My youngest son Nathan is preparing to take the medical school entrance exam in June (pray for him). He tells me the exam includes a lot of word problems. I never liked word problems. They confuse me. Sometimes they have too much information, other times they have conflicting information; the main point is not always clear. That’s the nature of word problems; they’re meant to be that way. I don’t think books aimed at teaching Christian truth should be like word problems.
Don’t get me wrong. I agree with John Piper and others who say Christians should think more. In his book Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, Piper says, “we cannot love God without knowing God; and the way we know God is by the Spirit-enabled use of our minds.” I have no problem with a challenging book, but I fail to see the point in two recent publications. They have brought more confusion than clarity, and I don’t know about you, but my mind gets fogged-in enough already!
The first book is Rob Bell’s Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Even before its release this book created a fire-storm. Bell is known as a prominent evangelical pastor, author, and conference speaker, but according to critics, friends, and reputable scholars alike, he does more to confuse readers by sending conflicting signals (in the form of questions and comments) about heaven, hell, and salvation than he does in clarifying truth. So let's be clear: Jesus tells us there is both a heaven and a hell, and the only way to heaven is Jesus.
Another book that asks more questions than it answers is Forged: Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are by Dr. Bart Ehrman, who teaches religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ehrman would get a pass from me if he were writing this book for the academy, but he’s not. He and his publisher intend Forged for the general market. So here’s what bothers me: he uses a lot of academic talk to infer that about 75 percent of the New Testament documents are forged. He means, for example, the letters of Paul are not written by who we think they are. Com’on, any serious Bible student who’s ever read a Bible commentary (or a good Sunday School quarterly!) knows Paul didn’t personally transcribe all of his letters; he dictated them to a secretary. That’s not forgery. To suggest it is causes me to think somebody is concerned more about arithmetic (read profit) than authenticity.
I’m confused when I see pastors and professors clouding up biblical truth like this. I agree with Piper, himself a pastor, author, and former professor, who says, “the aim of writing (except for liars and spies) is to be understood.” I don’t understand Bell and Ehrman. We need clarity, not confusion.
Am I clear on that?
