The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails (LifeChange Books) Hardcover – July 7, 2003

Randy Alcorn has written a few great booklets that are around 100 pages long. The Purity Principle is one of them. The Purity Principle is quite simple: "Purity is always smart, impurity is always stupid". If we know what is best for us then we will passionately pursue purity. The first part of this book attempts to prove the purity principle. The second part of the book gets practical and puts into place wise strategies for pursuing purity.What I Liked:This book is well written, it is short, it is to the point, it is deeply biblical, and greatly convicting. Even if you think you are passionately pursuing purity this book will challenge you to go a step further. Alcorn speaks boldly and wisely throughout. The strategies in this book are not legalistic tips or merely unhelpful theories, they are real and they are practical. But there is only one caveat...What I Disliked:I wish Alcorn would have inserted a chapter about the resurrection power of Jesus in our lives. Because of what Christ has done we have the power within us to conquer this battle. I know that Alcorn would agree with that, I just wish he would have laid a foundation towards the beginning. He starts towards that when he says, "when my thirst for joy is satisfied by Christ, sin becomes unattractive". But, I wish he would have taken it a step further and dedicated a chapter to encouraging those that feel ridiculously defeated by this particular sin. Again, he says these things in a few places (see page 60)--I just think the reader would be better served having a deliberate chapter. Nonetheless...Should You Buy It?Absolutely. If you have a heartbeat, you are a guy, you are a girl, you know a guy, you know a girl, then you need to buy this book and read it. There is a helpful chapter for singles. There is a helpful chapter for parents.

This little treasure will forever be a great tool in my tool belt as a counselor. I have counseled a couple young men through the problem with purity and lust. Alcorn hits the heart and uses stories and analogies that will linger in your head and shake your heart. Both young men that I have given this to have loved it. One of my counselee's loved it so much he would tell me that he would approach the book with the thought, "What do you have to teach me today Randy?" This book ministered to me as a teenager in high school that struggled with lust and porn. It was a life changing and life shaping book then and it has stood the test of time now. A must have for anyone who is serious about putting lust, porn, and immorality to death. It's short and could even be finished in one sitting.

This book was a great read. I didn't look too closes at the product details, since I bought it as recommendation, so I didn't realize it would be so small/short. I read it in a day.

Very comprehensive and in depth and yet simple and easy to apply.

Really solid foundational views on purity that give you concepts to chew on; also a fast read. Of course, some examples Alcorn gives regarding how to maintain purity may seem very extreme, so definitely read this with an open mind and don't get too offended/upset at the get go. What I love about how Alcorn writes is that he's not afraid to be radical and straightforward about what he thinks and how he applies scripture...yet he recognizes that his own personal application is not how everyone will apply it and urges you to meditate on it yourself. You can tell that his heart is for the Lord and that he wants his readers simply to know what God's word says and to obey in how He leads you. Read it for the principles he presents and take some prayerful time to consider what it looks like in your own life. Good luck!

An incredible Godly man at church offered this to me. Embedded in scripture, there is never a year of my life that this will not be a yearly read. Temptation (to be run from, not wrestled with) is not a one-and-done battle. We change, we age, the enemy tries new lures. While heavily focused on physical/sexual temptation; the scripture cited ties well to many forms of temptation. To know true joy is to abide in Him, Lord and Savior, and see His living word as the means to do so.

This is a great resource for victorious living! It shows the consequences of choices each of us make in our lives and how important it is to make the right choice to live a life of true freedom and liberty! It is a quick read - I was fascinated with the stories shared from the beginning and had a hard time putting the book down! I got copies for my family to help encourage them as they are getting ready to enter the "dating" stage of their lives to help them stay on course and help give them the tools to save themselves for marriage as God intended. I highly recommend this book - whether you're married or single!!

It's been a long time since I've been so greatly impacted by a book. The Purity Principle made me want to fall on my face before Almighty God. His ways are perfect. And what a sobering yet beautiful reminder of that fact in this book. These principles need to be shouted from the rooftop of every Bible believing evangelical church in America.

I am a Southern Baptist seminary student and I recommend this book to all christians. Alcorn illustrates rather difficult concepts simple and clear. I also recommend If God is Good from the same author.

Great book. A ‘must’ buy for those who still believe in the sanctity of purity.

I highly recommend this little book, a book where Randy Alcorn leaves no stone unturned. An important reminder of how we are called to live as Christians in our post Christian society. Thanks Randy!

Fantastic book. Short, easy to read and full of practical advice to help Christians struggling to live pure Biblical lives in a sin-filled world.

First of all, if you are reading this, I want you to know that you are loved and have unmesuarable value. Nothing you do can take that away. Jesus wants to walk with you, and can meet you right where you are.Now, my review.Mr.Randy Alcorn is off to a bad start on chapter 1, when instead of tackling such a sensitive topic by being humble and expressing his own personal struggles, he decides to put in front of us a few people who have not "stayed pure" and therefore have faced irreversible fatal consequences.He puts himself in a pedestal (his metaphor of the book) where he holds all wisdom and offers heavy judgment and condemnation towards these people. His message is: if you don't stay pure you will end up like them. His examples:A man who cheated on his wife. This led him to molest his daughter.A young couple who decided to have sex. One of the consequences was, I quote, "Kyle (the boyfriend) was mad at her (girlfriend) because she wasn't supposed to let it happen". Why is she to blame for THEIR decision Mr.Acorn? Both these young people face a lot of tragedy after this.A wife, who cheats on his husband, I quote, " a decent, church-going guy" and again, faces a lot tragedy and regret. Cheating is wrong, of course,  however, she is highly judged, but no one questions if the husband was being a loving and giving her what she needed in the relationship. We only get to see one side.The book is full of examples like this, we are all invited to judge and condemn these people.You get the idea, if you don't stay pure horrible irreversible things will happen to you.Throughout the book, Mr.Acorn is trying to convince us to stay pure by using fear, twisting Bible versers to prove his point and painting a picture of God as highly judgmental and full of punishment.At no point is there mention of GRACE, RESTORATION or even hope.I wonder, if someone had walked with these people and helped them along the way in a compassionate, non judgemental way, if we would have found that the root of their problems wasn't "purity" but pain, confusion and hurtful messages that they have been fed. Maybe, the scorn and rejection the so called Christians, around them gave them, contributed to seeing God as evil and deciding to walk away from the light. Maybe, there would have been a different ending for these stories.But Mr.Acorn doesn't want to consider being vulnerable and compassionate. Judgement and fear is the route he takes.It's because of doctrines like this, that we push people away instead of closer to our loving and merciful God.Needless to say, I don't recommend this book, and in fact, I believe it to be dangerously misleading.