This is what Christianity has been reduced to…..enhanced moralism

I have been thinking about some stuff the last few weeks, I shared this today at Legacy….with this email I can link to some examples of what Im talking about.

We had an intramural scrimmage email wise amongst Legacy. Fleshing out some biblical understanding on Self defense in the home. Rob made the observation that if you only use the New Testament you are just left hanging as to what you should do. With out the Old Testament you would actually be steered away from the biblical stance on this topic.

Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

I have been thinking about how I/we have assimilated Gods word into our lives when we were saved. Proposition, as Rob would say, on how we should have been introduced to Christianity after being saved or what is it, we should impart to a new believer/s and especially our kids

Now humanities problem is a rebellion against God, the problem is we focus on ourselves and what we want. As part of this, we redefine what God has declared. But what God has said, is the truth.

Modern Christianity has been focused on behavior. We think in terms of a God who… “looks at the heart.” We don’t see how we are still captive to a mindset that see’s us as the key ingredient. Where we take the Word to us and our situations and then apply it to us.

But this leaves the focus still on man, now a regenerate man, but the focus is still upon man. And there are no answers in man.

So when we read…….Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Its easy to reduce what Jesus says here, to a very limited understanding. To make it representative of the modern salvation experience. Rather than what Jesus was meaning, that it be descriptive of what the salvation experience leads too.

We have had Mans definition of what salvation is about, evangelicalism agreed with the world that defined Christianity as a “enhanced morality” and This is what Christianity has become reduced to…..We would be quick to add, we also have a relationship with Jesus now. Our modern Christianity has not been a bottom up inspection of what we believe, rather we have thrown some Jesus carrots into the existing stew which has changed the flavor of basic humanistic paradigms. It keeps Jesus and his axe away from our roots.

Now that we are saved when the neighbor’s dog poops in our yard ( again!) instead of taking our shovel and flinging it back into his yard we quietly throw it away. We are suffering for Christ.

This is what Christianity has become reduced to…..enhanced moralism.

How should we see it? Now that we are saved we should approach His creation, which we are just a part of , and see the world as he says it is, as he defines it, adopt his world view and subordinate ourselves to it. This is not how most of us have been taught to think.

So his word becomes the focus and we take a rightful place as a derivative of Gods creation. We come from and are part of it. Not the center of it.

We all know this verse. Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But the proceeding verses which give the context,(26-32) have Jesus giving the set up to knowing this truth that can set you free. His life is the example and Jesus himself points back to what God has ordained and revealed already in his word. We moderns see the verse and just assume that it is imputed to us because we are now saved.

Here are two examples of biblical thinking that used to be just foreign to me. (still is) One is Doug Wilson working with Mercy and the other is Marton Selbrede with multiple examples of using the word to examine governments and economics . Here were my contributions to the defending your family discussion. partI, partII, partIII

You never arrive, but we keep moving towards….repenting and reforming, bringing all back into its proper position in Gods created order….