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 PrintableVersion What every Christian ought to knowLeave it on the shelfWHAT EVERY CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO KNOW ‘A thinking layperson’s introduction to theology.’ ‘Genuinely evangelical doctrine.’ ‘Teaching doctrine is the goal.’ This book promises much and may be eagerly bought by the ‘thinking Christian’ it is aimed at. Beware! Appearances are deceiving. Leave it on the shelf! The book follows a question and answer format in chapters on various topics: the Bible, God, Satan, God’s Sovereignty, Divine Providence, Sin, the Atonement, Faith. The questions are not so much questions you may be asking, as an opportunity to give the answers the author wants you to hear. While his views on the Bible appear to be orthodox, his treatment of God deals only with the Trinity. The Westminster Shorter Catechism answer to question four gives us more information about God in one answer. Taylor’s views on God’s sovereignty and divine providence are rabidly anti-Calvinistic, as well as a twisting of Scripture. He has no time for a sovereign God unless the extent of his sovereignty can be fully understood by the human mind. ‘The sacred territory of free choice’ is his framework for understanding God’s actions and, hence, mere mortals limit God. The treatment of sin is bizarre and seriously open to question. He endorses penal substitution but not limited atonement. What we have here is not a discussion of what the Bible teaches, rather a proof-texted attack on election and the other doctrines of grace. This book should have been titled: ‘What every Christian ought to know about the openness of God and the error of Calvinism’! Fiona Johnston,
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