The Emergence Of A New
Generation is the second book by Encoh A. Anti in which he seeks to “communicate
the mind of God…to the best of my(his) knowledge” and to “call out my(his) generation to enlist in what God is doing.”
This desire he states was born out of apprehension that struck him one time when
he was scheduled to deliver a talk to a certain Christian youth group which
sought to be relevant in the world. He envisions that “young, ordinary men and women will suddenly start migrating from
obscurity to advance the Kingdom of God” and that “great ideas will be embedded in our hearts to be expressed through books,
companies, schools, institutions, inventions and creativity in advancing the
Kingdom.”
There are many good things about this book of which I will
enumerate a few. Firstly, it is written in a conversational style which makes
it easy for one to follow along the author’s train of thought. He employs the
peptalk sort of approach in attempting to achieve the second part of his aim in
writing the book which I thought very helpful. Secondly, the book is saturated
with bible verses thus underpinning the Christian perspective with which the
author seeks to make his case. Though it can be easily characterized as a
motivational book, the deluge of bible verses used set it apart from the
typical “can-do” motivational books prevalent in our times. Thirdly, he quotes
many different authors to buttress points he wanted to establish. This shows
the author embarked on extensive research to come out with this book. Finally,
his use of simple language makes for easy comprehension. Thus one is encouraged
to continue reading through to the end once one picks up the book. Simply put,
it is enjoyable!
There were, however, certain portions of the book I found to
be quite disagreeable but will just highlight a few. The author says “every spiritual truth I put pen on paper
should be practical, relevant and something I have first experienced” and
that he has “learnt to speak and write
only about things that are practical – things I have experienced and understand.”
This is problematic for several reasons.
Firstly, why the need for “relevance” of the gospel and
other truths expounded in the scriptures? Have we so lost confidence in the
timelessness of the word of God? This attitude to me betrays a tacit belief
that certain (if no all) biblical truths are archaic and are in desperate need
of a makeover if people in our contemporary times are going to buy into it. The
dangers in pursing “relevance” is that it opens one to all manner of unbiblical
ideologies and philosophies and styles that may be in vogue at one time or
another but these soon pass away as history has shown many times over but the
truths expounded in the scriptures has and will remain the same! As Christians,
we should never loose cognizance of the fact that Christ and the truths of
scriptures transcends all times and ages thus if anything in the whole world
could be said to be veritably relevant, it ought to be the scriptures!
Secondly, I find the craving for “practical” truth most unfortunate
indeed. This belief is called pragmatism
and John MacArthur notes “the error of
pragmatism is that it regards methodologies that “work” as more important and
more viable than those that are biblical. A pragmatist is concerned primarily
with whether a given practice is expedient, not necessarily whether it is in
harmony with scripture.” Pragmatism is also an indirect way of denying the
sufficiency of Christ and scriptural truths in all things. Thus this approach
should certainly not be promoted.
Thirdly, it is most unpractical (pun intended) to want to
experience everything before one can vouch for its veracity or to even write
about it. Truth is objective and though it is often based on observable phenomenon,
it is nonetheless undistorted by our emotions or personal biases. Indeed, I doubt
the author would have been around to write this book if he were to live by this
principle because some experiences will likely lead to his demise. It is just
plain imprudence to live/write solely by experience.
In conclusion, I will say the book does well in giving sound
biblical advice and some useful how-to’s that
will be of great benefit to any young person today especially to young
Christians. I will encourage anyone to grab a copy. You can go here for your
copies. Kudos to the author…writing is not an easy task…
SDG!!!
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