I was a junior in college when I realized she was a universalist.
My favorite author, whose lyrical style and captivating storytelling filled my bookshelves, had finally shown her cards in one of her non-fiction works. I had to read the paragraph three times to realize that she had departed from the gospel of Jesus Christ. No other writer to date had shaped my theology and love for the written word like she had. When I came face to face with her expression of eventual grace for those who reject Christ, I realized I had a lot of work to do to unravel truth from lie. This was 2001. The internet was still new, and I chose books based upon friends’ suggestions or a professor’s recommended reading list. Sometimes I just scanned shelves at the local bookstore looking for an interesting cover.
It’s easier these days to see what’s popular. Through social media, blogging, and the irresistible Facebook share button, we can know exactly which book is making the rounds, what article or Instagram post has gone viral, what podcast is most empowering, which speaker is most enlightening. Beautifully curated bookshelves are photographed and tagged #amreading and #givemejesus but are loaded with a wide and varying degree of “Christian” authors, many of whom never address issues like atonement, redemption, depravity.
No, the colorful book jackets and podcast logos of today’s Christian pop-culture don’t often bring up terms as antiquated and demoralizing as sin. No, it’s more like flaws, or the Christian favorite, struggles. If anything, the term must deflect fault to something else: society, upbringing, victimization, hypocrisy in the church. Someone else’s sin, but not yours. That’s the whole point of these books, sometimes: excusing our flaws by explaining them. Or hyper-focusing on one moral code that will lead to genuine happiness, no matter where you fall on the infallibility of Scripture.
I’m grieved every time I see another woman I care about succumb to the latest “Christian” bestseller which, more often than not, is feel-good psychology scantily clad in a few decontextualized Bible verses. Sometimes I feel like I’m watching Paul’s second letter to Timothy play out in front of me when people I love fall prey to vacuous teaching that holds to a form of godliness but denies its power. I’ve been deceived myself, and I have to fight against weak-mindedness.
Weak-Minded Women
“For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:6-7, ESV)
Weak women. In some translations it’s idle. In others, it’s weak-minded, and I think that explains the condition best. It “suggests a wandering into counterfeits, with no awareness that truth has been left behind.2”
I’m not immune. As illustrated above, it’s happened to me. I’ve been sucked in by writers and speakers who pull us up close to their stories with warm-hearted charisma and a finger that gently points elsewhere for blame. I’ve cast many an admiring glance towards teachings that free me from responsibility and let me “be me.” I’ve been tempted by books that promise to uncover God’s specific, secret words to me personally in case my Bible is feeling out of date or too non-specific. What warms our hearts with fuzzy feelings about God’s plans for our lives amounts to nothing more than treating the Almighty like a fortune teller while scraping off any culpability for sin off Jesus’ commands for us to be like Him. The section of the bookstore titled “Christian Living” is a buffet where we can stuff ourselves with forms of godliness while starving for the knowledge that really does lead to the truth. It means we’ll always be back looking for that next book that might fix us by denying there’s anything wrong with us.
I don’t want to paint with too broad a brush. This isn’t every book for Christian women by a clear, long shot. I’ve read some of the most encouraging, gospel-saturated books by women and for women in the last two years that were high and above anything else I’ve read in that genre in my adult life. But those books don’t often make it to the front page of Amazon or to the bestseller shelves at the book store. Be wary of the ones that do take the lead. If a book resonates with someone opposed to the gospel or its transformative effects, then that book probably shouldn’t be a source upon which you build your theology. Critical reading is one thing. But, trying to glean “something good” from an author who denies Christ’s supremacy, man’s depravity, or Scriptural inerrancy is entirely another thing altogether and should be avoided.
Hold Fast to the Gospel
As I’ve worked my way through 2 Timothy over the past month, the thick thread holding Paul’s letter together is his charge to Timothy to preach the Word faithfully, holding fast to the gospel of Christ Jesus. At the risk of repetition, Paul exhorts over and over to stay true to the message of Jesus and Jesus only. And I don’t mean exhorts like “this would be a really great thing for you to do,” but exhorts like “preach the gospel like your life depends on it.” Because you know Paul. He doesn’t play. From his jail cell where he was imprisoned for this very gospel, he had heard about the pervasiveness of false teaching that was capturing people weighed down by sin and led astray by various passions. His exhortations always carry urgency, and with good reason. This is life and death.
Paul’s urgency translates well to the 21st century for there is nothing new under the sun. We may be two-thousand years removed from Paul, but the creeping nature of false teaching is still one of the enemy’s greatest tools for leading people astray. A form of godliness will work just fine. It doesn’t have to be that far off from the truth. Just enough to carry a shadow of the truth but that doesn’t actually result in a life transformed by the death of Jesus and the repentance of our sins.
Pray for Discernment
Here’s the good news, sisters. “It is not God’s will that women be weak in their discernment, burdened with sin, and led astray by passions.1” God desires more than this for you. He created you! His will is that you hold fast to the message of the gospel which is Christ and Him crucified and resurrected. In James 1, we are encouraged to pray for wisdom if we lack it. Wisdom isn’t fortune-telling. It’s discernment. And I believe praying for wisdom in regard to what we read and hear is a prayer God is moved to answer.
The gospel is your measuring stick. If what you’re reading, hearing, or watching isn’t anchored to the truth that you were dead in your sins until Jesus gave you new life by paying for your sins at the cross, then what you’re engaging with is missing the mark. If, like my college epiphany, what you’re filling your mind with denies the damning effects of sin and rejection of Christ, it is missing the mark. It is, as Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:5, a form of godliness that denies the power of the gospel. If you are building your theology (what you believe about God) upon what other people think about the Bible without ever studying the living, active Word of God for yourself, you are missing the mark and opening yourself up for dangerous error.
Exercise Discernment
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17, HCSB)
We have been given the gift of God’s words to us in the Bible. If you want to know His will for you, take up and read. If you want to find freedom from sin, take up and read. If you want to know how to speak the gospel of hope to your unbelieving friend, take up and read. If you want to learn how to persevere through trials, take up and read. Study the Word of God as much as you can, and by it measure everything else you read. There is no other book that is infallible or breathed out from the Maker of the universe. He has loved you by revealing Himself to you through His Word. Take up and read. Know His Word inside and out, and in so doing, you will be protecting yourself from weak-mindedness because you will be learning the mind of Christ.
Study the Word of God as much as you can, and by it measure everything else you read. Click To TweetI’m not telling you not to read books besides the Bible. I love to read a wide range of writers, and I encourage others to as well! Read old books, new books, commentaries, poetry, blogs, articles. But first and foremost, read your Bible. All of it. As much as you can. The only way to really know if a writer or speaker is worming their way into your heart with a knowledge that doesn’t lead to truth is if you really, really know the truth.
Notes:
1Piper, John. “When a Lover of Good Thinks About Evil.”
2Guthrie, Donald. The Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press), 1990, 179.
*Are men excused from the need for discernment? Certainly not. Paul’s exhortations to Timothy are to hold fast to the gospel message so he can help others hold fast to it. I address women because Paul does, and because of the lack of discernment I’m seeing within my own gender. Additionally, most of my readers are women.
*Need a place to start? Check out the books I’ve loved and been profoundly shaped by here.
Photo by Sarah Noltner on Unsplash
Glenna Marshall is married to her pastor, William, and lives in rural Southeast Missouri where she tries and fails to keep up with her two energetic sons. She is the author of The Promise is His Presence (P&R) and Everyday Faithfulness (Crossway), and Memorizing Scripture (Moody). Connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Debbie Gilliland says
Id love to know who that favorite author was who you now believe s a universalist!
Dan Sudfeld says
Thank you for this. I have just embarked on a summer sermon series through 2 Timothy. These are spot-on applications for women and, as you stated in your additional note, for men.
Glenna Marshall says
Dan, thanks so much for your encouragement. I’ve been digging into 2 Timothy for about a month, and it is ruining me in the best way. I’m certain your church will be convicted and encouraged by Paul’s message, but I bet you’ll get the most encouragement as you prepare to preach it. So much good stuff there for pastors. Blessings on your ministry!
Chris says
Good words, Glennna.
Joy Picini says
I generally avoid female Christian authors for the some of the same reasons you state. I sure would like to hear some of the women you would recommend reading.
Glenna Marshall says
Hi Joy,
I’m working on a list of books that I would definitely recommend. You can find them here: http://www.glennamarshall.com/books
Specifically, I’d recommend anything by Jen Wilkin, Rosaria Butterfield, Christine Hoover, and Hannah Anderson, just to name a few.
uta pieper says
After all is said and done, I am a universalist myself. For instance, I like Gary Amirault’s website, “tentmaker”,
where he quotes an aquaintance as saying, “do you never read the white?” (of the Bible pages).
I may very well be wrong, but this is definitely my point of view!
Glenna Marshall says
Uta, well, I’d argue that the printed words of the Bible are incomparably more important than the white space on the pages. ☺️ I’d take a look at John 14-15 (specifically 14:6 and 15:6), Acts 4:12, John 3:36, and John 8:24 just to name a few helpful passages.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my post!
Beth Hancock says
Thank you, Glenna! You are spot on and you’ve just summarized Aimee Byrd’s “No Little Women” book.
Audra says
I don’t leave comments on websites. But I have to today…thank you, truly. This was encouraging. I have a similar story. I feel alone sometimes in this, but it is exactly what I have come to believe. It can feel isolating and takes unbearable patience and wisdom to discern how to navigate this topic when a struggling friend finds solace in works that do not lead to repentance and faith. The urgency comes from going through it myself and knowing it will only lead them away from the truth, and farther into darkness and self-centeredness. It is troubling to find backlash in groups of otherwise thoughtful believers, when faced with conviction of sin and death. I understand how hard and humbling it is, but it is the truth, so…
I think it takes time and suffering to understand how to give and receive true friendship, also.
Anyway, thank you. My favorites are Nancy Wilson and Elisabeth Elliott. I will look into the others you recommended. And I look forward to hearing what you have to share in your book 🙂
Anna says
This is very informative article. I would love to know the authors that concern you though. I noticed your list of recommended authors and books did seem to leave out many of the wildly popular female writers of today. As a busy mom, I just greatly appreciate your ”caution” list of Christian authors and books.
Glenna Marshall says
Hi Anna, thanks for your comment. I’m hesitant to name writers specifically in a public place here because not every book is a “bad” book (although some certainly are) and as a first time author myself, I know the hard work it takes to write a whole book.
That said, yes you’ll notice a lot of popular names missing from my recommended reading shelf. Sometimes the wildly popular books are popular because they do not contain a lot of gospel truth, and the gospel is generally offensive to the public at large. Sometimes a good rule of thumb is if the “Christian” content of a book could also have been written by a person of another false religion, then this is not a book I should build my theology upon. I find that a lot of books written by women these days focus largely on a woman’s empowerment, so much so that it it is to the detriment of her dependence upon Christ.
If you’re looking for a good book to pick up for biblical encouragement, start with Hannah Anderson’s book Humble Roots or work your way through Jen Wilkin’s books or Elyse Fitzpatrick’s many books. Jared Wilson’s Imperfect Disciple has been my favorite book of 2018 so far.
My list is growing as I read books I can confidently recommend as gospel-rich resources. Not every book makes the cut, but I love discovering authors who are committed to the inerrancy of the Bible and hold fast to the gospel. And if they’re good at the craft of writing, they’ll definitely make my list! 🙂