Sometimes Judge A Book By Its Cover

on January 26, 2014

I’m loving adam4d – his comics have the right touch of biting commentary and humour. Take for instance this one on judging a book by its cover:

I’ve said before in sermons and in conversation: you can generally tell if a Christian book is dodgy by the cover – if the cover has a good looking, happy, smiling person paired with a positive title, then it’s time to put the book down.

And to prove my point, here’s some examples:

Joel Osteen

Joyce Meyer

Joseph Prince

TD Jakes

I think there’s one general reason why these books all look the same: the message needs to match the messenger. All of the authors above teach a version of what is known as the prosperity gospel: that God’s intention is to prosper you materially (in finances, health, mental well-being, relationships, etc) if you put enough faith in him. The implicit message the covers need to give is this: if you read this book, if you adhere to my message, you will be as prosperous as I visibly am.

Now this is not to say that all books with the author’s face and a positive title are dodgy – but with prosperity false teachers it’s a consistent theme.

On the flip side, here are some of the books from much more solid authors I regularly recommend:

John Piper