I am really having trouble writing this particular blog,
because I am feeling the full force of evil assaulting my work and ministry –
or rather the work and ministry of Jesus Christ which he has graciously given
to me. And when I say "trouble" I mean that I am upset. Hopefully, it is a righteous indignation. At the same time, I am wondering what it
means to have your ministry so attacked, but I am hopeful it means that God is
at work and will bless my feeble but willing efforts to serve him and advance
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Allow
me to explain.
Most of you are aware that I have a new book being released
this week on November 20, 2012.
Actually, it is available on Amazon a few days early even as I write
this… and actually, it is not really a new book. I first self-published the book in e-book format on Nook and
Kindle back in April, 2012, and had quite a few people purchase the book in
that format. At that time, I went
through a fairly rigorous and thought-provoking process of trying to determine
what my book should be called.
When I settled on “Faith Beyond Belief,” I did my research to see if
there were other books out there by the same name to make sure my book would
not get lost in the noise. In
April of this year, there was only one other book by that title – a book
published in 2002 about a Gulf War pilot who was shot down and imprisoned by
Saddam Hussein. The only
other “book noise” were a few books with “Beyond Belief” in the title, but all
seemed well with the full title I had chosen – Faith Beyond Belief:
Understanding True Faith from the Book of James.
That was in April.
Since then, my book has been picked up and is being published in
paperback form – officially on November 20, but in actuality it is available
right now. Somewhat accidentally,
I found out today that another book has just been published this past month
(October 2012) with the name “Faith Beyond Belief,” so I decided to go to
Amazon.com and check it out. To my
surprise, I found that since April of this year, not one, but TWO books have
been released with that same name.
To make matters worse, if you go to Amazon.com and do a search on “Faith
Beyond Belief,” my book is the 11th book down the list. In just a few short months, with the
release of my book in paperback form imminent, my book has gone from standing
out in the crowd to 11th in a long list of similarly titled books.
Is this a coincidence or is it something else? Most of the
books that show up are not titled “Faith Beyond Belief,” and they were mostly
out there in April, but they have similar enough names to muddy up the water
such that with the addition of the two new books by the same name, mine may be
getting lost in the crowd.
What makes me believe this is not a coincidence, however, is
the nature of the two books that have the same name as mine. I will not go so far as to call out
their authors or make any pronouncements concerning them individually because I
do not know either of them. If you really want, you can go search them out.
However, I have read enough about both of them from what is available at
Amazon.com to know that contents contained inside the covers of these two books
are a direct spiritual attack on the message inside the covers of my book.
My book is about faith in a Jesus Christ who was the one and
only Son of God. Faith in a Jesus
Christ who was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on a cross for
crimes he did not commit, and was raised from the dead on the 3rd
day so that my sins may be forgiven.
My book is about REAL faith.
It is about faith that is alive and active and working in the life of
the believer, working to make that believer more like Jesus Christ. It is about faith that begins with
repentance and ends with obedience to the commands of Jesus Christ. It is about a faith that goes beyond
“belief” to action and obedience.
One of the two books that has the same name as mine is about
abandoning the faith of your church and moving to a higher level of
spirituality into being spiritual but not religious. It is about moving beyond “belief” into mysticism and is
openly pluralistic in its message.
That means while the author does not condemn Christianity, she condemns
Christianity’s claim of exclusivity and encourages Christians to move beyond
their exclusive doctrines. Jesus
said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” Either Jesus meant
that… or he was a liar – or worse – delusional.
The other book (and to be honest, it is called “Faith Beyond
Mere Belief” rather than just “Faith
Beyond Belief”) is far more subtle and therefore – in my opinion – far more
dangerous. It likewise does not
condemn Christianity itself, but rather it considers Christianity to be
“parochial” and in need of an overhaul to be relevant for today’s post-modern
world. The book openly denies the
virgin birth and the Trinity as being secondary, mystical additions to the true
message of the gospel that were added for the primitive minds of the past. Oh, and the true message of the gospel
that the book puts forth? That is
the most dangerous part. The
author says the true and primary message of the gospel is the Greatest
Commandment – love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and
strength… wait, that doesn’t sound
bad. Exactly. That’s what makes it
so dangerous.
The true message of the gospel is not the Greatest
Commandment of Jesus Christ. The
true message of the gospel is found in 1 Corinthians 15:
15 Now I would remind you,
brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you
stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached
to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to
the twelve. (ESV)
The Greatest Commandment of Jesus Christ is about how we
live our lives, but it is not the message of the gospel. The word, gospel, means “good news.” A
command on how to live your life is not good news. Jesus did not give us that command as a message of hope, he
gave us that command as instruction on how to live our lives. What makes the
gospel good news is its message of hope for the forgiveness of sins and eternal
life. Once you have that, then you
can start living your life in accordance to the Great Commandment. This man’s
book makes no mention of this gospel of hope. People who follow this man’s gospel will find themselves
amongst those in Matthew 7 who cry “Lord, Lord” (I will let you go look up
their fate). The point is: what
good is it to love God and love others if we do not repent of our sinfulness,
place our faith in Jesus Christ, and submit ourselves in obedience to the
creator of the universe? None.
“Faith Beyond Belief” is not about discovering a faith that
goes beyond believing in the traditional, religious views of God. “Faith Beyond Belief” is not about
redefining what we believe such that we have a gospel that is relevant for a
post-modern world. By contrast, I
would contend the true gospel is perfectly relevant for our post-modern world. “Faith Beyond Belief” is about ensuring
that our faith is more than just an empty belief in a God, but is a saving
faith that results in surrender, submission, and service to God - a God who
loves us enough to make a way of salvation, but is just and righteous enough to
punish those who reject that offer of salvation.
Is it a coincidence that these two books that have the same
name as mine, but have messages that are meant to confuse the message of God’s
Holy Word, are coming out at exactly the same time as my book? If it is a coincidence, it is a really,
really, really big coincidence.
People listen very carefully. Our adversary the devil is crafty and he wants nothing more
than for you to be dragged away and enticed by half-truths and lies. He has been at this game much longer
than we have. Without Jesus as my
conqueror, I couldn’t possibly stand up to his ways, but greater is he that is
in me than he that is in the world.
My purpose in this post is not to get you to buy my book
(although it would be awesome if you all did). It is certainly not to get you to go buy these other
books. My purpose in this post is
to point out to you that there is an all out assault on our faith, and sometimes
– if we are not careful and watching out for it – the assault comes from the
inside… hitting us in our blind spot.
We are not to be moving beyond our faith to a whole new, different kind
of faith… That would be a faith that leads us over the precipice into an
eternity in hell and punishment.
Rather, we are to be moving beyond mere intellectual assent to TRUE
FAITH. Know what it means to have
Faith Beyond Belief.
Your comments are encouraged and welcome.
Blog copyright © 2012 Joel J. Dison
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