Book Review: The World-Tilting Gospel
Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 1:22PM 
Embracing a Biblical Worldview & Hanging on Tight by Dan Phillips.
If I were to sum up the message of The World-Tilting Gospel in one sentence, I’d say it explains what it REALLY means to be a Christian. That this task takes 300 pages is a measure, I suppose, of how wrong we’ve got it—and by we’ve, I’m referring to present-day evangelicals.
Too often, says Phillips, modern evangelicals don’t have a biblical worldview. We can’t give a proper explanation of what the gospel is and why it’s needed, and it’s bad teaching that stands in the way.
So what’s the solution?
The greatest need of the church today is a strategic, full-orbed, robust, biblical grasp of the Gospel fo Jesus Christ and its transformative implications. We don’t need more glitz or glamour, better marketing or programs, snazzier decor or entertainment. We do need a whole-Bible grasp of the Gospel.
That’s what The World-Tilting Gospel gives us: the whole-Bible Gospel in an energetic, easy-to-understand, earnest-but-never-preachy style.
There’s nothing more important or profound than what this book unfolds for us. The first part is about us and our big problem. As it turns out, our big problem is us. When it comes to our spiritual condition, we are dead. In other words, we “don’t and can’t help ourselves.” Outside help is our only hope.
That brings us to the second part, which explains who God is and what he has done for us. God rescued His people through his plan and Christ’s work, and we contribute nothing.
But how do we get in? How is it that this work of salvation comes to me? The third part explains that it’s through saving faith—faith that is itself given to us by God—that
God counts us eternally and perfectly righteous with Christ’s own righteousness. We stand before him by grace alone, on the firmest of foundations.
Dan Phillips is pastor of Copperfield Bible Church, Houston, TX. He writes for the Pyromaniacs blog and also has his own blog, Biblical Christianity.
Also by Dan Phillips: God’s Wisdom in Proverbs.
What’s more, God’s work of salvation transforms our lives (Part Four). This transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it is a miraculous change, but it also involves struggle and discipline and work on our part, work done through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
That just a brief summary of The World-Tilting Gospel. There’s so much more; it’s got the whole story. I suspect it was written with newish believers and young Christians in mind, and it’s perfect for them, but it would also be good for almost anyone as a reminder of the unabridged Gospel.
- Read more: The Most Important Person in All of History
- Next week I’ll be giving away one copy of The World-Tilting Gospel. Come back tomorrow to find out how to enter.
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks, Becky!
I read this wonderful book a few months ago on my iPad. I highlighted so much of it, it almost looks like it was printed on blue paper. Then I told my husband he 'had' to read it, which he did. Now he has given out copies and we have a bunch to make available to his counseling clients. Definitely on my 'recommended reading' list for...everyone! Like you said, it's a very fine presentation of the unabridged Gospel. It made me love God more.