The Business of Is-Ness

Ontology is the most important word you have never heard of up until David Schrock's The Business of Is-Ness has come along. Schrock has rightly identified the doctrine of creation as one of the foremost urgent points of theology that the church must recover in our culture. What makes Schrock's volume stand out is the biblical case for ontology that can often lurk beneath the text but is not often pieced together within the whole storyline of Scripture. This is a wonderful resource that I warmly commend.

Just a few decades ago, Christians generally assumed that ontology was safe and secure. And yet just as the twenty-first century arrived, believers had to quickly comprehend that the moral and ideological rebellions of the age were now undermining being itself. If the sexual revolution wasn’t enough to awaken Christians to an ontological crisis, the transgender revolution arrived just in time to make the crisis clear. This important book by David Schrock underlines the fact that a biblical ontology, grounded in God’s creation of the world, is fundamental to Christian faithfulness. A biblical ontology offers the only way to escape the deliberate confusions of the age. David Schrock’s new book is both timely and urgently needed.

Schrock understands that the most pressing problems facing us today contain profound ontological confusions. What’s more, he keenly grasps the central place of anthropology, calling it “the most important doctrine for the twenty-first century.” I couldn’t agree more. For while past eras were marked by debates about the Trinity, the means of saving grace, and the truthfulness of the Scriptures, ours is an anthropological age. From overzealous animals rights activism to misguided DEI initiatives, from gay “marriage” to transgenderism, from feminism to Marxism, and from abortion on demand to brave new visions of a neuralinked humanity, the West is replete with destructive delusions about the nature of mankind. These cannot and will not be mended until we return to the Lord and his life-giving Word. Schrock shows us the way forward, pointing us back to the beginning of all things and calling Christians to take up the vital business of “is-ness” for the glory of God and the good of the world.

Here's a good book about everything in the universe. It's a book I need right now because I am being lied to about everything all the time. This is a book we all need because of everything precious to us—our children and their future, the church and her mission, our civilization and even civilization itself. David helps us know we are not crazy, helps keep us from going crazy, and gently but firmly corrects where we may have started down a dark path. David's book is about everything but it is not complicated. Beautifully organized, what began as sermons for his church remains as accessible. I'll be giving a copy to my teenagers, my wife who homeschools them, and we'll be reading Schrock's book as a church staff.

Few books address the craziness of our cultural moment with as much directness and biblical clarity as Schrock’s book. This book addresses some of the most urgent and pressing questions being asked in our culture today with theological skill and pastoral wisdom. While Schrock is a serious scholar, the book is written with an accessible and engaging style is both challenging and refreshing. You won’t find any goofy, progressive innovations in this book. What you will find is trustworthy guidance by a skilled pastor through several critical worldview issues. Highly recommend.

Our culture is rebelling against God's good design for men and women—especially for marriage and sex and the family. In this book David Schrock highlights fundamental truths about God's brilliant design.

Schrock carefully and thoroughly answers some of the most important questions any human will ask: What is God? What is man and woman? What is marriage? What is family? This book provides the help Christians need to biblically understand what God has made in creation and, maybe even more importantly, for what purpose he has made us and everything else.