Book Reviews for Kingdom Christianity Books

Wow, Charles thanks for your great review! I haven't read the whole book yet (we do have it) but I haven't really gotten around to reading it yet. Your overview of this book is very helpful.

Thank you so much for your kind words, dear brother Judson. I am very humbled and very happy to hear that you found my review to be helpful.

I definitely benefited a lot from reading slowly through this book. I ended up highlighting a whole bunch of sections throughout this book that I want to return to.

I do realize, however, that beyond personal study, this book would be most useful in a group-study setting where all of the points raised and all of the questions asked in the book can be discussed in a group, in an atmosphere of mutual fellowship with an eye to building up one another in our knowledge of the faith and in our daily practical applications of the faith.

Many blessings to you and your family as you continue to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

Here is a great book that deals with the church and its structure; Christ's church and how our churches should be according to Christ's example.

https://www.amazon.com/Church-Matters-Gary-Miller/dp/1947319396

And another one that I really enjoyed; it's called "Clutched In the Talons" and has to do with teaching about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life is a story sequence kind of layout. It really helps to strengthen your guard against things that ruin us spiritually and physically.

https://christianlight.org/books/storybooks/youth-adult/clutched-in-the-talons

Hello again, dear brother Judson, beloved of God. Thank you so much for this recommendation. I continually hear dear brothers and sisters and Christ recommending dear brother Gary Miller's books and I know that Scroll Publishing and other Christian publishers that I respect sell brother Miller's books.
This book in particular looks to be extremely important since it "compares the current state of the church with God’s original vision as seen in the book of Acts".

This means there will surely be some points in the book that will make us uncomfortable, but we desperately need to be challenged and to re-examine so much of what we are doing. I am sure that going back to God's original vision in the book of Acts will also be very inspiring.
I look forward to reading this book! Thank you so much for the recommendation.
May the Lord be with you and richly bless you as you continue to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

You're so welcome! I'm glad you found it helpful.

Hello, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I finally have another book review to share with all of you. The book discussed in this review was a very pleasant surprise to me, one of those completely unexpected finds that really enrich our spiritual lives and greatly encourage and strengthen our commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ and Kingdom Christianity.

I just completed reading the book “The Christ of the Mount: A Working Philosophy of Life” by dear brother E. Stanley Jones and I wanted to share both the basic facts regarding this book and my review of this book. If you wonder where you have heard of brother E. Stanley Jones before, certain utterances from his books, especially from his later book entitled "The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person", are occasionally referenced and quoted by dear brothers such as David Bercot and John D.

Martin.

Basic Facts:
Title = The Christ of the Mount
Subtitle = A Working Philosophy of Life
Author = E. Stanley Jones
ISBN 10 = 0-687-06925-4
ISBN 13 = 978-0-68706925-5
Note #1 = The original 1931 version of this book is now in the public domain in the United States and many other countries.
Note #2 = The specific version that I read was the 1981 Festival Books edition, which was a reprint of the 1931 version.

Available from:
Used from AbeBooks.com (

Book search on AbeBooks — https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9780687069255&n=100121503&cm_sp=mbc-_-ISBN-_-used )
Free download of the 1931 public domain version ( Resource in the Internet Archive — https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.58342 )

Free audio version (Part 1) (YouTube video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDhEzp1kzBM)
Free audio version (Part 2) (YouTube video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMVtsMnAM0A)

My review:

Overall, I found this to be a really excellent book that is filled with deep and penetrating insights into the teachings of Jesus presented in Matthew chapters 5 - 7 (normally referred to as "The Sermon on the Mount"). This book does require close attention and is not a book to be read too quickly or taken too lightly, but any time and effort put forth to study this book, together with the Scriptures that are referenced, will pay rich dividends.

During the whole time I spent reading this book, I was constantly impressed with a sense of a fresh and living perspective on Jesus's teachings, but a perspective that always took the full context of each of Jesus's statements very seriously.

The layout of the book is the following: a brief preface and an introduction, followed by two additional introductory chapters; then nine chapters discussing Matthew chapter five, three chapters discussing Matthew 6:1 - 7:6 , three chapters discussing

Matthew 7:7-29 , and a final concluding chapter.

The introduction is really outstanding, starting with these words, "Men need nothing in these modern days so much as they need a working philosophy of life - an adequate way to live." Brother Jones very quickly identifies Jesus's Sermon on the Mount as the only truly workable philosophy of life and stresses the desperate need for Christians to refocus on orthopraxy, i.e. the ethical and practical side of the gospel.

The next two introductory chapters present an outline, or organizational scheme, for Jesus's teachings in the Sermon on the Mount that I had never seen before. Brother Jones presents Matthew 5:48 ("Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.") as the central verse of the entire Sermon on the Mount, around which the whole Sermon pivots, stating that the whole goal of life is presented in this verse.

All of the following discussion of Matthew chapter 5 is set forth as a detailed portrait of this perfection - a portrait of God the Father, a portrait of Jesus Christ, and a portrait of the man-to-be. There were so many insightful and challenging points made in these chapters, beginning with a truly marvelous discussion of the Beatitudes. I especially liked brother Jones' discussion regarding why the Beatitudes come first in the Sermon on the Mount.

The chapters discussing Matthew 6:1 - 7:6

also contain lots of doctrinal and practical insights, with an emphasis on the practical. This section of the Sermon on the Mount is set forth as a clear portrayal of warnings regarding the actual pitfalls which prevent us from realizing the perfection set forth in Matthew 5:48 .

The chapters discussing Matthew 7:7-29 are a very sobering, but also extremely encouraging, conclusion to the entire discussion of the Sermon on the Mount.

The final chapter details how Jesus Christ - His teachings, His example and His salvation - was increasing in influence all over the world, both in the Westernized countries and in the Eastern countries. The examples in this chapter are necessarily dated to the early 1930's when the book was written, but similar examples could be presented today. If this chapter is read in the spirit in which it was written, it is truly glorious.

There are a couple of forewarnings I should present to anyone who would like to pursue either reading this book or listening to an audio version of this book (see the links presented above). First of all, for the verses in the Sermon on the Mount that appear to be the most difficult to interpret, brother Jones often presents an interpretation that is not the "standard" interpretation.

After wrestling with some of brother Jones' interpretations, however, I ended up respecting the fact that all of his interpretations greatly honor the full context of each verse, almost always honoring the full context much more than the "standard" interpretation does. Secondly, brother Jones' writing style is very declarative, exuberant and Christ-affirming. It is a writing style that I had never seen before, at least not to that extent.

For me personally, I adapted rather quickly to brother Jones' writing style and it was not an issue.

There are even a few quotations/references to Ante-Nicene Christians in this book.

May our dear Lord richly bless us all as we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. May we all continue to daily press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Hello again, dear brother Judson. This book also looks to be very beneficial for all who are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I had never heard of this book before you mentioned it, so I really appreciate your recommendation.

If possible, I would like to read some further reviews of this book, but if no other reviews exist, your recommendation is enough to encourage me to obtain a copy of this book.

May the grace and peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you richly today and every day.