I know – I promised I’d go back and talk more about the security system Brian McLaren talks about in “Everything Must Change.” I will – soon (I hope). But as I read on I have to share some of these thoughts….
“The Gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness.” – John Wesley
Wesley was deeply sensitive to systemic justice. He was passionate about abolishing slavery yet McLaren suggests “the concept of holiness (in the modern era) did not retain the profoundly social dimension it had for Wesley, but over time shrank to a matter of personal rule keeping.”
No wonder legalism has taken such a strong hold of people.
Only a fraction of our sins are personal. By far the greater part are sins of neglect, sins of default, our social sin, our systemic sin, our economic sin. For these Christ died, and continues to die. For these sins Christ atoned, and continues to atone… As long as evangelism presents a gospel centered on the need for personal salvation, individuals will acquire a faith that focuses on maximum benefit with minimal obligations, and we will change the costly work of Christ’s atonement into the pragmatic transaction of a salvific contract… The sanctifying grace of God in Jesus Christ is not just for the sinner but also for a society beset by structural sin. – David Lowes Watson
My original thought is, “Is McLaren teaching universalism as some have suggested?” I don’t think so.
“Individualistic theology has not trained the spiritual intelligence of Christian men and women to recognize and observe spiritual entities beyond the individual” – Walter Rauschenbusch
In other words, many of our religious institutions have taught us to see no horizon for the message of Jesus beyond the soul of the individual.
“Our spirituality and the very gospel that we preach, needs to be as big and ubiquitous as sin and evil. We will falter in our spirituality and thus grieve the Spirit if ‘our struggle with evil’ does not ‘correspond to the geography of evil.'” – Eldwin Villafane
Because sin and evil are so “big and ubiquitous” and because the “geography of evil” extends far beyond the dimensions of our individual souls, we need a Gospel that is correspondingly expansive and mind blowing.
McLaren explains:
Sadly, in too many quarters we continue to reduce the scope of the Gospel to the individual soul and the nuclear family, framing it in a comfortable, personalized format – it’s all about personal devotions, personal holiness and a personal Savior. This domesticated Gospel will neither rock any boats nor step out of them into stormy waters. We have in many ways responded to the global crises of our day with an incredible, shrinking Gospel. The world has said, “No thanks.”
How big is your God and how big is your Gospel? Big enough to save your soul? Or big enough to save the world?
Several of us from around the blogsphere are reading “Everything Must Change” together and discussing our thoughts. We’ve just begun, but we’ve set it up in a way where it’s never to late to participate.
If you have any interest, you can visit us at:
http://readingforchange.wordpress.com
Several of us from around the blogsphere are reading “Everything Must Change” together and discussing our thoughts. We’ve just begun, but we’ve set it up in a way where it’s never to late to participate.
If you have any interest, you can visit us at:
http://readingforchange.wordpress.com
To make my main point up-front, I think Brian McLaren and much of the “emerging church” is more a departure from the Gospel than a fulfillment of it. In my view it tends to compromise with the world in standards, philosophy and methods more than it really changes the world. It is too much of the old social gospel of the late 19th century which was accompanied by a departure from basic Christian doctrine and practice in old-line churches until many of these denominations came under the control of apostates.
The tendency I have observed from the so-called
evangelical left, much of the mega church movement and more so in the emerging church movement is the tendency to back away from firmly speaking out against great evils of our time such as abortion, the deterioration of marriage and the plunge into homosexuality and sexual perversion. Instead it wants to focus on issues
(including bogus issues such as global warming)
that are popular with the non-Christian, anti-Christian spirit of the times in which we live.
Real change and influence for good in the world must be founded upon solid doctrine, solid personal salvation & sanctification and a commitment to good works individually and corporately out of this foundation.
To make my main point up-front, I think Brian McLaren and much of the “emerging church” is more a departure from the Gospel than a fulfillment of it. In my view it tends to compromise with the world in standards, philosophy and methods more than it really changes the world. It is too much of the old social gospel of the late 19th century which was accompanied by a departure from basic Christian doctrine and practice in old-line churches until many of these denominations came under the control of apostates.
The tendency I have observed from the so-called
evangelical left, much of the mega church movement and more so in the emerging church movement is the tendency to back away from firmly speaking out against great evils of our time such as abortion, the deterioration of marriage and the plunge into homosexuality and sexual perversion. Instead it wants to focus on issues
(including bogus issues such as global warming)
that are popular with the non-Christian, anti-Christian spirit of the times in which we live.
Real change and influence for good in the world must be founded upon solid doctrine, solid personal salvation & sanctification and a commitment to good works individually and corporately out of this foundation.