Book Review: Solitary by Travis Thrasher

SOLITARY is the story of a teen boy named Chris Buckley who starts at a new school in the strange town of Solitary, North Carolina after his parents get a divorce. Immediately after he begins his new school he's confronted with mystery and conflict. In between trying to stay out of trouble, taking care of his mom who's having nightmares, and avoiding a bully named Gus who has a very powerful father, Chris meets a beautiful and completely mysterious girl named Jocelyn. As the story unfolds, Chris discovers that Jocelyn has many dark secrets that threaten both their lives and that Solitary is a place of oppressive evil. And all of this is connected to a shady pastor and his strange church.

As a reader of nearly everything Thrasher writes, I was really excited when he mentioned that he was releasing a young adult series. SOLITARY was an intense and really great read. I loved the whole story, and I can't wait to dive in to book 2 - GRAVESTONE. It was a top-notch introduction to what is sure to be a great series.

Thrasher mentioned that the TV show LOST was one of the inspirations for the book, and it definitely had that vibe all the way through it. Thrasher introduces many mysterious questions that kept me turning the pages.

The story was told in first person point-of-view, so we get to spend a lot of time in Chris' head. It's interesting place to be. I felt that Thrasher captured the mind of a teen set in the strange circumstances that Chris is in very well. Jocelyn keeps Chris guessing throughout the story. One of the strangest characters in the story is a pastor named Jeremiah Marsh. I'll be interested to learn more about him as the series progresses.

Thrasher knows how to tell a compelling story with spiritual themes throughout. SOLITARY was actually available as a free Kindle download for a couple weeks recently, but I actually read the book last November, and I decided with the new batch of reviews coming, I would add my thoughts on a book I found hard to put down. Especially after the shocking ending.

Book Review: The Blood Book

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS CONCERNING THE BOOKS OF HISTORY CHRONICLES

The year 2004 was the “Year of the Trilogy” for Ted Dekker, as all three books of what was then known as THE CIRCLE TRILOGY came out one right after the other. The story was in the vein of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia in that it was a creative retelling of the Bible’s redemptive story. THE CIRCLE TRILOGY grew into a collection of interrelated stories called The Books of History Chronicles.

THE CIRCLE TRILOGY was the epic story of a man named Thomas Hunter who found himself bridging two vastly different worlds through his dreams. One moment he’s conscious in his life in Denver, Colorado; the next he’s asleep in that world and conscious in a world recreated by Elyon (an Old Testament name for God). In this world evil in humanity doesn’t exist. They live in perfect community in an extravagant colored forest, following the ways of the Great Romance, which is their sinless and blissful interaction with their loving Creator.

The messengers of their Creator are white bats called the Roush. What evil that does exist is confined across a bridge in a black forest where the agents of evil, black bats with cherry red eyes known as the Shataiki, dwell with their king Teeleh. The humans are forbidden to cross the bridge and eat of the forest’s fruit because it would be the undoing of humanity’s perfect interaction with Elyon. It’s a strange fantasy world, to be sure.

In the midst of this Thomas Hunter introduces an ultimately destructive evil into both worlds—a deadly virus known as the Raison Strain in our world, and humanity’s first fall to evil in the other world. It’s the story of Thomas Hunter’s attempt to rescue both worlds and Elyon’s restoration of the relationship humanity once enjoyed with him.

A few years later, Dekker introduced us to a new series called The Paradise Novels and to an evil character named Marsuvees Black and a little boy known as Billy who seems to be the catalyst of everything Thomas Hunter experienced. The foundation of all the Chronicles is a collection of blank books known as the Books of History. These books have the power to make what is written in them become a reality. They’re both powerful and incredibly dangerous.

As The Books of History Chronicles were released many questions were raised. How does all this connect? What does Billy have to do with the other world? Who is Marsuvees Black and where did he come from? What is the connection between the Roush and the Shataiki? What is Teeleh’s plan to undo humanity? How did Thomas Hunter bridge the worlds? The questions are many.

To give us some insight into the questions, Dekker recently gave us THE BLOOD BOOK: TALES, CONFESSIONS, AND RUMORS OF THE WORLDS. Specifically, he gave 1,000 of his fans a chance at having one of these books through the Share the Love Campaign in preparation for the release of his novel THE PRIEST’S GRAVEYARD. Thankfully, I was one of the 1,000. I loved the Books of History Chronicles because it put flesh to some of the concepts of our redemptive story. But I also wanted the questions answered.

The book is written as if it was compiled by Ba’al, who is the high priest of the Horde in the other world, and, we soon discover, the Billy of the Paradise Novels.

The first part is about the creatures of the other world—the Roush, the Skataiki, and the Albinos who are the followers of Elyon. Ba’al sends a warrior named Mustul into the Black Forest to capture a Skataiki to bring back to the alchemist Grushom to study. Mustul is to also bring back the writings of Marsuuv, a queen of the Shataiki. Mustul pens his experiences of his mission, and then we read Grushom’s account of studying the Shataiki’s nature and structure. The findings are interesting.

We then read Mustul’s account of capturing a Roush, followed by Grushom’s account of studying it. Here we begin to understand the connection between the Roush and the Shataiki.

Finally, the first part closes out with Mustul stealing the journals of Thomas Hunter and Grushom’s study of a human albino.

Dekker reveals at the end of the book that this first part was written by his agent Kevin Kaiser. Kaiser turns out to be a worthy storyteller next to Dekker, and I’ll be excited to read anything of his in the future.

The Second Part, penned by Ted Dekker and another storyteller named Josh Olds begins with what I was most eager for in the book. Ba’al, who is Billy, tells us his secret history, and it is revealing to the whole story I’ve become so wrapped up in.

This is followed by the journal entries of Thomas Hunter. It was great to get back into the mind of this epic character. Thomas muses on the nature and unfortunate hypocrisy of the Christianity of our world and on the nature of Christ’s teachings. Jesus is known as a man named Justin in the other world (much like Jesus is known as Aslan in Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia), and from Thomas’ point of view the people in the other world seem to be more impacted by Jesus than in our world. Though I appreciate Dekker’s viewpoint, this part seemed a little like he was using it as a soapbox, as I’ve heard Dekker talk about the shortcomings of American Christianity many times. Still it’s a challenge to see Jesus more for who he is.

The book closes out with the writings of the Shataiki Queen Marsuuv. Here we learn about Teeleh’s plan to use Thomas Hunter to undo Elyon’s rule, and we also learn Teeleh’s history, closely connected to Satan.

THE BLOOD BOOK was a fun read, especially after reading all of the Books of History Chronicles books and seeing all the connections. Though there are only a thousand copies available, I can’t imagine that Dekker wouldn’t make it available to a larger audience someday. It was a great closer look at the fantasy world that Dekker created in the original CIRCLE TRILOGY.

God's Dreams

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matt. 6:10)

We've all got hopes and dreams of what we want to in life. Dreams of what this world could be like as a result of the things we do. It's interesting that the more genuinely love someone, the more we care about their dreams. Authentic love should cause us to want to make the dreams of the person we love become a reality.

God has hopes and dreams also. God created with dreams of what this world could be. Of what you and I could be. We think our dreams are good, but God's have to be mind-blowing. We dream from a limited vantage point. God is all-knowing, and his dreams would be so good for us if they became a reality.

That's what Jesus tells us to pray for when he says, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It's saying, "God I love you, and I want to see your dreams become a reality."

Praying and Dreaming

Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." (Matt. 6:9)

It seems like an abstract thought. What does "hallowed be your name" mean exactly? As Jesus was telling us how to pray, he wanted us to have an accurate perception of God first. That's why he says to pray, "Our Father."

The idea of Father brings God closer than just merely being God. Like dependent children we're to approach God as we really are-absolutely helpless and in desperate need of him. "Hallowed be your name" means that we see God accurately. When Adam and Eve sinned, they suddenly viewed God as someone to run from rather than run to. God was terribly frightening. It's the same way with us.

God is holy, and that is scary because we aren't, and we can't survive the presence of God. Being holy doesn't make God immeasurably distant, however. Being holy means that God is perfect and completely undivided. God is the most happy being in the universe, finding complete satisfaction within himself because he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. C.S. Lewis called the Trinity the divine dance, each member generating perfect love to all the others.

Praying to God as Father and realizing we're completely helpless before him is to be caught up in the dance. Our unholiness slowly dies away in the presence of God, and we find our greatest joy in him, even in the midst of chaos.

Mark Batterson says that prayer causes us to dream, and dreaming causes us to pray. To pray, "Father, hallowed be your name," is to see God for who he is and being drawn to him for who he is. It's admiring God as a child lovingly admires her daddy. It's being caught up in a bigger dream than the ones we can create on our own, and yet, because God cares for us a Father, he cares about our dreams.

Book Review: Salvation and Sovereignty by Kenneth Keathley: A MolinistApproach

The battle has been raging for hundreds of years over whether or not humans have a form of free will or if every single event in human history has and is rolling out exactly as God predetermined it. The two sides of this battle have been typically characterized by those who call themselves Calvinists and those who call themselves Arminians. But in his book SALVATION AND SOVEREIGNTY Kenneth Keathley proposes a middle-ground solution to the debate in the form of Molinism, a theological system concerning the nature of God's foreknowledge developed by sixteenth century Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina.

I first heard about Molinism from the writings of Dr. William Lane Craig as I was looking for a better solution to the Divine Sovereignty/Human Responsibility dilemma, and have since read Luis de Molina's original work on the subject - PART 4 of the CONCORDIA.

Molina sought to devise a system that affirmed both man's libertarian freedom and God's meticulous sovereign control. He did this by proposing that God's knowledge was of three different types and that God's knowledge came in three logical (not chronological) moments.

Natural Knowledge is the first moment, and it comes logically before God's creative decree. This knowledge consists of all possibilities. For example, in God's natural knowledge, he knew that it was possible for Adam to not sin in the garden. He also knew that it was possible that he would. These were both possibilities of what Adam "could" do.

Skipping ahead, the third moment is known as God's Free Knowledge. This is God's perfect knowledge of every single thing that will happen in the universe that God created, and this knowledge comes logically after his creative decree. For example, God knows that Adam "will" sin in the garden.

Between these two knowledge moments Molina proposed a moment called Middle Knowledge. This knowledge consists of free choices that a creature would make under any given circumstances. For example, God knows that if he placed Adam in the garden, Adam "would" sin, but if placed under a different set of circumstances, Adam "would" not sin. Either way, Adam's choice would be freely made. This knowledge comes logically before God's creative decree. So God surveys all the free choices that free creatures would make and decides to create the world in which all the circumstances that would bring about the free choices of free creatures that also lined up with his perfect will. Once he creates, the script is set and human history will flow exactly as he wanted it to, and human freedom remains intact. In this model God exercises his meticulous sovereignty using his exhaustive omniscience.

Dr. Keathley presents the Molinist model as an attempt at explaining the Divine Sovereignty/Human Freedom dilemma better than five point Calvinism. He believes, like me, that Calvinism's problems lie in the fact that when followed to its logical conclusion, Calvinism sets God up as the author of evil, though most Calvinists reject the idea. Dr. Keathley appreciates Calvinism's attempt to do justice to God's sovereignty, but believes that Calvinism's TULIP acronym needs to give way to a new acronym - ROSES.

Radical Depravity in place of Total Depravity
Overcoming Grace in place of Irresistible Grace
Sovereign Election in place of Unconditional Election
Eternal Life in place of Perseverance of the Saints
Singular Redemption in place of Limited Atonement

ROSES isn't original to the system of Molinism. Molinism was more of an explanation of how humans could be free and God be in absolute control than a system of the application of salvation. Dr. Keathley, however, takes the ROSES scheme and combines it with the Molinist system to describe why, if God is sovereign and desires the salvation of all mankind, not all are saved.

Though I don't personally buy into Molinism, Dr. Keathley makes an excellent case of it in SALVATION AND SOVEREIGNTY. I can't get past how God choosing which free choices we make doesn't equally lead to God being the author of sin as Calvinism does. One of the strengths of Molinism, however, is the concept of Counterfactuals of Creaturely Freedom. God knows exactly what free choices any person would make under any given circumstances. If a person was under a certain set of circumstances, then that person would make a certain free choice. It's easy to see how God could and would use this knowledge to orchestrate the world to his desired end. However, Molinism places this knowledge in a place where it is essentially useless to God in the course of history because he already decided what each person would do before creating anything. Hence, it doesn't seem that Molinism really retains much human freedom at all.

The reason I do love the book, though, is because Dr: Keathley does an excellent job at presenting a very biblical critique of Calvinism. Each chapter of the ROSES scheme tackles the problems of Calvinism's five points and often presents a better, more biblical solution that leaves God's character intact.

The Radical Depravity chapter presents a view of human freedom called soft libertarianism and shows why Calvinism's freedom to do what one most desires is no real freedom at all.

The Overcoming Grace chapter clearly shows that, biblically, God's grace is resistible and offered to all. Dr. Keathley presents an "ambulatory model" of grace where human beings are responsible not to resist God's grace that is carrying them to salvation. Salvation is all of God and damnation all of man, as Charles Spurgeon put it.

The Sovereign Election chapter was difficult to comprehend. This was the chapter that had the most to do with Molinism. Essentially, it said pretty much the same as Calvinism in that God chooses who will be saved apart from anything the people might do. Given the previous Overcoming Grace chapter, this chapter seemed in contradiction. God offers grace to all, and those who don't resist are saved, but God sovereignly chooses who will be saved before the foundation of the world apart from anything they might do. Dr. Keathley states that in this system God actively uses his foreknowledge in election, but rejects the common Arminian perspective of God's use of foreknowledge in election. He doesn't make real clear how exactly God uses his foreknowledge in election.

Eternal Life essentially affirms the Calvinist position that all genuine believers will persevere.

The Singular Redemption chapter refutes Limited Atonement and shows how Christ died for the sins of all people, but only believers enjoy the benefits of Christ's atonement.

Before these chapters Dr. Keathley includes an excellent chapter on the biblical idea that God desires the salvation of all, and strives to answer why not all are saved even though God wills their salvation. He describes God's will as an antecedent/consequent will. God antecedently wills the salvation of all humanity, but consequently wills that those who resist faith not receive salvation.

As far as Molinism goes, I'm not convinced. But as a thorough examination and correction to much of the problems of Calvinism, Dr. Keathley's book is one I go to again and again. His writing style is warm and without a hint of arrogance. It's clear that Dr. Keathley cares deeply about people and loves God profoundly. Though there was much I disagree with, there was still much in the book that got me thinking in the right direction.

Book Review: Radical Together by David Platt

Radically Pursuing the Redemption of the World

An inherent danger lurks within the culture of the American church. The danger is for churches to become comfortable, sitting back, and resting in the grace that has been given to us through Christ’s death and resurrection. While God’s grace and our redemption are life-changing, the desire of God’s heart is for more than our comfort and isolation in a community of faith. Many churches in America gather in extravagant buildings with all the trappings of comfort every Sunday morning, while the world around them is falling apart and without hope. The thought of it might produce guilt, but that’s not the point. Comfort isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In Christ we’ve been given incredible freedom. But the danger lurks when our comfort and freedom cause us to become complacent about the desire of God’s heart for the redemption of people all over the world.



In answer to this danger David Platt presents his new book “Radical Together.” Like “Radical” before it, it is a challenge to our preconceptions about what being a follower of Jesus should be like, especially in America. In the midst of my comfort, I found the message of Platt’s book to cause a deep discomfort about my life and a discontent with how I have pursued the desire of God’s heart—making disciples of all nations.



Platt challenges the good things in our lives that keep us from the best things. We often assume that Christ rescued us here and now so that we could experience an easier life here and now, but the easier, painless life awaits after we’ve done all that God has rescued us to do here. God’s heart is for people to come to know him, to be satisfied in him, to find a radically loving Father in him. And God, in what seems to be the riskiest move in history, put flawed human beings in charge of making his dream a reality. To us he said “go and make disciples of all nations.” Of course, it’s God who does the rescuing, but he’s chosen to work through us. That is both a humbling and exhilarating task. In the heart of every human being burns a desire to make a difference in the world. In Christ we get that opportunity.



Platt challenges us to reevaluate our priorities and to abandon ourselves to the gospel-centered mission of God in the world. He calls us to trust in God who does the work through the Bible and to follow God’s leading wherever it may take us, even if it’s in another context on the other side of the world where our lives may be threatened. But even if we lose our lives, the beauty of our God will be made known and people will be redeemed.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Book Review: The Priest's Graveyard by Ted Dekker

Can one man taking the law into his own hands to rid the world of the vilest offenders truly make a difference in the world? If we who try to live good moral lives judge those who don’t, will the world be a better place? Those are the questions Ted Dekker tackles in his latest novel “The Priest’s Graveyard.”



The story centers around a priest whose conscience is stricken whenever he sees anyone causing the horrible suffering of someone else and not having to pay for it. Danny Hansen is the priest, and he believes that the most moral thing he can do is to end the lives of those who live to cause pain and avoid justice. He’s been doing this a long time, and he does it well. Hardly anyone would question that Danny’s victims would deserve to die if justly tried by a court of law. But where the law fails, Danny steps in to save the day, believing the world is a better place because of it.



Danny’s world is complicated, however, when a young woman named Renee Gilmore becomes obsessed with taking the life of the man who killed her husband. Their paths cross, and Renee convinces Danny to train her to become an expert vigilante just like him. As their lives become interwoven by the desire to see the guilty punished, the line that separates them from the “bad guys” becomes blurred.



Dekker has crafted a story that explores the depths of human depravity. The question switches from “who is guilty?’ to “who is innocent?” While Danny and Renee see what’s wrong with the world outside of them, the beauty of the story comes when they begin to look on the inside, which ultimately leads to the desperate need for someone on the outside who knows no sin and can rescue the guilty from the real enemy that lies inside of themselves.



Dekker creates fascinating characters that are easy to identify with. We share their struggles and understand their need for something beyond themselves to give them hope in the midst of impossible circumstances. Dekker’s story, though gritty, is a story of hope in the midst of darkness. Who is innocent? None of us are.