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Demythologizing the Gospel |
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by Rance Darity "The spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18,19). Judged by the standards
of traditional teaching, we might wonder what these socially-laden terms have
to do with preaching the gospel. Doesn't the gospel simply deal with what we
hear in church about going to heaven, possessing assurance, and overcoming
personal sin? Isn't there a world of difference between the "real"
gospel believed by Christians and mere social concern for injustice? Poverty, oppression, and
captivity are most often interpreted by conservative Christians in spiritual
terms only, describing an inward bondage to sin and corruption. On the other
hand, liberal Christians have a reputation for believing in a social gospel
that plays down spiritual conversion and interprets Jesus in predominately
naturalistic terms. But are either of these opposite
approaches truly biblical? Are we permitted to divide the social and
spiritual sides of human existence and limit the concern of the gospel to one
dimension only? Is the gospel spiritual, or is it social, or is it holistic? To ask such questions may
be too uncomfortable for some Christians. To reexamine such basic issues may
seem unnecessary and even threatening. It is even likely that some will
resist the challenge to think through familiar paradigms and potentially
discover just how comprehensive the gospel really is. Nevertheless, serious
Christians ought to resist any traditional boundaries and rediscover the
gospel in its biblical wholeness. In the following
discussion, the case is made for a unified gospel that encompasses the
spiritual as well as the social. We maintain that to believe in Jesus is more
than a matter of getting into heaven. In fact, we will challenge this common
portrayal of the gospel as being fundamentally flawed and mythical. However,
our ultimate goal is to be fully biblical and, if need be, to disabuse our
minds of a conflicted gospel that leads to the tragic loss of spiritual
power, on the one hand, or the disastrous depletion of compassionate concern
for the world's poor and oppressed, on the other. Myths of Optional
Concern Myth # 1: The central concern of the
Christian faith is the salvation of individuals from eternal torment. The
sinner who simply "accepts Christ" is instantly assured of a place
in heaven. This concern for the saving of a person's soul is the essence of
the church's missionary mandate. Social justice and the improvement of
society are temporal matters that are important by virtue of our love for
mankind; however, they are secondary issues and concerns, peripheral to the
gospel. Fact: The traditional gospel has
remodeled the concrete and earthly reality of God's plan for man into the
one-dimensional world of the spirit. The church needs to recover the
essential historic nature of the biblical message and to that extent surmount
the over-spiritualization of its message. The gospel of Jesus
Christ is the unifying theme of the New Testament and the foundation of the
Christian faith. Jesus announced a gospel of the kingdom, and the early
church proclaimed Jesus as the Savior who died for sinners and was raised to
rule as Lord at God's right hand. The thematic center of this gospel does not
revolve around the limited concern to save men's souls and transport them to
heaven. Rather than despising the
world and looking for redemption elsewhere, Christians are to pray for the
arrival of God's kingdom and the flourishing of His will on earth as it is in
heaven. Believers are given a heavenly calling for an earthly task. They are
to seek those things which are above, not as far-off contemplations, but as
down-to-earth necessities for flesh-and-blood existence. From the start, in the
preaching of Jesus, the various expectations of salvation are concentrated
into a single major focus: the dramatic entrance of the " In his cross and
resurrection, Christ established shalom/peace, reconciling mankind to God and
to one another. This reconciling work begins in the church and foreshadows
the wholeness of salvation in the age to come. Placed in the setting of the
present darkness, a new community of believers shines forth as light, models
the future and engenders improved social change in the present. Through its
endurance and faithful service, it fills up the sufferings of Christ for the
sake of the world. Thus, the gospel of the
kingdom focuses holistically upon man's plight, demanding both spiritual
repentance and social renewal. The mistake of removing the substance of the
kingdom from the earth to the ethereal space of heavenly dwellings is to
disengage the conscience of the church from vital concerns of man's existence
and limit the lordship of Christ to an inward religious experience. Matt. Myth # 2: The spiritual well-being of man
is the premier concern of the gospel, and it is possible to water down the
message if Christians expend too much effort in causes of social justice and
economic development. A social gospel would diminish the true witness of the
church. Christians can and do play a significant role of social up-building
in the daily rounds of family, work and cultural involvement, but the church
must keep to its task of preaching the gospel. Its wealth should be invested
primarily in its own maintenance and propagation, supporting approved clergy,
missionaries, and church personnel. Support of the poor and needy, relief of
the suffering, and good works are legitimate concerns but purely secondary in
nature. Fact: To reduce the role of the church
to religious enterprises, altar calls, and revivals is to abandon the dynamic
power of the Individuals are challenged
to repentance and faith in Christ, but conversion was never divorced from
ethical obligations and practical concerns in the broader world. Rather than
awaiting escape to another world, they are sent abroad on the earth - hearts,
hands, and minds intent on doing good works and faithfully serving in the
name of Christ. The restoration of
economic justice was a major component in the jubilee agenda of Christ and
the kingdom. He preached good news to the poor and deprived. The early church
brought its material resources to bear upon the relief of the poor and needy,
especially those in her midst. Ministering workers were passionately
supported in their love for Christ. The Bible often reports the zeal of
caring and sharing so that each received according to his need, and each
gives according to his ability. The economics of greed and accumulation were
viewed as fatal hindrances to obeying the gospel. Matt. 28:19,20; Mark 9:41; Luke 4:18,19; Acts The Myth of
Evangelical Dualism Myth # 3: Since man's body is only physical
and destined to perish, the soul of man is the primary concern of the gospel.
At death, the soul of the Christian leaves the body and is transported to
heaven to await the resurrection of the body. In contrast, the soul of the
non-Christian is destined for eternal torment in hellfire. Missions and
evangelism must therefore focus superior attention on getting people
"saved." Education, physical healing, social justice and peacemaking
are merely means to preserve the world before the final day of destroying
judgment. Fact: Though the post-apostolic church
in large measure succumbed to Hellenistic abstractions and learned to place
an emphasis on the supposed immortality of man's soul and original
corruption, it could only do so by abandoning the earthly/historical nature
of the biblical message. The Abrahamic
promise to bless all nations through the call of The popular and
traditional interpretation of the gospel often breeds an
other-worldly detachment from human evil and suffering which the
biblical gospel does not allow. At the very core of Christ's message was the
same concern for mercy, justice, and liberation as demanded by the Hebrew prophets. His powerful teaching and mighty miracles were
not isolated instances of occasional compassion, but the signs and presence
of the All of this is very
different from the familiar themes inherited from the past, where we are told
to be sorry for our sins and accept Christ as our own personal individual
Savior. This limited concern for our own destiny does not reach to the core
of biblical mission and kingdom evangelism. True conversion is more than a
dress rehearsal for heaven that refuses to go beyond the mere requirements of
pietistic customs. It is more than the mere transfer
from unchurched to churched, from irreligious to
religious, from disgraceful to respectable. Gen. 12:2,3; Isa. 10:1,2; 56:1; 61:8; Matt. 5:3-7; 9:13,16,17; 12:7;
23:23; Mark 1:15; Luke 1:51-53; 11:20; Acts 4:21; Rom. 4:13; 1 Cor. 15; Rev. 21. Myths of Decisional
Evangelism Myth # 4: The Bible contains a "simple
plan of salvation" for the evangelization of sinners. Evangelism is
based on one's ability to share the steps to Christ. Deciding for Christ and
praying a sinner's prayer are the only assurance one needs of his conversion
to God. Fact: Though the practice of presenting
the gospel in the manner of a formula or plan has the endorsement of
traditional "evangelical theology" and though many have been won to
Christ and have found a point of entry into the kingdom of God through such
"soul-winning" approaches, the practice is nevertheless a truncated
version of the apostolic preaching reported in the New Testament. Attempts to
confine the good news along the narrow lines of decision-making often create
one more obstacle to true repentance and saving faith. Depending upon the time,
place and audience, the proclamation of Christ was the announcement of an
arriving kingdom, the promise of forgiveness and eternal life, or a reign of
justice and peace. Faith, repentance, conversion, obedience, cross-bearing,
self-denial, the forsaking of all, discipleship, baptism, and service of God
and man are just a few of the central responses alternately demanded by the
gospel. In short, the biblical gospel invades the totality of human life
including the personal, social, economic, religious and secular. "Soul-winning
evangelism" reduces the gospel to individualistic, existential terms and
leaves unchallenged the status quo of worldly principalities and powers.
Kingdom evangelism announces the reign of God in such a way that conversion
is not merely the decision to simply believe, with little or no reflection or
resolution. On the contrary, real conversion is the initiation of the whole
of a person's life into the service of the kingdom. By God's grace, sinners
are regenerated by God's Spirit and transformed in the new community. They
discover a new life in Christ, no longer based on selfish ambition. As a
little flock gathered by the Shepherd, they are given a kingdom which cannot
fail or be extinguished by the forces of hell. Joined together by one Lord,
one Spirit and one baptism, they share a common life, closely comparable to a
body, a family, a nation, a city, etc. Agape/love must referee their shared
joys and sorrows. Salvation is a community existence, not an isolated
religious experience. Matt. 12:18,46-50;
16:18; 26:28; 28:19; Mark 1:15; 8:34-9:1; 16:16; Luke 6:24; 12:22-34;
14:26-35; 18:7,8; 19:8,9; John 3:16; 10:1-18; Rom. 6:4; 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:12-31; 13; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 4:4-6; Tit. 2:11-14;
Heb. 2:11,12; 2 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 1:6. Myth # 5: The gospel from Genesis to
Revelation revolves around the issue of law and grace. The great question
facing mankind is how man, the sinner, can find a gracious God. The task of
evangelism is mainly to clarify the doctrine of justification by faith.
Further, the proper confession of this doctrine is the issue by which the
church stands or falls. Fact: The extremely difficult and
complex resolution to how uncircumcised Gentiles could be accepted into one
body with circumcised Jews was an issue that occupied the considered
attention of the early church. Paul, as a Jew and yet apostle to the
Gentiles, was especially in the forefront of dealing with this enormous
obstacle to unity in the body of Christ. The law/grace, faith/works,
circumcision/uncircumcision matters belonged
entirely in this religious context. Employing the end-time
status of the messianic mission of Jesus, Paul argued from the law and
prophets for the essential truth of the universality of the gospel. All men
and women, Jew and Gentile alike are in need of salvation, equal in their
participation in the grace of God, and full partners in the unified
community. Circumcision and the law
add nothing to the efficacy of God's promise to save in Christ all who believe. Justification by faith is the truth that allows
us to see one another as brothers and sisters, regardless of
cultural/religious differences. We are to receive and eat with all whom
Christ has received. We deny the truth of the gospel when we make any
extraneous laws, customs or ethnic concerns prerequisites to salvation or
conditions of fellowship. In much of the history of
Christianity, the theme of justification by faith has been anachronistically
contorted in another direction. Abstracted from its original context, it has
acquired a new meaning, defining who is and who is not "saved"
based on agreement with confessional orthodoxy. As a result, differing
convictions have hardened into a permanent split in the body of Christ,
contradicting the original intention and goal of the gospel of peace. As a commanding canon of
interpretation, the issue has cast a long shadow over the entire Bible and
obscured the otherwise plain terms of the gospel. If "justification by
faith" was the indispensable issue to explicate in the gospel witness,
then it was conspicuously absent in the preaching of Jesus and carelessly
disregarded by the majority of evangelistic appeals in Scripture. Acts 15:1-35; Rom. 1-4; 14:1-15:22; Galatians 1-6; Eph. 2:11-3:12; Phil. 3:1-11. |
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