A Great Article by Proctor

I found a great article summarizing the problem with so much of todays so-called evangelism "techniques." I've been emphasizing over here on Crossroads that there seems to be two Jesus's running around--Rabbi Jesus and Saviour Jesus. I found a greatn article by Paul Proctor sounding a very similar alarm. The really depressing thing is so many of our parachurch organizations that work with the young such as Intervarsity is buying into this stuff. I've said here previously that one of the greatest problems is not understanding how the power of the Holy Spirit works, and in some cases. also a need to be "relevant" and cool. Proctor doesn't pick up on the Holy Spirit part (but who does nowadays?), but he does pick up on the "cool" problem.

Here are some snippets from the article and the link to the whole thing (it's a short article--an easy read) is at the end of this post.

*About the current mania in young evangelical-land to do the social gospel. Proctor says,
If there is any “justice” to the gospel, it is that the Lord Jesus Christ took our “justice” on the cross to satisfy the debt we incurred in our rebellion against God. But that’s not what “social justice” or the “social gospel” is about.

*He then has a brilliant take on the postmodern philosophical idea of "the marginalized,"
First of all, when one talks about the “marginalized” in general, they are usually referring to those outside the mainstream of society. But then, one could make the case that all minorities feel “marginalized” at some point along life’s way, from African Americans to fundamentalist Christians to homosexual activists to witches.

*And now for the real problem with the social gospel being the logocenter of the Christian message (isn't that liberal Protestantism?),
The social gospel and its increasingly popular “social justice” campaign is not an acceptable substitute for preaching repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Its promoters all too often set aside the vertical, spiritual and eternal issues of sin, rebellion, obedience, holiness and reverence toward God in order to redirect the focus toward more horizontal, physical and temporal values.

*Near the end of the article, he lobs this salvo,
I would say the greatest failure of the Church today is its unwillingness to say and do the unpopular thing. Too many Christians busy themselves these days trying to come up with new ways of being admired and desired by the world rather than simply being obedient to the Lord they claim to love.

Beautiful.

I urge you to read this great article by Paul Proctor here.