Book Review: The Story of Reality by Gregory Koukl

For many persons, it is often difficult to see how the core tenets of Christianity fit together. Christian belief is grounded in the Bible, but how is one to make sense of the biblical data as a whole? This book attempts to answer this question by understanding Christianity as the Story of reality.

Reality

Greg Koukl defends the idea that Christianity is the Story of reality, resonating deep within each person that it touches, and he begins by first defining what Christianity is.

Koukl believes that we should understand religion as Jesus did—from the outside—not merely subjective, but as an objective account of the way things are. In this sense, Christianity is a picture of reality informing beliefs, and is also a worldview among other competing worldviews. A worldview here is understood simply as a story of the way the world really is. One worldview may cohere internally and correspond with external reality better than another.

Just as the best stories have the greatest explanatory power, so the best worldviews have the greatest internal coherence and correspondence with reality. A helpful analogy that Koukl uses is that of a puzzle. The right pieces are needed, and they all must fit in order for the puzzle to come together. A true worldview, then, is one in which all the pieces fit—an accuracy producing confidence. But why is that many persons have trouble fitting the pieces of the worldview puzzle together? Put simply, they are not referencing the picture on the puzzle box; they lack a guide.

Koukl posits that worldviews must answer four major questions: Where did we come from? What is our problem? What is the solution? And how will things end for us? Answers to these questions are important pieces to the worldview puzzle. Christianity’s answers come under creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, which can also be thought of as the beginning, conflict, resolution, and falling action of a story.

Here’s the plotline for Christianity: In the beginning, God created everything, including his most important creation, man, but man severed his relationship with God, and God was to restore it by coming as a man himself, Jesus, and his work at the cross repairs man’s relationship with God. Now, how people respond to Jesus determines what happens to them at history’s final event, the resurrection. This is the ‘picture on the puzzle box.’

God

The Story begins with God who is an infinite and perfect Being and the focal point of the whole Story. Since he made all things, everything belongs to him—even us. But unlike mere objects, human beings occupy a special place in relation to God. He is like a father from whom we’ve strayed, and we can only find rest in him. As creator, he is distinct from creation. Like a sovereign king, he has control over all creation as his kingdom.

Here, Koukl interacts with two common objections: ‘Who created God?’ and the problem of miracles. He believes that neither poses a significant threat to belief in God, as God is uncaused, and God’s bringing the universe into existence implies that God is really powerful and smart. Hence, lesser miracles, such as healing the sick or parting the waters, are of no difficulty for Him.

He also addresses two concepts that challenge the Christian view of God: Matter-ism and Mind-ism. The former is the belief that matter is all that exits, and the latter is the belief that mind is all that exists. The main issue that Koukl finds with both is that that there could be no account for what is wrong with the world on either view of reality.

Man

The second part of the Story centers upon man, who in many respects is much like the rest of creation, but is also imbued with a certain beauty and dignity that distinguishes him. This distinguishing factor, Koukl posits as being the soul. Moreover, man has certain obligations, and these are grounded in man’s innate dignity. But why is man this way? The answer that the Bible provides is that man was created in God’s image. He is valuable, worth protecting, and created for friendship with God.

However, mankind is also broken. Most people intuitively sense this, and many explanations have been put forward to explain why. Koukl distinguishes between explanations which are quantitative (poverty, education, etc.) and qualitative. We are qualitatively broken because we are guilty of sinning against the One who made us. The Bible gives the reason for this in the fall of Adam and Eve, wherein evil entered the world, kindling God’s wrath. This sets up the next part of the Story. We need forgiveness so that all things could be set right again.

Jesus

The next part of the Story focuses on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Koukl first responds to the ‘recycled redeemer’ hypothesis, which is the idea that Jesus was a copy of other mythical figures, such as Osiris or Mithras. In all, Koukl believes that the historicity of Jesus is vindicated when the earliest records of the various myths are taken into consideration.

Next, Koukl explores two central questions: Who was Jesus and what did he come to do? Put simply, Jesus was (and is) the God-man who came to be a sacrifice for sins; his purpose was to ransom and rescue lost sinners. But how was he to accomplish this?

Cross

The entirety of Jesus’ life led up to one unique event—the crucifixion. Everything proceeded according to God’s foreordained plan, with the purpose of accomplishing a divine transaction. The guilt of sin and punishment of God’s wrath intended for sinners would be transferred to the sinless Son of God at the cross, and his goodness would be transferred to sinners.

Koukl also considers here how evidence is related to faith in Christ, and how trust is needed in addition to knowledge and assent. The proposition ‘Jesus saves’ brings together reason and truth, and also faith and fact. More than just experience, salvation through Christ must be grounded in reality if it is to have any effect or meaning. Moreover, real trust in what Christ accomplished implies repentance, or turning, from a self-centered life to one centered upon Christ.

Resurrection

Lastly, Koukl emphasizes the resurrection and final judgement as God’s solution to the problem of evil. He hones in on four facts about the resurrection of Jesus, which are accepted by a majority of scholars, that are best explained if in fact Jesus was truly raised from the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus has tremendous implications. If Jesus was truly raised, then there surely will be a resurrection of all persons at the end of time and a final judgement. This is where God will perfectly execute his justice, in sending the unrepentant to an eternity apart from himself, and his mercy, in reuniting and restoring those who have placed their trust in Jesus. In the end, all things will be set right, although it is often difficult for us to imagine what this will look like as we wait for the conclusion of the Story.

Final Thoughts

Greg Koukl has done an excellent job of parsing out the Christian worldview in a way that is easy to understand. Thinking of Christianity as a Story of reality is indeed useful, not only in understanding how the major ideas of the Bible fit together, but also in how it all corresponds with the world as people experience it.

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