BEDLAM AMONG THE BOOKMANS

BEDLAM AMONG THE BOOKMANS

The John Bookman family is in turmoil; a cyclone has hit their hearth and home. 

The Bookmans have come to understand grace, that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone; no works, no feeling sorry for their sins, no walking down an aisle, no begging God to save them, no shedding great tears of repentance, no promises to do better in the future, and no giving up of their sins. 

Understanding this and believing this has brought them into the Kingdom of God and they're a thankful family. But they are also a family in an uproar and the cause of the furor is the church in which they've been ensconced since the Flood. Their roots go deep into the bedrock of the First Church. John is a deacon there, and has been since Hector was a pup. In fact, no one can remember when the venerable Mr. Bookman wasn't a deacon. 

Barbara Bookman's roots run deep, too. She's the president of the Women's Missionary Union, the go-to girl when there's work to be done, a visit to be made, and a meal to cook. All the ladies of First Church admire and envy Barbara's casserole dinners which she prepares with care for the sick and the recovering. Barbara guards her casseroles from the envious; she keeps her recipes in a safe deposit box at the Wells Fargo Bank ten minutes from her home. Others may contribute to the "Pan-Sational Cook Book" of the church, but Barbara never does.

Their children, Bobby, Brittany, and Basil are in the Sunday school and the youth groups appropriate for their ages. The children had been in the Cradle Roll since birth. Even their dog, Bocephus,  attended First Church on "Bring-Your-Pet-to-Church-Sunday" when the pastor was teaching about Noah's Ark. 

When the light of the glorious gospel of Christ dawned on John and Barbara Bookman, it also occurred to them that the First Church wasn't teaching salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. They were disseminating a "gospel" shot through with works, moralism, be-goodism, and doing something in addition to trusting Christ alone.

John went to the pastor, Pastor Goodpasture, to talk to him about the gospel, but he, a man who preached six inches above contradiction, got all huffy at John, telling him, "It just can't be that easy! You have to do something!"

Pastor Goodpasture  became especially splenetic when, as John was talking about I Corinthians 15:3-5 and John 3:16, he thought about his parents who thought some works had to be involved in salvation somewhere. He got really angry and stormed out of the room, but then realized it was his office, so he came back and listened some more, but when all was said and done, John got nowhere and he knew it.

The Bookmans realized that a false, Lordship salvation gospel, like a microbe, had infected everything in First Church from the deacons to the Sunday school teachers, to the youth pastor. They had come to understand that the First Church was infected with legalism--works plus faith for salvation and a steady stream of man-made rules to keep so they could be "good" Christians.

John and Barbara, not knowing what to do next, began searching the Scriptures and ran across some hard words: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (II Cor. 6:17).

That verse applied directly to the Bookmans and they knew it. Paul was talking about the false teachers who were luring the Corinthian believers away from the truth and he was telling them to get away from them and get away from them now. There was no getting around that verse, and that's what caused the family explosion. The Bible was telling them to get themselves and their children away from the false teachers who had infected and infested the First Church and into a grace oriented church free of legalism, one which presented the accurate gospel and taught the Bible, not man's rules.

But the Bookmans were ingrained at First Church. Their toil, their tears, and their tithed treasures were there. Their grandparents had started it. And, to them, the most important thing of all, their friends were in that church. 

Leave their invested treasure? Leave their ancestral heritage? Leave their friends? Say it isn't so, Paul!

As their turmoil continued, John and Barbara crashed into Matthew 8:21-22, which caused more mental pandemonium: "Another of the disciples said to Him, 'Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.'  But Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.'"

They realized that, since they had the salvation issue settled,  if they were going to be followers of  Christ, they had to let their heritage and their friends go. 

They realized that the whole thing boiled down to this: What did they love more, their heritage or the gospel?  Their present power and prestige or the gospel? What did they love more, their friends or the gospel?

John and Barbara Bookman have enough biblical information. The will of God is clear.

What do you think they did? 
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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Newsletter."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org