Festus Akinnifesi, Divine Healing: A Biblical Solution to Sound Health (Longwood, FL: Xulon Press, 2005), 344 pages.

When it comes to the subject of divine healing, there is too much fear, a lack of knowledge, and a tendency toward extremes, according to Dr. Festus Akinnifesi. But the day is coming, he believes, when the church will not only find balance on the issue, but it will hold its rightful place and the church experience a move of God that is greater than it has ever witnessed before.

Akinnifesi, who holds a Ph.D. in Agronomy, is the author of Divine Healing: A Biblical Solution to Sound Health. When he’s not traveling as a senior scientist for an international research organization (based in Malawi), he serves as a preacher and teacher for various churches and conventions in Africa and Latin America. As a staunch believer in divine healing, he often prays for the sick and frequently teaches on healing and deliverance.

Like many popular teachers on the subject, Akinnifesi believes it is always God’s will for the sick to be healed and that healing will always come to the person who believes and is obedient to the word of God. Even more, he argues, it is God’s will for the believer to reign in life as a conqueror over Satan, sickness, disease, sin and poverty.

An Overview

Divine Healing is a passionate work that was written to convince the church that divine healing still exists. It seeks to provide hope for the sick and help for the church and society. In addition to showing the individual believer how to appropriate the promises of God for personal healing, the book challenges Christians to walk in divine health. It also calls on the church to be bold in exercising the ministry of healing to reach the lost.

Akinnifesi’s work is essentially a collection of 18 messages that focus on the fundamentals of divine healing as understood in a Pentecostal/Charismatic context. The work is written in a personal, down-to-earth style that makes it suitable for a wider audience. In addition to Scripture, which is often presented with different modern translations, and his personal experience, Akinnifesi relies on testimonies and the works of other well-known leaders, such as Benny Hinn, Kenneth E. Hagin, John G. Lake and Reinhard Bonnke, among others.

Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos, Making Wise the Simple: The Torah in Christian Faith and Practice (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005), 353 pages.

Why should Pentecostal preachers read a book written by a Presbyterian scholar whose passion is a study of the “Law” which many Christians often regard as the dullest part of the Old Testament? Dr. Van Wijk-Bos, Dora Pierce Professor of the Bible and Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, has given us many reasons in her compelling look at the relationship of the Pentateuch to Christian faith. Central to these reasons are Van Wijk-Bos’ definitions of covenant and torah (Hebrew word for “law”). Covenant provided ancient Israel their identity as the people of God while torah provided their instructions for living out that life as God’s people (p. 281). These concerns relate to Christians as well. We want to know who we are as the people of God’s new covenant and what are we to do in light of that relationship.

Van Wijk-Bos divides her study into five parts. Part I introduces her topic of how the idea of torah has been treated and mistreated by Christian hands. Her personal story of being raised in post-WWII Netherlands instilled in her an obligatory sensitivity to Jewish people and their story of faith. Thus she seeks to show the relevance of the covenant and torah for Christians while not despising the historical people who gave us the Pentateuch. She uses the theme of the “stranger” (Hebrew gēr) as a running motif throughout not just the Old Testament but the New as well.

Johanna W.H. van Wijk-Bos is the Dora Pierce Professor of Bible and Professor of Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Part V provides a theological summary of key aspects of the character of God and the relationship of Jesus and Paul to torah. Her presentation of the God Who Regrets, Appears, Accompanies, Is Prejudiced, and Passionate should awaken any reader to the value of Van Wijk-Bos’ book for Christians. She challenges many ideas in both Reformed and non-Reformed theological camps alike. Her discussion of the “new perspective” on Paul will bring the reader up-to-date on a contemporary scholarly issue regarding Paul’s view and use of the law.

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Theology of Religions: Biblical, Historical, & Contemporary Perspectives (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 372 pages.

In a world where wars are waged over disagreements between world religions, widespread ignorance and indifference regarding theology of religions is an astounding and inexcusable reality. In this book Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen takes a bold step towards correcting this sad situation. Kärkkäinen, professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary and a prolific author, is noted for insightful surveys and summaries of complex theological subjects (e.g., see his Pneumatology: The Holy Spirit in Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective, Baker, 2002). His own Evangelical and Pentecostal background bring added depth and dimension to his writing which Pneuma Review readers will appreciate as well. In An Introduction to Theology of Religions he makes a tremendous amount of material more readily accessible and intelligible for readers. Key characters and concepts are introduced and investigated objectively. An extensive table of contents, detailed outline, full bibliography, and thorough author/subject indexes are helpful aids for readability and research. Anyone, whether pastor or teacher, student or scholar, interested in gaining a good working knowledge of one of the most challenging but stimulating fields of study among the theological disciplines will assuredly benefit from a reading of this book. It may be particularly well-adaptable as a college or seminary textbook.

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen begins with an introduction explicating the nature and needs of the newly developing discipline of theology of religions, and adds practical advice on how to use this book. Then he tackles, as the subtitle suggests, biblical, historical, and contemporary perspectives on theology of religions, closing with a brief epilogue. Noting that the rising challenge of religious pluralism now necessitates addressing theology of religions, Kärkkäinen distinguishes comparative religions, the study of world religions themselves, from Christian theology of religions, thinking theologically about “the meaning and value of other religions” and “the relationship of Christianity to other religions”. He also introduces the discipline’s search for paradigms, identifying the one he adopts (ecclesiocentrism, Christocentrism, theocentrism, realitycentrism¹), and its parameters, identifying the prevalent typology (exclusivism, pluralism, inclusivism). On opposite poles, exclusivism argues that no salvation exists outside Jesus Christ while pluralism insists that different religions are more or less equally valid paths to God/salvation. Inclusivism, more of a middle position, affirms that salvation is available only by and because of Jesus Christ but neither is Christ necessarily restricted to the Christian religion per se.

In the biblical perspective Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen observes that though a thoroughgoing theology of religions is not found in Scripture some important “leads” do exist. Significantly, an ongoing dialectical tension between universalist (God’s love for the world’s religions) and particularist (God’s judgment on the world’s religions) tendencies is evident. History shows “limited openness to other religions” among some early Church Fathers, but an increasing insistence over time on “no salvation outside the Church.” Occasional positive attitudes toward other religions are discernible after the early Church period. The Enlightenment Age definitely changed the direction more toward relativity of religions. But many missionaries and other thinkers in personal contact with non-Christian religions adopted a “fulfillment theory” of religions, arguing that Christianity completes and crowns what was anticipated in embryonic form in other religious faiths.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Postmodernism, The Church, and The Future
A Pneuma Review discussion about how the church should respond to postmodernism

Although there are numerous scholarly papers that have been written on the subject of the church and postmodernism, here are some that readers have suggested.

♦ Stanley J. Grenz, “Beyond Foundationalism: Is a Nonfoundationalist Evangelical Theology Possible?”

http://www.luthersem.edu/ctrf/Papers/1998_grenz.pdf [as of Oct 14, 2014]

♦ D. Lyle Dabney, “The Church as a Community of (Un)Common Grace: Toward a Postmodern Ecclesiology”

http://www.luthersem.edu/ctrf/Papers/1997_Dabney.htm [as of Oct 14, 2014]

♦ “Mere Mission” N.T. Wright talks about how to present the gospel in a postmodern world, in an interview with Tim Stafford. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/january/22.38.html [as of Oct 14, 2014]

In addition to this, you may listen to Calvin College’s January Series 2007 lecture by N. T. Wright summarizing his book Simply Christian by going to this address: http://www.calvin.edu/january/2007/ram/20070105.ram [unavailable as of Oct 14, 2014]

Please add your comments, questions, and suggestions below.

Joe Maxwell, “Martyred for the Message: We’ve forgotten how much blood was spilled so that we could read God’s Word” Charisma (Sept 2006), pages 38-40, 42-47.

A Thriller or Real Life?

Does this sound like an exciting book or movie? “A small group of radical extremists are publishing a book full of dangerous ideas. National governments and international religious groups search desperately for these peddlers of heresy and rebellion. Despite danger and hardship, the fanatics relentlessly push their version of truth on an unsuspecting world.”

It has often been said that the main difference between real life and fiction is that fiction has to be believable. Who would believe that the Christian church would oppose translating and publishing Scripture? Who would think that William Tyndale would be hunted as a heretic and martyred for making the Bible available in English?

The media elite will say you can’t make a movie or book about Tyndale’s life. The story just isn’t believable. No one would believe this as fiction.

Martyred For The Message

Joe Maxwell’s article recounts the life and times of Bible translators and publishers William Tyndale and John Wycliffe. Their work brought reform and revival to a Christian Church and world that practically ignored Jesus Christ. For their efforts, they were prosecuted and persecuted.

Tyndale’s martyrdom, and the desecration of Wycliffe’s grave, proves the disruptive nature of their work. They insisted, centuries apart, that Christian authority rest in unchanging Scripture, rather than fallible men. This radical theology made them the enemy of those who wear a crown or mitre.

As believers read Scripture for themselves the numerous corrupt practices and doctrinal errors in the Church and governments of their era became obvious. Those who profited from the status quo refused or resisted reform. Cheats and crooks called devout men heretics or traitors, then spilled their blood.

All too often, the blood of saints is a key ingredient in the formula for Bible ink. While salvation is free, the freight is costly. Sometimes that “transportation charge” is murder on the Godly man or woman who delivers Scripture to a lost soul.

Plow Boys As Theologians

Tyndale, who read and wrote 8 languages, was clearly a scholar. His actions mark him as more than just an intellectual. He relentlessly and boldly worked to bring the Bible to the common English man and woman.

The availability of Tyndale’s translation fueled the drive for literacy in general, and Biblical study in particular. An educated populous is more productive but harder to swindle. It is no surprise that 16^th century governments, both secular and ecclesiastical, objected to the availability of inexpensive, easy to read Bibles.

R. Loren Sandford, Purifying the Prophetic: Breaking Free from the Spirit of Self-Fulfillment (Grand Rapids: Chosen, 2005), 203 pages.

Loren Sandford writes with a twofold purpose: He seeks to confront the culture of self-centered Christianity and to refocus the Charismatic Church on the work and the imitation of Christ. He speaks with a prophetic tone throughout the book—pointing the bony finger of the prophet at sin—while at the same time he nurtures with a pastoral heart, bringing healing to the wounded. Calling attention to the public prophetic errors, such as the fear-filled predictions of Y2K disasters, he asks why there has been no public reprisal against them, or any discrediting of their ministry. In all of this, Sandford names the self-centeredness as parallel to the worship of Baal. To combat this mindset, Sandford sets before the reader a proposal for correction.

Sandford opens with the scriptural illustration of Agabus and the prophetic warning of danger and persecution that he brought to Paul and of the warning of impending famine. In like manner, he calls the contemporary prophets to task with Columbine, Y2K, and 9/11 events as descriptors of failure to prophesy accurately. Leaders of the church, he warns, must be cautious with “the seemingly innocent words” that are spoken. He asks, where is accountability? Pressing further, he confronts prophetic errors with his term “prophetic psychic reading”. Likewise, he disparages the frequent misnomer, “God told me…” In our self-centered culture, we are quick to hear what we want to hear and to ignore the rest. Sandford calls for a course correction.

Sandford uses the scriptural analogies of the Jezebel spirit and Baal worship to describe the same errors in western culture. The corrective, according to Sandford, is to reestablish the foundational things that God has desired for His people: To be a people of faith and to know what it is to love one another—even as Jesus summed up the whole of the Law—to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Self must be subjected to the service of others.

Primary to the thesis of Sandford’s book is the fresh emphasis on the Cross of Christ. Without mincing words, he confronts the excesses of the “word of faith” movement and its “prosperity doctrines.” Nowhere in these does Sandford find the work of the cross in the life of the believer. Further, he pointedly exposes many of the movement’s distortions of scripture. Sandford emphasizes the teachings of Jesus and draws the reader to recall the repeated admonitions to take up ones own cross. Here he also pleads for the teachers of the church to place a fresh emphasis on the precious blood of Jesus Christ. It is the suffering of the cross and the purchase of the blood that will bring the needed corrective to the self-centeredness of the twin errors of the above teaching. Further, these correctives will bring maturity to the infantile and rebellious.

Thomas C. Oden, Turning around the Mainline: How Renewal Movements are Changing the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 270 pages.

This latest book by Thomas C. Oden gathers together for the first time the prevailing themes and documents of the confessing and renewal movements within mainline denominations. It also includes a case study concerning the most difficult issue confronting these movements, the property rights of local churches. This book was inspired by a 2003 Christianity Today lead article called “Turning the Mainline Around” with a cover picture of a huge ship being turned around by a tiny tugboat. This image of the ship and tugboat is also on this book’s cover.

This significant change may seem ironic, but it is happening. The mainline churches, Oden argues, are indeed being “turned around” by ordinary church members who are orthodox and evangelical in their faith. These confessing/renewal movements are growing rapidly. They involve a major ecumenical realignment never seen before in American church history.

Oden has the laity in mind in writing this book. Oden also wanted his book to be useful for onlookers from the wider evangelical world, not just for the benefit of the faithful mainline church member. Within this largely uncharted territory, this book serves as an unexpected and reassuring “newsflash” for the wider evangelical world concerning what is happening to their distant relations in the faith.

Oden approaches his task here primarily as an archivist. The renewal of interest in orthodoxy and evangelical teaching has garnered great attention. This attention has not been seen in the last one hundred years. Oden believes this is the right time to offer a true account of these events. The mainline confessing/renewal movements must speak for themselves without any editorial commentary.

Oden’s message is divided into six parts (p. 15). Those parts and his explanation of those parts are, I feel, the best summary of this book. The parts are: “Coming Home in the Mainline,” “Inspecting Ground Zero,” “Trekking to the Other Side of the Stream,” “Relearning the ABCs,” “Coming to the Table,” and “Paying the Mortgage.” Oden’s journey begins with the reader being at the homeplace – mainline denominations. The reader sniffs the smoke from the debris of ground zero – the destruction. The reader then explores while journeying to the other side of the mainstream and then back to the fundamentals – confessing/renewal movements. The reader then attends the great banquet – confession at the Lord’s Table. Finally, the reader appears in court to deal with legal issues – ownership of local church property. In other words, there must be a return to the home to survey the damage. There then must be a reinvestigation of how the neighbors coped with the crisis. This ultimately leads back to the primitive classroom to relearn the values that once made the neighborhood great. This will then lead to a coming again to the great banquet that unifies the community under a common history. Once that happens, the only thing left to do is the unpleasant task of sorting out who owns the property now.

I am attracted to this book because of two main reasons. The first reason is that I see an overarching theme underlying everything discussed within this book. Oden calls it “spine.” (p. 17). Since these issues are so controversial, it takes a person with a real backbone to attempt an examination of them. I believe Oden indeed has the determination and courage to do it. The second reason is that Oden draws his illustrations, specifically the illustrations involving church property, from the United Methodist Church. Oden is a conservative, evangelical United Methodist. I am one also. I can personally identify with his illustrations because we both share the same denominational heritage, and my concerns for the direction of the United Methodist Church are similar to the concerns he expresses.

Alister E. McGrath, The Science of God: An Introduction to Scientific Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 271 pages.

Alister E. McGrath personifies an eclectic and exciting combination of interests and abilities. Professor of theology at Oxford University and principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, he is also director of the John Templeton Oxford Seminars on Christianity and Science. He holds doctorates from Oxford in molecular biophysics and historical and systematic theology. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, his prolific publications in both theology and science have been translated into more than twenty languages. McGrath is especially well-suited to bridge the chasm-like gulf between the all-too-often warring worlds of theology and science. Those who, agreeing with Galileo, “do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect intended us to forgo their use” (Des MacHale, Wisdom, London, 2002), will appreciate McGrath’s ability to correlate theological faith and scientific investigation. Distinctions between science and theology are not collapsed, however; the two are considered positive dialogue partners with disciplinary specific modes of investigation.

The Science of God is a single-volume summary of and introduction to McGrath’s three-volume A Scientific Theology (T & T Clark, 2001-03). It makes abstract and obtuse material more clear and concise. This is not to say sections such as those studying how “ontology determines epistemology” or surveying a priori v. a posteriori metaphysics will not require some work! McGrath explores interfaces between theology and the natural sciences, addresses theological methodology, and defends the overall theological enterprise. He is concerned to construct a public theology countering isolationist inclinations in contemporary theology by building a comprehensive theological system drawing on insights of natural science in conversation with Christian theology. McGrath is sustained by a strong evangelical orientation to Scripture and the gospel of Christ. Though ecumenically open and interactive, he critiques other positions and contrasts them with his own in a constructive fashion. Notable examples include reviews of Enlightenment reductionism and radical postmodernism as well as reevaluations of Karl Barth on natural theology or George Lindbeck on the nature of doctrine. He probably disagrees most forcefully with John Milbank and the “radical orthodoxy” movement. He admittedly relies heavily on T. F. Torrance and Alasdair McIntyre. For McGrath, the Christian doctrine of creation provides ample ontological imperative for engagement between theology and the natural sciences. He ties together creation and Christology nicely with his oft-repeated idea that “what is embedded in creation is embodied in Christ.” Though Alister McGrath sees “scientific theology” as an essentially Christian endeavor, he does not altogether excluding other religions from the dialogue process. Indeed, he argues the value of a Christian natural theology for viewing the “trans-traditional religious quest”, but prefers the Christian tradition’s “robust and resilient account of reality.”

Quentin Schultz

In a recent meeting I attended, expert communicator Dr. Quentin Schultz reminded us that all followers of Jesus are called to be servant communicators. All of us are part of the story that God is telling in the world, the story of His love, power, and forgiveness that is embodied in the life of Jesus. Intentionally participating with God in telling that story has much to do with the laying down of our lives, becoming a servant.

In an age where image and power are glorified we are called to humility and surrender. Paul said, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor 2:4, NKJV).

Father, teach us the lessons of obedience and humility. Forgive us for putting ourselves in the center and lamely taking credit for what you have done in and through us. Open our eyes to see the world as you see it and lay down our lives as Jesus showed us. Empower us today to live and tell that story so that Jesus may be lifted up.

— Raul Mock, Executive Editor

Jim Purves, The Triune God and the Charismatic Movement: A Critical Appraisal of Trinitarian Theology and Charismatic Experience from a Scottish Perspective, Paternoster Theological Monographs (Cumbria, UK: Paternoster, 2004), 242 pages, ISBN 9781597527538.

Jim Purves has provided an important contribution not only to Charismatic studies but also to the specific field of Trinitarian theology. A word of caution, however, is in order: this work is not easily accessible to non-specialists. It is a publication of the author’s doctoral dissertation in systematic theology, and thus contains highly technical language and intricate distinctions among already complicated concepts in the history of theological reflection on the Trinity. In addition to this, Purves’ use of a degree of Scottish idiomatic language and coined conceptual phrases make for slow going if one wants to follow the argument carefully without missing anything. The difficulty is, however, relieved to an extent by Purves’ inclusion of a glossary of the more difficult terms (especially those that are original with him) in the back of the book.

Purves’ thesis is that Scottish theology, nurtured almost exclusively by the Reformed tradition, affords little Trinitarian or pneumatological (doctrine of the Holy Spirit) grounding to account for the direct experience of the Spirit had by participants in the Scottish Charismatic renewal. Reformed thought has primarily taken a functional view of the Holy Spirit, focusing on what the Holy Spirit does rather than who the Spirit is. Purves sees this as a fateful and false distinction based on the assumption of the Western view of the Spirit as the bond between the Father and the Son, which has notoriously depersonalized the Spirit in most of Western Christianity since the time of Augustine.

Purves spends the first chapter acquainting the reader with the history of the Charismatic renewal in the Scottish context, noting key figures and events, including tensions with the established Reformed churches. Chapter Two is devoted to an historical overview of the foundations of Trinitarian thought among the Patristics (Church Fathers). Purves notes that the earliest church theologians were primarily concerned with discussing the Trinity in terms of how the Triune God accomplishes our salvation. Historically, the Trinity as perceived in God’s relationship to the world in salvation history is designated the “economic Trinity.” Due to a spate of heresies that led to the great Christological conflicts of the fourth century, orthodox theologians came to focus much more on the “immanent Trinity,” how God exists within God’s own eternal triune self, apart from any considerations of God’s relationship to creation. In the West, with Augustine’s development of the Spirit as the bond of love between the Father and the Son, theology in general, and Trinitarian thought in particular, became much more rationalistic, as the Spirit’s role was seen as informing us of Christ, who in turn revealed the Father. The Spirit, while acknowledged as a Person, was nonetheless almost always discussed in non-personal, functional terms and the Spirit’s mission was virtually always subsumed under that of the Son.