Book Review: The Wood Between the Worlds by Brian Zahnd

The message of the cross is an important message. It is the message that God has entrusted the church to proclaim. We see the Old Testament pointing forward to Jesus and the New Testament pointing back to what Jesus has done while pointing forward to His Second Coming.

The message of the cross is a message we must get right and proclaim it properly. There are times when the church gets it right while there are some within the church that get it wrong and add beliefs that are lined up with the Word of God. This is where Brian Zahnd's latest book, The Wood Between the Words, comes into play.

What is sad about this book is Zahnd had some things right in this book, but I dug deeper into this, he is completely off tracks. He does proclaim that the gospel is the heartbeat of the Christian message which I think most evangelicals will agree. The message of cross is good news and the most important message we will ever carry.

However, he goes right into a lot of his liberal theology which is what he is known for. One of the examples is his belief in penal substitutionary atonement. This doctrine is Jesus die on our behalf to receive the penalty for our sins from God on our behalf. Zahnd does not believe in this. He believes Jesus died an example for us to follow. 

He states that viewing the cross as Jesus appeasing the Father is looking at through pagan lenses. He quotes N.T. Wright stating that Christ appeasing God is "the paganizing of atonement theology." Jesus did not save us from God, Jesus reveals God as Savior according to Zahnd. I am sure Romans 5:9 has something to say about that.

Now this book was supposed to helps us see how the cross saves the world which every Christian believe that the message of the cross tells us how God placed His Son on there in our place for our sins which is not the message Zahnd communicates at all because it goes against his liberal theology. He kind of writes like Rob Bell where is he just go around in circles and then throws in a nugget of liberal nonsense such as using the Old Testament to support the death penalty as proof texting.

Zahnd even had a chapter on Mary which I found out of place. What does the mother of Jesus had anything to with the subject matter of this book? To be honest, this chapter seems to be worshipping Mary more than anything. The chapter even ended with the "Hail Mary" prayer. Does this mean that Zahnd is going more Roman Catholic in his theology? Only time will tell. 

This book was glorified mess and really hard to follow at times. If you are not careful, you will pass by some of Zahnd's liberalism and theological confusion. 

I recommend avoiding this book. 

I received this book from InterVarsity Press in exchange for an honest review.