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| The following is a list of books that I have read over the last year. All of these books have been very important and impacting to my life and world view, so I hesitate to put them in any certain kind of order. However, I will put Charles Finney's Systematic Theology first, since above all others, it has had the greatest impact on me:
Finney's Systematic Theology
Charles G. Finney
Though Finney wrote about many more topics including revivals, Christian living, culture, cults and more, this book sums up his theological stance. Historically, his evangelism efforts are credited with having over 500,000 converts to Christianity, with some saying the number was closer to 1,000,000. Also, the majority of Finney's converts STAYED converted for the rest of their lives. This is something that cannot be said of most converts of today's "man-centered, easy believism" gospel.
God At War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict
Gregory Boyd
Boyd examines ancient Biblical and pagan "gods" found in the competing cultures in Biblical history to make the case for what he calls "The Warfare World View". He discusses how the modern church insists on "understanding" evil and how to escape it, in contrast to the early church that "expected" evil and warred against it in the spiritual realm. The book broadened my view of the vastness of the war going on "behind the scenes" in the spiritual plain of reality.
Life In The Son
Robert Shank
Originally published in 1961, the book is considered by many to be the best book on the issue of "once saved always saved". It is an intelligent, fair, and unemotional piece. He really gets into the Greek, taking tenses and moods into consideration. The book is all about viewing the key scriptures often used in support of OSAS in context! Aside from it being a thorough and scholarly study on the doctrine of perseverance, it is a spiritually challenging read about what it truly means to be a Christ follower.
The God They Never Knew
George Otis, Jr.
Of all the books I would recommend to anyone and everyone, this is the book! There has not been written a more concise, easy to read, and thorough piece on understanding the nature and character of God with regard to His moral government of humanity. Unfortunately, this book is out of print, and used copies are often expensive and hard to find. Buy it if you can find a copy!
Did God Know?: A study of the nature of God
Howard R Elseth
This a wonderfully easy to read book on the Open View of God. Published in 1977 by what I have found to be a fairly unknown author, the book asks tough questions about the foreknowledge of God and predestination by challenging the modern view that "God knows the future" exhaustively. There is a chapter in the book that offers one great explanation on the Biblical phrase "before the foundation of the world", that so often causes confusion among believers. The book is almost impossible to find, which is why I do not have a link to it.
Understanding the Atonement For The Mission of the Church
John Driver
The author investigates 10 "motifs" concerning the Atonement of Christ that are illustrated in the New Testament by the apostles and early believers. He demonstrates that the strict "substitutionary" view of the Atonement that most hold to today is very limited and incomplete. To help you better understand the Cross, this book is a must.
Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?
Walter Chantry
This tiny little book centers around the story of the "rich young ruler" found in the gospels. It is a call to the church to reanalyze the gospel message that we are communicating to the world. You may find that this book comes at you like punch after painful punch to your unbiblical notions of what the "gospel" actually is. This book is SO cheap and SO small. Please read it. DISCLAIMER: I do not in any way support the points he makes in the last chapter of the book. It's as if he took the last chapter to make a case against freewill (which doesn't compute with the fact that the book he just wrote is about calling people to CHOOSE to follow Christ). It's still a great little book, but it could do WITHOUT the last chapter. :)
Always Ready: Directions For Defending the Faith
Greg Bahnsen
Presuppositional (as opposed to Classical) apologetics is the focus of this book. Bahnsen stresses that the christian should go beyond mere facts, and attack the unbelievers presuppositions about reality to dismantle their unbelieving worldview. The author was a brilliant apologist and defender of the Christian faith, yet his theological slant is very reformed, and he often quotes John Calvin in a positive light. Alas, this is not a theology book so I don't mind recommending it. Getting a basic understanding of presuppositional apologetics is a crucial weapon in the arsenal of the Christian believer.
The Moral Government of God & Holiness and Sin
Gordon C. Olson
These two booklets are also VERY hard to find, but they are great primers on just what the titles suggest they are. Too many theological ideas are confusing and often make God seem alien and distant. Olson has refined Finney's theology into very understandable and applicable viewpoints that make God seem all the more knowable, trustworthy, and deserving of our whole heart.
The Scripture Doctrine of Atonement
Caleb Burge
(This book is free online, at the link provided)
Written in 1822, this small book is to my current knowledge the best book on the Governmental view of the Atonement of Christ. Burge explains the problems that God faced with how the Atonement could let Him forgive sinful man, yet remain a righteous and just judge with regard to His character, His law, and His kingdom. An excellent piece!
Exactly What Our Saviour Taught About Sin
M.L. Dye
(This book is free online, at the link provided)
The title sums up the booklet precisely. The church today has neglected to view sin in the way that Jesus described it. We refuse to see sin for the wicked rebellion that it is, and in doing so, we dilute the significance of the blood of Christ and castrate the resolve of the church to speak out against its horrors. At only 27 pages in length, this book will challenge the way you view everyone's least favorite subject, sin. A must read.
Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions on these books. I want to do whatever I can to help any of you reading this to know Christ and make Him known. 
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| Does a person have to repent to be saved?
*(Edit: Answer the question and define what you think Biblical repentance is.)
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| An allegory by Charles G. Finney on repentance:
"Suppose that when you go home to-night, at the deep hour of midnight; when you are all asleep in an upper apartment of your house, you are awaked by the cry of fire; you look up and find your dwelling wrapt in flames around you. You leap from your bed and find the floor under your feet just ready to give way. The roof over your head is beginning to give way, and ready to fall in upon you with a crash. Your little ones awake, and are shrieking and clinging to your night-clothes. You see no way of escape.
At this moment of unutterable anguish and despair, some one comes dashing through the flames with his hair and clothes on fire, seizes you in your distraction with one hand, and gathers his other long and strong arm around your little ones, and again rushes through the flames at the hazard of his life. You absolutely swoon with terror.
In a few moments, you open your eyes in the street and find yourself supported in the arms of your deliverer. He is rubbing your temples with camphor, and fanning you, to restore your fainting life. You look up and behold in the scorched and smoky features of him who rescued you, the man whom you have supremely hated. He smiles in your face, and says 'fear not, your children are all alive; they are all standing around you.'
Now would you, could you look coldly at him, and say, 'O I wish I could repent, that I have hated you so much. I wish I could be sorry for my sin against you.' Could you say this? No. You would instantly roll over upon your face, and wash his feet with your tears, and wipe them with the hairs of your head. This scene would change your heart in a moment, and ever after the name of that man would be music in your ears. If you heard him slandered, or saw him abused, it would enkindle your grief and indignation.
And now, sinner, how is it, that you complain that you cannot repent of your sins against God? Behold his loving kindness, and his tender mercy. How can you look up? How can you refrain from repentance? How can you help being dissolved in broken-hearted penitence at his blessed feet? Behold his bleeding hands! See his wounded side! Hark! hear his deep death-groan, when he cries "it is finished," and gives up the ghost for your sins. Sinner, are you marble or adamant! Has your heart been case-hardened in the fires of hell, that you don't repent? Surely nothing but enmity deep as perdition, can be proof against the infinitely moving inducements to repentance."
> Source here
*Also, the book I'm reading (below) can be read in its entirely online HERE.
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