Who’s Your Father?
Robert Bernecker
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
North Charleston, South
Carolina. 2013
227 pp RRP $2.86 Kindle edition
Is your God really GOD? Or is he a god made in
your own image, a tame god who jumps to do your bidding?
These and other questions are posed in Robert
Bernecker’s book, Who’s Your Father.
Bernecker freely admits he is a non-theological
lay-person dealing with weighty topics. As such, however, he relates well to
the common person and every point he makes is backed up by Scripture, with the
pages littered with Scripture references, and extensive quotes from eminent
Christian scholars.
Much of the teaching in the church today is shown
to be false by the clear teaching of Scripture. There are many ways in which we
attempt to bring God down to our own size or make him in our own image.
Bernecker opens his discussion with the
illustration of the sparrows that Jesus used (Matthew 10:29). Here he challenges
us to a right view of God’s sovereignty and his minute involvement in our
lives.
If God had all power but did not love us, or
loved us but did not have all power, what confidence could we have in him? ‘Jesus,
however, showed us that our God gives to us the perfect combination of
unlimited love and unbounded sovereignty,’ he writes. ‘We can, therefore, have
a real and living faith.’
Following
chapters discuss the erroneous concept of a ‘Gentleman God’ and the role of
faith because with our finite minds we CANNOT understand God’s ways. Is God
unfair? Are we puppets or robots? Does God override our free will?
The book would be easier to read if it had
shorter chapters and paragraphs and less unnecessary repetition. At times I
struggled, but these are deep truths and it takes concentration to grasp the
message. Prayer and an open Bible to check out the Scripture passages are vital.
Bernecker’s goal is to draw us closer to our
God who is with us not only in our past and future, but also in each moment of
the present.
The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. (Psalm
97:1) Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas
and all deeps. (Psalm 135:6)
This is our God, the God who wants an intimate
relationship with us and in whom we can have total confidence.
