This is an excellent book with much to say on an important topic. The subtitle, Radical Preparation for the Return of Christ, clearly indicates its main theme, but the title requires more explanation, which is provided in the first chapter.

‘Body Zero’ refers to those diagrams in biology textbooks or charts displayed in a doctor’s surgery where the whole human body is on show – muscles, bones, veins, organs. With everything exposed we see how our body is put together and how it should work as a unit. It provides opportunity for close examination and assessment. The author’s aim is to put the Church, the Body of Christ, under the same spotlight. In particular, how prepared is it for Christ’s return?

Eager Expectation

For the author, this is the key question. But he is not interested in discussing theological or eschatological terms. For him, ‘eschatology’ does not mean “Greek verbs, expository teachings or spurious symbolic studies”. Rather “I think about finally seeing Jesus” (p44).

Franks explains he has written this book “precisely because Jesus is en route to Planet Earth” (p16). Whatever may or may not be happening around the world, Jesus is definitely coming back here one day. We need urgent visions of this, not endless discussions of theories. As such, his book is for the homesick - the pining followers of the soon-to-be-here Messiah.

Franks asks us to assess if, as individuals, we really live as though he is coming back, or whether it is just a creedal statement we agree to. We may subscribe to his return but functionally deny it in our lives. He asserts that many don’t believe what they say they believe, but not to live in the eager expectation of his cataclysmic coming renders us “strangers to Who He really is” (p60).

This book is for the homesick - the pining followers of the soon-to-be-here Messiah.

He also wants us to rethink if our church is helping us in this respect. Is Christ’s return trumpeted from the pulpit every week? Is it taught at all? Franks’ clarion call is that if your pastor is not instilling within you a burning desire for the return of Christ, should you remain there?

To this end his book speaks loudly to those who currently belong to a church, but he also has a message for those who are ‘out of church’ at present, or wondering if they should be. Franks shares his own experience in this regard. He lives in a city with 300 churches but still cannot find a spiritual home! What makes them so ineffective, so lacking in the power that God provides?

Forgotten Ways

Clearly Franks has read widely on his theme but still felt there was more to say. For instance, he heartily recommends Francis Chan’s book Letters to the Church (as indeed do I), but believes Chan’s diagnosis is incomplete. Not everyone who leaves church behind is rebellious, arrogant or confused. There is another ‘body type’; those who are being called back into ‘the forgotten ways’: prophetic reformers who seek true holiness and the ‘ancient missional adrenaline’ of the early believers. Franks counts himself among these and he writes powerfully for them.

In particular, he appeals to those who are finding it a struggle to leave, who fear a painful separation and what it would lead to. The solution is to make Jesus your own gracious and glorious Head. Realise he is coming back - and live that way. Franks promises those who do leave the blinkered bubble of institutional structures and denominationalism that there is a wind of refreshing awaiting them. The key is to surrender afresh. Why languish in a lopsided ecclesiology when a fuller, more fruitful vision of Christ is available?

The author accepts that to take this path may require great faith and courage. The human tendency is just to keep going, especially if you have invested so much in the church system over the years. But the reward is to gain a Jesus who will prepare you for his return more than the Church is doing. Above all Franks warns that when Jesus returns, every lukewarm Christian entrenched in denominational form and style will wish desperately they had changed.

Franks warns that when Jesus returns, every lukewarm Christian entrenched in denominational form and style will wish desperately they had changed.

Superbly Written

The author has a good grasp of the prophetic and sociological, particularly regarding the path our society has taken in recent decades and how the Church has followed. The spiritual adultery of the Church in the UK has created an ineptness and irrelevance. Once a compass and a lighthouse for our society, the Church has allowed itself to be pushed to the fringe and become marginalised.

Again Franks has done his research and acknowledges his debt to Abraham Heschel’s The Prophets and Clifford Hill’s Towards the Dawn and The Reshaping of Britain, from which he often quotes. His understanding of these matters has driven him to write with even more urgency. He recognises “a desperate need for pointed directness and even harsh rebuke at this hour in church history” (p19). He is aware that true believers may experience persecution in the near future, but repeats his main message that what will give us the courage of our convictions is a certainty that Jesus is coming back.

This book is superbly written and a delight to read, though very challenging in places. Franks writes with fervour and strength of purpose, believing that the days in which we are living too perilous for any form of fake Christianity. His well-chosen phrases come from a combination of head and heart, and should reach both in the reader.

In some ways this is a brave book. It is certainly one that deserves to be widely known and talked about. Don’t hesitate to buy it, even if you have others along the same lines.

‘Body Zero: Radical Preparation for the Return of Christ’ (237pp) is available in paperback for £8.99, or as an e-book for £5. Find out more and purchase at www.bodyzerobook.com. Watch this video about the book and find accompanying teaching videos here. Read more from the author on his blog, www.firebrandnotes.com.