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Steve Brown's What Was I Thinking?
I read this excellent little book on the Internet Monk's recommendation, never having even heard of Steve Brown before. I'm glad I did, and I'll be sure to read his other books as well.
At first I thought this book was going to be a bit boring. The full title is, What Was I Thinking: Things I've Learned Since I Knew It All. So I figured it would be about how, after he became settled in his perfect Presbyterianism, he came to more earnestly and humbly believe the things he already professed, which is all nice and good. But I wasn't particularly looking forward to 12 chapters of "I thought Jesus was radical, but now I really believe he's radical!"
In a sense Brown does this, but what makes this book great is the way he does it—it surprised me, even when I was expecting something of the sort. His grasp of the grace of God toward sinners through Jesus Christ is remarkable, and he really makes you feel it. He especially makes you feel the impact of his insights if, like him, you've "got all your theological ducks in a row." He exposes my own soul time and again as he describes his own journey. The best part is, he gets across to his readers, "If God is merciful to someone like me, then he can sure be merciful to someone like you," which conveys a strong assurance of the love of God that every Christian needs.
If your Christianity has become religious habit, this is the book to jolt you out of that rut. I felt torn the whole time I read it—I wanted simultaneously to speed ahead and read his next tremendous insights, and to slow down and take a week to read each chapter devotionally. I figure a book doesn't capture you much more than that! I know Brown expects more Christians to read this than non-Christians, but I can imagine many unbelievers being captured by the grace of God in Christ through this book. It's one I'll buy (or at least suggest) for my friends.
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Comments
I've heard some good and bad things from Steve Brown and have decided mostly to stay away from his teaching. His position on the moral law of God is antinomian to the core.
I heard him say on a radio program one day, "If I am truly free, then I am free to spit or cuss in God's presence." (I heard this on Midday Connection, Moody Broadcasting)
To this the lady host so aptly replied with Psalm 119:45 "And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts."
He doesn't understand that true Christian freedom is not freedom to sin, but freedom from sin. Not only that, but if I do spit or cuss in God's prescence it would be a surefire way to grieve the Holy Spirit causing loss of fellowship(although not loss of relationship).
Now, I believe in eternal security which I believe is the point he is trying to make, but that kind of comment is recklessly stated.
Alan
Posted by: Alan R. Wuest | August 13, 2006 10:11 PM
Alan: I think you may have misinterpreted him—he is not antinomian, as is evident from this quote from a section against antinomianism in one of his books:
"Any view suggesting that God no longer has any concern for our obedience to him and his ways is sheer nonsense" (Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom, 56).
In a sense, all of us are antinomian—none of us desires to keep God's law, and we wish it would just go away so that we could be righteous on our own terms.
In another sense, Steve Brown is antinomian (like any good Christian should be)—he's against God's law as our means of being right with God.
But in the regular sense, Steve Brown is not antinomian: "If you want to know the best way to live, live according to God's instructions" (ibid., 58).
"In our broadcast, in my teaching, and in my books, I tell God's people that, because of Christ, God isn't angry at them and never will be angry at them. Some say, however, that I am encouraging sin by my teaching.... Well, I don't encourage sin in what I teach—I don't have to! Christians do fine in the sin area without any encouragement" (60).
If you're not free to spit and cuss in God's presence, you're not free to spit and cuss anywhere (since God is everywhere). Heck, you probably shouldn't even breathe anywhere, the always-sinning creature that you are—if your existence and relationship with God depend on you!
The point he's making is that Christians DO spit and cuss (among other things), and that our freedom in Christ allows us to live our continuously sinful lives without fear that God's going to burn us up. He wants to see us all get better, giving up the spitting, cussing, and whatever. But he knows that the blood of Christ covers those things that we're inevitably going to do for the rest of our earthly lives. That's as much "freedom to sin" as it is "freedom to live as a fallen human."
Posted by: Eric Costa | August 14, 2006 01:23 AM
In a time when so many folks expect so much from others and so little from themselves (and this time is no different from other eras, it seems to me), it is refreshing to see in print what I've often thought about.
God is so much greater than we want to admit that He is. Jesus came to do so much more than we want Him to do. And we can become so much more than we think we can become, if we realize the two statements above.
Steve Brown makes one see salvation and God's Love as far more than we have the ability to imagine. How wonderful it would be if Christians let God be all that He is and if we shared that "information" with the world around us instead of leading them to believe that they will never be as "good as we are."
WHAT WAS I THINKING? has made me see what I need to do to encourage my fellow human beings to accept God's Love.
Ann Lovingood
Posted by: Ann Lovingood | February 9, 2007 05:47 PM
To believe God is not concerned with the behavior of his children is absurd and heretical. Bad behavior caused God to destroy the world by flood. Bad behavior causes untold suffering on the earth. Bad behavior cost God himself unspeakable suffering on the cross. True we are free moral agents. So free infact that God allows us the freedom to even go to Hell, a place created for Satan and the fallen angels. If we choose not to submit, and not make him LORD and Savior, that is our destination. Your choice.
Posted by: Miles | July 14, 2007 09:52 AM