BR: "Rumors of God" by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson

It's no secret that one of the most maligned "institutions" of our day is the church. Most people have a jaded view of the church. Some of that can be blamed on people's misunderstandings and misapprehensions; far more of the blame falls upon the people who comprise churches for failing to come anywhere near the New Testament expectation of how the church is to function. It is one thing to be a fallible, sinful human being; it is quite another to continually willfully distort what God established.

Nevertheless, God continues to expect His people to associate with one another on the basis of their shared walk in Christ (1 John 1:7). And congregations of God's people, for all of their faults, still do provide blessings and have the opportunity to provide many more.

Such is the premise of a new book by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson, Rumors of God: Experience the Kind of Faith You've Only Heard About. The authors are Australians who happen to work at large Evangelical churches in the Chicago suburbs and in New York City, respectively.

The book serves as both critique and encouragement for Christians in their personal faith and in their participation within the Body of Christ. Subjects addressed include finding true life in Christ; the insidious influence of marketing, advertising, and consumerism, and their impact on believers in terms of how they view themselves, their goals in life, and where they direct their resources; what it means to truly depend on God and His love; great emphasis on grace; the challenge of individualism and God's mandate for community; the need to work for justice; and the hope that is provided through Christ.

Many of the premises of the book are similar to material that is being popularized within Evangelicalism, particularly to the younger generations. The influence of Timothy Keller can be ascertained here; much of what is said is entirely consistent with David Platt's Radical books, and Gabe Lyons of Q ideas is one of the people who writes praise for the book. In this sense most of the material is fully consistent with the recent emphases on faith, love, grace, and justice within Evangelical Christianity.

There are some interesting nuggets in the book that go beyond what some others have written. The demonstration that Greek dikaiosune, often translated "righteousness," also incorporates the idea of justice (thus fusing the Hebrew tsdaqa, "righteousness," and mishpat, "justice") is valuable information and does change the way one views many New Testament passages. The critique of marketing and consumerism not just in terms of where we expend our resources but also in terms of forming one's imagination and goals in life is also rather profound in application.

And I would be remiss to not note some challenges. As Evangelicals, there is evidence of the faith only and imputed righteousness positions, although their discussion of grace and the human condition, as written, is Biblically consistent. In chapter 6, the authors use Jonah and the Assyrians to discuss the challenges of forgiveness and prejudice. The imagined scenario of Hitler becoming repentant for killing people and thus being able to be forgiven was quite good, and the intent of the authors in the use of the Jonah example is right on. Nevertheless, in their discussion of the Jonah story, it seems that they use later historical events to describe why Jonah feels as he does about the Assyrians; they also speak of Assyrians moving in and marrying Israelite women so as to create the Samaritan ethnic group in Israel, based on Shane Hipps and Dan Carlin as sources. I'm still trying to figure out how one extrapolates that from 2 Kings 17; it would seem from 2 Kings 17 that the Assyrians almost fully exile all Israel from its land and import foreigners who learn of YHWH from a Levite sent back to Israel by Assyria (2 Kings 17:23-41). Perhaps the information comes from Josephus; but how can one separate truth from propaganda? Granted, 2 Kings 17 is rather prejudiced against the Samaritans, but it at least comes from much closer in time to the events specified than Josephus and whatever Samaritan accounts existed from the first century CE. Chapter 10 is a retelling of the story of Jesus meeting the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. The authors make much of a possible connection between the two going to Emmaus and Emmaus as the place where Judas Maccabeus won his great victory over the Seleucids. It is an interesting theory, but entirely uncorroborated; one can imagine a hundred other reasons why the two disciples were going there.

Rumors of God is built on the premise of the "rumor"-- a murmuring, a report that some things might be happening-- and the authors invite the reader to turn the "rumors" regarding God, Jesus, love, hope, grace, justice, generosity, forgiveness, etc. into realities in their lives. Even if one is well-versed in the present emphases in Evangelicalism, this book is still a good reminder of what is really important in life. It maintains a good mixture of encouragement and critique, balancing both the good and the not so good within the current "Christian" environment. Rumors of God will challenge you and hopefully inspire you toward greater faithfulness toward God and living in relationship with Him in obedient service.

Kindle version: I recently obtained a Kindle and received this book in the Kindle edition. I noticed a couple of small editing mistakes, but otherwise the digital edition was well-organized, easily read, and free of major difficulties.

ELDV

*-- book received as part of early review program