There is an old saying, “words matter”. In regards to this excellent book written by Allen S. Nelson IV, those words ring true. The way we feel about someone or something is reflected by the words we use to describe them. If we love them, we will say things that reflect our love towards them. If we don’t love them, our words will also reflect our dislike towards them. We are commanded to love even our enemies, even those who use us, and even pray for them(Matthew 5:44). Yet, we don’t have to respect them. I have a true love for everyone I know, and even had a love for the likes of Hussein, Bin Laden, al-Baghdadi, yet I don’t respect them. I hate to see anyone die lost, but these men appear to have died in their sins, living despicable lives, where they tortured, raped, killed many people. I may love them, but I most assuredly don’t respect them. So the words we say about someone matter, as they express how we feel about them.
Getting to this book review and off my soapbox now. The reason why I said all that was to use it as a springboard into this review. Our view of God is reflected by the words we use when we speak of Him. The true atheist won’t say anything loving about Him, as they, in their blindness and unrepentant heart, fail to even acknowledge His existence. The lost person, one who believes in His existence, but won’t bow the knee, repent towards Him in their heart, may speak lovingly of Him, but won’t give Him the love due Him, the love He rightly deserves. They acknowledge Him, but don’t love Him. The Christ said to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength(Mark 12:30), and to also keep His commands if you love Him(John 14:15). So, the lost can not truly say they love Him, but do acknowledge His existence. Sadly, if they die in that condition, they will reside eternally in the lake of fire with the atheists. If you ask people today what does the word “holy” means, you’d probably get a myriad of answers. They don’t truly know what it means when we speak of God’s holiness. Holy means “exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness; having a divine quality, set apart, pure, morally blameless, set apart.” I took those definitions from different sites, but they all express the same thing; God being Wholly Other.
Matt Slick, from http://www.carm.org describes “Wholly Other” this way: “The term ‘wholly other’ is used in Christian theology to describe the difference between God and everything else. God, the Christian God, is completely different than all other things that exist. God can be described by essential properties such as holiness, immutability, etc. But we have to ask how we, as finite creatures, can relate to the infinite God. It is difficult when he is ‘wholly other’ than we are. It means that we must relate to him by his self-revelation in the person of Christ Jesus, and through the Bible.”
Only God can be described this way. Only He is all this but more than we could ever say with our words. Words truly fail to say all that God is. Us telling the lost about God’s holiness is insufficient. But words are all we have to express who He is. We have 66 books in the Bible, and this is what God has chosen to give us to reveal about Himself to us. Yet, He is much, much more than this. No library could contain all the books written to tell us all He is.
Brother Nelson, in his book, “Before the Throne: Reflections on God’s Holiness”, does a splendid job of telling us about God’s holiness, His Wholly Otherness. Yet I’d venture to guess he’d be the first to tell you there was much he left out, much he could’ve said if words were available to express it. Yet, our vocabulary is insufficient to express His holiness. He uses Isaiah 6:1-7 and Revelation 4:5-11 as the backbone of this book. He expresses things that helped me to better understand these two passages that have caused me trouble grasping what the writer was conveying to their audience.
Brother Allen’s book has 12 chapters that look at God’s holiness as being undoubtable, unspeakable, untamable, unblemishable, unmatchable, unquestionable, uncontainable, unchangeable, unapproachable, uncompromising, unborable, and unquenchable. Each of these he has dedicated a chapter to expound upon them. I could go through each of these but it would make this blog post way too long for many to want to read it, I’m afraid. But he meticulously goes through each and uses Isaiah 6:1-7 and Revelation 4:5-11(other other relevant verses) to express his thought concerning each of the twelve ways God’s holiness is expressed. It is because God is holy we can trust Him in all things. It is through His holiness we can see Him for who He is…holy, just, good, separate from sinners.
I want to focus on two places for this review, as I don’t want to give away too much of the book(wanting to leave you hungry so you will buy this book, as I HIGHLY recommend it). On pg 113 he wrote, “The godless culture of our age wages war against the holiness of God today and nobody is on the sidelines. Nobody is on the sidelines. We are all active participants.” No truer words have ever been written. We are either with or against God. There is no one in the middle, no one is ambivalent towards God. Our words will reflect which side we are on; against or with God. People try to straddle the fence, meaning, they don’t want to serve Him, yet they don’t want to die lost. They think their good deeds build up merit with God. They believe if they do just enough good works that they tip the scale to the “good side” of the scale, they can gain entrance into heaven. This shows their true lack of understanding God’s holiness, His Other Whollyness. In His holiness, He can’t even look upon sin(Habakkuk 1:13), so no amount of good works gains favor with Him, as His holiness keeps Him separate from sin and sinners. That was why the Christ had to come and live, die, resurrect, and ascend to the Father. There was no other way we could gain entrance into God and His holiness. No amount of good deeds could do this. Only the active obedience of the Christ could do this for us. Soli deo Gloria!
Then on pg 118, Brother Allen wrote, “To behold the glory of God is to see, in a sense, His holiness—His Wholly Other-ness, His God-ness—on display.” So, to see Him is to see Him for who He is: holy, glorious, separate from sinners, highly exalted, only One worthy of being praised and worshiped. Even Isaiah saw himself for who he really was, “one of unclean lips”. If he was like that, and yet, he saw God highly exalted, what does that say about us? What are we like before Him? Unless we are in Christ, we are separated from God and His holiness, His Wholly Otherness.
So, in closing, please let me urge you to buy this book. It’s worth every penny you will spend on it. I thank you for reading this book review.
Willis Fletcher, Jr.
TheCalvinistWatchdog 