You Are What You Read

I recently read a blog meme that asked about books. Here are some of the answers:

A book you’ve read more than once? The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg.

Let’s cut to the chase – Borg denies the divinity of Christ, and says that Jesus is not the Son of God. He defines the heart of Christianity as some “love what God loves” nonsense, yet denies that God saved men through the Incarnation. Marcus Borg is not a Christian, nor is anyone who thinks this book is worth reading. Not surprisingly, in the top five list of books that those who bought this heresy buy is a book by Bishop Spong, a God hater who denies pretty much everything Biblical.

A book that changed your life? The Preaching Life by Barbara Brown Taylor.

Barbara Brown Taylor gives Marcus Borg’s book great reviews. That says it all. If it didn’t, her denial of the authority of Scripture or the saving grace of Christ, that instead to “Simply perform mercy or justice to whomever you encounter and this will bring you eternal life” is denial of the necessity of the Incarnation, the Cross and the Empty tomb.

A book you have been meaning to read? A History of God by Karen Armstrong

First sentence of this book: IN THE BEGINNING, human beings created a God who was the First Cause of all things and Ruler of heaven and earth. Armstrong is a liberal broadcast commentator in Europe and a former nun who denies the exclusivity of salvation in Christ. She believes (as put forth in this book) that the “idea of a personal God has helped Jewish, Christian and Muslim believers mature as full human beings”, and that all religions are outgrowth of sociopolitical ideas and that the “believers” in all faiths should group together toward a notion, not of the God of the Bible, but a “notion of God that works for the empirical age”.

The person who finds these books and authors worthwhile is not a Christian. Their works may be good, their conversation kind, but anyone who is willing to read and reread these kind of heretical books is not someone who has denied themselves, taken up their cross, and followed the Son of God, who is eternally generated from the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, who is begotten, not made, one being with the Father, through whom all things were made, without whom nothing has been made; who, though he was equal with the Father, stooped to humility and humbled himself by becoming a man, and was obedient in ultimate humility unto death, even the shameful death of the cross, who rose again from the dead, conquering sin and death for all who would believe. This is not a small god whom these authors and this person follow – this is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who hates sin, loves people, and at the last day will raise up those that are His unto glory – and those that have worshipped a god of their own making, a God who is not revealed in the final and authoritative source of revelation, the holy Scriptures, which speak of the Son of God and his salvific work of grace for us, will instead see:

For behold, the Lord will come in fire,

and his chariots like the whirlwind,

to render his anger in fury,

and his rebuke with flames of fire.

For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment,

and by his sword, with all flesh;

and those slain by the Lord shall be many.

(Isaiah 66:15-16)

And the actions He will take:

I trod them in my anger

and trampled them in my wrath;

their lifeblood spattered on my garments,

and stained all my apparel.

For the day of vengeance was in my heart,

and my year of redemption had come

(Isaiah 63:3-4)

And what will the results be?

And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

(Isaiah 66:24)

Why?

These have chosen their own ways,

and their soul delights in their abominations;

I also will choose harsh treatment for them

and bring their fears upon them,

because when I called, no one answered,

when I spoke they did not listen;

but they did what was evil in my eyes

and chose that in which I did not delight.

(Is 66:3-4)

Never forget:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

all those who practice it have a good understanding.

His praise endures forever!”

(Psalm 111:10)