Preface to The View from Above

This is a preview of the forthcoming publication, The View from Above.

At first I intended this book to be a series of concise reflections based on passages spanning the whole Gospel of John. But at the outset, it began to explode into something that would be much longer. Since I have other worthy projects that demand my attention, to continue the book in the same manner would require time and effort that I cannot afford at the moment. Therefore, I have decided to release the completed articles covering the first four chapters of the Gospel. In its present form the book falls far short of the breadth of my original plan, but it makes up for this by the more detailed expositions of those points that it does cover.

By presenting select episodes and discourses from the life of Christ, the Gospel of John offers a heavenly philosophy that is superior to any earthly philosophy, and that stands in sharp contrast to it. It was my intention to demonstrate and expound on this as I teach through the entire Gospel. Although this work now covers only four chapters of the Gospel of John, I am satisfied that it draws sufficient attention to some of the foundational principles of this heavenly philosophy that we call the Christian faith, and that as a result readers should be able to read the rest of the Gospel from this perspective.

Although this book is now released as a finished work, it remains possible that I will resume my original plan for it at a more convenient time in the future. However, what is more likely is that I will begin another project to address some of the other passages in the Gospel of John.

Meanwhile, my desire for this book is that it will help readers appreciate the heavenly wisdom and power that have been brought to us in the Lord Jesus, so that we are no longer to think and live as people "from below." Rather, because we have been born "from above" through Jesus Christ, although we remain in this world, we are no longer of the world. As Christians, we think, speak, and function on a higher plane, an altogether superior level of competence and intelligence.

If Christians will finally grasp and enforce this principle, it will revolutionize all things. It will overturn their many deficient doctrines and policies, so entangled with human tradition and false humility. And it will also put an end to their compromise with the world of unbelief. That is, they will know that in Christ we are a superior race, and all strategies of appeasement will then appear as foolish and unnecessary.

This book takes its title from the first article, which also functions as an introduction to the rest of the collection.