Satan Loves Christless Christianity

“The devil doesn’t mind ‘family values’ as long as what you ultimately value is the family.  Satan doesn’t mind ‘social justice’ as long as you see justice as most importantly social.  Satan does not tremble at a ‘Christian worldview’ as long as your ultimate goal is to view the world.  Satan doesn’t even mind born-again Christianity as long as the new birth is preached apart from the blood of the cross and the life of the resurrection.

Pastor, Satan doesn’t mind if you preach on the decrees of God with fervor and passion, reconciling all the tensions between sovereignty and freedom, as long as you don’t preach the gospel.  Homeschooling mom, Satan doesn’t mind if your children can recite the catechism and translate the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ from English to Latin, as long as they don’t hear the gospel.  Churches, Satan doesn’t care if your people vote for pro-life candidates, stay married, have sex with whom they’re supposed to, and tear up at all the praise choruses, as long as they don’t see the only power that cancels condemnation — the gospel of Christ crucified.  Satan so fears that gospel, he was willing to surrender his entire empire just to stave it off.  He still is.”  (154)

Preaching Potatoes

In his book The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, C.F.W. Walther interjects many interesting historical anecdotes.  In the twenty-fourth lecture, he speaks about the devastating effect that the Enlightenment had on Lutheran churches in Germany.  This was an era of Christless Christianity. Walther writes:

During this awful time matters finally came to such a pass that rationalistic preachers, to counteract the idea that they were superfluous in this world and to prove their usefulness, would treat from their pulpits subjects such as these:  Intelligent Agriculture; Profitableness of Potato-raising; Tree-planting a Necessity; Importance of Genuine Sanitation; etc.  Rationalistic books of sermons in which subjects of this description are treated with grand pathos will show you that I am not slandering the rationalists of that age.  (258-259)

Walther goes on to relate how Joachim Spalding wrote a book in 1772 in which he insisted that these sorts of subjects are indeed improper for the pulpit.  Instead, Spalding said, ministers have to preach “exclusively practical ethical lessons.”  In other words, the problem was not that the ministers were preaching “deeds and not creeds,” but that they were preaching the wrong kinds of deeds.   Spalding was simply proposing more Christless Christianity, substituting ethics for agriculture and sanitation.  Walther concludes that it is no surprise that many true Christians abandoned the Lutheran church in this era.

We often look back to J. Gresham Machen and see parallels between the Christless Christianity of his day and ours.  But this is a problem which stretches back over centuries.  Unless the Lord returns, likely it will continue to be a challenge.  Each new generation has to resist the temptation to be distracted from the gospel. 

(reposted from Yinkahdinay 06.01.09)

Book Review: the Gospel-Driven Life

The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World, Michael Horton, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009.  Hardcover, 271 pages, $19.99 USD.

Last year saw the publication of Michael Horton’s influential Christless Christianity.  That volume was a surgical exposé of how much of North American Christianity is in danger of losing sight of Christ and the gospel.  By its nature it was a negative book, but Horton did promise a sequel in which he would present a positive alternative.  The Gospel-Driven Life is that sequel and Horton delivers on his promise.

According to the Introduction, “The goal of this book is to reorient our faith and practice as Christians and churches toward the gospel: that is, the announcement of God’s victory over sin and death in his Son, Jesus Christ.” (11).  Since the gospel is “good news,” the book attempts to follow the model of a newspaper.  Though this seems forced at points, it does capture the thrust and intent of the Biblical gospel:  it is supposed to be headline news.

There are commendable things to be said about the Gospel-Driven Life.  Above all, Horton ably expresses the gospel and all its riches.  Man’s problem is sin and the wrath of God that sin arouses.  God’s solution is Christ and his obedient life, death, and resurrection.  The gospel is what every believer needs every day.  Says the author, “No less in the middle and at the end than at the beginning, the believer clings to Christ’s righteousness as the only appropriate attire in the presence of a holy God.” (70).

Though this book is intended to be the positive follow-up to Christless Christianity, critique of various religious trends is not absent.  For instance, Horton interacts with Richard Foster and his emphasis on spiritual disciplines.  He makes the helpful observation, “This trajectory of the spiritual disciplines leads us to a host of means of grace besides Word and sacrament, and these other means are actually methods of our ascent rather than God’s descent to us in grace.” (157).  Elsewhere, with a glance at Rick Warren, he notes that it was Christ who lived the purpose-driven life so that we would be “promise-driven people in a purpose-driven world.” (141).

If I would make one critical notation, it would be with regards to this sentiment:  “Christ’s kingdom is its own culture: holy rather than common.  That does not mean that it is an alternative subculture.  In other words, there is no such thing as Christian sports, entertainment, politics, architecture and science.  In these common fields, Christians and non-Christians are indistinguishable except by their ultimate goals and motivations.” (249).  This requires a lot more elaboration to be convincing.  For instance, is it true that there is nothing distinctive about the way a Christian would be involved with politics aside from his ultimate goals and motivations?   While I can agree that the church has no place in the realm of politics, that does not necessarily mean that there is not a Christian way of doing politics, a way guided by the Word of God.

Any blogger knows that the negative posts always get more attention than the positive.  Our nature is drawn to the negative.  For that reason, I suspect that Christless Christianity will be better remembered than the Gospel-Driven Life.  Moreover, to be honest, the first volume was the more engaging read.  The Gospel-Driven Life features some new material from Horton, but there also seems to be some recycling.  The usual suspects make their appearances:  Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther, and G.K. Chesterton.  If you listen regularly to the White Horse Inn or have read his other books, this one may seem rather repetitive in places.  While I enjoyed it and can certainly recommend it, it was not the best work that Horton has done.

Hart on Frame v. Horton

Daryl Hart adds his thoughts on Frame’s review of Horton’s Christless Christianity.

Frame Reviews Christless Christianity

John Frame recently reviewed Michael Horton’s Christless Christianity — and he didn’t have much nice to say about it.  Today there’s a response from Eric Landry on the White Horse Inn blog.  By the way, my review of Horton’s follow-up the Gospel-Driven Life will hopefully be published here next week.  Yes, I will have some nice things to say about it.