Reviewed by STUART KELLOGG
Book by Charles Colson with Anne Morse
Chuck Colson’s life accurately illustrated both our fallen world and the power of a redeeming Christian faith. The secular world best knows Colson as President Nixon’s hatchet man; the attorney who ruthlessly wielded power and ultimately paid the price for his role in the Watergate scandal that toppled a presidency. His conversion to Christ not only opened this Ivy League educated former Marine officer’s eyes to the reality of Christ but also drew him to impact culture for more than a generation.
While best known for establishing the Prison Fellowship ministry that continues to transform lives behind bars, Colson was also a tireless evangelist for making Christians see their faith as not just a religion, but also a worldview. My Final Word: Holding Tight to the Issues that Matter Most, a compilation of unpublished material, is an illuminating tool to help tackle 12 key issues hammering the American church. “This is why I teach biblical worldview. We have to understand how the Bible intersects with all of life,” he writes. “Comparing how the Bible works out in life versus how other system of thought do. The biblical view will give you the rational answer.”
Colson’s work as an apologist, defending the faith with intellectual rigor that matches any university professor, unveils the reason for the secular world’s hostility to Christianity. “What is the offense of the gospel? Another king—and it has always been this way all through the centuries. This explains the resistance of American intellectuals and cultural elite to the gospel: We are proclaiming another loyalty.”
The book is more than a critique of Western culture. It’s a moving book about faith. Colson’s story about his renewed and invigorated prayer life in the face of his daughter’s traumatic illness best illustrates Colson’s growth in his faith walk. Despite Colson’s on-target insights on the church, Islam, crime and suffering, he was always a man of joy. He was a powerful force for faith, writing near the end, “I think it has to be said that fear, which is the enemy of faith, also denies us hope.” Fear not, this book will inspire, engage, and provide that hope.