Book Review: Brad Alles - Starting at the End: Worldview, God's Word, and Your Future

As the title suggests, this is a book concerning the future. Unlike most books about eschatology, it not only discusses Christianity, but it also discusses how unbelievers view the future. "Starting at the End" is very unique.

Alles takes us through what "worldview" means. Everyone has one, whether you know it our not. He shows that each worldview consists of four components:

* Assumption
* Philosophy
* Ethics
* Future

Assumption is our starting point. Some would call it a presupposition. We all have preconceived ideas of the world around us.

Philosophy is our belief system. "Is there a heaven and hell or is this world all there is?" Our answer to that question is our philosophy.

Ethics is our view of how people should act or behave. Do we live by a list of commands from God or by our own rules?

Future is where we believe this world is going. What is the end result of our beliefs?

This book was an interesting read. It takes the study of worldview and adds a twist. Although there are many books about worldviews, this on comes at it from the backside. All of our beliefs start from where we want to go in the future. If heaven is your goal, you will live a certain way. If you look for a society with everyone is identical and alike you will live accordingly.

Here is a list of beliefs Alles examines:

Secular Humanism
Marxism
New Age
Islam
Christianity

In this book, Brad Alles shows us that all beliefs have consequences and all religions are not compatible with each other. Like any logical way of looking at things, two opposing views can not both be true. Either there is a God and what He says is true or there is no God and we can live our life anyway we want. Truth is true. If Marx is right then Christianity is false. If Secular Humanism is true then Islam is false. If Christianity is true then the other belief systems Alles examines are false.

I enjoyed this book. I don't agree totally with his end time view, but there are always differences of opinion about eschatology in the Christian community.

I highly recommend it and give it 5 out of 5 stars.

I received this book, free of charge, from Concordia Publishing House and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.