What About The Church? by Russell M. Stendal

[Note: This book was provided by Life Sentence Publishing/Aneko Press in exchange for an honest review.]

This particular volume is made up of different smaller essays written by the writer about a variety of somewhat interrelated subjects. The essays included in this book are: “The Plan of God for His Friends,” “The Tabernacle of David,” “The Elijah Who Is To Come,” “And the Earth Shall Respond to the Wheat,” and “The Temple.” These essays contain an interest in comparisons between the Old and New Covenants, an interest in the church as an institution as well as its organizational matters, a heavy degree of social critique, a fierce attack on both obedience to God’s laws as being a sign of legalism and easy believism as being a sign of a lack of obedience to God. The essays themselves are largely adapted from sermon messages, some of them published originally in English, and some in Spanish, and some that were early intended for both audiences. Several of the messages include local pandering and a strong preference for the country over the city.

Besides these fairly superficial commonalities, there are some notable aspects that this book shares that are worthy of comment. For example, the author frequently uses lengthy scriptural citations to bolster his positions, yet manages to detract from the authoritativeness of those scriptural citations by adding brackets in order to force a certain interpretation of those verses, making it clear that the scriptures are being used as prooftexts to support particular idiosyncratic private interpretations rather than demonstrating a strong exegetical approach, which would be legitimate use of scripture. Additionally, the book manages to speak about the need for believers to show love and a godly heart, and yet the author frequently paints a broad brush in condemning others for being involved in the politics of this world (although he praises Nehemiah, who was a political figure as a cupbearer but receives no criticism, and neither do Joseph or Daniel or Mordicai or Manaen or Obadiah the steward or anyone else in the Bible who is listed as being close to others in power and skillful at using political office and influence for the service of God), and also condemning tithing, and also speaking somewhat negatively of “natural” Jews with an implicit belief in dispensationalism.

There are many ways this book could have been a much better one, but this book does deserve at least some high praise for being honest. Many authors would have taken the publishing of a book as a way to airbrush unfortunate prophetic speculations about the beginning of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ beginning before 2012, or would have toned down tensions between a focus on the heart of worship and a heart that continually heaps scorn upon supposedly Laodicean brethren, or between a distaste of self-appointed prophets and an approach that clearly shows the author believes himself to be able to speak authoritatively as a prophet. Such open honesty is commendable, in that the author does not hide the less diplomatic or more pandering aspects of his work. Readers of this book can be sure that they know what the author thinks about tithing, biblical prophecy, the priesthood of all believers, and the construction of physical buildings or the existence of religious hierarchies. Whether the reader appreciates the author’s approach or shares his stances is a matter of reflection for every reader. I, for one, appreciated a perspective about the Church that was at once very close to my own background, but with very different premises, as if it was looking at my own religious traditions through a funhouse mirror.