My Books

This page includes both books that I have written and that I am writing. Ebooks are inexpensive or free. Paper books cost, of course. Also, don't miss my recommended books for the study of church history.

In the Beginning Was the Logos

You will never find another book on the Council of Nicea that is so thoroughly researched yet so interesting and readable. The Council of Nicea is possible the most important event in Christian history, and had much to do with shaping Christianity into what you know it to be. Click here for a longer description, reviews, free chapters, and the link for purchase.

How to Make a Church Fail

What happened to the apostles' churches? How did they go from what we read about in Acts to once-per-week meetings and mostly nominal believers? This is the story from satan's perspective.

This booklet is only about 20 pages long, and you can download the .pdf free.

Sniping Modern Traditions

It is hard for modern Christians to believe just how many of our doctrines are based on recent tradition that cannot be traced to the Scriptures nor to the apostolic age. Yes, we have our proof texts that we can throw out, but there are literally dozens of New Testament verses specifically refuting things we believe by tradition. Constant repitition has simply trained us to ignore them.

Once a person becomes familiar with Christian history, and especially early Christian history, the lack of support for many of our beliefs becomes evident. Perhaps this explains why so few Christians study church history and why historians avoid emphasizing the inconsistencies they know exist.

This book, then, which is currently just a series of articles, is meant to point out the things we don't like to notice in hopes that the church as we know it, and the Christians in it, will take a step onto firmer ground.

The chapters are .pdf documents. Most computers have a reader for those now, but if you don't, I use Foxit Reader, which doesn't pester me with ongoing update requests like Adobe's Acrobat Reader does.

Finally, if you read my blog, you've already read these chapters.

• To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice
• More on Sacrifices
• Grace as Defined by the Apostles
• Tradition, Taboos, and Superstitions: Saying What the Apostles Said
• Water Baptism: This article, part of this web site, is going to be a chapter in this book.

The Second Hundred Years

I started on this book in 2008, then never finished it. Five chapters are written. The first three were reviewed by a professional editor, though not edited. I was trying to get a professional opinion whether my writing was worth reading. I got excellent feedback, so I pressed on with my writing "career" but not with this book.

The first five chapters have a lot of history and a lot of quotes concerning the second century church. It's free.

Download The Second Hundred Years.

Things As I See Them

Things As I See Them is not currently a serious effort at a book, though I hope to use the chapters for another book I'm planning. I believe the chapters, which you can read here for free, will give you some deep thinking about the Gospel as the apostles preached it.

I will make an effort to make those downloadable .doc documents.

Thrilled to Death

Thrilled to Death is the story of my battle with acute leukemia. I can't finish it yet because the battle is not over. Much of the material will come from my Thrilled to Death blog, so that is where you can see it being written.

As I have an aggressive, life-threatening form of leukemia that kills 30-40% of people my age and in my general health (which is excellent by leukemia standards) who contract it. I have, however, already survived three rounds of chemotherapy, and the leukemia is temporarily in remission, so the doctors are giving me an 80% chance of surviving the treatment I will receive between January and April of 2012.

In January, 2012 I will receive one last massive chemotherapy combined with total body irradiation, which will be followed by a bone marrow transplant.

Thrilled to Death is about believing that all things work together for good for those who love God, not just the "good" things.

I'll post chapters here as I get a chance. The chapters are short, so there will be a lot of them. Several are already done.

Who Really Goes to Hell? - The Gospel You've Never Heard

The Gospel You've Never Heard is not mine, and you have to go to Amazon to purchase it. I was stunned to find that someone actually wrote a book like this. David Rudels describes things in much the same way I do.

If you use any of my links over to Amazon, I get a small commission off your purchases there, which helps support this site. The same is true on the Recommended Books page, which points you to books useful in the study of church history.