It’s been two thousand years since the Son of God came into the world. And yet,
regrettably, today’s leading pastors and theologians still can’t agree on the meaning
and purpose of His coming. In this book, Maurie Daigneau offers a deeply personal,
well-researched, and biblically sound and encouraging solution to that problem.
The Gospel You’ve Never Heard is an invitation to all who want to live their lives in
accordance with the will of God and make their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ
the priority of their lives.
My original exposure to God was largely a result of my mom’s wonderful voice. She was the lead soloist in the church choir, and every Sunday morning, my sister and I would find ourselves in a pew with instructions to behave or else. We very much enjoyed those Sunday mornings listening to our mother sing. In addition, from my earliest memory, I was always under the impression that this was the place where people met with God. As a result, I can’t remember a time during the days of my youth when I considered anything contrary to the existence of God. I mean, how else could this incredible world have gotten here? There didn’t seem to be any reason to doubt.
I was eventually baptized at the age of twelve and summarily congratulated for becoming a Christian. The task going forward, or so I was told, was to try every day to be a good person. How good? At least as good as the next person. So, for me, by definition, being a Christian meant just that: be a good person.
I’d like to think that being good was always my top priority. But from my earliest days, the great desire of my life was to become a good athlete. My parents were divorced when I was two, and my dad took off, leaving my mom to raise my sister and me by herself. She was a great encourager of my athletic talents from the moment I began to display them. Football, basketball, and baseball became my passions, and she was always my biggest fan.
By the time I reached high school, I was good enough to become all-conference in all three sports and eventually received a full scholarship to play football as a quarterback at Northwestern University (NU). As a graduating high school senior, I felt like I literally had the world by the tail. Good person, you kidding? Great athlete! How else could I have gotten where I was?
I’m Going Camping
Fast forward a bit. The summer of 1971 was approaching. I had just finished my junior year at NU. That fall (1970) was my first full season as the starting quarterback, and we’d gone 6–1 in conference play, finishing in second place in the Big Ten. We had just finished our spring practice season, and I was cleaning out my locker, thinking about heading home for the summer. An assistant coach got my attention and motioned for me to follow him to his office. In a matter of minutes, I was talking on the phone with some guy from an organization called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). I hung up the phone and looked at Coach Lile. He was sitting across from me with a big grin on his face. “Have a great time,” he said.
A few weeks later, I was getting out of a car in the middle of the mountains in Estes Park, Colorado. I’d arrived at a place called the YMCA of the Rockies. I was going to be spending a week at my first-ever FCA camp. I was nervous, to say the least, but comforted by the fact that there were other college athletes in attendance, as well as a handful of NFL players. The NFL players were going to be the speakers for the week, and we, college guys, were going to be individually responsible for leading small groups of high school athletes. It was going to be a week of what they called “perspiration and inspiration.”
As far as I was concerned, the perspiration part was no problem. The inspiration was another story. I’d rather have been standing across from an Ohio State linebacker than sitting in a circle (actually called a huddle) with a bunch of high school athletes, trying to teach them about what it meant to be a Christian.
But then something very real started to happen. On that very first day, I began sensing something, mostly in and through the presence of others. I heard words from guys like Willie Lanier, Jerry Mays, and Jerry Stovall, all NFL players, and also from Doug Kingsriter, a great tight end from the University of Minnesota. They were words that suggested that perhaps my definition of what it meant to be a Christian was a little lacking, a little shallow.
There was consistency in what they said. It was about a relationship: a relationship that, for them, was the most important relationship they had in their lives. I knew it was a relationship that I did not have. It was one thing to believe in the existence of God but something entirely different to have surrendered my life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The ensuing time was full of discussions and continuing personal interactions. But on the early morning of the third day, I found myself in a circle with about six or seven other guys. We were kneeling and holding hands. The tight end from Minnesota was in the circle. It had become obvious to me that he had the relationship I was looking for, the presence that I had sensed almost from the moment of my arrival at the camp.
It also occurred to me that without an invitation, the Lord Jesus was not going to presumptively take up residence in my life (see Revelation 3:20). I knew I had never previously extended Him such an invitation. I prayed from the depths of my heart for His presence to become mine. The Spirit of the Lord had arrived in my life, and I knew it was for the very first time.
An Unshakeable Relationship
It has been fifty years since that moment in Colorado, that moment when my faith-life journey really began. A lot has happened in the days and years that have followed: joys and sorrows, victories and defeats, right and wrong choices, trials and tribulations, certainties and doubts. But there is one thing that I have never been able to shake, though the Lord knows there were times when I tried.
No matter how difficult the circumstances of my life, no matter what anybody said about my faith, about the book that I followed, about the Savior that I believed in, no matter what evidence they presented to deny the truth of what I believed, what could not be done, what could not be denied, what could not be taken from me, was the reality of the presence of the One who had entered my life in that moment in the mountains of Colorado.
That is the unshakable reality that has led to the writing of this book. If I have learned anything over the course of the years of my relationship with the Lord, it is the measure of the incredible patience He has for anyone who is sincerely seeking to know Him and His truth.
Through the many times I was stumbling around, looking in all the wrong places, listening to all the wrong voices, He patiently waited for me to finally discover the only place that He and I could ever truly meet. “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31b–32).
Answers from My Own Quest
Any and every faith perspective regarding Christianity emanates from the same source, the Bible. Without it, there would be no Christian faith to discuss. The knowledge the Bible contains is essential to the discussion if one hopes to find and understand the true meaning and purpose of life.
The difficulty in today’s world is that the credibility of the Bible hangs by a thread if it has any at all. In his book Letter to a Christian Nation, noted atheist/author Sam Harris suggested that it is long past time to “admit that the Bible is merely a collection of imperfect books written by highly fallible human beings.”[1]
And similarly, in his book god is not Great, fellow atheist/author (the late) Christopher Hitchens wrote,
the case for biblical consistency or authenticity or “inspiration” has been in tatters for some time, and the rents and tears only become more obvious with better research, and thus no “revelation” can be derived from that quarter.[2]
Of course, criticism from the nonbelieving community is to be expected, but when a world-class biblical scholar, Bart D. Erhman, abandons his evangelical view of the inerrancy and divine inspiration of the Bible, what are we to think? The mere title of one of his many books, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them), tells me a lot about his perspective.
However, unlike Harris and Hitchens, and in spite of the fact that he now sees the Bible as nothing more or less than a “very human book,”[3] at least Erhman continues to encourage that we “read, study and cherish the Bible.”[4] Thank you, Mr. Erhman!
The Bible—My Primary Source
If the above weren’t enough to muddy the biblical waters, there are a growing number of voices within the church itself that are acknowledging the obvious: “biblical literacy in America is at an all-time low.”[5] Of course, the awareness of declining biblical literacy is not a new reality; it is something that has been trending for decades.
In 2009, George Barna (The Barna Group) noted from his research that
there is shockingly little growth evident in people’s understanding of the fundamental themes of the scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and application of biblical principles.[6]
In 1990, George Gallup and Jim Castelli concluded, “Americans revere the Bible, but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.”[7] And if we look back even further, the witness of J. C. Ryle’s classic work, Holiness, originally written in 1877, was this:
There is an amazing ignorance of scripture among many and the consequent want of established solid religion. In no other way can I account for the ease with which people are like children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine.[8]
I reference the above perspectives because, despite its critics and the illiteracy issues, the Bible must and will be the primary source for my writing. As such, I think it important for readers to know that my convictions regarding the book are not complicated. I hold to the belief that one day I will be required to give an account for the way I chose to live my life.
For such an important moment of accountability to be just, it presumes the application of a standard of measure that I could have and, therefore, should have known during my lifetime. Since the Bible has always been available to me (albeit clearly not the case for everyone), I believe that in that moment, were I to ask the Lord Jesus how it was that I should have known and understood the standard by which He would be judging me, He might respond to me as follows:
“For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6).
“It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD’” (Matthew 4:4).
“If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching” (John 7:17a).
“If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31b–32).
I am convinced that God not only inspired this “very human book” but also protected a thread of unbroken truth that runs through the Bible, all the way from the first word in Genesis to the last word in Revelation. Despite the historical-critical shortcomings that “better research” has revealed, I believe it to be the only completely reliable source in which I can find the “WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD” (Matthew 4:4).
A person’s ability to know and understand the promised truth that will make him or her free depends upon the way he or she seeks to know and understand the truth that the Bible contains. And it is a truth that we should not be leaving in the hands of someone else to figure out. We should be seeking to know it ourselves because it can be known. There is simply no better book to be seeking to understand as we endeavor to make sense out of the meaning and purpose of our lives.
In the concluding chapter of his aforementioned book, Christopher Hitchens quotes German philosopher Gotthold Lessing’s response to Lutheran pastor/theologian Johann Goeze during the latter’s unsuccessful four-year (1777–1781) attempt to convert Lessing to Christianity. Hitchens cites the following from Lessing:
The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of the Truth, but rather the pursuit of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectibility is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent, and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with the proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and to offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand.
—Gotthold Lessing, “Anti-Goeze” (1778)[9]
The choice that Mr. Lessing (and the late Mr. Hitchens) is affirming, the preferred choice of the left hand, is a choice made by far too many throughout the course of human history. Intentionally or otherwise, that choice avoids the personal accountability that comes with knowing what God was concealing in His right hand.
The irony is He no longer conceals anything in His right hand. The truth of all that matters was revealed some two thousand years ago through the life of Jesus Christ. And you do not need to be a rocket scientist or a degreed theologian to know and understand it; you just have to desire the knowing and the understanding “with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13b).
A Magnificent Oratory
There is a story in the Bible (see Acts 17:16–34) that tells of a time when the apostle Paul was called upon to deliver a speech regarding what his requesters considered to be “some strange things to [their] ears” (v. 20a). They had overheard him preaching these “strange things” while in the marketplace in the ancient city of Athens, Greece.
The place for the presentation was called the Areopagus. It was where philosophers, faith-practitioners, and truth-seekers from throughout the ancient world would regularly gather to discuss and debate their various philosophical and religious perspectives. They were always seeking answers and, whenever the opportunity presented itself, were especially interested in hearing about new teachings.
Paul’s message was artfully diplomatic yet piercingly declaratory. After commending their religiosity, he made it very clear that they need not continue their worship of “AN UNKNOWN GOD” (Acts 17:23). “We ought not to think,” he said, “that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man” (v. 29). Such thinking, he went on to say, belonged to “the times of ignorance,” times that God had previously “overlooked” (v. 30a).
With a speech that has proven ageless for its significance, Paul was not condemning what had been their natural effort; he was simply declaring that what they sought to find in ignorance they could now know as revealed truth. The God by whom “we live and move and exist” (v. 28a) was
now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.
Acts 17: 30b–31
All in all, it is a rather remarkable declaration from a man who had previously been a persecutor of anyone who had claimed allegiance to this God-appointed Man (see Galatians 1:13). This book has been written with an eye toward that “fixed day,” in the hope that we might all be better prepared when it arrives because it will arrive!
Deliberations
Questions for Reflection or Group Study
1. What are the origins of your faith? By whom were you taught? Journal or discuss what you believe and why you believe it.
2. Read John 8:31–32 and consider the following:
· True disciples of the Lord are people who do what?
· Where does meaningful engagement with the Bible stand as a priority in your life?
· What are some of the inhibitors to the frequency of personal time spent studying Scripture, and how might they be overcome?
· What is the promised outcome?
3. Contemplate the significance of Paul’s Areopagus message (Acts 17: 22–31). Summarize what you believe to be the key points of his message.
Chapter 1: Times of Ignorance
[1] Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation (New York: Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, Inc., 2008), 106.
[2] Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great (New York: Twelve, 2007), 122.
[3] Bart D. Erhman, Jesus, Interrupted (New York: HarperOne, 2009), 275.
[4] Ibid., 59.
[5] Lillian Kwon, “Biblical Illiteracy in US at Crisis Point, Says Bible Expert,” the Christian Post, June 16, 2014, http://www.christianpost.com/news/biblical-illiteracy-in-us-at-crisis-point-says-bible-expert-121626.
[6] “Barna Studies the Research, Offers a Year-in-Review Perspective,” Barna Group, December 20, 2009, https://www.barna.org/barna-update/faith-spirituality/325-barna-studies-the-research-offers-a-year-in-review-perspective.
[7] George Gallup Jr. and Jim Castelli, “Americans and the Bible,” Bible Review, June 1990, https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/6/3/18.
[8] J. C. Ryle, Holiness (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, repr. 1883), 27-28.
[9] Hitchens, 277.