Customer Reviews

Unconditional Surrender: God's Program for Victory

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Gary North begins the book assuming no prior knowledge of Christianity (without suspending his own presuppositions) and addresses the reader as an unbeliever. He writes about the sufficiency of Christianity as a way of life. Having established the above, he begins to explain the FOUNDATIONAL teachings of Christianity as contained in her rulebook for faith and practice, the bible, then he proceeds to inform the reader about the biblical version of various social INSTITUTIONS, finally, the biblical EXPECTATIONS Christians have for Reformation in these institutions.

Important themes:
1. Multi-tiered hierarchies vs. one leviathan hierarchy (ex. state, family, church vs messianic state).
2. God's peace treaty: surrender to His law.
3. Progressive success of the Gospel.
4. Dominion assignment, God's delegated authority to man.

Warning about unorthodox views on pedocommunion.

This is the best book I have found to set the starting place for Christians wanting to get involved in the civic arena. I believe some are called to be civil ministers, and Dr. Norths sets out the very first hurdle Christians must face: Who are you going to serve?

Read it! Some "systematic theologies" take more than one big book, but North's "Unconditional Surrender" gives us the basics in 500 smallish pages, and makes practical application: not just, here's what the Bible says and means, but also, here's how it applies to our lives. And North writes pretty well, though he chooses to sound nasty toward people he disagrees with. His best book, of those I've read, and the best smallish theology of those I've read.

I'm not sure I agree with all the details of his postmillenial outline of history, but this is the book that, when I was ready for things to click, showed me that postmillenialism--the gospel will prevail worldwide before Jesus comes back--is Biblical.

One reviewer complained about paedocommunion? I think paedocommunion right: if Christ died for our children, and we're showing his death, how can we not include them? Search paedocommunion, or hunt for my "feed God's babies" on my website. Tim Gallant and Peter Leithart have books on the topic. (Since the Eastern Orthodox practice paedocommunion, one could technically gripe that it's orthodox, not unorthodox.)

If you can't find a printed copy of "Unconditional Surrender," I think Gary North's website has it online; look for "free books" or "freebooks" on North's site.

This book gives a straightforward Gospel message and goes on to show how that message affects all of life, and should give the believer a total world view. I recommend it highly, as it directly states that God is Sovereign in all things, and gives us each a direction for living out our belief and trust in Christ.