Here’s a quote from some current reading….
“What isn’t said,” seems to me the most significant measure of a certain kind of pseudo-Christianity, of the sort that uses Christian words for this-worldly life, that preaches, for example, about “transformation” and “the presence of God amond us” and “the empowering spirit” and the like without ever mentioning sin, judgement, redemption, and the Cross that transforms us. People who use such words are rarely overtly heretical, but they do not say what a Christian says. (Which is part of the appeal).
This seems to me obvious, but it is a point I’ve had great trouble getting into the heads of conservative Christians I’ve talked to, even those, like pastors and academics, who ought to have some skill in discerning the real from the fake. An astonishing number evaluate a sermon or book solely on the basis of what is said, so the strongest judgement they will make of counterfeit Christianity is “It’s weak” or “It’s thin” or “I would have said . . . ” or “I wish he had said . . . “
They wouldn’t call a sugar pill prescribed by a doctor for someone suffering from cancer “weak,” not say without anger, “I wish he had given him real medicine.” They demand reality in medicine, though apprently not in religion.
—David Mills, quoted in Touchstone March 2007, p. 6.
Continue reading →
