Jesus Revisited, “Never Accept a Counterfeit Jesus.” If Pastor Al Stewart and I lived in the same city, I would hope we could regularly meet for coffee. Based on this work alone, it would seem we share a common theological perspective and Christian worldview. When I first saw his short book on the Amazon Kindle store website, I could not wait to read it and am glad that I did (three times).
Admittedly, at first blush, I was tempted to discount it out of hand because of the writing style and his penchant for non-traditional capitalization. But, because of the fact he had worked as a chaplain, I decided to read it to see if he approached the topic from a pluralistic perspective. I was elated to discover that was not the case. Although I might disagree with how he said it, I have no disagreement with what he said.
The book reads like a discipleship conversation over coffee with your pastor. And it works well if you keep that in mind. He uses a collection of proof texts to counter misconceptions about Jesus and to demonstrate what the Bible has to say about him. The stage is set in the forward. Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Stewart initially responds using accepted Christian, Trinitarian theology, by asserting Jesus is an eternal, non-created being who appears in the Old Testament as a theophany.
Using Scripture, the author devoted much of several chapters to demonstrate the mischaracterization of Jesus by Jehovah’s Witnesses, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and Muslims. He also touched on Universalism and Christian Nationalism. I felt like standing and cheering when he delivered a harsh rebuke of the prosperity gospel and those who profit from it.
I was especially impressed by how he addressed Christians’ interactions with those who identify with the LGTPQ+ community. He called out the unloving words and actions perpetrated against them by some pastors for what it is, anti-Christian behavior. He reminded readers that we are all sinners who have no right to selectively focus on the sins of others when we are standing knee deep in our own. To summarize, he echoed a trite, but still true statement. “Hate the sin and love the sinner.” If allowed to add anything I would say that it is God’s job to judge, our job to share the gospel, and the Holy Spirit’s job to change lives.
The book ends with an easy-to-understand discussion of who Jesus is. He is fully man and fully God, God’s agent of creation, possessor of all authority, immutable (unchangeable), and the Second Person of the Holy Trinity––co-equal with the Father and Holy Spirit. The theological points the author made can and have been made in works exhibiting superior scholarship. But, if I were sitting across the table from a cult member or Muslim, I would be thankful that I had Pastor Al’s book on my smartphone.
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