Myopic!

Peter Sammons reviews James P. Smith’s new book “The Short – Sighted Church” – and finds it compelling

Ground covered

I was pleased to have the opportunity to review this new book by James P. Smith as I reviewed his earlier book “Israel – The Inconvenient Truth Dividing the Church” (see link below). “The Short-Sighted Church” subtitled “How it came to believe it has replaced Israel”, is really an extended critique of ‘replacement theology’.

The blurb aback the book states “the church has become very short sighted. It has lost sight of the fact that the Bible was predominantly written by Jews, for Jews and about Jews”. The blurb then states quite boldly that the church has abandoned its Hebraic understanding of Scripture, and instead applied a thoroughly Greek lens to interpret God’s message.

Genre

In preparing this material James Smith echoes other contemporary writers: David Lambourn’s “The Forgotten Bride” is subtitled “How the church betrayed its Jewish heritage”. Steve Maltz’s 2012 book “Outcast Nation” is sub-titled “Israel, the Jews …. and you” and explores similar ground. Fred Wright’s 2002 book titled “Father, Forgive Us”, subtitled “a Christian response to the churches heritage of Jewish persecution”, plainly explores a similar theme.

In fact, it would be fair to say that the subject of replacement theology and the institutional church’s very difficult history of anti-Jewish persecution (which persists right up to the present day), is a field that has been a considerable concern, and remains today a growing concern. Where, then, does James Smith’s book ‘fit’ in this growing body of literature?

I feel that Smith’s book is, overall, a valuable addition to this particular genre. Written in an easy style, the book is accessible to the general, non-specialist, reader. It seeks to be comprehensive, and in this it generally succeeds. In its structure, the book covers much ground:

Chapter 1 – The beginning

Chapter 2 – It’s all Greek to me

Chapter 3 – Slippery slope for “the way”

Chapter 4 – Augustine of Hippo

Chapter 5 – Amillennialism

Chapter 6 – What about the reformers?

Chapter 7 – Out of focus

Chapter 8 – Understanding the rapture

This is followed by a brief conclusion, extensive endnotes, and two appendices.

Some details

In chapter 3, Smith looks at the very early church and at heresies and questionable teachings that found their way into the Christian sphere. The writer looks at Gnosticism, Marcionism, Docetism, Universalism and various other teachings, and their ongoing legacy today.

The chapter on Augustine helps readers trace how Roman Catholicism brought in the tools of Greek philosophy to interpret Scripture. Augustine was a fan of Plato and Plato’s dualism, which divides the spiritual from the physical, and the clergy from the laity. Augustine majored on the concept of allegory to ‘interpret’ the meaning of Scripture – and arguably to ‘explain away’ the difficult bits, such as those bits that deal with Israel and the Jews!

Chapter 5 on Amillennialism promotes a Premillennial understanding of God’s overarching purposes, and of the future. Chapter 6 ‘What about the Reformers?’ helps us to see that The Reformation did not deal decisively with Catholicism’s philosophical accretions to Scripture. Rather, these beliefs were simply absorbed by the key reformers, Luther, and Calvin. (Steve Maltz makes a similar case in one of his books; namely that the Reformers succeeded in reforming something that was fundamentally unfit for purpose. They improved it slightly, but simply could not wean themselves away from the core tenets of Catholicism).

Throughout, “The Short- Sighted Church” incorporates useful cartoon style images, especially the image of a pair of spectacles, situated where Smith is emphasising that the institutional church is both short sighted, and has adopted its own lens of Greek philosophy to justify its theory and ‘theology’ that it has replaced Israel in God’s salvation scheme. That is what replacement theology is. Essentially it’s ‘we have replaced the Jews’!

Breadth

What I appreciate about “The Short- Sighted Church” is its breath, accessibility, and scope. I was intrigued by Smith’s chapter 8 ‘Understanding the Rapture’. As a Bible student my own understanding is that we are to expect what might be termed a ‘post tribulation rapture’. But always remember that the word ‘rapture’ is not found in Scripture. The author is clear that he believes in a pre- wrath rapture rather than a pre- tribulation rapture. That is a helpful distinction, but I confess my overall view that the emphasis on ‘rapture’ is misplaced. Having said that, Smith does at least provide a reasonably cogent insight in his Chapter 8.

The two appendices are particularly helpful. In appendix 1 Smith provides six key texts which have been used by the institutional churches to underpin their theology of ‘replacement’. Smith examines each of these text portions and provides a corrective interpretation.

Appendix 2 is a detailed exposé of the life, beliefs, teachings, and writings, of John Calvin. Calvin is a bit of a ‘Marmite’ figure in church history. People either love him or hate him! However, it is true to say that those who love Calvin and those who hate Calvin probably misunderstand his key teachings and key drivers.So author James P. Smith is at pains to explore precisely what Calvin taught and what he stood for. Apart from his teachings on ‘predestination’ John Calvin assuredly believed in replacement theology. As an ex Catholic, he quite simply brought his Catholic background into the reformed Protestant church. James Smith demonstrates this admirably.

Verdict

In some places James Smith’s text becomes quite polemic, or forceful. But the issues concerned are not side-issues or insubstantial, they are central to Christian life and praxis. Despite some minor quibbles therefore, I am happy to recommend “The Short Sighted Church” to today’s readership, and doubly so for any Christians who are unaware of replacement theology. The book is timely, and the issues it explores are hugely relevant to the world (especially the anti- Jewish world) that we are living in today, and the world that we should expect to inhabit tomorrow.

In its 250 pages the book is comprehensive and at £13.99 it is well priced. It is available direct from the author who can be contacted here: jamiepsmith1970@gmail.com

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Reviewer: Peter Sammons, author of “The Prince of Peace – Finding True Peace in World That Wars” (Christian Publication International, 2015)

The Forgotten Bride – How The Church Betrayed its Jewish Heritage: https://christiancomment.org/2024/02/27/the-forgotten-bride-how-the-church-betrayed-its-jewish-heritage/

(David Lambourn)

Israel – The Inconvenient Truth Dividing the Church: https://christiancomment.org/2024/04/29/israel-the-inconvenient-truth-dividing-the-world-and-the-church-james-p-smith/

(James P. Smith)