Review of God’s Pagentry by Anne Hamilton

God’s Pageantry: The Threshold of Guardians and the Covenant Defender by Anne Hamilton, Armour Books, 2015
God’s Pageantry is Part 3 of a series, and follows on from God’s Panoply. The book opens with examples of name covenants and goes on to elaborate on threshold covenants. There are many interesting true anecdotes of people peppered throughout the writing to illustrate the author’s points.
Anne Hamilton has read widely, and painstakingly delves into the meaning of names. To strengthen her case, she quotes from various sources, both biblical and modern. One of the examples given is the time when Christ changed Simon’s name to ‘Cephas’. In Chapter One, her mother says. ‘Is it possible that the people and places in Scripture were named after the event, not before?’ (God’s Pageantry, Page 36)
I agree with her. The name changes of Simon to Peter, of Abram to Abraham and Saul to Paul, were all made long after their birth, at a critical time in their lives.
I concur with with Anne when she writes, ‘He has plans for us which go back to before we were born, but He won’t force us to follow Him.’ (God’s Pageantry, Page 61) and also when she says that a recurring dream is God speaking directly to you about your destiny. (God’s pageantry, Page 58) I had the same experience one day at the turning point of my life.
Despite my not being in total agreement with the author, I think her final advice, ‘Ask the Holy Spirit to tell you what you’ve overlooked and to seal God’s work of redemption in you,’ is excellent counsel. (God’s Pageantry, Page 182)
Like many teachers, the author tends to repeat the lessons she taught in her previous book, God’s Panoply. It reinforces her argument, but may tend to bore the reader.
In conclusion, I suggest that the endnotes at the close of the book should also be perused as they contain useful explanations of profound theological statements.
Review by Hazel Barker
https://hazelmbarker.wordpress.com/