Over spring break I read two wonderful books, I Kissed Dating Goodbye (I will post on this sometime later) and A Sacred Sorrow (I want to use the lesson I learned in it for a class one of these Sundays...). I recommend both of them. Yesterday, as I drove my aunt all around Fayette County in Kentucky, I began reading The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. My appreciation of it is bitter-sweet.
I love the way he deals with grace, the way he shows how we are beloved by God how we are, that God adores us despite the sin, that we are called by grace to embrace a higher life (one of my fears was that this book would be teaching cheap grace, the idea that we don't really need to pursue righteousness, but Manning has mentioned many times that we are called to pursue righteousness, even though we will undoubtedly sin along the way, because we are human). He has taken several scripture passages and looked at the culture behind them to show how impacting Jesus' words "Unless you become like little children, you shall never enter the Kingdom of God" were to their hearers, as well as the impact of his dining with the riffraff.
Yet there are some things he says that I find flatly unbiblical. Some have accused him of being a universalist, and while I don't see it explicitly said, I can see where they're coming from. The scriptures clearly teach that those under grace are the ones who embrace the gospel, yet those who do not are still under the wrath of God. To be honest, I wish it weren't so, but that's the way it is. He also teaches that salvation is from faith alone, yet the scriptures include repentance, confession, and baptism as necessary for salvation.
I'm back in the 'Nati. Checking out the incoming freshman, cleaning my room, writing a little bit, studying a little bit, and then going out to eat tonight with a bunch of friends. Oh, and I just realized that a seven-page paper on modern Judaism is due Tuesday. Guess what I'll be doing Monday, hah.
I love the way he deals with grace, the way he shows how we are beloved by God how we are, that God adores us despite the sin, that we are called by grace to embrace a higher life (one of my fears was that this book would be teaching cheap grace, the idea that we don't really need to pursue righteousness, but Manning has mentioned many times that we are called to pursue righteousness, even though we will undoubtedly sin along the way, because we are human). He has taken several scripture passages and looked at the culture behind them to show how impacting Jesus' words "Unless you become like little children, you shall never enter the Kingdom of God" were to their hearers, as well as the impact of his dining with the riffraff.
Yet there are some things he says that I find flatly unbiblical. Some have accused him of being a universalist, and while I don't see it explicitly said, I can see where they're coming from. The scriptures clearly teach that those under grace are the ones who embrace the gospel, yet those who do not are still under the wrath of God. To be honest, I wish it weren't so, but that's the way it is. He also teaches that salvation is from faith alone, yet the scriptures include repentance, confession, and baptism as necessary for salvation.
I'm back in the 'Nati. Checking out the incoming freshman, cleaning my room, writing a little bit, studying a little bit, and then going out to eat tonight with a bunch of friends. Oh, and I just realized that a seven-page paper on modern Judaism is due Tuesday. Guess what I'll be doing Monday, hah.
No comments:
Post a Comment