The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren: A Critical Reading

This is the first in a series of posts where I will provide critical analysis of The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren. I am critical of the Emergent Church Movement which McLaren is a leader of and have decided to read this book to find out what the man himself thinks. It is my intention to hold this book up to the light of God's word and we will see what is revealed. If what McLaren says falls in line with scripture, I will acknowledge it, if it does not, I will expose it. Simple as that. Without further ado, on to the introduction.

Introduction:

McLaren starts by stating that he is on a spiritual quest to understand Jesus and his message. Commendable.

No I don't think I can contain [Jesus' message] in my little brain. It's not so much that I'm trying to get his great big message into my little head; it's more that I'm trying to get my little head fully into Jesus' message.

Humility is a good thing and McLaren shows some here. He goes on to state that many people think that they have Jesus all figured out and that he believes they are likely wrong. I agree with him here that the modern depiction of Jesus by the church largely misses the mark. I doubt however that him and I will arrive at the same conclusion as to how Jesus should really be portrayed.

He states that he is one of many people who have a:

...shared frustration with the status quo, male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone, organized Christian religion.

Talk about over-generalizing! While I do not consider myself an apologist for organized Christianity, I do know that that in my 20+ years of attending churches across the country the only status quo upheld by any of them that I attended was that of spreading the gospel of Christ, most of them were actually female dominated if anything, and none of them were in pursuit of power or cover-ups. I know that churches like this exist, but they are not the only option out there like McLaren implies in his book.

Here is where I start to get really skeptical about what we are going to encounter in this book. McLaren says:

[I have] an unshakable intuition that both He and his message are better than anything [I've] heard, or understood, or figured out so far.

Since the message of Jesus as I understand it is: Man is separated from God and sinful. Man cannot redeem himself or reconcile himself to God. God loved us so much that he did that which we couldn't do, provide a way for us to be reconciled to him through Christ. Because of this act of love those who accept it will be spared from the just result of their sinful lives, eternal torment in hell, and instead Jesus has prepared a place for us in heaven with him. In the mean time Christ gave us the tools that we need to live a righteous life here on earth, and commissioned us to spread the gospel to the nations. Jesus tells us to serve one another, love our neighbors as ourselves, love our enemies, and to care for orphans, widows, clothe the naked, and feed the hungry.

That's a pretty good message! Jesus tells us a lot more than what I have listed above, and I don't claim to have a 100% firm grasp on all his teachings, but I do understand these things. My point being that I will be shockingly amazed if McLaren is able to top that, and stay accurate to scripture, but we shall see.