how to reach postmodern pluralists (2): preach the whole Scriptures

From ‘The Gagging of God’ by Don Carson (Apollos), Chapter 12: On Heralding the Gospel in a Pluralistic Culture.  

How do we present the gospel as we face the perils of postmodernism?

2. Preach the whole Scriptures

 

In our evangelism we must start further back and nail down the turning points in redemptive history.

 

(i) The primacy of biblical theology

Many evangelistic tools take a systematic theological approach, eg asking the following questions: What is God like?  What is sin?  What is sin’s solution?  “There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this pattern, as long as most of the people to whom it is presented have already bought into the Judean-Christian heritage”, or have some knowledge of the creation-fall-redemption-glory pattern.  But if we present this pattern to someone who is biblically illiterate, or have been influenced by a form of New-Age, they may hear something completely different.  Take the classic line “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  This is comforting to hear, but consider the potential confusion: which God do you mean?   What does it mean for him to love me? Why is this a surprise – I’m lovable anyway, aren’t I?  What is this wonderful life – wonderful kids/sex/finance/fun – can I define the terms?

This is evident in communication with the postmodern, biblically illiterate, young generation.  This was the conversation of a Christian trying to communicate with an undergraduate who had come along to a Christian meeting out of mild curiosity to find out what Christianity is:

 

“I told him Jesus was the solution to his problem.  He wondered, ‘What problem?’  I told him Jesus could forgive his sins.  He wondered, ‘Why is that necessary?’  I told him he could escape the fear of death.  He told me that he never really thinks about death.  He wasn’t trying to be difficult.  He was one of the most sincere students I’ve ever met.”

galatians 3:1-4:7. adopted as sons!

Part 2 of 3.  Taught by Dave Bish, Sept Team Days 2008, to the South West massive. 

If you want to get into 24, don’t start with Season 6.  You don’t start reading a book at the final chapter.  Yet we often approach the bible like this – we often think it only contains 27 books, the ones at the end.  Is this is what Paul is preaching to the Galatians?  Did he ignore the Old Testament?  In this section, Paul makes an 1800 year climb to get to the top, in his argument for justification by faith. 

galatians 2:11-3:1. to the cross!

Part 1 of 3.  Taught by Dave Bish, Sept Team Days 2008 to the South West Massive

Luther loved this book like his wife. It concerns a crucial doctrine: justification by faith.  Christianity is lost and flourishes on this doctrine – this gives us life. 

A distinctive letter: starts differently to Paul’s other letters: see 1v6.

A missional letter: concerned with mission.  It concerns the question: what is required of a Jew who becomes a Christian?  What must the world believe to become Christians? 

Similarly to Philippians, Paul uses lots of examples: his conversion, a visit to Jerusalem, a subsequent encounter with Peter.  This sets Paul up to teach the Galatians. 

 

why study historical theology?

Part 1 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here 

 

 

Church history / historical theology: what’s the difference?

 

Church history = what has happened in history to/by/with the church

Historical theology = not just about what happened, but history of what people have believed. 

Generally, people focus on the former; the benefit – we get to see how the Lord is sovereign in all history.  Instead we’ll focus on the latter, so that through understanding what they think we can access great theologians quickly and not scarily.  Eg persecution – not just what happened, but what did the early church say about the persecution they were going through. 

As a staff team we’ll work our way through the centuries over next couple of years.  Here: up to 200 AD.  Firstly, the Apostolic Fathers, followed by  Justin Martyr and Iranaeus. 

 

Why study dead theologians?

 

Back in the summer I was in a class of bible students encouraging them to read dead theologians (eg CS Lewis introduction to Athanasius and the incarnation – read!).  When I appealed, one student challenged me: “Are you suggesting that the bible doesn’t have all I need to know?  Are you denying sola scriptura?”  My response: what are you doing here?  If you can read your bible on your own, why are you here?  Historical Theology is like having a bible study with the greats.  Have lunch with Luther!  Theology is really done as a community; we know God together.  So in Historical Theology we want to go to the great ones and find out what the Holy Spirit has taught them that he hasn’t taught us yet.  So we want to learn from these guys. 

However, we also want to cultivate a critical mind.  If one tendency is to reject them, another is to deify them, eg ‘Augustine is papal authority who we can’t answer’.  Instead – look critically at these guys; to see that there are problems even in the greats, and good things in the non-greats, so that big names don’t hold such sway – that’s the goal of cultivating this critical mind. 

 

Why look at the early church? 

 

(1) Their situation is remarkably similar to our situation today.  In first two centuries: church persecuted, pluralist society, no idea of Christendom – it was just a persecuted cult. 

(2) Facts about how the early church developed are becoming very important in apologetics.  Eg Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ makes claims about the corruption of Christianity in the first few centuries due to Constantine, that Nicea decided canon of scripture and discarded 80 gospels etc.  We just need to know this stuff to know it’s rubbish!

 

The best way to study this is to try to look at these guys as objectively as possible. Because: they can often seem wrong/weird to start with, and it’s easy to condemn them straight off.  OR it’s easy to loot these guys for good quotes to back up my position, without studying and earning these guys – just filling up my ammo store with big weapons to shoot people down! 

This means: try not to pre-judge/quickly judge.  May be uncomfortable; hang in with them to understand why they say what they say.  Stress: these are their words, not mine!  These are introductions, not final conclusions about them. 

There are full notes out there somewhere, with a timeline at the back. 

the original jesus

‘The Original Jesus, or How the New Testament bears witness to him’

A Christological Survey & Summary of the New Testament, taught by John Stott at The London Lectures in Contemporary Christianity, 2000

Regardless of whatever people may think of him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in Western culture for almost 20 centuries. 3 particular ways we can notice his dominance:

(i) He is the centre of human history.  One third of world claims to be Christian, split history into BC/AD

(ii) He is the focus of Scripture.  Jerome: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ, because the Scriptures are full of Christ.”

(iii) He is the heart of mission.  Why do Christians cross continents and cultures as missionaries?  To commend a person, Jesus Christ.

In this lecture, Stott considers the New Testament evidence for the Original Jesus, in general, except for the book of Revelation which he considers in a later lecture.  He summarises each New Testament book and in particular considers their teaching on Jesus Christ.  He proposes that the lecture series is appropriately called ‘The Incomparable Christ’, for there is nobody – past, present, or future – like Jesus. 

the doctrine of revelation

Part 2 of 3 on the Doctrine of Revelation, taught by Mike Reeves on UCCF Summer School with the South massive.  Listen to it here.

 

In particular, a doctrine of Scripture, but not just about Scripture!

 

Often this is seen as a prologue to real theology.  However, this attitude leads to treating it in a non-Christian way.  So in the last 200 years it has been seen as a theistic and not a Christian theology.  Abstractly, the classic question has been: is it possible for God to make himself known?  That depends on the God!  Instead, the better question to ask is: how has God revealed himself? 

calvin’s institutes, book 1, chapter 9

 

 

 

Chapter 9: The subverted piety of replacing Scripture with revelations

(follows from previous post)

 

A fantastic chapter on the divine marriage of Word and Spirit, where Calvin tackles a heresy of his day in the teaching of the Libertines.  

calvin’s institutes, book 1, chapter 8

 

 

Chapter 8 The credibility of Scripture

(follows from previous post)

 

We need our assurance of the truth of Scripture to come from an authority higher than our own judgement; nonetheless, there are proofs to its truth and trustworthiness:

calvin’s institutes, book 1, chapter 7

 

 

Ch 7: The Spirit and the Church in relation to Scripture

(follows from previous post)

 

How can we know that the Word of God is the Word of God?

calvin’s institutes: book 1, chapter 6

 

Ch 6: The need of Scripture, as a guide and teacher, of God as Creator.  

(follows from previous post)

 

We need more than the heavens and earth to guide us properly to God.  So, to this God added the light of his Word, to make himself known unto salvation.  

He bestowed this privilege on the elect.  “For, seeing how the minds of men were carried to and fro and found no resting place, he chose the Jews for a peculiar people, and then hedged them in that they might not, like others, go astray.”  In the same way he retains us in his knowledge – if he didn’t, even those who appear the strongest among us might fall away.  

 

The Scriptures work like spectacles.