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 PrintableVersion ApprenticeRoad to liberalismAPPRENTICE Not to be confused with the popular BBC1 programme, Steve Chalke presents Apprentice in which he seeks to ‘call us into a deep experience of learning and relationship with Christ’. The goal is commendable. Indeed, the testimonials on the first page rank Apprentice among the best Christian literature of the day. However, by reading just a few pages into the book, the discerning believer will be disappointed. Apprentice has ten chapters. Each is easy to read and contains much illustration. The book is littered with quotations, most of which are from secular sources. Comments from Roman Catholic writers are cited with approval. Scripture references are relatively sparse. The book begins by highlighting the quest for meaning in our lives. Chalke emphasises that if Genesis 1.1 is true then life has meaning and we have purpose. In order to discover that meaning and purpose we need first to become apprentices of Jesus. Instead of longing for things which we do not possess or which fail to satisfy, Chalke maintains that Christ teaches his apprentices to channel their desires and longings into redressing aspects of social injustice. Man was made in the image of God and so has a unique place in creation as ‘a fusion of the physical and the spiritual’. As man exercises faith daily in a whole variety of ways (despite what Dawkins claims), so too can man exercise faith in God. Equally, man was not created to live in isolation but interact with other people. True joy is obtained from serving others and not by putting our own interests first. Ultimately we are to love God and to love others. Chalke in no way underplays the cost of being an apprentice of Jesus. Drawing on the example of Martin Luther King, he emphasises that perseverance is necessary. Questionable theologyThroughout the book, Chalke’s theology is questionable. Apart from the strong social gospel element already alluded to, Apprentice is doctrinally flawed in other ways. The book does not refer to a Holy God who is angry with sin and who has determined to punish it. The need for guilty sinners to be reconciled to a just and righteous God is conspicuously absent. Instead, Chalke presents a Jesus who will help us to find meaning in life. The implication seems to be that anyone who wants to become an apprentice can do so, just as one might take up a hobby or choose to pursue a particular way of life. It gets worse. Chalke speaks of the need for faith in God, but does not define this. Does he mean saving faith as evangelical believers would understand it, faith in the promises of God or bare faith that God exists? Probably not the first of these, since Chalke remarks that ‘the nature of faith implies uncertainty’. Apprentice presents a weak doctrine of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Where is Christ set forth as the one who came into this world to save his people? Where is the eternal Son of God who fulfilled every aspect of God’s Law for them? Where is the Lamb of God who bled and died for our sins, bearing upon himself the full weight of God’s wrath in our place? Nowhere! Unsurprisingly, therefore, Apprentice contains few references to the cross. Christ’s death and resurrection are presented as merely delivering the ‘decisive victory in the struggle between good and evil’. Another fatal flaw is that the book fails to make any reference to the inerrancy and authority of Holy Scripture or our need of the Holy Spirit’s illumination in order to understand it. Chalke appears to set little store by labouring to study the Word of God or hearing it preached but concedes that Bible study ‘has its place’. His statement that the New Testament writers intended their letters to be read in a ‘group setting’ may well be correct. However, his understanding that conclusions about the meaning of Scripture within the early church were decided collectively and that insights and perspectives provided balance and alternative points of view makes the church the judge of Scripture. Such a view is not far removed from the Roman Catholic standpoint. Apprentice is not recommended reading. The book presents a weak God and a heavily diluted gospel. One of Apprentice’s reviewers describes the book on its inside cover as ‘candy to the soul’. It certainly is neither spiritual meat nor even milk. To the seeker, this book is dangerous. To the young Christian, it is misleading. And to the seasoned saint, it is way off line. The Rev. Simon L. Ward, © Evangelicals Now - June 2009 |
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