Sunday Snippet: Rebels Rescued, A Student’s Guide to Reformed Theology – A Review…

When Christian Focus 4 Kids asked us to review this book: Rebels Rescued – a Students Guide to Reformed Theology by Brian Cosby…

I was a little doubtful. I thought the topic would be just a little dull – seriously “A Guide to Reformed Theology.” But it also says a “student’s guide” and luckily they don’t mean a graduate student!!! Just a regular high school student or someone who would like to understand what Reformed Theology really is. I handed it over to the kids to read and the oldest three (15, 13 and 11 year olds) really enjoyed it… Initially I thought they thought they would be reading a collection of biographies… but it is nothing like that. And once I had put off reading it – about as long as I could… I read it and to my surprise I really enjoyed it. Of the kids my oldest, who is studying church history for school this year, absolutely loved it…

Luckily the book begins with a definition of Reformed Theology, which is: the study of the work and character of God, revealed to us from the Bible. For Bible believing christians this book is a great help to understanding and explaining what that means. It is divided into easy to read chapters.

Introduction: What is Reformed Theology?
1. Rebels at Heart
2. Elected by Love
3. For His Sheep
4. Only through Christ
5. Resting by Faith Alone
6. Mastered by Grace
7. Enjoying God’s Word

And the Se7en + 1th

8. Designed for Glory

The chapters are short enough to read in a couple of minutes, they have great contemporary illustrations that explain ideas that confuse many practising christians today. Topics like election and predestination – explained clearly enough for a young person, anyone really, to understand. Also, each chapter ends with a handful of questions to provide the reader or the Bible Study with something to think about. This book naturally mentions great leaders of the Reformation giving the ideas a historical perspective and the author also includes references to one of our favourite family reads… Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, and so provides a literary context as well.

This book would make a great book for a weekly Bible Study. In a couple of short chapters it covers the subject of Reformed Theology really well. It is an excellent introduction for a wide range of readers from your middle-to-high school student looking to understand what they believe a little better, to the student about to embark on a reformed theology course and is looking for an outline of the topic. And really any number of folk in-between who want a very clear and easy to understand explanation and guide to Reformed Theology, “What exactly is a bible believing christian?” The book is a really easy read and only sixty odd pages long – you can read it in a sitting but it would be better to mull it over and read and discuss the chapters as you wander through it. I am definitely adding this book to our pile of books that my kids use during the year that they focus on church history for school.

You can also follow this link to listen to an interview with the author.

We were not paid for this review, which is our honest opinion of the book and we would once again like to thank CF4K, for giving us this book to review.