In God we doubt… confessions of a failed athiest… Reviewed.

John Humphrys on the Today show (BBC Radio 4’s flagship news broadcast) appears so unshakable, so sure and confident. His radio interviews with famous politians often make for gripping drive-to-work listening. Without doubt the magnitizing factor is his nagging ability to relentlessly press his interviewee for the hard facts, the truth, not a dismissive answer that skirts around the truth.

To a small measure, it keeps politians and public figures in check, it goes some way to establishing clear quotable, accountable, facts - straight from the horses’ mouths, so to speak. That, without doubt, is a good thing and for that the man is to be praised. But this time he has gone for the big scoop. Not a lowly junior minister, or a cabinent minister, or the prime minister or even a foreign royalty or president. No, John Humphrys has gone for God. Gone looking, that is, for God.  

He recalls that as a child he pondered life’s ‘big questions’; namely - the purpose of life and the uncertainty of death. However “my spiritual journey took me from my childish Big Questions to my ultimate failure to find any corresponding Big Answers.” Hence he became a doubter. Half a century of religious praying with no certainty that the God he was ‘praying’ to even existed (let alone was listening to him) mixed with the horrors that international journalism introduced him to led him to doubt God and try athiesm.

The problem was, that didn’t ‘click’ either. The title of his book is as good a summary of the content as you will find: In God we Doubt. Confessions of a Failed Athiest. John is an agnostic, and proud to call himself one.

Having recently read the book I must confess it has a lot going for it. I personally struggled to put it down. He captured my mind and drew me into his thought pattern. I often found myself being drawn through the same emotions that he clearly has endured. Overall, he falls neither on the side of God or the side of the athiests, which is to be expected from a agnostic viewpoint. 

Approaching the book from a Christian perspective I felt desperately sorry for the man. He tries so hard to believe, he wants to believe, but can’t bring himself to do so. His original radio series was entitled ’Humphrys in search of God’ and he can’t be faulted for not looking hard enough, but therein lies the problem. It seems to me that he has been looking too hard.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29v13) - not all of your mind and all of your academic powers. Sure, use those to learn more about God, but to find God Himself requires heart seeking. It a nutshell it requires faith. To his credit, Humphrys sees this and acknowledges it. He even envies those who have faith.

The hard man who humbles politians can’t bring himself to believe in God with simple faith. Yet God requires it. The book of Hebrews is explicit in stating that “he who comes to God must believe that He is” - in faith. Faith is the essential prerequisite, and it is the gift of God.

The book centres on a set of intervies carried out with leading religious figures including the Archbishop of Canterbury who wasn’t sky high in my estimation before I read the book and is even lower now. His shameless dodge out when asked about the eternal plight of those who are not Christians and his effectual deniel of Jesus as the only way to Heaven is as tragic as it is erroneous. Equally profitless was the time Humphrys spent with Giles Fraser - an outspoken C of E vicar. Having heard him on radio 4’s ‘Thought for the day’ uncatagorically deny a literal 6 day creation I wasn’t holding great hopes for his contribution.

Needless to say, I wasn’t wrong. ‘Ask him if the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened and he says: “Umm . . . dunno . . . can’t prove it.” ‘. Paul was right - if Christ is not risen then our faith is futile! Ask him about evangelical Christians and he snorts: “Evangelicals have misunderstood the Bible. They turn it into some Ikea manual.” To be honest, I’d rather Humprys read his time reading an Ikea manual, it would have done him more good than the so called Christians who he turned to for help. It is any wonder, then, that the poor man can’t accept faith? If vicars can’t - how can he? He tries to read the Bible but can’t take it literally - because that is wrong according to the ‘experts’.

Ultimately though it is the man himself who continues to wrestle with the ‘big questions’. But until he takes to heart the teaching of Jesus, he will continue to doubt. “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Mark 10v15).

Book review: Expository Preaching with Word Pictures

Expository Preaching with Word Pictures, Jack Hughes

Why is it that we love reading the sermons of Spurgeon, Tozer and Watson? Having read some of their sermons and works I tried to analyse them to ascertain what exactly it was that took their sermons to a higher plane than the average, making them so readable and understandable. Sound theology and exegesis of course were there, but there was something about these sermons that gave them a powerful combination of ease of understanding and powerful application.

I eventually worked it out. It was their use of illustrations, particularly metaphors and similes in abundance. My mind could picture what they were saying, so could understand it easier.

Inspired by this discovery I dusted off a book that I purchased several years ago, but has sat gathering dust ever since. ‘Expository Preaching with Word Pictures’ by Jack Hughes.It covered this exact topic, preaching using illustrations, similes and metaphors, which Hughes calls ‘word pictures’.

Overall, this book is well worth a read (and at £7 from the Met Tab bookshop, you really can’t complain…) It has helped me a great deal to incorporate a greater variety of illustrative material into my sermons in such a way that maximises their usefulness.

Hughes helpfully analogises a sermon with a painting where the preacher paints a picture on the minds of his hearers. How often I have found myself saying to a congregation “can you see what I’m saying?” which proves his point in that people learn (and remember) by seeing, primarily. He shows how relating abstract theological concepts to everyday things helps the hearer ’see’ the point and therefore understand it.

“If people don’t listen to your sermon, it’s your fault!” (pg 6 is quite hard hitting and if put to many preachers may illicit cries of protest, but as both a school teacher and preacher I know exactly what he means. Hughes explains how best to get people to listen and understand, by means of using their imaginations - via the images we provide for them. “Exegesis is a launching pad not a parking lot. It is imagination which fuels the rocket.” (pg 65).

His constant use of quotes from puritan legend Thomas Watson support his teaching and to his credit Hughes has not overdone the quotes in the main text, but rather put a mere 100 pages worth of them as an appendix. The main strength of this book for me was the comprehensive way Hughes shows that every part of the Bible was written using word pictures, thereby opening my eyes to divine communication methods!

If one had to be critical the title could do with rearranging to reflect the balance he gives in his book to ‘expository preaching’ and ‘word pictures’. The book deals overwhelmingly with the latter and only partially with the former. It would be just as effective if it were just a book on the use of word pictures in  preaching. That said, I can appreciate the need to set his stall before he begins and state the claim for expository preaching, as this is much needed today.

On a personal note, I thought some of his illustrations were inappropriate (crossed the ‘line’) but only one bad apple in an entire orchard is easily overlooked.

Get this book, devour it, let it saturate your psyche like melting butter on a crumpet and make every conscious effort to put into practice what it says.