Don't Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough [Paperback]

Michael E. Wittmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 2008

Must you believe something to be saved? Does the kingdom of God include non-Christians? Is hell for real and forever? These are big questions. Hard questions. Questions that divide Christians along conservative and liberal lines. Conservatives love their beliefs and liberals believe in their love. Each pushes the other to opposite extremes. Fundamentalists imply that it doesn't matter how we live as long as we believe in Jesus, while some Emergent Christians respond that it doesn't matter what we believe as long as we live like him. Theologian Michael Wittmer calls both sides out of bounds and crafts a third way that retains the insights of each. He examines ten key questions that confront contemporary Christians and shows why both right belief and right practice are necessary for authentic Christianity. Here is an urgent reminder that best practices can only arise from true beliefs. Genuine Christians never stop serving because they never stop loving, and they never stop loving because they never stop believing.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Must you believe something to be saved? Does the kingdom of God include non-Christians? Is hell for real and forever? These are big questions. Hard questions. Questions that divide Christians along conservative and liberal lines. Conservatives love their beliefs and liberals believe in their love. Each pushes the other to opposite extremes. Fundamentalists imply that it doesn't matter how we live as long as we believe in Jesus, while some Emergent Christians respond that it doesn't matter what we believe as long as we live like him. Theologian Michael Wittmer calls both sides out of bounds and crafts a third way that retains the insights of each. He examines ten key questions that confront contemporary Christians and shows why both right belief and right practice are necessary for authentic Christianity. Here is an urgent reminder that best practices can only arise from true beliefs. Genuine Christians never stop serving because they never stop loving, and they never stop loving because they never stop believing. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Michael Wittmer is professor of systematic and historical theology Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and author of Heaven Is a Place on Earth. SPANISH BIO: Michael E. Wittmer, doctorado en Filosofia por el Seminario Teologico Calvino, es profesor de teologia sistematica e historica y director del departamento de teologia en el Seminario Teologico de Grand Rapids, donde ha ensenado desde 1996.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (November 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310281164
• ISBN-13: 978-0310281160
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #802,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doing & Believing, Believing & Doing, December 12, 2008

By 

Mason Slater - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Don't Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough (Paperback)

Ever feel like you don't fit in with either 'side' in todays Christian controversies?
Do your conservitive freinds think you might be teetering on the edge of liberalism, while your liberal friends think you are way too sympathetic to the concerns of conservatives?
Ever feel that you are just as disgusted by postmodernism at certain times as you are by modernism at other times, albeit for different reasons?
Well if those sentiments resonate for you, as they do for me, Michael Wittmer can relate, and is trying to work out a deep, Biblically grounded, culturally aware third way forward which embraces the good of each side while critiquing their shortcomings.

To articulate this way forward Wittmer (professor of historical theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and author of "Heaven is a Place on Earth" a brilliant examination of the new creation) has recently written a second book, "Don't Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus is Not Enough".

In his newest work Wittmer eruditely works through some of the most controversial issues in Christian thought today, such as whether or not we need to believe specific things to be saved, if people are basically good, the ethical issues of homosexuality, the controversies of whether penal substitution is divine child abuse, and whether it is even possible to know God or his word in any real sense.

In examining each of these issues (and more) Wittmer steers a path between the extremes of both sides, as he puts it "conservatives fear that postmoderns don't care enough about doctrine, and postmoderns think that conservatives don't care enough about people. Conservatives say we must believe in Jesus, while postmoderns say it matters most that we live like him. This book attempts to bring both sides together, eliminating the extreme views of both parties and uniting them around a biblical center." (pg. 13)

Though the title focus more on some of the more radical elements of the Emergent church who he fears (and demonstrates) are drifting far from biblical orthodoxy, Wittmer to his credit takes conservative Christians to task just as much and just as seriously. One example I found very powerful came at the end of a discussion about how homosexuality violates the holiness of God and his image in us, and then discussing a loving Christian approach to sexual ethics, Wittmer states in conclusion,
"Homosexuals are guilty of illicit sex. We [Christians] often are guilty of not caring about them or their plight. Our sin is greater, and it isn't even close" (pg. 82) Wow.

Sadly both sides have pushed each other to extremes. The church gets too focused on doctrine and then the pendulum swings dramatically away to good works, the church ignores doctrine for social action and so the pendulum swings dramatically back toward an inward looking intellectualized faith. What we need is both faith and action, both beliefs and love, both deep theological articulations and passionate commitment to social justice. Wittmers book provides a vision for exactly that.

In the graciousness of the book (something often lacking when people engage Emergent, no names but ...), in its passionate for the Scriptures, in its understanding that true faith shows itself in love, in its acceptance of the many things postmodernism has going for it without capitulating to todays culture, and especially in the willingness to both take on and unite both sides, Wittmer has written something here to be commended for, and something that all believers no matter what side they lean toward would do well to read.
Here is hoping (and praying) we can move past the divisions of today toward a richer faith tomorrow...

Review originally posted at: [...]

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding the Better Way, December 9, 2008

By 

Tim Challies (Oakville, Ontario) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough (Paperback)

Michael Wittmer feels trapped in the middle. To one side are conservative Christians demanding lockstep allegiance to narrow doctrinal statements--statements so detailed that they insist on specific theories of the end times or specific understandings of the spiritual gifts. Such people interpret doubts, questions, or appreciation for other viewpoints to be the first signs of an inevitable slide to liberalism. On the other side are postmodern Christians who question many traditional assumptions--or maybe even every traditional assumption--but who go about it in ways that discredit their arguments; they offer new and novel interpretations of key Scripture texts and refuse to state exactly what they believe. To the one side are those who want to believe like Jesus while on the other are those who want to live like Jesus; to the one side are those who love their beliefs while to the other are those who believe in their love. Each position is polarizing and each position seems to offer something less than a robustly biblical faith.

Wittmer's position on the conflict between conservatism and postmodernism shows itself in the book's subtitle: "Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough." A professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, he is clearly not a person who has recklessly jettisoned theology in order to pursue theology-free living like Jesus. This book is his measured reaction against the postmodern tendency to live like Jesus at the expense of sound theology.

"My goal," he says, "is not to define a certain segment of Christianity but merely to examine the specific questions that many postmodern Christians are asking." The book, he says, is a friendly warning that rejecting abuses may well lead to a slide into equal and opposite errors. "The history of the church is a series of pendulum swings, and right now the momentum seems headed toward Christian practice and away from Christian belief. This book is an argument for both. ...This book seeks to avoid the most extreme forms of both conservative and postmodern Christianity and hit the sweet spot of appropriate tolerance."

And so Wittmer seeks to craft a third way, a way that avoids the extremes on either side while finding that sweet spot that allows a Christian to hold fast to what is true while retaining a love for others and a desire to serve them. He reminds the Christian that right works can only arise from right beliefs.

He blazes this trail by answering questions that are on the minds and tongues of many Christians today. Must you believe something to be saved? Do right beliefs get in the way of good works? Are people generally good or basically bad? Which is worse: homosexuals or the bigots who persecute them? Is the cross divine child abuse? Can you belong before you believe? Does the kingdom of God include non-Christians? Is hell for real and forever? Is it possible to know anything? Is the Bible God's true Word? While each question rates its own chapter, each topic, each chapter, bridges seamlessly to the next. There are no harsh pauses and no questions that seem forced or out of place.

It bears mention that this is not a book that specifically counters the Emerging Church, though it does that incidentally. Instead, it is a book that counters the whole postmodern ethos that has found its way into contemporary Christianity. This is broader than just the Emerging Church and in this way the book is far more useful, far more widely applicable, than if Wittmer had gone specifically after only Emerging Christians.

In Don't Stop Believing, Wittmer has written the kind of book with which every reader is likely to disagree every now and again. But he has written a book that graciously and humbly treats difficult issues that are of critical importance to the church. He brings biblical wisdom to bear on many tough questions and answers them with great care and refreshing simplicity. Having been released with little fanfare in December of this year, Don't Stop Believing comes as a delightful year-end treat. I highly recommend it.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Work, November 17, 2008

By 

r brandon "reformation man" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough (Paperback)

Serious theology written for the everyday Christian. Something wrong is afoot in Christianity and it is taking the Church by storm. Some Christian writers, pastors and speakers have popularized the idea that it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you "live like" or "follow after" Jesus.

Wittmer very clearly and practically writes to bring Biblical truth back into clear focus. And argues that living like Jesus is not enough just as believing alone is not enough. Faith without works is dead and works with out faith are vain.