Book Review:
From Death to Life: How Salvation Works
Written by Allen Nelson IV
Review by Casey Holencik
To know me is to know that I like things simple. I don’t like overly complicated things. My wife and I joke that we could never be rich, because all the food we see in fancy restaurants and on the Food Network all just looks pretentious. Give me simple, fresh, good tasting food. If you swoop the sauce on the plate with your spoon, I’m out.
When we go and try to explain the Gospel and how salvation works, we have a tendency to swoop our theology and big words across the plate, if you will. We complicate things. We are a people of the extreme ends of the pendulum. We swing to one end or the other, even if the truth is somewhere in between. And so, if we avoid the tendency to overcomplicate the Gospel, it is likely that we fall into the trap of oversimplifying it; what is referred to numerous times in this book as “Easy-believism.”
This book cuts through these two extremes and returns to the question we should all be asking; What does the Bible say? And that’s where Allen Nelson gets his answers: from the Bible. Most of the footnotes are actual scripture and does what I love, makes the book be a study of the bible, not an interview of someone’s ideas and conjectures. Because, ultimately, that’s our authority. Who gets to decide, define and determine how salvation works? The one who offers it. And He has given us His Word, the Bible.
And that, combined with Nelson’s ability to write biblical truths simply and clearly allows the book to be a useful and helpful resource to all people. Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you will be able to apply these truths to your walk and deepen your understanding of the bible and walk with God. Weather you hold a Ph. D. in theology or unsure of what the bible even teaches, this clear and straight forward book will teach and give you an opportunity to grow your faith.
Its simple & clear enough for those who are early in their walk or maybe haven’t become a believer in Jesus Christ. It is deep and robust enough for Pastors and Professors to utilize and learn from.
Part of the problem within the church today, why we have such a misunderstanding about what salvation truly is and how it really works, is because the church looks just like the world around it. Today’s society is all about emotion and feelings above facts and reality. Bringing the church, its teachings, its beliefs back under the inerrant, authoritative Word of God is, maybe, the most important thing that we as Christians need to be doing for the Church to effect change in any real way. This book leads this charge by explaining in a clear, deep, systematic, straight biblical way.
This book will be one I give to all my elders, those I counsel, and anyone who comes to my office with questions of salvation. I cannot say enough good things about this book, can not recommend it enough. From new believers, lay church members, elders, pastor, seminary professors, any one who wants to see biblically what Salvation is and how we move from Death to Life, This is the book to pick up.
Thank you Allen Nelson. You have given us pastors both something to think about and a teaching tool in our often tough job of teaching the bible authentically and biblically.
(2 Disclaimers. First, this is the first book review Ive written, so be gentle! And Second, I received this copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. Needless to say, I was planning on buying it anyway…)
Pastor Casey
Romans 10:8-17