The Path to Truth and Freedom, by Dr. Gene Gurganus, is described on the Truth Publishers website as a home Bible study course, but I found it to be much more. This is a one-book information source for anyone wanting a basic rundown of the Christian faith from a Baptist viewpoint. It offers lessons in the true existence of God, the holiness of the Bible, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, Christian Baptism, and The Lord's Supper, just to name a few. It is a single softcover book of 200 pages and, along with your Bible, is all you need for a wonderful study of God's Word. It has 25 lessons, each with Points to Ponder at the end of the lesson to encourage thought or discussion, and a list of ten true/false or multiple choice questions. The final lesson (entitled "What will your answer be?") presents the plan of salvation. The last pages of the book offer an index of people mentioned, an index of Scripture references mentioned, and a subject index.

The author, a missionary of seventeen years to Bangladesh, wrote the book as a correspondence course to follow up evangelism and discipleship. Now available to a wider audience, the book teaches American young people that reason and truth are in harmony with those who honor the authority of the Word of God. There is no proposed course outline as to how long the book should take to complete, so each reader is able to digest the information at his or her own pace. It is admittedly Baptist and premillenial in nature. There is no specific age group that it is recommended for, but certainly middle schoolers and up would find the information useful and educational. In our homeschool we used it together as parent and high school student. Older students could certainly work through it on their own, but parents would miss a wonderful opportunity for discussion with their children.

I do wish the book included answers to the questions--not necessarily because I did not know the answers (although admittedly there were times I did not) but because I would not be comfortable just turning this over to my student without the answers available for his or her reference. Answers can certainly be found within the lessons, but for many students the reassurance that their answers were indeed correct would help solidify the knowledge learned.

This book kept my attention from the first lesson and held my ninth grader's attention through informational tidbits that left her wanting more knowledge. (Miscellaneous facts include the following: the Bible was written by 40 human authors, 10 of the eleven apostles gave their lives defending the truth of the Bible, 500 people witnessed Christ's ascension, and more.) We enjoyed the book and it worked well in our homeschool. It is also very affordable at $10 and a truly wonderful addition to a well-rounded Christian library.  

Product review by Donna Campos, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September 2006