The Lost Message of Jesus |
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Steve Chalke, Alan Mann
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Pages: 208 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0310248825
Pub: Zondervan Publishing House
Pub date: 2003-12-12
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 71494
Reader Reviews:
Aims to challenge with a fresh view of Jesus, but ultimately misrepresents him (29/42 people found this helpful)
This book contains much that is thought-provoking and challenging. Chalke rails against the way Christians (and the church) can be judgmental rather than gracious - assenting in principle to what Christ says but failing to put it into practice. And yes, we do need to keep asking ourselves where in our church and society we would be likely to find Jesus if he walked this earth again today. And we need to keep repenting.
However, Chalke pushes the pendulum so far back that he loses the crucial balance of what Jesus actually did say! (It's also significant, I think, that he quotes very little from the book of Acts and the Epistles, which tell us what the first eye-witnesses of Jesus thought his message was, and how they put it into practice.)
Some of the book comes across at first glance merely as slightly wacky: for example he asserts that the reason God tells Moses, "no one may see my face and live" is not because of God's overwhelming majesty and holiness (cf Isaiah 6), but because God's face is riven which so much pain that the sight of it would be too much for Moses to bear. But the book, along with the challenges and insights, and the things that raise an eyebrow or a question mark, has a dangerous undertone.
Someone once said that most heresy comes about simply because we emphasise one truth at the expense of another! Christ's humanity rather than his divinity (or vice versa); God's sovereignty rather than man's free will (or vice versa). And, in his attempt to emphasise God's love and grace, Steve Chalke has subtly downplayed talk of sin and judgment.
This started to alarm me long before I got to the pages which proved the most controversial: Chalke's attack on the principle that one of the awful things happening at Calvary was that Christ was being punished, by his and our loving Father, for our sins.
It is encouraging that Chalke recognises early in the book that "although God is love, this doesn't exclude the possibility of him eventually acting in judgment". However, when it comes to examining the Cross of Christ, Chalke seems to be unable to hold those two ideas - love and justice - together.
His view of the Cross is predominantly that is was God's final and total identification with the lost, the outcast and the marginalised. This is true. But the bible also teaches (and no, we shouldn't find this easy to stomach!) that:
"God presented [Christ] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:25-26).
Compare that with Steve Chalke:
"The fact is that the cross isn't a form of cosmic child abuse - a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement "God is love". If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus' own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil. The truth is, the cross is a symbol of love. It is a demonstration of just how far God as Father and Jesus as his Son are prepared to go to prove that love..."
Very sadly, this starts to remind me of Richard Niebuhr's famous description of the essence of theological liberalism: `A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.'
Refreshing and Inspiring!! (6/18 people found this helpful)
Despite what some critics claim this book does not heretically deny the more conservative tenets of the faith, but merely shows them in a new light. For example the Ten Commandments are true, but are there to free us rather than condemn us!
I havent yet found the bit about the atonement that has caused such controversy, so I dont know where I stand on that. However even if the book and Mr Chalkes theology has its faults, he certainly hits a lot of nails on the head and inspires people to do as Christ commanded "Love one another!"
The message the church forgot (6/18 people found this helpful)
Certainly a book that splits Christians down the middle.! As a relatively new Christian I found this book very useful. If you like the doctrine of scripture and consider that knowing that we are all sinners to be the most important factor in Christianity, then this book is probably irrelevant to you. If however you desire to know more about the way Jesus interacted with people during his ministry, and why this was important, and why it was pushed under the carpet by the "Church" for many centuries then you will enjoy this book.
Needlessly Tarnished (22/40 people found this helpful)
A well written book with some ideas that some Christians manage to forget. Such as God being loving, the gospel being good news, and that God's Kingdom is also established on earth.
Worth four stars perhaps with a few corrections.
Firstly the title: Needlessly provocative and false. Most Christians know the 'hidden message' of God being loving, and there being the kingdom of God on earth in the hearts of believers. `The Sub-Message' of Jesus, would be more appropriate.
The downplaying of sin: Makes it out to seem like we are all right and don't need forgiveness. Stuff like this is why some can be heavy handed on talking about sin and hell.
Denial of Atonement: The whole `cosmic child abuse' analogy, and basically forgetting God and Jesus divinity when it suits. Denies that our sins are forgiven by God (the impression is we don't have any), rather that was God sharing our suffering.
Appalling use of context. E.g.: John 3:16 quoted twice with out the end "...that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life". This is done so Chalke can focus on this life being more important than the next one.
Use of Straw men arguments: The alternate positions are examples that clearly show no love in them, so the reader will side with Chalke. Doesn't mean he is right unfortunately.
As a Christian you get left praying for Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, and any people misled by the book.
Don't think that just because he makes some good points, that everything he says is right, the use of the Bible is appalling in this book. Which makes the back slapping reviews by N.T. Wright (who Chalke quotes often) in particular, all the more galling.
A thought provoking read (17/35 people found this helpful)
What are Chalke and Mann trying to acheive with book? Offend the ultra conservatives? I doubt it. Try and make people rethink about how they see Jesus in the 21st century? That's probably more like it.
Some people don't like having their Sunday School theology challenged by the authors suggesting that some of their beliefs are tantamount to cosmic child abuse, but they are missing the point. The cross was primarily about love, (remember John 3:16 anyone?) and this book explains things in that light.
There are also some interesting ways to read other favourite passages that may have caused concern to thinking Christians in the past.
Don't be fooled by the fanatics, this book is a decent read.
Jesus repeatedly asked people to follow him, if you are trying to do that this book may give you a glimpse of the the Jesus that the Bible writes about, and it may also encourage you to help a few more people to start following him too.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> General
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Religious History -> Christianity