Justinroy

…. a book i’m too lazy to read, but honestly..look at the “praises” and “critiques” of the book and who they’re coming from.

• Eugene Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, says it “has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim Progress did for his.”
• Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says, “This book includes undiluted heresy.”
• Singer and songwriter Michael W. Smith says “The Shack will leave you craving for the presence of God.”
• Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, says, “Regarding the Trinity, it’s actually heretical.”

(Link)

So let’s think about this; Eugine Peterson, the guy who literally wrote his own Bible, praises it. To say nothing about his motives, he’s usually not considered a trustworthy source because of the Message’s disregard for God’s Word. (i know it sounds funny). Micheal W. Smith gives accolades to the book, but at least he didn’t compare it to pilgrim’s progress.

On the other hand, there are two conservative, theological heavy-weights saying that it’s heretical in its treatment of the trinity.  May I just reiterate here, the doctrine of the trinity is no small doctrine

Below is a helpful, yet in-depth, book review of “the shack” by Tim Challis, one of the most influential  and thought provoking  evangelical bloggers.

(opens in pdf)

http://www.challies.com/media/The_Shack.pdf

Total Church(Tim Chester and Steve Timmis)

“most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality…… there is a commitment to building relationships, modeling the Christian faith, and talking about the gospel as a natural part of conversion.” pg63

Finally Alive (John Piper)

“The New birth is not the make up that morticians use to try to make corpses look more like they are alive. The new birth is the creation of a spiritual life, not the imitation of life” pg35

Christless Christianity(Micheal Horton)

“if we are not explicitly and regularly taught out of it, we will always turn the message of God’s rescue operation into a message of self help” pg42

Happy reading.

I don’t have much time, and I don’t see myself being able to blog much this week. I have about 500pgs for Dr. Russel Moore’s systematic class to read,  and I wanted to post a link to an article. The article is entitled Young Restless, and Reformed. It’s an old article from Christianity today, but I still wanted to share.

here’s an excerpt

“If you really understand Reformed theology, we should all just sit around shaking our heads going, ‘It’s unbelievable. Why would God choose any of us?’” Harris said. “You are so amazed by grace, you’re not picking a fight with anyone, you’re just crying tears of amazement that should lead to a heart for lost people, that God does indeed save, when he doesn’t have to save anybody.”

The reason this article is bouncing back up is Collin Hansen has written an article on reformation21.org entitled Reflections on Young Restless and Reformed.

If you don’t know anything about reformed theology, you’ll still enjoy the article. Also, you might want to know that Collin wrote a book called Young Restless and Reformed about a year ago. I haven’t been able to read the book, but if it’s anything like his article, I’m sure I would love it.

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis have written an extraordinary book on “church” called Total Church.  I’m actually just starting it, but I’m excited about where it’s going.   Chester and Timmis are co-founders of the Crowded House in Sheffield UK.

Being involved an the stereotypical church in rural America, I’m acquainted with the antitheses of what Chester and Timmis are purposing, “A gospel community intentionally living gospel”.  Ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.

I’ll have a review of the book up in a few days, but i just wanted to write a little bit today.

Today, I’m also reading  The Baptist Faith and Message.  It’s an eloquent document that outlines what we as Baptist believe.  Here’s an excerpt:

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.

Do Baptists still believe this ?