Book: A Martyr’s Faith in a Faithless World
Author: Byran Wolfmueller
Paperback. 202 pages
Concordia Publishing House, 2019
A Martyr’s Faith in a Faithless World is an excellent book that I can recommend to all adult Christians. As you might surmise from the title, it is about the challenges Christians face in a world that is opposed to Christ and his people. Wolfmueller uses two different frames in his discussion. As the title intimates, one of those frames are martyrs, people who refused to surrender their faith in Christ, accepting death instead. The book is divided into five large parts and each part begins with a story about one of these heroes. Each part then contains the various chapters of the book (twenty-seven in total). Wolfueller uses the parable of the sower and the seed as the second frame and with it he illustrates the various challenges we face as believers.
While you may not know all five of the martyrs, I expect most all adult believer know the parable of the sower and the seed. So you may be thinking, “Well I know that one. I’ve heard plenty of sermons on the sower and the seed. I think I’ll go for something new, something different.” If so, you are doing yourself a disservice with such a thought. While Wolfmueller might not make the stream of your knowledge wider, his book will make it deeper as he offers a theological reading of Christ’s parable. Wolfmueller wrote:
Here is a mystery. A theological reading of the Bible does not uncover a different doctrine, but more, deeper, theology roots that reach down to the deep water. We don’t move past the basics of the Bible, but further into them. We read the Bible as students eager to be taught.” (34)
One of the joys of a good book, for me, is that it provides me with quotes I can post on facebook. I plan to post quite a few from this book.
Blessings in Christ
Pastor Rickert