Book Review: The Invisible War

The Invisible War:  The Panorama of the Continuing Conflict Between Good and Evil by Donald Grey Barnhouse

Rating:  5 stars

Summary:  A thorough, Biblical treatise on the war of Satan against believers and his rebellion against God.

Comments:  I went into this book thinking it would be a book about spiritual warfare, which it is not.  I went into this book thinking it would be relatively light reading, which it is not.  I went into this book as someone who believes in free will – and this book is hard-core Calvinistic.  I don’t agree with everything the author posits.

All that said – this book is incredible.  Starting with creation (Gap theory) through the last word on the last page, the Invisible War is explained, given a good thread of history, and there is so much to chew over.  Theological concepts that I’ve studied under Dr. McGee and Dr.  Missler are brought together as a whole.   Others are added and well argued.  And you get other thoughts, just thrown in there, that make you want to sit down with a concordance and get your study on.

An example:  Could the other folks who were resurrected at the time of Jesus’ resurrection have been His first-fruits?  There *is* a Jewish feast of first-fruits, which “happens” to be on the day Christ was resurrected.   That was a *throw-away* paragraph, and I’ve never heard anyone who had a theory about what was up with those folks.

I didn’t agree – quite strongly didn’t agree – with any amount of the Calvinist arguments, but the arguments were well supported.   This isn’t the kind of book that’s ruined if you don’t agree, this is the kind of book that is *better* in the spots you don’t agree, because you’re going to go think things through.

I’ll have to read this book again and again to really dig into these arguments.  This is an extremely well-written, well-thought-out, well-argued book.  I give it highest recommendations, and I strongly suggest reading it if you’re wondering how the thread of history fits together from a Biblical view.