The Lord's question: A call to come unto him

By Dennis Rasmussen

Book Overview

Book by Rasmussen, Dennis This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0933413009
• ISBN13: 9780933413009
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Keter Foundation
• Length: 113 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Author uses Lord's Questions to explore purpose of life

I first heard of this book when it was cited by Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland at the Worldwide LDS Teaching Session of February 2007. I read it quickly and then more slowly a second time. I got almost nothing the first time. The second time was an entirely different experience. Basically, the author takes 10 questions from scripture and riffs on them in a profound and reverential manner. They are: "Where art thou?", "Do not I fill Heaven and Earth?", "What mean the testimonies?", "Whom shall I send?", Fear ye not Me?", "Knowest thou the condescension of God?", "Wherein have I wearied thee?", "Is not the life more than meat?", "Will ye also go away?", and "Whom seekest thou?". And from the jacket I quote, "The various reflections that the book offers have their source in one insight: because God gave man freedom, God will not compel, but only ask for, man's obedience. In the course of life, every person chooses his response to the Lord's question. And that response, in the end, constitutes the self that he will finally present before the Lord." Not light reading, but worth the effort in my and Jeffrey R. Holland's opinion.

A rebuttal to Ryan Cragun

Dr. Rasmussen is one of the more careful writers I have read. He explains profound ideas simply without sacrificing any of their profundity. This makes the text seem easy, and the careless reader may dismiss it as elementary. But for the careful reader, the skill of the author makes the text a transparent vessel that does not interfere with the transmission of ideas, but bears them untarnished to the reader. Unfortunately, this is too rarely the case. Too often the conceit of authors makes the writer him/herself the lens through which ideas are seen, and readers end up wrestling with the author rather than the concepts. I applaud Dr. Rasmussen (who earned a PhD in philosophy from Yale) for this gem of a book. It is a wonderful book on which to meditate.

It made me want to be better.

Dr. Rasmussen's book has been one I have come back to again and again since I first read it in the 1980's. His point that our lives are defined by our response to questions God asks us in the scriptures is clear and speaks to me on a very deep level. His words give me reasons to keep trying to do the things my heart and conscience are telling me to do even when the road is hard. As Rasmussen writes, "to the Lord's question I must be the answer." This book helps me try and what higher recommendation could there be?