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News -
Book Review
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Contributed by Phil Spadaro
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Tuesday, 29 August 2006 |
“The Jesus Proposal” (Leafwood
Publishers) by Rubel Shelly and John O. York is an exploration of
religion, doctrine and salvation from a non-traditional church of
Christ perspective. Although the books goals of greater unity and a
more relational spirituality are to be lauded, the means to reach
these ends are questionable. There are many gaps in reasoning and
pertinent scriptures are ignored. “The Jesus Proposal” falls
short from lack of faithfully exploring the opposing viewpoints and
Bible verses.
Shelly and York set out to propose a
spirituality based solely upon a relationship with Jesus. Churches
and fellowship should be determined by one's friendship with a
(vaguely identified) Christ and not by institutional boundaries.
One's salvation is a process of getting to know the Messiah and not
an instant in time defined by an event; i.e. baptism, “sinner's
prayer”, etc... As a natural end to this line of thinking, anyone
who is pursuing a relationship with Jesus is saved.
I admire the proposition of a
relational church and a relational Jesus. I believe maturation is a
process. I encourage anyone who is pursuing a relationship with
Jesus. My agreement with the proposal ends there. A relational church
does not have to be devoid of solid theology or salvation doctrine.
Maturation has a point in time where salvation occurs and then
maturation continues. Those who seek Jesus must discover what it is
Jesus wants, including obedience.
“The Jesus Proposal” will be
frustrating to those who desire a clean proof because part of the
proposal is to minimize the influences of modern empirical thinking.
The authors suggest embracing some of the more positive elements of
post-modernism which they use in their reasoning. Boundaries are not
clearly defined (nor should they be, according to the book) and
reasoning (and resultant salvation doctrine) is subservient to
relationships.
For any individual within the
Restoration Movement who is looking for unity, this book is not the
answer. There are too many shortcuts to reach the end. Scriptures
are ignored, obedience (and relevant doctrine) is all but forgotten
and the least common denominator is a generic Jesus. I would not
recommend this book.
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unity and precision
Written by Alan on 2006-08-29 11:43:06
I haven't read the book but I can imagine the shortcomings you described. The postmodern culture shies away from concepts like conviction, truth, and obedience. As followers of Jesus we cannot do that. We need to be patient with people who haven't reached certain convictions yet. We don't all have to agree on every point. But those leading the church have a higher accountability to lead people to the truth. We can't ignore specifics. |
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