A Book Review of: The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything by Brian McLaren

As some of you may know Resurgence has been in response to much of the emergent and/or emerging conversations taking place within evangelicalism. Personally I have taken interest in one of the many voices of the emergent, Brian McLaren. I must admit he truly is a joy to read, so very crafty and entertaining. After reading some of his books I was eagerly anticipating his newest book The Secret Message of Jesus and what he would have to say in a book devoted to Jesus.

Let me just say first off that the book as a whole was really good. What I began to discover was that Brian McLaren was introducing all of his readers to some classic doctrines of the faith. Let me add there is no doubt that at the onset of reading the book I was a little apprehensive to see what he would have to say about Jesus. There is a bit of a neo-gnostic bent (this is the only way I can describe it) to his writings as he notes, "Maybe as I write the pages you're about to read, more will come clear and I'll cross the threshold to a new degree of understanding (pg. XII)." According to McLaren there are some things that Chrisitans need to learn in order to break into this new degree of understanding or enlightenment with McLaren leading the way? But this new degree of understanding was not found in this book according to my reading. This just falls in line with what McLaren would label a number three person, someone that may consider McLaren's books controversial or worse. In a positive light I did relearn some things of value. I would also like to note that I appreciate McLaren's lively writing style and how he takes some basic Christian doctrines and writes them in such a way that it really does seem like something new.

There is no doubt that consumeristic Christians today would benefit from this book along with discerning discipleship. McLaren does a nice job revealing to people that the gospel of the Kingdom of God is not just about personalization but about the furthering of the Kingdom of God to all people. It would be worthwhile to state that if anyone has done some studying of the word of God than you would hopefully not be shocked at some Kingdom concepts that are threaded throughout the Bible. Of course those that have been raised with the "Jesus is your best friend" and "Christianity is all about me" will not be making those connections. This again is why this book has value to the folks that read only themselves into all of scripture.

In part one of The Secret Message of Jesus, McLaren introduces the reader to some key concepts, that is: Jesus as prophet, Jesus as priest and Jesus as king. Historically these doctrines were developed out of the Reformation and furthered in the Puritan writings. The church of today may have lost touch of this doctrines in trying to be more culturally relevant. Therefore McLaren does the church of today a service by re-introducing these doctrines.

Moving from part one to part two, McLaren does a nice job at introducing the reader to the concept of the Kingdom of God. Again this is nothing new, a few major theologians to note that have written on this topic are Ridderbos' work, The Coming of the Kingdom and Vos' Biblical Theology. McLaren further explains how all believers in Jesus Christ are "secret agents of the secret kingdom." If you are reading your Bible you would see that Peter calls these "secret agents" the priesthood of believers. To be fair on the McLaren could be calling believers living in the world that they are agents bringing the gospel to their areas of influence. But is this kingdom really that secretive since it really is the universal body of Christ influencing and expanding in the world today.

Lastly in part 3 McLaren points out how the expansion of this Kingdom is good news and the powerful affect that this may have on the world if believers would just grasp this concept. Here I am in agreement again as I too believe that if people grasp the role they play in bringing the good news there is no doubt it will leave a mark on the world. This really is not that new of an idea. Do we really need to do the research of how long Christian missionaries have been at work? We could probably start with the apostle Thomas. McLaren also goes on in part 3 to explain a concept about the Kingdom of God to the reader, the already/not yet concept found on page 203. As in Jesus Christ has brought the Kingdom of God (Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...) then or already. But Jesus has not yet consummated or completed it as Jesus stated in Luke 22:18, "For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." There is a present and future reality to the Kingdom of God and it is not as much a secret as it is frustrating seeing the church today and/or cultural Christianity being lazy in reading their Bibles unselfishly. This concept gives the believer hope and encouragement but also the mission to continue preaching the gospel.

Drawing to some conclusions on some of McLaren's major points I would have to agree. Firstly that the gospel is not just about individual people, but that the gospel is about seeing what God is building not us. Secondly that we have a role to play in building this Kingdom and through this the non-believing world outside of redemption would be astounded if all believers embraced the Kingdom as they should. With these overarching conceptual ideas I am in agreement, but there are some points of tension that I would submit are in need of major rethinking.

The first is how and/or why people have not gotten this message. It is because people are not being taught the bible faithfully and in such a way that they realize there is an impact of the gospel outside of them. So the first point of tension which has been talked about before in this review but worth repeating is that McLaren acts like he has really stumbled onto something that has never been fleshed out before. He says things like, "Why didn't anyone tell me all this? Were others trying to hide the truth, or was the truth intentionally hidden by Jesus himself? (p. 34)" Here comes the neo-gnostic like bent to this book. This may just be me but I was under the impression that when Jesus declared in Matthew 11:25, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will." Or better yet in Matthew 18:3-4, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like Children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Jesus seems to be telling us that understanding the kingdom concepts really should not be secretive or hard to comprehend. It may just be the fact that people have put themselves so much into the Bible that they never take a step back to see the bigger picture of it all. Jesus is actually telling us that seeing the Kingdom of God is a simple thing because his image bearers are everywhere in the redeemed and not redeemed. The second point of tension with The Secret Message of Jesus is that the book goes to the extreme view of the Kingdom of God that the personal aspect of ones relationship with Jesus is almost lost. I say almost because McLaren does not deny the personal aspect of our relationship with God but because of the pendulum swing to confront consumerism the Kingdom aspect overshadows the personal. I submit that there has to be a proper balance of both and regretfully this book does not achieve this. The third point of tension and probably biggest major disagreement is McLaren's pluralistic view of understanding and embracing the Kingdom of God. He sees other religions grasping the feast of the Kingdom in their own way but of course this does not mean conversion but just a grasping from their view that there is a Kingdom of God. This comes off as syncrestic which comes to no surprise as he has done this in some of his earlier books. McLaren mentions that it would be great if Muslims and Jewish people would embrace the Kingdom of God in this way. But the crux in understanding the Kingdom of God is secretly left out because there is no mention of the embracing of Jesus Christ as the way and the truth and the life. It is in the title but not in the answer. If one leaves out Jesus there really is no redemptive value or even purpose in the Kingdom of God.

Let me close by saying if you are one that likes to engage in the emerging dialogue or has friends involved in the emerging dialogue this is a good common ground book to read. The overall concepts are good but the conclusions are not so good. If anything my prayer would be that this book would help bring people along the path of thinking about the Kingdom of God and the significant role that Jesus plays in the Kingdom. I would love to see more engaging books like this on the Kingdom of God but from the orthodox view that does not leave out the King.