‘Paul, A Biography,’ by N.T. Wright, and The State of Theology Report 2022

Yesterday I finished 'Paul: A Biography' by N.T. Wright, and I want to tell you all about it. Rest assured, I have more to say than just that it was "so good and super convicting." In all seriousness, though, as far as biographies go, I thought this was a particularly well-written and interesting one. But, yes, I do admit to knowing there is a lot of controversy concerning Tom Wright and his perspective on the Apostle Paul, particularly among the Reformed. But still needing to read and research more to get at what his perspective actually is, I either did not catch anything untoward in his work from 2018, or else there was nothing untoward in said title. And both are entirely plausible, if I may be entirely honest with you. But what is as much or more interesting to me today is the recent article at Christianity Today by Stefani McDade. Published 'September 19th' with the title 'Top 5 Heresies Among American Evangelicals,' the recent findings of the annual joint-venture by Ligonier and Lifeway titled 'The State of Theology' is jarring. For starters, 26% of self-identified American Evangelicals agree with the following statement: "the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true." What follows in the other statistics cited might only be surprising in the sense that you would expect that stat to be significantly higher than one quarter. More than half of evangelicals - 56% - agree with the statement that "God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam."  Similarly disturbing, 73% resonate with the sentiment that "Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God," and over 40% agree that "Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God," while 60% believe "The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being." All the more glad am I that our local church is going to start working through courses offered for free at BiblicalTraining.org the first week of October. As should now be apparent, the church in America is sorely in need of returning again to what historically would be considered "the basics" of Christianity, but which increasingly in our day are seen as negotiables.  These, dear friends, are not to be negotiated down in the interest of inflating stats or gaining rapid acquisition of folks who will think themselves Christians. Everyone indeed is a theologian. The only real question is whether we are good ones, and have the right idea according to God's Word about who God says He is on His own terms.