Customer Reviews

The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails (LifeChange Books)

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This book is a MUST read. It's quick and you can easily read it in an hour and a half, but it's amazing. Once I opened it up, I couldn't put it down again.

Randy Alcorn starts out by talking about why sexual purity is important and why it matters to you and to me. He then explains Biblical principles for how to fight sexual temptation, including an excellent chapter about being radical in order to fight sexual sins. He concludes with practical guidelines about sexual temptation.

As a believer who is daily struggling with sexual temptation, I really wish someone had told me about this book back when I was in high school or middle school because it would have saved me a ton of grief later on in life. This book should be required reading for every teenager and every young adult. It's freeing, and it's life-changing.

This is a great little book on purity. I read it in an hour and couldn't put it down. "The Purity Principle" gets "in your face" on the issue of sexual purity, speaking directly, but not inappropriately about the slippery slope that is sexual sin and practical ways to combat it. The engaging message was so vivid and powerful that I immediately ordered two additional copies so that each of my sons could have their own.

My one reservation about this book is that it does not give enough help and hope to the person who has already seriously fallen and needs help getting on the right track. I am concerned that such a person, rather than seeing the power of a gracious God to restore them, might feel that they are too far gone for a meaningful recovery after reading this book.

Most Christians would look at this book and think, "Hmm, I'm okay, why would I need a book like this?" If that's your attitude, then perhaps you should take a couple of hours and read this short, but powerful treatment of a critical Christian subject.

Randy Alcorn doesn't just deliver a screaming screed, but a thorough examination of the reasons for purity and the keys for achieving it. Its not a call to prudishness or legalism. He's not laying out a new set of do's and don't.

Instead, Alcorn takes Scripture and firmly weaves together a portrait of purity and why Christians must work so hard to maintain it in their lives.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to Christians of all ages, expecially those who are serious about getting all they can out of their years on this earth.

What a great book! It is short and to the point about sexual sin. A quick read. It discusses it in a very honest but tasteful manner. It provides plenty of scripture. It convicts the reader regardless of how much sexual sin is in their life (mental or physical) and gives practicle and biblical strategies to either avoid it all together or to combat the sin that the reader might already be ensnared in. This book is good for men AND women, high school age and above! Great resource for pastors and youth pastors to have on hand. This book has given me a realistic perspective and has helped me to understand that where it all starts is with that first thought or that first glance...and that this is where we recognize it as sin and stop the process. Life changing!

When it comes to Christian purity books, there seem to be two categories: The impure "purity" books, and the fluffy purity books.

Since the first group believes "knowledge is power," the aim is to inform the reader in great detail about every kind of impurity on the market. Rather than being equipped to deal with living in our sex-saturated culture, though, the reader only comes away with step-by-step instructions of what not to do. It's about as affective as an anti-drug campaign that teaches kids how to make homemade narcotics.

On the other side of the purity books scale, the goal is to show how romantic purity can be, rather than how painful, devastating and destructive impurity always is. They promise their readers a "happily ever after" if they'll just follow God's plan for their love life and relationships. Purity then, sadly, becomes a means to an end - a happy marriage and romantic bliss - rather than the pursuit of God Himself ... a life of holiness.

To my surprise and delight, Randy Alcon's book The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails falls into neither of these two common categories.

The Purity Principle is a small book, but it packs a punch. Chock full of Bible verses, real-life examples, and sound biblical advice, it answers questions like, "What exactly is purity?" and "Why does it even matter?" This is a wonderful book for older teens and adults of any age, and any relational status, who would like to gain a better understanding of what biblical purity is, and why it's important.

Much like the book of Proverbs, instead of giving you the lowdown on what not to do, or painting an overly romanticized, fluffy picture of purity, Randy Alcorn removes the glimmer of sexual immorality by sharing the real-life stories of men and women who fell into sin by slowly choosing to walk down the wrong road - one small, fatal step at a time.

The Purity Principle shows how the fear of God and the consequences of disobeying His holy law should be what "drives the sense into us" rather than out. And how this fear of God should be what makes us alert, diligent, watchful and drastic when it comes to protecting our own purity and making sure we don't allow even a hint of sexual immorality into our own lives.


Because The Purity Principle doesn't take a let-me-tell-you-what-not-to-do approach to purity, and it's biblically solid, it could be a helpful book for someone who's currently struggling with issues of morality, while still being an excellent choice for someone who wants to learn how to safeguard their life so they don't find themselves needing to do an about-face later.

Recommended Age: 16+

I do a LOT of reading, and this book is second only to the Bible in the way it deals clearly and succinctly with the subject of sexual purity. This title is a good one to keep handy, especially for men, in this day-and-age of slipping sexual morality. Alcorn addresses Biblical sexual conduct (and lack of it) in a frank yet tasteful manner. This book is an excellent investment towards the reader achieving and maintaining sexual purity. It's definitely a keeper!

A 90 page book that pulls no punches. It asks the tough questions and asks us to look at our life and our sexual purity. From the male perspective no matter if you are young or old, single, dating, married, divorced or whatever. In a way it is a quick read but at least for me... made me think alot about the little things that I let slide or try to rationalize so in that I don't have to deal with those situations or issues. I would highly recomed this book to any guy wondering how and or wants to stay sexually pure.

"A short book full of wise advice, straight to the point stating the obvious but often overlooked message that `Purity is smart and Impurity is stupid' - can it get any simpler than that?"

Published in 2003 by Multnomah, Randy Alcorn's The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails is as relative and pertinent today (maybe even more so) than when it was first published. The message in this book is timeless, obvious, and wise.

I re-read this book as research for my current non-fiction book for women on the subject of purity and because Randy Alcorn tops the list of my favorite authors whether fiction or non-fiction. His words are sound truth and offer no fluff.

His illustrations are, at times, heartbreaking. We've all heard the stories of how good men and women fall to such temptations. He offers these short stories to state the obvious response. We will rationalize our actions and then look to excuse all the warning signs until it is too late.

Using these stories, Alcorn tracts back the origin of the issue - purity. First, one must admit that no one is above such temptations. We should expect temptation to come our way, consider our response in advance, and be ready with a godly response - not excuse it.

He later drives home the point that there is no one else to blame when we find our witness destroyed, our marriages broken, and our relationships with friends and family forever changed.

One of my favorite portions of this book was how God sees things. Alcorn states that God does not deal in right or wrong. God deals in wisdom and righteousness. A point to ponder as a culture can excuse or manipulate right and wrong but God's word cannot be morphed in such a way. An act is either wise or foolish and is never subject to man's judgement on the matter.

A quick, relative read on the subject of purity. Don't let this books small size suggest it is not thorough. There is enough wise instruction in this little book if applied to your life, to save you many a heartache.

This books should be in every Church library and perhaps used regularly in a Church discipleship curriculum. I recommend this book highly.

Reviewed by: Keiki Hendrix
Reviewed for: The Vessel Project

The book is short, engaging, and easy to read. It makes a strong case for keeping sexual sins out of your life and offers practical advice - as well as Biblical encouragement - for developing a lifestyle free of sexual misconduct. This book was well-received by my non-Christian friends, too, so don't hesitate to buy extra copies for them! Well worth the read.

A powerful little book, The Purity Principle addresses the issue that seems to take so many Christian men out of the race - lust. Alcorn addresses the issue at its root - a battle for the mind. In fact, the purity principle itself is simply stated: Purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid!

Alcorn makes the argument that if Christians thought differently, they would act differently - the problem is with our thinking - we haven't given our minds over to the Lordship of Christ because we want to maintain control of that area of our lives. But, Alcorn warns, we must be careful because the lure of sex is so powerful, not many can resist its tempting call on their own absent the power of God. Learning to control yourself is more an exercise of understand who really controls your decisions - and if you are a follower of Christ, then you need to learn that your body is not your own, that you've been bought with a price. The process of renewing our minds, then, is a daily practice for believers - to sanctify our minds, set it apart for the Lord's service, filled with God's Word - that is a mind that is armed and prepared for the attacks of this world!

Alcorn also goes on to state that "it's always easier to avoid temptation than to resist it." He gives several practical suggestions for avoiding those various temptations - including the Internet and TV. This chapter is interesting - while I agree in principle, one has to balance the concept that the battle truly is in the mind and that the believer needs to be able to remain in the world for the glory of God, but yet not be of the world taken captive by its vain philosophies. So, to those who say that you can't be on the Internet or watch TV, I may in fact disagree - within appropriate boundaries, of course.

The Purity Principle is a good read, short and simple in its delivery, but still a very good read.