THE SOCIAL GOSPEL---PART 11

                            My Premise  
 My belief is that too many christians tend to hunker down in their institutional churches each Sunday singing praises to God and waiting for the second coming and, since they have such a biblically incorrect view of the Church and their God given gifts and abilities as the Church, they think little or nothing is expected of them outside that organization.  What a sad way to live in this world! 


I ended the last post with a declaration that I believed there is another way of thinking about the social gospel issue. Please read that earlier post, if possible, to get a context for what I'm about to say. 

That there is no need of a second gospel dedicated to the social issues facing our culture today is a reality in my mind because of the fact that the one gospel of Christ will ultimately impact many of those same issues when properly understood and experienced. [Making no mention of the fact that in scripture there is the warning about having any other gospel.]


I'm thinking that it may be that the one true gospel of the work of Christ gives birth to social awareness for Christians and leads them to genuinely and lovingly confronting harm done through any kind of insensitivity to race, gender, or those yet unborn. 


Another way of saying it is that real evangelism [responding to the gospel] brings one to a biblical lifestyle that would seek to confront racism and prejudice and would be unable to disregard the social needs of the poor, sick, abused, or the unborn. So I would not buy into the confrontation of social ills being a "gospel" within itself, but the result a true gospel experience changing one's view of other people and their needs and the sacredness of all of life. 

It would follow that methods for achieving this are not relegated to a government system alone and maybe not even first. [That's not to say government doesn't have its part in it.] But the Church can and should be intentional with her own methodology and programs to bring about such confrontation. 


I would also hold that no governmental system that fails in its part is beyond confrontation where oppression of any kind is found. [I've always regretted that I was not more personally involved in the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties.]  


The results make for a gospel that is not quite as compartmentalized as some conservatives tend to make it nor perhaps as politically active as some liberals are prone to make it. The past is replete with many who were wonderfully balanced in this kind of Christian life and ministry. 


Charles Finney, whose personal theology I don't totally agree with but who's life is admirable in my judgment, is known for personal revivalism and it led him to an anti-slavery stance that infuriated many. George Mueller of England and his care for orphans is well known to all of us. 

Clarence Jordan, who graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville Kentucky and helped found Habitat for Humanity as well as being the author the Cotton Patch translation of the New Testament using his knowledge gained from his Greek degree earned from Southern, are some who could be cited with a ton of others who could be listed as well. The best known of the present day may well be Rick Warren of Saddleback fame.

My point is simply that there will always be a tension that is to be maintained between the individual need of redemption which is our Cross message and the resulting ministry to those who are poor, outcasts, in prison, or just in need of basics such as a cup of water and food. 


That tension is not an easy thing and there is no magic formula for achieving it. But it cannot be relegated to the government entirely or to the back burner of our minds either because it is not an either/or situation for a true believer who fully grasps the message of Christ. 


We may differ on methodology in confronting social issues but that it can/should be done is a given to me. Creating a kind of dichotomy between the two would cause us as believers to miss so much of the revelatory materials that are our guide for living the Christian life. 


But the heart of our message of redemption found in the person and Cross work of Christ must never be lost. What follows in social impact is the evidence that that message is fully understood IMHO.


Now my opening words are best read again. I'm not an expert on anything. But I do wind up, generally speaking, with an opinion on most things. I'm sure the charge of oversimplification can and will be made concerning my view of this. I may be guilty as charged. It could be I'm simply an idealist or even a dreamer. If so, I think I'll just keep dreaming.

Paul B.