Do You Trust Me?

Second Edition

Mark Joseph Young

In 2009, I was about to publish the first edition of this book; several copies were "sold" at near cost to a few friends and contacts (under my nom de plume at that time, M. Joseph Young).  However, there were a couple minor issues I wanted to fix, and there were several other pressing projects, so it got shelved, never properly promoted to the general public.

This original cover image of the first edition was created by my daughter-in-law, based on my vision.  If you have the book that looks like this, you effectively have what this book contains: The book also included this credit: I would be horribly remiss, however, were I not to thank my daughter-in-law, Kellie Young, for the front cover image.  From little more than the title, she caught the same vision I had of a hand reaching for a hand.  She then improved this twice.  First, she made the smaller hand that of a child, capturing the child-like trust implied thereby.  Second, after considering several media, she decided that crayon would enhance the sense of child-like simplicity, giving a child’s drawing of something every child can understand. This new edition cover attempts to capture something of the same feeling for a new generation of readers.

Then in 2022 I decided to fix that, and something went haywire knocking the book out of print completely.

Mercifully, Dimensionfold Books stepped in and offered to publish a second edition with a new cover and those few minor corrections I had intended to make, and so this book has returned to the shelves under my full name, Mark Joseph Young, which Dimensionfold has used for my other books in their catalog, Why I Believe? and The Essential Guide to Time Travel.

The essence of the book is that the gospel, the message that we are saved by God's grace through our faith, is not something new or unique to the New Testament, but was the message God was trying to deliver to all His people from the beginning of time.  Examining the accounts of the lives of major Old Testament figures from Adam and Abel through Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and others, the book shows how it was always about trusting God, having faith.  It shows how even the Law was always about faith.

To quote comments from reviewer Dave Mattingly of the Christian Gamers Guild, the book:

...discusses how God's plan was always for Man to be saved by Faith rather than Works, even before the Fall....how God's message was not changed from the Old to the New Testaments, it was merely clarified.  I've already found myself referring to the book several times in the last three weeks since I've read it, at church, at home, at Bible study....There is a lot of good material in there, and I recommend the book to anyone wanting to know more about God's plan for their lives.

Young's logical approach provides a refreshing analysis of crucially important concepts.

Charles Barnett, writing in the private Facebook group The Gospel of Grace, says

I am thoroughly impressed.  I found it both illuminating and thought provoking, introducing ideas that I had not thought of before or I had not thought of in exactly the same way.  The overall portrait painted of trust in God is excellent and I am not sure that I have seen it's equal.  I think that [the author] maybe only covered one aspect of the purpose of the law but for such a small volume that is not surprising. I'm seriously considering checking out some more of [his] books.

The book fills an important gap in the understanding of the message of grace for most believers, and is an important addition not merely to their libraries but to their comprehension of the gospel, of salvation by faith.

Within hours of its release, it appeared on two of Amazon's new release best seller lists,

#9 on Christian Counselling, and


#21 on Salvation Theory.

More information about the book including links to retailers carrying it in either print or electronic format is available on the publisher's website.  The book is available under the title Do You Trust Me? through booksellers.  Amazon offers the paperback and Kindle editions.