New Book Challenges Both Modern and Traditional Views of Christian Faith

A radical new book on faith charges that the major problem with both conservative and liberal views of scripture is that they have made belief in bible ordinances and theological conclusions the basis of righteous faith, not the bible evidences that make Christianity itself true. From St. Augustine to Luther to Bultman and the Jesus Seminar, the church has throughout the ages consistently focused on Christianity as a set of declarations of truth which must be tested, but tested only to the satisfaction of personal need, not to objective rational and biblical standards of truth testing. This has caused the church to be filled with functional unbeleivers, who believe that having faith in a true spiriutal viewpoint is more importnant than having faith in the truth of God-given evidences for His existence and His Son's messiahship. In a completely unique take on the subject of Christian faith, Bruce K. Silverthorne fires a shot across the bow of a weak church which may correctly declare that justification is by faith, but never asks how faith is to be justified.

(PRWEB) November 17, 2004 -- Well, the Reformation is over. Everything that could possibly have been written on the essential teachings of Christianity have been written. The greatest minds of the ages have thoroughly dissected the bible, and no one can claim ignorance of it's truths based upon the volume of work smart and pious people have done. All the knowledge left to know in sanctification is what the Reformers have said, key verses, bible languages, and how to control our bodily passions. We can be confidant of our disposition before God.

Or should we?
Is it possible that that the greatest Christian minds of the past 1800 years have had it all wrong about what God considers righteous faith in Him? Is it possible that most of the scores of books that have been written, the countless sacrifices that the zealous have made, the ceremonies, and nearly every product of Christian conclusions about real faith worked over the millennia, in nearly every denominational stripe, have been motivationally wrong? It is possible that we don't understand this because the most important truths about Christ are just too simple and accessible to reason, their grave implications too obvious, and therefore reaches too deeply and demands too much of us? Are we missing a single truth about the bible that can be equally horrifying as it is joyous, and so penetrating that if preached rightly it would produce the same quality of faith from believers and the same quality of murderous outrage from unbelievers as existed in 1st century Judea?

"The Pest Control Technician's Guide to Christian Faith" is an attempt to strip off the church jargon, the academic literary formulas, and the years of theological and sentimental posturing of the common Christian work and let the world see for the first time in so long the cake under all the man made, excess icing placed upon Christian truth. What is real Christian faith? Not what conclusions and assumptions are right and which are wrong. Not which theological bullet point is supported by scripture and which is not. This is not another book taking up another defense of important yet comparatively inconsequential truths, such as the errors of notions of salvation through works and the corporeal presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Rather, the book discards the irrational assumption that one can have a faith honorable to he Messiah by only believing in Him through right facts but not necessarily for a factual reason. The thesis is simply that in real faith, conclusions about God and the bible are just as important as our premises; those premises being both our presuppositions and the evidence we bring forward to substantiate them.

This may sound like a relatively innocuous revelation, but when examined closely it leads one to implications about faith which reach to the very theological foundations of Christianity. "The Pest Control Technician's Guide to Christian Faith", written by an unknown, common believer, and a stranger to the pulpit and halls of academia, can be nothing short of an earthquake to traditional biblical exposition, and can overturn and ruin the power of what has become only a man-made system for personal enrichment and self-aggrandizement. A Church which once attracted and people by nothing more than it's power to present and back up the reality of historical and spiritual truth, now a cause for shame to believers and revulsion to unbelievers as it can do nothing more than promote itself.

Is a second reformation for the church possible, but this time not based upon the rediscovery of the importance of faith in justification, but a biblical rediscovery of how faith is to be justified? A rediscovery of the nature of righteous biblical faith?

Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, arguably the greatest living messianic scholar, writes:
While the title of the book implies that the author is correlating his years of experience in pest control with how one should approach and proclaim biblical faith (and this indeed he does well), the book is actually much more than that. The author seeks to show that true biblical faith is not merely based on believing for the sake of believing based upon an emotional response. Believing is necessary based upon the evidence presented. He shows well that while the Apostles performed miracles, it was not because of the miracles that people were called upon to believe, but because Jesus did really fulfill all the First Coming prophecies of the Old Testament. The issue is not merely the conclusions about Scripture but necessary evidences behind those conclusions because unless those evidences are understood the faith itself is a weak faith. As a Messianic Jew, I can say Jesus is not the Messiah merely because of what He said and what He did, miracles or otherwise, but He is the Messiah because He fulfilled those prophecies. Mr. Silverthorne's book does an excellent job at presenting the case very well and he is to be commended for this. The book is highly recommended.

Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Director, Ariel Ministries

Author, The Footsteps of the Messiah: A Study of the -Sequence of Prophetic Events, Israelology: The Missing Link in Systematic Theology, Messianic Christology, Jesus Was a Jew

The book is available at all major book outlets, and may be obatined at a special discount at: http://www.pdbookstore.com

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