Book Review: “Our Last Great Hope” by Ronnie Floyd

Being a Christian is really an amazing privilege. Too often we take for granted that God has sent His Holy Spirit out to us and gathered us into His family. We heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and responded. Our lives will never be the same.

Now that we have found Christ, what do you think we should be doing? What do you believe is the most important task we can spend our lives, our new lives?

Pastor Ronnie Floyd reminds us what that task is in “Our Last Great Hope.” And if it has been a while since you heard the message, his passionate plea to recommit yourself to fulfilling it is a must read.

What is the task? It is to fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus didn’t tell us to get better at quoting Scripture, sharing our personal thoughts on the internet, or even to pool our resources to meet the physical needs of society. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.”

This book came at the perfect time as I focus my own studies on evangelism and looking for a way to communicate its importance and value in the lives of our congregation. Floyd’s book both challenged and inspired me, confirming what I already felt was God’s growing call to share the Gospel and inspire others to do the same. This book will do that for you.

Here are some of my personal highlights from the book:

• To know Christ is to love Him; to love Him is to share Him.
• The Christian who is apathetic about the Great Commission is the one who is not walking at Jesus’ speed, who has fallen far behind, or who is wandering somewhere in the woods.
• [In one section he thinks about the first responders and rescue workers at the World Trade Center on 9/11…] What if the news cameras had shown them rubbernecking as the buildings burned, as people leaped from ninety floors above? What if the rescue workers had been casual spectators rather than courageous heroes? And I thought, What does God see when He looks at me? at my church? at the Christians of this world? We’re just a vast number of Planet Earth rescue workers with our hands in our pockets, gawking as the earth goes up in flames.
• I must own the Great Commission personally, I must come to a place where it is unthinkable for me to leave the work to others, to hire it done.
• The Great Commission is mine. It was made for me, and me for it. I can imagine life without it no more than I can imagine life without my head. I am responsible. I am accountable.

The final chapters in this book were the only difficult portion for me to read. After all of the stimulating reading about the need for sharing the Gospel, Floyd spends some time to encourage Christians to finance evangelism. It is a helpful section, yet I found it to be a bit of a buzz killer. But the truth of his point rings clear: How much would you pay to see everyone you know in Heaven, along with those touched by missionaries, and to see every physical need on the planet met?

“Our Last Great Hope” was a great read and I highly recommend it to every Christian. In fact, it should be required reading.