You like free things, right? Thought so. Wellsir and wellsister, I've got two for you, both featuring a book about the free and sovereign grace of God in the Gospel.
Free Kindle. For a limited time, Kregel is generously allowing downloads of the Kindle edition of The World-Tilting Gospel — for zero dollars, zero cents. (In the UK, it's zero pounds, zero pences. [That's contextualizing, baby.])
Let me share with you one of the may testimonies that have encouraged my heart. Kim Shay has been blogging some of her thoughts as she reads the book. In this post, Kim received this comment:
I have been a Christian for 30+ years, and in all that time I have never come across such a profound description of what the Gospel is. I love this book. God has used TWTG in my life in a way that only the Bible has affected me prior to this book. So many pieces of Scripture and their intent, that were fuzzy are now Chrystal clear. I highly recommend this book for everyone no matter what their station in life is, or where their walk with the Lord is. It will stimulate the intellect as well as minister to the heart of those who are hungry to know the deeper meaning of our Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.This is what all the big names and big bloggers have been saying we need to produce, isn't it? Sermons and posts and books that set out the Gospel fully, root it in the OT, present the Biblical truths of God's awesome holiness, man's devastation by sin, the marvelous eternal saving plan of God, the sovereign free grace in the Gospel, the meaning of repentant faith, and the Gospel's implications for growth in holiness — in an accessible way, with (to quote another reader) "zero dumbing-down" or compromise? (Kind words from both an eight-year-old and a PhD = "accessible.") They've called repeatedly for such books to be written. Well, here's a book that tries. (Kregel has a blog tour page linking to other reviews.)
Perhaps the free download will be useful in letting them know that such a resource is now available.So if you send out an email starting "You know that book I told you about?" — just make sure it ends "But do this now; I don't know how long this will last." (Because I don't.)
But wait, there's more!
Free hard copies. Blogger Persis (who comments under the handle Pilgrim Mommy) has reviewed The World-Tilting Gospel, and is giving away two copies. In her kind review, Persis says, inter alia:
The World Tilting Gospel is scripture-saturated. It's meaty, without an ounce of fluff, and deals thoroughly with essential truths of the faith. Yet it's a very accessible and engaging read. (Snippets of Dan's humor appear here and there, which added to the enjoyment of the book.) The sections on justification and sanctification, particularly our struggles with the flesh, are some of the clearest I have ever read. I can also attest that his diagnoses of faulty mind-sets of the Gospel are spot on, having been mired by one of them (muzzy mysticism) for most of my life.Go to her blog to see how to register and be one of the "providential winners" of a free copy of WTG.
And more! Karla has also reviewed the book, and is offering a free hard-copy. She says:
There are an overwhelming amount of scripture references showing what an incredible amount of research, study and thought he put into this book. He breaks apart many "Christian-ese" thoughts and ideas, lays out very clearly God's eternal plan and challenges the reader to "embrace a Biblical worldview and hold on tight."
And you can hear it, you know... free.
Tomorrow Mike Abendroth and I are to record an interview on the WTG, and since Phil likes him so much, I'm looking forward to it. Also should be online for free.
Enjoy the freebies! God grant they be put to work for His glory, and for the spread of the Gospel.
32 comments:
Sensei,
Thanks for the free Kindle book. Downloaded. I'll pass on the news to others I know with a Kindle or Kindle app.
My wife and I are currently munching through your book on Proverbs.
Be well.
Tom
Thanks, Tom; I genuinely appreciate it, and hope it's a help and encouragement to you both.
BTW, I got a chuckle out of one of the amazon reviews:
When you believe such demonstrable falsehoods like a literal Adam and Eve or an impossible bald-faced myth like a worldwide flood with a boat with all 3 million species of animals including dinosaurs on board (remember the raptor pen in Jurassic Park?--I guess Spielberg found it on Mt. Ararat), you are committed to epistemic hedonism and must embrace some sort of anti-realist philosophy as this book shows us quite clearly...
Yep. Poor soul was horrified to find that the book ended up being all about, you know, embracing a Biblical worldview and holding on tight. Who knew?
Someone should have warned him.
THANKS!
I've been wanting to read TWTG and now I can! :-)
I appreciate your willingness to highlight non-full-price versions of your stuff. I've been wanting to read them but really feel the financial squeeze recently. I'd bought 3 copies of GWiP for 50% off (thanks to you) and now get TWTG on Kindle for free. Much appreciated. Much recommendations going out via email and Facebook now.
God bless you, bro. I really appreciate it.
Love the FREE download for Kindle users! Thanks guys! (they don't sell hard copies of this book in Kuwait)
...yet!
Thanks! I just grabbed the Kindle edition! I can't wait to read it.
Wow! This is great. I can download the Kindle version and give away another copy of the hard copy.
Thanks!
BTW: I reviewed your book, too.
http://solofide.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-world-tilting-gospel.html
Ah, Deb, thanks. I had just linked to your Amazon review in Twitter, not knowing it was you. Great!
Dan,
I got an advanced copy so I could post a review on my blog. It is forthcoming, but I can't recommend this book enough. I am being blessed, and I know it will continue to bless people. Also, I may ask for an interview with you sir. Hopefully we can work something out.
US ADDRESSES ONLY at the one blog. I'm done trying to win free books like this.
Don't be a hater.
Thank you sir for the Kindle opportunity, which I took advantage of yesterday.
Also, as a regular No Compromise Radio listener, I'll be alert for your interview. It's likely to be in a week or two (maybe longer), as Mike Abendroth tapes his programs well in advance. He usually plays interviews on Wednesdays.
FYI, pence is plural, no need for an s on the end
:)
Got the free Kindle edition yesterday and started reading it.
Yes, it is as good as the hype says it is!
Dan, that's "zero pence" I'm enjoying the book!
Loved the interview. Really loved how you recovered after the oopsie with the name - you're a natural.
Dan,
I don't know if you're aware or not, but Andrew Perriman is reviewing/critiquing your book here:
http://www.postost.net/2011/10/incomplete-world-tilting-gospel-dan-phillips-part-1
And if you feel so inclined, I'd be very interested to hear your response to his critique.
-DH
I like to think of free as the closest language to God, next to Hebrew.
I appreciate the free offers, being someone who wants a book budget equal to my rent but who has to settle with one lower than my wife's cat.
Thank you Dan it's next on my list of must reads.
I JUST BOUGHT THIS THE OTHER DAY!!!!! Oh well, i suppose it's like the Bible story where those that showed up early (like me when I bought it) got paid the same thing as though who showed up late (got it for free). Did I twist it enough?
I'm looking forward to reading this.
Lord Bless you, Dan. Thank-you for the kindness!
I looked again for God's Wisdom in Proverbs and was unable to find it on Kindle. Allow me to rephrase: I looked for the book GWIP (although the former has at times also been true) and I could not find it - is it Kindling yet?
Well, excluded from the free stuff (again) but, I’ll get my copy soon.
@ D Hoff this Andrew Perriman is part of the emerging guys.
He looks highly intelligent as most of them are, so intelligent in fact that the straight meaning of words written in the Bible changes and morph’s in to some other meaning of peace, harmony and softy oneness of all mankind and empty faith.
He is so enlightened in fact that his cognitive range far outstrips that of Calvin, Luther, Spurgeon, Warfield, and Berkhoff …
Or maybe he is just someone who is overwhelmed by the rhetoric of today’s world and entangled with another world view.
I would really like to know what Dan, would say.
Bro. Dan,
I got a copy of TWTG recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. In it you set forth essential gospel truths in such a clear, logical and easily understandable way. Necessary theological terms whenever needed were helpfully explained for those education is lacking in that area. It's good to read that God is blessing your efforts to honor Him and make Him known and may He continue to bless you.
Chaotic - I don't know what to say except I really do understand how you feel, I did not know the book was about to be given away, and I really appreciate your buying it. Pray that those who got it for free (as you didn't) find it useful enough to buy it as you did but in hard copies to give away, or urge others to do as you. And again, thank you.
Pastor Brown, I doubt it will be offered on Kindle. It's a very different book from TWTG in that it's riddled with footnotes. The publisher is a smaller publisher, dedicated to putting out solid Biblical material; I'm actually unsure whether other of their books have been Kindle-ized. I think that Kidle-ization would depend on whether folks purchase the (to me!) large amount of hard copies they've printed.
Snagged the Kindle copy. Thank you. I got about a chapter in. But, I < whine>have< /whine> to boot RedmonOS to run Kindle for PC to read it. Whine.
BTW, your Dove Radio link is pointing to a 192.168.253.x address. Guaranteed not to get there.
How'd Rachael hear it, then?
Try again.
D Hoff and Thomas Louw -
First paragraph: Dan Phillips’ book The World-Tilting Gospel is not a book I would normally read, let alone review. But I like the Pyromaniacs, the book can for now be downloaded free for the Kindle, and it offers another opportunity to try to explain why I think the traditional modern evangelical or Reformed gospel, no matter how cogently presented, gives us a very limited and incomplete understanding of what is going on in scripture.
Was what you read after that a surprise?
So you enjoy science fiction movies. You pick up a review that begins, "Normally I don't go to science fiction movies. But someone bought me a free ticket, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to explain why science fiction movies are a waste of time."
Do you need to keep reading?
Having said that: if any man or woman or child wants to complain that there is yet more truth that I could have put in the book, I won't argue with him or her. As it is, Kregel graciously accepted a manuscript significantly longer than what they'd asked for, and then graciously invested thousands of dollars' worth or resources offering a book by a no-name nobody addressing a need that many folks who do have well-known names have constantly and correctly pointed out. For whatever the book contributes to that need, Kregel is to be thanked and rewarded.
For my part, I gave everything I had to packing every bit of truth into every page as accessibly, clearly, and forcefully as I knew how. As always, I'm sure I've fallen short.
But I can guarantee you that I gave it my best, and now must trust it to God.
There's a whole lot more that could be said, it's true. And I'd like to do what I can to say some of it. But whether that ever comes to pass will depend in part on what happens with the big risk Kregel has taken in publishing this book.
Hope that's a helpful perspective.
It is helpful, thanks. It definitely did strike me when I read the review that of course, no one can say all that could be said.
Dan,
I think you're missing the point of that first paragraph. The fact is that we are all very selective about what we read. I was just admitting my natural prejudice. I doubt if you would normally bother to read one of my books, let alone review it, because you would consider it a waste of time. Fair enough. But I did read your book—and not because it was free. I read it carefully (I think), and I critiqued it carefully, albeit from a rather narrow point of view.
And my basic criticism is not that you should have included a lot more truth in it. Obviously the book was written under constraints. It is rather that a gospel that can be adequately presented with no reference to the story of Israel is not the gospel that we find in the New Testament. As I see it.
This is not about your book particularly. Your book does what it sets out to do very well. It's clear, cogent—as I implied in that first paragraph—and there's a lot of depth to it. And I'm with you much of the way when it comes to your critique of evangelical complacency.
But I think that the premise of an account of the gospel that focuses so tightly on the salvation of individuals needs to be challenged—and challenged for the purpose of defending biblical integrity.
Thomas Louw's facetious remark about a cognitive range that "far outstrips that of Calvin, Luther, Spurgeon, Warfield, and Berkhoff" merely serves to illustrate the fact that popular Reformed theology is more concerned to defend a tradition than to interpret critically.
There is a lot of exegetical work being done by a wide spectrum of scholars who are not less intelligent than Calvin, Luther, Spurgeon, Warfield of Berkhoff, who are not less committed to upholding the truthfulness of scripture. What their work points to is the fact that the New Testament is a text that engages with its historical context in a way that has a significant bearing on how we understand such core theological terms as gospel, salvation, wrath… and of course, justification.
I happen to think that this approach gives us a much better grasp of what it means to be the people of God under Christ than the modern evangelical-Reformed tradition, and I made use of your book to highlight a couple of major points of tension. Perhaps that was unfair, but I think that there is an important debate to be had here; and maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why the current popular Reformed movement is so reluctant to engage constructively with it.
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