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Evaluating Free Christian Book Offers
Occasionally I have mentioned free online resources, and here are some good ones for monthly offers: a free e-book or audio book each month
- Christian Audio
- Logos — this month’s offer (August 2019) is “God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology,” an abridgement of Gentry and Wellum’s Kingdom through Covenant
- Faithlife Ebooks — The current offer is Name Above all Names, by Alistair Begg & Sinclair Ferguson
Some book selections are better than others, with some not worth reading, but overall these collections provide many choices for different types of reading—and to ‘fill-in’ some of the categories in the Challies Reading Challenge, such as books “targeted at the opposite gender” or a book “you think you may disagree with.”
These ebooks and audio files usually sit in my account library settings until I get around to them (and some I’ll probably never read, as not worth reading), yet my recent reading has included several of these titles, such as ChristianAudio’s Reset, by David Murray, and Liturgy of the Ordinary (a title I do NOT recommend reading), and a past free monthly book from Logos, James Montgomery Boice’s Commentary on the Psalms volume 1 (Psalms 1-41). This commentary is very insightful at several points, though again as with all commentaries some parts are better than others; the commentary on Psalm 19 is rather disappointing; he held to the Old Earth views of secular science, assuming these as truth from the so-called experts, thus showing his lack of understanding about presuppositions.
Some other past free offers from the last few years have been good selections, such as Sinclair Ferguson’s The Whole Christ, books by or about Jonathan Edwards, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, and Kevin DeYoung’s Taking God at His Word.
As with every possible book freebie, it helps to first check out the reader reviews at Amazon or Goodreads, especially when the author is unknown or the title doesn’t describe all you want to know about ‘what this book is about’. Christianaudio.com monthly offers are often decent Reformed/Calvinistic titles, and Logos’ offerings are sometimes by Reformed authors (such as the current August 2019 free book), but many other times the books are from Roman Catholicism or liberal, non-Reformed/non-evangelical viewpoints.
One of the free audio books I read, as a title that sounded interesting and not too long to read (less than 5 hours), turned out as something quite different (as has been noted in the critical reviews at Amazon and Goodreads): Liturgy of the Ordinary, written by a woman Anglican priest and filled with a lot of Roman Catholic / liberal Anglican ideas about “the importance” of having incense, candles, and other things for the senses as “aids” to our worship. The reading was beneficial for the overall purpose of reading outside of one’s “comfort zone” and expanding one’s reading to things that differ from our own beliefs and worldview, as something to think about, to be able to articulate why I/you believe what we believe and why this other idea is wrong. Yet even 4+ hours of an audio book with such content was difficult to keep listening to, to actually complete it; the point of reading and being exposed to the opposing view really should not require even that much time—to reach a point of “enough” and move on to better reading material.
Another month is nearing an end, and I look forward to the next set of monthly free offers from these three sites. Perhaps September will have some good titles to add to my reading list—or, then again, perhaps a mixture of good and not-so-good or nothing; the next month will always come, with the possibility of a few more good titles.
Creation Material: Free Online Books
Following up on recent posts, here are links to several good online books concerning creation:
Available in PDF Format:
- Evolution of a Creationist, by Dr. Jobe Martin
- Biblical Creationism, by Henry Morris
- New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis, by P.J. Wiseman (1946 edition)
Creationism.org has a Books Section page with links to many books of varying lengths and topics. From this list I recognize one book I bought around 1990 (It’s a Young World After All), and their link to the online text “After the Flood” (see my recent review). The titles include some from the early 2000s back to the 1980s, as well as earlier 20th century and earlier public domain books. Especially interesting titles here include the classic “The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch (1966)” by Donald W. Patten. and “In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood, 7th Edition (2001)” by Dr. Walt Brown.
Available for viewing on the web, Answers in Genesis has a large collection. A few of these books deal with worldview, or specifically address parents or college-bound students. Some titles look at the lie of evolution, while several others focus specifically on particular topics of creation history and creation science. Authors include creationists Terry Mortenson and creation scientists Jason Lisle, Gary Parker, plus several others.
- Already Gone
- The New Answers Book
- The New Answers Book 2
- A Comparative Study of the Flood Accounts in the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis
- Creation: Facts of Life
- Did God Use Evolution?
- Evolution Exposed: Biology
- Evolution Exposed: Earth Science
- Fish out of Water
- Frozen in Time: The Woolly Mammoth, the Ice Age, and the Bible
- The Great Turning Point
- How Could a Loving God . . . ?
- In Six Days
- In the Beginning Was Information
- The Lie: Evolution
- Old-Earth Creationism on Trial
- One Race One Blood
- The Pilgrim’s Progress
- Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World
- Taking Back Astronomy
- Unwrapping the Pharaohs
- Why Won’t They Listen?
Great Free Resources From Christian Ministries: To Your Doorstep
Nowadays so much material is available online, through email newsletters, online PDF files, and downloadable MP3 sermons. But I still prefer hardcopy print material mailed to me, as something more portable to carry around with me and read while away from the computer.
Here are some great free resources, hard-copy material to your home: CDs of audio material, devotionals, magazines, and newsletters.
1. The GTY mailing list monthly offers: monthly offers to your mailbox. Some are CDs of sermons, but often books or even Bibles are offered.
2. From ICR.org, the devotional
booklet “Days of Praise” and quarterly magazine “Acts & Facts.” The daily devotionals come in three-month sets, along with the magazine. |
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3. 5 DVD set of all of S. Lewis Johnson’s sermons in MP3 format. Send an email to: webmaster “at” believers-chapel.org Include your name and mailing address, and it will be forwarded to the Chapel. I just received my set, a week after requesting it. |
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4. Spurgeon literature, from Bath Road Baptist Church:
Email: info “at” bathroadbaptist.com
http://www.bathroadbaptist.com/contact-us/
5. Free Grace Broadcaster: a booklet sent every few months, which contains writings –on a theme each issue –by noted Christian authors of the past including Spurgeon, Pink, Octavius Winslow and Thomas Brooks.
Email to: chapel “at” mountzion.org and request a paper copy sent quarterly.
Here is their main website: http://www.chapellibrary.org/broadcaster/
6. Levitt Letter Monthly Newsletter: Newsletter from a Messianic Jewish organization
Fill out the form to request a hardcopy newsletter mailed to you.
7. Voices For Christ website:
4,600 sermons available online, from various speakers (a few from S. Lewis Johnson, plus many others)
Website lists all speakers (note: not all are Calvinist or dispensational):
Free CDs or DVDs are available on request, including a set of 6 DVDs containing all 4,500.
Email: info “at” voicesforChrist.org