| | An Apologetic of Works
I am reading "The Gospel in a Pluralist Society" by Lesslie Newbigin these days, and he's drudging quite laboriously (if also eloquently) through the whole absolutism versus relativism debate -- you know, that part of the so-called Culture War between "Christianity" and "secular humanism" that deals with how clearly ludicrous it is to not believe in absolutes, and what kind of wanton moral decay ensues without them. Yeah, I used to be pretty into it -- I figured the surest way to win people over to Christianity was to utterly lambaste their heathen relativism with my superior logic. Sorta the whole Francis Schaeffer "world view" thing applied to the apologetics wing of evangelism.
In case you're wondering, the absolutism thing didn't win anyone over, at least not from my pompous mouth.
My spiritual journey since then (the past four years) has brittled me quite seriously towards an apologetic or evangelistic strategy that focuses so much on pulling the rug out from others' world views, and then telling them how believing the "biblical worldview" is so much better. Part of my hardness toward such things is because my own season of utter Pharisaism was tightly knit to all that. But now that I'm slowly still healing from all the heart-damage that my Pharisaism did to my heart, I am still resolvedly allergic to the whole business of headbutting against worldviews as a legitimate tactic.
I think what I so dislike in it is the smugness that has to come with it. It is purely a matter of saying, "this way that I have of thinking and understanding things is better, so you should think this way." Folks smell the smugness on that stuff from miles away -- it strikes many as a hubristic, know-it-all kind of attitude. Not always, but -- especially in more anti-Christian areas like Portland -- often.
There's another layer to it -- it reduces the Gospel to a matter of believing the right thing. "If folks believe correctly," the logic seems to be, "then now they're saved from hell and are part of the in-crowd." But Jesus didn't tell us to go around making believers in a "biblical worldview" (whatever that is!). He told us to make disciples of Him! Jesus commands us to make people live out their confession that He is lord by how they live. We are to make active imitators, not just people who give cognitive assent about some abstraction or claim.
It isn't that there's no room for verbal or written apologetics about why people should follow Jesus -- His name should always be on our lips! And as Saint Francis said, "Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words." But my beef is with how we frame the gospel message: it has got to be more than abandoning secular humanism. It's got to be interwoven with a way of life which imitates our Lord. It's got to be active, not just internal. Making believers is not enough.
We've got to make disciples of Christ, not just believers in Him.
This should seriously impact our evangelism, shouldn't it?! If we're inviting people to live in Kingdom values as followers of our gentle King Jesus, then I find far less room for all this business about absulutes-versus-relativism. We've got to be proclaiming Kingdom living as an exciting alternative to the rapidly-crumbling world as we know it. After all, believing Jesus is God and having a biblical worldview doesn't mean crap if it doesn't change the world. Minds are changed for the purpose of a changed world.
Consider what the conservative American evangelical community has done domestically of late -- in our obsession to get everyone on the same worldview and theological page, we've lost what it means to truly become followers of Christ. In being distracted about proving ourselves right in issues of philosophy, we have failed to meaningfully change the world. We're believers in the Prince of Peace who think that being right is more important than doing right and ending wars. We endeavor to win arguments, but not to end poverty.
War, poverty, slavery, addiction, oppression are all still rampant in the world. As Jesus Christ's hands and feet, active seeking and end to all these things is entirely our business. The church should be on the offensive toward these things -- yet we've been stuch in defensive mode, building up walls around our holy cows of "moral absolutism" and "creationism."
Now, don't mistake me on this: that so many have such wonderfully fleshed-out apologetics on these things is great! Scriptures tell us to have an answer to every question. But for God's sake, for your neighbor's sake, and for creation's sake -- that one verse isn't the entirety of evangelism or the gospel! Having faith matters, yes, but faith without works is dead. Worldviews and right faith don't mean crap if they don't drive us to make a better world. Consider what James writes:
Dear brothers and
sisters, what's the use of saying you have faith if you don't prove it
by your actions? That kind of faith can't save anyone. Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, and
you say, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat
well"--but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What
good does that do?
So
you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn't show
itself by good deeds is no faith at all--it is dead and useless. Now
someone may argue, "Some people have faith; others have good deeds." I
say, "I can't see your faith if you don't have good deeds, but I will
show you my faith through my good deeds." Do
you still think it's enough just to believe that there is one God?
Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror! Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless? Don't
you remember that our ancestor Abraham was declared right with God
because of what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You
see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God
told him to do. His faith was made complete by what he did--by his
actions. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: "Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous." He was even called "the friend of God." So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. Rahab
the prostitute is another example of this. She was made right with God
by her actions--when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away
by a different road. Just as the body is dead without a spirit, so also faith is dead without good deeds. The Brandon Translation: More than a better worldview, Christians must begin to present a better world.
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