Learn more about the new book The Truth: Reformation 2.0 by Luke Abaffy, who along with his wife Kayte, created The Way Documentary and The Christmas Question. We will be hearing from the Abaffys today and giving away a few copies of The Truth!
What is The Truth: Reformation 2.0?
This is the book I wanted when I was learning about faith. It addresses the contradictions found in our church doctrine and what the Bible says. All of those "but what about..." questions that pop up in discussions about keeping the commandments Luke answers.
Some of the questions answered in the book:
-But didn't Jesus fulfill the law so we don't have to?
-Didn't Jesus declare all foods clean?
-Wasn't the law done away with?
-Have you read Galatians?!
-Did Jesus break the Sabbath?
-Are you going to stone your children?
-Isn't the point of the New Covenant that we don't need to keep the law anymore?!
These are the questions I had when my faith was changing, and these are questions I hear all the time, in real life and here on the blog. And yes, all of these topics and more are explained in The Truth! And you don't need to be a scholar to track with this book, which I love! The explanations are simple...most aren't longer than two or three pages...but they are thoroughly answered using Scripture. Luke gives many fun analogies and it reads like how you would talk to a friend at Bible study. I laughed out loud more than once when I read through it.
Luke and Kayte were kind enough to take a few minutes to share a bit about the book and the process of writing it with us!
Land of Honey: What inspired you to write The Truth?
Luke: For years I wanted to write a book laying out all my thoughts on theology, so our sons could read it. But I didn't think I was qualified or would be until I was an old man. I think that because of that lack of confidence in being a big wig "theologian," I ignored any prodding of the Spirit to write the book. I wasn't likely to do it for decades, or ever, as I wasn't likely to magically morph into a “big wig theologian”. Then, in the summer of 2021 I was building a deer fence for our apple trees and by a nearly impossible effort of overwhelming stupidity, I impaled my hand on a metal t-post. It severed my tendon. I was in the hospital waiting to be put under for the operation to reattach the tendon and sew up my hamburger-meat hand, when I started thinking and praying. It went like this: "Luke, if you're weirdly allergic to whatever anesthesia drug they give you and you die, would you be happy with what you've accomplished?" I lay there thinking. Then, "No, Luke, I'd have wanted to write down what I believe for my kids first." More thinking. "Then you better do that." So that was the inspiration. Lol.
Also, the reason I wanted to write this instead of making it a doc like The Way, was partially because of Milton Friedman. He was doing interviews when television was first becoming widespread. He aired his idea in radio interviews, on television and also written down in his most popular book: Capitalism and Freedom. Friedman said the best medium to get difficult ideas across was the written word. Why? People weren't distracted by the looks or presentation of the author (like with TV), or his voice and cadence (like with radio). They study his ideas via black and white words. And those ideas either make sense, on their own merit or they don't. Also, readers can go back over the page at their leisure to re-read paragraphs or whole sections easily instead of having to rewind or pause.
What did the process of writing this book look like and how long did it take?
Luke: I looked at all the questions I’d ever been asked by Christians in my life about keeping Torah. I went through tons of Torah resources where teachers answered questions and objections about our faith. Kayte posted on our Facebook page asking our community what theological truths were hardest to explain and articulate. That initial list became the content of the book. From there, we divided it into chapters that covered the book’s big ideas - things like our identity as Israel, how Yeshua lived, the goodness of the law, the character of Yah etc.
It took 8 months to do the study/research and
write the first draft, but then it took another 6 months of research and
editing to get it pretty nailed down to a point that we were finally willing to
let it go out to some trusted readers.
This book is "eating the elephant". It's tackling every doctrinal question and argument that mainstream Christians ask us. It's diving into all the gospels, and Paul's writings and Hebrews. So, it was a bit daunting at first. But thank goodness we were standing on the shoulders of giants. For the most part I tried to restate in a cute way, what other big brains (such as Nathan Lawrence, and 119 Ministries) had already solved. But there was a bit of new ground I think Yah let us break. So, with persistence, you eat the elephant, one bite at a time. And during all of that, our perspective changed on a few issues. That always happens when doing non fiction though. I consider it a sign that I'm being honest with the material. More on that later.
Kayte: I worked with the book cover designer and the illustrator to execute everything visual about the book. We’d made a huge list of potential illustrations for the concepts in the book and then narrowed them down to the key ones we wanted, plus some Venn Diagrams. So we drew awful stick figure sketches that gave the illustrator an idea of the composition and elements of each image, and he took them and ran and made them look great.
Luke would come home from writing at the end of the day and I would ask him what he wrote about. I’d ask question after question, trying to get him to distill the main ideas to their purest form. I’d be like, "Did you say it like THAT in the book!?" and I'd write down any good language that came out of the torturous questioning--to add to the book.
How did your faith grow throughout this process?
Luke: Whenever you see the hand of Yah working in your life, your faith grows. That happened in this project throughout, just like with The Way. That was so exciting to see, because it's not only a personal confirmation that you're doing the right work for Him, but after The Way, I only hoped and prayed that we could again be used where Yah's hand is apparent, and we can watch Him work throughout.
One instance with
this project was when we were looking for an artist. Kayte queried dozens of
great artists and all of them were too busy to do it within our timeline, even
if they were interested in the project. Frustrated, we kept looking, but Kayte
reached out to an artist named Jesús Meza in Mexico. He was the first one who
could make room to do this project. And they started working on concepts. In
the process of trying to explain where we were coming from, Kayte was
explaining about Passover and Jesús said, "Oh yeah, I know all about it. I've been keeping Passover for years." He’s a Messianic believer. We were shocked and
he was totally on the same page with all the art and could thus make it come
across in the manner that we needed. That's one example of how no matter what
we tried to do, Yah guided everything. It was already planned.
Kayte: The idea that Yah is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him came alive to me in this process. When answers or His direction isn’t instantaneous and you have to doggedly pursue Him, it really does reveal your heart—whether I care enough to continue seeking Him—and whether I believe that seeking His face will pay off with a deeper knowledge of who He is. Also, on the more logistical side: timing the book release around Reformation Day was totally accidental, which sounds insane given the subtitle of the book—but we didn’t plan that at all. Yah did!
I love the fun analogies used throughout the book - do you have a favorite? or one that seems to 'click' with most people?
Luke: I don't know what clicks with people yet because so far, only editors and beta readers have read it. But I think that most important are the Engine of Atonement and the Queen's Court (rules of etiquette vs atonement) as they both try to explain New Covenant and priesthood/atonement topics that were difficult for me to understand. The worst one is "Christ as Toothpick". I'll let the readers find that one for themselves.
Do you have any tips for navigating sharing these truths (or the book itself) with family and friends?
Kayte:
-Ask questions.
-Use resources like this book to fill in theological gaps and answer questions that might still be hazy in your mind. Feeling settled in your own understanding is a good step towards more peaceful Bible conversations with friends and family.
-Think about apologetics as a pantry of pre-prepped ingredients that allow you to be ready to serve an answer to a person who’s hungry and sincerely questioning. Don’t think about loading up on apologetics like arsenal for a food fight—if I can take the analogy a bit too far :)
-Remember that it’s the Spirit who opens eyes and our understanding.
Luke: What ties the book together is the through-line that if you believe the Torah isn't for us today, then dozens of contradictions within the Scriptures are instantly created. Following that overarching theme, we visit 25 of the unnecessary contradictions created and use them to visit all of the popular arguments brought up by mainstream Christians.
The main audience for the book is the Torah-observant believer, with the hope that if a mainstream Christian picked it up, they wouldn't be put off or feel like we're writing in a different language (literally). If you’re planning on giving The Truth to a friend or family member who’s not on board with Torah, they would need to have a more than a passing interest in the possibility that it's true that the Torah is relevant for us today to get through it. The main goal of the book is to help harden the faith and defenses of Torah observers. The idea is to fill any cracks that might appear in their apologetic veneer through want of research. So my tip is: if you don't have an overarching framework that lets you respond to queries, attacks or debates from all directions, then check this book out.
When will The Truth: Reformation 2.0 be released?
Kayte: The e-book is out now and the paperback version will be shipping on November 15.
Where can I get it?
Paperback and digital copies can be purchased online through The Way's website.
I hope you will have a chance to check out this resource, and read more of the explanations and analogies, and see eye opening images! It will help you better understand the Bible. Congratulations to Luke and Kayte for completing such a great project and thanks to them for joining us here today!
For the giveaway! Luke and Kayte have been kind enough to donate a few copies of The Truth! We are giving away two physical copies of the book (open to US and Canadian readers only please), as well as two digital copies (open to everyone!). Feel free to enter both if you are in the US or Canada! It's open for a week and winners will be contacted via email.
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