Blaine, I’m afraid I cannot let your statement pass unchallenged – after having read the words of Oswald Chambers, author of “My Utmost for His Highest”. He wrote:
“When people refer to a man as ‘a man of one book,’ meaning the Bible, he is generally found to be a man of multitudinous books, which simply isolates the one Book to its proper grandeur. The man who reads only the Bible does not, as a rule, know it, or human life.” (From Chamber’s biography, “Abandoned to God” by D. McCasland).
Chambers once told his students: “More than half of the side-tacks and all the hysterical phenomena that seize whole communities of people, like a pestiferous epidemic, from time to time, arise from spiritual laziness and intellectual sloth on the part of so-called religious teachers. There are a host of Holiness adventurers whose careers would suddenly end, if vigorous sanctified saints were abroad.”
This is the very issue Penn-Lewis addresses. To suggest that her work is unnecessary is, I fear, to naively contribute to the prevalence of side-tracks among the people of God – and the very same heresy the sidetracked a wonderful revival in the past.
Chambers himself read widely, and he demanded it of his bible school students. We also see this habit in the writings and biographies of outstanding Christian leaders: They typically had a large reading repertoire and knowledge base. One of the most outstanding examples, I think, is Richard Wurmbrandt, himself.
Here’s my thought: If the Bible was enough then we would not need this website and its wealth of resources provided by the great saints. But I suggest that it is the neglect of these “gifts” to the church that enables heresy to flourish – just as Chambers claimed.
Therefore, having read her book, I feel it is best not to discourage anyone from reading Jesse Penn-Lewis, but instead pray that God will quicken its truth thereby.
Diane
