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Why is it beneficial to know more about those people whose books you read? When we start trusting in Jesus Christ we receive the Holy Spirit. This means we receive an opportunity to develop the gift of discerning truth from lies.
If we stay close to God by regular studying of Scriptures and having conversation with God, we will grow in our faith. Our ability to discern truth from lies (or the gift of discernment) will develop and grow as well.
This is good news, but it comes with an added responsibility to use this gift. We cannot just listen to anyone or anything because it is “Christian”. Jesus clearly warned us that there are both wheat and weeds in the garden of his kingdom. Go and study what he says in Matthew 13 verse 24 to 43. An even better idea is to read that whole chapter on parables and their meaning.
In his book Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell says:
can lead to our blindly consuming things we have been told
are safe and acceptable. When we turn off this discernment
radar, dangerous things can happen. We have to test
everything. I thank God for the many Christians who create
and write and film and sing. Anybody anywhere who is doing
all they can to point people to the deeper realities of God
is doing a beautiful thing. But those writers and artists and
thinkers and singers would all tell you to think long and
hard about what they are saying and doing and creating.
Test it. Probe it.”
The book Velvet Elvis is published by Zondervan. They are my absolute favorite Christian book publisher, and they publish many (most?) of the books that I review on this website.
Therefore, grab all information about the authors whose work you read. Test and probe it, scan it for anything that makes you doubt their credibility. Work on increasing your ability to discern. It’s your duty.
Doing my homework on these Christian authors is no easy task. If you disagree with some of the facts stated here, it is another of your duties to inform me. Please do so on the BookDisciple.com Contact Page.
I make use of the information on the Christian authors available on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The information provided by Wikipedia is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Christian authors
Erwin McManus - lead pastor of Mosaic.
Rob Bell - pastor and founder of Mars Hill Bible Church.
Please note that this is one of those sections on BookDisciple.com that will carry on growing indefinitely. As the Lord introduces me to new authors who are worth listening to, I will add their background information to this website.
If you would like to be the first to know about new Christian authors added to this page, you have two options. You can subscribe to the Christian Book Epistle email newsletter or subscribe to the Christian Books Blog (the website’s journal).
Fill in your details below to subscribe to my monthly email newsletter called the Christian Book Epistle. Once a month, it will tell you about everything happening on the BookDisciple.com website, list the best of the latest book reviews, and tell you more about books (and other Christian media) and its place in the lives of Christians.
I sometimes include a sneak preview of upcoming Christian book reviews and give you some relevant, I-wanted-to-know-that type news from the Christian book industry (like new publications and book award winners).
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