The Good Book Company are on a real roll with this new series of mini books they have recently been publishing. They are new, fresh, well written, and supremely engaging. This new one entitled: ‘Can I Really Trust The Bible?’ is the absolute cream of the crop. Here’s what I wrote for their blurb.
This is one of the best series of books on the market in the UK right now. So easy to read, accessible, and practical. This one is right up there as one of the best. Excellently written, clear, concise and just about the best introduction you are going to find on the reliability of the Bible. Really, really good. This is going to be so helpful for our ministry within the schemes.
At the time I meant what I said but I have since had a change of heart on this work. One of the reasons is the length of the book. This review won’t be far off the same word count to be honest. Then, they say it’s over 80 pages long but some of the pages only have the word ‘notes’ written on them with no explanation of what it means. I mean come on GBC, get it together with the printing. Page 81 only has 3 and a bit lines on it, so not really a page is it? Page 8 is worse. It’s blank! I know. Not even the word ‘notes’ on it. It’s like they couldn’t be bothered or they just shoved an extra blank page in to make it look fatter and hoped nobody would notice. Well, I noticed. I expect more of you than that GBC. In fact, it’s such a short read that it’s more of a bo than a full book. It may seem picky but these things matter to the discerning blogger like my good self. I think the really offensive part of the whole thing is the truly outrageous claim that the book is a deep yellow colour when, in fact, it is clearly orange. The whole experience has just left me a little nauseous and slightly faint. On to my review of its content (and the real review).
Barry Cooper is such a good writer that it makes me want to puke with jealousy. He is pithy, amusing, interesting, and engaging, and has written a book here that is just infinitely better than anything else on the market right now. He just makes what could be (and often is) a dry and tired old subject come to life. I particularly love the question boxes scattered throughout each chapter, covering topics such as: Isn't the Bible out of date? Isn't it unreliable? Isn't it full of myths? What about the Qur'an? Why has God made it so hard to understand? This book isn’t trying to be clever or academic but what the author has done has just made the doctrine of Scripture understandable and even a little bit exciting for a whole new, largely biblically illiterate audience on the schemes. I haven’t been this excited about a book since J. Leeman’s, The Surprising Offense Of God’s Love (get that bought too). This is on my church’s and 20schemes must read list and discipleship courses.
Note: I felt I had to offer the opening critiques just to offer some balance to this whole review.
Get buying this bad boy in bulk. Hand it out to your church members. Run studies in your church youth group with it. 11/10 for this little fella. I love this book so much that I am going to send a free copy to the first 10 people who email me at: [email protected] and drop me a line saying: “Can I Really Trust The Bible?”
Here’s the promo shoot for the book thrown in for free.
Mez McConnell is the senior pastor of