How (Not) to Read the Bible; A Book Review

 The last book review I did was on Progressive Christianity and its growing influence. The book I read next will combat that. How?

By showing us how not to read the Bible. This book is full of memes and pop culture references to help us understand. That book is titled…

How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

“When Dan Kimball first sat down to meet with a student who was disillusioned by Christianity, he wasn’t ready for what he was about to hear. The student had a positive church experience. He was grateful for his youth leader. But he had serious objections to Christianity. Why? He had begun studying the Bible and found he could no longer accept what it taught. Reading the Bible had led him to become an atheist.

In How Not to Read the Bible, pastor and bestselling author Dan Kimball tackles one of the most pressing apologetic challenges of the twenty-first-century church–how do we read and interpret the Bible? Kimball introduces several critical principles to utilize when you open a Bible or read a verse. Then, he looks at five of the most common challenges that arise when people read the Bible today, including: the relationship between science and the Bible, the violence we find in the Bible, the treatment of women in the Bible, the odd and strange commands we find in the Bible, and the Bible’s controversial claim that there is only one way to know God. Kimball highlights several of the most common passages people find objectionable and shows readers how to correctly interpret them.

This is an ideal book for those exploring Christianity or new to the faith, as well as Christians who are wrestling with questions about these difficult issues and the challenges of interpreting the Bible. Filled with stories and examples, as well as visual illustrations and memes reflecting popular cultural objections, How Not to Read the Bible will motivate readers who are confused or discouraged by questions they have about the Bible and guides them–step-by-step–to a clear understanding of what the Bible is saying in context. The book can also be taught as a six-week sermon series or used in small groups for study and discussion.”

A lot of Christians don’t read the Bible as they should. It comes from devotions that feature one verse and an unrelated essay. I prefer reading plans that take me through the whole Bible, along with following my curiosity. 

A warning: I highlighted a lot of this book on my Kindle. And since I don’t post as frequently as before, I’m not worried about a long book review. So let’s explore how not to read the Bible.

“Here is the good news. There are ways to better understand these crazy-sounding Bible verses. We must learn how to, and how not to, read the Bible. Most of the examples we’ve seen so far are a result of people who are not reading the Bible correctly. If you are willing to look beyond the visual image and explore beyond a literal, out-of-context reading of a verse, you’ll discover the Bible is not “sheer nonsense.” There are many strange things in it, but when we study what it really says, the Bible is an amazing, life-changing book written by people who were directed by God through God’s Spirit. As we take a closer look at these and other Bible passages, my hope is that you will have your questions and concerns answered, and you will come to better know the author of the Bible.”

“Here are the four facts about how to and how not to read the Bible: 1. The Bible is a library, not a book. 2. The Bible is written for us, but not to us. 3. Never read a Bible verse. 4. All of the Bible points to Jesus.”

“Although the Bible often comes in print form as a single bound book, it is actually a collection of sixty-six books printed in one volume, a library of books. This library is diverse, containing writings of history, poetry, prophecy, and law. This library of diverse books was written in three different languages over a 1,500-year period by a whole bunch of different people from different cultures. Some books in this library were written more than a thousand years before the other books.”

We see a lot of the bizarre stuff from the Old Covenant as chronicled in the Old Testament. Here’s what Kimball has to say about that.

“The Old Covenant (or testament) is the agreement God made with the people of Israel (ethnically Jewish people) outlining in detail how they would relate to God and know him. The New Covenant (or testament) is the agreement God made with all people through Jesus, and in making this agreement, he did away with the Old Covenant (more on this later). The New Covenant outlines how all people today of every ethnic background (not just the Jewish people) can relate to God and worship him.”

He then expounds on his four facts with this:

“The second of the four facts you need to know to interpret the Bible correctly is that the Bible was written for us, but not to us. When the brilliant and highly respected Old Testament scholar John Walton spoke at my church, he repeated this phrase multiple times: “The Bible was written for us, but not to us.” He explained that the Bible is 100 percent inspired by God, and we can have confidence that every word in the original documents of the Bible is exactly what God wanted it to say. We believe in God’s full inspiration and the total trustworthiness of the Bible. The books in the library of the Bible are for all people at all times and places to read and gain wisdom from. But the Bible wasn’t originally written to us. It wasn’t written in any modern language, and it wasn’t written with our contemporary culture and its assumptions and values in mind. To get the most benefit from what God was communicating when he inspired the authors of the Bible to write, we need to enter their world to hear the words as the original audience would have heard them and as the author would have meant them to be understood. We must read the words on those terms.”

Context matters.

“Most people, when they start reading the Bible, want to immediately know “what does this mean to me and my life?” This assumes that when we read the Bible, we should read it as if what God was writing is specifically and directly written to us today. We may not even realize we do this, but we do it all the time. And sadly, even the preaching and teaching in some churches unintentionally does this, and it doesn’t help people to understand the Bible. When we read the Bible in this way, we read into it our presuppositions—what we believe and understand based on our experience, worldview, culture, and knowledge. Our contemporary values and way of life are also part of the lens through which we read the Bible. And while there is much it can say to help us, if we view the Bible as mainly a “message for me,” we will be in great trouble. We will end up picking and choosing the things we like reading and want to apply to our lives.”

We do like to claim the good verses that don’t apply to us, like Jeremiah 29:11. That’s for the exiles in Babylon. There are others about being destroyed for breaking the covenant that we don’t claim, but we will claim that one. 

“But not every promise or blessing is something we can directly apply to our lives today. We might take Bible verses and promises that are not meant for us and then be disappointed in God when they don’t happen.”

“All too often, we take a nice-sounding Bible verse and apply it directly to our life. For instance, Isaiah 12:2 says, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense.” We like to claim that Bible verse and own it. We take comfort in it personally, which is a good thing to do, as God is our strength and defense. That verse is truth for all times because it reflects the unchanging character and nature of God. But we avoid claiming two verses later in the same book. Isaiah 34:2–3 says, “He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will stink; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.” Can you picture that Bible promise as the theme verse for the annual women’s retreat, with a coffee mug gift for each woman who attends? Not all verses are written to us and apply to us. And we often pick and choose by taking the nice-sounding Bible verses and claiming they are true and applying them to our lives, while skipping past the negative crazy-sounding ones. We need to stop and ask: who was the Bible verse originally written to and why? As we will discover, many of the Bible verses that don’t make sense to us today usually made sense to the original readers.”

Here is a big key to understanding the Bible.

“If there was one bit of wisdom, one rule of thumb, one single skill I could impart, one useful tip I could leave that would serve you well the rest of your life, what would it be? What is the single most important practical skill I’ve ever learned as a Christian? Here it is: Never read a Bible verse. That’s right, never read a Bible verse. Instead, always read a paragraph at least.”

He’s quoting Greg Koukl there. 

“Every Bible verse fits within a larger story, and whenever we read any verse, we want to:

• Look at the specific Bible verse (many people stop here). 

• Look at the paragraph the verse is in. 

• Look at the chapter the Bible verse is in. 

• Look at the book of the Bible that the chapter and verse are in. 

• Look at where the book of the Bible the verse is in fits in the Bible’s whole storyline.”

He then lays out the storyline of the Bible. Two final quotes about what a donkey in the bathtub has to do with weird laws in the Bible. 

“Have you ever looked into some of the strange and unusual state laws in the United States? Several of these are still in the law books today and have never been repealed. In Arizona: It is illegal for a donkey to sleep in a bathtub. In Kentucky: It is illegal to carry ice cream in your back pocket. In Connecticut: It is illegal for any beautician or barber to whistle, hum, or sing while working on a customer. Reading these nonsensical laws makes you wonder why they were ever passed in the first place. Who needs a law about carrying ice cream in your back pocket? Bizarre laws about donkeys sleeping in bathtubs seem pretty ridiculous to us. But when you look into the history behind them, there is always a backstory, and that backstory provides us with meaning. Knowing why they were originally put in place and when is the key to understanding.”

“For example, the law about not allowing a donkey to sleep in a bathtub was put into effect in 1924. The story is that a rancher had a donkey that frequently slept in an abandoned bathtub on the rancher’s property. One day, a local dam broke, and the water from the reservoir washed the bathtub and the donkey into a basin. Local authorities were called to help rescue the donkey, but it was not easy to do. It required a lot of effort and manpower to finally rescue the animal. To prevent such a thing from ever happening again, they passed a law that prohibited donkeys from sleeping in bathtubs. At that time, for those involved, it made sense to have that law. It was likely never prosecuted, but it was put in place for a reason at a certain time for a certain purpose, a purpose most of us cannot relate to today, since few of us own a donkey.”

Ponder on that. That’s only 25% of the way through it, and we’re at over 2,000 words. So I’ll finish with the chapter headings to give you an idea of what follows what I’ve quoted. 

Chapter 6: Making Sense of Shrimp, the Skin of a Dead Pig, and Slavery

Chapter 7: The Boy’s Club Bible

Chapter 8: Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down

Chapter 9: Making Sense of Inequality in the Bible

Chapter 10: Jesus Riding A Dinosaur

Chapter 11: In The Beginning We Misunderstood

Chapter 12: Making Sense of the Bible versus Science Conflict

Chapter 13: My God Can Beat Up Your God

Chapter 14: Love Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Chapter 15: Making Sense of the Intolerant Sounding Jesus

Chapter 16: The TV-MA, NC-17 Bible

Chapter 17: The God of Compassion, Slow to Anger and Forgiving

Chapter 18: Making Sense of the Texts of Terror

Postlude: Jesus Loved His Crazy Bible (Why Trusting It Isn’t That Crazy)

As big a theology nerd as I am, I still learned something new from the book that’s affected my study. At the end of the book, he has a message for Christians struggling with the Bible and another for unbelievers. If that’s you, read it. 

I recommend it for everyone. 5 stars.

Change Is Coming?

 It appears the pressure is rising for Canadian and American Christians again. We still have it easy compared to the rest of the world, though that won’t remain the case.

Why are Christians persecuted? 

The same as anyone, we’re different. It’s not only us.

In a nutshell, we don’t conform to the world’s ideals and what it worships. This immediately sends my thoughts to Romans 12:2.

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

The culture in America is rebelling from the cultural Christianity from the early 20th Century. Over the last seventy or so years, it’s become post-Christian. 

In turn, the American Christian response is to rebel from that. However, we’re an individualistic nation, so our response is an aggressive one. That isn’t the Biblical response.

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

“Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.” 1 Peter 2:9, 11-12

“If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs.” 1 Peter 4:15

“Remind everyone about these things, and command them in God’s presence to stop fighting over words. Such arguments are useless, and they can ruin those who hear them.” 2 Timothy 2:14

“Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people.” 2 Timothy 2:23-24

We could learn a lot from 1st and 2nd Century Christians. The Church—the body of Christ— grows best under pressure. An easy life is a detriment, as much as I would prefer an easy life. 

I recently began reading a book titled Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference. Only two chapters in, and I already had nineteen highlights. Here’s a quote from Kristen Deede Johnson, who was involved in politics and was having a hard time reconciling that with her faith.

“Peter wrote similarly of what it means to be holy, noting that as God’s “holy nation,” as “aliens and exiles” in this world, Christians are to “abstain from the desires of the flesh” and by contrast, “conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge” (1 Peter 2:9, 11, 12). 

These passages do not preclude us from tackling difficult issues, making our differences of conviction known, or engaging in the hard work of politics. They do imply, however, that as we do so, we have to attend to the character of our engagement. 

These verses make clear that as God’s people we are called to be known not for resentment, anger, enmity, arrogance, or rudeness. Rather, honorable deeds, patience, kindness, generosity, faith, hope, and love: these befit God’s family. What does it look like for Christians to conduct ourselves honorably? 

I see John’s call to confident pluralism as a way of living out Peter’s admonition in our divided political culture. By the grace of God, we can be patient because we take the long perspective, knowing that Christ is, always has been, and always will be Lord, through many different political realities. We can be humble because, as members of God’s family, we know we are entirely dependent on the grace and love of God extended to us in Christ, which we use to love others. 

We can tolerate those with whom we profoundly disagree because the love we have in Christ does not insist on its own way, but rather bears and endures all things as it waits for the day when we will see all things clearly and fully.”

The culture’s response is showing who truly gives allegiance to Jesus. Those who say they have no religious affiliation are the fastest-growing religious category.

Adam Ford (Founder of the Babylon Bee and Disrn) has a comic on the “Death of Christianity in America.” 

That’s to be expected; go to Mark 4 and read the Parable of the Sower. I was once the thin soil the seed was planted in. What grew fell away within months of dealing with trouble.

Why do people give in and walk away, conforming to the culture’s ideals or what it worships? Is it easier to please God or Man?

This is the perseverance of the saints in action.

“A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 10:21-22

“Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:12-13

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Our lives are 80 years if we’re lucky or unlucky, depending on your perspective. In comparison to eternity, it’s not even a second in a Christian’s immortal life. That’s eternity with Jesus with reward, our inheritance, and no suffering.

It can only get better for us.

Power/Authority+Words=Influence

 I’ve been thinking about a person’s influence. The more you’re in the public eye, the greater it is. You have reach and power. 

Your words matter; what you say can trigger people. Even people you disagree with can take something you say out of context and use it for “justification.”

Emboldening them because they think you’re on their side. Rhetoric is dangerous. It triggers the emotions, and that kicks logic out of the driver’s seat. 

“China virus”, heard by people with hate towards Asians, said by a person of power, can add fuel to the fire. Your words matter.

They already think that way; that’s not your responsibility, just don’t add to the fire with rhetoric. People don’t usually think too deep.

Instead, it’s about what they feel. 

On top of this, social media clumps us together in echo chambers. 

I watched a documentary on Netflix titled The Social Dilemma. People that worked for Facebook and tech companies said social networking algorithms work off an avatar they built of you based on your likes and push stuff into your feed that you may click on. 

Pausing or clicking on them gets them money. 

The building an audience thing they spoke of, where stuff gets pushed to like-minded people I know well since when I was promoting blog posts by paying for Facebook to boost them, I either built an audience or my page’s fans and friends were my target. The latter was because of their social capital.

Facebook has since said I was spamming and no longer let anything from my WordPress blog get shared. 

Google curates search engine auto-fills based on your location. West Coast and you search for climate change, you’ll see positive results saying it’s a threat. Middle of the country, and it swings to being a hoax in the results—search engine echo chambers. 

It’s why DuckDuckGo is becoming a popular search engine. 

The end credits had lots of practical information like turn off notifications (which I have already) and never click on anything recommended to you online. Also to have a group of friends who have different opinions than you. 

Not everyone who thinks differently from you is wrong. One differing opinion doesn’t make a person evil…usually. I’ll admit some do get the side-eye from me. 

If you want to argue, argue over the essentials. Decide what that is (together), and defend that. 

I will definitely look at my Facebook feed differently. Artificial Intelligence is trying to suck my attention and manipulate me via echo chamber…yeah, not cool. 

What I say going out into an echo chamber, well, it may be preaching to the choir, but I’m not only trying to reach the choir. 

My kiddo just woke up and is growling at the camera over the crib, so I got to go.

Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity; A Book Review

 I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a blog post about how different words mean different things to other people. That’s a centerpiece of the book we’ll look at today and the importance of asking, “what do you mean by that?” 

Here’s a question to keep in mind. Walks like a Christian, talk like a Christian, but do their beliefs fall in line with Christianity? This put the author in a crisis of faith, and we’ll explore that in…

Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity

“A Movement Seeks to Redefine Christianity. Some Think that It Is a Much-Needed Progressive Reformation. Others Believe that It Is an Attack on Historic Christianity.

Alisa Childers never thought she would question her Christian faith. She was raised in a Christian home, where she had seen her mom and dad feed the hungry, clothe the homeless, and love the outcast. She had witnessed God at work and then had dedicated her own life to leading worship, as part of the popular Christian band ZOEgirl. All that was deeply challenged when she met a progressive pastor, who called himself a hopeful agnostic.

Another Gospel? describes the intellectual journey Alisa took over several years as she wrestled with a series of questions that struck at the core of the Christian faith. After everything she had ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Bible had been picked apart, she found herself at the brink of despair . . . until God rescued her, helping her to rebuild her faith, one solid brick at a time.

In a culture of endless questions, you need solid answers. If you or someone you love has encountered the ideas of progressive Christianity and aren’t sure how to respond, Alisa’s journey will show you how to determine–and rest in–what’s unmistakably true.”

Christianity is a creedal faith, with the first summary in 1 Corinthians 15. 

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last, of all, he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”

1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-7

Keep this in mind as we go through the book.

“Progressive Christians tend to avoid absolutes and are typically not united around creeds or belief statements. In fact, progressive blogger John Pavlovitz wrote that in progressive Christianity, there are “no sacred cows.” [2] Because of this, it might be more helpful to look for certain signs, moods, and attitudes toward God and the Bible when trying to spot it. For example, progressive Christians view the Bible as primarily a human book and emphasize personal conscience and practices rather than certainty and beliefs. They are also very open to redefining, reinterpreting, or even rejecting essential doctrines of the faith like the Virgin Birth, the deity of Jesus, and his bodily resurrection.“

The importance of the question, “What do you mean by that?”

“It’s a fact that some people have been mistreated, enduring abuse or bullying at their conservative churches. Other people have experienced honest doubts and been shut down with statements like “We don’t ask those questions here.” For still others, the demands and tenets of historic Christianity have become too heavy to bear in a culture that vilifies anyone who challenges social norms or whose worldview doesn’t align with the wider society’s. And for some, it has everything to do with the Bible. They’ve become convinced that the book they were taught was God’s very Word reads more like a script for a horror movie than the “Good Book” they are supposed to revere and obey. Still others have encountered skeptical claims they never came across in the sheltered Christian bubble they grew up in, while some people struggle with believing God is good when life sometimes is not.“

It’s essential to be a good theologian and Christian case-maker. We can have questions and doubts, but we also have to look for answers for them.

“If more churches would welcome the honest questions of doubters and engage with the intellectual side of their faith, they would become safe places for those who experience doubt. If people don’t feel understood, they are likely to find sympathy from those in the progressive camp who thrive on reveling in doubt. In progressive Christianity, doubt has become a badge of honor to bask in, rather than an obstacle to face and overcome.”

Preach, sister, preach.

“What I have a problem with is what I would describe as hyperfundamentalism. This type of fundamentalism goes beyond the essentials of the faith. It is known by another name as well: legalism. Many progressive Christians I meet grew up in impossibly strict sects of the faith that believed anyone outside their particular group was at best a nominal Christian and at worst a heretic. Because their faith communities had failed to teach them the difference between essential and nonessential beliefs, their entire foundation was rocked the first time they met a Christian who believed differently about the Rapture or the age of the earth.”

That’s what I like about FirstNLR. Pastor Rod lays out the essentials, traditions, and opinions grid. He preaches the essentials, we don’t dive into the earth’s age or if the flood was global or local. Those topics can be discussed, but not believing in six literal days of creation doesn’t doom you to hell.

So what is progressive Christianity?

“The movement of progressive Christianity began with a legitimate desire for reform. But in seeking reform, its adherents found a false gospel. Although they aren’t united around an official creed, progressive Christians are definitely united around a common set of (sometimes unspoken) beliefs. Like historic Christians, their beliefs are built around their responses to questions like “Why did Jesus die?” “What is the Bible?” and “What is the gospel?” While progressive Christians may bristle at concepts like certainty and the idea of landing concretely on answers, as we’ll see in the next chapter, progressive Christians are quite dogmatic about their answers to these questions.”

“Progressive Christianity has evolved since the early 2000s. There are concrete tenets I’ve discovered by reading and listening to the books, blogs, and podcasts of its leaders. Today there is general unity surrounding three topics: the Bible, the Cross, and the gospel. The progressive views on everything from sexuality to politics to Christian life and practice are built on this foundation. As I’ve learned, progressive Christianity is not simply a shift in the Christian view of social issues. It’s not simply permission to embrace messiness and authenticity in Christian life. It’s not simply a response to doubt, legalism, abuse, or hypocrisy. It’s an entirely different religion—with another Jesus—and another gospel.”

Alisa went to the Bible and the church fathers-the students of the apostles and discovered this.

“As I dug into their writings, I was delighted to discover something so ancient yet so familiar—a deep love of Scripture and an almost indignant defense of the gospel. Yes, we’ve had doctrinal disputes, debates over interpretations, and arguments about application and practice. But the one thing that can be traced back through history to the genesis of Christianity is that the Bible—every word—is the Word of God. Things went off the rails from time to time, but from the beginning, Christians have been in agreement that the Bible is cohesive, coherent, inspired by God, and authoritative for our lives. In fact, one of the main issues Martin Luther had with the Catholic church was its progression beyond believing that the Bible alone is the authority for Christian life and practice. (Thus, the Reformation.) Luther’s view matched that of ancient Christians. Clement was a first-century believer who became the leader of the church in Rome. Tertullian, one of our church fathers, wrote that Clement knew the apostles personally.[5] Clement believed that Christians should obey the Scriptures because they are the words of God: “Let us act according to that which is written (for the Holy Spirit saith, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom’). . . . Look carefully into the Scriptures, which are the true utterances of the Holy Spirit.”

Then she spends time going through different ancient heresies that refuse to go away. They’re forgotten and return “new.” Here’s what she says on spotting heresy.

“As I’ve heard my current pastor repeat on many occasions, the easiest way to spot heresy is to remember this: Jesus + anything = a false gospel.“

Then she goes through progressive Christian leaders’ problems with the Bible like the Old Testament, Hell, the Crucifixion. 

I like this quote atheist Christopher Hitchens said to a progressive Christian that interviewed him. Even atheists get it. 

“Famous atheist Christopher Hitchens was once interviewed for Portland Monthly about his opposition to religion, and more specifically, Christianity. The minister questioning him noted that the Christianity he opposed in one of his bestselling books was of the “fundamentalist” variety, while she identified herself as a “liberal Christian.” After explaining that she didn’t take the stories in Scripture literally and rejected the atonement, she asked Hitchens if he saw a difference between fundamentalist faith and more liberal (perhaps we could say “progressive”) religion. His answer was surprising: “I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.“

This is how she closes the book. 

“I’ve spilled much ink in this book discussing what’s wrong with progressive Christianity and how it differs from historic Christianity, but at the end of the day, progressive Christians are the ones who have everything to lose. I was so disturbed of heart because I stood to lose God. The consuming fire who spoke creation into existence and yet identifies himself as Father. I stood to lose Jesus, the Messiah predicted by the Old Testament prophets and trumpeted after four hundred years of divine silence as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). I stood to lose my Savior. The assurance that my sins had been paid for—that I had been bought with a price. That he died in my place. I stood to lose the beauty of the gospel. I stood to lose the confidence that everything wrong in this wretched world will one day be made right. I stood to lose the hope of no more tears, no more crying, no more pain. I stood to lose the mysterious stability of God’s written Word. The lamp to my feet. The light to my path. We don’t get to completely redefine who God is and how he works in the world…”

I highly recommend this book. The next one will be about How Not To Read the Bible, which can help those with questions about problematic passages or verses. 

Five stars.