Concerns with "Created To Be His Help Meet" - Book Review By Tim Challies

I read, reread and reread at least five more times this book when it first came out eight years ago. I loved Debi Pearl's hard hitting tough love approach. I felt convicted at every turn of the page and was motivated like never before to be a better wife. I also gave copies to other women.

After a period of time, I became frustrated that I was not able to do what was commanded, so I put the book away in defeat and shame.

 I recently dug out my my wrinkled, marked, highlighted copy of Created To Be His Help Meet stuffed deep in my drawer. It had been a few years since I read it, and I've grown more in knowledge of Christian doctrine in that time. I was shocked at all of the over use of law, lack of grace and harsh legalism. I immediately closed the book and shared my concerns with a close friend.

Tim Challies (A well known Christian book reviewer) did his own review and my concerns are validated.

"We see her graceless, legalistic God in words like these, taken from the book’s final pages: “God is awesome and terrible in his judgments. He is also full of mercy, and of grace. His strong desire is to bless his people, but too often by our ‘carelessness,’ we force him to judge. I believe he wearies of judgment.” Pearl presents a God who offers mercy and grace only to those who please him. To the rest there is judgment. This is a God who reacts to our every careless or thoughtful deed with anger and judgment. He is gracious only when we do what he demands, only when we earn his favor. And this means, of course, he is not a good of mercy and grace at all, not when his favor must be merited."

 Full reviews:

Created To Be His Help Meet

Created To Be His Help Meet (Part 2)

Alternate Books:

The Excellent Wife: A Biblical Perspective by Martha Peace

Helper by Design: God's Perfect Plan for Women in Marriage by Elyse Fitzpatrick