The Divine Conspiracy.

Book Review.

Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy. Rediscovering our hidden life in God. HarperSanFrancisco. 1997.

Comment. Henry
This is my second reading of this ‘classic’, and I venture to say it is not my last. I did not find this an easy read but it was certainly instructive. I had second thoughts on some things I read but they tended to be questions rather than criticisms. Willard helped my appreciation of scripture to grow especially as it related to knowing God. Faith is enhanced through knowledge and appreciation. This is a thought provoking guide to anyone wanting to live the life Christ wants us to live.

Life and culture around us is not conducive to a positive response to what God has planned for us. We are surrounded by moral bankruptcy. The Kingdom of God is at hand and we can enter eternal life in that kingdom now.

A very interesting question is posed by a pastor. “Why are Christians indistinquishable from the world?” (40) Life transformation should be part of the message of the gospel. Those who identify themselves as Christians should demonstrate recognizable Christlikeness. Preaching (teaching) comes with a huge responsibility. There is a serious lack of preaching on the Kingdom of God as Christ taught it.

Knowledge of God is fundamental for an appreciation of the Kingdom of God. We must practice the presence of God. The evidence of this truth is found throughout scripture. Don’t confine God to inner space (the heart) or outer space. “Spirit is substance.” (82) We experience dying but we do not die. “Nothing fundamental has changed in our knowledge of ultimate reality and human self since the time of Jesus.” (93)
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus deals with what the good life is and who actually is the good person. There is much misinterpretation about the beatitudes. They are all about “the present availability of the kingdom through personal relationship to Jesus.” (106) Neighbors (that are described in the parable of the Good Samaritan) are ‘created’ by loving a person.

In his Mountain discourse Jesus’ “teachings illustrate how those alive in the kingdom can live”. (134) When Willard insists that Jesus was the wisest man that ever lived, he may be calling into question the extent to which He took on the limitations of humanity.

Anger and the contempt that arises out of anger are the results of the failure to manage emotions. Overcoming evil with good is evidence of the ‘divine conspiracy’. Giving alms, prayer and fasting can easily become part of a trap of religious respectability. We escape this ‘trap’ when we refuse to confirm to the values of this world.

“In the kingdom life we extend the respect to others that we would naturally hope others would extend to us.” (217) Matt. 7:12. Condemnation is a form of hypocrisy. Requests unite, demands separate. When we make a request of God he “has retained the a discretionary power of granting or refusing it”. C.S. Lewis. He can be reasoned with, e.g. Moses, Hezekiah. The results of prayer have been confirmed through scientific studies. “Prayer is, above all, a means of forming character.” (250) Jesus’ model of prayer, when used correctly, accomplishes that.

In his mountain discourse Jesus explains how to be a citizen of the kingdom. It happens through “an inward transformation by discipleship to Jesus”. (276) The knowledge of Christ’s presence in the form of the Holy Spirit is fundamental to this experience.

A ‘curriculum for Christlkeness’ is proposed. It is not just knowing and believing the right things but actually doing them. We move from “having faith in Christ to the faith of Christ”. (320) Genuine apprentices (of Jesus) love the heavenly Father and delight in Him. Knowledge of that Father through creation and biblical revelation fosters such love. There must be deliverance from the natural man who is resistant to the kingdom of God.

The dynamic of spiritual growth involves the “action of the Holy Spirit”. (347) Solitude and silence (“the discipline of abstinence”) and study and worship (“the discipline of engagement”) develop Christlikeness.

Although we have many questions about the future (heaven) to which there are not definitive answers, we have many reasons to be optimistic and excited about life after death. This position is in stark contrast with ‘those who have no hope’. “We live in a Trinitarian universe.” (384) What we know about the future gives us strength in the present.