Customer Reviews

The Refuge: The Joy of Christian Community in a Torn-Apart World

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Jim Bakker has hit the nail on the head with this new book. He gives frightening scenarios of the calamities that we are all heading toward and practical, Biblical guidance on how to deal with them both before they get here, and once they arrive. The answer is for Christians to come together as a true family loving one another and bearing each other's burdens. But don't think that this is the same old stuff you have heard before! Bakker gives a totally new take ( or a 2000 year old take) on this concept. Once you read this book, you will not view the Church the same as you did before. You will see it as a vital and exciting organism that God has a very special and specific purpose for. I highly reccomend this Book!

It's amazing to see that finaly their is a book that talks about the power of unity. when not only the church but mankind come together in one spirit can make a change and a difference in life. To read and imagen that if we as humans can only come together as one, and realize that the lone-ranger era is over. The Refuge is a tremendous book that made me realize that only united in one as a Nation, as the church but most importanly as humans we can make a difference in this world.

It's amazing to see that finaly their is a book that talks about the power of unity. when not only the church but mankind come together in one spirit can make a change and a difference in life. To read and imagen that if we as humans can only come together as one, and realize that the lone-ranger era is over. The Refuge is a tremendous book that made me realize that only united in one as a Nation, as the church but most importanly as humans we can make a difference in this world.

Although I am not a fan of Jim Bakker, I read the book with high expectations. The basis of the book was reasonable and certainly understandable in today's world. That being said, It all could have been said in a pamphlet. It got reduntant after the first few chapters.

Written in the year 2000, Jim Bakker shows how the Christian community is a place not only of refuge, but also strength, fellowship, and spiritual power. He begins the book with a fictitious account of a societal breakdown and states that "catastrophic calamities will soon strike the earth. Economic systems will crumble, life as normal will be disrupted, and the world will be plunged into a time of tribulation such as we've never before experienced."

Bakker asks believers how connected are they to the Body of Christ? And then he goes on to make an astounding, if not unbelievable statement - that he is "convinced a monstrous asteroid will collide with the Earth," basing his conclusions in Scripture. He sees himself as a modern day prophet, and uses his prison experience to show what a real Christian community should like like. Then he points to his own "Dream Center" - the Los Angeles International church, where charismatics such as Rick Joyner and Tommy Barnett minister.

The problem I have with Jim Bakker is that he considers himself some kind of Prophet, and in this book, he affirms himself, kind of in a backdoor way. On one hand, he states that we should beware of false prophets, but then says don't despise prophetic voices. Then he says to "pay attention to dreams and angelic visitations - his own." He claims that God told him that "children's angels will visit them," and that "the message is what really matters." I'm not sure which message that is.

He ends the book with a chapter on Forgiveness, and shows "God's 4 Step Program in Confronting."

I read "I Was Wrong" last summer, and I was really moved by this man's sincerity, but I wonder if he has really learned anything, because it seems he's right back in the thick of it, with the charismatic stuff and the dreams and visions. Then if you go on the Web and surf for Jim Bakker, you see he is still soliciting money for his causes.

I can't recommend this book at all. There might be a few good sprinkles of truth here and there - and the beginning story was terrific. I wish he would have stayed there, but then again, that was more a parable of the Y2K fears, and like many of the charismatics back before Y2K, he preached a lot of fear and trembling to scare people into the church. Many of those ministries are gone now, but others just changed their names or faces.

I'm a Christian, but I can't say I agree with this self-proclaimed prophet and his teaching. The Bible says that we can prove a prophet if everything the prophet says comes true. If it doesn't come true, he is a false prophet. I don't want to call a spade a spade, but let's get real, here. Did everything that Bakker ever say ever come true? Case closed.