Scottsdale’s Ronald Smith spent 33 years chasing one question about a single Bible verse. His first book is now climbing Amazon’s charts, and it’s already No. 1 in its category.
Top 10
Amazon · Christian Salvation Books
#1
Amazon · Methodist
#8
Hot New Releases · Christian Salvation
A Valley author has broken into Amazon’s Top 10. Ronald Smith’s debut book, A Child of God Does Not Sin: How Gospel Truth Was Buried, and Why It Must Be Restored, debuted on Amazon on October 1 and has landed among the Top 10 Christian Salvation Books on Amazon. It currently sits at No. 8 among new releases in that category.
The book has climbed even higher in a narrower field. It’s ranked No. 1 in Amazon’s Methodist category. That’s a fitting spot for a book built on the teaching of John Wesley, the 18th-century preacher whose work gave rise to the Methodist movement.
That’s a strong start for a first-time author. And Ronald isn’t a pastor or a seminary professor. He’s a longtime sales and marketing executive who wrote the book on his own time over nearly two decades.
One Verse, 33 Years
Author Ronald Smith of Scottsdale
The book centers on 1 John 3:9, which says that whoever is born of God does not sin. Ronald estimates he has heard two to three thousand sermons over the past 33 years. He says not one of them was preached on that verse.
His search began in 1993. After a Promise Keepers gathering in Boulder, Colorado, he asked his associate pastor in Muncie, Indiana, Dave Neckers, to disciple him. Over twelve Wednesday mornings at the Sunshine Cafe, Ronald asked a question that stuck: if we can pray to be healed of cancer, why not sin?
Neckers told him the idea had a name, Christian Perfection, and that most of the church no longer believed it. For a man with a journalism degree from Northern Arizona University, that was the start of a three-decade investigation. Neckers, fittingly, wrote the book’s foreword.
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
— 1 John 3:9 (NKJV)
The Partner Behind the Book
Ronald didn’t get here alone. His wife, Nancy, has been critical to his success, and to the book’s.
The two met on the track team at Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix. Ronald was an All-State hurdler and quarterback. Nancy was a state champion sprinter who went on to win national junior college titles. Both graduated from Northern Arizona University, and they’ve been a team ever since.
That partnership carried the book through 18 years of writing in fits and starts. Ronald finished the first eight chapters in 2008. Then came a corporate career, a move to Ohio, and a family that grew to six children. While Ronald built his career and chipped away at the manuscript, Nancy held the home front together and led countless school fundraisers along the way. The couple also led a college-age Bible study together out of their home in Muncie.
Nancy also lived with the question as long as Ronald did. In his own account of the book’s origins, he admits with a laugh that his wife grew tired of hearing him wrestle with it year after year. She stayed with him through every one of those years, and the book that finally came out of them is now on the bestseller charts.
A Valley Couple in the Fight
Ronald and Nancy’s partnership extends beyond the book. After moving back to the Valley during the pandemic lockdowns, they founded Camelback Fundraising in Phoenix. The firm helps conservative candidates, causes, and nonprofits raise money, handling events from planning through the day itself, plus the marketing behind them.
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Book Review
A Child of God Does Not Sin
★★★★★
Most Christian books about sin are really books about coping with it. Ronald Smith’s asks whether the cycle of failing and confessing was ever supposed to be normal. His answer, built on the New Covenant, is that holiness and real victory over sin are the inheritance of every believer, not extra credit for a spiritual elite.
It reads like an investigation, not a sermon. Ronald’s journalism training shows. He traces how the doctrine faded through commercial, institutional, and theological incentives, including a popular study Bible whose commentary set parts of the New Testament aside for today’s church. He’s careful to note that most people involved simply passed along what they’d been taught.
It takes the objections head on. Romans 7, 1 John 1:8, “judge not” — the book works through each one and separates willful disobedience from mistakes, ignorance, and human weakness. Early readers keep pointing to Chapter 3, on imputed versus imparted righteousness.
It’s made for groups. A list of 56 core Scripture references and a study appendix make it an easy pick for small groups and Sunday school classes.
It’s hopeful. This isn’t a book about pressure or perfectionism. Ronald presents grace as power for daily life, not just a pardon for the past.
Readers from traditions that expect believers to keep struggling with sin will find it provocative. Even if you finish unconvinced, you won’t read 1 John 3:9 the same way again.
“I’ve never read one so much of what I learned contradicted what I thought I knew.”
Mike W., San Diego, CA
“Reading it for the second time…life changing perspective I never saw until this.”
Julie Y., Glendale, AZ
The Verdict
A bold, readable debut that has earned its place on the charts. Ronald Smith set out to answer one question from a Muncie diner and came back with a book that challenges how most of the church talks about sin.
If you’ve ever suspected the Christian life was meant to be more than an endless loop of falling and confessing, start here.
Buy on Amazon Get It at Beacon Book Club
Debuted on Amazon October 1, 2026.
About the author: Ronald Smith is a Northern Arizona University journalism graduate, longtime sales and marketing executive, and co-founder with his wife, Nancy, of Camelback Fundraising. The couple lives in Scottsdale and has six children and two grandchildren. Learn more at donotsin.com.
