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Rating: 
Summary: The Beatitudes-- The Heart of the Christian Faith
Review: John MacArthur's treatment of the beatitudes, and their application for an improved spiritual life, is a "must read" for all who profess the Christian faith. Mr. MacArthur pulls no punches in his interpretation, and strives to demonstrate the importance of Matthew 5:3-11 in our daily walk with Christ. As the title implies, this book helps to explain the way of real happiness that can only be gained when we study and apply the lessons Jesus is teaching on the mount. I highly recommend this book for everyone, from "Seeker" to "Senior Saint."
Rating:
Summary: The Beatitudes-- The Heart of the Christian Faith
Review: John MacArthur's treatment of the beatitudes, and their application for an improved spiritual life, is a "must read" for all who profess the Christian faith. Mr. MacArthur pulls no punches in his interpretation, and strives to demonstrate the importance of Matthew 5:3-11 in our daily walk with Christ. As the title implies, this book helps to explain the way of real happiness that can only be gained when we study and apply the lessons Jesus is teaching on the mount. I highly recommend this book for everyone, from "Seeker" to "Senior Saint."
Rating: 
Summary: Good, In-Depth Study of the Beatitudes
Review: This book has been around in one form or another since 1980, when it was known as Kingdom Living Here and Now (edited back then by Jerry Jenkins, later to become the co-author of the Left Behind series). It sold reasonably well for several years, and then was reissued under this title in 1998. MacArthur's verse-by-verse teaching this time looks at the Beatitudes as commending fruits that are the evidence of a life truly transformed by God. He eschews modern-day liberal interpretations that apply the Beatitudes to oppressed peoples and argues that they instead apply to Christian believers. In this relatively early MacArthur teaching series (he preached this series sometime around 1979), you can see the germ of ideas that would later become central to his ministry (in particular, early inklings of the lordship salvation teaching that would make him a bestselling author with The Gospel According to Jesus). If there's a major negative to The Beatitudes: The Only Way to Happiness, it's that MacArthur won't consider any application other than the spiritual. For example, is there any sense at all in which Jesus may be talking about physical (and not just spiritual) poverty, even given that it be among believers as opposed to the poor in general? MacArthur more or less ignores such issues. Another drawback is that the book lacks warmth even though it deals with subjects such as meekness, spiritual poverty, etc. But this is a convicting, challenging book that should challenge any Christian in his or her spiritual life. MacArthur's discussion somewhere in the first few chapters about humility deeply impacted me. This is not his best book, but it's a good one.
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