A Review of Spectacular Sins
12:28 PM Saturday, October 18, 2008
In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God . . . But instead they found themselves quoting the script of ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put his glory on display--John Piper
In my opinion, this is by far one of the most important books I have ever read. I do not say that lightly. Let me give you a little background as to how this book came into my hands. As many of you know, I am in my final semester of my undergraduate education. For my last semester I am taking an apologetics class. One of my assignments is to write a fifteen page paper on a topic of my choice related to apologetics. I have chosen to do my paper on the problem of evil.
One of the books I chose to read in preparation for my paper was Spectacular Sins. In the midst of reading this book, I realized it is great devotional reading. This book has been a tremendous help for me in seeing the glory of God in the midst of devastation.
So what’s the purpose of the book? Piper gives a few reasons: “I am writing this book to build a vision of God into our lives that will not let us down in the worst times” (pg. 14). “The aim of this book is not to meet felt needs, but to awaken needs that will soon be felt, and then to save your faith and strengthen your courage when evil prevails” (pg. 16). Again, he says, “My aim is to show that sin and evil, no matter how spectacular, never nullify the decisive, Christ-exalting purposes of God” (pg. 17).
In 110 pages, Piper goes through 8 different portions of Scripture and shows how through terrible evil (and sometimes difficult passages) the glory of the Triune God is more fully seen.
Undoubtedly, you have asked God this question: “Why is there so much evil in the world?” “God, why don’t you stop it?” You’ll have to read the book to see the answers Piper puts forth. In my opinion, he does one of the best jobs I have seen.
In my opinion, this is by far one of the most important books I have ever read. I do not say that lightly. Let me give you a little background as to how this book came into my hands. As many of you know, I am in my final semester of my undergraduate education. For my last semester I am taking an apologetics class. One of my assignments is to write a fifteen page paper on a topic of my choice related to apologetics. I have chosen to do my paper on the problem of evil.
One of the books I chose to read in preparation for my paper was Spectacular Sins. In the midst of reading this book, I realized it is great devotional reading. This book has been a tremendous help for me in seeing the glory of God in the midst of devastation.
So what’s the purpose of the book? Piper gives a few reasons: “I am writing this book to build a vision of God into our lives that will not let us down in the worst times” (pg. 14). “The aim of this book is not to meet felt needs, but to awaken needs that will soon be felt, and then to save your faith and strengthen your courage when evil prevails” (pg. 16). Again, he says, “My aim is to show that sin and evil, no matter how spectacular, never nullify the decisive, Christ-exalting purposes of God” (pg. 17).
In 110 pages, Piper goes through 8 different portions of Scripture and shows how through terrible evil (and sometimes difficult passages) the glory of the Triune God is more fully seen.
Undoubtedly, you have asked God this question: “Why is there so much evil in the world?” “God, why don’t you stop it?” You’ll have to read the book to see the answers Piper puts forth. In my opinion, he does one of the best jobs I have seen.
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