"Resolve: The Church That Endures Onward" Luke H. Davis. A Review
In a season of bad press, fallen leaders, naysayers, and
kooks, how does one convey the positive side of the church’s story? Recently
Luke H. Davis, teacher of ethics and Church history at Westminster Christian
Academy in St. Louis, has given readers a new and final installment in his “Risen
Hope” series that brings his account of the church’s story up to the present. In
this 176-page softback, “Resolve: The Church That Endures Onward,” Davis takes
on more contemporary Christian men and women to show how they dealt with evil
and difficulties in their allegiance to the Lord Jesus. The book is written for
teenagers but will be valuable for older adults as well.
The author covers a wide array of people from multiple
continents and Christian traditions, to give a solid sampling of fidelity and
endurance. He covers Sammy Morris, J.C. Ryle, Francis Grimke, C.S. Lewis,
Benjamin Kwashi, and many more to give readers a quick tour from the early 19th
century to the late 20th. Sprinkled throughout are “Fact Files,” which
are side trips into significant subjects such as great preachers, the shadow of
evil, and apologists, where Davis gives details of other important people and
their roles in regard to specific subjects. The final fact file takes on
naysayers forecasting the end of Christianity in the West and beyond. It leaves
the readers with the “enduring onward” theme of the book.
The stories are written in a historical-fiction style. This
is where real people are pictured in mildly fictitious scenes but voicing their
actual words or sentiments. It’s very attention-keeping, informative and responsible.
By the time a reader has finished a story they will have a solid idea of who the
protagonist was, what they faced, and where they headed.
If you want your kids to glean a healthier view of the church’s march upward and onward, I recommend the whole 5-Volume set of the “Risen Hope” series. And if you’re looking for a decent perspective on the church in the last 130 years, “Resolve” would be a fine place to start. My thanks to the author and Christian Focus Publications for sending me this volume. They didn’t ask me to do anything, and so this review is my own idea and in my own steam. I’m glad I read the book and highly recommend it.
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