Carpe Diem Redeemed - by Os Guinness

I really wanted to like this book but it was quite disappointing.  It's sobering, definitely; maybe even motivating.  But…how do I put this? It's not very encouraging. Guinness does not come across as someone who believes that salvation is found in faith in Christ alone.

He seems to believe that ethnic (or religious?) Jews will be saved whether or not they believe that Jesus is the Messiah, God in the flesh, Who takes away sin and gives us His righteousness.  At first I thought that maybe I was just reading too much into some of his statements, like this one "Both Jews and Christians owe their salvation entirely to God - Jews in terms of their national exodus from Egypt and Christians in terms of their personal exodus from lostness".  But then it became clearer along the way and he made statements like, "There are no more realistic faiths than Judaism and the Christian faith, but Jews and Christians live with an undimmed hope even in the darkest hour." Judaism is not a faith that will save, that takes care of sin.  Man is not "justified by the works of the law" (Gal 2:16)  And the Epistle to the Galatians attacked those who were trying to make people believe that Judaism saves:  "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."(Gal 5:4)  If anyone's faith, Jew or Gentile, is not placed in Christ as the solution, the Righteousness, for his sins then his hope is misplaced and will not save him from God's judgment.  "We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified." - Galatians 2:15-16

Guinness says:  "There is a promised time as well as a promised land.  (On that great day, the only question dividing Jews and Christians, as a Jewish friend says, will be to welcome the Messiah together, and then ask him whether his coming is his first or his second.)."When the unsaved Jews see the Messiah for the first time, their reaction will not be to ask Him if He had come before, rather it will be mourning, deep grief, because they instantly know that Jesus IS the Messiah who came 2000+ years ago.  The Apostle Paul did not believe that Jews who rejected the Gospel were saved, he wanted them to be saved but he knew that if they did not accept the righteousness of God, rather than their own, they could not be saved: "Brethren, my heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them, that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God."(Rom 10:1-3) Paul acknowledges that God did not spare unbelieving Jews and that He will not spare unbelieving Gentiles either: "Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. (Rom 11:20-23)  God saves both Jews and Gentiles by faith in His Son.

GOD BELIEVES IN WORTHLESS PEOPLE WHO DO NOT FEAR HIM AND ARE ENSLAVED TO SIN?Second, Guinness seems to believe that human beings are not all that bad.  He says things like, "God loves and believes in us as humans even more than we love and believe in ourselves" .  God doesn't believe in us at all.  Rather, the Bible describes us  as "Dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1) Our 'righteousness' is as filthy rags, worthless and disgusting (Isaiah 64:6). Both Jews and Gentiles are naturally evil, worthless and do not fear God (See Romans 3).  There is nothing good to believe in with regard to us humans.  That's the amazing thing about the love of God, He didn't believe in us but He loved us and therefore changed us.  God's love is shown by His making us New Creations (not by believing in who we were originally) - 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

THE FREEDOM TO DO EVIL IS AN ESSENTIAL ATTRIBUTE OF HUMANITY?

The author seems to believe that freedom to do evil is the greatest thing we can have and that without it we have an essential component of our humanity taken away. But he warns, Man has a "proneness to corrupt freedom" But, I have a question:  isn't freedom already corrupt if it includes the ability to choose wrong?  Isn't freedom essentially evil if it includes the ability to defy God?

I quote again from the book, "Made ' in the image and likeness' of God, we humans are exceptional, responsible, and consequential.   We are free and capable of real choice - ' I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life' (Deut 30:19).  Being free, we could always do otherwise than we have chosen and done, so  we are responsible for what we have chosen and done.  We are therefore significant and responsible, though we are not sovereign as God is, and we are always limited by our finiteness and by our proneness to corrupt freedom and so to go wrong, do wrong, and even to become prisoners to our freely chosen wrongdoing."

Let me tell you how I understand this paragraph: being made in the image and likeness of God means being able to do evil.  That's how I understand what the author is saying.  Which gives the implication that evil is just as much a part of God's character as good, if He could choose either one. But isn't that a blasphemous thought?  God NEVER changes (James 1:17). He is always good.

 Why do we HAVE to have the ability to do bad things? Will we be free to do evil in Heaven? Always having a character that may or may not choose right or wrong? Heaven may not be all that great then since we'll be free to defy God at any point in eternity!  I’m being sarcastic of course.

"According to the Bible, an inclination to evil through the corruption of the will now lies at the heart of human nature and its use and abuse of freedom. "  But technically it's not an abuse of freedom since the freedom to choose wrong is a moral right, or a good thing to be able to do (I know, that's strange sounding). If freedom to choose wrong is a moral necessity/virtue, then people should not be punished for being free.

But, the Bible indicates that Man is not as free as he thinks.  We learn from God's word that man is a "slave to sin"(Romans 6).  He cannot truly please God, he never can live up to the mark of God's perfection. We do not want the freedom TO sin.  We want to be slaves of God ("But now being made free from sin and become slaves to God…"Rom 6:22), we want to be slaves of righteousness ("and being made free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." Rom 6:18)

Saving world society and particularly, America?

And then, he seems to think that we Christians need to rejuvenate the world, as it were, bring it back to what it was intended to be and to save the United States of America.  Let me give you a an idea of his argument: "The end of history as Israel was about to experience it at that moment was explicitly Israel's on direct fault.  Sadly, the same appears to be true for the American republic at the moment.  If there is no repentance and turnabout, Americans seem intent on bringing down God's judgment and the world's opprobrium on their own heads through their own willful behavior."

America is not and was not a Christian nation. No nation ever has been nor ever will be until the Millennial Kingdom.  America may have been founded on Judeo Christian principles, but it is not a Christian nation.  Remember what it says in 1 John, "We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one." (1 Jn 5:19) America is no exception.  In the past, America might have been more strict about keeping some Christian morals and being mono-theistic, but, as in any premillennial age, her people were still ruled and blinded by the 'god' of their age (2 Cor 4:4), even if that "age" looked morally better than ours. For all we know, America was populated by a bunch of self-righteous mono-theists who attempt to keep some of the ten commandments. Satan would be okay with that. And that might be what we get back to if America, as a whole, comes up with a semblance of repentance.

I should end this now.  So, to sum it all up: though sobering, this book is not firmly founded on God's Word as its source of truth.

Thanks to Intervarsity Press for sending me a free review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable)

My Rating: Two Stars out of Five

**

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com

Christ: Chronological

This book,"Christ: Chronological" is a sort of chronological parallel Bible.  Using the Christian Standard Bible translation the Gospel accounts, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are arranged in a chronological order and they are placed alongside each other in parallel columns when dealing with the same account. The text from each Gospel is in a different color, blue for Matthew, Green for Mark, a reddish color for Luke and purple for John.  Along the very bottom of each page is a 'color code' key as it were, reminding you which color represents each Gospel.

Very nicely bound (a hardcover book, and wider than a typical Bible - it's in a square shape), the book lies quite flat when opened, so you can easily lay it down on a table while reading it without keeping one hand on it to make sure that the pages won't turn on their own.   The font is easy to read, a good size, and also, despite the font being various colors, they are bold colors and so stand out on the page.

The book is divided into a sort of chapter format, though they are not called chapters and are not numbered.  The 'chapters' have main titles like "Jesus Turns His Focus Toward Judea". Within each 'chapter' are many 'sections' some of which have descriptive headings for sections within the 'chapters', and above each section are the chapter and verse references for the Scriptures within them. There are many short introductory notes that begin parts that have parallel accounts.  These notes comment on apparent differences between the accounts and offer suggestions as to how they are actually complementary.  The font size of these notes is small enough that you can just glance over them, if you'd like, and continue reading the Scriptural account of the life of Christ. The flow of the Gospel account is a bit choppy, with the many section headings throughout and then single columns breaking off into four columns of varying lengths and then back again to one…etc. It is still very readable though, and serves its purpose well. 

 It is always interesting to compare the Gospel accounts, to see how they complement one another, how some of the accounts give more detail than others who focus more on particular details. All in all they form quite the picture of our Lord's sacrificial life, His teachings, His death and His resurrection.  This book is a nice way to read all of the accounts together.

Many thanks to the folks at B&H publishing for sending me a free review copy of this Bible (My review did not have to be favorable)!

My Rating: Five out of Five Stars

 *****

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com and Christianbook.com

Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel resilience - by Mark Sayers

Disappearing Church by Mark Sayers posits an interesting thought:  We live in a culture riddled with "liberal Christian residue", our seemingly secular culture is basically Christian liberalism without the label of 'Christian' and without being considered 'religious' .  By trying to be relevant by trying to appeal to the ever-changing culture around them liberal Christianity became so relevant that it's basic tenets became a part of the culture and thus the church 'institution' was irrelevant as the culture had already been won.  Sayers illustrates it in this way, "" Like a team of suicide bombers who obliterate themselves yet irrevocably change the cultural atmosphere, liberal Christianity has essentially destroyed itself as an ecclesiological, institutional force,  yet won the culture over to its vision of a Christianity reshaped for contemporary tastes."

The author explains that the modern 'church' has imbibed and taught a contemporary form of Gnosticism (his chart comparing ancient and contemporary Gnosticism to the Gospel is very interesting), "This new religion could be detected in an increasing obsession with the self, with personal development and the preference of spirituality over religion, and with therapy over communion with a transcendent God."  The discovery of self is the religion of the day, even in many Christian churches the goal is self-satisfaction, self-fulfillment, self-discovery, a follow your heart mentality…etc.  Sayers points out that it is no wonder people can leave church so easily without even finding another one as they can get the same teachings from the world. The book brings to light the idea of our day and age that personal spirituality is better and more holy than organized 'religion'.

Though I thought that Sayers insights into our modern culture were fascinating I do have some misgivings about the book. Sayers  says some things that imply to me that he may consider Roman Catholicism a legitimate/biblical type of Christianity, and thus the people who hold those doctrines are Christians, that concerns me.  He uses movie illustrations that I think were rather unnecessary and I didn't quite get what he meant by using the statement, "withdraw/return"…it's probably just me.

Overall though it was rather interesting, though I think it could have been better…it just seemed as though there was something missing, though I'm not sure what at the moment.  But again, it is a very interesting insight into the 'disappearing' institutional church of our day and is quite thought provoking.  I'll end, as I usually do,  with one of  my favorite quotes from the book:

"As Rolheiser comments, 'Our age tends to divorce spirituality from ecclesiology.  We want God, but we don't want church.'  However, the great flaw of our search for spirituality and faith  minus church is 'the unconfronted life.  Without church, we have more private fantasy than real faith….Real conversion demands that eventually its recipient be involved in both the muck and the grace of actual church life.'  More than ever we need the limitations and glorious messiness of church…The mere fact that God chooses it, in the same way that He chooses us, humble vessels, is part of His grace that fools the wisdom of the world."

Many thanks to MoodyPublishers for sending me a free review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable)

A couple of the places (among others) where you may purchase this book is at Amazon.com and also at Christian Book Distributors