I don’t know about you, but if I watch a news channel for very long, I begin losing hope for the future. It’s easy to believe the world is getting worse and there is little if anything we can do to stop it. If you are a student of history, you know that isn’t the case, but even knowing the world has had periods of time equally bad or worse is still of little comfort.
The danger for Christian parents is losing hope for the future of our children and generations of our family yet to be born. If we lose hope, why bother to put the extra effort into raising kids who will be active Christians, living their faith in this Fallen world? Yet, the message of God’s Plan, of Jesus and of the Gospel message is hope. So how do we remain hopeful raising our kids to be Christians in an openly Fallen world?
I was interested when offered the chance to review the book God of Tomorrow by Caleb Kaltenbach. Kaltenbach has a rather unique background for a Christian author. At some point in his life, both of his parents came out as homosexuals. Caleb had to find a way to love them, while still teaching them what God wanted from them and for them. (Ultimately, both of his birth parents converted to Christianity.)
Kaltenbach has had to learn how to effectively walk the fine line required for speaking the truth in love. Many Christians are great with showing love, but afraid to share God’s truths and commands. Others find it easy to share God’s truths, but struggle to love those who haven’t accepted them yet. Kaltenback understands both are necessary to really help people live the lives God wants them to live – being loved and obeying God’s commands – even when they don’t like them.
Ultimately this book isn’t just about those struggling with homosexuality. It attempts to help Christians navigate the increasingly muddy waters of living an obedient faith in a world that wants to reject the vast majority of God’s commands as “outdated”. It makes the case that loving others doesn’t give them a free pass to continue living in whatever sins they have embraced.
I really appreciated this book. I will admit, I expected it to be yet another book of the “new” Christianity – the “live and let live – we just need to love them and let them continue in their sin, because God would want them to be happy” Christianity. Thankfully Kaltenback doesn’t buy into that theology – even though he probably had more reasons than most of us to want it to be true.
If for no other reason, the two pages on examples of Jesus loving, yet correcting sinful behavior and how the author was able to convert his parents into becoming obedient Christians are worth the price of the book. Major kuddos also for being one of the few Christian authors who mentions baptism as necessary. (Most rely on the easier sinner’s or believer’s prayer- a modern American invention with no Biblical ties to the baptism preached in the New Testament as essential for becoming a Christian.)
Kaltenbach covers topics like social justice, politics, diversity and more through the lens of how God really wants us to handle these issues. He does so without coming across as harsh or giving those disobeying God some sort of free pass to continue practicing sin.
This would be a great book to use to open dialog between those who think love isn’t required and those who believe complete obedience isn’t necessary. Each chapter has discussion questions at the end. For use as a serious Bible study, you may want to add more scriptures. For a more casual godly discussion, the book does refer to quite a few scriptures and Bible stories.
Yes, our world is scary. It always has been and probably always will be until Jesus returns. This book may help you and others learn how to love people, while also encouraging them to obey God. Pointing everyone back to God and His Words is never a bad thing.
A copy of this book was given to me for free in exchange for my honest review. An affiliate link is included for your convenience.