New Testament scholar Scot McKnight is not your typical seminary professor with a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. Whereas many scholars focus on writing for the academy, or on technical commentaries for seminary-educated pastors, a great number of McKnight’s more than eighty books are written for believers in the pews and ministers who haven’t had the opportunity to obtain an advanced degree. McKnight is a biblical scholar with his feet firmly planted in the local church, serving as a deacon in the Anglican Church in North America. His theology is not theoretical, but rather practical, boots-on-the-ground application of biblical truth. According to McKnight’s introduction to the book, the central idea of Open to the Spirit is “God is alive and well and indwells us. And God wants to transform us into persons who demonstrate the grace, love, peace, and justice of God.” It doesn’t get much more practical than that.

The book is divided into five major sections

• Open to the God Who Speaks
• Open to the New Creation of the Spirit
• Open to the People of the Spirit
• Open to the Virtues of the Spirit
• Open to the Victory of the Spirit

Whereas with other books having chapters of 30 to 40 pages (or more) one often has to split the reading on one topic over several reading sessions, McKnight’s 24 chapters max out at ten pages long, making it easy to read each chapter in a single sitting (possibly as part of one’s daily devotions) and meditate on the thoughts presented in easily-digestible portions.

Whereas many theologies (especially systematics textbooks) start out with the doctrine of Scripture, McKnight presents his chapter on being open to the God who speaks in the living Word before his chapter on God speaking through the written Word. This keeps the person of Christ at the forefront. The fourth chapter deals with the God who speaks through prophetic words, and states unequivocally that “to deny the gift of prophecy in the church s to quench the Spirit.” The fifth chapter closes out the first section with a discussion of the Spirit who intercedes for and through believers.

The book’s second section, “Open to the New Creation of the Spirit,” discusses what it means for the Spirit to bring about new life in us. This new life requires our participation and cooperation. McKnight makes it clear that “we are not filled with the Spirit accidentally. No, we must seek the Spirit’s filling, we must request the Spirit’s filling, and we must receive the Spirit’s filling” (pp. 60-61). While McKnight argues that there is only one baptism (and recognizes that Pentecostals and Charismatics may balk at this statement), he does say that based on personal experience and the testimony of other Christians that there is still a need for ongoing and fresh fillings of the Spirit. (In my own personal analysis, I have found it prudent not to get into debates about terminology such as “baptism,” “empowerment,” or “filling,” as long as people recognize the need for the ongoing supernatural work of the Spirit. Rather than debating semantics, let’s simply agree that we can’t live as God desires without the Spirit moving in our lives.)

The fourth section has chapters dealing with assurance, freedom, and holiness, which McKnight point out is “first and foremost devotion to God,” with rejecting the world being an outflow of that God-centered devotion, rather than the driving force in the Christian life (p. 149). This section gets into the down-to-earth, day-to-day aspects of Christian living where the Spirit empowers transformation.

In conclusion, I believe Open to the Spirit would be a great introduction to the work of the Holy Spirit for someone who is open and curious, but not ready for a more academic study. It is easy to understand, avoiding difficult and obscure theological terminology in favor of simple language that is accessible. Since it is not a classical apologetic for the continuationist position, but rather a simple explanation of why one should be open to what the Spirit wants to do in the Christian’s life, it is an ideal book to give to someone who may have reservations about the charismata but is willing to go where the scriptural evidence leads.

Reviewed by Brian Roden

Preview: https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/1pJPDwAAQBAJ

Publisher’s page: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/236744/open-to-the-spirit-by-scot-mcknight-foreword-by-dave-ferguson/

Scot McKnight shows in this book that the vision of Heaven the Bible gives is precisely what we need for a vision of what life should be on earth through Jesus by the gospel through the church.

If you want a book recounting traditional teaching from scripture on Heaven, you need to look elsewhere. But if you want a book that moves toward breaking new ground and is potentially a paradigm changer in one’s faith, you’ve found a great book here.

McKnight begins by considering how the subject has been approached, and how it ought to be approached. McKnight’s writings seek to be true to what the Bible says. In McKnight’s understanding, the reason Heaven matters is because God promised it to us. Thus, it’s as good as the God who promised it. And the promise of Heaven relies on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Heaven is a resurrection world.

The most important part of the book is the groundwork McKnight lays from scripture, listening and challenging tradition. Orthodoxy is often much wider than many seem to acknowledge. The important thing is to remain faithful to the spirit and truth of the gospel.

Heaven is essentially the promise from God in and through Jesus and Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. What will be true of Heaven? God will be God, Jesus will be Jesus, Heaven will be the utopia of pleasures, Heaven will be eternal life, Heaven will be an eternal global fellowship, and Heaven will be an eternal beloved community.

What will the first hour of Heaven will be like? McKnight’s view is a stark contrast from the traditional Roman Catholic view of Purgatory. His emphasis is not on human cooperation but on God’s grace. Entrance into Heaven will be a transformation that will leave no stones unturned, including the need for reconciliation in what was left of very broken relationships on earth.

The issues addressed near the end of the book are near-death experiences, rewards in Heaven, who will be there, the fairness of God, whether our children and even spouses still have a special relationship to us, children who die, cremation, purgatory, pets in Heaven, and why one should believe in Heaven in the first place. Be ready for some surprises, and to be challenged as to what scripture actually teaches on some things. McKnight places an appropriate emphasis on the hope and the wideness of God’s mercy without resorting to universalism.

The two great views of Heaven in the church, that it is an ecstatic worship experience largely between gathered individuals and their God, or that it is a time of great communion in love and work and service in the kingdom end up being joined together in God’s vision of Heaven from scripture. Heaven is a dynamic, not static existence.

I would commend this book as a good model to help us think biblically. This book helps us see that the vision of Heaven is related to the entire Story found in scripture. Our view of Heaven directly impacts our view of earth and life in the present, since Heaven is destined to come down to be joined to and become one with earth in Jesus. God’s will is to be perfectly done on earth as it is in heaven.

Reviewed by Ted Gossard

Engage Further:

“Scot McKnight Answers Questions on the Topic of Heaven – The Heaven Promise” [Vimeo]

Scot McKnight, “10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Heaven: Who will be there? Are near-death experiences reliable? And more on eternal life” On Faith (October 6, 2015).

Scot McKnight, “The Heaven Promise Podcast” Jesus Creed (November 5, 2015).

Preview The Heaven Promise: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Heaven_Promise.html?id=JHYlBgAAQBAJ

Publisher’s page: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/books/236717/the-heaven-promise-by-scot-mcknight/

Scot McKnight responds to the review essays by Kevin Williams and Tony Richie that appeared in the Summer 2011 issue of The Pneuma Review regarding his article, “Jesus vs. Paul” that appeared in the December 2010 issue of Christianity Today.

Scot McKnight, “Jesus vs. Paul” Christianity Today (December, 2010), pages 24-29.
The text appearing on the December 2010 cover encapsulates the discussion: “Jesus preached almost exclusively about the kingdom of heaven. Paul highlighted justification by faith. Some say they preached different gospels. Others say Jesus and Paul both preached justification. Still others claim both focused on the kingdom. What gives?”

I want to thank The Pneuma Review for its response to the piece I wrote in Christianity Today. I believe the gospel issue is the biggest issue we are facing in the church today. Serious discussions need to take place. I believe that what we think the “gospel” is would not have been understood as the gospel in the 1st Century—by Jesus, by Peter or by Paul. Or by anyone else near them. That may sound surprising, but I’m dead serious. We tend to think the gospel is the good news of how we can be saved, and we have constructed a way of presenting this gospel by cobbling together pieces scattered throughout the New Testament. What we mean by “gospel” is the plan of salvation, and it goes something like this: God made each one of us but we chose the path of sin. This same God loves us but God is supremely and fearsomely holy. But because God loves us he has found a way to get us back together: he sent his Son, Jesus, to die for our sins so we can be restored in our relation to God and spend eternity with God in heaven up in the sky somewhere. If we respond to this offer of redemption, our lives will almost certainly be better, and if they don’t God will give us the grace to sustain our faith. By and large I also believe these things, but I’m convinced no one in the 1st Century would hear this and assert, “Yes, that’s the gospel.” They may have agreed with the statement, but they would not have called it the gospel. And because we think this is the gospel, we are missing out on what it is and what it is all about.

In the two pieces in Pneuma Review, the big pushback for me is why I choose to begin with Paul, and the oddity of that move (which goes against the grain of my own career of writing and teaching) will be clear when my book, The King Jesus Gospel, comes out the end of next month [August 2011]. First, only Paul really defines gospel (1 Cor 15), and those who define gospel as I did above are really imposing some things from Paul on Jesus and on the pages of the NT and as a result are providing a meta-hermeneutic of how to read everything in the Bible. That meta-hermeneutic is to read the entire Bible through the lens of Paul’s justification by faith as the personal plan of salvation. But I think this is imposing Paul on the whole Bible in a way that the Bible does not want us to do. (Let me back down just briefly: I believe in personal faith and one dimension of justification is that you and I can be made right with God by trusting in what Christ has done for us.)

I began with Paul because my goal is to beat the Paul imposers at their own game. How? By beginning with Paul, showing that Paul is not saying what they think he is (namely that the gospel is simply justification) and, only then, by showing that in the end Paul’s gospel is the same gospel as Jesus’ gospel.

I see two advantages here: first, by not beginning with Jesus, which I could have done quite easily, it does not look like I’m setting up Jesus in order to impose Jesus on Paul. Second, once I’ve cleared the deck by showing what Paul really means I can show what Jesus really means by “gospel.” I don’t think Paul means simply justification, and I don’t think Jesus means simply social justice or even kingdom—but the story of Israel coming to completion in Jesus himself. Had I begun with that, I don’t think my case would have been as compelling—we’ll see if my case is clear when the book comes out.

Scot McKnight
July 18, 2011