Public Challenge to Bruce Wilkinson: “You Were Born for This: Seven Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles”
Dear Bruce,
Hi again. As you know, I’ve been spending the past seven weeks evaluating your new book, You Were Born for This, holding its content up to the truths of Scripture.
(For those of you coming in late, Bruce’s book claims that each and every one of us has the potential to be used by God to deliver miracles on His behalf in the lives of others each and every day of our lives. No small claim, that one.)
I’ve finished reviewing your book and, as you are probably aware, yesterday I gave it the grade befitting the book: an F. I take no pleasure in giving any writer a poor grade, but quite honestly I have no reservations in giving the text the failing grade – which brings me to my reason for addressing you in this way today.
Bruce, the contents of your book are very troublesome, so troublesome that I believe it would be very profitable for you (and anyone else who might read our exchange here) to answer a few questions. Call this a public challenge, if you will, whereby I represent the reader, who has a need to know the answers to these five questions:
- You never identify the identity of your reader. You write so generically that both the non-believer and the Christian might believe that you are writing to them. To whom are you writing, and why be so generic?
- Your definition of a “miracle,” which is the main topic of your text, is not biblical. What you describe as miracles in your book are defined as good deeds in the Bible. Why change the terms when the Bible (and 2,000 years of Christianity) has always understood the clear difference between miracles and good deeds?
- You refer to places (attitudes, really) like “Everyday Miracle Territory,” “the Land of Good Deeds,” and “The Land of Signs and Wonders,” as though they are mentioned in the Scripture, when (in reality) they’re never mentioned there. Why speak so authoritatively about things that simply don’t exist in the Bible?
- Rather than supporting your claims with biblical support, you use your previous text, The Prayer of Jabez, for support. Why not back it up with Bible verses? Which bible passages back your extraordinary claims?
- Lastly, there’s no place in your text where you actually talk about the one place where true believers can be used by God in a miraculous way: EVANGELISM. When a Christian shares the Gospel with an unbeliever (in obedience to the Great Commission given to all believers, and out of love for said unbeliever), God does His miraculous work of conversion in the life of that person. How could you overlook the most obvious and most important miracle of all?
This public challenge, Bruce, is not the equivalent of a drive-by shooting, where somebody takes a pot-shot at their least favorite author. These are carefully-though-out questions, written by someone who, like you, aspires to be a faithful Bible teacher…and they deserve answers.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Chris
PS For past responses to You Were Born for This, click on the following posts: Title & Table of Contents, Table of Contents addendum, Testimonials, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, 13 and the final grade for the text.
PPS For new readers, 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 my title, Clear as a Bell, and download for your own instruction.
