We Need a More Encompassing Vision

This hits the nail squarely on the head I think. This is from “The Second Mayflower.” We never arrive, we must keep pressing in, in every area of life. Yes it will get tiring, its war.

From around pg 170 Swanson said,

“But even where a vision is present, the movement it represents will die unless the vision progressively sharpens in its clarity and purpose. Many movements die because the vision was poorly communicated to succeeding generations through teaching and example. Therefore the vision must either sharpen or it will die- there is no middle ground....”

Kevin describes so much of the church correctly in these following statements. How with our narrow Americana view of life we might squish an ant but leave the whole colony right next to us alone. “The ant couldn’t have come from there….”

“Sometimes Christians will take a determined stand on one isolated issue, but their worldview lacks a coherence because it lacks a comprehensive and full orbed view of history, politics, anthropology, epistemology, sociology , economics, ecclesiology, and medicine. Thus this half baked, piecemeal approach will produce very little if any, long term positive results.”

“For lack of vision, Christian activism is saddled with both lack of unity and direction. ...As long as the agenda is more framed by pragmatism and utilitarianism than by the heart commitment to Gods law we will continue to fight losing battles...”

Rob is getting to see this first hand as he sits in on lunch’s with the CAP organization. Open our eyes Lord.

This line here is just so huge our….” worldview lacks a coherence because it lacks a comprehensive and full orbed view of history, politics, anthropology, epistemology, sociology , economics, ecclesiology, and medicine.” As Chrisitans when we are mature, lacking nothing, we should see how everyone of these areas spring forth from Gods truth, from his word. They all fit together because they all reflect different aspects of Gods created order.

How did we get this lousy narrow view of life when our heritage is that our spiritual forefathers, 250-400 yrs ago were working hard, very hard at work on all of these areas. It birthed modern science and all of these category’s, and for a time theology was the queen of science’s , at the universities we had made, because all were under its umbrella. Our nations frame work for government was birthed as a piece of fruit from this work.

So why, as I grew up in a God fearing Baptist church, and then spent 29 yrs or so in the charismatic movement , did it seem that there was almost nothing until we came along. There was no historical context for our faith. It was like evolution, first there was all this nothingness except for the ancient history of the nation of Israel and then there was a big bang and we just all appeared together at a “Second Chapter of Acts” concert.

Im gonna put together some thoughts from Otto Scott, that sheds some light on what happened 100 yrs ago. Now this happened in spite of the fact that God could not have emphasized harder the importance of the generational connections! You must tell your children’s, children’s and listen to your fathers, fathers, respect and listen to those older than you! Nothing appears out of nothing, everything is a fruit of something else. Except the triune Godhead, it has always been.

From Otto Scott

...by the dawn of this century the Marxist realized that direct attacks on Christianity did not persuade so much as provoke.

They had more success with the argument that religion is a purely private matter-of no concern to the Government or to society...

…By the turn of the century the new alternatives to Christianity had convinced universities and the intellectuals. The clergy vanished from the administration of colleges their church’s had founded, and were replaced by professional educators of carefully neutral agnosticism....

…though Christians had built the west and comprised the majority of its western citizens. Around 1900, American scholars and writers began to expurgate Christianity from our literature. This was a remarkable step....

The Christian scholars of the United States, however, decided that the heirs of Christendom in this land did not need to know the history of Christianity. Nineteen hundred years of (Christian) effort were culled from our history books, and only that which tended to place Christianity in a ridiculous or intolerant light was retained...."
Otto Scott , Journal of Christian Reconstruction 1985

We need to reclaim our history and impress it upon the next gerneration, we must tell our children about the acts of God....