Posted on 12/21/2003 3:46:23 PM PST by nickcarraway
Forgive me for playing prophet, but I think this will be the last Christmas of the 20th century. Yes, I know that the 20th century actually ended a few years ago, but I'm thinking of it as an era. This Christmas a certain era will end.
Call it the era of Christianity lite. Much popular religion of the century descended into mere feel-goodism. Gone was all serious reference to sin, repentance, suffering, atonement, evil, anything unpleasant.
God was in heaven and all was rosy. Say your prayers, try not to hurt anybody, never be "judgmental," and everything will come out right. Business will go well. The kids will behave. You'll never get sick. You'll acquire lots of "stuff." The Father in heaven became a Grandfather in heaven.
Christmas was similarly sterilized. When we were given anything beyond Santa Claus, coloured lights and canned carols, we might actually see a baby, a manger or a star. But Herod's massacre of the children in Bethlehem was certainly never mentioned, nor the dire warning to Mary: "A sword will pierce your soul also" (Luke 2:35).
It was rarely acknowledged that all this unrelieved sweetness and light was much at odds with the Christianity of the New Testament or the actual experience of Christians through much of their history or what ordinarily happens to us ordinary people. Business did not always go well, kids did not always behave, people did in fact get sick (and died, too) and along with all the "stuff" came credit card bills that are now, we're told, astronomical. So 20th century people gradually slipped away from the churches on the sufficient grounds that what they were saying seemed utterly unreal. Such was the era of Christianity lite.
There is convincing evidence now, however, that the era is over, and that the 21st century will see some fundamental changes. I don't mean a massive return to the church, but rather a massive turn of the churches away from Christianity lite.
The after-effect of 9-11 has been a general decline in the credibility of what's called "post-modernism," the belief there are no such things as moral truths. You have your moral truths, I have mine and no version whatever can claim to be really true. This means that the people who deliberately murdered 3,000 innocent civilians had just as good a claim to be right as those who thought otherwise. Nobody, apart perhaps from professors of "ethics," can swallow that line any more, and this has thrown the whole post-modern phenomenon into doubt.
The continuing probability of terror, wrought in the name of an Islamic God, will spur more and more thought about who or what God actually is.
A "spiritual" awakening is going on. According to a recent cover story in Time, Canadians are flocking into prayer groups that meet outside of churches, though they're often sponsored by churches. Such a ferment has preceded every major religious revival. They begin as strictly non-institutional, but they rarely remain that way. Genuine "spirituality" makes people want to do things for God. So corporate action follows and some sort of institution becomes necessary. "Spirituality," in other words invariably turns into "religion."
This may sound extreme, but I think it will happen. Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion, will prove to be the most attended Hollywood movie ever made. (This excludes, of course, the Campus Crusade movie Jesus which is already and by far the most attended movie ever made, but it is not usually considered a Hollywood product.)
The Gibson production is emphatically not Christianity Lite. It portrays the crucifixion for what it was, "a bloody, dusty, sweaty and sordid business." That is, it follows the New Testament account. Never has a movie received so much advance attention - an 18-page review in the New Yorker, columns in every major American newspaper, sophisticated Washington crowds openly weeping. It will hit very hard.
So consider this the last Merry Christmas in the age of Christianity lite. The new century will see a new Christianity which in fact is the old one. And a very different Christmas. Less sugary, but far more real. And it's about time.
The left is absolutely terrified of this. That is why they must lie about it and taint the film. The Passion may be the best sermon ever.
I hosted one of the 40-day Bible studies at my home and my take on it was 180 degrees from yours. The whole thrust of the study was discerning God's will for our lives so that we can better serve Him. It wasn't about me at all but about God.I haven't read any of his other books though so I'm not going to make a blanket statement supporting or condemning his theology.
Luke 12:51-57
[51] Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
[52] For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
[53] The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
[54] And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.
[55] And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.
[56] Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?
[57] Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?
Just for the record, these events are at least mentioned every year, in every Catholic Church in the world. In some, they even get the attention they deserve. Of course, Catholicism, properly practiced, is the original Heavy Duty, Industrial Strength Christianity.
I concur. I think it's easy to get caught up in being right and forgetting to show the love of God. It's one of the reasons I've decided to take a break from some things I'm involved with, to refocus and pray.
God made you to exist forever. Heaven is a perfect place, and since none of us is perfect we were all headed for an eternity of separation from God. That’s why God sent Jesus: to pay the price for our sins so that we can spend eternity with Him. What you decide about Jesus Christ in this life will determine where you will spend eternity. If you reject Him, you’ll spend it eternally separated from God in Hell. If you accept Him, you’ll spend it eternally connected with Him in Heaven. Hell is a place of separation, suffering and darkness. Heaven is a place of eternal joy in God’s presence.
It doesn't seem to me that he is pulling any punches here. If you are correct, and their liturgy is similar to Willow Creek, I wouldn't go anywhere near that church. But that's out of personal preference in style of worship. Could you be doing the man and the church a disservice in your representation of what they believe and teach?
From what I've read in this book we'll be going through it in our small group next year with my recommendation, and I don't believe in Christianity Lite.
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