Marginal Christianity

"There is, then, an evangelical way to preach the Gospel and an unevangelical way to preach it. The Gospel is preached in an unevangelical way, as happens so often in modern evangelism, when the preach announces: This is what Jesus Christ has done for you, but you will not be saved unless you make your own personal decision for Christ as your Savior. Or: Jesus Christ loved you and gave his life for you on the Cross, but you will be saved only if you give your heart to him. In that event, what is actually coming across to people is not a Gospel of unconditional grace but some other Gospel of conditional grace which belies the essential nature and content of the Gospel as it is in Jesus. It was that subtle legalist twist to the Gospel which worried St Paul so much in his Epistle to the Galatians…To preach the Gospel in that conditional or legalist way has the effect of telling poor sinners that in the last resort the responsibility for their salvation is taken off the shoulders ...

  "There is, then, an evangelical way to preach the Gospel and an unevangelical way to preach it. The Gospel is preached in an unevangelical way, as happens so often in modern evangelism, when the preach announces: This is what Jesus Christ has done for you, but you will not be saved unless you make your own personal decision for Christ as your Savior. Or: Jesus Christ loved you and gave his life for you on the Cross, but you will be saved only if you give your heart to him. In that event, what is actually coming across to people is not a Gospel of unconditional grace but some other Gospel of conditional grace which belies the essential nature and content of the Gospel as it is in Jesus. It was that subtle legalist twist to the Gospel which worried St Paul so much in his Epistle to the Galatians…To preach the Gospel in that conditional or legalist way has the effect of telling poor sinners that in the last resort the responsibility for their salvation is taken off the shoulder...

Spiritual Flaw #1: We’ve Never Known the Real Jesus The American Jesus looks something like this: Jesus as a 1 st century Middle Eastern peasant probably looked something like this: American Christianity forgets that Jesus is a Jew through and through. He cannot be understood apart from that Jewishness. To forget this and to try and read Jesus as an American is to misunderstand the New Testament almost completely. Americans also forget that Jesus is cross-eyed . He sees everything from the perspective of the cross which turns everything in our prudential calculating way of living for ourselves, by ourselves, and by our own strength on its head. His upside-down, out-of-the-box, round peg in a square hole, a question-wrapped-in-a-riddle-surrounded- by-an-enigma life calls all that into question. Any hope we have as Americans in understanding Jesus is to see as black . Unless we see him as one enslaved throughout his li...

THE FOUR SIRITUAL FLAWS: WHY CHRISTIANITY DIED IN AMERICA Spiritual Flaw #1: The Jesus We Never Knew                                                              The American Jesus looks something like this: Jesus as a 1 st century Middle Eastern peasant probably looked something like this: American Christianity forgets that Jesus is a Jew through and through. He cannot be understood apart from that Jewishness. To forget this and to try and read Jesus as an American is to misunderstand the New Testament almost completely. Americans also forget that Jesus is cross-eyed. He sees everything from the perspective of the cross which turns everything in our prude...

In my book The Incredible Shrinking Gospel I proposed that we re-imagine the church as God’s “subversive counter-revolutionary movement”, the gospel as God’s announcement of his decisive victory over the powers of division, death, the devil in, through, and as Jesus of Nazareth. Evangelism, then, is God’s call to humanity to enlist in this subversive counter-revolutionary movement whereby Jesus is setting humanity and creation on the path to God’s primal design for them. Thus evangelism has a number of similarities to “military” recruitment. Jesus doesn’t so much “offer” the gospel to religious seekers as call people to “follow” him and serve in his Kingdom (= God’s subversive counter-revolutionary movement). Baptism serves as an “induction” ritual into this service and their training (“Boot Camp”) in acquiring the skills and weapons of the “violence of love” (Oscar Romero) is their apprenticeship to Jesus as he makes his ways through Galilee and on to Jerusalem. As with eve...

The church is not called to change the world, it's called to participate in and witness to the changed world brought by Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension. I posted this earlier on my facebook status and one friend responded: “I think that would change the world.” I agree but not perhaps in the sense my friend means and not as I suspect many American Christians, progressive or evangelical believe. My thesis is this: “Changing the world” is a mantra that has been present in many ways in American Christianity throughout its existence. Some of it came from post-millenial thought. Steven Pointer explains: “During most of the nineteenth century, American Protestants believed they were living in special times, that current events were hastening the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth. Hymns like the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" became popular because they so well expressed this hope: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the...

Israel in exile heard these words through the prophet Isaiah: “ How beautiful upon the mountains      are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news,      who announces salvation,      who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The “good news” Isaiah announced as promise Mark proclaims as fulfilled. Fulfilled in Jesus Messiah, Son of God. In fact, he apparently created the genre of “gospel” as an account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfilment of God’s story with Israel and the world. The word “gospel” refers to an announcement of an event that changes things in the wider public world. That’s what it meant when the Romans used this word to announce a great military victory, the accession of a new emperor, or the birth of an heir to the sitting emperor. Mark believes that the world has been changed by who and what happened through this Jesus. In this statement, the title to hi...

7.     Salvation can be rightly appreciated (and embodied!) only where the sin and disorder of creation and creatures are fully grasped (see #6).   “Far as the curse is found,” as the hymn writer puts it. Against the backdrop of cosmic disorder through sin God intends a cosmic salvation through Christ to put all things back as they should have been (that’s righteousness in biblical parlance; Col.1:20; Rom.8:18-30). a.     Such salvation entails both reclamation and restoration. Through forgiveness we are reclaimed by God and restored to our primal dignity and vocation as God’s image-bearers, his royal priests in the temple of his creation. b.     Unfortunately, we have tended to forget the restoration part and see salvation as only reclamation (personal forgiveness of sins and going to heaven as a consequence). c.     Thus we think of ourselves and others as only forgiven sinners whereas the biblical sto...

“God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” – Campus Crusade’s Four Spiritual Laws “I’m a bastard, you’re a bastard but God loves us anyway” – Will Campbell, rouge Baptist preacher “Here’s the Gospel: You’re more sinful than you ever dared believe; you’re more loved than you ever dared hope” – Tim Keller, PCA pastor “You are accepted – Paul Tillich, liberal theologian These four statements reflect in their own ways and parlance the default American version of “the Gospel” across the theological spectrum. “The Gospel is not a religious message to inform mankind of their divinity or to tell them how they may become divine. The Gospel proclaims a God utterly distinct from men” – Karl Barth Barth contests this default version of “the Gospel.” Rather, it is something about God in distinction from us. “The time is fulfilled and the reign of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” -   Jesus ( Mk. 1:14-15 ) “Paul, a servant of Jesus Chri...