"Classic Christianity" by Bob George

“Classic Christianity” by Bob George

This is the book that Bob Millet used an example from in his book "Grace Works."  I liked the example so much that I looked into the book to see what it was like.  I liked the description enough that I felt compelled to buy it.  This book is so popular that it has it's own website classicchristianity.org.  The book has sold over 600,000 copies and has been translated into a number of different languages.  On the web site it gives background about how the book came to be written and there are a number of testimonials about how the book has affected people throughout the world.  One of the comments about the book that I really liked (but I can't find where I saw it so this is a paraphrase) was "You should buy this book weather you're an Arianist or a Calvinst.  It has a great message."

The example of Christianity that Dr. Millet used was this.  There is a house full of people, some of who are deaf and some of who can hear.  There is a hearing person in a room that is listening to music on earphones.  He has his eyes closed with a smile on his face swaying to the music while tapping his toe and snapping this finger.  A deaf person comes in and sees the hearing person and decides that he is enjoying himself so he sits down next to him and starts imitating him, tapping his toe, snapping his fingers and swaying to the music.  After a minute he decides that doing all this is allright but maybe all he needs to do is to keep doing it to really get the hang of it, so he smiles slightly and closes his eyes to exactly imitate the hearing person.  Another person comes into the room and sees two people performing the exact same actions, but are they doing the same thing?  No they're not at all, and that's the difference between someone who is a true Christian and someone who is only going through the motions.  I liked that description and still do.

Another great example he had was this.  Suppose you own and world famous buffet style resturaunt and you go out back and see a begger who is fighting with the cats and dogs over food in the alley.  This man is emaciated and looks like he hasn't had a decent meal in years.  His cloths are ragged, he smells bad, and has sores.  You call the man over and bring him into your resturaunt and tell him that you don't want him to eat garbage in the alley any more.  You say that God has been good to you and you have this successful resturaunt and you want him to eat here whenever he's hungry.  The mans eyes open unbelievingly and he asks; I can eat however much I want?  That's right you answer.  I can eat whenever I want?  That right you answer again.  I can have what ever I want, desert as much as I want?  That's right.  Steak? Yes.  Lobster?  Yes.  Suddenly the man gets a sly grin on his face and he asks, Can I eat garbage?

This was a shocking example to me and very apropos.  Pastor George says that you'd think the man was crazy why would he want to eat garbage when he could have as much nourishing great tasting food as he wanted?  He says that this is the same with the Gospel.  If you show people how great following the Savior, or living the Gospel people want to live that way, they’d be just as crazy as the man in the example.  The problem with this analogy however, is we know that people do do things like that.  They may go back to eating garbage, or using drugs, or cheating on their wives or any of a number of things even though they know they shouldn’t.  Sometimes people just need to be given rules to live by to help them reach a point where they don’t go back to eating garbage.  Anyway this was a great example, and touched me powerfully.

The whole  book talks about an experience that started when Pastor George was on his way to work in tears and was praying to the Lord that he could return to the joyful time in his life when he was a new Christian and the gospel was a joy.  At the time we was in full time Christian ministry and the gospel had become a grind in his life.  After this prayer the Lord started leading him to a more joyful realization of how to live the gospel.

One thing he points out is that many many scriptures point out that when we’re baptized we put to death the old sinful self so that we can have a new life.  Living with the Savior is the point of the gospel.  Many scriptures point this out.

Another thing he pointed out was that he often counsels people in his ministry and many people see themselves in a negative life.  For example people will say “Hi I’m Bob and I’m an alcoholic.”  Or “I’m Sue and I have a big but.”  The point is that were all in mortality and we’re all sinners but we should see ourselves as sinners because that’s not the way the Savior sees us, we should see ourselves as beloved children of the Savior who want the very best for us.  Many people after they see themselves in this light begin to make great progress.

Pastor George many many times makes the point that we don’t have to do any of the things that he talks about in this book but that we will do them because we love the Savior.  His story about the man who likes to eat garbage was one example of this book.

I really liked this book.  I’d give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars and would recommend it to many people.  The only caveot I would have is that LDS people need to realize that not everything in it is right but there are a lot of great things in this book.