Brannon Howse

In this power-packed little volume, Brannon Howse has compiled relevant scriptures that provide today’s Christian with answers to questions of a worldview nature: Why is there evil in the world? What does the Bible say concerning a nation’s laws? Howse skillfully quotes scripture as answers to 52 questions about Christianity; then follows up with a brief explanation of the relevant scripture. While the questions are indeed good selections, I feel more care could have been exercised in applying Scripture to some of them -- 7 of them to be exact. The majority of the questions, however, have probably been asked of some Christians at one time or another; and the majority of the responses have been accurately interpreted.

I appreciate the fact that Howse wanted to include scriptures that are key to the Christian faith. I understand the need to construct some of the questions around pre-selected scriptures. But I do wish he had taken greater care in styling these questions to sound like those someone would actually ask. For instance:

No one is going to ask, “What is the fear of the Lord?” (Question 15). That’s not a thought that concerns people. But someone might ask, “How does one get wisdom?” The relevant scripture can still be used: (Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”)

Likewise for Question 19, “What three nouns can be ascribed to Jesus Christ?” It’s true, the passage “. . . I am the way, the truth, and the life,” does list three nouns. But no one is going to ask that. Here, the author could have retained the same passage (John 14:6) while using the question more likely to be asked: “How does one gain access to God?” The answer is in the second part of this passage, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

Fortunately, reasonable questions abound. And the reader will be pleased to find answers to, “What does the Bible say about self-defense?” . . . “civil disobedience?” . . .“abortion?” . . . “being lazy?” The basic Q&A orientation makes it an effective witnessing tool. While Building a Biblical Worldview Verse by Verse can stand in as a basic introduction to apologetics, the way it originally appealed to me, I would encourage the reader to pursue additional helps.

The cover graphics are very impressive. The clever design is a puzzle of the earth, with some of the puzzle pieces displaying scripture references and others depicting concerns of the world: money, government, war, etc. A mere glimpse at the cover will immediately convey the contents of this book.

I attended a Worldview Weekend conference where this book was promoted along with many of the author’s other publications. Useful for anyone, this book is written for parents who wish to teach Biblical doctrine to their children in an effort to instill in them a Biblical worldview. This probably accounts for the 52-questions format – the intent being for the child to memorize one passage per week over a year’s time. The author’s dedication to instilling these truths in his own children was evidenced by an impressive on-stage Q&A demonstration with his pre-teen son. Despite the issues I’ve noted, and after rewriting the questions as necessary, I would certainly have supplemented my children’s Bible training with this book when they were younger. (2007,147 Pages, $10.00)… (more)