This book is an appendage of sorts to a book I published in 2004 on the same general subject; that is: the relevance of Christianity in the modern world. However, because this work covers a much wider and deeper scope, and since I am no longer fond of the title of the earlier book, I chose to write this one as an entirely new work. While I have revised and repeated some of the information found in the first work, my insights have grown far ahead of what they were then. So this book will not cheat those who read the previous one. This new effort represents my continued learning in doctrine and my growth in Christ in the years since.
This is not a scholarly volume. It comes partly out of fifty plus years of reading books and articles about the gospel of Christ; preaching and hearing it preached from the pulpit and explained in seminars and classes; reading books and articles on science; and reading and rereading the scriptures; all while praying for the ability to discern what is true. But much of it has also come from the inspiration of the still small voice revealed in I Kings 19 that comes to me often, as it does to all Christians who are seeking a closer walk with God, in spiritually felt witness; and sometimes to my mind in real, though unspoken, words. My arguments are not founded on orthodoxy or tradition, but on the conclusions I have arrived at—and been led to—through the above circumstances.
The theme of this book is simply, “what makes sense.” Like all things that come to the table of religious thought through the filter of humanity, it is surely imperfect. I do not offer it as full and final truth. But it is significantly ahead of the pitiable—even poisonous—religious diet that Christians have been fed consistently over the past 1500 years or more. Hopefully it will stir some higher thought about why Christian influence has so greatly waned as knowledge has increased in the world; and end Christians’ inclination toward blaming the world for our own failure to draw people to Jesus Christ.
The Bible Beyond the Words: new revised edition 