Book Series Review: Great Lives from God's Word (originally published October 14)
The “Great Lives from God’s Word” series by Charles Swindoll is a seven-volume biographical series, mostly written of Old Testament men and women. The seven biographies are of David, Esther, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Paul and Job. Having read all seven volumes, I would like to give you some information about the books.
First, the books are very personal. Mr. Swindoll does a very good job about bringing points from the lives of these men and women into modern-day living. Anyone of nearly any age can find something in each volume that will help them. Mr. Swindoll teaches at a seminary, so he has much to say to those of college age and to young married couples.
Second, each volume of the series contains literally dozens of sermon outlines. If you enjoy preaching, teaching Bible classes or holding family devotionals about Bible men and women, these books will give you many, many ideas. If read carefully, nearly every chapter in every book is an outline and contains several more. Preachers who want to have a series on Moses, for example, could probably preach for the better part of a year just using the outlines in that volume!
Third, there is some negative information that must be passed along. Mr. Swindoll is not a member of the Lord’s church, so there is a lot of denominational bias found in the books. While sad, the volume on Paul contains the most. I personally find that sad because Paul is the only New Testament biography in the series. The volume on Paul even goes so far as to state that there are many ways to obtain salvation.
Overall, I highly recommend the series, but only to a Christian who is well-grounded in the faith. Mr. Swindoll does a good enough job in presenting his points that he could shake a very weak Christian. As with any book written by a denominational preacher, there is a lot with which to disagree. Preachers, especially, will find this series helpful, however, if for nothing else but the sermon outlines. The books are between $21 and $24 each, but can be found on eBay or Amazon used for much less.
NOTE: The final book in the series–Job–was published in 2004. The books have been published about 18 months apart so far, but I do not know if there will be another book or books added to the series.
