Review of "True Religion"

True Religion – Taking Pieces of Heaven to the Places of Hell on Earth

By Palmer Chinchen Ph.D.

Reviewed by Pat Beaty

            Duane Litfin, President of Wheaton College, says this book should be required reading for twenty-first century Christians and I enthusiastically agree.  Dr. Robert C. Cannada, Jr., Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, states that the author comes from a family who gave up their lives and changed their lifestyles for the sake of others because of the gospel.  He says this work will disturb you and may change your life and your lifestyle as well.  Your reviewer agrees fully…it is that good!

            Chinchen begins by giving instances to illustrate how we have, even as Christians, have been living for ourselves – the easy life – and must give our lives away to a hurting world.  He says we must become as those described in the Judaic “Shema” – “God is not just interested in your obedience; He wants your heart.”

            Chinchen urges us to go to another country – become expatriates – and see what real poverty is.  He recites several personal experiences while he was in other countries and challenges us to develop a Christian response to poverty, injustice, and oppression wherever we are.  He states that his friend Sean, who lived in Africa, notes that he could not find the word “comfortable” in the Bible and “maybe its time to live a little less comfortable.”

            While giving again several stories form his own experience, Dr. Chinchen explains his belief that we are transformed through moments of spiritual conflict.  He says that “under the pressure of going globally and giving our lives away, we open ourselves to the possibility of God crafting something beautiful in our souls. Go! Go large, go far, go where no one has ever gone before.”  He says that he loves the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Enlarge your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, for you will spread out to the left and to the right.”

            In True Religion, Chinchen attempts to bring us out of our self-engrossed existence and into the real world of service to our one and only God.