Determined to Believe?

The Sovereignty of God, Freedom, Faith, and Human Responsibility

By: John C. Lennox

Narrated by: William Crockett

Determined to Believe is written for those who are interested in or even troubled by questions about God's sovereignty and human freedom and responsibility. John Lennox writes in the spirit of helping people to get to grips with the biblical treatment of this issue for themselves. In this comprehensive review of the topic of theological determinism, Lennox seeks firstly to define the problem, looking at the concepts of freedom, the different kinds of determinism, and the moral problems these pose. He then equips the reader with biblical teaching on the topic and explores the spectrum of theological opinion on it. Following this Lennox delves deeper into the Gospels and then investigates what we can learn regarding determinism and responsibility from Paul's discussion in Romans on God's dealings with Israel. Finally Lennox tackles the issue of Christian assurance.

This nuanced and detailed study challenges some of the widely held assumptions in the area of theological determinism and brings a fresh perspective to the debate.

©2017 John Lennox (P)2018 Monarch Books

Very Educational

This book provided an excellent education on the subject. Our God is an awesome loving God!! The narrator though was very robotic, almost sounded like an artificial telephone voice. Realized that this book is also available on audible using a different narrator. So I am returning this book because of the narrator.

Great book

Lennox does a wonderful job on this hotly contested topic. I recommend because of the content. It’s just too bad Lennox doesn’t read himself.

great

very well handled, very well explained. lieghton flowers is probably the best resource for debunking the calvanist evil, but Lennox did a really great job here. highly recommend

Great content. Terrible narration.

“Casual” is not the same as “causal”. The misread this word makes a profound truth confusingly nonsensical.

Excellent content, irritating narration

As with John Lennox's other books, the content is excellent. It expanded my understanding and enriched my theological understanding of determinism and free will. It helped me think through a few aspects of TULIP (Calvinism) and eternal security in ways I have not previously. I greatly appreciate the author's Biblical commitment and focus, plus the considerable effort he put into well-thought-out exegeses of all of the relevant passages of Scripture.

Unfortunately, William Crocket mangled the narration. It seems like he did not bother pre-reading sentences, so he sometimes misread sentences whose structures or wording apparently surprised him. Worse, he consistently mispronounced a variety of common words. These mispronunciations initially prove distracting, but soon grow genuinely irritating. Sometimes they even change or confuse the meaning of the text. My quick Google search suggests this has been a consistent problem with his narrations. I'm far from the only person who will buy no more of his work.

Some mispronunciation examples:

1) He mispronounces "differ" as "defer", creating confusion.

2) Ditto with "Incur" as "in cure".

3) "Causally" and "casually" should NOT get pronounced the same. At first I had to listen again to determine what Lennox meant to communicate. Fortunately, as Crocket kept mispronouncing this, I learned to reintepret it on the fly... mostly.

4) "National" should have the emphasis on the first syllable, not the last, and does NOT rhyme with "pal". It should be pronounced "NASH-un-ul" not "nash-un-AAL.

5) "Disingenuous" does NOT contain the word "genius". (The irony...)

6) "Similarly" does NOT rhyme with "fairly" and has the emphasis on "sim", not on... uhh... "lair". Unfortunately, Lennox uses this word often enough that even if it were Crocket's only mispronunciation, his narration would grow somewhat grating.

7) "Subsequent" and "subsequently" do NOT have "seek" in the middle, much less with the emphasis on it. Lennox uses these often enough that Crocket's constant repetition of "sub-SEEK-went" alone would create an exercise in endurance... simi-LAIR-ly to the previous mispronunciation.

You get the idea. I highly recommend this book... in the printed / text editions.

long but comprehensive

I found the issue to be addressed politely and in detailed. Comprehensive in defending Freewill doctrine.

Valuable discussion, but lots of questions

First, I greatly admire Dr. Lennox & have the utmost respect for him. However, I do question some of his arguments. I would like a definition of God's sovereignty; at times it feels as if God is thought of as sovereign overseer rather than sovereign creator exercising his will on all of his creation, including every human. There is a difference. Also, Lennox gave an exhaustive definition of faith, but not so much on grace by which you have been saved, Eph. 2:8-9. A reading of the biblical text gives a broad definition of grace well beyond salvation alone that was missed. Additionally, Lennox seems to ignore the divine tension, brought forth mostly by Paul, between God's sovereign will (sure wants & make sure) and human freewill. In the tension is where the truth lies, with God's sovereignty trumping our will at his divine discretion. One final question, Dr. Lennox seems totally comfortable with the LORD'S determination over a people group, but how is that possible without at least some determination over the individuals in the group? There is no simple answer to much of this, it seems; like the tension, we need to fully accept it, although in our human vessels, we are incapable of fully understanding. On an affirming note, I found Lennox's account of assurance, quite good and compelling.
The performer, although adequate, loses the kindly tone that is pure Lennox. Often sounds lofty and just doesn't fit well.

The narrator was not good

I like John Lennox and have followed him for years and was really looking forward to listening to this book. However the narrator does not do a good job. No energy in his voice. Takes the "g" of words that end in "ing". "Runnin" or "Somethin". I stopped listening but then found a different narrator and I am really enjoying the content.

Important content. Too simplistic solutions to problems

This is a book by Christian Apologist and Mathematician John C. Lennox and it clearly shows that the deterministic interpretations in some Protestantism are neither reasonable nor biblical. Considering Dr. Lennox’s knowledge of math I was hoping he would demonstrate that the simplistically linear models of pre-modern determinism are not compatible with Quantum theory and that non-reductive mathematical models (e.g., Paulo’s Exclusion Principle and the Quantum Wave Function) show that it is possible to understand reality in such a way that there can truly be a place for human libertarian free will that does not compromise God’s sovereignty. I think this was a missed opportunity.

Sadly, the reader has a poor vocabulary and kept confusing ‘causal’ with ‘casual’, and ‘severely’ with the non-word ‘severly’. This is poor direction and editing and needs to be corrected.

Great Bible study

This is a great Bible study. Unlike his other books arguing for the faith. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to serious Bible students.