If you can assume that merely showing up at church is a minimum indicator of spiritual life then it is not too much to conclude that over half of our denomination’s 16.3 million members are spiritually dead.
It seems increasingly clear that the new kind of Christian McLaren seeks is no kind of Christian at all. The church on the other side of his reinvention is a church devoid of the glorious gospel of Christ’s atoning death. It is a church utterly stripped of its power because it is a church stripped of the gospel message. McLaren’s new gospel is a social gospel, a liberal gospel and, in fact, no gospel at all. This Emerging Church has managed to do something remarkable–it has emerged into something the church has already seen, has already wrestled with, and has already defeated. The Emerging Church has gone suicidal.
Well Christian blogs should not be for self-promotion. It is disturbing that far too many Christian blogs are shamelessly pushing self and not seeing the potential for kingdom expansion via the blogosphere. Everything from personal agendas to personal stuff is being pushed. But here, as everywhere else, we must shape our interaction in the public square by humility.
Nor are blogs a place for covertly forgetting the Christian duty to be gentle. Far too many blogs are rude and full of vitriol. And all in the name of boldness for Christ! God forbid that Christian blogs be like such. As Jonathan Edwards–no wimp!–once said, Christian piety is a sweet flame.
(of Rob Bell’s denial of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ)
“The question that begs to be answered is, ‘Do we lose anything if we lose the virgin birth of Jesus Christ?’ To the Lord Jesus, [such doubt] is insulting. First of all, Mary said that she was a virgin. If she was really a lying whore, that does change the story. Because if the lying whore raises a young boy who says He is God, why believe the extravagant claims of the child of a lying whore? Following the resurrection, Jesus’ mother Mary was with the disciples worshipping Him as God as part of the early church. Why would we believe the testimony of the resurrection of Jesus from a lying whore?
“Most people go through life concerned that others will think too little of them. Paul was concerned that others would think too much of him.”
– D.A. Carson (via Naselli)
Above all, we must not conclude that God is unjust because He chooses to bestow grace on some but not to everyone. God is never to be measured by what seems fair to human judgment. Are we so foolish as to assume that we who are fallen, sinful creatures have a higher standard of what is right than an unfallen and infinitely, eternally holy God? What kind of pride is that?
Tech researcher Gartner Inc. reported earlier this year that 200 million people have given up blogging, more than twice as many as are active.