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Authentic Christianity
by RAY C. STEDMAN
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Discovery House Publishers (1996-01-01)
ISBN: 1572930179
EAN: 9781572930179
Dewy Decimal #: 248.4
Paperback: 208 pages
SKU: 080218021
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: This copy is in good condition. No visible markings, highlights, underlining, tears to text. Tight spine. No Dust Jacket. Top, Back Soft Cover edge has a tiny fold. Minimum shelf/edge wear. Good spiritual reading, worth having at an affordable price. (L7-4)
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
This classic by Ray Stedman moves you beyond religion, doctrine, rules, and rituals into the life-changing experience of being genuinely and intimately connected with Christ. He shows you how to live a life of faith with integrity - a life that attracts people and compels them to seek its Source.
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Customer Reviews
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Great Book for the More Experienced Christian
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-01-22
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Our pastor had read this book years ago and we decided to use it for our winter home Bible studies. We are two weeks into our study and I'm getting very good feedback on the book. It causes you to rethink your Christianity and how you live it. For me it has been a zinger. We wrote our own study gide questions as there were no available study books. A great study on 2 Corinthians.
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The Truth you know will set you free
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-06-13
This annointed book really stirs up fresh faith from inside out and open my eyes to see the Truth i need. Using the Holy Bible as the source, late pastor Ray C. Stedman instilled new revelations and interests for the words of God. Glory to Jesus!
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An Authentic, Powerful, and Enriching Commentary
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-01-15
8 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
Frankly, I was a bit perplexed by the previous review, since I didn't see much in it about the actual BOOK being reviewed! I do agree that "getting at the truth" is important. Ray and Elaine had four daughters, not five. I will leave the rest alone.
But Authentic Christianity responds to the very concerns Mr. McCluggage mentions. Ray himself wrote, "Clearly, authentic Christians present an enigma to the world because their lives consist of a series of paradoxes. The authentic Christian is in a highly vulnerable position, stretched between God and man." Such are the natural difficulties of the ministry of reconciliation. As we reach up and out we are being stretched, we are not yet what we will be.
When Ray Stedman died in 1992, Christianity Today printed a tribute to him. One commentator in that article stated, "In Ray's book Authentic Christianity, he tells the story of Paul's escape from Damascus by being let down over the wall in a basket. Ray commented that Paul was useless to God until he became a basket case! He adds that we also are useless until we are 'utterly bankrupt before some demand of life, and then discover it to be a blessing,' because it forces us to 'depend wholly on the Lord at work in you.' When I read that I thought, 'It may be that no one has ever lived a life that was fully yielded to Christ, but Ray Stedman came very close'."
"The truth" about Authentic Christianity is that it is an exposition of Scripture, not an autobiographical piece, and should be evaluated as such. Concerning Ray Stedman's skill as a communicator, J.I Packer made the following comment, "Throughout the Christian centuries, from Crysostom and Augustine through Luther, Calvin, and Matthew Henry, to Martin Lloyd-Jones and Ray Stedman, working pastors have been proving themselves to be the best of all Bible expositors."
Authentic Christianity grew out of a series of Ray's sermons presented at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, CA. It is an in-depth study of one section of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 2:14-6:13). This is not a book about Ray Stedman at all, but an "unwrapping" of the genuine purpose, simplicity and joy of true Christianity as described in God's Word.
This book is written in Ray's typical exegetical approach, working through the text, passage by passage, weaving in helpful vignettes, quotes, and other precious tidbits, and gentle but clear challenges to application. In his preface, Ray described authentic Christianity as "that life-changing experience of being intimately connected with Christ at the very core of your being". First published in 1975, but every bit as powerful today, Authentic Christianity proclaims the liberating truth of Scripture, that Jesus died FOR us so that He might live IN us; a life strong enough to face the demands, so attractive and compelling that others are drawn to seek it's Source.
This is a book worth reading, delightful and encouraging, written by a man whose life demonstrated the truth of the Scripture it discusses. Enjoy!
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How to know that this book is for real...
Rating  (3)
Date: 2004-04-04
7 out of 52 customers found this reveiw helpful
This may seem like an odd way to rate a book, but here it goes any way...YOU can rate this book yourself in a very easy way. In fact, this technique may work for ANY book written on the subject of authenticity and integrity.
Simply go to a bookstore, find the book you are interested in, look at the chapter titles or the index in the back as well as skim through it and look for the author to share real life black marks in his/her own past or where he/she has blown it with their own families or friends closest to him/her. This will show true integrity and character -- what we truly model to others, good, bad and ugly -- and NOT just what we WRITE about in books. Simply put, do the authors live what they preach? A growing number of church communities today are no longer enamored simply by the words in a book...especially one written on integrity. And this is even more the case for those presently outside a church community.
So, I start with a star-rating of 3. And in Ray Stedman's case, this means looking throughout the book for where he discusses about his five daughters and where he is at in his relationships with them, both in the past and at the present time. If Mr. Stedman has a difficult time revealing the 'misses' that he has had as a father in this area of his life, then I would give the book a lower rating because he is not really demonstrating for us the essence of the book's title. On the other hand, if Mr. Stedman is able to admit how all five of his daughters have been divorced and some of the role/reasons that he has possibly played in why that has happened, then I would give the book a higher rating.
This is not to be spiteful, but to help all of us as consumer readers to know when we may have a decent book on our hands or not. It is simply getting at the truth. Truth is a wonderful thing when we see it as our friend. We know we are afraid of truth (and subsequent growth as Christians), when we purposefully do things to hide the truth or not tell the whole story. The church has put up with way too much of this in the past and suffered for it as a result. It truly is a new day dawning and I look forward to see how Ray Steadman's book may give us real-life lessons in how to see truth as our friend in the areas of authenticity and integrity.
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Life changing
Rating (5)
Date: 2000-06-22
4 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book will change your outlook on authentic christianity. made me re-evaluate where i am in my own life
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