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Toward a Balanced Message: Biblical Completeness for a Broken World
Bracquemont provides an articulate analysis shaped by his experiences with many different Christian denominations, positive and negative experiences, a struggling working-class life, Asperger's Syndrome (on the autistic spectrum), and a positive faith that believes firmly that Jesus provides not only eternal glory for those who accept him in faith but that Jesus, the gospel, and the Bible can also transform both individuals and the world. Bracquemont believes that God fervently loves all his human creatures, that God cares about the whole of human existence, and that one should not have to choose between the eternal and social elements of the gospel but that both are important. His disability has caused him to appreciate both the social and eternal elements of the gospel. He also feels that the dichotomy between the social and eternal has resulted in an incomplete and imbalanced presentation of the gospel from both sides, to the detriment of both Christianity and the world. Though Jesus lived two-thousand years ago, his teachings, his love, his holiness, and his purity are just as relevant and needed as they ever were in the past. Jesus, in this sense, is indeed timeless and relevant to every generation. This book is about justice and charity alike; about faith (without which no person can please God) and virtue alike.
144 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2015
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January 18, 2022Could not manage to finish this book although I attempted it 3 times.....
January 22, 2016
******I was given a free copy of this book through Goodreads giveaways********
This is great reading for Christians who need to expand their idea of what social justice means. The book criticizes both Christian liberals and conservatives, aiming to point them towards a more balanced idea about what social justice means according to the bible. There were many viewpoints that were discussed in this book – some of them which I have encountered and some of them which I have never heard in my life (but could come across in the future, I guess). These included
• Liberal Christians who are anti-supernatural and lean towards a ‘social gospel’, and those who mix Christianity with feminism
• Feminists who attribute inequality in society to white males
• Conservative Christians, especially those who make excuses for not helping the poor by blaming them for their circumstances
Basically, the author picked holes in each of these viewpoints, and he gave good criticism. I must say however, I have never encountered many of the types Bracquemont mentions in his book – I have never met anyone who has interpreted the kingdom of God as a Marxist paradise or Marxism as the embodiment of Christian virtues … but I guess they exist (maybe in America?). The liberal Christian type I have encountered maybe once or twice but they are few and far between, perhaps they are more common in the US.
What I liked most about the book however was that it was personally convicting. I felt convicted to fight greed within myself – not to see it as an achievement to have excessive wealth but evidence of sin and personal failure. This is no doubt a very controversial idea but one which is clearly biblical.
Some of my favourite quotes from the book –
• ‘I feel that [the image of God] gives each person – regardless of race, nationality, gender or religion – the right to economic sufficiency, democratic rights, such as the right to vote, and religious freedom, at least a basic education (for both genders, as neither should be favoured), the right to be free from torture, rape and violence, the right to equal protection of the laws and to justice from the court system; and other rights.’ This is of course, opinion, but I personally agree strongly with this statement.
• ‘Through faith in Christ, people who did not have an equal chance, - or any chance at all – to be successful in this world have an equal chance at eternal happiness and glory…. This infinite form of opportunity contrasts with human concepts of justice and opportunity.’
• ‘If we take seriously the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation, these should make us far more compassionate, charitable and loving toward others.’
• ‘Jesus taught self – denial, not self – fulfilment…self – denial is a way of saying that we love our neighbours more than our superfluous luxuries, that those for whom Christ died are more valuable than superfluous material posessions.’
Bad
There wasn’t much bad in the book because I agreed with the vast majority of his statements, however
• The King James version of the bible was quoted, which I personally find irritating
• He mentions a ‘girlfriend of 13 years’. Without sounding too judgemental, any Christian knows this is long time to have a girlfriend and it prompts one to question out of curiosity why they haven’t been married? It’s not really a bad thing, just kind of a ‘huh?’ moment when I was reading
• The book includes a lot of personal anecdotes, which is great, but I feel like it relies a bit too heavily on the authors’s self-proclaimed IQ and Asperger’s (which, to be technically correct, is now known as high functioning autism) to validate his arguments. If your arguments are already good (which they are) I don’t really need to know about your IQ level, but it is an interesting fact nonetheless.
• The chapter criticizing feminism was a bit too much for me, I felt like the author was repeating himself too much and it started getting boring. It was almost entirely focused on refuting the ‘women earn 70 cents for every $1 men make’ argument and would have been more interesting if he had refuted some of the other common feminist arguments.
This is great reading for Christians who need to expand their idea of what social justice means. The book criticizes both Christian liberals and conservatives, aiming to point them towards a more balanced idea about what social justice means according to the bible. There were many viewpoints that were discussed in this book – some of them which I have encountered and some of them which I have never heard in my life (but could come across in the future, I guess). These included
• Liberal Christians who are anti-supernatural and lean towards a ‘social gospel’, and those who mix Christianity with feminism
• Feminists who attribute inequality in society to white males
• Conservative Christians, especially those who make excuses for not helping the poor by blaming them for their circumstances
Basically, the author picked holes in each of these viewpoints, and he gave good criticism. I must say however, I have never encountered many of the types Bracquemont mentions in his book – I have never met anyone who has interpreted the kingdom of God as a Marxist paradise or Marxism as the embodiment of Christian virtues … but I guess they exist (maybe in America?). The liberal Christian type I have encountered maybe once or twice but they are few and far between, perhaps they are more common in the US.
What I liked most about the book however was that it was personally convicting. I felt convicted to fight greed within myself – not to see it as an achievement to have excessive wealth but evidence of sin and personal failure. This is no doubt a very controversial idea but one which is clearly biblical.
Some of my favourite quotes from the book –
• ‘I feel that [the image of God] gives each person – regardless of race, nationality, gender or religion – the right to economic sufficiency, democratic rights, such as the right to vote, and religious freedom, at least a basic education (for both genders, as neither should be favoured), the right to be free from torture, rape and violence, the right to equal protection of the laws and to justice from the court system; and other rights.’ This is of course, opinion, but I personally agree strongly with this statement.
• ‘Through faith in Christ, people who did not have an equal chance, - or any chance at all – to be successful in this world have an equal chance at eternal happiness and glory…. This infinite form of opportunity contrasts with human concepts of justice and opportunity.’
• ‘If we take seriously the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation, these should make us far more compassionate, charitable and loving toward others.’
• ‘Jesus taught self – denial, not self – fulfilment…self – denial is a way of saying that we love our neighbours more than our superfluous luxuries, that those for whom Christ died are more valuable than superfluous material posessions.’
Bad
There wasn’t much bad in the book because I agreed with the vast majority of his statements, however
• The King James version of the bible was quoted, which I personally find irritating
• He mentions a ‘girlfriend of 13 years’. Without sounding too judgemental, any Christian knows this is long time to have a girlfriend and it prompts one to question out of curiosity why they haven’t been married? It’s not really a bad thing, just kind of a ‘huh?’ moment when I was reading
• The book includes a lot of personal anecdotes, which is great, but I feel like it relies a bit too heavily on the authors’s self-proclaimed IQ and Asperger’s (which, to be technically correct, is now known as high functioning autism) to validate his arguments. If your arguments are already good (which they are) I don’t really need to know about your IQ level, but it is an interesting fact nonetheless.
• The chapter criticizing feminism was a bit too much for me, I felt like the author was repeating himself too much and it started getting boring. It was almost entirely focused on refuting the ‘women earn 70 cents for every $1 men make’ argument and would have been more interesting if he had refuted some of the other common feminist arguments.
March 10, 2016
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed the second half of this book more than the first half. It was more what I was expecting, something I could learn from. I enjoyed the references to scripture and personal interpretations with examples. The first half of the book dragged on for me. I'm not familiar with the characteristics of all the different denominations discussed. I will pass on this book to someone who is more knowledgeable on the matters and ask that they submit a review as well.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews