By God (reviewed by Robert L. Franck)
Having an easily distracted, easily confused, easily manipulated mass of goo for brains is not a Christian virtue. In order to avoid this, you must row against nearly all of today’s cultural currents. You must learn to read well. Your children must learn to read well. This column will help you learn.
Although this is a theologically-oriented journal, not all of the books reviewed here will be theological tomes. There will be reviews of fiction, history, biography, social and political topics. Why? Because Christ is Lord of all. There is nothing outside of His realm and there should be nothing outside of yours.
The book to begin with is, of course, the Bible, the First Book. Consider how important God’s Word is. Genesis, the book of beginnings, describes the creation account with the refrain, “And God said.” The Gospel of John, the book of new beginnings, says that Christ is the Word. And Christ, the Word, said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4). From creation to the new heavens and new earth, all of history revolves around what God says. Since the Bible is the record of what God says, it would be prudent for you to understand it well.
Several activities help you to understand the Bible—preaching, teaching, study, discussion. But the primary way is simply to read it as a book or, more properly, as a book of books. Since our Lord compares the word of God to bread, you should have a daily reading meal, consuming the entire Bible regularly. A Bible reading plan is an excellent tool to accomplish this. In addition, have reading banquets, reading an entire book in one sitting.
These feedings will nourish your understanding of the context and themes of Scripture. Nothing is more important to theology because good theology flows from a right understanding of context and themes. Bad theology is assembled from a hodgepodge of biblical phrases plucked from their context, mashed together, and spread over a faulty proposition.
Since I have so much experience with bad theology, I’ll provide an example from my past. I once thought that God would return his blessing to the U.S. if Christians would confess their own and their nation’s sins. My theology was based upon this verse, which was printed on a poster:
And My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chron. 7:14)
A little Bible reading would have helped. The context is God’s revelation to Solomon after he built the temple. The theme is God’s covenant with Israel—a covenant of blessings and cursings based upon national obedience to the Mosaic law. The U.S. can’t get in on this action—and shouldn’t want to.
Read the Word. Read well.