On the Recent “Case” Against Tim Challies

Most (All?) of my readers probably have a knowledge of who Tim Challies is. Many of you probably know that he has written a book on spiritual discernment.  Slightly less may know of the fact that several people have been vocal about questioning the “authority” Tim has to write a book.

The majority of the activity has been on Justin Taylor’s blog.  The basic premise is that some people feel that Tim is unqualified to write a book because he is young, “immature,” and not a Pastor. In other words, he doesn’t have the qualifications to write a book. This is surprising to me, considering that part of the reformation was about getting the Word of God into the hands of everyone, not just a select few that the church deemed worthy of handling it.  This is not to say that everyone is a pastor or a teacher, but certainly that all who are saved have the ability to read and understand the Bible.  Even more telling, I think, is a point that Taylor made in response to a comment on his blog.  Those whom these people have deemed authoritative to write a book, including Dr. Mohler, Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, and John MacArthur, have chimed in to say that it is in fact an excellent book.  In fact, MacArthur has even said that Challies is well qualified to write a book on discernment. Hmm.

The question people bring up is “how do we tell legitimacy” of a book? The author’s education? His calling?
How about we use the Bible?  If it stands up to Scripture, if it biblically sound, is it not legitimate? The thing is that people have yet to critique the book, but instead have decided to critique Tim.  Note, they are not critiquing his theology, but him.  Unwarranted negative personal attack in some cases.  Why don’t we let the book speak for itself?

Maybe Tim shouldn’t have written a book. Maybe he should have.  That remains to be seen.  I certainly am excited to read it. That might change once I do.  One thing I am sure of, from the discussion I’ve seen thus far, a book on discernment is definitely needed. Especially in the realm of how we should go about discussing our brothers and sisters in faith.  Are strong words needed? Absolutely. Is grace and love needed? Absolutely.  I see a whole lot of one, and not much of the others coming from both sides.

(HT: Michael Spencer)