Deserted Island with Conrad Mbewe

Out of all the books that could help you grow in your faith and in your knowledge of God, which five would you bring with you to a deserted island? On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Conrad Mbewe joins Dr. Stephen Nichols to explain his five choices.

Steve Nichols: Well, it's time to have another Deserted Island moment here on 5 Minutes in Church History, and I have with us Dr. Conrad Mbewe. Dr. Mbewe, it's nice to see you again.

Dr. Conrad Mbewe: Thank you. Thanks, Steve, for having me.

SN: We were with you a few weeks back and we have you here again, and we are giving you a true gift, brother. We are going to relieve you of all of your hard work there at African Christian University, and we're going to let you just go off to a deserted island to spend some time enjoying some books. And there's a catch, though. You can only take five with you. You have a Bible—so you'll have a Bible—but what five books would you take with you on your trip to your deserted island?

CM: Let's get that rolling. I think first of all, I would want a devotional that is a classic. And almost certain you can guess that I'll be speaking about Pilgrim's Progress. That's a good one. And I would want one that is an edition that allows me to see where from the Bible the ideas were coming from so that I'm able to then go to the Bible and read further. So I would definitely throw in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The next that I would go to would be a systematic theology. And I would want to go right back to the one that meant a lot to me in my formative years, and that was Louis Berkhof's Systematic Theology.

SN: Yes.

CM: Very simple, laid out pretty well. And yeah, I would definitely want to, for old time’s sake.

SN: That was my... in college, that was my go-to book for quotes and papers, so I love it.

CM: There you are.

SN: You gave me some nostalgia. All right, so we've got two.

CM: Yes. Three more. We sort of bank that. I also want throw in a biography, and I think I would go for Arnold Dallimore's, I think, the Summarized Biography of Whitefield.

SN: Yes.

CM: Rather than the two volumes.

SN: The two... the heavy two-volumed tome.

CM: Yes. I'll always remember that I struggled through the second volume because it was like, it was always the same thing I was doing every day.

SN: How many thousands did he preach to today?

CM: Yeah. But I didn't love that. Again, what I love about it is you have on the one hand the heat that was in Whitefield's life, but also no doubt the knowledge that he also had of the basics of the Reformed faith and was really convinced of the truth of Calvinism, and he never lost out on his evangelistic fervor. So I would throw that in. It'll be a difficult choice to make, because being someone who studied missions, I really love biographies of missionaries. So I would be fighting over issues due with Adoniram Judson, William Carey, and others, but yeah. Being in a context of heart for evangelism, I probably would still finally settle for Whitefield. On spiritual disciplines of the Christian life, Don Whitney. That's now getting closer to today.

SN: Sure.

CM: Yes. I think I would love that. It just helps to brush up my spiritual life every so often, see what I need to do a little more in my quiet moments and so forth, so I think I would equally throw that in.

SN: And we have room for one more.

CM: For one more. For one more. I'm trying to think of a more recent classic that might be more closely related to my own soul as well. I think I'll go for Spurgeon himself and simply pick on one of his sermon volumes so that I'm having direct preaching to my own soul.

SN: There you go. Well, that's great. What a wonderful collection that you have with you. I wish you well, as you read these books and enjoy your time on your deserted island with your books.

CM: Thank you. Thank you, Steve.

SN: Well, that was Dr. Conrad Mbewe embarking on his deserted island and I'm Steve Nichols. And thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.