Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962).
Niebuhr's comment about modern theology sadly seems to be increasingly true of evangelical preaching too...
"A God without wrath, brings men without sin, into a kingdom without judgement, through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross."
It seems to me that unless we have the courage of our convictions and teach key ideas like Sin, Wrath, Judgement and the Cross, the Evangelical Church will have nothing of worth to say to the on-looking world. We will be compelled to reflect back to the world what it finds congenial. There is a coherent philospohical message in the Gospel, but when we compromise on any of these teachings a sceptical world will point out that our message has ceased to have any coherence.
Unless we understand sin and God's anger towards it we will not have a realistic understanding of the world we live in nor an understanding of the conflicted nature of humanity, nor will we be able to adequately describe who Jesus is, or what his ministry meant, we will be supremely unable to explain the purpose of the Cross.
3 comments:
Great post. It's refreshing. I have an aversion to namby, pamby Christianity.
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Thanks for your comment. I believe the issue is whether the version of Christianity being preached has integrity; by which I mean does it actually reflect the authentic Biblical message? Niebuhr's comment is an attack on those versions of Christianity which have sought to accomodate to the world rather than take the more difficult path of challenging the world. Thanks again.
Leaving out what some would view as "uncomfortable" is not delivering the whole truth. I have found that many people see God as fire and brimstone and many see him as a God of love and peace - but sides missing out on his true identity.
great post, thanks.
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