As Christians, how many of us have fallen into the modern cultural
logic that surrounds us on issues like abortion, marriage and family, the
occult, and whether or not we should really
take the Bible seriously? In Buyer Beware,
Janet Parshall takes a look at these issues through the lens of the Bible. She
uses the Vanity Fair described in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress as an analogy for the “Marketplace of Ideas” we
face in our culture every day. As she takes the reader through this Marketplace,
she examines lies being sold in our culture and seeks to show the reader why we
shouldn't buy into them.
I found the book a little hard to get into at first, because
I felt like the first few chapters didn't really have the “meat” I was
expecting. However, once she delved into the issues a few chapters in I really
started to enjoy the book. She demonstrates with nearly all the topics she
covers that there is “nothing new under the sun”. Abortion may be a modern
procedure, but infanticide and the killing of one’s own children are not. Our
culture faces the same choices, temptations, and evils as cultures past. Those
issues may have a new approach or perspective, but are not new themselves.
In her conclusion, the author discusses ways that we, as
pilgrims in this fallen world, can approach the ideas in the marketplace of
culture from a Biblical standpoint. The real battle is for the souls of
unbelievers, and there are ways that Christians can seek the welfare of their
community without simply secluding ourselves from the world, as may be the
inclination of some.
Buyer Beware is a
thought provoking book that helps the reader take a more critical look at many
arguments given about issues that face our culture. I enjoyed reading it, and
would encourage other Christians to check it out as well. I think it is
important to continue to examine culture from a critical eye, instead of just
buying every argument on practices now deemed “culturally acceptable”. Overall,
a good read!
I received this book
for free from the publisher through the Moody Publishers blogger review
program. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions and
thoughts I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with
the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255
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