>>I think maybe there is a misunderstanding on your part or maybe I was not clear. I am not telling any Christian to jump into Luther etc before reading the entire Bible.
I know. I’m not suggesting that you said that people should skip the bible and go straight to Augustine. I’m just talking about the idea of a new Christian trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of his new faith by going to Augustine, Luther, and Calvin after they read the bible.
>>Everyone should read the Holy Scripture, then maybe read all of Augustine’s anti-Pelagian writings, and then work your way to Luther’s Bondage of the Will and Calvin’s Institutes. a’Brekel’s “A Christian’s Reasonable Service†is good too, as well as any sermons by Jonathan Edwards.
I was actually suggesting that they go to Mere Christianity somewhere in between the “OK, God, I’m here. What am I doing here?” stage and the point where you sit down and start doing your comprehensive bible reading plan.
Remember that we were talking about atheists who started believing here. These are people who were struck so hard by the Holy Spirit that they changed their entire worldview into one that they used to ridicule. They know all the arguments against Christianity, just as Lewis did. His book starts them out where they are and systematically walks them to where they need to be to just get started as a new Christian...and he does it in a simple, easy to understand format.
You make a strong point here. I was never an atheist, but more of a person who was simply ignorant when the Gospel was discovered to me. I studied the entire Bible first, with Matthew Henry as my commentary, though I fell into Charismaticism because the person who I credited with converting me was a Charismatic. It was probably one of the greatest mistakes of my life.
I do not like Lewis since his Arminianism is a problem, and new Christians will tend to look at a guy like that and try to emulate him entirely. Luther, Calvin, even Augustine are better bets.