Review: 30 Prophecies: One Story

A wee-kids Wednesday this afternoon book review for parents and for children!  Here’s one I definitely recommend!

 

Paul Reynolds. 30 Prophecies: One Story.  Ross-Shire, UK: Christian Focus Publications, November 8th 2019. 96 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster | Amazon

Is it possible to have a children’s book on Messianic prophecies about Jesus Christ?  I think the answer is yes!  And wonderfully this is not just possible as an idea but I’m grateful that this was actually done!  Author Paul Reynolds and Christian Focus Publication has given us this wonderful Christ-centered book for kids that parents can read to their children (and older kids can read for themselves!).  I am so glad this book was published and wished more parents and grandparents know about this work!

As the title states this book lists thirty prophecies about Jesus from the Bible.  Twenty five of them are from the Old Testament and the last four are from the New Testament.  The New Testament prophecies consists of three times in the New Testament in which Jesus told His disciples surrounding the details of His death and the final prophecy is that about Christ’s second coming.  Concerning the prophecies in the Old Testament which makes up the bulk of the book it is divided into two parts, the first being “From the Fall to King David” and the second being “Major and Minor Prophets.”  I thought the author did a good job looking at various prophecies from Genesis 3:15 to Revelation!  As a lover of Bible prophecies there are some I wasn’t familiar with that was listed and it definitely peaked my interests to study up some of the passages in the near future.

I love the format for each prophecy the book went over.  Each one takes about two pages (there’s the occasional three pages).  The title of each states what is being predicted then there’s a date of the prophecy, the prophecy from the Bible stated followed by a section titled “Then and There” that gives us the passage in its original context.  I think that’s important to know the background and situational context and what a wonder that this was done for a children’s book, again how awesome and thoughtful of the author!  This is followed by “Prophecy Fulfilled” that lists a passage where the prediction is made reality and the next section is the explanation of that passage called “Scarlet Thread” which connects it to Jesus.  Finally there’s also application and prayer.  Its like each prophecy is a mini-Bible study lesson and I’m very impresses as this is nearly similar to the way I teach Messianic prophecies over the last decade of teaching where I consider context, fulfillment and connection to application and ending the study with prayer!

There were times I thought the author could have argued more better of why a passage is prophecy according to its original context but for a work so impressive already I don’t think I really can fault the author especially given the space limitation (its already 96 pages for children’s illustrated book!) and that this is for kids.

The pictures were helpful, simple and cute.  I also appreciated that each section for each prophecy was also illustrated such as “date” has a calendar and “Prophecy fulfilled” has an illustration of the Cross, etc.  This was helpful for my kids.  We read this as a family as a devotional before the kids sleep and we had many conversations.  With everything said I recommend this as a teaching resource for kids!  I think this is best for kids five and up.