Nothing But the Truth by John MacArthur

Nothing but the Truth is typical MacArthur: well-written, doctrinally sound, practical. In this volume the author is not defending the faith, nor arguing for his view of soteriology, but offering a handy guide to aid in witnessing. The book is divided into three parts: “The Attitude for Evangelism” dealing with the heart of the evangelist; “What We Proclaim and Defend” which lays out the message of evangelism; and “Taking It to the Streets” which speaks of the method of evangelizing.

Nothing but the Truth is largely on target, drawing most of its instructions from the Word. While MacArthur occasionally challenges some of the methods and messages found in modern evangelism he sticks mostly with what he sees as the correct way of presenting the gospel. There were half-dozen questionable comments along the way, most simply overstating a position. The one truly bothersome account is the often repeated, impossible to verify, story of the angelic protection of a missionary. This time the story is told in reference to John G. Paton but it has many lives, and tends to pop up everywhere. MacArthur has no way to know if this story is true and the account has nothing to do with the purpose of the book, so why use it? But with this glitch aside this is a help book and a good overview for those wanting to improve their efforts at evangelism. There is also a study guide in the back that would be helpful for a class setting.