Christian Living
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Don't Hold Back: Leaving Behind the American Gospel to Follow Jesus Fully
The New York Times bestselling author of Radical challenges Christians to break free from an American gospel that prostitutes Jesus for comfort, power, prosperity, and politics-and fully pursue the true gospel that exalts Jesus above all.
Pastor David Platt believes we've gotten really good at following a really bad gospel-one that worships American ideas over biblical truth. It's time for disillusioned, discouraged, and divided Christians, and the next generation, to follow Jesus into a different future.
But we have to make a choice: an American gospel or the biblical gospel. Worldly division or otherworldly unity. Compromise with the idols of our country or commitment to God's call in our lives. In Don't Hold Back, Platt encourages followers of Jesus to take necessary risks and find unimaginable reward as we:
• Work for-not against-each other, especially when we disagree
• Turn the tide on centuries of racial division in the church
• Trust all of God's Word with conviction while loving everyone around us with compassion
• Do justice with kindness, and experience the good life according to God
• Play our part in spreading the gospel to all the nations of the world
We can experience the full wonder of Jesus and transcendent beauty of his church here and now. But in order to do so, some things need to be different. Starting not in "those people," but in each one of us. With the gospel in our hearts and God as our prize, let's press on and don't hold back.
Pastor David Platt believes we've gotten really good at following a really bad gospel-one that worships American ideas over biblical truth. It's time for disillusioned, discouraged, and divided Christians, and the next generation, to follow Jesus into a different future.
But we have to make a choice: an American gospel or the biblical gospel. Worldly division or otherworldly unity. Compromise with the idols of our country or commitment to God's call in our lives. In Don't Hold Back, Platt encourages followers of Jesus to take necessary risks and find unimaginable reward as we:
• Work for-not against-each other, especially when we disagree
• Turn the tide on centuries of racial division in the church
• Trust all of God's Word with conviction while loving everyone around us with compassion
• Do justice with kindness, and experience the good life according to God
• Play our part in spreading the gospel to all the nations of the world
We can experience the full wonder of Jesus and transcendent beauty of his church here and now. But in order to do so, some things need to be different. Starting not in "those people," but in each one of us. With the gospel in our hearts and God as our prize, let's press on and don't hold back.
Readers Top Reviews
ivory6194
A book every American Christian should read. Such a great book about leaving behind what Christianity has become in America to become spreaders of the actual Good News of Jesus. We have let the American church be ruled by our divisions instead of united around the Gospel. A very convicting book and one that is very relevant for our time. Highly recommend. "It's possible for followers of Jesus to have different views on different issues- and discuss those differences- but still be a united church." "At some point, we have to stop endlessly scrolling through our phones and watching our screens, filling our minds with messages from this world, and start spending our time saturating our minds with God's Word." "Instead of God being the consuming addiction in our lives (the one thing we want), we seem content to make God a convenient addition to our lives (along with many other things we want). In our country, we've created a kind of Christianity where we've simply added God to all sorts of other people and things we love." I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Stacey Cochran
Really thought-provoking and challenging. I can find David Platt to be a little off-putting, but not in this book. I really felt challenged to decide if I was living the American gospel or biblical gospel or if I want God's gifts or if I want God. This book is well-worth your time. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Joan N.
“Our church family is sick,” Platt writes. (173/2503) Particularly that in America. While he is grateful for all God's grace has meant for America, he finds the American gospel wanting and would like to see it loosed from ties to a nation. “There is much more to Jesus and the church than the American gospel could ever offer...” (127/2503) Platt helps us understand what the gospel is really about. We can have loving unity, he says. We start with understanding Who unites us and then understand what's worth dividing over and what's not. He reminds us of the necessity of humility. He explores racism and justice. He reminds us immigration is an opportunity to share the gospel. He includes many stories to illustrate his teaching and includes six practical steps for moving toward being better followers of Jesus in our country. In the end, Platt writes, there is a choice before us. “The American gospel or the biblical gospel.” (2222/2503) This is a great book for those who have become uncomfortable with the direction some of Christianity has taken in America. This book is a good one, reminding us what the Gospel of Jesus really is and encouraging us to embrace it. I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
Rebecca Bartuska
Don’t Hold Back is a “Family conversation” for the American church about some issues we need to collectively address. Among other things, David Platt talks about racism, welcoming the sojourner, keeping the gospel at the center, and giving our lives so that all may hear about Jesus. I’m giving this four stars not because it isn’t a great book (it is), but because I felt like I’ve already read this in Radical and Counter Culture. Sure, it was a bit “updated,” as it refers to the unique challenges that have arisen since 2020, but his basic points are the same as they were in his other books. I do think he shared more of his heart here, as you can sense the urgency he writes with. And I can appreciate consistency with the message. If you are new to David Platt’s writing, this will be a great read, but if you’re already familiar with his teaching, there won’t be much new here. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.
Short Excerpt Teaser
FAMILY REIMAGINED
Coming Together Around Our Father's Table
I never could have dreamed how God would make me a father.
I have shared in different settings how my wife, Heather, and I struggled with infertility for many painful years. Believing that we couldn't have children biologically and that we were called to raise a family, we adopted our first son, Caleb, from Kazakhstan. Two weeks after returning home with Caleb and still adjusting to being parents, we found out, to our shock and surprise, that Heather was pregnant. Apparently what happens in Kazakhstan doesn't stay in Kazakhstan. Within nine months, Joshua was born, and we were a family of four.
The dream expanded when, three years later, we adopted our first daughter, Mara, from China. Three months after that adoption, again much to our astonishment, Heather was pregnant again. Our third son, Isaiah, came along soon thereafter, and we became a family of six.
Years later, Heather and I were joyfully content until a dinner date one night when the subject of adoption came up in conversation. We hadn't even planned on talking about adoption that night, but by the time we gave our waiter the check, we were in tears and smiling, believing God was leading us to adopt again. About a year later, we were matched with a child in an orphanage overseas whom we've named J.D., and for a number of reasons I won't go into here, we are still waiting to bring him home.
In the meantime, Heather and I were both reading Psalm 127 one day in our alone time with God, and we each sensed God calling us to bring another child, specifically a baby, into our home. So we started another adoption process, and months later we received information about a mom who was soon to give birth to a baby girl and desired to place her with a family for adoption. We were told that this birth mom already had a name picked out for her daughter, which was slightly disappointing because Heather and I had always said that if God gave us another girl, we would love to name her Mercy. But this obviously wasn't going to keep us from moving forward in this process, so we got to know this birth mom, and do you know what name she had chosen for her child?
Mercy.
This beautiful baby girl was two days old when she came into our care, and she officially became Mercy Platt as I was finishing writing this book.
When I sit down with my family for dinner, I think back to the times when Heather and I begged God for children and wondered if he would ever answer. Then I look around the table in awe and think, I didn't even know to ask for this. I never could have pictured this family portrait that God has painted.
Yet here at the outset of this book, I want to give you a glimpse of a family that is much larger, far more beautiful, and infinitely more unimaginable than my own. It's a family of sisters and brothers with different facial features and skin colors. They think differently. They live by different social norms. They come from different backgrounds and nations. If you were to see the people in this family assembled anywhere in the world-say on that field of dreams in Iowa or out on the Serengeti Plain-you'd think, What on earth could such a wildly different bunch of people have in common?
Imagine yourself around the dinner table with them in my country. See the faces of two Christian teenagers from wildly different church and cultural backgrounds, enjoying each other's company. See the believer from a predominantly Muslim country who recently became a U.S. citizen, talking to a Baptist war veteran who serves in law enforcement. Keep going around the table to a twenty-six-year-old Pentecostal social activist living in shared housing, laughing with a retired conservative Presbyterian lawyer. Sitting next to them is a Christian immigrant from Central America, just arrived with no documentation, who's passing the potatoes to a MAGA Facebook group leader who became a Christian in central Florida. What in the world could have drawn all these people together?
The answer to that question is the most important thing they could ever have in common. Each of them has the same heavenly Father. Each of them has been adopted by God through the gospel, and they've all been welcomed into his family as his sons and daughters. And out of the overflow of his surprising love for them, they possess a supernatural capacity to show surprising love to one another.
This family is called the church, and if you're a follower of Jesus, you're part of it. You're seated around the same table. And you're not just part of this family in the here and now. You and I will be part of God's family forever.
But today, before we reach eternity, we need t...
Coming Together Around Our Father's Table
I never could have dreamed how God would make me a father.
I have shared in different settings how my wife, Heather, and I struggled with infertility for many painful years. Believing that we couldn't have children biologically and that we were called to raise a family, we adopted our first son, Caleb, from Kazakhstan. Two weeks after returning home with Caleb and still adjusting to being parents, we found out, to our shock and surprise, that Heather was pregnant. Apparently what happens in Kazakhstan doesn't stay in Kazakhstan. Within nine months, Joshua was born, and we were a family of four.
The dream expanded when, three years later, we adopted our first daughter, Mara, from China. Three months after that adoption, again much to our astonishment, Heather was pregnant again. Our third son, Isaiah, came along soon thereafter, and we became a family of six.
Years later, Heather and I were joyfully content until a dinner date one night when the subject of adoption came up in conversation. We hadn't even planned on talking about adoption that night, but by the time we gave our waiter the check, we were in tears and smiling, believing God was leading us to adopt again. About a year later, we were matched with a child in an orphanage overseas whom we've named J.D., and for a number of reasons I won't go into here, we are still waiting to bring him home.
In the meantime, Heather and I were both reading Psalm 127 one day in our alone time with God, and we each sensed God calling us to bring another child, specifically a baby, into our home. So we started another adoption process, and months later we received information about a mom who was soon to give birth to a baby girl and desired to place her with a family for adoption. We were told that this birth mom already had a name picked out for her daughter, which was slightly disappointing because Heather and I had always said that if God gave us another girl, we would love to name her Mercy. But this obviously wasn't going to keep us from moving forward in this process, so we got to know this birth mom, and do you know what name she had chosen for her child?
Mercy.
This beautiful baby girl was two days old when she came into our care, and she officially became Mercy Platt as I was finishing writing this book.
When I sit down with my family for dinner, I think back to the times when Heather and I begged God for children and wondered if he would ever answer. Then I look around the table in awe and think, I didn't even know to ask for this. I never could have pictured this family portrait that God has painted.
Yet here at the outset of this book, I want to give you a glimpse of a family that is much larger, far more beautiful, and infinitely more unimaginable than my own. It's a family of sisters and brothers with different facial features and skin colors. They think differently. They live by different social norms. They come from different backgrounds and nations. If you were to see the people in this family assembled anywhere in the world-say on that field of dreams in Iowa or out on the Serengeti Plain-you'd think, What on earth could such a wildly different bunch of people have in common?
Imagine yourself around the dinner table with them in my country. See the faces of two Christian teenagers from wildly different church and cultural backgrounds, enjoying each other's company. See the believer from a predominantly Muslim country who recently became a U.S. citizen, talking to a Baptist war veteran who serves in law enforcement. Keep going around the table to a twenty-six-year-old Pentecostal social activist living in shared housing, laughing with a retired conservative Presbyterian lawyer. Sitting next to them is a Christian immigrant from Central America, just arrived with no documentation, who's passing the potatoes to a MAGA Facebook group leader who became a Christian in central Florida. What in the world could have drawn all these people together?
The answer to that question is the most important thing they could ever have in common. Each of them has the same heavenly Father. Each of them has been adopted by God through the gospel, and they've all been welcomed into his family as his sons and daughters. And out of the overflow of his surprising love for them, they possess a supernatural capacity to show surprising love to one another.
This family is called the church, and if you're a follower of Jesus, you're part of it. You're seated around the same table. And you're not just part of this family in the here and now. You and I will be part of God's family forever.
But today, before we reach eternity, we need t...
