My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Steve Lehrer, the author of this book, while he taught an evening bible study for six weeks on "the Holy Spirit" at a non-denominational church in Sussex, Wisconsin. He gave me a free copy of his book and I was eager to study it and talk about it with him in detail. But it didn't take long before I realized how incredibly long that conversation would have been if I had talked about all my concerns within the book. Not only was it poorly written and edited, but the theology was just plain awful. In short, the book is a cross between conservative dispensational theology and contemporary American covenant theology. But there are good reasons why the typical covenant theologian does not agree with the dispensationalist, and why most evangelical theologians don't want to settle on the "middle ground" between the two--and one reason is that they don't want to argue absurdly like Steve Lehrer.
To give you a taste of what his hermeneutic leaves open for discussion, in one of the chapters he promotes sexual relations within the family: his example is a blood-brother marrying his blood-sister as long as they're both Christians (!!). This is explicitly deemed as "lawful" and "holy" according to Lehrer's version of "New Covenant Theology," even though God's Law explicitly forbids such sexual relationships (incest). If you don't believe me, download a free PDF copy of the book here and see for yourself (see page 154-155). Lehrer even infers that he would not have a problem with his own church performing the wedding! But that is only one controversial issue which he leaves open for discussion. There are plenty more in the book.
To give you a taste of what his hermeneutic leaves open for discussion, in one of the chapters he promotes sexual relations within the family: his example is a blood-brother marrying his blood-sister as long as they're both Christians (!!). This is explicitly deemed as "lawful" and "holy" according to Lehrer's version of "New Covenant Theology," even though God's Law explicitly forbids such sexual relationships (incest). If you don't believe me, download a free PDF copy of the book here and see for yourself (see page 154-155). Lehrer even infers that he would not have a problem with his own church performing the wedding! But that is only one controversial issue which he leaves open for discussion. There are plenty more in the book.
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