“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition” – Henry Miller.
Here is my exhaustive review of all but one of the books I read in 2014. Skim the list to see if something piques your interest. Peruse as you please. Skip what does not interest you. For my reading list reviews for the past few years click on any of the following: 2011, 2012, or 2013. Now here we go, set your timer to 23 minutes. Go!
1. “Save Me From Myself” subtitled “How I found God, quit Korn, kicked drugs, and lived to tell my story”, the autobiography of Brian “Head” Welch from the band “Korn”.
This book is a great testimonial. It’s the story of a typical rock star who was picked on as a kid, didn’t have a good relationship with his parents, found “salvation” in music, alcohol, and drugs, whose relationships were toxic and abusive, and who realized that fame and fortune did not bring happiness. He struggled with depression and thoughts of suicide:
“I was so depressed about the whole situation—I had all this money, all this fame, but I was really missing out on all the good stuff in life. My relationships with my friends were horrible…. I wasn’t raising my daughter right…. So I turned to drugs as hard as I could. Speed. Coke. Pills. Alcohol…. That enthusiasm from Korn’s early days was gone. I just sat there in so much dark depression and asked myself deep questions. How did I get here? Why can’t I enjoy this life? Isn’t being a rock star supposed to be fun? Why is my life such a nightmare? Why do bad things keep happening to me? I felt like I was under a curse,[1] honestly. I was stuck. And it didn’t look like I was ever going to get out.”[2]
And then Welch met Jesus Christ. His struggle to overcome drug addiction was not completely over, but it was in its death throes. I enjoy reading of how God is still at work and on the move, saving people and changing lives. As Welch talked about his life after being saved I became a bit uncomfortable as he seemed to rely a bit too much on feelings, dreams, visions, and impressions of God speaking to him. My prayer is that Brian continues to follow hard and fast after Jesus Christ.
2. “Doctrine, What Christians Should Believe” by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears.
This systematic theology book was the textbook for the second semester of CBT (Center for Biblical Transformation) classes at our church. The book grabbed me almost immediately, from the opening paragraphs of the first chapter:
“Deep longings pervade the human heart. We long for selfless, trustworthy, unending love…. We long for unity within the great diversity of humanity, some means by which we can live in peace and oneness that benefits each of us. We long for [the opportunity to] know others and be known by them…. We long for community, significant and earnest relationships with others, so that we are part of a people devoted to something larger and greater than our individual lives…. We long for peace, harmony, and safe altruism for others and ourselves so that abuse, cruelty, misery and the painful tears they cause could stop. We long for a selfless common good, a world in which everyone does what is best for all and is not so viciously and exclusively devoted to self-interest and tribal concerns. Why? Why do we have these persistent deep longings that occasionally compel us to action and often leave us frustrated or disappointed? [It’s because] Our longings… are in fact—by design—longings for the Trinitarian God of the Bible and a world that is a reflection of the Trinity…. The Trinity is the first community and the ideal for all communities. That community alone has not been stained by the selfishness of sin. Therefore the diversity of God the Father, Son, and Spirit is perfect unity as one God that communicates truthfully, loves unreservedly, lives connectedly, serves humbly, interacts peaceably, and serves selflessly.”[3]
This book was really good on doctrine with the only exception being the section on the church where the authors, as with the Westminster Confession, suddenly seem to forget that doctrine is supposed to be based on the Bible and not manmade rules. I still highly recommend this book, however.
3. “Uncle John’s Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader, 19th Edition”.[4]
Okay, confession time: I’m a bathroom reader! And I’ve been working through this book for several years. It is filled with cool stuff from trivia to history to brain teasers. One amusing read was entitled “I Curse You”, which gives “classic curses” from throughout history such as: “May your daughter’s beauty be admired by everyone in the circus” and “May you win the lottery and spend it all on doctors.” Other pages of interest: “Can You Pass the U.S. Citizenship Test?”, “The Making of the Godfather”, the history of America’s Most Wanted TV show, the history of Vaudeville, the history of the Pilgrims, and the transcript of New York mobster Dutch Schultz’s rambling last words after having been shot (odd and creepy).
4. “The Way to God” by Dwight L. Moody.
I often (very often) need to return to the basics of the Christian faith as I too often get caught up in this current world, its entertainments, the worldviews, the battles, apologetics, and theology. I return to the basics by reading not only the Bible, but also some of the great preachers of the past, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Dwight L. Moody, Oswald Chambers, etc. I am very thankful for books like this. It grabbed me from the opening lines of chapter 1:
“If I could only make men and women understand the real meaning of the words of the apostle John—‘God is love’ [1 John 4:8]—I would take that single text, and go up and down the world proclaiming this glorious truth. If you can convince a man you love him, you have won his heart. If we really make people believe that God loves them, how we should find them crowding into the kingdom of heaven! The trouble is that people think God hates them; and so they are all the time running away from Him.”[5]
Moody takes us back to the basics. Salvation is found in Jesus Christ; our true food and life is found in Him, not in doctrines. He tells us that doctrines are just the streets that lead us to Him. We must, of course, take the correct streets, but we do not remain on the street forever. Christ is the goal. Christ our destination and salvation. But some remain cold and some do not understand. “Some ask, ‘How am I to get my heart warmed?’ It is by believing. You do not get power to love and serve God until you believe.”[6] “[Dear] friends, it is taking God at His word that is the means of our salvation. The truth cannot be made too simple,” he writes, then continues: “some are wanting a miraculous kind of feeling. That is not faith…. [I’ll tell you] what it is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to act on what we believe.”[7]
He says so many good things. Like Spurgeon, Moody’s stories and examples are almost always spot on and make a great deal of sense: “Someone has said, ‘There are three ways to look. If you want to be wretched, look within; if you want to be distracted, look around; but if you [desire] peace, look up.’”[8] Regarding works and salvation, discussing Romans 4:5, he writes, “[We] work because we are saved; we do not work to be saved. We work from the cross; but not toward it. It is written, ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’ (Philippians 2:12). Why, you must have salvation before you can work it out.”[9]
Lastly, Moody challenges Christians to live the life: “I remember hearing of a blind man who sat by the wayside with a lantern near him. When he was asked what he had a lantern for, as he could not see the light, he said it was [so] people should not stumble over him. I believe more people stumble over the inconsistencies of professed Christians than from any other cause.”[10]
5. “The Word in this World, Two Sermons by Karl Barth” with introduction by William H. Willimon, edited by Kurt I. Johnson, translated by Christopher Asprey.
My friend Chris, when pressed to liken his beliefs to that of someone well known, points to Karl Barth. I’d never read anything by Barth, so this was my introduction. This mini-book contains two sermons which demonstrate how his preaching changed over time. The first is from early in his “career”, given after the sinking of the Titanic, the second much later, given as Nazism was rising, threatening the Church in his native Germany. Apparently, Barth believed that the preachers job, first and foremost, was to use and preach the Bible and, in contrast to the humanistic liberalism that was infiltrating the church (and still is – 2 Peter 2:1), Barth believed that God has spoken through His revealed Word. As Willimon points out in the introdcution, modern seminaries and preachers spend too much time asking “how” they should preach, what techniques should they use, what technologies should they employ, how will they be culturally relevant, how will they attract listeners, etc. The reality is,
“that we preach in the name of a Triune God whose nature is to speak… ‘And God said…’ is the basis of everything,” writes Willimon. “Barth’s homiletic implies a lively, impassioned pleas for us preachers to return to the proper subject of our testimony—the Trinitarian God who refuses to be silent or to abandon us to our own rhetorical devices.”[11]
6. “The Ever-Loving Truth” by Voddie Baucham, Jr., subtitled “Can faith thrive in a post-Christian culture?”
The first time I ever heard Voddie,[12] I was hooked! He is a solid preacher who’s specialty is family and cultural apologetics. The basis for this book is the account of Peter healing a crippled beggar and the follow up events in Acts chapters 3 & 4. In these chapters Peter and John are called before the very leaders who had, just a few months prior, handed Jesus over to be crucified. But Peter and John did not back down; they preached a resurrected Jesus Christ, the only Savior of the world. Here were uneducated men, standing up to the most educated and religious people in their culture. They were ordered to stop talking about Jesus, threatened with punishment and perhaps death, and yet they did not back down.
Voddie uses this as a springboard in order to encourage Christians today living in a culture hostile towards true Christianity, a culture where believers are expected to keep their mouths shut about Jesus (see Acts 4:18). Voddie equips believers with basic arguments against the false and self-refuting “virtues” of our Western culture such as the “all religions are the same” lie (relativism) and the constant call for “tolerance” (which refutes itself in its intolerance toward Christians), as well as the flawed belief systems such as philosophical pluralism. He exposes the antagonistic world of academia, politics, the media, and entertainment.
This book challenges Christians through the example of those early disciples who, in the face of threats and persecutions, prayed not for the persecutions to end, but that they might be even bolder (see Acts 4:29). Voddie tells the reader that Christians cannot remain neutral; they must stand up for what they believe in, but they must do it in love, bearing witness in both word and deed, subjecting all to biblical truth. He underscores that suffering, especially for the faith, is one of the marks of a true Christian. He finishes up with a solid defense of the trustworthiness of the Bible and the truth of the resurrection. He writes,
“If the Bible is true (and it is), then Christianity is the only viable worldview. Hence, every other worldview will eventually breakdown at some point. There will either be internal logical inconsistency, or there will be a problem with the viability of the worldview as it relates to the real world.”[13]
“In short, it is not our job to convict sinners of sin! The goal of a witnessing encounter is to introduce someone to Jesus.”[14]
7. “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert”, subtitled “an English professor’s journey into Christian faith” by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield.
I first heard of Rosaria Butterfield when I read of students protesting her as a speaker at a university. Why the protests? Because this one time postmodern Lesbian Feminist professor had become a Christian and because she is proof positive that people can turn away from their homosexuality.[15] In this book, Rosaria tells her life story without going into any sordid details.
As a feminist professor overseeing English, Feminist, and Queer[16] Studies at Syracuse University, Butterfield began research on a book she intended to write about “the rise of the Religious Right in America, and the hermeneutic of hatred that the Religious Right uses against their favorite target: queers, or at that time, people like me.”[17] Her research led her to inquire of someone who was actually a Christian, an older Presbyterian pastor and his wife who were not hateful or standoffish. They invited her into their home and became her friends. This man answered Rosaria’s questions about the Bible and Christianity in reasonable ways and interacted with her on an intellectual level that she respected, on a level that also made her question her own worldview and presuppositions. During this time, she was angered more and more by her Bible reading as she began to believe that what it was saying was true. She knew it was speaking to her, telling her she was a sinner in need of salvation. “I discovered that God… the triune God of the Bible exists, whether we acknowledge him or not. I discovered that God wasn’t very happy with me.”[18]
“The Bible told me to repent, but I didn’t feel like repenting,” she writes. “How do you repent for a sin that doesn’t feel like a sin? How could the thing that I studied and become be sinful? How could I be tenured in a field that is sin? How could I and everyone that I knew and loved be in sin?”[19] She writes, “That night, I prayed and asked God if the gospel message was for someone like me, too…. I prayed that if Jesus was truly a real and risen God, that he would change my heart. And if he was real and I was his, I prayed that he would give me the strength of mind to follow him…. I prayed for the strength of character to repent for a sin that at that time didn’t feel like a sin at all—it felt like life, plain and simple. I prayed that if my life was actually his… he would take it back and make it what he wanted it to be.”[20]
Now I will confess, one thing that was particularly informative was her discussion about how tightly knit the homosexual community is, how they view Christians with distrust, and how upsetting it is when people rudely attack homosexuals with their words. (People who, lacking understanding, probably consider themselves Christians.) Rosaria discusses how one of the most difficult parts of her conversion was how she felt as though she was betraying everyone in her former community. All in all, Rosario Butterfield is a very intelligent woman (“God saved me, but hadn’t lobotomized me.”[21]). In this book she critically examines not only her former circles and worldviews, but also modern evangelical Christianity; in doing so, she pulls no punches.
8. “At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry” by Steve Gallagher.
An excellent book for anyone who has ever made sexuality the main escape, purpose, pursuit, and/or happiness of his or her life. “Come now, let us reason together”,[22] consider how many lives and families have been torn apart and destroyed because of sexual sin, because someone was only thinking about their own self and pleasure? (“Sin, when unrestrained, infantilizes a person”—Rosario Butterfield.[23]) In his book, Gallagher points out that sexual sin is not about others but it is self-centered and, as with any idol, people make offerings to it; upon this altar they sacrifice their time and their money, many sacrifice their children, their spouses, their health, and even their lives to sexual sin. Sin, of course, is its own punishment in many ways; it comes with natural consequences (see James 1:14-15, etc.), with it comes guilt, self-hatred, bitterness, ingratitude, a critical and judgmental spirit, and eventually destruction, death, and eternal separation from God. And, frighteningly, even though our sins are “monstrous crimes against a holy God”,[24] God often gives people over to exactly what they desire (Romans 1:18-32).
Gallagher is well aware that we live in a hyper-sexualized culture; therefore, “Just as our culture makes it easy for a person to slide down the path deeper and deeper into bondage, it also makes it equally difficult for the person, who so desires, to escape it. Everywhere he turns, he is constantly confronted with and reminded of what he is trying to avoid.”[25] But Gallagher also knows that some who claim they are “trying” to avoid these temptations and sins really are not trying at all. Sin is the path of least resistance. Many Christians are unprepared for resistance, even less prepared for war. (Jeremiah 12:5 comes to my mind at the moment.) Some who decide to fight don’t know how. They end up spending all their time thinking about their sin, how bad it is, how they can overcome it, and this does little more than to keep the thing they prefer to avoid at the forefront of their mind. If it’s in the mind, it eventually leads them back to the sin. Christians and counselors give bad advice. Even many small circles and men’s groups get it wrong: “biblical accountability was never meant to be a group of [people] sitting in a circle discussing their failures.”[26] (Listen and learn brothers and sisters!)
Gallagher writes,
“when a person grows up in a society that presents this hedonistic message, which is basically: ‘If it feels good, just do it,’ it is very hard for his mind to dismiss the untruth of it. If he becomes born-again, he suddenly finds himself striving against the powerful flow of this world, with all its seductive charms. He must take a stand for righteousness, although everything in his carnal nature longs for what the world offers.”[27]
How can this be done? For one, the author challenges people to see the consequences of their sins ahead of time. When a person constantly caters to their sins, his or her “world becomes increasingly smaller.”[28] Yet we are called to something so much bigger, we are called to love and serve God and others, to represent Christ to the world. Time and time again, Gallagher brings us back to the fact of God’s love and grace toward sinners, of God’s wonderful promises and stern warnings, all of these in order to spur the reader on towards a life of holiness. He provides the reader with the biblical principles of “putting off”, doing away with the old ways and things of this world, as we “put on” and fill our minds, hearts, and lives with new things, godly things, and, most importantly, God Himself.
9. “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” (novel) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Well, slowly but surely I’ve been working my way through “The Gulag Archipelago” by Solzhenitsyn, but in the meantime I saw this book, so I picked it up and read it. A decent read, it describes a Soviet labor camp and the existence within, with its sub zero temperatures (“The frost was cruel. A stinging haze wrapped around him and set him coughing. The air temperature was twenty-seven below and Shukhov’s temperature was thirty-seven above.”[29]), a place where a morsel of bread or an extra spoonful of warm gruel along with some time to eat it is the meaning of life (“[His] insides greeted that skilly with a joyful fluttering. This was it! This was good! This was the brief moment for which a zek lives. For a little while Shukhov forgot all his grievances, forgot that his sentence was long, that the day was long, that once again there would be no Sunday [off].”[30]), the social strata amongst the prisoners, the relationships, the reasons and terms for imprisonment as deemed by the Soviets, thoughts of how one might be able to survive, and of who would and who would not make it.
“Looking through the wire gate, across the building site and out through the wire fence on the far side, you could see the rising sun, big and red, as though in a fog. Alyoshka, standing next to Shukhov, gazed at the sun and a smile spread from his eyes to his lips. Alyoshka’s cheeks were hollow, he lived on his bare ration and never made anything on the side—what had he got to be happy about? He and the other Baptists spent their Sundays whispering to each other. Life is the camp was like water off a duck’s back to them. They’d been lumbered for twenty-five years apiece for just being Baptists. Fancy thinking that would cure them!”[31]
10. “Honestly, My Life and Stryper Revealed”, autobiography of songwriter, singer, and guitar player Michael Sweet, founding member of Christian metal band Stryper, written with Dave Rose & Doug Van Pelt.
The role of Stryper in my life cannot be discounted. In the early 1980s I was a teenager into heavy metal music, Black Sabbath, the Scorpions, Iron Maiden, but I had been raised in a Christian family, encouraged to fill my life with all things Christian, but there really wasn’t any Christian music that measured up to the music I loved. But when I heard Stryper (courtesy of my older brother) and first saw their four silhouettes come out of the darkness on that stage of Mt. Pleasant High School auditorium, Wilmington, DE, on the night of November 12th, 1985, with their thunderous version of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” coming from the p.a., things changed. I recall thinking at that moment, “God’s done it.” He had taken a beachhead for Himself within heavy metal music. (After Stryper, the floodgates opened up and Christian bands were signed left and right, which was both good and bad.[32]) Stryper brought the basic message of Jesus Christ to me with the musical power and strength that I felt God deserved. Soon enough I was a devoted Stryper fan buying Stryper everything. (Idolatry.) I remember my Mom saying something like, “I hope that if something happens with them, if they ‘fall’ for some reason, it won’t affect you.” Sadly, by the end of 1991 they had crashed and burned and it broke my heart.
Michael Sweet explains a good deal of the crash and burn in this book. I saw the bad foundations almost immediately, the milestones along the way and decisions made, a great many of them bad.[33] He tells us he was “saved” as a kid but by the late 70s he was caught up into the world of rock music, singing and playing in bands on the Sunset Strip even in his mid teens. “7 years of my life on Sunset Strip living the sex/drugs/rock & roll lifestyle, but there was always this feeling in my heart that told me I needed to change.”[34] When the band members of what would become Stryper, each of whom had either been brought up in Christian families or had come to Christ in some form or fashion, decided to give their music to God and recommit to Christ, things took off. (As per Michael: “We’ve sold almost 10 million records to date and were the first Christian band to air on MTV, and to have four #1 videos.”[35]) But had they completely committed their lives?
The floodgates opened wide. Though Stryper’s popularity and record sales steadily grew, so also did their detractors from both sides of the aisle. Many Christians protested them, bearing false witness and saying they were playing the devil’s music. Many in the secular world and industry hated them or didn’t give them respect because they were Christian. (Musically they were as good, if not better, than most of the metal bands of their day.) Slowly, over time, anger and resentment built up within them towards all their attackers, and towards each other. Couple that with the temptations and excesses that accompany life in the entertainment industry and it was a recipe for disaster. Personality conflicts, control, rebellion, alcohol, women, divorce, and the death of their Christian witness. “I was doing very little to correct it. I wasn’t seeking God like I should have. I just continued down the path of temptation, knowing that I was playing with fire, yet not really caring at all. Well, I’d care for a while, and then I wouldn’t, and then I’d care again.”[36] They’d traveled a long distance from their “Speak of the devil, he’s no friend of mine, to turn from him is what we’ve got in mind” lyrics,[37] from their “God, I will follow you because you died for me, gave to me your life to set me free…”[38] lyrics.
“‘How did it get to that point?’ I can tell you this: it didn’t happen overnight. It slowly crept into our lives and before we knew it, we were exemplifying the hypocrisy that drove us to this anger and frustration in the first place. That’s the way the devil works. He slowly convinces you that you’re not wrong. He convinces you without you even noticing, that there’s no longer a need to hold each other accountable. It must be okay if we’re all doing ‘it,’ whatever sin ‘it’ may be…”[39]
11. “Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, a Breviary of Sin” by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
Yes, I asked the same question you just did: “What in the world does ‘breviary’ mean?” It means “summary”; therefore this book looks at sin in its many manifestations and attempts to summarize exactly what it is. But first, how about a world the way it “should be”? After all, “[Every] one of us does possess the notion of a world in which things are as they ought to be.”[40]
“The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. We call it peace, but it means far more than a peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.”[41]
But Eden was destroyed by our sin.
The author points out that, according to Scripture, sin is “unknown, irrational, alien. Sin is always a departure from the norm…. Sin is deviant and perverse, injustice or iniquity or ingratitude…. [It] is disorder and disobedience. Sin is faithlessness, lawlessness, godlessness. Sin is both the overstepping of a line and the failure to reach it—both transgression and shortcoming. Sin is a missing of the mark, a spoiling of goods, a staining of garments… a wandering from the path, a fragmenting of the whole. Sin is what culpably disturbs shalom.”[42] We’ve seen all this self-destruction in the biographies of Brian “Head” Welch, Rosaria Butterfield, and Michael Sweet. We’ve seen this in Gallagher’s book about sexual idolatry. “Sin is anti-law, anti-righteousness, anti-Spirit, anti-life.”[43]
“All traditional Christians agree that human beings have a biblically certified and empirically demonstrable bias toward evil. We are all both complicitous in and molested by the evil of our race. We both discover evil and invent it; we both ratify it and extend it.”[44]
Sin is corruption, it’s uncreation, “it wrecks integrity and wholeness”,[45] as one chapter tells us in its tile, sin is “Perversion, Pollution, and Disintegration”. Perversion is using things incorrectly, overindulging ourselves and/or aiming natural desires “at wrong objects.”[46] “To pollute is to weaken a particular whole entity… by introducing a foreign element.”[47] Pollution can destroy a lake, a marriage relationship (think adultery, pornography), even our own bodies (think drug abuse, alcoholism, gluttony). “[P]aradoxically, though sinners [violate what is] good, they usually intend to gain something good by sinning.”[48] Think of those seeking comfort through drugs, alcohol, or food, think of those seeking wealth through robbery or fraud, think of those who seek pleasure through crossing sexual boundaries. None of these things connect us all together and help us flourish; none of this removes the boundaries erected between us and our neighbor, us and God.
“God hates sin not just because it violates his law but, more substantively, because it violates shalom, because it breaks the peace, because it interferes with the way things are supposed to be.”[49]
Sin grows exponentially. Sin blinds those in its grip. (Think Mafia wives in denial, the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, etc.) Thinking along the lines of religious leaders and politicians, those who search out sin and evil in order to squash it, Plantinga writes, “Evil contaminates every scalpel designed to remove it.”[50] Those who overthrow despotic and wicked governments often become despotic and wicked themselves. (Think the French Revolution and the “Reign of Terror”, the Russian Revolution and Stalin, the Cuban Revolution and Castro.) “Everything sin touches begins to die…”[51] Sin is addiction, envy, idolatry, all self-destructive and friends with death.
In the final analysis, however, Plantinga points out that sin is not the whole story. He reminds us that “sin is only a parasite, a vandal, a spoiler”[52] of the good that pre-exists it. The one thing stronger, more persistent and powerful than sin, is the love and grace of God. And it is in the person of Jesus Christ, the sinless One, that God shouldered and defeated sin; He took on the power of sin and all the evil that Satan and humanity could muster and defeated it on the cross. Jesus, while being the One sinned against, also became the sin; Jesus “took Cain’s place as well as Abel’s. And when the terrible struggle between these old foes was over…”[53] we find Jesus rising from the dead on resurrection morning, the firstfruits of the restored Shalom, which God has guaranteed to those who belong to Him. (See Revelation 21:3-6 and Revelation 22.)
12. “The Love of God” by Oswald Chambers, subtitled, “An Intimate Look at the Father-Heart of God.”
Here’s another one of those “back to basics” books that I need to frequently pick up, a book to rescue me from drowning in the deep end and take me back to the beautiful and simple message of the gospel: God loves and sent Christ to save sinners. Now Chambers admits that the difficulties of this life will often appear to contradict the truth that God is loving. The question is: How will we respond? Will we give up, despair, or will we continue to serve God and set ourselves apart from the world?
Now I don’t intentionally choose books to see how they will tie together but, inevitably, they all do. Everything ties together! Note how what Chambers writes here falls directly in with Plantinga’s discussion of lost Shalom:
“Does nature exhibit the creator as a God of love? If so, why is nature a scene of plunder and murder? Has the Bible anything to say about it, any revelation that explains it? Try and weave a concept of God out of Jesus Christ’s presentation of Him and then look at life as it is…. the universe is wild and unmanageable. Yet God in the beginning created man to have dominion over it. The reason he cannot is because he has twisted the order and has become master of himself, instead of recognizing God’s dominion over him. Jesus Christ belonged to the order of things that God originally intended for mankind, He was easily Master of the life of the sea and air and earth. If we want to see what the human race will be like on the basis of redemption, we shall see it mirrored in Jesus Christ”.[54]
We are called to love and light, to be Christ-like in this fallen world. But Chambers pulls no punches with those of us who set bad examples: “Our Lord tells us to judge the [Christian] ‘by his fruits.’ Fruit is not the salvation of souls, that is God’s work; fruit is ‘the fruit of the Spirit,’ love, joy, peace, and all the rest.” He continues: “It is an easy business to preach, an appallingly easy thing to tell other people what to do…. You have been teaching these people that they should be full of peace and joy, but what about yourself? Are you full of peace and joy? The truthful witness is the one who lets his light shine in works that exhibit the disposition of Jesus; one who lives the truth as well as preaches it.”[55]
Unfortunately, we Christians today suffer from the malady of here and now escapism; whenever we find a good, or find a moment of joy, we want to stay there forever. We want to live there. We would love for it to be a pure godly joy; just let us glide above the world’s pain and evil in a godly euphoria. Chambers writes of our desire for the spiritual highs. He calls it “spiritual selfishness.” Using the Mount of Transfiguration as an example, he notes how Peter wanted to set up some shelters for everyone (Luke 9:33). “[But] if we are disciples of Jesus Christ, He will never allow us to stay there,” writes Chambers. “[The] mountain is not the place for us to live, we were built for the valleys.”[56] He tells the reader that it is on the mount that we see God’s glory, but it is in the valleys that we live for His glory. “Holiness in a human being is only manifested by means of antagonism,” he writes.[57] Ugh!
“[It is in the valley] where our faithfulness has to be manifested…. That is where Jesus Christ lived most of His life. The reason we have to live in the valley is that the majority of people live there and if we are to be used of God in the world, we must be useful from God’s standpoint—not from our own standpoint”.[58]
We need to look into what brought Christ joy even though Scripture calls Him a “Man of Sorrows” (Isaiah 53). Of Christ’s joy: “It certainly was not happiness. The joy of the Lord Jesus Christ lay in doing exactly what He came to do,” he writes. “He came to do His Father’s will. The saving of men was the natural outcome of this, but our Lord’s one great obedience was not to the needs of men but to the will of His Father”.[59] Thus it is through serving the Father and doing His will, that we also can find joy because then we are truly doing what we are put here to do, what we are made for.
Lastly, Chambers also pulls no punches with those who think that the love of God is simply grandfatherly, fluffy bunny love: “If your concept of love does not agree with justice, judgment, purity, and holiness, then your idea of love is wrong. It is not love you conceive of in your mind, but some vague infinite foolishness, all tears and softness and of infinite weakness.”[60] So true! “Jesus Christ often offended people, but He never put a stumbling block in anyone’s way.”[61]
13. “John Quincy Adams” from the American Presidents series, written by Robert V. Remini.
As the title of the first chapter tells us, John Quincy Adams was certainly, “A Privileged Young Man.” His father, John Adams, was one of our nations Founders. A teenaged John Quincy traveled to Europe as secretary to his diplomat father. He was taken under the wing of Thomas Jefferson in France. At fourteen, he became secretary to the ambassador to Prussia. Most likely fluent in European languages, he knew Latin and Greek before entering Harvard at nineteen. He graduated second in his class.
Though a learned man, he struggled with both pride, believing he was made for greatness (This, instilled in him by his parents.[62]), and depression. His mother, Abigail, was a horrible domineering[63] nag, even in her letters to him. She was partly to blame for his never marrying the love of his life, a girl he met after college. The resulting depression appears to have plagued him for the rest of his life. It appears that Adams disliked and resented Abigail for the rest of her life. His eventual marriage to Louisa Johnson appears to have been an unhappy one and he also became a horrible parent.
But was he qualified to be president?
Note his resume above and then add the following: President Washington named him ambassador to the Netherlands. Returning home, he was elected State Senator. When his father became president, J.Q.A. was appointed ambassador to Prussia. Returning home, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. President Madison appointed him Minister to Russia. While in Russia, Adams turned down an appointment to the Supreme Court. After helping to negotiate the treaty which ended the War of 1812, Adams was made Minister to Britain. Lastly, he became the Secretary of State under President Monroe, a position which was, at that time, seen as the stepping stone to the presidency.
J.Q.A. was an early believer of Manifest Destiny, that “[the] whole continent of North America… appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles…”[64] It also seems generally accepted that Secretary of State Adams was the actual author of one of the most famous American foreign policy pronouncements ever, the Monroe Doctrine, which established a non-interference policy in the Western or “American Hemisphere” by European powers, and a continued non-interference or neutral policy of the United States in European affairs. The author writes, “John Quincy Adams is arguably the greatest secretary of state to serve that office. His negotiating skills and diplomatic insights were mainly responsible for the transformation of the United States into a transcontinental nation, an action that guaranteed the emergence of this country as a world power.”[65]
John Quincy Adams became our 6th president because of much political maneuvering in the House of Representatives when none of the three main candidates for the office received a majority of votes.[66] Some will remember his name mentioned during the contested election of 2000, because he was the first person ever elected president without having had the majority of the popular vote. As with George W. Bush, this set many against him immediately.
No matter his brilliance, J.Q.A. managed to ostracize almost everyone during the height of his political career. He had always frustrated his own party by his independent streak. He had never been one to simply vote along party lines. As he’d always done in public office, he kept a counsel of one, himself. He despised politics and electioneering, so much so that he did things to hurt his own re-election. He refused promise or make political appointments to those who could help his re-election. He would not pander for votes by speaking to foreign speaking immigrants in their own language. He would not answer false charges made against him by adversaries. Thus J.Q.A. was a one term president, like his father. And he and his father were the only two presidents who did not attend their successor’s inauguration.[67]
As the author writes,
“It is really impossible to think of any president quite like John Quincy Adams. He seemed intent on destroying himself and his administration. By the same token it is difficult to think of a president with greater personal integrity.”[68]
That’s a bold statement.
But the story does not end there. John Quincy Adams is the only person to ever to return to Congress after leaving the presidency.[69] As a Senator he was vocally anti-slavery. Like his father he was brilliant in argument and was nicknamed “Old Man Eloquent.” What he may best be remembered for today is the role he played in helping represent slaves who had revolted against those in control of the slave ship Amistad, portrayed in the Steve Spielberg film “Amistad”. In 1846, John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke while speaking in the House of Representatives. He was moved to the Speaker’s Room in the Capitol Building where he died two days later. He was seventy-eight.
14. “American Sniper” subtitled “The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History” by Navy Seal Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice.
Chris Kyle was a man who believed he was made for war. Trained as a Navy SEAL and then as a sniper, he was good at killing the enemy. “I loved killing bad guys”[70] is a difficult sentence to read, but I can see the possible rightness in saying such a thing. He was a soldier, not a vigilante. Now some will automatically hate a sniper who claimed to kill over 255 enemy (with 160 confirmed kills) and who holds the 8th longest recorded kill shot at 2100 yards. After all, some people have “War is Not the Answer” bumper stickers,[71] but it’s ignorant to say “war never solves anything”, writes commentator Dennis Prager, “the Nazi atrocities were ended only by war”,[72] so was American slavery. And every nation needs soldiers willing to fight, to defend, and to protect the innocent. As Kyle tells it, “I didn’t risk my life to bring democracy to Iraq. I risked my life for my buddies, to protect my friends and fellow countrymen. I went to war for my country, not Iraq. My country sent me out there so that [B.S.] wouldn’t make its way back to our shores.”[73]
But today’s soldiers face a new problem: the media, politicians, and lawyers. In chapter seven, he tells of the time he protected an Army convoy when he shot and killed a man who came out of a building with an AK-47. A bunch of locals came out, surrounded the dead man, and the weapon disappeared with the crowd. The next thing Kyle knew, he was being investigated for the shooting because the widow claimed that her husband only had a Koran and was innocently heading to the mosque. Such things enraged Kyle and his fellow soldiers. Because of things like this, every shot he took required a “shooter’s statement.” “No joke,” he writes. “I had a little notebook with me, and I’d record the day, the time, details about the person, what he was doing, the round I used, how many shots I took, how far away the target was, and who witnessed the shot. All that went into the report…. Great way to fight a war—be prepared to defend yourself for winning.”[74]
He writes, “[Once] you decide to send us, let me do my job. War is war.”[75] “Tell the military the end result you want, and then you’ll get it. But don’t try and tell us how to do it. All those rules about when and under what circumstances an enemy combatant could be killed didn’t just make our jobs harder, they put our lives in danger. The [Rules of Engagement] got so convoluted… because politicians were interfering with the process. The rules are drawn up by lawyers…. they’re not written by people who are worried about the guys on the ground getting shot.”[76] His wife Taya adds, “[Picking] apart a soldier’s every move against a dark, twisted, rule-free enemy is more than ridiculous; it’s despicable.”[77]
Though I do not necessarily disagree with the above, I was still uneasy with parts of Kyle’s story. For instance, he begins the book by saying, “I was raised, and still believe in, the Christian faith.”[78] The problem I have with him saying that has nothing to do with him as a soldier or sniper or his number of kills. Not at all. In fact, my favorite scene in “Saving Private Ryan” is when the sniper, Private Jackson, takes aim at a German soldier and loosely quotes to words of King David from Psalm 144:1 which reads, “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war...” The Bible never says it is wrong for a Christian to be a soldier.[79] The issue I take with his narrative in the book is his lack of attentiveness to his wife, his apparent love of drinking and barroom brawling, and the constant cursing. Of course, I expect it is difficult for anyone who has not been in a military culture to fathom the culture itself, but I have been part of the Christian body long enough to know what is expected of Christians. (See Ephesians 4:31, Colossians 3:8, etc.)
All in all, the book was a fast moving and good read. And it was an especially sobering read, knowing that Chris Kyle, who retired from active duty unharmed after four tours in Iraq in some of the worst fighting zones, was later murdered back in the states by an ex-marine who apparently suffered from PTSD. (Kyle had started a foundation to help ex-soldiers with issues.) Tragic irony. Certainly I expect some might say, “Live by the sword, die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
On the final pages of the original book, published before his death, Kyle tells us,
“I don’t spend a lot of time philosophizing about killing people. I have a clear conscience about my role in the war. I am a strong Christian. Not a perfect one—not close. But I strongly believe in God, Jesus, and the Bible,. When I die, God is going to hold me accountable for everything I’ve done on earth…. Honestly, I don’t know what will really happen on Judgment Day. But what I lean toward is that you know all of your sins, and God knows them all, and shame comes over you at the reality that He knows. I believe the fact that I’ve accepted Jesus as my savior will be my salvation. But in that backroom or whatever it is when God confronts me with my sins, I do not believe any of the kills I had during the war will be among them. Everyone I shot was evil. I had good cause on every shot. They all deserved to die.”[80]
God is the final Judge and we know that He will never be incorrect in His judgments.
15: “Love Walked Among Us” by Paul E. Miller, subtitled, “Learning to Love Like Jesus”.
I really liked some things about this book and was extremely frustrated by some things in it. I might have recommended this book to everyone, but I thought the author took liberties with the Gospel texts either in order to make the reading more dramatic or to underscore points he wished to make. Setting those things aside, I think Paul Miller had some great things to tell us:
As Christians called to be Christ-like, there is no one else to whom we must look for our example but Christ Himself. (Makes sense, doesn’t it?) One of Paul Miller’s big themes is that of “incarnation”, of our need to put ourselves in the place of those we purpose to love. This is what God did for us by coming in flesh as a human being in the person of Jesus Christ; He “walked in our shoes.” In love, Jesus died in our place. Paul Miller points out how Jesus’ love did not shy away from getting dirty, touching the unclean and untouchable. Love sees need, is moved with compassion, then acts and pours itself out. Unfortunately, most of us tend to avoid giving ourselves away. He writes,
“We instinctively know that love leads to commitment, so we look away…. We might have to pay if we look too closely and care to deeply. Loving means losing control of our schedule, our money, and our time. When we love we cease to be the master and become a servant.”[81]
True!
To personally confess: If I have always felt that my childhood and life were too painful and burdensome in and of themselves, and if my preference is to find escape and a place to hide from troubles and pain, if I prefer to somehow perfect my stoicism, then certainly I will want to avoid anyone else’s pain adding to my own; thus empathy and compassion would not be a high priority on my “to do” list. But Paul Miller nails it: “This fear is not irrational—when we pause to have compassion, something of the other person’s problems comes on us. Some of his pain touches us…. Compassion affects us.” And many (including me) would like to keep ourselves “from being affected by other people’s problems.”[82]
Another great point that Paul makes is about how Jesus wasn’t afraid to say what needed to be said. He wasn’t afraid of political correctness or what people thought of Him. He wasn’t afraid to rebuke someone in their own house in front of their guests (Luke 7:36-50). “Jesus is both compassionate and honest”,[83] writes Miller. “Jesus shows us that without truth, our relationship lacks definition and meaning. If people are on the wrong road, messing up, they will continue to mess up unless they face the truth. If the only gift we give an abusive husband is compassion, then we are contributing to his evil.”[84] (This makes me think of my April 27th, 2014 column.) “Love moves toward people, even if that means confrontation. It doesn’t leave them alone in their suffering or in their selfishness.”[85]
Lastly, Paul points out that when things get particularly stressful or difficult for us, we often abandon our outward, loving, Christ-like practices: “It’s relatively easy to love when things are going the way we want. But when the pressure mounts, most of us forget about love and think only about ourselves.”[86] But Christ’s love and compassion still stands as the ultimate example for us. Think of Jesus on the way to Jerusalem: “Jesus knows that in just a few days ‘Jerusalem’ will murder him. But instead of weeping for himself, he weeps for ‘Jerusalem.’ Sadness can easily teeter into self-pity and self-absorption, but Jesus’ sadness is other-centered.” How easy it is to miss these moments. Paul also points to the crucifixion: “In the midst of his agony, Jesus never stops looking [at what others are going through and facing]. He cares for his grieving mother, forgives the rough soldiers, [and] gives hope to a dying criminal…”[87]
Great points! And may God, by His Spirit, make all true Christians more and more Christ-like.
16. “Counterfeit Gods” by Timothy Keller, subtitled, “The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters.”
This was a very good book. At the very opening of chapter one we read, “Most people spend their lives trying to make their heart’s fondest dreams come true. Isn’t that what life is all about, ‘the pursuit of happiness’? We search endlessly for ways to acquire the things we desire, and we are willing to sacrifice much to achieve them. We never imagine that getting our hearts deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.”[88] And the worst thing that could happen to those around us…
Ever see a husband or wife abandon their family in pursuit of an addiction or a new “love interest”? Ever see a person pursue career at the expense of their family? Ever see a pastor “fall from grace” and the wreckage that results? “[An] idol is something we can’t live without. We must have it, and therefore it drives us to break the rules we once honored, to harm others and even ourselves in order to get it.”[89] What destruction is wrought worshipping and chasing idols. God is to be Supreme; obedience, service, and love for Him, along with love for others, are to be those things to which we devote our hearts, lives, time, and treasure.
“What is an idol?” Keller asks. “It is anything more important than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”[90] “If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol.”[91]
Ever see someone lose their idol or have it taken from them? I have. Nothing else, not family, friends, or the love of God can console such a person. Life becomes meaningless and without hope; nothing offers comfort. Keller paints a picture of people who have lost their idols when he writes, “There is a difference between sorrow and despair. Sorrow is pain for which there are sources of consolat