Necessary Roughness

The Christian Post reports that Esquire Editor-at-Large A.J. Jacobs has written a new book, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

Neither the Post nor the Amazon.com information tell outright whether A.J. Jacobs’ “Bible” is merely the Old Testament or both the Old and New Testaments. This is becoming important nowadays as some Jews tend to speak of “the Bible” but only mean the OT. The Publishers Weekly review states that he visited snake handlers in Appalachia and Samaritans in Israel, so it seems he was aware of the New Testament as well.

This will probably be a funny book, looking at the preview on Amazon. I may even read it. I am highly curious about whether he attended any animal sacrifices to atone for his sins. I would also like to see what he thinks about the abrogation of the Mosaic law (Acts 15:1-21).

The good news is, Jacobs isn’t keeping the Law in order to get to heaven. He just wants to see what it’s like. He realizes that he cannot keep the whole thing and even ends up committing one sin to avoid another. He does realize that there is wisdom in keeping God’s laws, without demanding divine blessing when the laws are kept.

The bad news is, Jacobs misses the central point of the scriptures, especially the New Testament: “these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31). Jacobs sees his guilt but not his salvation, and for that he is to be grieved and prayed for.