Don't Hold Back: Leaving Behind the American Gospel to Follow Jesus Fully

The New York Times bestselling author of Radical challenges Christians to break free from an American gospel that prostitutes Jesus for comfort, power, prosperity, and politics—and fully pursue the true gospel that exalts Jesus above all.

Pastor David Platt believes we’ve gotten really good at following a really bad gospel—one that worships American ideas over biblical truth. It’s time for disillusioned, discouraged, and divided Christians, and the next generation, to follow Jesus into a different future.

But we have to make a choice: an American gospel or the biblical gospel. Worldly division or otherworldly unity. Compromise with the idols of our country or commitment to God’s call in our lives. In Don’t Hold Back, Platt encourages followers of Jesus to take necessary risks and find unimaginable reward as we:

• Work for—not against—each other, especially when we disagree
• Turn the tide on centuries of racial division in the church
• Trust all of God’s Word with conviction while loving everyone around us with compassion
• Do justice with kindness, and experience the good life according to God
• Play our part in spreading the gospel to all the nations of the world

We can experience the full wonder of Jesus and transcendent beauty of his church here and now. But in order to do so, some things need to be different. Starting not in “those people,” but in each one of us. With the gospel in our hearts and God as our prize, let’s press on and don’t hold back.