In this life (i.e. now) Christians are to follow Jesus' example and promote God's kingdom on heaven and on earth. We are to act to make the world a better place; to expand God's righteous kingdom. We do that by promoting and advocating for social justice; economic justice; creation-care; peace; care for the weak; the "other"; the sick; the oppressed; the poor.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
a false gospel
The ability for some claiming to be Christian and yet totally miss the gospel is staggering ... this is only exceeded by the ability for others claiming to be Christian to buy into these false teachings ... here's an example ...
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I don't want to bite, but I feel like I have to. Which of those things shouldn't Christians do?
- advocating for social justice
- caring for creation
- peace
- caring for the weak, sick, oppressed and poor
Or are you saying that Jesus didn't say we should do these things? I'm a little bewildered at this post. I'm not saying these things are the gospel, but I can't understand why they're not things we should do.
I think all of those things are good and right. I don't think these are our 'calling', I think we need to be much more careful with language such as promoting the Kingdom, and I think we misrepresent the Kingdom when we restrict it to works done in human strength.
So not that we shouldn't do these but what McKnight and now I am offering is the context is slightly off and the miraculous nature of the KIngdom is underrepresented, and the Gospel is missing, and ...
If the were a statement about the typical stuff that associates with the Gospel presentation, the Kingdom power, and so on, I wouldn't have the same thinking but for some (not all), this statement has moved to the number 1 slot in their agenda.
That's a subtle yet significant difference from what Christ called us to.
I think in the light of false gospel we must also talk about false assurance. I've met too many people who "got saved" and then crawled into a hermetically sealed chamber. Push them on their lack of action and you get a whole lot of talk about grace. These folks avoid the Book of James like the plague.
I once wrote this: "Think of it this way. A person dead in sin is like a broken tool that has been tossed into the trash. At justification, the tool is rescued from the trash. Sanctification cleans up that tool, fixes it, enables its specific functions, and puts it to work doing what it was made to do.
"So the beauty of the Gospel is that it encompasses that entire process, not just retrieving the tool from the trash. It doesn’t just give you a pass out of the trash, but equips you to become all you were intended to be."
Dan - reminds me of Chris Brauns' recent post ... I thought it excellent ...
http://www.chrisbrauns.com/2011/05/11/what-scares-me-most-as-a-pastor-2/
Thank-you for allowing me to pass on this warning for you to share with your readers. There is a man who’s influence is growing in North America and he is teaching that Jesus became a sinner. His name is Dr. Jim Richards from Impact Ministries and video/audio proof of this heresy can be found here http://www.squidoo.com/jim-richards
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