The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God | Dallas Willard

The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God | Dallas Willard | Review by Lawrence Davis

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The Divine Conspir...

	The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God Dallas Willard HarperOne, 1998 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 138 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Once saved always....what?!?!

Dallas Willard opened my eyes to potentially the largest problem facing Christianity today: A lack of relationship with God.

It seems nearly oxymoronic to say that Christians do not have a relationship with God, but as Willard explains, it is not only possible, today it is probable.

Christians, particularly in America, are nearly exclusively focused on sin and sin management as opposed to an in-depth relationship with God. Because they are focused on sin (such as whether pre-marital sex is a sin, whether the act of homosexual sex is a sin, whether abortion is a sin, ad nauseum) Christians, in particular, are precluded from a real in depth relationship with God. Jesus died for Christians sins and because Christianity is obsessed with sin, it appears, once converted, that they are "done".

Perhaps this is why Christians proselytize before they meditate, call for "Alter Call's of coversion before the person has a clue what they are converting too, condemn gay's with being 'unsaveable', and have split the world neatly between 'unsaved' and 'saved' (as if it is that easy).

The theological concept has become a platitude but it speaks to this obsession, 'once saved - always saved' as if you have nothing to do, no relationship to cultivate, no God to pray to once you have converted.

Ofcourse, standing in this vacuum created by a lack of relationship with God stands and obsession with the 'law'. Christians tend to make a law out of everything biblical. Paul spoke of homosexuals so it MUST be that he set up a new commandment to speak about this. Peter spoke of not braiding your hair, so God HATES those who braid thier hair? This obsession, of course, has turned the average Christian into a Pharasee but no one seems to notice because they are not bothering to ask God what he might want out of thier life. This book points all this out and talks of a solution to this problem.

The solution rests in developing a 'kingdom heart'. One that is not obsessed with law, but is growing and developing with God's help.

This book was well written, well documented, well researched, and well done. I can honestly say it changed my view on Christianity and God.

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Review by Lawrence Davis

DIVINE CONSPIRACY: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION
Divine Conspiracy is an intriguing book that challenges the modern theological perspectives of Christian living. Even more importantly, however, is its resounding emphasis on the relevancy of God's involvement in our daily lives. Willard makes a convincing argument that the modern church has forgotten the true meaning of salvation and has basically cheapened the fullness of grace. The result is a "great disconnection" between faith and life application for most Christians.
After reading the entire book, I was compelled to reevaluate my own views on such issues as salvation, the Beatitudes, and our identity as Christians. I spent numerous hours reflecting and examining the following issues:

THEME: KINGDOM AMONG US NOW
One of the most dominant themes of the book is the concept that the Kingdom of God is among us now. A kingdom is anything a person has authority over. God's kingdom includes everything. So God's kingdom is all around us. God (as any king can) delegated some of His authority to us. Dr Willard postulates that true Christian living is an important development period for us so that we will be able to fully participate in co-reigning with Christ. Yet, most of our churches (including mine in many ways) treat salvation primarily as a ticket to Heaven and/or fire insurance from Hell. In essence, forgiveness becomes the target of Christianity. Discipleship then becomes a choice rather than a mandate. Our resulting lifestyles are now simply based on "sin management."
Dr Willard, however, believes that the true "gospel" is "the present availability to every human being of a life in the Kingdom Among Us" and without it "the gospel about Jesus remains destructively incomplete." Unresolved in my mind, however, is the understanding of the dynamic between the doctrine of "once saved; always saved" and the concept of John 17:3 in which eternal life is defined as "knowing" (meaning an intimate relationship) the Son.

ETERNITY IS NOW
One of the major corollaries of this theme is the reminder by Dr. Willard that Christians are currently living in eternity. Therefore, contrary to popular preaching proclaiming eternal life for Christians starts when Jesus returns, the reality is that eternal life has already commenced. This "radical" perception emphasizes the relevance of God in the Christians' daily lives since all of our actions make an impact on eternity.

IDENTITY AS CHRISTIANS
Perhaps one of the most insightful issues introduced was our identity as Christians. Dr Willard clearly emphasizes that Christians do not have two natures that are battling against each other and threaten to tear us apart. Instead, Christians are truly a spirit in a perishable fleshly body. Thus, who we are today is the same as who we will be after our physical bodies expire. As Dr Willard puts it, "Spiritual is not something we ought to be. It is something we are and cannot escape." Thus we should eagerly desire to learn to be spiritual in every aspect of our lives because the only true reality is the spiritual realm.

CREATIVE ROLE IN HEAVEN
Another thought-provoking concept Dr Willard expounded upon was our creative role in Heaven. The general teaching on the subject by our churches portrays Christians "managing" the Heavens with Christ. Yet Dr. Willard believes that the Christian walk prepares us for divine creativity in which we will be able to fulfill all of our desires because they are now conformed to God's.

TEACHING TO "HEAR AND DO"
While space (and time!) does not permit a complete analysis of the perplexing issues this book presented, an issue that cannot be left unmentioned is the methodology to teach Christians to "hear and do." Dr. Willard gives a very systematic curriculum for "instruction in righteousness," which starts by reestablishing the correct objectives. This concept is the key to bridging the "disconnection" gap between faith and having the "fullness of God."

CONCLUSION
This book was well worth the time invested and is exerting a dramatic influence on my priorities in my Bible teaching to my students as well as my own personal theology. I purchased the study companion and expect to make a more thorough analysis.

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Best Book, Bar None, I Have Ever Read

This is a life changing book, not one meant to be a quick read, but rather, one to be read bit by bit, and then mulled over. It brings to life the Sermon on the Mount, explains so very well the kingdom of God and its characteristics. As I read this book, I began to understand God's overall plan for humankind in a new way, and I have begun to live accordingly.
Read it! It will be a new beginning into the realm of God.

The best non-Scripture on Christian living

The driving point of this book is not, as some have mistakenly understood it to be, that the cross does not matter. This book is not written for non-Christians in an attempt to win them over. This is a book written for Christians, to win them over to the full Gospel. After all, Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." His purpose was not merely to be a sort of spiritual defibrillator to revive us from death, and then leave us be. Although we can refuse to walk with him, he is there to bring us into the life we are always meant to have -- to help us walk out into the light after a lifetime in the cave, to borrow from Plato.

And Willard is correct -- the Bible does not have a terribly complex system you are required to believe in order to get into heaven: 1)) admit that Jesus is Lord (God), 2)) believe that he rose from the dead, 3)) call on the Lord to help you be saved. That's all. Absent from this list: the virgin birth, the inerrancy of Scripture, the doomed status of all mankind, and other doctrines some Christians attempt to use as a salvation litmus test. I believe these are all true and I believe that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit -- the effect of becoming saved -- will lead to belief in these things; however, I do not question someone's salvation if their view of the mechanics (or availability) of salvation is different from my own.

So yes, the Gospel is simple.

Further, Willard explains a great deal about how one does not become holy by not sinning as much, but rather one stops sinning by becoming holy. (His analogy: if you wish to go to London, you don't simply decide that you're not going to Rome; however, going to London necessarily entails not going to Rome.) A genuine pursuit of the heart of God will cause sin to lose its appeal. Focus on merely not sinning will simply refocus the mind on sin, rather than on God.

This is probably the first book that, for me, helped me understand the proper attitude to develop holiness rather than simply be less sinful.

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Missing the mark

In this book Dallas Willard presents the life of the Christian as a disciple of Jesus. He attempts to mediate between evangelical and liberal perspectives and provide an approach to the Christian life brings out what both perspectives have missed. While containing occasionally nuggets, this book (from my perspective) misses the mark at several points.

First, in the noble attempt of rescuing a view of Christianity that sees faith and salvation as separated from life and actions, he defines salvation's primary concern as conformity to a way of life (Willard likes to refer to it as "...the eternal kind of life..." or "fullness of life"). Willard makes broad and sweeping stereotypes of evangelicals (or the Christian "right") when he says, "[they say that] being a Christian is a matter of having your sins forgiven...That's it." And again, "[evangelicals would say that] getting into heaven is the sole target of divine and human efforts for salvation." With this as a premise, he juxtaposes the liberal and evangelical positions and offers as an alternative a way of life as embodied in Jesus' incarnation. He claims we are able to enter continuity with this life by conforming to the patterns for life provided by Jesus. The dimensions of humankind as sinners deserving God's wrath and the mediating work of Christ in this regard are by and large marginalized (although cursory mentions to it are made). That which should be center stage implicitly becomes secondary.

Secondly, the empowering work of Spirit is almost completely lacking from his concept of the Christian life. This results in a life that nearly any "spiritual" person (I say "spiritual" in the popular sense) can imitate.

Thirdly, Willard appears to use poor exegesis. When basic rules of exegesis are violated in familiar passages (thanks to D.A. Carson's Exegetical Fallicies), it raises doubts in my mind about the other passages in which he departs from traditional interpretations on the basis of his own personal translation.

Although there is a serious lack today of authentic Christians who imitate Jesus with their lives, to make salvation from sin anything less than the central purpose of Jesus' incarnation, life, and death takes us to a very dangerous place, indeed. The power to live life as a disciple of Christ is not found in by simple conformance to a pattern given us, but is derived from the empowering work of the Spirit.

Willard does, however, accurately identify a weakness in contemporary evangelicalism. Many Christians today view salvation from sin as the end all of the Christian life and Christ's incarnation and call to discipleship are ignored, overlooking passages such as 1 Corinthians 11:1 and 1 Peter 2:21

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