Thirty Second Theology: Questions and Answers to Build Your Faith by Sinclair Ferguson. Christian Focus. 164 pages. 2026
*** ½
Sinclair Ferguson is a respected Reformed theologian. He has written books at a level for seminary students, lay persons, and some for children. Some years back, he wrote a book similar to this one for children, titled The Big Book of Questions and Answers. He writes that Thirty Second Theology is a more grown-up version of those questions and answers, geared not for children but for teenagers. Although each question and answer will take only about thirty seconds to read, you can certainly think on the answers for much longer. Each question also includes a short verse to memorize, along with related readings from the Bible.
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BOOK CLUB ~What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
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The book is organized into the following sections:
- What We Believe
- Becoming and Being a Christian
- Living for God and His Glory
- The Bible and Prayer
- The Church, the Sacraments, and Our Witness to Christ
- The Future
Among the specific topics included in the book are the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.
This would be a good book for a teenager (recommended age for the book is 13-18), to read, doing perhaps one question and answer per day.
- My Book Reviews. Enjoy nearly 600 of my book reviews on Goodreads. Read my recent review of The Redeemed Man, edited by Joel Beeke, Richard Phillips and Paul Smalley.
- Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold. My wife Tammy has published a book about HOW to study the Bible. The book is available on Amazon in both a Kindle and paperback edition. She writes “Maybe you have read the Bible but want to dig deeper and know God and know yourself better. Throughout the book I use the analogy of making a quilt to show how the Bible is telling one big story about what God is doing in the world through Christ. Quilting takes much patience and precision, just like studying the Bible, but the end result is well worth it.”
- The Exciting Christian Life of John C. Lennox. Andrew Spencer interviews John Lennox about his new book My Story: A Spiritual & Intellectual Autobiography.
- Biblical Wisdom for Everyday Life. Tim Challies reviews Daniel Darlings’ new book Biblical Wisdom for Everyday Life. He writes “While any Christian can benefit from reading Biblical Wisdom for Everyday Life, I suspect it is teens and young adults who will benefit the most. It deals with issues they are confronting and issues for which they need clear and satisfying answers that are deeply grounded in Scripture. That is exactly what Darling offers in this book. It’s for that reason and many more that I gladly recommend it.”
What Is Wrong with the World?: The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
From the Amazon description:
“During his tenure as founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller explained on a weekly basis how the Bible provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated response to the fundamental questions of life. In What Is Wrong with the World?, based on a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Keller answers the title’s pressing question by revealing that the only thing that can account for the world’s pain and chaos is what the Bible calls sin. This clear-eyed and ultimately hopeful book reveals how sin is not simply a “bad” thing we do but something much more subtle and complex, affecting our relationships, our thinking, and every aspect of our existence. And only when we recognize sin for what it is can we find the profound, life-transforming answer our souls long for.”
This week, we look at Chapter 4: Sin as Mistrust. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:
- The metaphor of the two trees shows us that the essence of sin is putting our roots into something besides God.
- The person who thinks themselves religious but doesn’t functionally, in practice, place their trust and hope in Christ doesn’t actually have their roots in God at all.
- Whatever your mind draws hope from, that is your religion. It’s your ultimate concern.
- If anything is a condition for faith in God, then that condition is the real object of faith rather than the Lord.
- Sin is making God a means to an end instead of being the end itself.
- Only one person in history started next to the river and was uprooted to be thrown into the desert. Only one.
- We must take the time daily to meditate on his substitution of himself to pay for our sin, otherwise we will dry up. Our roots won’t be receiving the nourishment and hydration they need.
