The first one is one I had on my list. The Revolution: A Manifesto, Ron Paul. The Revolution is associated with Ron Paul and his awakening of many formerly ignorant and/or apathetic American's to the demise of Liberty and the treading on our Constitutional rights. He wrote this book during his 2008 campaign, and in his preface he said why he wrote it:
"There is an alternative to national bankruptcy, a bigger police state, trillion-dollar wars, and a government that draws evermore parasitically on the productive energies of the American people. It's called freedom. But as we've learned through hard experience, we are not going to hear a word in its favor if out political and media establishments have anything to say about it.
If we want to live in a free society, we need to break free from these artificial limitations on free debate and start asking serious questions once again. I am happy that my campaign for the presidency has finally raised some of them. But this is a long-term project that will persist far into the future. These ideas cannot be allowed to die, buried beneath the mind-numbing chorus of empty slogans and inanities that constitute official political discourse in America.
That is why I wrote this book." pp. x-xi
Also from the preface, one of my favorite lines was penned: "Truth is treason in the empire of lies." Pure gold. The further I got into this book, the more my mind screamed, "All the naysayers of Dr. Paul NEED to read this to get a glimpse of how intelligently sound his ideas and policies are!"-as opposed to the popular belief that he is a "kook" or "crazy". Hardly. If one can be so narrow minded as to believe what the media establishment frames him to be, and not research his policies, words, and own thoughts, and see for themselves whether he is crazy or not, then I declare them: deluded and blind. Willful or not. Dr. Paul is a champion for liberty for all Americans, even those who write him off.
I like the idea of letting the book speak for itself, and sharing a few excerpts of the words to tell their own story. So I'll continue this trend. From the chapter "The Foreign Policy of the Founding Fathers":
"This just-war tradition developed in the fourth century with Ambrose and Augustine but grew to maturity with Thomas Aquinas and such Late Scholastics as Francisco de Vitoria and Francisco Suarez... First, there has to be an initial act of aggression, in response to which a just war may be waged. But there was no act of aggression against the United States. We are 6,000 miles from Iraq... Second, diplomatic solutions had not been exhausted... Traditional just-war criteria also demand that the initiation of war be undertaken by the proper authority. Under the U.S. constitution, the proper authority is neither the president nor the United Nations. It is Congress-but Congress unconstitutionally delegated its decision-making power over war to the president." pp. 23
"How does Israel, with which the United States has long enjoyed a special relationship, fir into this picture? I see no reason that our friendship with Israel cannot continue. I favor extending to Israel the same honest friendship that Jefferson and the Founding Fathers urged us to offer all nations... that means I also favor discontinuing foreign aid to governments that are actual or potential enemies of Israel, which taken together receive much more American aid than Israel does. Giving aid to both sides has understandably made many average Israelis and American Jews conclude that the American government is hypocritically hedging its bets." pp. 34
"Foreign aid is not only immoral, since it involved the forced transfer of wealth..." pp. 34
" As a matter of fact, the Institute for Advances Strategic and Political Studies in Jerusalem argues that, 'Foreign aid is the greatest obstacle to economic freedom in Israel." pp. 35
"The costs of our foreign policy have become so great that they risk bringing the country to bankruptcy." pp 35
"We should let the best measure of our American greatness come from free and peaceful trade with other nations, not from displays of our military might." pp. 37
The next chapter is "The Constitution":
" 'Our peculiar security is in possession of a written Constitution,' Jefferson advised us. 'Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.' " pp. 45 (For those that think it is a "living document"!)
"The draft is a totalitarian institution that is based on the idea that the government owns you and can dispose of your life as it wishes... Young people are now raw material to be employed by the political class on behalf of whatever fashionable political, military, or social cause catches its fancy. In a free society, their lives are not the playthings of government." pp. 55, 58
"The Founding Fathers did not intend for every American neighborhood to be exactly the same-a totalitarian impulse if there ever was one-or that disputes over competing values should be decided by federal judges. This is the constitutional approach to deciding all issues that are not spelled out explicitly in our founding document: let neighbors and localities govern themselves." pp 62
And this is the chapter entitled "Economic Freedom":
"By 'legal plunder' Bastiat meant any use of government that enriched one group of people at the expense of another, and which would be illegal if private individuals tried to carry it out themselves." pp. 70
"I cannot finish a discussion of looting without mentioning the income tax... The income tax implies the same thing: government owns you, and graciously allows you to keep whatever percentage of the fruits of your labor it chooses." pp. 78
"We have lost our belief that freedom works, because we no longer have the imagination to conceive of how a free people might solve its problems without introducing threats of violence-which is what government solutions ultimately are." pp. 85
"HMO's have become corporate bureaucratic middlemen in our healthcare system, driving up costs while degrading the quality of medical care. In all other industries, technology has nearly always led to lower prices-except in health care, thanks to the managed-care system that has been forced on us." pp. 87
This next chapter is on "Civil Liberties and Personal Freedom":
"Toward the end of 2007, Senator Jeff Sessions declared, 'Some people in this chamber love the Constitution more than they love the safety of this nation. We should all send President Bush a letter thanking him for protecting us.' What kind of sheep must politicians take Americas for if the expect us to fall for creepy propaganda like this?" pp. 125 *chuckles*
I will spare you of the entire book via quotations. But it such a light and easy read, you could finish it in one setting, if you had the time to spare. Dr. Paul is not perfect, and I do not agree with everything he says. But for an introduction into the concept of Liberty and the lack in American politics, I highly recommend this book. Dr. Paul is a man of integrity, who is consistent, and deserves to be respected.
So I give this book 4 1/2 Stars. 4) being, a really great book, useful to instruct, thought provoking/good entertainment, very challenging, growth as a reader,
Book Two: The Last Disciple Hank HaneGraff, Sigmund Brouwer
This is a fictional novel about the end times. End times? Indeed. Set in AD 65. By far the best fiction I've read in a while (could also be because I haven't read any fiction in quite a while). Also, this blows "Left Behind" out of the water. Yes, I read the entirety of the "Adult Series" of Left Behind AND almost all of the "Kids Series", so I have the right to comparison in full depth. My only caution about this book would be that it is more for mature Christian readers. I would not want a young person to read it. By young, it is relative, there can be extremely mature 16 year olds, and very immature 17 years olds. But I would not recommend any younger than that simply because some of the sinful nature described in the book is slightly graphic for a *Christian* book. But let it be said, I've read worse in the so called "Christian fiction", think Karen Kingsbury (and she is pretty mild compared to others).
An excerpt from the Afterword:
"The Last Disciple presents an alternative to the Left Behind understanding of end times events based on a methodology called Exegetical Eschatology (E2)... the plain and proper reading of a biblical passage must always take precedence over a particular eschatological presupposition or paradigm.
For example, the pretribulational rapture model featured in the Left Behind series interprets Revelation 13 in a strictly literal fashion. Thus, Antichrist dies and resurrects himself physically in order to vindicate his claim to be god...
In sharp contrast, The Last Disciple series exegetes Revelation 13 in light of the whole of scripture. Thus, Satan can parody the work of Christ, through "all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders" (2 Thessalonians 2:9), but cannot literally do what Christ did-namely raise himself from the dead." pp. 393-394
This receives a 4 Star. 4) being, a really great book, useful to instruct, thought provoking/good entertainment, very challenging, growth as a reader, way more good than bad, would recommend. Worth reading again.An enjoyable book to read.
Book Three: Easy Chairs Hard Words, Douglas Wilson.
Remember when I did my review on Luther's Bondage of the will?-and I said I would not recommend it to someone interested in this topic of an enslaved will for the first time? Well, this is the book I would highly recommend! This book was written in a conversational style, making it very easy to follow the concepts, ideas, and scripture, without it feeling like a heavy, boring, plodding theological work. Anywhere from Jr. High level reading, to adult reading. It is set up as a young man going to a "Calvinist" pastor of the town secretly to ask him some questions about his struggles. Doug Wilson does an excellent job knocking down all the horrible stereotypes about so called "Calvinists" and instead avoids the term, but rather presents the fictional character, and the reader, with a plethora of scripture to show how scripture interprets scripture, and we never ever throw out the word of God just because it doesn't fit our theology.
Whether you are scared of predestination, election, and the full sovereignty of God, whether it depresses you, whether you hate it and shake you first saying *That's not my God!*, or you already accept God's word on these matters, this is an excellent book to read, or give to a friend.
One thing we really liked about this book was the amount of time and space Scripture took up in this book. It wasn't a bunch of straw men Doug knocks down, or even a bunch of impersonal opinions of doctrine, but rather a riveting magnified look at scripture side by side, topic by topic, going into the Greek on occasion.
God receives all the glory due his name.
This book gets the gold. 5 Stars. 5) being, found enjoyable, challenging, useful in many ways, would highly recommend with no holding back, over all EXCELLENT book. Need to read again!
So there you have it, my bonus reviews. I enjoyed March and the diversity of the books I was able to consume. One political, one fictional, one theological. I think this month I may do more than one review as well. I've already finished one book. (:
Soli Deo Gloria & Sola Scriptura!
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