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Hi, I’m Mark Keown, and this book was written to help you get a handle on the Christian faith. It’s designed as a ‘no-strings-attached’ presentation of what is commonly called the Christian gospel, or ‘the good news’. It’s intended to give an intelligent and coherent explanation of what God is up to in this world with a particular emphasis on us human beings.

The book is ‘no-strings-attached’ in the sense that its purpose is not to enlist you in a particular church, get money from you or tell you what to believe. Instead, you can take it home, read it, process it and decide for yourself what you think about it. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to hoping that you, like me, would find yourself believing the message and want to follow Jesus. However, this book is written so that you can consider the message yourself, without a preacher or church hassling you. You can take it or leave it.

I became a Christian in 1985 at the age of 24. I didn’t grow up in a ‘Christian’ home but first remember hearing the Christian message as a teenager while living in the Cook Islands. I found the message convincing but didn’t become involved in Christianity until I left home and came face to face with the challenges of life. I became disillusioned with the greed and futility of much of our western society. On one level our civilisation is impressive with its wealth, technology and science, but I couldn’t escape my feelings of deep spiritual emptiness, not to mention my concern at a growing loss of morality that threatened to destroy me and the fabric of our society. I became concerned that unless there was some intervention or transformation, the western world was heading for a terrible crisis.

I also had a series of spiritual experiences that led me to convert to Christianity. Without any additional intervention by Christians, I decided to buy a Bible, began to read it and went to church. In that process I came face to face with the shocking realisation that there is a God, that Jesus is not a lunatic, a liar, a legend or a deluded false Messiah, but is the Lord, and that I could know him personally. I found a whole lot of other people who had found this same Jesus and I could see that while they were human like you and me with their faults, they had a love, hope and optimism that impressed me. While still flawed, they had a power in their lives that could change them inwardly – a power that I wanted too. I saw Christian families that stunned me with their love for each other. I discovered true love in the communities where they gathered. So I gave my life to Jesus and joined the church and since then I have never left or wanted to leave, despite sometimes finding church life a bit of a challenge.

God has changed me. With his help I turned away from addiction to alcohol, shallow pleasure and a desire for personal glory through sport. I’ve gone from university dropout to a pastor and a doctor, and lecturer in theology. As I’ve studied the faith, my belief has matured into an intellectual and emotional confidence that the Christian message is true. God has changed my life and my perspective, and for that I am eternally grateful.

I write this book hoping that, as you read it, you too will become gripped by what God is really up to on planet earth. No doubt you will already have a few ideas about Christianity and may have had negative experiences of Christians and the Church. I don’t want you to forget about or trivialise those experiences, but I ask you to set them aside for a moment and read this book with an open mind. I want to apologise on behalf of the Christians who have let you, and others, down over the last 2000 years. Throughout history, a lot of things have been done in the name of Jesus that were not the kinds of things that Jesus would have done. We Christians are not ‘better’ than other people. I hope you will realise that while Christians and the Church have made mistakes, this does not invalidate the message of Jesus himself who, as this book will show, is the centre and end of everything.

In this book, I crystallise the Christian message into five easy to understand and remember words, and then develop the concepts behind them. I call these the 5 R’s of the Gospel (the Christian message). This is your opportunity to consider the merits of the message and where you stand in relation to them and to God. Not all your questions will be answered here, so I have included endnotes that refer to Bible verses or passages. Some of the endnotes suggest different views and ideas that Christians hold on various things. There is also an appendix which will point you to other books that may answer your questions. If you want to check out what I have written, it may be helpful to have a Bible handy and look at the verses as you go. So let’s begin…