[Choose Ye This Day]

I love Dallas Willard's writing. He challenges us, rightly I think, to 'walk the walk.' Some of his more "subversive" comments from the interview:

"The greatest challenge the church faces today is to be authentic disciples of Jesus. And by that I mean they’re learning from Him how to live their life, as He would live their life if He were they."

"What has basically happened is that the meaning of ‘Trust Christ’ has changed. It has come to no longer mean trusting Him; it meant trust something He did. In that way, one theory of the atonement was substituted for the Christian Gospel. The results of this are that (now) discipleship is not essential, and people are not invited to become disciples."

"the churches don’t do what Jesus asked them to do. They’ve got all these other things and their main problem is distraction. They’re distracted from the main thing and they’re thinking about their tradition or about being really Baptist or Catholic or what have you, and the truth of the matter is, ‘Who cares’?"

"The Grace of God empowers you to do what you can’t do on your own. Grace is unmerited favor, but to say that doesn’t tell you what form it takes. The assumption today is that it takes the form of a credit transfer in the books of heaven. I’ve heard preachers say that there’s absolutely nothing else that happens. So, in other words, your life on Earth is totally untouched by Grace."

[Choose Ye This Day]

Here are the links to Parts 2 and 3. I included them all in the above post.

Part 2 http://www.relevantmagazine.com/article.php?sid=3743

Part 3 http://www.relevantmagazine.com/article.php?sid=3756

[rightwingreligiousfanatic]

Very interesting post. He is saying some challenging things that need to be heard. Bookmarked for further study...

I have never read DW before. What one book of his would you recommend if I wanted to get a good idea of what he is about? Thanks...

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Choose Ye This Day]

Please forgive the unsolicited PING. I wanted to point this article out to all of you. Dallas Willard is a Christian author/thinker that 'gets it.' He repeatedly says that the main thing wrong with Christianity today is that people don't walk the walk. They're not even taught that they should try to be like Christ--in thought, word, and deed.

Most of the Religion Forum took a pass at this article because, I guess, they don't like discussing how to improve their relationship with God--they prefer bashing other denominations. I've noticed in the past that y'all like discussing what it takes to be a good Christian.

Would any of you care to comment on Dallas Willard's words?