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Category: Theology

  • What’s Beyond Death?

    by William Powell Tuck

    Untitled            In one of the churches I served as pastor, a high school student wrote a paper entitled, “The End of Time.” He began his paper with this sentence: “This paper will tell and explain about the end of time.” That’s a remarkable claim for a high school student! But that’s the only time I felt I had all of the answers to the Doctrine of the Last Things. When I was in high school, I preached a youth revival in my home church in Lynchburg, Virginia and I spoke with authority on the Second Coming of Christ, Hell and Heaven. I have not been so knowledgeable since!
    The theological term for “the last things” is eschatology. Eschatology is the Christian doctrine which is concerned with the final end of humanity. It focuses on matters such as death, the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, the final judgment, heaven and hell. As I reflected on these topics, I realized that these themes are at the heart of the Christian faith, but it is difficult to voice with clarity what we mean by them.
    Although there is no clear, simple, New Testament answer on all of these issues, the New Testament is unequivocal in its hope for men and women in Jesus Christ. No one can speak with certainty about such matters as the mystery of death, the resurrection, heaven and hell, the second coming, or the final judgment of God. However, the New Testament does offer some concrete pointers which I believe can be helpful to us. I invite you to join me as we look to see if we can gain some insight to determine the future hope for those who die in Christ.
    The journey toward the “undiscovered country” is filled with uncertainty, puzzling questions, strange reflections and enigmatical images, but it also travels across the bridges, mountains, and valley paths of mystery, faith, hope and anticipation. As Christians, we should travel toward our final destination with quiet confidence and Christian assurance.
    The Christian approaches death with the awareness that “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Death is not our “natural” end, but is an enemy of God and stands in opposition to God’s ultimate will. “Death is the peak of all that is contrary to God in the world, the last enemy,” says Karl Barth, “thus not the natural lot of man, not an unalterable divine dispensation.” But Jesus Christ has already won the battle against death and so Paul can shout: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 15:57). Death for the Christian becomes a transitional path from this life to the next; it is not a dead‑end street but a thoroughfare that leads into another dimension of living. “Death is no more the dark door that shuts forever behind man,” Brunner says, “but the opened door through which he enters into true life.”
    Imagine how a baby might try to philosophize if he or she were able to contemplate another kind of life outside his or her mother’s womb. What could she use as a base from which to speculate or surmise? How could she understand life free from surrounding liquid? What does she know of light, or breath, or food, or eating? What does he know of choices, companionship, friends, work, art, or reading? Is it not possible that to the infant the birth process is a crisis which is a sort of “death” as he or she leaves the safe, comfortable, secure world where every need had been met? A new and marvelous world awaits; he or she has no resources to imagine what it will be like‑and how wonderfully different from the other world. Death for the Christian is a “birthing” from the physical world to the spiritual realm. How can we possibly describe it; words fail us. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).
    In my book, The Journey to the Undiscovered Country: What’s Beyond Death? I deal with some of these issues.

    Order The Journey to the Undiscovered Country here: https://energiondirect.info/theology/the-journey-to-the-undiscovered-country

  • Which creation is the greater witness?

    by Herold Weiss

    Cover1Which is more important, the creation of Adam and Eve or the creation of the Risen Christ, the Last Adam? The story of the creation of Adam and Eve, the second of the stories in Genesis, is in part the story of the loss of life when access to the tree of life is blocked. As such, the story is theological, not about biology. Disobedient Adam and Eve did not lose biological life when they sinned. They lost access to the source of their life. That source transcends the biological realm, and without access to that source human life found itself floundering. The story of Adam and Eve, which much to one’s wondering is never alluded to in the rest of the Old Testament (with one exception, Job 31: 33), is the story of how  life East of Eden became a struggle, and death at the hands of others entered the created world.
    The story of the Last Adam, on the other hand, is the story of how biological death is not really the last thing to be said about human life because of what God has done for the benefit of humanity. All the disciples of Jesus who saw his crucifixion went home thinking that what they had hoped for had been brutally negated by the power of the State that judged Jesus to be a seditious man. They were ready to go back to Galilee and try to pick up the life they had left behind when they had decided to follow Jesus. Their enthusiasm for Jesus and what he promised had been crushed by his crucifixion. That is the biological side of this story.
    According to the apostle Paul, however, what God did on Sunday was not just the resuscitation of a dead body. It was a new creation. The revelation of the Risen Christ gave the crucifixion a totally new meaning. It saw God in the picture and understood that his crucifixion put an end to the overwhelming power of sin in the lives of all humans. The Risen Christ is the Last Adam. The descendants of the first Adam come to life in bodies like that of their progenitor, bodies of flesh. Those who are united with Christ by baptism into the death that he died for all, come to life in the realm of the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. Eventually, they will also receive spirit bodies and enjoy the life God had intended for humans to start with.
    The Risen Christ is the Adam of the new creation. This creation took place two thousand years ago and it is more real than the creation of Adam in as much as it is the creation of imperishable life, totally different from any biological life or death. Christians who are eager to affirm that God is the creator, to which creation should they give ultimate significance? Which creation should be the one that merits consistent efforts to affirm on the part of Christians?
    Neither the creation of Adam in the garden nor the creation of the Last Adam in the Spirit is subject to historical or scientific testing. All biblical authors affirm that God was directly involved as Creator. In both creations the Spirit was the active agent, but in the Bible, descriptions of the universe created by God, if given at all, do not provide a consistent picture, even as they affirm that God is the Creator. That God is the Creator is affirmed by faith. Of the two creations affirmed by the Bible, the creation of life in the Spirit is what Christianity is all about. That is the creation in which Christians live now and will live in eternity. Should not the reality of the creation of life in the realm of the Spirit, rather than the creation of life out of dust of the ground, be what Christians are constantly witnessing to before the world?

     

  • A literal reading of Genesis 1-3

    by Herold Weiss

    Cover1It is widely accepted that the first three chapters of Genesis actually contain two stories of creation which are told from two quite different perspectives. One is found in Gen. 1: 1 – 2: 4a, and the other in Gen. 2: 4b – 4:23. Neither one of them supports what came to be affirmed as the orthodox Christian view of creation – that God created ex nihilo, out of nothing. Both stories have pre-existent matter at hand when God enters the picture. The first says that God’s Spirit moved over the primeval ocean. The second says that God came to an inhospitable, arid desert.
    Most importantly, the two stories differ by the way in which they express God’s relationship to primeval matter and the way in which God accomplishes what he wishes to do. In the first God never enters the world that is being created. God remains throughout aloof in space and issues commands. In the second God walks upon the ground and gets physically involved in bringing about what is to be. He plants a garden, molds clay, breathes into the clay. God takes a rib out of Adam and closes its place with flesh. God talks face to face with Adam and Eve. God searches for them while calling them. God makes garments of skins for Adam and Eve, and clothes them. While the God of the first story is transcendent, the God of the second is fully immanent.
    Finally, both stories have God establish a means for keeping in touch with the human family. In the first God creates the Sabbath as a day of rest. In the second, God plants at the center of the garden the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus, each story has a peculiar “temple” of its own. All ancient stories of creation end with the establishment of a temple by means of which human beings keep their relationship with the gods alive. While the story of the transcendent God establishes a temple in immaterial time, the story of the immanent God has trees that establish that human life is dependent on obedience. In pointing out these details of the two stories, am I not reading my Bible literally?

     

  • A Christian Theology of Dialogue

    A Christian Theology of Dialogue

    by Henry Neufeld

    Not Ashamed“Why would you even consider publishing that book?” is one of the more common questions I’m asked as a Christian publisher. Well, that or questions very much like it. Behind these questions lies the idea that I should recognize a particular view of the faith and of ethical issues and then publish things that support this view. Often this hypothetical view is identified as the TRUTH.
    There are a few excellent answers to this question. I can point out that I doubt my ability to fully identify absolute truth so as to limit my proclamation to only that which is absolutely true. And no, I don’t trust your ability to identify that absolute truth any more than I trust mine. Because I cannot ever be certain that I have found absolute truth, I believe that it is imperative that we never waver or lose heart in our search for it. The search does not mean that we never make decisions or that we cannot have clear ethical principles. What it does mean is that we have the confidence needed to open those principles to constant examination. Maturity is not a destination; it is a constant and repeated process of growth.
    I can also quote verses such as Matthew 7:12, also known as the golden rule. This is often a good guide for behavior and it does apply to dialogue. When you have something to say, do you want other people to ignore it, dismiss it, or misrepresent it? No! You want them to listen. The golden rule suggests that you do the same thing for them.
    But in reality, my view of dialogue as a Christian comes directly from my view of the incarnation. No, I don’t mean the detailed issues of just how the incarnation worked, or how one can properly describe the nature of Jesus as the Christ. Rather, I refer to the practical impact of the incarnation.
    As I said in my book, Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic,

    I’m sharing my experiences and my understanding of those experiences. I’d like you to come alongside and try to understand me and dialogue with me through the words of this book. But I view this sharing much as I view the way God shared with humanity through Jesus. He is infinite, or something so close to that we can’t tell the difference, and we are finite. In Jesus God crossed that gap—by definition as wide a gap as is possible—and asked us to share with him. I’m speaking across a much narrower gap, infinitely narrower, and I’m asking you to share with me. God is not the God of the gaps—the one who fills in the spaces where we don’t understand. He is the God who crosses gaps, and invites us to cross them with him and for him.

    Everything is from God, who was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, and who has given us the task of reconciliation.– 2 Corinthians 5:18 (pp. v-vi)

    In the incarnation God certainly reached out to us to speak to us, but God also heard from us. Jesus lived as one of us, learned as one of us, and experienced life and death as we do. I believe that picturing this as a one-way street does not live up to all the scriptures that we have nor do they live up to spiritual experience. God joined in our experiences.
    If we are to live with integrity as followers of this Jesus, we cannot cut off communication, which is a key way in which we can continue to test our understanding of the truth and to improve our understanding of it. In a very real way this is how we can become more God-like.
    Again let me quote what I said in Not Ashamed of the Gospel:

    Lonely Christianity is not an option. I don’t mean routine church services each week with formal greetings in the few minutes provided by the order of service. I’m suggesting long term, deep relationships with people you care about and who care about you. I mean seeking relationships where you don’t have them. I mean seeking relationships without an ulterior motive. Don’t go out making relationships in the hopes that the person will go to church with you and become a Christian. Seek relationships because you care, and because you enjoy that God-like activity. You are never more God-like than when you open your heart’s door to another person. The more different they are, the more God-like that action is. (p. 32)

    I say this as a person who is an introvert, someone who does not find it easy to build relationships. I prefer a small number of close connections, but often find myself engaged in many. This is what I mean by gap-crossing.
    So what subjects are out of bounds? I would suggest that when we can no longer discuss a subject, when it is no longer subject to examination, we have cut off an important avenue for growth. This should be even more true of subjects on which we are near absolute certainty.
    God was not put off by the distance between heaven and earth in the incarnation. God communicated with us through the Son. We must never be put off by the much smaller distance between us and one another. Can our fellow human beings possibly seem as distant from us as we have seemed from God?
    This has become the foundation of my view of publishing and of Christian education. There are two aspects tied together. First, an ever more open communication with God through prayer, study, and spiritual disciplines. (And by study I mean much more, but never less than Bible study; everything in the universe in some way reflects the God who created it.) But second, a constant effort to better understand one another, which in turn feeds back into the first.
    Is there ever a conclusion? For the individual, yes. Not a conclusion to communication, but rather we do come to an understanding of God’s will for us that we can live with. We will certainly form fellowships and organizations to support particular ideas. These may be selective and include people who support a common goal. But that doesn’t mean that those groups need to cut off those of other views from communication. I work to facilitate that communication and that continuous growth, as by beholding we become changed.
    One might even call this the operation of the two laws: Love for God and love for one another. And that, after all, is what is to characterize believers. It seems to me that the same thing is what grows believers as well.

  • What is Your Favorite Role in Relation to Jesus?

    Habitation of Honeyby Nancy Petrey

    As Christians there are many roles we play in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We are disciples, friends, worshipers, servants, children, sheep, joint-heirs, subjects, ambassadors, soldiers, and the bride of Christ.
    These are wonderful roles, and God makes it possible for us to fulfill them all. But we must not lose sight of God’s overarching purpose for the Church – He is seeking a wife for His Son. The Bible begins and ends with a marriage! God performed the first wedding ceremony in joining the “first Adam” to his wife Eve.
    In the back of the book we see the “second Adam,” Jesus Christ, and His wife at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It is significant that Jesus did His first miracle at a wedding, turning water into wine. This was no happenstance. It demonstrated His priority of ministry. But why turn water into wine? Maybe the answer is found in a song the Lord gave me. When I was arranging my collection of poems and songs into a book, Habitation of Honey: Poems and Songs, I realized that there was a recurring wedding theme, so I placed “The Wedding Feast” at the end of the book to sum up that theme. The back cover accentuates the theme with a beautiful chuppah (wedding canopy) and the chorus of this song:

    The Wedding Feast
    (You Are Aged Wine)
    ~ Song based on John 2:1-11 ~

    Have you ever heard the story of the wedding in Cana of Galilee?
    Have you thought much about the stone pots that were used for the wine?
    They were sitting there waiting to be used; they had great capacity,
    But till Jesus came they were empty as they could be.
    There was a wedding, and Jesus had them filled to the brim with water.
    He said, “Draw some out. Take it to the master of the feast.”
    When the master of the feast tasted the water that was made into wine,
    He called the Bridegroom and said, “What you have done is so very fine.”
    The world serves their best wine at the first and saves the worst till last,
    But Jesus has a better idea: He ages His wine.
    And as the days grow long, and you don’t feel so strong, He will come to you,
    Fill you up with Living Water, and He’ll change you into finest wine.

    CHORUS 1:
    You are aged wine. I’ve been saving you a long time.
    You are aged wine. You are a wonder and a sign.
    You are aged wine. To everything there is a season and a time.
    The Bridegroom has had a long fast. He’s saved the very best till last!

     You were that water pot that was empty till Jesus came your way.
    At the wedding of your spirit, you were filled with Living Water, just a pot of clay.
    Now He’ll pour you out, and you’ll quench the thirst of a dying world.
    He’s saved the best till last. You’re the finest wine that He has!

    CHORUS 2:
    You are aged wine. I’ve been saving you until the end of time.
    You are aged wine. You are a wonder and a sign.
    You are aged wine. The King is coming soon, He’ll say, “You are Mine.”
    The Bridegroom at last will have His bride, and He’ll take you to His side.
    He’ll take you up into the air – for this day you must prepare –
    To His throne in New Jerusalem for the wedding feast of the Lamb!

    Words & Music by Nancy Petrey, June 12, 1995, © October 23, 1995;
    Revised September 13, 2009

                This song is an encouragement to Christians in their sunset years, whose greatest days of service are still ahead. So the book closes with anticipation of the arrival of our Bridegroom, which should be the focus of every Christian’s life.

     The most exciting aspect of my relationship with Jesus is that I am the bride of Christ. What is yours?

  • What does it mean to be God's steward?

    By Steve Kindle

     

    For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
    I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.
    If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.
    ~Psalm 50
    The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.
    ~Psalm 24

    We begin with Psalm 50. The psalmist creates a scene where God calls the worshipers to reflect on who God is (the summoner of all the earth) and who Israel is (a people of the covenant). God’s people are called to judgment; they have violated their covenant. So far are they from honoring God, God will not honor their rituals of worship. Their sacrifices and rituals are rejected until they are accompanied by right actions and a spirit of thankfulness for what God provides.
    Righteous Jews understood this well and incorporated it into their daily blessing of food. These words were very likely said by Jesus as he “gave thanks” on the night he was betrayed. “Blessed are You, Holy One our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”[1] In this prayer is the twofold recognition that God is the owner of everything and the provider for everyone.
    Why has God the right to demand this recognition? Because God, by virtue of being creator of the world, owns everything in it. No bull or goat or anything that might be sacrificed to God was not already God’s. God cannot be given anything that comes from the earth; it is already God’s. The only thing that remains beyond the grasp of God is Israel’s thankfulness as expressed in keeping the covenant. It is only in honoring God’s covenant—through thankful obedience—that true worship is offered. This is no less true for those who would worship God today. What God receives from creation through this thankful obedience is stewardship of the Earth.
    Where do such audacious claims come from? How could this psalmist so easily put these words into the very mouth of God? Because the author of Psalm 50 is steeped in Israel’s traditions of creation. The psalmist is reflecting on Genesis 1:1, In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. God is the owner by virtue of being the creator. Humans have failed God because they forgot this (you who forgot God), and their relationship to God as owner and they as stewards.
    How does Genesis depict the relationship of God to humanity and humanity to God? First of all, by distinguishing between the nature of Adam (humanity) and creatures. Adam is created in the image of God. Given the many options for how to understand what this means, Gerhard von Rad sums up its practical import.
    “…one will admit that the text speaks less of the nature of God’s image than of its purpose. There is less said about the gift itself than about the task….Just as powerful earthly kings, to indicate their claim to dominion, erect an image of themselves in the provinces of their empire where they do not personally appear, so man is placed upon earth in God’s image as God’s sovereign emblem. He is really only God’s representative, summoned to maintain and enforce God’s claim to dominion over the earth.”[2]
    Here, then, is what our appointment as stewards means: to treat creation as God would have it. Why humans are elected to this position may be impossible to say. What is possible to say is that we are not given carte blanche to treat the creation as if we were the creator and its purpose is to serve our ends. Quite to the contrary. We are the managers of God’s estate and are required to fulfill our mission as God would have it done through appropriate tilling and keeping.
    David Cotter expresses this point well. “To be in God’s image means to be blessed with the responsibility of ruling the world in such a way that it is the ordered, good, life-giving place that God intends it to be. As God is to the universe—so humanity is to the world.”[3] This is what it means to be God’s stewards.

    [1] Rabbi David Zaslow, Jesus: First Century Rabbi (Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2014), p.xiv.
    [2] Gerhard von Rad, Genesis: A commentary (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press,1972), pp. 59-60.
    [3] David W. Cotter, Genesis (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2003) p.18.
    Here’s a link to a comprehensive book review by  Bob Cornwall: http://www.bobcornwall.com/search?q=Stewardship

    Stewardship: God Way of Recreating the World can be ordered from Energion Publications at http://direct.energion.co/authors/authors-d-k/steve-kindle

  • Does church authority (leaders) nullify Christ's authority?

    No one among the church outright desires to usurp Christ’s authority. Everyone – if asked – would profess that they desire to live under the rule of Jesus Christ as Master and Lord of their life.
    However, that does not mean that we always succeed in living “under Christ’s archy.” (Where have I heard that phrase before?)
    Recently, I published a series of posts on my blog examining how authority among the church (that is, authority exercised by church leaders) may actually be undermining and usurping the authority of Christ inadvertently.
    Here are the posts:

    1. Authority among the church? Starting a new series.
    2. What did Jesus say about positions of authority under his own authority?
    3. In the church, how does someone lead without exercising authority?
    4. Does the existence and recognition of elders indicate that they have positional authority?
    5. Does shepherding and overseeing suggest exercising authority?

    I also added this addendum, which I also think is an extremely important foundation to my argument above:

    I would love to get your thoughts on these posts, and perhaps discuss how mature believers can “lead” others (which we see in Scripture) without exercising authority over them (which we do not see in Scripture).

  • Matthew 28:16-28 and Titus 2:11: Christ's Archy and Jesus' Teachings

    You should not call anybody Rabbi, for one is your instructor, namely the Messiah, and you are all brothers. (Matthew 23:8 Author’s Translation)*
    For, the grace of God (the salvation of all men) has appeared, training us, so that, renouncing ungodliness and worldly desires, we would live wise, righteous, and godly lives in this present age. (Titus 2:11 Author’s Translation)
    Jesus and Paul agree. Jesus came to instruct people in God’s ways. He came to do more, but he never intended to do less. I have no intention of dealing with the tension of Scripture concerning God assigning some to be teachers in the church, but I do want to show that Jesus came to teach God’s ways to man.
    For anybody to live under Christ’s rule, they must, absolutely must see him as their Teacher.
    This means that learning from Jesus Christ matters. He is our instructor and teacher, he desires to train his people, but not merely with information or facts, but with the daily practice of living under his rule. This requires these things (among others):

    1. To believe Jesus Christ, not merely about him, not merely in him.
    2. To learn from Jesus Christ, not merely about him, but what he said and modeled for us.
    3. To be trained by Jesus Christ, not merely in knowledge, but in the experience of obeying him in the mundane details of our lives.
    4. To realize when we fail, or worse sin against him, that though we want him away from us for we are sinners, he still says, “Follow me. (Luke 5:8-10)” In other words, he not only trains us in righteous, but that he is our righteousness.

    To learn from Jesus is the project of the whole church, but it is also the project of the individual. No rule or authority in life is absolute except that of Jesus Christ, we would do well to be his students.
     
    *I am aware of the text variant, but I cannot think of a good reason to add, “the Christ” there, the context makes it too evident for somebody to gloss it. But an omission because it seems redundant with the next sentence makes sense. Either way, the meaning is preserved.

  • Living Under Christ’s Archy Is Easier Said Than Done!

    This initial post is intended as a marker, a flag of sorts marking out where I am coming from. Living as a Christian, the “how do we live now?” question is a complex question and is so all-encompassing that any effort to address it as a whole is borderline foolishness. My intent is to break down the issues we face into “bite size” pieces and look at the barriers between the theory of how we should live and the practice of how that is actually lived out in “real life”, seeking practical ways to bridge the gap and in doing so hopefully grow into a more faithful follower of Jesus Christ.
    Living as a Christian under the Kingship of Christ is difficult under the best of circumstances. Every Christian was at one time an unregenerate enemy of God, children of wrath who followed the rule of another (Eph 2: 1-3). Going from that state to a state of joyful submission to Christ is a difficult transaction for any person. Loving others more than we love ourselves? Submitting as bondservants to a King we have never set eyes on? Counting our success, our wealth, our “rights” as worthless compared to our membership in the Kingdom of God? That is hard stuff! Moving from a self-centered life to a Christ-centered life is a lifelong and temporally incomplete process even for the most righteous of us. That is true for believers in every land but as an American I think it is vastly more problematic.
    Living under Christ’s Archy is especially troublesome for Christians who live in America. I have not lived anywhere other than America but there certainly seems to be a heightened sense in which our American identity and all that comes with that is almost inextricably linked to our Christian identity. For many Christians it is difficult to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. The culture of America and the culture of the church in America create a sense of American Christians being special, of America being a peculiarly special and blessed land, of an assumption of faith based on the most superficial of standards. Because of this American Christianity is often associated with some characteristics that are absent from the New Testament or even anathema to the values we are to reflect as followers of Christ: militarism, wealth accumulation, prestige and power seeking, patriotism, etc.
    As I explore what it means to live under Christ’s Archy here and elsewhere, many of my writings will have a decidedly American flavor to them. I am sure that in other countries Christians face similar issue or completely different issues that create barriers and I am very interested in hearing from people outside of America, both to hear what uniquely cultural barriers they face and how they perceive American style of Christianity.
    I am very excited about this project and where the conversations will take us. I can tell from past experience and the intro posts that there is a pretty diverse group so I expect some spirited discussions. Whatever our differences, we are united in one common cause: following Christ as ambassadors of the King to the world.

  • Excerpts from The Subversion of Christianity – The Contradictions

    According to Henry, this project had its impetus in a comment made by Geoff on his blog while discussing the book Christian Archy by David Alan Black.
    In the first chapter of Christian Archy, Black credits Jacques Ellul and Vernard Eller for their contributions to the topic of “Christian Anarchy” and for influencing his own thoughts and writings on the subject. I thought it would be good for us to start this project with a discussion of some of the comments of one of those two influential authors.
    The first chapter of Ellul’s book The Subversion of Christianity is called “The Contradictions.” In this chapter, Ellul outlines some the basic problems that he found among the church. For example, he writes:

    How has it come about that the development of Christianity and the church has given birth to a society, a civilization, a culture that are completely opposite to what we read in the Bible, to what is indisputably the text of the law, the prophets, Jesus and Paul? (p 3)
    What Jesus says is that those who hear his words and do them are like the one who builds on the rock. In other words, the rock is hearing and doing. The second part, however, is more restrictive. Those who hear the words he speaks and do not do them are like the one who builds on the sand. Here undoubtedly practice alone is the issue. We can thus say that it is the decisive criterion of life and truth. (p 5)
    If Christians are not conformed in their lives to their truth, there is no truth. This is why the accusers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were right to infer the falsity of revelation itself from the practice of the church. This makes us see that in not being what Christ demands we render all revelation false, illusory, ideological, imaginary, and nonsalvific. We are thus forced to be Christians or to recognize the falsity of what we believe. (p 7)
    In fabricating Christianity, therefore, Christians have known what they were doing. They have freely chosen this course. They have voluntarily forsaken revelation and the Lord. They have opted for new bondage. They have not aspired to the full gift of the Holy Spirit that would have enabled them to take the new way that he opened up. They have made a different choice and left the Holy Spirit unemployed, idle, present only on sufferance. This is why the burning question is a purely human one: Why have Christians taken this contrary course? What forces, mechanisms, stakes, strategies, or structures have induced this subversion? For human aggrandizement and nothing else. (p 13)
    quoted from Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986)

    What are your thoughts on Ellul’s indictment against modern Christianity?

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