Book Giveaway!

January 14, 2011 in Reviews with 4 Comments

Have you ever read a book that was so amazing and inspiring that you wanted to buy a copy for everyone you know?

I can’t afford to buy a copy for everyone I know, but I’m going out on a limb and buying two.

A couple days ago I finished The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven by Kevin and Alex Malarkey. Oh. My. Word.

The basic story is that “Daddy” and Alex (six at the time) were in a car accident. Kevin was okay (because, Alex tells us, five angels carried him out of the car and set him on the side of the road before the airbags deployed), but the force of the impact probably killed Alex instantly.

Alex came out of his coma, and is progressing down the road to recovery.

But there is so much more than that.

Each chapter is written, first, from Dad’s point of view, and then from Alex’s. Dad tells of a horrifying car accident; Alex tells of a bright tunnel and watching the accident scene – and later the hospital – with Jesus. Dad tells of agonizing weeks of waiting on a coma; Alex can tell you the differences inside and outside the gate in heaven.

The story is one episode after another of God showing up at just the right moment with provision, miracles of healing, power outages, prayer warriors, and faithful believers. I think I got choked up and/or cried about once every ten minutes – rough average.

Alex has been to heaven since the accident, and without dying. Jesus comes to get him for a visit every once in a while. He sees angels and demons like you see the computer in front of you. He knows many of the angels by name; there is one named John who follows his dad around a lot. Satan has visited him a few times. There are parts about his trips to heaven that he is not allowed to share with the rest of us – not even his family.

My favorite part is that the family was not a really “churchy” family before the accident, and they did not attend a charismatic church. Yet as Kevin and Alex write, they describe prophetic words, speaking in tongues, discerning of spirits, etc. – all without any of the Biblical vocabulary. Nothing that was quoted or explained in the entire book made me pause and think, “That’s not Biblical.” Nothing.

I could go on, but I won’t. Here’s how you can get you some:

Leave a comment. Tell us about the real-est spiritual experience you’ve had. Angels? Holy Spirit? Heaven? What did He say? Tell us about a time your eyes were opened like Gehazi’s, or you experienced God’s presence in a breath-taking way.

If you don’t have a story of your own, tell us one you’ve heard or read.

If you’ve never heard of anything like this before, tell us what you think about it. Is it possible? Are we all insane?

In one week I’ll choose a couple commenters at random and email them for mailing addresses.

Why be a pain and request a story? Because – well, because I’m buying you a book, but also because,

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” – Rev 12:11

Review: Finding Our Way Again

January 13, 2011 in Reviews with 0 Comments

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I do not like this book.

Three reasons:

  1. It’s not what I thought it was going to be.
  2. It’s lukewarm.
  3. The theology is bad.

1. It’s not what I thought it was going to be.

Finding Our Way Again is the introduction to a series of books on “ancient practices”: prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, etc. Based on that fact alone I anticipated a book that would whet my appetite to learn more about those specific practices that the series would cover, and that would inspire me to passionately pursue those practices.

Maybe that wasn’t the point of this book. Fine. Call it a “Preface,” then, and make it sound less like something I should actually read.

2. It’s lukewarm.

I am not difficult to inspire. Neither am I opposed to ancient practices, but this book didn’t inspire me to do anything. In fact, the author compared Christianity to Islam and Judaism so many times that I’m less inclined to think my faith anything earth-shattering or unique at all.

The first chapter starts out with a wonderfully compelling piece about how our faith has become a religion instead of a lifestyle, but the author doesn’t spend the rest of the book calling for radical lifestyles as much as he seems to call for watered-down Christianity.

  • Chapter two explains that spiritual practices are valuable for character development.
  • Chapter four applies dark eyeliner and cries about, “I’m not calling myself a ‘Christian’ anymore.”
  • Chapter 19 suggests that instead of actually allowing our faith to change our lives, we should “faith our practices” by making things we already do remind us of, and cause us to meditate upon, God. Don’t stop along your afternoon walk to sit and pray for a while, just allow the disobedient dog remind you of your own sinfulness as he poops in the neighbor’s yard.

3. The theology is bad.

We’ll talk about the specifics in the coming weeks – because that’s what we do here, now – but some of the things you can learn from Finding Our Way Again include:

  • King Melchizedek (Genesis 14) was of another religion/faith than Abraham. (Chapter 3)
  • The “Christian gospel” is a journey. (Chapter 6)
  • When God created everything, He said, “Let there be …” and, “possibilities unfolded and flowered,” until finally there were, “naked apes we know as homo sapiens.” (Chapter 18)
  • Jesus talked about the “kingdom of heaven,” but “harmony” is a “pretty good synonym” for “kingdom.” As in, “the harmony of heaven.” (Chapter 20)

In short, Finding Our Way Again uses ancient ideas (some of which probably fell away for a reason) and a lot of language to further complicate a religious system when what we need is a simple return to clear, New Testament faith.

Allow me to explain (9 of 439)

January 12, 2011 in TheyReasoned with 1 Comment

Back-story is here. The collection is here. You can subscribe over there >>>.

9. How long was the ark of the covenant at Abinadab’s house? 1 Sam 7:1-2, 10:24 vs. 2 Sam 6:2-3, Acts 13:21

Um … something about this is familiar.

Let’s go back to #7:

7. How long was the ark of the covenant at Abinadab’s house? 1 Sam 7:1-2, 10:24 vs. 2 Sam 6:2-3, Acts 13:21

Ya. Check out the PDF of the poster for yourself.

Of course, we talked about this just before Christmas. If you missed it, and you’re thinking, “Ya, how long was the ark at Abinadab’s?” you can get the answer here.

If you’re thinking, “What the crap? Really?” … me too.

I think, since we started this project, that I’ve been pretty kind and pretty forgiving. I’ve deleted countless snarky comments before hitting Publish. I gave “The Reason Project” people the benefit of the doubt when they printed Genesis 4:22 even though it had nothing to do with Abram/Abraham and his sons.

But this is pretty blatant. And I find it a little irritating.

I can understand printing an extra scripture reference by accident. Even if someone was proof-reading the poster, they weren’t looking up every scripture reference when they did. Fine.

But this is an obvious, word-for-word, character-for-character, duplicated “contradiction.” And it’s only two lines down from the original. I’d even understand if it was number 367 that repeated number 7. That might be a tough catch, but seven and nine? It’s like they didn’t really expect that anyone would even read the thing.

It’s impossible that no one noticed this before they published this poster. Impossible. So what, then? The only reason I can think of – and if you can come up with another one, leave it in the comments and let me know – is that the people behind the project didn’t really think anyone was going to read the fine print.

And I hope that I’m not the only one who finds that just a little insulting.

Not just as a believer, but as a human being with a brain. I hope atheists are similarly – if not more – insulted.

Someone thought they could create a clever graphic, and shout about, “the Bible contradicts itself 439 times!,” you’d all go “Wow,” and swallow it. Someone didn’t think you’d actually read it, or attempt to think about it the idea of the Bible contradicting itself on your own.

And it added a number to their little list. It didn’t get accidentally re-printed as #7 and then #7, and then #8 was different. It wasn’t 438 issues on 439 lines, it’s 438 issues on 439 lines. It’s a lie.

And a lie based on the assumption that you and I are lazy and/or stupid.

And that irritates me.

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