Review Shane Wall - Understanding: all success is attained by it

Pastor Shane Wall is a smart guy. He discovered that a book titled Understanding didn’t exist yet, and chose the classic King James Version to unravel a word study on everything regarding ‘understanding’, as if he coined a new buzz word. Like Ecclesiastes already claimed: nothing new under the sun. What Wall presents is faith in action, and so touching topics like prayer, obedience, trust, knowledge, discipline, listening to God’s Word. In this book it’s all called ‘understanding’, which doesn’t make it easy to grab and understand at all. Just an example quote: “We must wholeheartedly believe what He says. Whatever God says is the understanding.” I’m lost after reading this. Wall regards the Sacred Scriptures as ‘the literal Word of God’, which is highly disputable. Nowhere in the Bible this is claimed. “The original language that the New Testament was written in is Greek…” neglects the Aramaic of e.g. Matthew. “After we die, we will fund no knowledge to be gained, wisdom to observe, or work to be completed.” denies Jesus’ teaching about His Kingdom. On rare occasions he shares something personal, especially from his preaching practice and financial needs. The subtitle ‘all success is attained by it’ is another weak point of this book, just like the main title, generating questions on the what or who. Understanding God’s will is different from understanding mathematics, right? And what’s the measure of success? Is this pastor promoting prosperity teaching or the spiritual version of the American Dream? If he claims: “I used the Holy Bible as the sole, written resource to build material for this message of understanding”, I doubt that. At a very late point in his message, it becomes clear that it’s success according to God’s measures, instead of making money or the worldly concept of success, which isn’t defined at all. 20 chapters with vague titles like ‘giving understanding’, ‘the value of understanding’ weren’t all exclusive or powerful. I’d suggest to come up with more relatable ones, ease the focus on success, and replace it by blessing and peace, and re-read the Bible. In my 21st Century King James Version ‘success’ appears only once in Joshua 1 verse 8.

About the author

Shane Wall has taught the Word of God internationally for over 30 years. He’s the founder and pastor of The Feast of the Lord in Orangeburg, SC, where he and his wife Jasmyne reside. Pastor Wall is the author of the book, What Are You Doing After the Dance? and recorded a Gospel CD entitled, Conversations with God. His newest book, Understanding, is hailed as the first Bible-based book ever written on the subject. He formed The Church FM (Fellowship Ministry) for pastors and their congregations to benefit from the experience he’s gained as a leader in the church and in the community.

Shane Wall reacted to my review on Amazon.com, and Goodreads.

I received an advance review copy through Netgalley to provide you my personal impressions after reading.