Book Review: New Wine for the End Times by Philip Brown

This review is intended to be linked to outside this blog.

The Potential of the New Wine System

The ideas contained in New Wine for the End Times, by Philip Brown (the "New Wine System") have power to help revive the church. There are two basic ideas: we must overcome all our sinful habits (by entering into a relationship of service for the Kingdom, the Holy Spirit removes our sinful habits) in order to go to heaven -- and it's possible not to make it, if we harden ourselves to God's voice; and there is a period of time after this life for us to complete that process.

If we must become completely holy, now we have something to do after conversion. We have something we must do, or else. We must become more trustworthy people (so churches will become less abusive). We must move, and grow (so churches will become less apathetic).

Lay members don't always understand why they need to become more serious followers of Jesus. Lay members who become more serious become like, simply become, leaders in the church. The more leaders, the more the burdens of leadership can be shared, and/or the more can be accomplished. The New Wine System gives people a reason to become more serious followers of Jesus.

There is an idea that Christians have some part to play in saving people from a bad spiritual fate (usually, from hell). This is a nerve-wracking idea to hold if you think people go to hell if they don't make a decision for Jesus in this life. But if there is another one for them to accept Jesus then there's a second chance.

Are people saved by faith? Then they are the ones who must make a decision for Jesus. But what about children who die? The New Wine System has a simple solution -- they can make that decision in the next life.

Are people saved by baptism? If they "slip on the way to the baptistry", are they going to hell? According to the New Wine System, they can be baptized in the next life.

Overall, the idea "needing to get saved" makes more sense under the New Wine System. When things make sense, it's easier to trust them and act on them.

Additionally, Christians should become more trustworthy people, more active in doing good, as defined by the world (in the large area where Christian values and worldly values overlap), if they take to heart the New Wine message. Secular problems (some of them vexing to Christians and non-Christians alike) should be at least somewhat ameliorated by Christians living out the New Wine System. This may make the church look trustworthy to people in the world.

Is the New Wine System true?

New Wine for the End Times tries to show that it is true by considering many of the verses of the Bible that relate. (It is about 600 pages long.) I wish I could say that I know for certain that it is successful in that. But I am not qualified to make that judgment, because I don't have the kind of mind or the interests to be good with comparing the details of Bible interpretations. However, the first time I read it, 10 years ago, I was more into that kind of question. For some years I had accumulated a sense that the verses in the Bible related to salvation didn't all make sense according to any of the existing soteriologies I knew of (Calvinist, Catholic, Churches of Christ, Arminian Baptist), at least in their most basic forms. When I read New Wine for the End Times, I saw that those verses all made sense under the New Wine System.

A few readers of this review may have the sense either that a coherent understanding of the Bible can't be had: either because it's too much cognitive labor for most people, or because the Bible simply isn't coherent as we read it (it may be a collection of human texts that the Holy Spirit uses, it may be something that makes sense in a way we will only understand in heaven, or maybe something else like that). In that case New Wine for the End Times can't be successful in convincing us of its ideas. However, we need to live our lives and how we understand salvation could be life-changing and could help us achieve eternal life (and avoid hell).

As a response to that, as a more philosophically-inclined person, I would say that God is holy, and so he has to be against sin. He can't keep it around forever. We have free will. If we choose sin, we are sinful. If we don't completely reject sin and choose God, God can't have us around forever, so he has to destroy us. It makes sense for him to give us more time than we have in this life to reject sin and choose him, since we generally are not done with that process by the end of this one.

If you found that last paragraph convincing, then I might still recommend reading New Wine for the End Times if you want to see how Philip Brown connects the New Wine ideas to the verses of the Bible.

Other information about New Wine for the End Times

Philip Brown believes that the end times are coming soon, and a significant part of New Wine for the End Times relates the New Wine System to end-times prophecy. His emphasis in the book is on preparing for the return of Jesus, by becoming holy.

I don't have an opinion about when Jesus will return. I'm not sure Brown is right, or that he's wrong. If you do not trust the pursuit of end-times knowledge, the New Wine System is still something worth considering.

New Wine for the End Times is not a perfect book, but it's the best book on a potentially important subject of biblical doctrine.