Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsPreaching to the choir and bad arguments.
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2018
This book is not an answer to someone who has doubts, unless you have them read 20+ pages for any given passage, the explanations are far too long.
More importantly, most of them do not use scriptural references to defend certain points. A large majority of the authors answers boiled down to "it's much better than the nations surrounding Israel!"
The absolute worst aspect of this book was done of the worst "logic" I've read on the subject. In regarding Sodom and Gomorrah, the author asked "Considering they were homosexuals, you have to wonder just how many children were actually in the city?" And another "Considering they sacraficed children to false gods, you have to wonder just how many children were actually in the city?"
Both arguments are very poorly thought out and in bad taste. They are very unlikely to convince anyone and far more likely to disgust someone against a Christian.
For the first, it's very likely that they were sexually depraved toward all genders, afterall Lot did offer them his daughters, not his sons or son-in-laws. He would not have done this if the city was only known for its homosexuality.
For the second, in order to offer child sacrafices, you need to have children... Most likely the rituals were something like offering firstborns, a way to increase fertility. Not every child born.
It's arguments like these that make this a very poor choice of you want to help someone see through challenging topics in the old testament.
I give this 2 stars because toward the end of the book, the author does have a couple meaningful insights into Israelite slavery issues. But I don't know if it's worth purchasing to get to them.
Instead, I highly recommend "The Bible Project" on YouTube or their website. They do a fantastic job of bringing new insight to various themes, topics, and books. Including issues with some of the old testament passages. I can't recommend their work enough.
