the Gently Mad

I want to say right off that I have tremendous respect for John MacArthur because it was through his books and ministry that I first felt an awakening toward theology and truth vs. pop Christianity. He has had an indelible impact on the world and I thank God for him.

However, I was listening to one of this sermons from this year’s Together for the Gospel conference and this statement leaped out at me:

I’m not interested in creativity. I don’t care what’s going on in the culture. I’m just there to communicate the word of God.

It seems to me that the two (understanding culture and preaching the gospel) are inextricably intertwined. How are we to make disciples without an understanding of the people we are trying to reach? What would we say of a missionary who packs up for India and says “I don’t need to understand anything about India or Indian culture or the lives of the people who live there?”

I think we would say he’s going to have a difficult time. But then, I also think there is a huge divide in how we think about foreign missions and domestic missions, which is an entirely different post.

I’m not arguing against the sufficiancy or power of the scriptures. I just think it’s statements like that that lead to arrogance and a failure to understand what it means to make disciples and be agents of God’s kingdom in the world.

But then, John MacArthur is far more godly than I will ever hope to be and has forgotten more about the disciplines of a godly life than I will ever know.

A little humor courtesy of Carl.

and my favorite…

Interesting article on the AP wire yesterday.

Americans: My Faith Isn’t the Only Way to Heaven
Tuesday , June 24, 2008

AP

America remains a nation of believers, but a new survey finds most Americans don’t feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise.

The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don’t know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.

Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.

In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.

“The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep,” said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion.

“There’s a growing pluralistic impulse toward tolerance and that is having theological consequences,” he said.

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