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Praying for a “Breakthrough”

Praying for a “Breakthrough”

Last updated on: September 30, 2015 at 5:03 pm by Kermit Zarley

Praying for a “Breakthrough” 2015-09-30T17:03:02-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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For several years, I’ve been praying that God would give me a “breakthrough book.” That has been my exact expression. Sometimes, I would say only the word “breakthrough,” referring to a book. God knew what I meant. Why was I praying that?

I made a decision long ago to try to become an author of theological books. From the human viewpoint, it was a crazy decision. My fulltime career as a pro golfer on the PGA Tour was coming to an end, in 1982. What was I going to do for work? I had four options. Three of them were in golf, and the other was becoming an author of theological books. (The Senior Tour did not become viable until a few years later.)

I had no formal, theological education. Neither did I know anything about writing. My grammar wasn’t any good. (See, whad I tell ya.) And my vocabulary was quite limited. But heh, what do you expect? I was a pro golfer for goodness sakes! I only had a BBA (business) degree from the University of Houston.

But I was a diligent student of the Bible. And I had co-founded and led the PGA Tour Bible Study. Yet, to try to become an author of theological books on these meager credentials, thus without a PhD, or without being a pastor of a church, would be risky business. I would be like “a fish-out-of water” as I said many times thereafter. Chances were, I would fall flat on my face. Maybe become a laughingstock to my family.

Well, that picture isn’t far from the truth, that is, so far. But like the famous Yankee baseball catcher used to say who was known for his humorous one-liners–Yogi Berra, who just passed away this week–“It ain’t over till its over.”

So, I haven’t had any bestsellers. I certainly haven’t made any money at it. But that was never my goal. I only wanted to reach people with my literary screeds.

Well, in this literary process I’ve had some unfortunate setbacks. But I won’t go into that. Yet in my retirement from pro golf I keep on keeping on, reading lots of books, even though I’m not a fast reader, and writing on my computer. The one thing I do have is determination.

This week, my seventh theological book was released. The publisher is Wipf and Stock Publishers in Eugene, Oregon. The book is entitled Solving the Samaritan Riddle: Peter’s Kingdom Keys Explain Early Spirit Baptism. (I’ll say more about it in later posts.) Book endorsements that you see on the back cover of a book can be important to the success of serious nonfiction books, especially when such endorsements are from recognized authorities in that book genre.

In my previous six books, only two of them have endorsements. Yet those are great endorsements. My second book, The Gospels Interwoven (1987; reprint 2002 by Wipf and Stock) was endorsed by two friends: Evangelist Billy Graham and Dick Halverson, Presbyterian pastor and U.S. Senate Chaplain for fourteen years. My fourth book, The Third Day Bible Code (2006), was endorsed by my friends Dr. Scot McKnight and Dr. Dale Allison. Both are leading New Testament professors and authors of many books.

I am elated that this new book, Solving the Samaritan Riddle, has endorsements on the back cover by five, distinguished New Testament professors: Scot McKnight (Northern Seminary), Grant R. Osborne (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), Graham H. Twelftree (Regent University), James D. G. Dunn (retired from University of Durham, England), and William P. Atkinson (London School of Theology). If God ever gives me a breakthrough book, I think this is it. In this book, I attempt to solve an important theological conundrum that has continued to exist throughout almost all of church history and that has come to the fore in the past century with the emergence of Pentecostalism. Still, I’m taking a chance with this book.

Dr. James D. G. Dunn is called “Jimmy” by his friends. My book is partly a critique of his first book, The Baptism in the Holy Spirit (1970), which has a long subtitle. I met Jimmy through Scot McKnight when Scot got him to be our first guest lecturer at the annual, two-day Kermit Zarley Lectures at North Park University, Chicago, in 2000. (Since I was the donor, the school wanted to use my name.)

Who am I to critique anything that Dr. Dunn writes? Am I crazy? I respect him so much. Jimmy Dunn and Tom (N. T.) Wright are regarded by perhaps most of their peers and religious publishers as the two preeminent New Testament scholars in the world! The audacity! In golf, that’s like an amateur golfer with a two handicap challenging Arnold Palmer in his heydey to a round of golf. I haven’t asked Scot yet, but I think that’s why his endorsement begins, “A bold and adventurous book by a non-specialist Bible reader of uncommon determination.” I laughed when I saw that. Yet Scot really nailed it, as he so often does.

Why would Dr. Dunn endorse a book that critiques his book and finds some fault with it? Good question. Actually, it’s not quite an endorsement. That may be partly why some scholars refer to such comments on back covers of books as “blurbs,” a non-commital word. I was just glad I was going to get his name on the back cover of a book that might become part of the conversation in what is called the Dunn Debate.

But it was looking like I may not get Jimmy’s blurb on the book. Back in April I sent him an article I had written about my hypothesis that is now being published in the Journal of Pentecostal Theology, and I asked him if he would read it and tell me if he would endorse my book on this subject. To my delight he said he would but that his remark would be “a bit skeptical.” I said that was perfectly fine with me.

Later, when the publisher’s deadline for receiving endorsements on my book was three weeks away, Jimmy still had not responded. He said he was so busy editing a book manuscript and asked for the deadline date, which I gave him. When that date came and went, Jimmy still had not sent a blurb. Upon my request, my publisher then agreed to extend the deadline one week. Two days before that final deadline, I emailed Jimmy with an idea. During our first email exchange, he responded to my article with a paragraph. So, I now asked him if we could use that. I said it was 125 words, and my publisher’s word limit for endorsements is 75 words. I said if we deleted the third sentence, which was detailed, it would be 75 words. I was grateful he replied the next day saying that was okay with him. So, I literally got his endorsement hours before the deadline.

The next day, the day of the deadline, I went out for a leisurely lunch and, although I was alone, I felt like celebrating. After eating I came out of the restaurant and was standing in front of the Apple Store here in Scottsdale. For a moment I was in deep thought, at least for me, staring at the pavement. I then looked up and saw a teenage girl facing me about fifteen away. She was wearing white jeans and a long, black teeshirt. This teeshirt had no image on it, nothing on it except one word across it in white letters. That word was “breakthrough”! I was astounded. Have you ever in your life seen anybody wearing a teeshirt that has the single word “breakthrough” on it? And then the fact that it was white-on-black, so that I couldn’t miss seeing it. I smiled and said, “P-r-a-i-s-e the Lord!”

[This 248-page book, Solving the Samaritan Riddle, will be available only in softcover for a full retail price of $28. Counting from September 24th, it will be available as follows: wipfandstock.com in two weeks; amazon.com in 6-8 weeks; Ingram in 4 weeks; Kindle in 3-6 months. At wipfandstock.com it will be available at the discount price of $22.40 plus shipping. All orders at Wipf and Stock Publishers for five or more copies of any book are discounted at 40% off retail. Also available at wipfandstock.com are my books The Gospels Interwoven and Palestine Is Coming.]

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