in which any particular words were written, and the meaning of idioms of Ancient Aramaic and Hebrew languages.
To illustrate this, the examples of fig trees, the lake of fire and sulphur, Har–Ma·ged′on, beasts symbolizing human governments and so on can be indicated. Such images difficult for understanding by people belonging to modern society are discussed in the context of ancient Aramaic and Greek linguistics and cultural background to help the readers see the real meaning behind these speech figures.
The ideas rendered by MacArthur in this book inspire to cultivate a new way of thinking formed as a result of the influence of God’s wisdom. In accordance to God’s appeal to humanity, to quit being fashioned after this world in the way of thinking, the author encourages his readers to chance their life perceptions and personal principles. MacArthur explains that this world is passing away along with its desire just as it is stated in 1 John 2:17, he also explains that he that is walking with God remains forever as part ‘b’ of this verse states. Thus, it is much wiser to build one’s happiness on a firm foundation of God’s way of thinking. To illustrate this simple truth shown in the Bible, the author compares God with an inventor who created a television set. The inventor knows exactly what is good and what is bad for the invention, he knows how to prolong the term of its functioning, and how to prevent any possible breakdowns. Just as the inventor knows all those points, and openly shares them with television set users in the manual, God knows what is good for a human and shares this knowledge in the Bible.
The conclusions made by the author in the book appear to be well-grounded and weighted out. Some of the most remarkable conclusions are the conclusion that the world around us is created by the One who possesses Eternal wisdom and is worthy of our worship on this reason; the conclusion that human wisdom is a trap leading to all the miseries humanity is faced with nowadays; and that the only sure way for happiness and success is in adhering to God’s standards shown in the Bible.
Further, regarding the weaknesses of the book, it can be said that they are rather difficult to find. In general, the book’s argument appears to be coherent and well-weighted which makes it strong and reliable. Some insignificant difficulty in accepting the ideas of the book is its style in a few places. Whereas the majority if the book’s chapters use simple language easy for comprehension, in some chapters, there are sentences which are rather complicated and long, and the word structures in them apply a lot of specific terms difficult for understanding by common people. This is undesirable because the book aims to meet the interests of the most diversified audience, and not only theologians and scholars, but youngsters and people of middle age belonging to the wide public.
Finally, reflecting on the findings of the book, it should be stated that it is by all means a strong work that may help any individual on the Earth stick to the truths promoted in the Bible and become a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. In addition, the book is also beneficial for those who are among Christians already. It helps deepen one’s gratitude and love to God, strengthen one’s faith into his word, and develop a new way of thinking not fashioned in accordance to worldly ideas and philosophies.
Conclusion
As a final point, the book “Think Biblically” by John MacArthur is an excellent work helping people from different backgrounds acquire or strengthen one’s faith in God and his inspired Word the Bible. The book helps in forming new way of thinking that is no more influenced by the false teachings of transient worldly philosophy. In this book, the Bible is shown from its own point of view and the angle of Christian thinking shown in 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 as inspired of God and ‘beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting thing straight, and for disciplining in righteousness’.