Category: Michael Horton
Crossless Christianity.
Christ died for us. That statement is absolutely central, of course, in Christianity. Prefigured with intricate detail in the sacrificial system of the old covenant Christ's death in our place is one of the most clearly and frequently stated teaching of the NT. So why would Protestants want to abandon this core doctrine? And why would a growing number of Evangelical theologians and pastors find Christ's sin-bearing death in our place, that is the substitutionary ...
Crossless Christianity.
Christ died for us. That statement is absolutely central, of course, in Christianity. Prefigured with intricate detail in the sacrificial system of the old covenant Christ's death in our place is one of the most clearly and frequently stated teaching of the NT. So why would Protestants want to abandon this core doctrine? And why would a growing number of Evangelical theologians and pastors find Christ's sin-bearing death in our place, that is the substitutionary ...
The Bible is Mined for Quotes, but Largely Irrelevant.
Most Americans believe in God, affirm that Jesus Christ is in some sense divine and the Bible is the Word of God. 86% of American adults describe their religious orientation as Christian while only 6% describe themselves as atheists or agnostic. Judging by its commercial, political, and media success, the Evangelical movement seems to be booming. But is it still Christian? I am not asking that question glibly or simply to provoke a reaction, my ...
The Bible is Mined for Quotes, but Largely Irrelevant.
Most Americans believe in God, affirm that Jesus Christ is in some sense divine and the Bible is the Word of God. 86% of American adults describe their religious orientation as Christian while only 6% describe themselves as atheists or agnostic. Judging by its commercial, political, and media success, the Evangelical movement seems to be booming. But is it still Christian? I am not asking that question glibly or simply to provoke a reaction, my ...
So What If God Healed Everybody?
Whenever people clamor for the practical and prefer to speak about the horizontal dimension--for instance, relationships and success--they are saying that they love God less than they love themselves. They are more interested in using God as a means to their own selfish ends than in glorifying God and enjoying him forever. And yet, there are others who so pride themselves on knowing all the correct doctrines that the doctrines become the object of their ...
So What If God Healed Everybody?
Whenever people clamor for the practical and prefer to speak about the horizontal dimension--for instance, relationships and success--they are saying that they love God less than they love themselves. They are more interested in using God as a means to their own selfish ends than in glorifying God and enjoying him forever. And yet, there are others who so pride themselves on knowing all the correct doctrines that the doctrines become the object of their ...
The “Sloth” of Christianity.
If you ask Thomas Aquinas, it's one of The Seven Deadly Sins. I'm not talking about adultery, intemperance, or other vices that readily come to mind. Although it is increasingly tolerated even by the most precise moralists of our age, it is intoxicating in its very essence. The sin is "sloth." John Calvin had the temerity to insult Cardinal Sadoleto with the charge that the cleric had an indolent, or lazy, theology, because in spite of ...
The “Sloth” of Christianity.
If you ask Thomas Aquinas, it's one of The Seven Deadly Sins. I'm not talking about adultery, intemperance, or other vices that readily come to mind. Although it is increasingly tolerated even by the most precise moralists of our age, it is intoxicating in its very essence. The sin is "sloth." John Calvin had the temerity to insult Cardinal Sadoleto with the charge that the cleric had an indolent, or lazy, theology, because in spite of ...
Turning the Gospel of Jesus into the Gospel of Self-Acceptance.
Marsha G. Witten, All is Forgiven - HT: Michael Horton Growing churches proclaim an attractive message warmly massaging hearers' hearts. That's what Marsha G. Witten found in her study, All Is Forgiven: The Secular Message in American Protestantism. Interested (as a sociologist, not as a believer) in what was being preached in modern churches, Witten sent questionnaires to pastors in Presbyterian (USA)
Turning the Gospel of Jesus into the Gospel of Self-Acceptance.
Marsha G. Witten, All is Forgiven - HT: Michael Horton Growing churches proclaim an attractive message warmly massaging hearers' hearts. That's what Marsha G. Witten found in her study, All Is Forgiven: The Secular Message in American Protestantism. Interested (as a sociologist, not as a believer) in what was being preached in modern churches, Witten sent questionnaires to pastors in Presbyterian (USA)
Assuming the Gospel.
Michael Horton, Assuming the Gospel To arrive at a condition of Christless Christianity where Christ becomes more of a trademark for t-shirts and entertainment empires more than the object of faith. No explicit heresy is needed, because our default setting is Pelagianism, the heresy of self-salvation. Unless we are constantly taught out of it, not just once, but throughout our Christian pilgrimage we will always
Assuming the Gospel.
Michael Horton, Assuming the Gospel To arrive at a condition of Christless Christianity where Christ becomes more of a trademark for t-shirts and entertainment empires more than the object of faith. No explicit heresy is needed, because our default setting is Pelagianism, the heresy of self-salvation. Unless we are constantly taught out of it, not just once, but throughout our Christian pilgrimage we will always
Remember When You Asked Jesus Into Your Heart? …The Fifth Time?
Why is it that we go through our Christian lives trying to justify the thing that is not from ourselves, the saving Grace of God? People are lost and desperate, then these well-meaning little preachers, for the sake of this "easy salvation", let them just get off on a prayer. We "trust" in the promises of God but in the same time neglecting the costs of the Gospel itself. We have forgotten that it is ...
Remember When You Asked Jesus Into Your Heart? …The Fifth Time?
Why is it that we go through our Christian lives trying to justify the thing that is not from ourselves, the saving Grace of God? People are lost and desperate, then these well-meaning little preachers, for the sake of this "easy salvation", let them just get off on a prayer. We "trust" in the promises of God but in the same time neglecting the costs of the Gospel itself. We have forgotten that it is ...
"This Personal Jesus thing…" Yeah, "God is no longer a problem for us."
In the words of Ingrid Schlueter of SliceOfLaodicea.com "This is what American evangelicalism has become." We think that the Emerging Church Movement is something that came about with out any relation whatsoever to the current evangelical movement. That somehow it is something that occurred because the world has infiltrated the church. But it must be realized that the ECM didn't come over night. The movement was brought upon by the Evangelical movement itself.--- e.g. This ...
"This Personal Jesus thing…" Yeah, "God is no longer a problem for us."
In the words of Ingrid Schlueter of SliceOfLaodicea.com "This is what American evangelicalism has become." We think that the Emerging Church Movement is something that came about with out any relation whatsoever to the current evangelical movement. That somehow it is something that occurred because the world has infiltrated the church. But it must be realized that the ECM didn't come over night. The movement was brought upon by the Evangelical movement itself.--- e.g. This ...