Book Review - How Can I be Sure? (Questions Christians Ask) (5/9)

Doubts — every christian faces them in their life. So what do we do with them? Are doubts bad? Often when youths come to me with doubts they’re almost too ashamed to talk about them. So how should a christian deal with the genuine doubts we have?

John Stevens has written a short and extremely helpful book on this important topic. Within the book, Stevens gives several examples of situations where christians faced with different kind of doubts, which is what he defines in the first chapter, and also highlights that not all doubts are wrong. Next, Stevens dwells on the topic of why some doubts are dangerous, essentially, some doubts do lead to disbelief, although that just means they were never really christians.

Following which, Stevens explores the benefits of doubts, how we can grow from it, and more importantly, how we can overcome our doubts in our christian lives.  Here is where Stevens differ from the rest of the apologetics style books, Stevens helps the readers to see that our own spirituality, and also our community plays a vital role when we deal with doubts. Which is what he further elaborates on in the next chapter, how to develop our faith so we will not doubt. This I think make the book very comprehensive. It not only wants to help believers deal with any doubts they might have currently, more importantly, it encourages and persuades readers to grow spiritually once their doubts are resolved.

Lastly, Stevens provides a short appendix for christians who have various doubts to refer to. For a book of this length, one might not expect much from it, but do not be deceived by how thin it is, this book achieves what it sets out to do, and with much clarity and gentleness! I would recommend this book especially to new or old believers, who are dealing with doubts, and for pastors to learn how to deal with doubts pastorally. One can only wished this book had been published earlier!

Rating: 4.75 / 5

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you're interested you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.