(Click here to download the first chapter of Max Lucado’s Fearless.)

Dear Max,

Hello again. I know that I haven’t given your story of “the Wolf Man” on pages 13 and 14 much attention in my open letters to you, but I’m pressed to finish my evaluation today, and I believe I have enough information to say:

I read some biblical truths in your first chapter:

1. Though we be believers in Christ, we are still tempted to live in fear.
2. God has commanded us, by His Word, that we are not to fear.
3. Fear leads to real problems in the life of the believer.

I some serious reservations about recommending your book:

1. You write that we can live without fear. While Jesus and Paul do instruct us believers not to fear, you know and I know that we will not achieve sinless perfection in this (or any) area until we enter the throne rooms of Glory.
2. You’re somewhat late in identifying the fact that you are writing to believers. (If you don’t think this is important, just think about the confusion that was caused because – in The Purpose-Driven Life - Rick Warren waited 50+ pages until he finally got around to telling people their need of a Savior.
3. You don’t mention whatsoever the greatest reason we ought not to sin: because God commanded us not to fear, we are sinning when we are afraid.
4. You speak of the importance of passages (and I’m assuming you’ll speak of prayer in later chapters), but there’s absolutely nothing in your text regarding the need for repentance from our fearfulness. 2 Cor. 7:10-11 states, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.” Your process skips over this very necessary part of the process altogether.

You are a very gifted writer, Max, and what you’ve produced is written very well, according to current standards of writing. My standard for grading must take into account, though, each of the points I’ve summarized above. That said, because you’ve left out such terribly important qualities in your opening, I must give “Fearless” the following grade:

D+

Furthermore, I would not recommend that people read on, lest they are grounded in the realities of sin and the importance of routine repentance when we do in fact sin.

Please feel free to respond, Max, as readers will learn more through any future exchange that you and I might have here.

Until next time,
Chris

PS In case you haven’t been reading, I plan to email you with this invitation to respond. We’ll see what you do with that.

(For past responses to Fearless, click on the following posts: Title & Table of Contents, Testimonials, Pages 3-5, 6a, 6b, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.)

(One more thing. I’ve compiled my earlier analyses of Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile by Rob Bell and Don Golden. Simply click on Clear as a Bell to download for your own instruction.)

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 6:58 am and is filed under Open Letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.