I know, especially among undergrad Christians, its really popular to be anti-denominational. That’s good in a sense because it reflects a sincere desire to be united and affective in shining forth Christ to our world. But sometimes it seems like it’s just a fad, a pet cause, a way of rebelling against the system. Church historian Carl Truemen captures the tension well:
The problem comes, of course, from the fact that denominations often exist for very good reasons; because people have strong opinions about things that matter.They may be wrong, but they have strong opinions about things one should have strong opinions about.J. Gresham Machen…talking about the dispute between Luther and Zwingli on the Lord’s Supper in the 16th Century said, ‘it was a tragedy that Protestantism split over a disagreement on the Lord’s Supper, but it would have been a much greater tragedy if Protestantism had been united because neither Luther or Zwingli thought the Lord’s Supper was really that important.’
Trueman has always been one of my favorite authors/lecturers. His sharp, witty style is always fun to read as well as keenly insightful, and he has an ability to analyze history and make it relevant to today.
The neo-evangelical movement began with the founding of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1942. The neo-evangelical movement was a lead by Harold Ockenga, Carl Henry, and Billy Graham. The movement started by these men, was one of building institutions, publications, and ministries. This movement was post-fundamentalist in that it rejected the separatism and elitism characteristic of some of the fundamentalists. The partnership still built itself o two core theological beliefs, the full authority of the inspired Scripture and the insistence on the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
Harold John Ockenga, one of the prime movers of the new coalition, was convinced that what was needed was “a progressive fundamentalism with an ethical message.”‘ This became the passionate concern of the rising breed of conservative leadership. There soon followed respectable journals, such as Christianity Today, top-notch seminaries, such as Fuller and Trinity, and with an arena for theological discourse, the Evangelical Theological Society, Evangelicals began to be accepted in the academy. The one man who really led Evangelicals to the intellectual spectrum was Carl F. H. Henry.
Henry’s influence shaped American Evangelicalism (AE) as we know it. The infrastructure of our sub-culture was laid and shaped by these men and their legacies. AE has become a vast sub-culture. Randall Balmer, in Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, spent a few chapters devoted to exposing the amount of money that is spent within our own sub-culture, Christian bookstores, Bible colleges, even Christian theme parks and vacation destinations. Where would we be without all the corny Christian t-shirts? I wonder if Henry and the others knew of the animal that would surface from their creation. Despite our critiques, our infrastructure is a big part of who we are.
Another problem is that the founders of the neo-evangelical movement thought that if the two core doctrines remained strong, the full authority of the inspired Scripture and the doctrine of penal substitutionaryatonement, Evangelicals would be given liberty in other areas of doctrine. Other areas of liberty were issues of church polity (women in ministry), the continuation or cessation of spiritual gifts, the mode of baptism, and views on the millennium. But what began as an allowance for liberty turned into an abrogation of doctrine. These other areas of doctrine began to be seen as secondary issues, or ultimately, unimportant.
Evangelicalism today is plagued with doctrinally thin churches. What Henry and the others intended to be a way to unite around the gospel, ultimately produced dumb Christians. Evangelicals hold two things dear to their hearts today, their Bibles and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is directly a result of the neo-evangelical coalition.
What is interesting is that the same kind of coalition is being made in AE today. There is currently a movement called, “Together for the Gospel,” (T4G)…the neo-neos. T4G began as a friendship between four pastors, Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C. J. Mahaney, and Albert Mohler. These friends differed on a number of theological issues, like baptism and the charismatic gifts. But they were committed to standing together for the main thing, the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful that these men are standing for the gospel. These men are my heroes. I trust these men. But I can’t help but be concerned. I am concerned these men may be setting evangelical churches up to reducing Christianity again. Please don’t hear that I am saying that focusing on the gospel is reductionism, rather I am questioning if this is how the problems were started with the post-World War II evangelical giants.
There hasn’t been much going on here recently. Bryce and Emily have had finals week to deal with and the birth of their first child. And I have been working on storing up new posts, and have also just plain forgotten in all the business. Rest assured though, we are resolved to make a comback in the near future.
I’m a dad! Well, I already was one before this but now I am a dad of a kid who is out of the womb.
After the whole experience, I have to say that my wife is a stud. She is definitely a lot tougher than I am. She flew through labor in about 7 hours from start to finish. She dilated from 4 to 10 cm in about 2 hours and then it didn’t take long for Emily to push Piper out.
Piper was born at 7:49 PM on 12/10/08. She is 7 lbs. 3 oz and 20 inches tall (long?). Much to both my wife and my surprise, she is very beautiful. Her head isn’t all misshapen, her skin is nice and clear. She has really deep blue eyes and brownish hair. The nurse says she is really smart because she is good at breastfeeding (I think that is just instinct).
Emily and I learned a lot about God, the Bible, and each other today. It was a great day for our family. Thanks everyone for your prayers.
We do have one prayer request. Emily had a bit of a bad tear that required she go into the operating room for 2 hours. Pray for us as we learn how to raise a baby and deal with Emily being pretty immobile for some time.
We are at Providence Portland if you want to come visit us. We will be here for a few more days. My number is 971-998-8350 call before you come visit. I will post pictures when I can. I don’t have the hookups for our camera so it will be a few days.
World Seen is a group of Multnomah students who put together presentations about culture and worldviews. They define themselves as, “a team of people who passionately believe that for Christians to make a difference in their world they need to understand it first.”
I stumbled upon their website today, and I am glad I did. I was able to spend some good time educating myself about different worldviews and how they shape our culture. It was interesting to read about the ideaology behind a variety of movies and bands. I enjoyed learning all of this so much, I thought I would post the link on the blog. Check it out here.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yeilds its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Psalm 1
The Lord blessed me with this passage this morning. I love the picture that it paints. Here is the righteous man – a massive, strong tree alongside a cool stream. Green leaves wiggle on its limbs, and ripe, refreshing fruit hangs from its branches. This tree is thriving.
Then there is the wicked man – the useless part of a crop. The husk of the corn, stripped from the fruit, and tossed about aimlessly in the dry wind. He is chaff that is destined to perish.
What a difference between the two! As I read this, my heart longed for righteousness. My soul became thirsty for the living water of Jesus. I want to be the tree by the stream, delighting in the law of the Lord, and able to stand on the day of judgment through the righteousness of Christ.
I pray that the Lord would make this picture come alive to all of us. I pray that we would become terrified of being like the dried up chaff and that we would strive to be the tree, planted deep, and fertilized by the teachings of the Lord.
I realized after I put this post up that the title could be somewhat misleading. I cherish Christ, because he is the good shepherd, he will not break his covenant with me, for it is everlasting. God has purposed to save me, and he has said that his purposes will not be thwarted. He has given me his Spirit to convict me of sin and draw me to the fountain of God’s love. I do not cherish intellectual assent to a proposition. When I say I “cherish such and such a doctrine,” I mean it the same way I would say I “cherish such and such a characteristic of my wife.” I cherish her, and I cherish what she does and how she does it, they are inextricably linked.
Bryce and I will celebrate our 1 year anniversary in 24 days. I was going to wait to post this until then, but I was too excited about it. Instead, I’ll write it as a belated Thanksgiving post and do so with a shout of praise and thanks to the Lord for giving me ‘the real deal.’
As I read this quote, I soaked it in and my heart kept saying, “Yes! This is true.” It is an excerpt from a section titled “The Biblical Model of Love Is Secure,” in Voddie Baucham’s book, “Family Driven Faith.” The excerpt contrasts a secular romance-based model of love with the Biblical model:
“What happens to a love that is based on sensuality when your spouse is disabled, or just unattractive? What happens when your spouse is on a business trip and Cupid strikes him with an errant arrow? What happens if your wife becomes ‘uncontrollably overwhelmed’ in the presence of another man? The answer in the Greco-Roman myth is simple: ‘We don’t choose who we fall in love with,’ so sometimes you have to just recognize that you have fallen out of love with one person and in love with another. After all, ‘Isn’t that why they invented no-fault divorce?’ It is the myth of romantic love that has given us such wonderful inventions as the prenuptial agreement.
Not so with biblical love, Biblical love says, ‘I choose to love you, and I’m not going anywhere.’ Biblical love knows nothing of backing out when things get tough. Biblical love gives without expecting, goes the extra mile, sacrifices for others, and views divorce as a tragic and unnecessary plague visited upon a culture that has settled for a lie. Biblical love is not constantly seeking the emotional high that often characterizes immature relationships but instead is content with the depth and breadth that only the love of a maturing, godly relationship can provide. Biblical love is not constantly looking for a better deal; it is too busy thanking God for the real deal.” – Voddie Baucham
It is my prayer that the Lord would teach us how to love our spouses in the Biblical model. In doing so, we will be shining lights in our deeply dark culture and enjoy wonderfully secure love.
I want to share this quote with everyone as we approach Thanksgiving. It reminded me of my utter sinfulness and my dire need for the gospel of Christ. I want to encourage all of us to use this Thanksgiving as a time of humble, heartfelt praise to our glorious Redeemer.
“These days we call sin so many different things. We try to soften it… Man calls it accident, God calls it abomination. Man calls it a defect, God calls it a terrible heart disease. Man calls it an error, God calls it enmity with Him, strife. Man calls it liberty or freedom, and God just says it’s lawlessness. Man calls it trifle and unimportant, God calls it a tragedy that required the death of His Son. Man calls its a mistake, and God calls it our nature. Man calls it a weakness, and God says it’s a willful choice. We have some strange perceptions of what sin is. But, understand, until we get to the point where we realize our own sinfulness, the gospel is either meaningless or valued little.” – Brent Dodrill
It is my prayer that we would cease to “gloss over” sin, and that we would recognize its true filthiness in order that we may value the gospel much! Let us be thankful!
Dorian
Possible Concerns for the Neo-Neos
December 20, 2008 by Matthew Cunningham
The neo-evangelical movement began with the founding of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1942. The neo-evangelical movement was a lead by Harold Ockenga, Carl Henry, and Billy Graham. The movement started by these men, was one of building institutions, publications, and ministries. This movement was post-fundamentalist in that it rejected the separatism and elitism characteristic of some of the fundamentalists. The partnership still built itself o two core theological beliefs, the full authority of the inspired Scripture and the insistence on the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
Harold John Ockenga, one of the prime movers of the new coalition, was convinced that what was needed was “a progressive fundamentalism with an ethical message.”‘ This became the passionate concern of the rising breed of conservative leadership. There soon followed respectable journals, such as Christianity Today, top-notch seminaries, such as Fuller and Trinity, and with an arena for theological discourse, the Evangelical Theological Society, Evangelicals began to be accepted in the academy. The one man who really led Evangelicals to the intellectual spectrum was Carl F. H. Henry.
Henry’s influence shaped American Evangelicalism (AE) as we know it. The infrastructure of our sub-culture was laid and shaped by these men and their legacies. AE has become a vast sub-culture. Randall Balmer, in Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, spent a few chapters devoted to exposing the amount of money that is spent within our own sub-culture, Christian bookstores, Bible colleges, even Christian theme parks and vacation destinations. Where would we be without all the corny Christian t-shirts? I wonder if Henry and the others knew of the animal that would surface from their creation. Despite our critiques, our infrastructure is a big part of who we are.
Another problem is that the founders of the neo-evangelical movement thought that if the two core doctrines remained strong, the full authority of the inspired Scripture and the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, Evangelicals would be given liberty in other areas of doctrine. Other areas of liberty were issues of church polity (women in ministry), the continuation or cessation of spiritual gifts, the mode of baptism, and views on the millennium. But what began as an allowance for liberty turned into an abrogation of doctrine. These other areas of doctrine began to be seen as secondary issues, or ultimately, unimportant.
Evangelicalism today is plagued with doctrinally thin churches. What Henry and the others intended to be a way to unite around the gospel, ultimately produced dumb Christians. Evangelicals hold two things dear to their hearts today, their Bibles and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is directly a result of the neo-evangelical coalition.
What is interesting is that the same kind of coalition is being made in AE today. There is currently a movement called, “Together for the Gospel,” (T4G)…the neo-neos. T4G began as a friendship between four pastors, Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C. J. Mahaney, and Albert Mohler. These friends differed on a number of theological issues, like baptism and the charismatic gifts. But they were committed to standing together for the main thing, the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful that these men are standing for the gospel. These men are my heroes. I trust these men. But I can’t help but be concerned. I am concerned these men may be setting evangelical churches up to reducing Christianity again. Please don’t hear that I am saying that focusing on the gospel is reductionism, rather I am questioning if this is how the problems were started with the post-World War II evangelical giants.
Posted in Commentary | Tagged T4G, Together for the Gospel, Billy Graham, Carl Henry, Harold Ockenga | 7 Comments »