FOUNDATIONS:
Four Big Questions We Should Be Asking
But Typically Don’t
By Peter Mead
Christian Focus. 96 pages. £4.99
ISBN 978 1 781 916 414
The premise of this book is that all of us, Christian or non-Christian, have answers of sorts to four questions – Which god is God? What does it mean to be human? What is sin? What is salvation? – because we all have some ultimate allegiance.
Peter Mead seeks to answer these questions, foundational to any belief system, by exploring the way Luke records the spread of the gospel in Acts.
The book is easy to read, something that you could easily give to a non-Christian friend or colleague who is seeking to get a handle on what Christianity is all about.
Relational answers
The answers offered, for the most part, are great. It is short and therefore of necessity does not include everything one could say. Mead’s overarching strategy in answering these questions is along relational lines. God is a ‘wanting to be known God’. Sin is fundamentally a heart problem, ‘relational rebellion’ and salvation by the grace of God offers not only forgiveness but friendship. This is not to say that Mead is denying that there is a moral aspect of sin, it is simply his argument that too often the relational nature of sin and salvation is not emphasised.
However, I do think there is one thing that is missing. As Mead gives us a biblical world-view in addressing the nature of God, humanity, sin and salvation, he misses one key aspect of any belief system, and a biblical worldview in particular, and that is destiny – where are we heading? – and the Bible’s answer to that is equally foundational. Perhaps this calls for a fifth big question to be addressed, but at the very least it means that fuller consideration needs to be given in addressing the questions about sin and salvation. This was very much part of the apostles’ presentation. So, in Acts 17, a passage Mead considers, as Paul speaks to the Areopagus the call to repentance is in the light of Judgment Day (v.31).
So while I agree that sin is relational rebellion, people need to know that not only does sin break our relationship with God but makes us enemies of God, putting us on a collision course with him. This God who wants to be known ‘commands all people everywhere to repent’. Yes, salvation is more than a legal agreement with God regarding heaven: it is restoration to life now with the triune God, but the Christian’s destiny is worked out in size and scale beyond our imagination when we will be with God forever. Not much is said about the ‘not yet’ of salvation, the hope of eternal life, and I think this overall helpful little book is weaker for it.
