Good Kills: God, Good, and The Sword

by David Engelhardt, Yoshika Green (Editor), Charlie Kirk (Preface)

Praise for Good “David Engelhardt is the right kind of iconoclast, whose writing fells forests of fashionable darkness. Good Kills is like a very sharp sword. Read it carefully.” Eric Metaxas, #1 New York Times bestselling author and host of the nationally syndicated Eric Metaxas Radio Show“Good Kills is a brilliant exposé of profound and original thoughts related to the subject of God, justice, and order.” Charlie Kirk, New York Times bestselling author and host of the nationally syndicated Charlie Kirk ShowAbout the Is a sword the witch's tool? The use of negative force in our lives, churches, and culture has been relegated to the cultural movement toward positivity. We have been recently given a positive God who gives positive things to positive people, but that is a shallow understanding of our story. This shallow understanding of God and justice has produced insulin-riddled souls created by the syrupy cannons fired from the pulpits of our cultural critics. If it is true that negative force through the sword, pain, repentance, and even death, brings order and flourishing to the human heart–in the correct adjudication, then we must travel through the lands of death to lead us to life. This book explores biblical and cultural issues as related to justice, goodness, and the use of the dark elements of our world in order to find our way back to life.About the David Engelhardt is the lead pastor at the Manhattan congregation Kings’ Church, founding attorney of Engelhardt Law in New York, and a member of the Board of Directors of Turning Point USA. He lives with his wife and 3 children in NYC.

David has worked with NGOs and churches in a number of different roles since 1998. David’s legal focus is on working with individuals, businesses, and nonprofits in the areas of business litigation and transaction. As related to legal counsel, David has been quoted in publications such as Forbes, Business News Daily, New York Daily News, and Inc. Magazine. As related to social commentary, his writings have appeared in conservative publications, and is a regular guest on radio and podcasts such as The Charlie Kirk Show.

157 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 7, 2021

Reviews

[David Engelhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the caveat that I wrote the book, I'm going to say 4.5. Who can really give anything a full 5 stars? Certainly, when describing God's ideas it sounds a tad arrogant to think: oh yeah, I totally represent God full 5 out of 5. On the other hand I don't want say 4 because of the context of rating books in general tells us 5 out of 5 means I really like it, it doesn't mean "this book is the literary love child of Augustine and Shakespeare."

One of the skills I learned in life was when a teacher would ask how did you think you did
(?), I would say, "I put in 110% effort on that bad boy. That science paper about biodynamics is likely the best thing that will come out of this school in an epoch; the whetted tip of the pen was truly guided by my dutiful and and disciplined hand." That was always untrue, and my teacher knew she was trapped by my baffling praise regarding a singular paragraph and a poor sketch of a frog.

Sometimes you give a book a 5 star for the heck of it. I one time gave the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" a 5 star. It's certainly not a 5 star as related to its poetic or polemic nature–it's about a 1.5 in that category. But 7 Habits is more of a 5 star because it's a character book and as a character books it is pretty solid. Although, I don't even know if I agree with everything in there. Especially habits 4 and 5. They're relatively superfluous..... After some thought, I'm knocking it down to a 4.

I hope you will give Good Kills many many many stars, not because it is a sad frog paper or because you will learn new habits for success, but because the ideas are not mine, they do in fact belong to God. This is the tale of the best Christian writings, to simply remind us once again what God has been declaring all along.

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Kills Slays!

Good Kills is the corner herald shouting to the church. A must read for every believer: Sheep and Shepherds. Highly recommend!

[Carlton Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Paradise is not the lack of work substituted by eternal slumber and consumption, but instead the steady work of the gardener -- the contented heart -- in the cycle of exertion and rest.”

[Stacey E.]

Although I was eager to read this for a year, I couldn't get past the first chapter. I did agree with some things but something didn't sit right so I'm marking as a DNF.