Evangelicalism Then and Now: Conversionism
Someone clearly in touch with their roots.
The third point of the quadrilateral is “conversionism, the belief that human beings need to be converted,” and if there is one major emphasis in North-American Evanglelical Christianity, it’s evangelism. And evangelism is great, and needed, in our world. How can we reconcile our love for our neighbours (both commanded to us and dwelling within us through the fruits of the spirit) by not telling them about the Kingdom of God and all that entails?
But of course, that’s the problem: instead of an emphasis on conversion to the Christian faith, it’s the conversion to a particular denomination with the wonderful, ecumenical umbrella. Like our tradition-embracing friends pictured above, it seems Evangelicals will do as much as they can to make sure a) you know they are the ‘true vine’ and b)everyone else is at best, wrong, and at worst, apostate heretics. While this may sound like hyperbole, even a cursory view of the internet will present you with people in every denomination who thinks that everyone else are complete and utter idiots, not worth the time to blog about them (apparently they are).
Now, you may come out and say that this is no longer the case, but if you look at the comments on these blogs and websites, you’ll see overwhelming agreement, generally. With all this in-fighting, it’s a wonder anyone ever wants to be a part of Jesus’ KOG, unless you’re the kind of person who just loves finding who’s right and sticking to that. This is what the Pharisees were really about.
Ditch all the legalism stuff that people bring to the table, because that’s not the point behind the sin of the pharisees: it was their need to be right and their separation of the ‘in’s and ‘out’s in society. Evangelicals do this abundantly these days, in the form of proclaiming heresy or apostacy against Roman Catholics, Reformers, Baptists, the English, Charismatics, Wesleyans, etc. Did I miss someone? I’m sure a Christian somewhere thinks you are a heretic/apostate/fool too.
Solution: I know this one sounds strange, but don’t get rid of denominations. Denominations give structure and accountability against true heresy and apostacy, and their networks greatly help push the cause of Christ into the world. The solution is to open our minds and our hearts to all of our Christian family, and learn to accept our different faith traditions as outpourings of the same spirit. Evangelicals simply need to cease having to be right about everything. For more about being right, see what my friend Tim has to say.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on November 17, 2008 at 12:47 am, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Bebbington, denominations, Evangelicalism, Pharisees. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.