WiseReader

In addition to my main responsibilities as Director of New Covenant House (Toronto, Ontario), I serve as book reviews coordinator with ChristianWeek, a Canada-wide publication serving the Christian community. For quite some time I have been waiting to receive a review copy of Pagan Christianity (Frank Viola & George Barna, Tyndale House Publishers, 2008) - I have a reviewer lined up, but no copy to review!

Viola is a major figure in the contemporary house church movement and Barna is a well-known researcher and pollster specializing in American Christianity. These men have teamed up to explore the roots of the New Testament church, pondering why contemporary expressions of Christianity seem so far removed from the NT model. As one might expect from a house church leader, these men don’t have much good to say about the institutional church as we know it today.

Though I have not been able to secure a review for ChristianWeek, I did find an excellent critique of this book on Stephen Yuille’s blog. Following a brief overview of the authors’ thesis, Yuille presents a five-point challenge. Yuille’s treatment is, in my view, an excellent examination of a popular book that is flawed at its heart. I highly recommend you take time to read it.

Why One Way? Defending an Exclusive Claim in an Inclusive World
John MacArthur
W Publishing Group, 2002
ISBN: 0849955580
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Postmodernism’s denial of absolute truth is seeping through the walls of the evangelical establishment and MacArthur, in the vein of all true shepherds, raises a warning for the church.  While acknowledging evangelicalism’s historical diversity, he notes there was a time when all evangelicals held one truth in common:  “They knew that Jesus Christ was the only way to heaven. ‘One way’ seemed an unshakeable belief that all evangelicals held in common.”

As the number of evangelicals flirting with postmodern relativism grows, MacArthur seeks to remind us of the gospel’s distinctive and exclusive claim - it alone holds the truth about life here and in the hereafter.

The Christian message is one of absolute truth standing outside ourselves.  It remains true whatever one makes of it.  Rooted in a rational revelation from God, it is a message of veracity, authority, and integrity.  It is, as MacArthur effectively demonstrates, incompatible with any and all messages rooted in worldly wisdom.

This pocket-sized book (74pp.) packs a major punch.  It is a great gift for university students, young pastors, and anyone needing an encouraging reminder that Jesus alone is still the way, the truth, and the life.