Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Definitions
Rebecca summarizes a D.A. Carson sermon very well. She describes one of the common misunderstandings of the gospel that Carson presents this way:
As I continue my work at Article VI Blog concerning the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, a Mormon, one of the more strident claims that arises about Mormons again and again is that "they lie." When asked for evidence of the charge, what is usually brought forward are teachings by the LDS that they should present a limited, restricted version of all that they believe in public and proselytizing circumstances, only letting people know what they are really all about once they are in the fold. Is that sounding familiar to anyone?
Carson is clearly accusing Evangelicals of essentially the same thing. Why is it "lying" when Mormons do it, but just good evangelistic technique when we do?
The bottom line is it is not "lying" - now that said, I do not think it is effective evangelism either, it builds the church without building the adherent. It is the evangelistic equivalent of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."
I decry this practice not because I think it is lying, but because I think when we present less than the full glory of God's good word, people are not really going to want what we have to sell. The Volkswagen and the Cadillac come at the same price, paid by Christ, no one wants the Volkswagen under such circumstances.
Back to ethics for just a moment. The Mormon faith is not our faith, and is therefore wrong. But in the battle for the souls of those around us, we cannot and will not win by accusing people of things they are not doing, especially when we are doing very much the same thing. There is an ethical problem there as well.
I seem to remember Jesus saying something about eyes, planks and specks. Look it up.
Related Tags: gospel, truth, lying, Mormon, Mitt Romney, ethics, sanctification, salvation
The gospel is reduced to a narrow set of teachings about the death and resurrection of Christ, which rightly believed, tip people into the kingdom. After that, the real training and transformation, discipleship and maturity take place. This view is much narrower than the biblical view, in which the gospel is the embracing category which holds much of the bible together, encompassing lostness and condemnation, through reconciliation and conversion, through to the consummation and the resurrection.Then, after presenting much else from Carson sermon, she adds some thoughts of here own:
Yet the gospel is not exclusively cognitive. Where the gospel triumphs, lives are transformed. The gospel works itself out in every aspect of a believer’s life. This is done not by attempting to abstract social principles from the gospel, nor by imposing new levels of rules, nor by focusing on the periphery in the vain effort to sound prophetic; but by preaching and teaching and living out the glorious gospel of our blessed Redeemer.This raises and interesting question, can salvation and sanctification really be separated? Can the "narrow set of teachings" Carson refers to produce actual salvation apart from "the real trainng and tranformation" (sanctification) that follows? I realize fully the theological questions I have just raised and that there are volumes and volumes written on precisely that subject. But I am more interested in the ethical considerations here.
As I continue my work at Article VI Blog concerning the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, a Mormon, one of the more strident claims that arises about Mormons again and again is that "they lie." When asked for evidence of the charge, what is usually brought forward are teachings by the LDS that they should present a limited, restricted version of all that they believe in public and proselytizing circumstances, only letting people know what they are really all about once they are in the fold. Is that sounding familiar to anyone?
Carson is clearly accusing Evangelicals of essentially the same thing. Why is it "lying" when Mormons do it, but just good evangelistic technique when we do?
The bottom line is it is not "lying" - now that said, I do not think it is effective evangelism either, it builds the church without building the adherent. It is the evangelistic equivalent of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."
I decry this practice not because I think it is lying, but because I think when we present less than the full glory of God's good word, people are not really going to want what we have to sell. The Volkswagen and the Cadillac come at the same price, paid by Christ, no one wants the Volkswagen under such circumstances.
Back to ethics for just a moment. The Mormon faith is not our faith, and is therefore wrong. But in the battle for the souls of those around us, we cannot and will not win by accusing people of things they are not doing, especially when we are doing very much the same thing. There is an ethical problem there as well.
I seem to remember Jesus saying something about eyes, planks and specks. Look it up.
Related Tags: gospel, truth, lying, Mormon, Mitt Romney, ethics, sanctification, salvation
