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What Christians Should Know About A Personal Relationship With God

'What Christians should know about . . '

DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, MOOD SWINGS AND HYPERACTIVITY
By Grant Mullen. 56 pages. ISBN 1 85240 210 5

A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
By Peter Nodding. 48 pages. ISBN 1 85240 216 4

SICKNESS AND HEALING
By Ed Harding. 40 pages. ISBN 1 85240 211 3

THE IMPORTANCE OF FORGIVENESS
By John Arnott. 40 pages. ISBN 1 85240 215 6

All published by Sovereign World.

This series of booklets is attractively produced, short and easy to read guides covering a variety of practical ministry issues. They will be well received by many Christians who want a simple introduction to specific issues they may face. The four booklets I have read reflect a charismatic theology and draw favourably on such phenomena as the Toronto Blessing, Inner Healing and spiritual warfare.

As with any series, the contributions vary in quality and consistency. The booklet on depression and related conditions covers some quite technical ground in very clear and sensitive language. Grant Mullen is at great pains to draw attention to the medical nature of these problems and the need to use medical advice and treatment alongside prayer for more direct spiritual healing. Peter Nodding provides a helpful commendation and discussion of the personal character of our relationship with God. Preferring the term 'friendship' to 'intimacy' as the more biblical term, Nodding writes with real pastoral concern for the Christian life in its need for holiness, prayer, honesty and fellowship. Ed Harding's booklet on healing places the need to seek God for miraculous help alongside natural medical treatment and a submissiveness to God's sovereign will.

The serious concern that I would raise with the series is the handling of Scripture that is both modelled and commended. There is a great deal of proof-texting for some rather contentious claims and some manipulative arguments that rely on anecdotal material. Biblical texts are sometimes introduced to illustrate points that are made quite independently of any theological argument.

John Arnott deals with the importance of forgiveness in the Christian life and develops the helpful insight that harbouring bitterness towards others can become a prison from which only forgiveness provides release. However, he fails to distinguish criticism of others (pp.17-18) and the desire for justice (p.21) from sinful behaviour. This permits him to draw on anecdotes of Christians who have been critical of the Toronto Blessing as instances of 'grieving the Holy Spirit' and such individuals need to seek forgiveness for their charges. Arnott overlooks the biblical case for testing, weighing and, where necessary, being a critic of false claims within the church. He presents what he describes as the 'legal rights' we give Satan when we do not forgive, which permit him to damage our lives in physical and spiritual ways. Arnott refers to people who have 'three or four auto accidents in a row' as suffering from this 'dynamic of sowing and reaping' (p.15). Verses are quoted to support ideas like this with little attention to their context.

The aim and concept behind the series is highly commendable but the execution of that aim is very uneven and, in places, seriously flawed. The series as a whole must be treated with caution!

Chris Sinkinson, Bath