Are Christians aware of what John Mark Comer teaches in this book? If not, they need to be. Despite Comer’s avowal of not being an Open Theist, the god in this book is closer to Open Theism than to the true God of Scripture. Beware is the word for this book.
The main theme of Boyd’s book is that God allowed the Old Testament authors and Israel to view and depict him as a pagan war god since they were not able to understand who God was due to their cultural and religious ancient near east (ANE) limitations. Boyd offers biblical texts and ideas in support of this thesis, such as stating that any violent act attributed to Yahweh is against the non-violent Jesus on the cross and has to be interpreted in that light. Boyd writes that he came to this understanding after he stopped trying “to justify the violence that some Old Testament authors ascribe to God” (51).
This article is based on an audio discussion about violence in the Old Testament and the book of Revelation found here and here. JOHN MARK COMER, former pastor of Bridgetown […]