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 PrintableVersion One holy fireSincere challengeONE HOLY FIRE This is a lightweight book by Nicky Cruz about Nicky Cruz. That is to say it is a little more than autobiographical; it borders on self-promotion. The book is divided into three parts: The Fire, The Holiness, The Oneness, but there is little difference between the parts, each containing anecdotes about the author's ministry over many years. There is no chronological progression, the chapters jumping backwards and forwards in time between the author's conversion and his later ministry. From one point of view the book is extremely challenging. There is no doubting the author's sincerity, his compassion for the lost and hopeless, and his burden for evangelism. He and his team have gone into the toughest parts of large cities to reach gangsters, pimps, prostitutes and drug addicts, many of whom the author rightly sees simply as kids who have lost their way. The book raises the question, how many evangelical churches are even trying to reach such people? But of course Nicky Cruz, through his own testimony, is uniquely equipped to bridge the gap between the church and the crime-ridden ghettos. Many readers will be put off by the author's theology and by his methodology. As to the former he is an advocate of present-day signs and wonders, an admirer of the late Kathryn Khulman, and he claims: 'Since the day I became a Christian I've seen no distinction between what I read about in the book of Acts and what I experience in my ministry' (p.171). As to the latter, he uses 'rap' and 'hip hop' music, drama and instant decisionism with the laying on of hands. Admirers of Nicky Cruz will want to read it. Others need not bother. Stanley Jebb,
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