A Book Review – “Wisdom Hunter”, by Randall Arthur
For Christian missionary work among people caught in the bondage of cultic legalism, this book is a necessity. The author originally wrote the book to illustrate the devastating effect legalism could have on Christian grace and human dignity. The setting of the story is within Christian orthodoxy.
However, the cults are so legalistic by their nature that the book has found a place in exit counseling and recovery for the ex-cultist. The uniform response from people who have been through the devastation of religious disillusionment is that they could not put the book down. They experienced the emotional spiral of the book’s central character, Jason Faircloth, and then the reader, too, finds hope and encouragement in Faircloth’s recovery. The effect of the story is to illustrate to the reader that he is going through a process that can have a good, or bad, outcome. He also learns some basic wisdom about Christian grace, God’s love, and the value of the individual before God.
For the Christian who has not experienced the effect of legalism this book will be an interesting read, an ounce of prevention against the bondage of legalism, and communicate some valuable insights. But for the victim of legalism Wisdom Hunter can have dramatic impact. Randall Arthur also wrote a similar story about legalism in his sequel Betrayal. Both books have our highest recommendation.
The following testimony is from “Keith” in North Carolina.
“In 1999 my life was devastated! Through those very hard circumstances God helped me to begin to break the sixteen year cycle of abuse, manipulation and control by a Bible based cultic family group. My Mom and step Dad really helped me a lot and many others prayed, counseled, and loved me.
Books were given to me and I bought different helpful ones. Wisdom Hunter, a novel by Randall Arthur, greatly helped me. I had a hard time putting it down. The author has the main character Jason Faircloth go through a great disillusionment and then a wonderful recovery of his faith in God and the Bible.
As I read Jason’s story I lived it with him! I told Mom, “I am an emotional wreck from reading this book.” She came back to me in a little bit saying, “Dad and I wonder if you should keep reading that book.” I said, “Yes! This is something I have to go through.” God used this book to help me go through a lot of deep emotional healing in a short amount of time. Otherwise it could have taken years to work through.”
