Wolgemuth, Robert. Lies Men Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free. Moody Publishers, Chicago. 2018. 304 pages.
As a boy growing up, I remember playing the game “Two Truths and a Lie”. If you have played the game before, you know the point of the game was to make three statements, two being true things about your life while involving one lie about yourself. Guessing which of the three statements contained a lie brought a level of intrigue and the answers would often surprise those playing the game. It was all in good fun. Yet, as I’ve grown up from boyhood into manhood, I’ve noticed we sometimes go from playing a game about lies to living a life based on and believing in lies. We have trouble discerning truth because we’re deceived in these lies. What we need to uncover these lies is not a game played but truth discerned. This is what we find in Lies Men Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free by Robert Wolgemuth.
Diagnosing Lies and Discerning Truth
Written as a companion to the acclaimed Lies Women Believe by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Lies Men Believe takes a look at forty lies fitting under the headings of lies men believe about God, themselves, sin, sexuality, marriage and family, work and wealth, circumstances, and the world. Each chapter contains 4-6 of these lies that men are prone to believe. After describing and illustrating how these lies are believed, Mr. Wolgemuth exposes the lie and shines biblical truth on the matter, inviting the reader to understand the truth to be believed. Each section concludes with questions to think about. The last chapter of the book counters the forty lies by laying out clearly and concisely the forty truths that set men free. The book is a diagnostic on the lies men believe and discerning truth for men to believe.
Considerate and Conversational
The approach the author takes in exposing lies and sharing truth in Lies Men Believe can be summed up in two words considerate and conversational. He is careful about generalizing but admits when he is speaking with a broad brush on the tendencies of men (Wolgemuth 26). He shows his thoughtfulness when he talks about marriage with a sensitive awareness that not every reader will be a husband or father. In other words, he keeps singles in mind (see pages 127-132, 143, and 156 for example). Books on manhood can all too often focus primarily on married men to the neglect of unmarried men. While Mr. Wolgemuth has much to say to husbands, he is considerate in mentioning how these lies impact single men too.
Meant to be “a conversation” and not a monologue (Wolgemuth 268), Lies Men Believe reads as if a brother in Christ is sitting across from you at a lunch table or over coffee, sharing with you truth from God’s Word in the face of lies we encounter every day. Robert Wolgemuth does an exceptional job of painting word pictures and using analogies to make his points practical. Men will be able to see how these lies show up in their lives and will be sure to relate to the struggles of believing such lies and the need to trust in the truth.
Biblical Truth that Sets Men Free
With the subtitle of the book (And the Truth that Sets Them Free) guiding the reader to flee the lies, the book’s content on the truth countering each lie is a little intriguing since Scripture is not cited when the truth is summarized after the lie is explained. To be sure, these truths are founded in God’s Word and even the last chapter of the book lists these truths with the proper Scripture citations along with them. Including those Scripture references as each truth was laid out throughout the book could have benefited the reader more as they read through each portion of the book.
Aside from that small structural issue, Lies Men Believe by Robert Wolgemuth is a profound and powerful book for Christian men needing to hear the truth and be set free from lies they are prone to believe! The book contains much gospel wisdom and calls for brothers in Christ to walk in the light of the truth of God’s Word. If you are a man who doesn’t want to buy into the lies of the world but desires to know the truth of the Word, then I’d recommend picking up a copy of Lies Men Believe by Robert Wolgemuth. Even better, get a group of men together and go through this book together, encouraging and exhorting each other along the way so you can be set free from the lies as you find freedom in the One who is truth, Jesus Christ!
I received this book from Moody Publishers in exchange for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own and are my honest review of the book.