Choices

 In Choices for Our Eternal Home, Jerry McDermott explores how we can live our lives in anticipation of an afterlife in heaven. Through a series of short essays and reflections, he looks to guide readers in developing a deep, authentic relationship with Jesus and God.

For McDermott, Christianity can be summed up in three simple words: “love and trust.” This idea weaves through the book as he discusses such topics as holiness in the here and now. Concerned about the “degradation of morality in America” McDermott directs readers to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and savior and to repent their sins to avoid eternal damnation.

While these ideas aren’t new, McDermott is a thoughtful writer who shares a number of life lessons he’s experienced that give the book a personal tone.  While this book doesn’t break new ground, it is a heartfelt testament of one man’s faith and his desire to help those around him attain eternal life. 

Jerry McDermott’s Choices: For Our Eternal Home is a work that offers traditional pastoral guidance and reflection for how to avoid damnation and find salvation. 

         Choices uses everyday experiences to show that an individual life can have eternal consequences. Its central concern is helping people make the right choices about salvation so they may find themselves born again. Personal anecdotes and pastoral guidance are its methods, and both are written in such a way that it is almost possible to hear the pauses for “amens.”

          This is a work that places the gospel message squarely on the streets of today, and rails about the need for change while calling for people to find hope in God. Discussions of sin, idols, God, and repentance are all offered in a traditional conservative framework. Various sections tackle each of these different ideas. This work takes the end times seriously and offers a discussion of the rapture for those looking to delve a little deeper.

          What separates Choices from similar works is its almost scrapbook-like quality when relating a life turned to faith. The book includes a section of “random” thoughts, inspirational photographs, and journal entries that seek to make sense of a very complicated and confusing world.

          The book  is conservative in theology, tone, and in the way it uses the Bible to make its arguments. The Bible here is used to offer proof of what will happen to people who choose to believe, to those who do not, and to the broader world.

          Choices: For Our Eternal Home offers a rousing retelling of Christian salvation teachings from a conservative, born-again perspective.

An author looks at faith and the path to the afterlife.

McDermott (Gifted: How God Is Glorified, 2012, etc.) approaches Christianity by deftly blending tradition, authority,
and liturgy with an emphasis on spiritual renewal and the power of the Holy Spirit. His work is meant to encourage
readers to deepen their relationship with Jesus, with the result being eternal life in heaven as opposed to hell. Though
well-written and personally engaging, the first two-thirds of the book are somewhat erratic in nature, lacking a level of
structure needed to truly guide the reader. Early in the earnest volume, McDermott notes the necessity of understanding
that humans exist as children of God and that their trust belongs entirely with him. He warns against modern idolatry,
noting that “anything given more attention in your life than God, can be envisaged as an idol.” The author moves on to
discuss the dangers of a lack of “God’s laws” in America and the placement of one’s denominational affiliation above
one’s faith in Christ. He then examines friendship, explaining that Jesus invites believers into a bond with him at a
higher level than anyone else is capable of attaining. McDermott finally addresses the end times, death, and the
afterlife. He fully accepts rapture theology and decries the fact that so many churches are not teaching the idea that
believers will be “caught up” and spared from final tribulation. He skillfully provides the reader with a stark choice in
the afterlife: eternal paradise or a very real and terrible hell (“Hell is forever; there is no escape; no respite; there is no
opportunity for freedom; there is no possibility of forgiveness”). But, he avers, the true born-again believer can live with
the assurance of salvation. In a book focused on fundamental views of Christian life and afterlife, McDermott succeeds
in approaching his readers with pastoral care as opposed to fire-and-brimstone bluster. But a clearer organization would
benefit this work greatly.

Various heartfelt thoughts on the road leading to heaven or hell.