Summary Of Across The Spectrum

“Across the Spectrum” is full of vehement discussion on a variety of Christian doctrines. It questions diverse positions that may be held and is a useful tool for confronting strenuous theological problems. Gregory A. Boyd and Paul R. Eddy wrote this book to introduce “students to the range of positions evangelicals take on various disputed topics.”

Gregory Boyd received a PhD from “Princeton Theological Seminary” and is formerly a “professor of Theology at Bethel University.” Currently he is the senior pastor of “Woodland Hills Church” in Minnesota. Paul Eddy received his PhD from “Marquette University” and now teaches “biblical and theological studies at Bethel University.” Both men are very qualified to write in this particular field. They

The first few chapters of the book debate whether God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. They deal with the beliefs of God being inerrant and all-knowing. These chapters make the reader think critically about who they believe God to be and if he has any limitations or not. “In the beginning the Word already existed, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So it makes sense to begin the book discussing the different views that people have on God, because He was the beginning. “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.” Following up the debates about God is the Genesis debate. The Genesis debate could be one of the most controversial of all. It discusses how old the earth is and whether a day means a literal 24-hour day or not. The two largest views are the Young Earth View and the Day-Age View. The bible suggests that the earth is a Young Earth and that it was created in literal 24-hours days. But some people believe that the earth was slowly created over thousands of years. If the bible indicates that it is a young earth, humanity doesn’t have the option to believe that it is old. God is the Word, therefore what is read in the bible should be true, with some exceptions when something is not supposed to be taken

The reader gets a taste of many doctrines and the different beliefs that come with them. The downside to this book is there is so many different beliefs about a certain debate that its hard to pick out which one is true. Every reader will come into a debate with a certain belief /bias and most likely disagree with the others put out on the table. People learn things from their pastors at church, maybe different sermons or from family members. Everybody is influenced by something, resulting in different beliefs towards the same thing. As a reader its confusing to think that there are other Christians in the world that have the same belief, but may have different thoughts about a certain event. For example; the Genesis debate, where some Christians believe it’s a young earth and others an old earth. Readers can find it hard to evaluate whether their belief is correct or one of the other perspectives is correct. When somebody has been taught the same thing since they were a child about a specific biblical event and are then told that there are other perspectives on that particular event, it can get a little confusing. The good thing about that, is the reader can now be more open to the other views and evaluate the other perspectives. Which is the whole goal that Boyd and Eddy wrote “Across the Spectrum”