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What is wrong with evangelicalism? Howard TaylorRecently I had occasion to go to a big
convention (mentioning no names). It drove home to
me what is, I feel,
wrong with
the
Evangelical
movement just now.
You may
not agree
of
course.
I feel there is an over emphasis on 'what Christ does in
you'
so
that
the listener thinks of
Christ as a
great magic worker
in the sky
and
also
looks in
him/herself for
the
marks,
or otherwise, of
approval. This is often
accompanied
with
an
emphasis
on emotion.
The
charismatic
movement may
do something similar.
The
danger
is
a spiritual neurosis.
A reaction which I also saw is an emphasis on hard
Systematic Theology, often of the High
Calvinist kind. This too can
lead to a kind of
spiritual neurosis though
of a different
sort
where the
hearer wonders
whether or not he/she
has
the
marks of
election.
Both
different neuroses may lead
to
disillusionment. The kind of preaching I like is an emphasis on God in
Christ, so that there hearer is left thinking, not
so much about him or
herself,
but about God in
Christ.
That
will have an effect in
his/her
life
which others
may
be aware of
but he or she
maybe unaware
of.
What our secular age needs is a simple and coherent
statement of what we believe.
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