A faith for this world
By ‘secularised’ we mean to move from otherworldliness, to present a more distant and indistinct conception of the supernatural, to relax the moral restrictions on members and to surrender claims to an exclusive and superior truth.
The post-evangelicalism of former evangelicals such as Rob Bell, Brian McLean, and Steve Chalke, reminds us that successful movements tend to drift from orthodoxy to secularism over time.
Every generation faces its own challenge to remain faithful to the gospel, while remaining connected to a lost world.
You can be faithful in your view of scripture, your doctrine of the atonement, and sexual ethics, yet unfaithful in connecting with lost people in a lost world. Being right is not enough.
Being relevant is not enough. You can be contextualised in a postmodern world, and yet adrift from the truth of the gospel.
When Jesus welcomed the woman who wept at his feet (Luke 7:36-50) he announced to the room of religious bigots that, "her sins are many." They agreed. Jesus was not soft on sin. Yet he welcomed her love and devotion because this woman who had been forgiven much, loved him much. He came looking for people like her because they were lost, and he loved them.
Post-evangelicalism would have us believe that there is no sin to forgive. Jesus just accepts her. He's on the side of the marginalised. Yet Jesus taught that we all need forgiveness — the sexually immoral person, the corrupt government official, the military officer, the lost son and the righteous son, the proud Pharisee.
To say that there is nothing to forgive, that God does not judge sin, is an unloving act. Listen to Rob Bell's interview. It's all about keeping up which changing social trends to ensure the survival of the church. Compromise is too high a price to pay for relevance.
God judges sin. If that offends you, consider the alternative; a world in which God is indifferent to evil. A world without justice.
The God who opposes evil is the God who bore the consequences of our rebellion. Let them reject this as "cosmic child abuse." Reality won't change. God judges evil. God rescues sinners through Christ's death. There is no other gospel.
The gospel of progressive Christianity cannot save. It leaves people lost in their sin, separated from his sacrificial love.
No one will cross the road, let alone the ocean, to spread this gospel. No-one will suffer and die for it. Why should they? It's a gospel for those who have lost their faith, but want to hang on to it's trappings.
