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Meta
?? what makes you heretical ??
Published by bryan | Filed under Don Answers your ???s
Don,
I wanted to let you know that I enjoyed TOAD. I grew up without a father and so I found many of your struggles very familiar. I am also a writer with similar views to yours on spirituality, etc. It is great to see that there are others with similar views to mine. Sometimes I feel very much in the minority. On that note I wanted to ask you something. Many have called your writings heresy and have even questioned your salvation. What views of yours are most commonly cited as being heretical? Although I don’t agree with everything you say I find most of what you write to be closer to the gospel than many other writers of our time.
Also, who is Adam Bybee? I have not heard of him before reading that you were going to be writing about him.
Thank you and God bless,
Michael
Michael,
I’ve been called a heretic before, but I’m not sure why. My stuff is pretty safe. I think I get a lot of criticism for not “specifying” what i mean, or for not spelling out the theology in depth. In other words, I’m called a heretic for what “isn’t” there rather than what is. But I get that from Christ Himself, who didn’t spell out the theology when the man dying next to Him on the cross was given access to heaven, or to the woman at the well, or to Pilate. Theology often works to describe what happened to us, but that “happening” (being Christ Himself) has been encountered by many an eight year old. If that makes me a heretic, then so be it.
As for Adam Bybee, he is a dear friend who lives something of a prophetic life. He’s a tortured soul, but a beautiful one. I’m working on a book about Adam, his wife Kate, and their adopted son Dagner (Dagner is five years older than Adam and Kate) and am enjoying reliving some of my memories of them. The Bybee’s are in hiding in Central America, and I’ve not been in touch with them in a while, though I hear they occasionally come across my mentionings of them on the web. And when they do I hope they read how much I love them, pray for them and miss them. All the best, Michael.
Don
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:42 pm
[...] Check out this interesting post from Donald Miller’s fan site. It is an interesting incite of how people perceive him, as well as other Christian writers who think outside the box. [...]
May 24th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Don can’t be a heretic. His books aren’t out in hard-back, only paperback.
May 26th, 2006 at 1:08 am
I’m reading Searching For God Knows What…the person who gave it to me asked me to read Chapter 9 first, I’m quite sure his request was because I’ve become a Universalist (I believe the Bible is clear: God created it all; He sustains it all; and in the end {when His grand demonstration is over}, He reconciles it all back to Himself). Have you considered that possibility?
May 28th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Dr. Neck, I veiw your def. of Univerialist more your opioion than the theogical def. I dont know if Don would agree with your def.
May 29th, 2006 at 12:47 am
Michael, I’m what’s called a Biblical Universalist…I didn’t just decide universalism was a nice concept (emotionalism as it is frequently described. I found it to be the truth of the Bible. My study started with trying to prove that Annihilation (the doctrine that God puts out of existance all those who reject Him)was true and Eternal Torment was false…I was more than a little surprised to discover they were both false.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
Don,
We just finished a 3 wk. trip thru the Midwest. My wife read your book “BLUE LIKE JAZZ” to me as we drove. We laughed, enjoyed your honesty and your style of writing.
We heard of your book from a member of the Willow Creek Church, in Barring ton Hills, Illinois.
My wife is an artsy person too, so, she understood you better than I do!
I’m a retired Chiropractor, so, I think more pragmatically.
Keep on writing, you’re very good at what you do!
John
May 14th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Hey Don,
Just finished reading two of your books, I like the visual pictures you paint with your words. I gave my testimony in Church yesterday. I am an ex playmate( Playboy), party girl and generally all around, not your standard Christian woman, although I found Christ, or should I say He found me about 18 years ago. I love the relational aspect of your writing, that’s what we are wired for……Keep it up. Do youe ever come to Canada…..would love to attend one of your lectures, have many friends that read your work.
In Him.
Pat
August 29th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Michael,
Let me suggest a couple of reasons someone might consider some of the things that Donald Miller says to be heretical. In “Searching for God Knows What” Donald Miller says:
“If we hold that Jesus wanted us to “believe†certain ideas or “do†certain things in order to be a Christian, we are holding to heresy. In that bar on Hawthorne, I finished the last paragraph and felt a kind of sickness at the thought of whether or not I was telling the truth. But after further consideration, and after rewriting the book, I realized the formulaic version of Christianity was irrational, and for that matter, unbiblical.”
However in the Bible, here’s one of the most important things Jesus says we should believe:
“I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I Am the One I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24).
and an example of things Jesus says we should do:
“anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38)
There are many other specific things in the Bible that Jesus calls on people to “believe” and “do”. If you want to read real truth about this, the Gospel of John is a great place to start, and if you prefer online to hardcopy, BibleGateway.com is a good site.
In “Blue Like Jazz” Donald Miller says:
“Jesus didn’t just love me out of principle; He didn’t just love me because it was the right thing to do. Rather, there was something inside of me that caused Him to love me”
But the Bible says:
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:6-8)
The thing is, though Donald may feel okay about not spelling out clearly what he means by the possibly misleading things he says, un-truth can be presented as much by what is not said, as what is said.
In my understanding of the account of the thief on the cross next to Jesus Christ (Luke 23:39-43), the thief already:
1. understood exactly who Jesus Christ was and believed He could save him.
2. recognised his own depravity (sin), that he couldn’t save himself, and that there was nothing in him meriting Jesus’ love.
In fact, the only thing Jesus says to the thief at all is after he has pleaded for grace, to confirm that he had placed his faith in the One who could save him.
Truely, many an 8 year old has trusted Jesus Christ to save them, and in Matthew 18:3 Jesus says “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”. But unless that child realizes their own need to be saved from their sin, and understand that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God can offer that salvation because of his sacrifice, they would never choose Him. That’s theology. It’s not about us, it is about God and who He is.
And Donald, if you end up being the only one who reads this, I hope you someday recognise that the truth of the Bible is the inspired Word of God and as such is preminent over your oun belief and writings, and is not to be distorted by the things that you choose to say, or not to say…that the things you decide must be truth are secondary to the things the Bible says are truth. Deut 4:2, Prov 30:5-6, Rev 22:18-19