Monday, January 06, 2014

trending now

14 Favorite Ways to Twist the Gospel. This swift little article highlights a variety of ways evangelicalism tends to twist (a better word, I think, would be "dilute") the gospel. Common "twistings" that I've experienced in my own life as well as in my experiences in church and ministry include making heaven the goal, deprioritizing community, neglecting intercession, understanding the kingdom of God to be synonymous with heaven, and putting the emphasis of faith on belief rather than discipleship

Myths "Against" Postmillennialism. "There used to be a group called 'postmillennialists.' They believed that the Christians would root out the evil in the world, abolish godless rulers, and convert the world through ever increasing evangelism until they brought about the Kingdom of God on earth through their own efforts. Then after 1000 years of the institutional church reigning on earth with peace, equality, and righteousness, Christ would return and time would end. These people rejected much of the Scripture as being literal and believed in the inherent goodness of man. World War I greatly disheartened this group and World War II virtually wiped out this viewpoint. No self-respecting scholar who looks at the world conditions and the accelerating decline of Christian influence today is a 'postmillennialist.'" Thus the article quotes Hal Lindsey and then goes point-by-point examining the accusations made against postmillennialism and how those accusations simply don't make sense. Lindsey is adamant that no self-respecting scholar observant of world events can be a postmillennialist, but some of the most brilliant men I've known have been professing postmillennialists. I'm not sure where my beliefs lie on the spectrum of "End Times" talk, but I do find postmillennialism to be a persuasive way to look at cosmic history and the work of God in our world.

Why Switchfoot Won't Sing Christian Songs. I don't know anything about Switchfoot to be honest, but these quotes are pretty solid: "There is a schism between the sacred and the secular in all of our modern minds. The view that a pastor is more 'Christian' than a girl's volleyball coach is flawed and heretical. The stance that a worship leader is more spiritual than a janitor is condescending and flawed. These different callings and purposes further demonstrate God's sovereignty... We have a call to take up our cross and follow. We can be sure that these roads will be different for all of us. Just as you have one body and every part has a different function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each of us belongs to all the others. Please be slow to judge 'brothers' who have a different calling."

Sex After Christianity. This is an old article and a stinging indictment on western Christianity. One of the main points made is that Christianity has been known for its own rejection of pagan sexuality, but the western church has all but embraced such pagan sexuality, so that it has become "paganized." Such paganization has been done under the demise of being "progressive," but it's simply the apathy of the western church in general and the seductiveness of the modern conviction that one's own desires "are the locus of authority and self-definition." Here's a cool quote: "Paul's teachings on sexual purity and marriage were adopted as liberating in the pornographic, sexually exploitive Greco-Roman culture of the time--exploitive especially of slaves and women, whose value to pagan males lay chiefly in their ability to produce children and provide sexual pleasure. Christianity, as articulated by Paul, worked a cultural revolution, restraining and channeling male eros, elevating the status of both women and of the human body, and infusing marriage--and martial sexuality--with love. Christian marriage... was 'as different from anything before or since as the command to turn the other cheek.' The point is not that Christianity was only, or primarily, about redefining and revaluing sexuality, but that within a Christian anthropology sex takes on a new and different meaning, one that mandated a radical change of behavior and cultural norms. In Christianity, what people do with their sexuality cannot be separated from what the human person is."

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