Dividing the Faithful by Dr. David Schrock

One brother-pastor I had the joy of meeting a few years ago at a Founder's Ministries Conference in Florida is Dr. David Schrock. David is a thoughtful brother who has written many wonderful things to bless the local church and along with being a husband, father and local church pastor he is also one of the leaders who launched and regularly contributes to Christ Over All that is putting out excellent and important content constantly.  In his excellent and important book I highly recommend Dividing the Faithful (you can actually get a digital copy of this book free when you sign up for Christ Over All) he wrote the following:

“Ethnicity is the biblical term for various nations (Greek: ethnoi), but in Scripture the nations are divided by language (Gen. 10–11), not color. Color, as well as culture, are downstream from language. And so, if we are going to be biblical in our discussions about racism (better: ethnic pride, partiality, and hostility), we need to consider how the universal traits of such sinful ethnocentrism is committed by all peoples and then how those sins manifest themselves in our country. After that, we must see how Scripture deals with these sins and how the cross, resurrection, and Pentecost are the foundational events in redemptive history that have united the nations in Christ. Importantly, such unity does not come by offering instructions for better ethnic relations among fallen peoples but by calling all peoples to repent of their sins (whether ethnic partiality or otherwise) and find new life in Christ. In short, as long as Divided by Faith divides the world in ways the Word of God does not, they are going to fail to unify the world as God intends. And worse, any Christian who follows their lead is going to be pulled away from the true gospel and led down a path that either abandons the gospel or obscures it with the spray paint of social justice or a social gospel, which has no power to save, sanctify, or unify. Essentially, what Divided by Faith has done and is doing is not trivial. It is not on the level of confusing the mode of baptism, or even a disagreement on the relationship between Israel and the church. Rather, it is a mistake that threatens the gospel and the standing of the church itself. This is why when churches preach the works-righteousness of this social justice prosperity gospel, it is fracturing the church. For indeed, it preaches a gospel that is not the gospel, and as Paul says to the Galatians, it is a message that troubles the people of God and should be condemned outright, no matter who is preaching it!” -David Schrock Dividing the Faithful P. 111-112

Lord willing, we will read and discuss this book as elders and with our pastoral assistants in the near future.  I also think we have or had at least one or two copies oof this book shelf at the church building but if not we will restock them. And if you want a copy please let me know!  Dr. Tom Ascol and Graham Gunden actually interviewed David Schrock on their podcast about his book. You can listen to that interview and discussion here.