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Fathers and Sons #1
Stand Fast in the Way of Truth: Fathers and Sons Volume 1
Fathers & Sons, Volume 1: Stand Fast in the Way of Truth is a book of twenty-seven chapters written for fathers and teenage sons to read and study together. Its to strengthen and equip young men; to own the covenant early; to love and adore Christ; to believe like a man; to worship like a man; to serve like a man; to lead like a man; to take responsibility like a man; to proclaim like a man; to hate the world; to take every thought captive to Christ; to demolish arguments; to understand the culture; to strengthen the faith and love of fathers and sons; and to promote Christian leadership and maturity in young men.
336 pages, Paperback
First published December 27, 2007
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70 people want to read
About the author
Douglas Bond
79 books227 followersDouglas Bond, author of more than thirty books--several now in Dutch, Portuguese, Romanian, and Korean--is father of six, and grandfather of eleven--and counting--is Director for the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class and the Carolina Creative Writing Master Class, two-time Grace Award book finalist, adjunct instructor in Church history, recent advisory member to the national committee for Reformed University Fellowship, award-winning teacher, speaker at conferences, and leader of Church history tours in Europe.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 4, 2012
Even though this is primarily directed toward boys, this has been an excellent complement to our family devotions (which necessarily include one wife and one daughter).
June 4, 2017
Good treatment about the spiritual nurture of young men. Filled with biblical truth, interesting illustrations, sound warnings about the dangers of teenage and twenty-something life (and more).
Perhaps a weakness of the book was how much of it felt like either warning or exhortation (i.e. 'preaching at'). It's not that this is a wrong way to speak to young people (see Proverbs 1-9), but after a while it can feel like a heavy load commands is being laid on a person.
That being said, much of what Bond says (with a couple exceptions, to be noted in a second) is helpful. He teaches young men the importance of self-control, setting goals in life, manners, etc. Yet there are some quirks.
1. I think he goes way too far in his discussion of dating and relationships when he out and out declares it to be fornication for unmarried couples to kiss (see pg. 141). I won't opine much on that other than to say, the Bible never says kissing is fornication, and we need to be careful of thinking the answer to potential sin is to add rules that Scripture doesn't teach.
2. Bond also can blur the line between sensibilities of a certain time period with eternal guidelines of virtue. This is especially so in his section on manners. There is an old-fashioned quality to this. I'm not against old, but I am suspicious whenever 'old' is assumed to be right. And 'new' is assumed to be wrong.
Now, I don't mention these two areas to 'rag on the whole book.' This is a good book. But I mention these points just to say on some things Bond pushes extra conservative (or at least more conservative than me). Take that for what it's worth.
But overall, I think this is a very helpful book.
Perhaps a weakness of the book was how much of it felt like either warning or exhortation (i.e. 'preaching at'). It's not that this is a wrong way to speak to young people (see Proverbs 1-9), but after a while it can feel like a heavy load commands is being laid on a person.
That being said, much of what Bond says (with a couple exceptions, to be noted in a second) is helpful. He teaches young men the importance of self-control, setting goals in life, manners, etc. Yet there are some quirks.
1. I think he goes way too far in his discussion of dating and relationships when he out and out declares it to be fornication for unmarried couples to kiss (see pg. 141). I won't opine much on that other than to say, the Bible never says kissing is fornication, and we need to be careful of thinking the answer to potential sin is to add rules that Scripture doesn't teach.
2. Bond also can blur the line between sensibilities of a certain time period with eternal guidelines of virtue. This is especially so in his section on manners. There is an old-fashioned quality to this. I'm not against old, but I am suspicious whenever 'old' is assumed to be right. And 'new' is assumed to be wrong.
Now, I don't mention these two areas to 'rag on the whole book.' This is a good book. But I mention these points just to say on some things Bond pushes extra conservative (or at least more conservative than me). Take that for what it's worth.
But overall, I think this is a very helpful book.
February 18, 2021
Just finished going through this with my 17 and 15 year old sons. Overall it was decent. It sparked some good discussions. We'll probably go through the second book too, but first we're going to read Do Hard Things.
March 22, 2025
Really good book, I plan to go through this with my sons when they get older. One or two points of theology I don’t agree with him on, but other than that very solid theology in connection with practical Christian living guidance for young men.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews