I'm of the opinion that the best way to understand a false teaching is to read what the "culprit" himself has to say - not what his critics write about him. Sure, reading critiques of the former can be helpful, but I'm wary about trusting 3rd parties when it comes to these things. I want to see it for myself. So I decided to make a list of 12 books written by people ranging from those who I disagree with on a minor doctrinal issue to outright dangerous heretics. What have I read so far, you ask?
First, there was Mere Christianity. C.S. Lewis seems to be the most quoted Christian thinker of the 20th century, so of course most of the book was pretty good. What I didn't like was his cavalier approach to explaining the atonement ("Yeah, the whole thing does sound pretty dumb when you think of it, but hey, it works!") and the pattern of his reasoning skills melting down at the very hint of Calvinism. While I enjoyed looking at Christianity from a philosophical perspective, I'm not quite sure what I think of using that to introduce non-believers to what we believe. (The Bible says faith comes through the reading of the Word, and I barely remember seeing any Scripture in the book.)
Next was The Prayer of Jabez. It is the most mercenary book I've ever read. The message of the book? God is longing to give you all these assorted blessings, but can't because we won't ask for them!!!!! Here's the crowning glory of it all:
"In my experience, most Christians seem to pray solely for strength to endure temptations - for victory over the attacks of our raging adversary, Satan. Somehow we don't think to ask God to simply to keep us away from temptation and keep the devil at bay in our lives. But in the model prayer Jesus gave His followers, nearly a quarter of its fifty words ask for deliverance: "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matt. 6:13). Nothing about spiritual insight or special powers. Not a word about confrontation. When was the last time you asked God to keep you away from temptation? In the same way that God wants you to ask for more blessing, more territory, and more power, He longs to hear you plead for safekeeping from evil. Without a temptation, we would not sin. Most of us face too many temptations - and therefore sin too often - because we don’t ask God to lead us away from temptation. We make a huge spiritual leap forward, therefore, when we begin to focus less on beating temptation and more on avoiding it."
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Moving on, the last book I finished was The Da Vinci Code. Honestly, I don't understand why every Christian author has found it his duty to write a refutation or two of this - it's just a mystery novel. It's fiction. Yeah, the parts elaborating the alleged Jesus-Mary Magdalene affair were pretty irritating, but I really don't think a secular novel - not a Christian ALLEGORY, like The Shack - is that dangerous to the church.
Finally, I'm currently reading 'Reformed' Is Not Enough by Doug Wilson. The Federal Vision camp is really confusing. So far, what strikes me is that they're obsessed with focusing on the church visible, at the expense of protecting the church invisible. Normally, I don't think I would really give too much attention to this group, as I'm not a Presbyterian, but you come across it a lot in the Christian classical homeschooling circle, so I wanted to be able to recognize it when I see it.
So maybe next I'll read The Purpose Driven Life, now that Warren and Piper are friends. How the heck did that happen?
