The Jesus You Can't Ignore, by John MacArthur- An Honest Review

I did want to give this work a higher mark. I like John MacArthur, but I don't give someone a 5-star simply because I like them. If someone turns out a product they expect you to buy, be it a product of creativity or no, I expect the highest quality for my money.

Summary: 'The Jesus You Can't Ignore' by John MacArthur is intended to be a rebuttal and a stand against Ecumenical Evangelism, Evangelical Post-Modernism, and is a look at the confrontational side of Jesus that tends to be hidden, down-played, or completely denied in our modern churches today.

Theological and Topical Points: I was looking forward to this book, simply because I believe Jesus isn't portrayed as He fully was. Mr. MacArthur makes this point repeatedly, but his most powerful argument was in his introduction, instead of in the rest of the book. There are challenges, if you will, throughout the chapters, but these were far less than convicting, much less inspiring.
The gist of his argument against Ecumenical Evangelism is that Jesus was confrontational, even angry against hypocrisy, false teaching, etc. This needed to be said, and he makes some Biblical statements.

Writing Style and Product: Now we come to it. I do understand what Mr. MacArthur was trying to say, and what he was trying to accomplish with this published work. That said, I have to give this a 3 star, not because he was wrong, but to be utterly honest, because he was boring. It took me a while to finish this book and write this review simply because I was not interested in finishing it, even though I agreed with what he said. Much if the real "meaty" parts of the book were bogged down with complicated explanations, Biblical historical places, names, references, customs, and on the list goes. On, and on. Some of them had relevance, most didn't, and they sabotaged this work. Mr. MacArthur did the exact thing he was preaching against, polite reasoning. He was proving his points not Biblically, but with Biblical knowledge of Jewish customs and such. Many people I know would not read this book, simply because they are simple people and believe the Bible, well, simply. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that these "extras" drowned out everything else and took place of many powerful thoughts he could have communicated, as was clear in his introduction.

All in all, I wouldn't buy this book. It was helpful in certain areas, but I expected much of it to be more like his introduction: many more statements instead of a history lesson.