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War and Grace – short biographies from the world wars
Author: Don Stephens
Published by Evangelical Press. 272 Pages. Ł8.95
Review by Jim Sayers
We do not naturally associate the two words war and grace. They
seem to be poles apart. War shows the very worst of human evil and
hatred, while grace seems to be something we know in peace time. Don
Stephens will convince you otherwise in this quite staggering book
of stories. I have read many Christian biographies, but none have
affected me as much as this.
Each chapter tells the story of a different Christian, some whose
faith was challenged by war and shone through trial, others who were
converted through their battlefield experience. They come from all
nationalities and both sides. Jacob DeShazer flew on the ‘Doolittle’
raid to Japan and was taken prisoner. In dreadful conditions he was
converted. After the war a leaflet telling his testimony was given
to Mitzuo Fuchida who led the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, and
he was converted. There is the calm example of William Dobbie the
defender of Malta, Donald Caskie the Scottish Pastor in Paris who
became the ‘Tartan Pimpernel’ in Vichy France, and Charles Fraser
Smith, immortalised as ‘Q’ in the Bond films.
But if you only ever read two chapters of this book, read the
stories of the ‘miracle on the river Kwai’, when the gospel turned
prisoners from hatred to grace, and the story of Henry Gerecke
chaplain to the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremburg trials, who saw
the most evil men in the world transformed in their final days by
the gospel of Jesus.
Don Stephens is a master storyteller who has a constant desire to
raise the gospel high and glorify Jesus. This is a book that will
make you cry, smile and shout ‘hallelujah!’, a book that will
strengthen your faith in God’s sovereignty and his ability to bring
good out of evil.
Jim Sayers |
