Book Review: Religion and Relationship by Minister Dante Fortson

It isn't about religion or a list of do and don'ts to earn favor with God or salvation from God, or the forgiveness of sins and a home in heaven; it's all about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the message Minister Dante Fortson wants to share in his new book, Religion and Relationship.

If you want to read a lengthy list of rules to obey to earn favor with God or somehow to earn his salvation, don't read this book. On the other hand, you wouldn't want to read the Bible either, because that is not the message of the Book, and Religion and Relationship shows from the Bible what a relationship with Christ is about. It also shows that faith in Him and His blood is the only way to earn God's favor and salvation.

Many people within the church often wrongly believe they can earn God's favor by obeying a bunch of man made rules or even rules in the Bible. Many believe they can even have their sins forgiven by doing just that. It's no wonder so many are so filled with pride. Religion and Relationship blows a hole in these faulty beliefs and shows from the Bible just what God thinks of pride.

Minister Fortson shows even in his forward that man has no reason to have pride before God when he quotes from Psalm 8, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?"

Those full of pride would do well to consider characters from the Bible that the book points to as examples that all men need a Savior, and the book points to some of them. King David committed adultery and placed the husband of the woman he slept with on the front lines of a battle in a war so he would be killed. Thus, the man God called a man after his own heart was an adulterer and a murderer. The great Apostle Paul, who God used to write much of the New Testament, murdered Christians before his conversion to Christ.

The one looked up to as the Father of the Jewish faith and the one through whom God would send the Messiah, Abraham, twice told others his wife Sarah (who really was his half sister) was his sister, because he was afraid of being killed so others would take her from him. He was thus a liar and a coward. After Lot escaped from Sodom, he allowed his two daughters to get him drunk, so he was guilty of drunkenness. Because they were afraid they would never find men or bear children, they both slept with their father. The incest led to two pregnancies. Jacob cheated his brother out of his birthright and blessing from his father. He even pretended to be his brother, so he could fool his almost blind father.

Is it any wonder Minister Fortson uses these examples to show that all men are sinners and need a Savior? Or that earlier in the book he points out that Proverbs says pride goes before destruction?

Minister Fortson does not hide the sins of others in the Bible. He also does not try to pretend he is a perfect person either, as he shows that he too needs God's grace. Although he says he became a believer in Jesus Christ at a very young age, he tells about wandering away and ending up in jail. Nobody reading about him or the examples he uses from the Bible should think a true believer in Jesus Christ is a "holier than thou" person. Now, he is Minister Fortson, and a preacher of the gospel. That alone can show an example of God's grace.

In this book, Minister Fortson points out Jesus spent time with those who society looked down because of their sins. He also points out God was always willing to forgive them, and he will forgive us if we trust in Him.

Minister Fortson wants to get his message out. His book can be purchased on Amazon.com or his website, www.MinisterFortson.com. While he offers a discount to those who buy in bulk, he also says he knows the current economy is bad, and not everybody who wants to read his book can afford it. To those people, he says they can download a copy of his book for free at his website, using the password, Hallelujah.

I recommend this book for anyone who believes obeying a bunch of rules can earn favor with God, as well as for those who rightly know better.

Citations: Religion and Relationship, by Minister Dante Forson, Review e-book copy provided by author for review purposes