The Great Spiritual Migration by Brian McLaren emphasizes three migrations that Brian believes the church must undertake. Spiritually, he advocates a migration from a system of beliefs to a way of life. Theologically, he emphasizes moving from a violent God of domination to a nonviolent God of liberation. Missionally, he explores how congregations can move from organized religion to social outposts of organizing religion.

Brian asks the question, “Could Christians migrate from defining their faith as a system of beliefs to expressing it as a loving way of life?” (p. 3).  I appreciated his emphasis throughout the book on demonstrating God’s love to the world around us. He challenges the reader, “Are we ready to say that Christianity must no longer be defined by a list of unchanging beliefs, but rather by the dynamic pursuit of love, by the primacy of compassion – by a way of life centered in love, as embodied by Jesus? (p. 48). He seems to be making a false dichotomy between beliefs and love in action. It is somewhat ironic that he is using Jesus as the example since Jesus was the perfect embodiment of grace and truth,

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Brian’s emphasis on love seems to ignore a full-orbed picture of Jesus. Brian’s perspective seems to typify the type of individual who was raised with a certain theological background and when he sees the errors of his background over corrects to an equally dangerous extreme. Robertson McQuilkin wisely pointed out, “It’s easier to go to a consistent extreme than to remain at the center of biblical tension.”

As I read The Great Spiritual Migration I noticed a number of inconsistencies between what Brian emphasized and what Jesus taught. I will limit my examples to the New Testament for it appears that Brian eschews the God of the Old Testament although Jesus was convinced of the veracity of the Old Testament,

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)

Brian writes, “We are coming to see that in hallowed words like almighty, sovereignty, kingdom, dominion, supreme, elect, chosen, clean, remnant, sacrifice, lord, and even God, dangerous viruses often lie hidden, malware that must be identified an purged from our software if we want our future to be different from our past” (p. 90). The problem is Jesus uses many of these words in conjunction with His life and ministry. He continues on, “To accept Jesus and to accept the God Jesus loved is to become an atheist in relation to the Supreme Being of violent and dominating power” (p. 93). This statement is a stark antithesis to Jesus’ own words,

Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;” (Matthew 25:41).

Brian has fashioned a god who shows love to everyone. It’s an appealing god, but it’s not the God who is depicted in the Bible. In chapter six he applauds a statement by a nine year old girl,  “When I think about God I think of a person who would never murder or kill anyone” (p. 110). That statement, however does not describe the God of the Bible. Jesus said,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

I appreciate Brian’s emphasis on love but the second commandment has usurped the first commandment in his theology (Mark 12:29-31). His epistemology is not based upon the Bible but what he believes is true. This leads to a flawed hermeneutic because he has placed himself as the authority for truth rather than the Bible. If the Bible is not the standard for truth then people can pick and choose what they feel is truth. This leads to a praxis in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus. As Brian describes evangelism he makes this outrageous statement, “Neither my neighbors nor I are obligated or expected to convert” (p. 176). If a person can get to God in any other way than through Jesus, then the Cross of Christ was unnecessary. Are we content to make people feel good without regard to their spiritual condition? I am curious how Brian would interpret Jesus’ statement to His disciples,

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)

C.S. Lewis presents a trilemma in Mere Christianity helping us see Jesus’ true identity,

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

You can’t have it both ways, either Jesus was a great teacher or He was the Savior of the world. You cannot decide what teachings of Jesus you will ignore, otherwise you become the authority and people can selectively decide what they want to believe. Brian emphasizes the love of God, but he fails to show the justice of God. I do not recommend this book since it has such a radical departure from Jesus’ teaching as depicted in the Bible.  (I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review).

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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