ReGrace

  Praise for Insurgence

  “In this insightful and transformative book, Frank Viola reveals with crystal clarity just how far removed our truncated gospel is from the kingdom of God that Jesus embodied and that He calls and empowers His followers to embody. I am convinced that this wisdom-packed book will be used by God to completely transform the lives of many who dare to read it.”

  Greg Boyd, pastor and author

  “Let me be clear—Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom is not a book offering yet another parochial debate over some inconsequential point of theology. On the contrary, Viola’s message strikes at the heart of the core message of Christianity.”

  Dr. Michael S. Heiser, biblical scholar and author

  “I own thousands of books, but there’s a very small handful of books that I keep on my desk to reread and refer to on a regular basis. Frank Viola’s Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom is one of those books. This isn’t just a book—it’s a revelation of how we as Christians should be living our lives in today’s culture. Get the book. It will dramatically change how you look at the rest of your life.”

  Phil Cooke, filmmaker, media consultant, author

  “Insurgence is a course corrective for the communication of the good news of Jesus. Thank you, Frank Viola, for masterfully presenting the gospel of Jesus as the here-and-now good news of the kingdom.”

  Bruxy Cavey, pastor and author

  “Insurgence commands attention with its forthright, compelling vision of the kingdom that treats a wide range of facets of the kingdom message.”

  Craig Keener, New Testament professor and author

  Praise for God’s Favorite Place on Earth

  “Frank Viola’s God’s Favorite Place on Earth is a fast-moving, groundbreaking look at the Christian’s struggle against legalism, discouragement, doubt, rejection, and spiritual complacency. A masterfully engaging book.”

  Mark Batterson, author and pastor

  “A lot of people write books; Frank writes stories, and in this one we once again see why he’s such a master. Honored to call him a friend, excited to call him an author I love to read.”

  Jon Acuff, author and blogger

  “Frank Viola’s pen and voice are consistently both penetrating and trustworthy.”

  Jack Hayford, renowned pastor and author

  “Frank continues to challenge the church-at-large with a powerful mind, an impassioned voice, and a love for the Bride of Christ.”

  Ed Stetzer, author and speaker

  “As masterly as a Cézanne canvas or a Stravinsky score, Frank Viola surpasses himself in his best book yet—a work of serene, soaring magnificence. Part novel, part biography, part theology, part Bible study, Frank’s imaginative touch and command of prose haiku leaves the reader resolved more than ever to be a Bethany—God’s favorite place on earth.”

  Leonard Sweet, author, seminary professor, speaker

  “God’s Favorite Place on Earth beautifully creates a powerful and moving portrait of the humanness of Jesus and His dearest relationships. Taking a story well told, Frank Viola engages the voice and view of Lazarus to bring a new perspective and moving relatability to Jesus’ life on earth. Incredibly thoughtful and moving.”

  Jenni Catron, author and leadership consultant

  “Few authors challenge me in my faith like Frank Viola. This book and the stories it contains will force you to face the myth of religion and instead adopt a life of deeper dedication to God, to find your own Bethany. It sure did for me.”

  Jeff Goins, author and blogger

  Praise for From Eternity to Here

  “Frank’s From Eternity to Here is a masterpiece. . . . It reads like a movie on paper.”

  Dr. Myles Munroe, author and speaker

  “When you’re as old as I am, you don’t hear new stuff. You can hardly say anything about religion that I haven’t heard several times. But what’s in From Eternity to Here is so new to me.”

  Steve Brown, author and talk-radio show host

  “A great work of narrative theology.”

  Alan Hirsch, author and speaker

  “Dissent is a gift to the church. It is the imagination of the prophets that continually calls us back to our identity as the peculiar people of God. May Viola’s words challenge us to become the change that we want to see in the church.”

  Shane Claiborne, author and activist

  “I just finished From Eternity to Here. I’m in process of reading it again. It has moved into my top ten books. Brilliant.”

  Derwin Gray, pastor and author

  Praise for Jesus Manifesto

  “There cannot be enough books written about the majesties and excellencies of Christ. I am grateful that Frank and Leonard Sweet put Jesus Manifesto in the lap of so many.”

  Matt Chandler, pastor and author

  “Whether you are a seminary professor or someone seeking answers about Christ for the first time, Jesus Manifesto promises to illuminate the truth about the greatest personality to ever walk the earth.”

  Ed Young, pastor and author

  “If we follow the Spirit, Christ can become as real to us as the world was when we were sinners. Jesus Manifesto is a compass pointing toward this holy pursuit.”

  Francis Frangipane, pastor and author

  “Jesus Manifesto is a passionate invitation to fall head over heels in love with the Son of God. Prepare to be shaken. Prepare to be awakened. And prepare to answer the call to follow Jesus with wholehearted abandon. After reading this book, you’ll never be the same.”

  Margaret Feinberg, author and speaker

  “Jesus Manifesto is the most powerful work on Christ I have read in recent years. The Christ of the Empty Tomb is back among us. Sweet and Viola have beckoned us to return to Olivet and renew our souls. I was hushed by its welcome authority. I found a lump in my throat as I read through page after page of biblical witness to the one and only, incomparable Christ in whom alone is our Salvation. You must read this book. All of us must, and then we must believe in this book, rise, and advance on our culture with the truth we have lately backed away from in our faulty attempt to play fair at the cost of our God-given mission.”

  Calvin Miller, author and professor

  “Brilliant, refreshing, soaring—and that’s just the first chapter! This book is destined to be a classic devotional volume that will inspire generations of Jesus-followers. The line from the song goes, ‘You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.’ This book does just that.”

  Reggie McNeal, author and missional specialist

  Praise for The Day I Met Jesus

  “What a treasure this diary-style book—The Day I Met Jesus—is!”

  Lysa TerKeurst, author and speaker

  “Jesus, from the very beginning, has been ‘good news for women.’ One reads of His encounters with the women described in The Day I Met Jesus with a sense of wonder that these interactions took place two thousand years ago. He is good news for women still.”

  John Ortberg, pastor and author

  “I thought I knew the women in these stories well, but in this beautiful book—The Day I Met Jesus—I met each one in a fresh, personal, and profound way.”

  Sheila Walsh, author and speaker

  “We all long to lift the veil of history and catch a glimpse of the real story—the one that makes our hearts pound, our faith grow, and our lives change. You will never look at Scripture or God’s work in your own heart the same way again after you close the final page.”

  Holley Gerth, author

  © 2019 by Frank Viola

  Published by Baker Books

  a division of Baker Publishing Group

  PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

  www.bakerbooks.com

  Eb
ook edition created 2019

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  ISBN 978-1-4934-1637-0

  Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

  Scripture quotations labeled ASV are from the American Standard Version of the Bible.

  Scripture quotations labeled CEV are from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

  Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016

  Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

  Scripture quotations labeled NASB are from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

  Scripture quotations labeled NCV are from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Scripture quotations labeled NKJV are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

  Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Cover 1

  Endorsements 2

  Half Title Page 7

  Title Page 9

  Copyright Page 10

  1. Why This Book? 13

  2. ’Tis Humor 21

  3. We Know in Part 23

  4. Honoring Those with Whom You Disagree 27

  5. It’s Not a Bloodsport 31

  6. The Shocking Beliefs of C. S. Lewis 35

  7. The Shocking Beliefs of Jonathan Edwards 43

  8. The Shocking Beliefs of Martin Luther 53

  9. The Shocking Beliefs of John Calvin 69

  10. The Shocking Beliefs of Augustine 81

  11. The Shocking Beliefs of John Wesley 97

  12. The Shocking Beliefs of Charles Spurgeon 103

  13. The Shocking Beliefs of D. L. Moody 115

  14. Seven Shocking Statements by Billy Graham 125

  15. The New Tolerance 131

  16. You Just Might Be a Pharisee If . . . 133

  17. Twenty Reasons Why the Christian Right and the Christian Left Won’t Adopt Me 139

  18. So You Think You Disagree? 147

  19. The Art of Being a Jerk Online 153

  20. Warning: The World Is Watching How We Christians Treat One Another 159

  21. Misrepresentations 167

  22. Possessing a Mind to Suffer 171

  23. The Essentials of Our Faith 173

  24. Who Are the Real Heretics? 181

  25. They Are Our Teachers 191

  Acknowledgments 195

  Notes: A Word to Scholars 197

  About the Author 219

  Back Ads 223

  Back Cover 227

  1

  Why This Book?

  The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.

  ~ A. W. Tozer

  In November 2014, Rick Warren asked me to write a series of blog posts on the shocking beliefs of the great Christians who shaped the church (especially the evangelical wing).*

  Warren’s hope was that the series would “soften” the uncivil climate in the Christian community over doctrinal differences.

  If, for example, a Christian discovered that his or her theological “hero” had some peculiar, inaccurate, or even shocking belief(s), this would give him or her pause before unloading both barrels on a fellow believer over an alleged doctrinal trespass.

  After watching the nonstop carnage on social media over theological disagreements during the last decade, I fully resonated with Warren’s goal. And so I began writing the “shocking beliefs” series on my blog.

  Within a year, the series went viral, receiving hundreds of thousands of pageviews from all over the world.

  In 2017, I had a conversation with the Baker publishing team about revising and expanding the series into a book. They agreed, and that’s how this project began.

  The Purpose of This Book

  The book I wrote before the one you’re reading right now is called Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom—which is a fresh presentation of the earth-shaking gospel of the kingdom of God.†

  One of the lessons those of us who have joined the Insurgence have learned is to always walk in the love of Christ, even toward people with whom we disagree.

  And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. (2 Timothy 2:24)

  ReGrace has but one objective: to foster grace, civility, and tolerance among Christians when they disagree with one another over theological matters.

  The subtitle “shocking” is subjective. Some Christians will find a number of the beliefs articulated in this book to be first-class shockers. Others will find them surprising. A small number may shrug their shoulders and muse to themselves, “So what?”

  Yet the point made in each chapter is undeniable. No influential Christian of the past could claim flawless perception. Each of them had blind spots. Some of their views were peculiar at best. Others were aberrant or ran contrary to Scripture, at least to the minds of many evangelical Christians.

  But despite their less-than-perfect beliefs, God still used them.

  This fact alone should cause us to relax whenever we run into a teacher, preacher, author, or fellow Christian on a blog or social media feed who holds views with which we disagree.

  Especially when we come to grips with the immovable fact that none of us is immune to being wrong.

  That includes you and me.

  Getting Clear

  Before we move on, I want to be crystal clear about five things:

  1) There’s no reason to get offended with any of the chapters in this book. Unless of course, you’re easily offended. (If that’s the case, I have no guaranteed antidote for you, but I did address you directly in a previous book with a cure.)‡

  2) Most Christians have heroes. I know I do. But some people are overly protective of theirs. I was keenly aware of this when I wrote the blog post on the “Shocking Beliefs of John Calvin.” After I published it, I sent this email to Rick Warren:

  Subject: Shocking Beliefs of John Calvin (this one may get me hung!)

  Hi Rick. The post is below. If I disappear, it’s your fault!

  You can reach me at Salman Rushdie’s place. ;-)

  Rick’s response made me laugh out loud. He promised to officiate my funeral if my body was ever found!

  Keep in mind that I’m not a “Calvin-hater.” I never touched his theological system. I simply pointed out some beliefs he held that are shocking to many evangelical Christians, just as I did with the rest of the people I treat in this volume.

  Nevertheless, in response to tha
t original blog post, I was on the receiving end of hate mail. Even from Quakers! The smoldering anger laden in those emails would make Keyser Söze blush. (If you don’t know who Mr. Söze is, you can insert Howard Stern into that sentence.)

  What do I mean? Here are two of the tamer ones (cough):

  Viola’s journey to the dark side is now complete. Writing this blog post is the equivalent of witchcraft. I wonder if he’s stopped torturing small animals too. Doubt it. Take me off his blog list immediately.

  Your “shocking beliefs” series reminds me of Charles Manson. You’re a [expletive] and probably a closet serial killer too!

  3) Some of the so-called shocking beliefs that I cover in this book are beliefs that I myself agree with. Others I find abhorrent. Consequently, just because a shocking belief is listed doesn’t reveal how I personally feel about it. It simply means that many evangelical Christians will find the belief to be shocking (at worst) or peculiar (at best).

  Therefore, to those of you who are inclined to finish this book and proudly throw your chest out saying, “Good grief, I wasn’t shocked by any of those beliefs!” remember three things: You missed the point of the book; each person I feature had people who believed they were heretics during their day; and every one of them still have people raking them over the coals because of their viewpoints.

  4) While I disagree with a number of beliefs that each person I feature held, I have respect for each of them. In fact, I cannot tie the laces of their shoes. Each individual was remarkable in his own right. I realize this means that people who don’t like Calvin, Lewis, Wesley, Augustine, and so forth will be turned off by that statement. And some may misuse this book as a frontal attack on each person it covers, completely missing the boat on those chapters and the intent of this volume. If you ever find someone doing that, feel free to quote this paragraph to them to jar their memory.

  5) To keep this book relatively short, I didn’t cover every shocking belief these figures from church history held. I simply covered the beliefs I felt were sufficient to make my point. The source materials will give you further information about each individual and their views. So I’m sure you can uncover more of their shocking beliefs, if you desire to investigate. But again, how many peculiar views they held isn’t the point. The point is that some of their beliefs were imperfect, and hence, we should show more tolerance toward each other whenever we disagree.