“Avoid this book”
(Review written for '1 Corinthians 1-9: Challenging church')
Unless you run a house group full of people who have never had problems I would avoid this book at all costs. If you have any women, divorcees, or people married to unbelievers be prepared to have people hurt as the book is written with a lack of sensitivity, indeed a harshness, which defies belief. It is not often as a house group leader I actually have to say to the group that we are going to have to stop using the book but this is the case in this instance. Very disappointed.
Hello John,
Thank you for your feedback—and sorry that you found the Bible-study guide so unhelpful. As I edited this particular Good Book Guide, I thought it helpful that I respond on Mark Dever's behalf.
I'm assuming that your unhappiness is with one particular study, number six, on 1 Corinthians 7. Mark did include a couple of notes in the leader's guide, explaining that "these are tricky and emotive issues" and suggesting that "it may be wise to talk to particular individuals before this study, so they know the topic is coming up". I am sorry that you felt the GBG was written with a lack of sensitivity and harshness—again, I assume you are referring to the leader's guide rather than the study guide (which simply asks questions) unfortunately space is at a premium, and so the Leader's Guide is aiming to help leaders to understand the Bible clearly (which I think this study does), and to flag up any pastorally sensitive issues (which this study also does) so that leaders can use their own sensitivity and gentleness to guide their group through challenging parts of Scripture.
All our Good Book Guides are trialled by a house group before they were published. This one was used by a group who are certainly not "without problems", and which contained women and people married to non-Christians. While not at all wishing to suggest that your comment is unfounded with regard to your own group, I think it's right to mention that the trialling group found this study helpful; challenging, yes, and difficult to grapple with how God wanted them to live as His people; but faithful, clear, and not changing Scripture to make it more palatable.
I hope that you and your group found the other six sessions useful and biblically faithful. Do please let me know if there are any parts of study six which you feltht were unbiblical, and if it were the case that the studies obscured or confused the clear teaching of 1 Corinthians, we would of course make changes in the reprint.
Many thanks,
Carl (editor)
