Tim Challies is dealing with one of the most vital issues for the church today: discernment. I’m “disappointed” to hear that he has a book in the works on the subject; that’s what I was going to write my book on, Tim! Seriously, good for him. Books on the topic are extremely scarce, and desperately needed, in this age when Y0ur Best Llfe Now and The Prayer of Jabez are best-selling “Christian” books.
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Radically Tolerant - of all people, irrespective of race, faith, circumstance. As a person, you will be treated with the respect and dignity you deserve as an individual created in the image of God.
Radically Intolerant - of slipshod reasoning, emotion without intellectual substance, bad ideas, lazy thinking, cowardly ad hominem attacks, the preposterous notion that 9/11 is some government conspiracy (proceed directly to the Loony Bin; do not pass "Go"; do not collect $200), the designated hitter, and the Dallas Cowboys.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
Ogden: Unfinished Business
Marshall: Reclaiming God's Original Intent for the Church
Yancey: Rumors of Another World
Frazee: The Connecting Church
Pearcey: Total Truth
Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death
Bork: Slouching Towards Gomorrah
2 Responses to “Challies on Discernment”
I agree with your point about our need for discernment!
However, I differ with you on your illustrations a bit. Reading one and having read the other, I think that “Your Best Life Now” and “The Prayer of Jabez” are radically different books–not at all in the same category.
The problem with Osteen’s book is its baptized worldliness.
The problem with Wilkinson’s is not so much the content (it is basically an exposition of an obscure portion of scripture) as the quasi-magical way it has been applied by people who bought it off of the New York Times Bestseller list. I can actually give it a qualified recommendation (while not thinking that it necessarily should be a best seller).
But again, the main point of your post is undeniable.
Matt ~ Oct 14, 2006 at 11:35 am
Well, I mostly agree with you in this, Matt: they are in different categories. I’m more critical of Jabez than are you, though; I think that Wilkinson was extremely shoddy in his “exposition” of that obscure part of Scripture (in addition to the quasi-magical stuff). I’d not recommend his book to anybody, because I think he handles Scripture pretty poorly.
That said, if someone told me he was bound and determined to read one of the two books, it’d be no contest.
Byron ~ Oct 14, 2006 at 1:47 pm