Be Sure What You Believe - the Christian faith simply explained

BE SURE WHAT YOU BELIEVE:
the Christian faith simply explained
By Joe Nesom
Evangelical Press. 176 pages. £7.95
ISBN 0 85234 427 9

The clue to this book by a Southern Baptist pastor lies in its subtitle. It is a mild and uncomplicated approach, suitable for unpretentious people or perhaps a serious child.

Baptist persuasions inevitably show through from time to time, but Nesom makes a pretty good attempt at giving a generic evangelical survey.

The description of the life of the church is not quite so generic, for it sounds a little limited and old-fashioned (or perhaps just very plain), and reads as though this alone is the true evangelical way.

The book is also Calvinistic. This may strike us as reassuringly normal, but we must give Nesom credit for what is rare among American Baptists.

Where Be Sure scores over other introductory doctrine books is in its simplicity - it is truly elementary. Nesom has clearly worked hard at simplicity both of thought and expression. Where it loses out is in spark and in interest.

Pluses and minuses can be seen by an example. In one of his best sentences, Nesom gives a beautifully clear and easy to grasp summary of the sufficiency of Scripture: 'It is the written revelation of everything that we need to know in order to find salvation, and of everything that we need to know to live in the way that is pleasing to our God.' Since this is all that we are told about the doctrine of sufficiency, the person who wants to be sure they have understood this rightly and fully may find themselves frustrated. I suppose that is the reason to go on to another book!

Michael Peat

© Evangelicals Now - February 2000
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Main Articles

• A youth worker's nightmare
  'I ask you, members of the jury: 'How many of you could defend yourself if you were falsely accused? How many of you could produce 16 witnesses and 100 letters of reference to defend yourselves?'
• Ready to die? When the question is suddenly personal
  Helen England describes how it feels to face death in the aftermath of a car crash
• Rome and the Lutherans
  The declaration on justification signed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (reprinted from World Magazine)
• Bringing men back to church
  Suggestions and strategies on how to get men back into church (reprinted from The Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood)
• The beauty of God
  Can we properly call God beautiful?
• The Crowded House
  Steve Timmis concludes his series on planting a network of household churches in Sheffield (part 2 of series)
• Monthly column on hymns and songs
  The prominence given to music in modern worship
• Kingdom cool
  Style and content in the 21st century church - how should we confront the culture and what should the focus of church be?
• Monthly column on the arts: notes from the Dome
  The music chosen for the Millennium Dome and Cliff Richard's Millennium Prayer
• Monthly column for youth leaders: snoozing in the armchair church
  How to encourage young people to participate and become involved in the wider church

Other articles

• A New Kind of Living
• The Iron Giant
• Cantatas (BWV 105, 179, 186) by Johann Sebastian Bach - CD review
• Star Gazing - (Audio tape)
• Matters of Life and Death - An extract from the book Matters of Life and Death giving a Christian response to the consequences of limited resources in the NHS
• Holy Communion for Amateurs
• The Claims of Truth - John Owen's Trinitarian Theology
• Paul the Apostle - A Biography
• Learning in Christ's School
• Setting Hearts on Fire - a guide to giving evangelistic talks
• Be Sure What You Believe - the Christian faith simply explained
• Let's Explore - the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes
• Whatever Happened To The Ten Commandments?
• Making Connections - building relationships with people at the edge
• Geneva Commentary Series - Judges
• Sins of the Fathers