“The NEW Church” by David Edgren review

F

Actually, if this book had not been written by a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, i would probably give it a D+. But with the added responsibility of being a shepherd of God’s little flock, the errors are that much more egregious.

My cousin asked me to review this book. Usually i have no inclination to read books by my church leaders, as i am troubled by the waywardness from the inspired words nearly every time i do. This time proved to be no exception. Please note: I am biased against spiritual “teachers/leaders” hailing from Australia, California, and Western Europe. As this pastor grew up in California and lives now in Australia, my antenna is on high alert before reading anything he writes.

This pastor loves stories, and that passion shines in this book, as it is mostly story after story. I too believe it is very important for this generation to get a good story to them, as that is what strikes their hearts most, more than straight logic or history. But there is a strong tendency to what i see as an attempt to “re-storify” the Bible by putting a strange spin on many Bible stories.

It is troubling to read his version of the Bible stories, which is very imaginative. For example, he says king Saul went to urinate inside the cave when David cut off a piece of his robe (read 4ST 1888-10-12 for an inspired account that Saul went to sleep), that David’s megolamania caused Saul to go mad (totally speculative and doing despite to the fact that the Holy Spirit was with David, and leaving Saul at that time), that Samson did bad things like kill the Philistines (again, dissing the Holy Spirit that “came upon Samson” and made him kill those wicked people), that Jesus was standing right behind Thomas when Thomas doubted his resurrection (John 20 says it was 8 days later), and that Paul was basically dependent on Barnabas for “empowering” him (dependent on a man?), that Paul did a good thing in quoting heathen authors in his speech in Athens (Paul’s mistake), confuses Assyrians with Armenians, quotes bar-room jokes, and even manages to get a dig in against Internet Explorer (!?).

There are a few serious theological errors also such as where he says: “Changing behaviour before belonging and believing creates warped followers”. This is absolutely wrong. In other words, love the people and make them feel at home and warm and safe and then try to help them change their bad habits. This is totally the opposite of what John the Baptist and
Jesus Christ did. The FIRST thing they preached was REPENT. This “inclusive” type of evangelism is what has driven the Holy Spirit away from the church.

This quote from the 1858 Great Controversy seems especially appropriate in reviewing this book:

Hypocrites and sinners unite with the church. Pleasing fables are taught, and readily received. But if the truth should be preached in its purity, it would soon shut out hypocrites and sinners.

Notice where it says “pleasing fables”. This is exactly what Pastor David Edgren is doing in his ministry to put his own twist to the inspired stories in the Bible.

He writes: “Only one word was required to define their indescribable God – love”. This is the same mushy marshmallow “god” that is being passed off on the most of the world by Christians in the 21st century – a god who is totally imbalanced. But this is part and parcel of the following error in the book: “…(he) will not be a judgmental Jesus” (Rev. 19:11 … in righteousness He judges and makes war). In a similar vein he writes: “There is no greater way to influence others than by being joyful” (Isaiah 53:3 … He was a man of sorrows).

He also carried out several “Purpose Driven 40 Days of Purpose” seminars, which is a BIG yellow flag for me. Anything connected (and favorably) to Purpose Driven is not connected with God.

There are many good things he writes too. He says to always look to Jesus – Amen! He says Jesus was a small group leader. Yes, too often we wish to institutionalize everything, and forget the small, simple methods of our perfect example. Also, there is much truth even in his error. It is very true that we should be outgoing, not bound up in our own little circle, that we should be joyful Christians etc.

I wrote this review before going to the author’s blog, to see where he himself proudly uses in the title “restorying faith and values”. Just the title alone should raise a big yellow flag in anyone’s mind – you don’t go around “restorying” the Bible. Bascially, he is preaching a new faith, a faith removed from that which was once delivered to our forefathers. And yet, here he is being givng top treatment. He says on his blog about his trip to America that he is: “shooting the six episodes of a storytelling workshop for the CSPS (Center for Secular and Post-modern Studies) aimed at those who work as preachers, teachers and volunteers in the Adventist Church.” Knowing how the leader of the Adventist/Muslim relations center taught that the Muslim god and the Christian God is the same, how is it that i am not surprised at the error being espoused by its sister organization – CSPS?

What good is it that our denomination’s leader calls for repentance, while error is being put on a pedestal by the same organization? Will not God judge for these things? Does he not see these things?