Book Review: Jesus Manifesto
A few months ago, I was sent a copy of Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet’s “Jesus Manifesto” to review….
“Jesus Manifesto” by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola was an alright book. The authors wrote a book with the sole purpose pointing readers to Jesus. They did a good job of teaching Jesus out of scriptures in the Old Testament and the New Testament. They also did a good job teaching on Jesus’ role in the trinity. However, the authors failed to really point to the whole reason Jesus came down to Earth.
This book seems to only be about living like Christ. Being imitators of Jesus is great and biblical, but is not what the entire Christian life is all about. The authors would disagree, but Biblically, the Christian life is about knowing God. The Christian life is not about moralism, as it is more about worship.
No where in this book does it speak of sin. The authors do not speak of how sin left us separated from God, and how God sent Jesus to redeem his lost people. To put it more simply, there is no gospel in this book. Yes, this books presents the supremacy of Christ in a way that is biblical, to a point, but Christ’s supremacy, according to this book, does not lead to salvation, but a great way to live.
Also, with the rise of the new Christian Liberalism, and Red-Letter Christianity, it is very dangerous to write a book only about Jesus. There are two other important people in the trinity that need to be lifted up just as much as Jesus. The trinity exists to lift up and find fulfillment in each other. Jonathan Edwards has great material on this. According to the authors, the trinity only exists to lift high Jesus. I completely disagree. Bruce Ware and Wayne Grudem, two fantastic scholars, have great material on mutual submission in the trinity. I suggest you read some material from them.
