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The Awesome, Fantastic Greatness of God

A God-Centered View of Salvation helps readers understand why their motivation for salvation is essential to receiving forgiveness for their sins. Why was this an important book for you to write?

Protestant Christianity stresses the steps to salvation — what a person must believe in order to be saved. Our motivation for salvation is basically ignored as we witness to others. But since the Holy Bible teaches that God seeks out our motivation and desires correct motivation, which aligns with His will, then seekers must be warned of this and taught about this as they approach God for the forgiveness of their sins. In fact, since God is Holy and cannot condone sin, a selfish motivation for salvation such as seeking to be saved in order to avoid eternal suffering in Hell for our sins leads to God rejecting that person and their remaining unsaved.

What do you feel is a common misconception people have about their relationship with God?

I believe that since we are the ones being saved most people look upon salvation as being for our sake. But God is primary and mankind is of lesser importance than our Creator. Therefore, everything must be first and foremost for His benefit — not ours. At the most basic level our Salvation is primarily for God’s sake so He can defeat Satan in spiritual warfare.

What were some ideas that were important for you to explore in this book?

The awesome, fantastic greatness of God (His preeminence).

The insignificance of mankind who is a created being that belongs to his Creator.

What God expects of us is willing submission to His will even in the act of our salvation. Selfish motivation is idolatry with “self” as the idol. We must humble ourselves before the awesome, almighty God.

That since there are many benefits for God in mankind’s salvation, just as there are benefits for us in our salvation — God’s are primary! We should seek salvation so God gets His rightful due and just trust that He, being a loving God, will bless us with our lesser, secondary benefits in our salvation.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?

That God is sovereign, supreme, and preeminent! To be correctly understood, everything must be theocentric (have God at the core) including our motivation for our salvation. God is primary and everything exists for His sake! Even our salvation is primarily for God’s sake and only secondarily for us to receive our benefits.

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This book will tell you why our motivation for salvation is essential, is all important, to our receiving forgiveness for our sins. Even though it is mankind that is being saved, at a deeper level salvation is intrinsically about God receiving His benefits from our salvation. God is primary, man is secondary. Therefore, God receiving His benefits from our salvation is of primary importance, is foundational, and must occur before any of the benefits for mankind in our salvation even exist for us to receive. Because justice is an intrinsic part of God’s character, we cannot selfishly seek salvation for the benefits we will experience such as to escape eternal punishment in Hell, or to gain the pleasures of Heaven… and be accepted by God and saved. Selfishly seeking after salvation for our benefits is idolatry with “self” as the “idol”. You cannot be committing the new sins of greed, selfishness, and idolatry in the very act of asking for forgiveness of your sins! We must submit to God’s preeminence, His rightful lordship, and come submissively to God with our motivation being for Him to receive His benefits and then, and only then, can He forgive our sins and bless us with the side benefits for us in salvation.

Posted in Interviews

A GOD-CENTERED VIEW OF SALVATION

May 9

Posted by Literary Titan

Author Allen M. Steely explains to Christians what it means to be saved in his thought-provoking book A God-Centered View of Salvation. Everyone has their own definition of salvation, depending on how they relate with God and the church. In his book, Allen Steely lays it all out and explains how to do Christianity right, live righteously and get to be God’s chosen child. I like how the author starts the book by asking simple questions which he gives answers to. The author writes extensively and in detail, talking about faith and being a believer. Whether talking about God, human beings or whichever subject, the author uses a unique way of presenting facts and stories that help one relate to the topic being discussed.

A God Centered View of Salvation is a book that will trigger your interest in history. The author talks of different churches in the middle ages, and how change in the church had an impact in today’s ministry. The author talks of the missteps made by old churches and advises Christians today on which path to take. Reading this book was a wonderful experience and makes one have a sense of fulfillment in being a believer. While reading the book, I notice that the author does not move away from the main topic even when he introduces a new subject. This helps the reader focus on the main subject and gets one to fully understand the text being discussed.

The bible is an important book for every Christian. Allen Steely explains the significance of reading the bible often and understanding God’s word. The author also gives tips on how to interpret the teachings in the bible, which was helpful as not many people know how to interpret the scriptures. While talking about salvation and religion as a whole, the author added bible scriptures in between the paragraphs. This was a brilliant idea, by including the bible verses he encourages readers to read the bible more by having the verses as references. Each verse Allen Steely added had a lesson that would assist believers in their journey to salvation.

Apart from the exceptional work the author did with breaking down verses, history lessons and excellent narration, something else stood out in his writing; how honest and rational he was. Allen Steely freely unabashedly lays out his thoughts and is honest with his opinions on different things in life. The author does not sugar coat his opinions and tells it how it is. He also appears to be reasonable and someone whom every believer would want to have a sober discussion with. A God-Centered View of Salvation is enlightening and is useful to both Christians and non-Christians.

Pages: 278 | ASIN: B07PXVZWKS