Writing Philosophy
Principled Christian Anonymity
That Which is Worth Saying
Truth through Story
Prophetic but NOT Prophecy
Principled Christian Anonymity
It has become too common a phenomenon in physical and online bookstores for a person to come across a great many books, especially from among Christian authors, whose covers fit the following general pattern:
-A ½ or ¾ length photo portrait of the grinning author is the prominent visual element and takes up the majority of the cover’s valuable real estate.
-The name of the author, often in gold-tone embossing, is the first bit of text to grab the customer’s notice as it commands the foremost position and is in the same size or larger font than the title which seems only to be present as a necessary, though secondary, consideration.
-The back cover and inside flaps are filled to the brim with non-specific quotes of acclaim, vague praise, and an entire section, complete with another grinning photo, called About the Author.
-One has to actually dig into the text itself (for shame!) to get a more full understanding of the work itself beyond title and tagline, yet one can hardly escape walking by the book on the shelf without it virtually shouting, “So-and-so wrote me!”
This should not be so.
That which is Worth Saying
In the realm of ideas: That which is worth saying is worth discussing. That which is not worth discussing is not worth saying.
This world of ours is full to the brim with communication, most of it of limited quality. Much of what we are confronted with is the intellectual equivalent of popcorn: it can be satisfying on a surface level, but is of limited nutritional value. That being the case, anyone seeking to launch his or her ideas out into the public marketplace has a certain obligation to make it a meaningful contribution.
It would be easy to misunderstand me at this point. I am not advocating a “serious issues only” policy over the whole world of human conversation. Music, art, humor, etc. all have very real nutritional value. Unfortunately, they are usually so caked in commercial preservatives, addictive sweeteners, and pounds of empty calories as to make them not worth the effort. Simple joy taken in the appreciation of the beautiful, the lifting of the soul brought on by a bout of pure laughter, the expression through other means that which words cannot be found to utter, all these things when found and expressed in simple and unperverted experiences are deceptively powerful and meaningful.
Yet, in these things as well as in intellectual thought, the truly healthful and meaningful is often drowned out by the vain, the foolish, the perverse, and the false.
Christian literature is far from immune to this reality. Christian Living shelves are weighed down with pastel prose wrapped in pastel covers, ignorance parading as deep insight, and an abundance of self-serving “ear scratching” tropes. Useful books on the interpretation of Biblical prophecy have to compete with a glut of sensationalist, fear-mongering, or superstitious nonsense dealing pop-eschatology and near-pagan understandings of the supernatural. And Christian devotional material tends to range from the insipid to the downright heretical with a great deal of discernment being necessary to reap anything that is both safe and satisfying.
This being the case, and following the principle found in 1Peter 4:11, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God…” and that provided in James 3: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness,” and also from Proverbs, “A man of knowledge restrains his words…Even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent, and discerning when he holds his tongue,” I have determined to work according to the principle of only publishing that which is truly worth adding to the noise of modern communication.
And yes, I am quite aware of the irony involved in the amount of words it took me to explain this point. As one who is not a stranger to the use of satire, it is only fair that allow the audience a bit of room to laugh at me as well. Also, “that which is worth saying is worth discussing…”
Transmission of Truth through Story
Not all of the work I intend to publish is in story form, but story does make up a considerable bulk of it. It is necessary, then, to explain my use of story to communicate among the most important of truths.
Our Lord, when He came to this mortal world and eventually took up the mantle of poor itinerant teacher, showed a real appreciation for storytelling as a powerful tool for the communication of deep and novel concepts. Through the telling of a simple, often familiar, story, the revelations of “things which angels long to look into” to simple and humble human beings in the everyday walks of life were communicated in language a child could understand, though any adult could spend his or her life seeking their full comprehension.
This shows what I will call the intellectual efficiency of storytelling. Much can be gotten from relatively little. A story about seeds falling on different soils is easily told, yet the wisdom of the Storyteller is such that leading Theologians and Scholars could easily spend their lives arguing its finer points without ever exhausting the full potential of it. Often times, the more simple the package, the more densely it may be packed. Luckily, for us mere mortals who don’t possess the very mind of God, this efficiency is also available in measure to those who fashion man-made stories. Just because a book isn’t the Bible obviously doesn’t mean the nature of a book to contain and transfer knowledge is beyond its grasp. Likewise, while not attaining to the Parables of the Logos, it still seems to me that the best way to package those truths which have been impressed upon my mind is in the effective form of representative storytelling. It also happens, providentially, that this is in accord with my personality and preferences as well.
Prophetic but NOT Prophecy
The P-word can mean a lot of different things, and none of them is inconsequential. So, let me explain. First off, I, unlike an uncomfortably large number of individuals out there today, do not claim to be a Prophet. I’m not a Prophet. The Bible provides a very clear and unified description and qualifications for the office of Prophet. It is not one to be claimed lightly. In fact, it is not one to be claimed, at all. The person him or herself has no input in the matter, and the imposition of one’s own thinking into the delivering of the divine communication is as serious a crime as prophesying on behalf of a false god. Such a “prophet” has essentially set himself up as a little god! The office of prophet is not something that anyone in their right mind would willingly approach with the proverbial ten-foot pole.
So then, what do I mean by “Prophetic?” Simply, it refers to a ministry or a message which can be said to fulfill one of the basic functions of the role of the Prophetic office, just without the “Thus sayeth the LORD…” authority which that office implies. Just as a person can be judicious without being a judge, they or their activities can be characterized in a general way as being reminiscent of that of the Prophets without actually being a Prophet.
The easiest way to explain this is through examples. When Elija declared the Word of the LORD to Ahab and Jezebel, his activities fulfilled several purposes or functions. They informed the intended audience of God’s will on a specific matter, they provided a rare and bold counterpoint to the prevailing culture and worldview of the day, and they sought to effect a real change for the better in history in submission to God’s plan. Likewise, when Dietrich Bonhoffer (not a true Prophet by anyone’s estimation) defied the general movement of official “Christianity” in his nation which was moving away from Biblical truth and toward hateful man-made ideology, his activity of publicly denouncing Hitler and the Deutsche Christen movement and beginning his own underground seminary in order to train Bible-believing pastors even at the cost of his own life, his actions and the role they played in the world could be described as “Prophet-like.” This is true even though Bonhoffer himself was obviously not receiving direct divine communication from God. He and his work were “prophetic” in character and social function, but he was not a Prophet. Bonhoffer made the Word known to the people of Germany. He was a witness of God’s true calling in constradistinction to the false faith of the Nazis. He was used by God in a meaningful way in the history of God and nations. His life was prophetic.
In the same way, then, that a person or their behavior being described as judicious, regal, Christ-like, or Godly doesn’t mean that the person is a judge or a king or Christ or God, or that anyone is making such a silly claim; likewise a person or their behavior can be referred to as serving a somewhat prophetic function without anyone claiming that the person is a prophet. Unfortunately, the misuse of these terms and what they represent is so widespread and varied that skepticism is the natural reaction to their use.
“Prophetic” in the way I am using it refers to the characteristic functions of a prophetic ministry without the direct supernatural revelation which the actual office itself implies and the authority that goes with it. A prophetic ministry is one which presents the deep and most applicable truths of God directly to the society in a challenging and hopefully transforming way. It is one which seeks to directly portray often unwanted realities in the face of the culture of the world. It is the holding up of the measuring reed of God’s revelation against human society, including the community of God’s people. If it is not communicating divine truth as revealed by God, it is not prophetic. If it is not challenging, it is not prophetic. If it is not transformative, it is not prophetic. If it is not a timely word which speaks to the realities at hand, it is not prophetic. True Prophets met these categories, yet they went further in the manner of their communication with God, and in their resulting authority. Any Word-wise believer today has the ability to pronounce an authoritative word as revealed from God, assuming such a word can be found in reveled scripture and is given in the proper context. What else is the Word for?
No, I don’t think anyone today has the right to stand up and declare, “Thus sayeth the LORD,” but are we not all called to respond to the world and to our brothers and sisters with an applicable, “Has the LORD not said…?” when the situation demands it? Unfortunately, many situations today demand it.