Craig T. Owens

I had heard so much about John Bevere, and I had even heard him speak a few times, so when Relentless hit my desk, I dove right in. Sadly, I was disappointed.

The subtitle was intriguing—the power you need to never give up—because I see too many people start well, but not finish well. But I had a hard time connecting what I was reading in this book with the concept of persevering through trials to finish well. The most often used encouragement for the reader to finish well was a story of how John Bevere finished well. That’s not enough for me.

I think what most disturbed me about Relentless was the incomplete (and sometimes inaccurate) teaching points. John uses multiple translations to try to make his points. I don’t have a problem with this per se, as many times this helps to draw a truth out. But what turned me off was the incomplete quoting of so many Scriptures: just a phrase from one translation, and then a word from another, and so on. Sometimes these partial phrases come dangerously close to misrepresenting what the full counsel of Scripture teaches.

I usually gauge the helpfulness or applicability of a book on the number of passages I highlight. Disappointingly, there were very few of these in Relentless.

I am a Waterbrook book reviewer.