{"id":1310,"date":"2017-11-28T22:37:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T22:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=1310"},"modified":"2017-11-28T22:37:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T22:37:45","slug":"book-review-sinners-in-the-hands-of-a-loving-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=1310","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW: Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p><\/p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-1311 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/512sCwtdYL._SX322_BO1204203200_.jpg?resize=240%2C370\" alt=\"512sCwtd+YL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_\" width=\"240\" height=\"370\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/512sCwtdYL._SX322_BO1204203200_.jpg?w=324&amp;ssl=1 324w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/512sCwtdYL._SX322_BO1204203200_.jpg?resize=195%2C300&amp;ssl=1 195w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/512sCwtdYL._SX322_BO1204203200_.jpg?resize=150%2C231&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/512sCwtdYL._SX322_BO1204203200_.jpg?resize=100%2C154&amp;ssl=1 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/>\u201cPeople have never seen God until they see Jesus.\u201d This is the primary assertion of Brian Zahnd in his book, <em>Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God<\/em>. The subtitle is \u201cThe Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News,\u201d which sums up the tone of this wonderful book very nicely. Zahnd directly and poetically attacks the glorification of divine violence and the \u201cweaponization\u201d of scripture that have been the hallmarks of much of modern Christianity. As a cultural touchstone, Zahnd offers Jonathan Edwards\u2019 famous sermon, \u201cSinners in the Hands of an Angry God.\u201d If this sermon is at the heart of American revivalism, then should we be surprised at our current theological state, what Zahnd calls a \u201cgood cop\/bad cop\u201d view of God?\n<p>This book is very theological and well-reasoned. It has to be. Zahnd is sacrificing some very sacred cows, dealing with topics such as the reality of hell, the interpretation of Revelation, the wrath of God, non-violence, and penal substitutionary atonement theory. This are hot topics, and Zahnd speaks with a measured, loving, firm, and redemptive tone. A discussion of any one of these topics could fill multiple books\u2014and those books are available\u2014but Zahnd keeps things concise. This book reads like a manifesto, meant to break us out of our stupor and send us in new directions, thinking differently than we did before. We are forced to confront ideas that we have long held sacred.<br>\nZahnd breaks into poetic verse, and builds beautiful metaphors. He restores the sense of subversive worship to the book of Revelation. He reminds us why the cross is such as powerful symbol of love. Zahnd\u2019s view of God is uncomfortable\u2014not because of his wrath, but because of the distressing depths of his love. One lucid statement lands like a punch to the gut: \u201cJesus didn\u2019t die on the cross to change God\u2019s mind about us; Jesus died on the cross to change our minds about God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This book is a must-read for every Christian. Even if someone disagrees with Zahnd\u2019s conclusions and assertions, this book will still hold value. Its value is in the way it causes the reader to be doubtful of easy answers to complex questions, the way it questions our traditional approaches to evangelism (which have become ineffective), and the way it sends the reader, unsatisfied, on a journey for more understanding. I am truly grateful for this book.<\/p>\n<p>Please Note: This book was gifted as a part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloggingforbooks.com\">Blogging for Books<\/a> Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. This has in no way influenced my opinion or review of this work.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cPeople have never seen God until they see Jesus.\u201d This is the primary assertion of Brian Zahnd in his book, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God. The subtitle is \u201cThe Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News,\u201d which sums up the tone of this wonderful book very nicely. Zahnd directly and poetically attacks&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=1310\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">BOOK REVIEW: Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4,12],"tags":[15,24,31,32,84,111,116,213,150,157,192],"class_list":["post-1310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-for-books","category-books-2","category-reviews","tag-52-books","tag-atonement","tag-bible","tag-books","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-love","tag-nonviolence","tag-reading","tag-reviews-2","tag-theology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EHHr-l8","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1312,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions\/1312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}