Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 10:00:49 PM
"What’s really happening here is an attempt by the Left to define evangelicalism down by moving it away from its emphasis on the power of the gospel to change lives."-Paul Edwards
Thank you for making this clear statement. Our culture depends on the church preaching a clear gospel message of redemption in Christ Jesus. The tendency of the culture is always towards corruption. If the church neglects its primary role then it becomes like the culture.
There is no lack of the preachers of secularism. They preach their atheism and their socialism as if there were nothing else. But how did we get here? On what foundation do we stand?
Western thought and culture was built on the first principles of liberty: the rule of law based on Biblical absolutes and the principles of justice; the sanctity of personal property including conscience, life and the fruits of labor. The greatest principle of all is redemption; the belief that a free church is essential to the maintenance of a free state. Political liberty proceeds from inward liberty of the heart, all depends on the ability of men to self-govern.
If freedom depends on these things, then what do we expect from the gospel of the secularists? What has their gospel wrought? All their ways lead to tyranny.
The socialist robs us of our property in the vain hope that my property will provide security for another man, rather than the principle that given opportunity each man is to provide for himself. He wants to fulfill the benevolence role of the church.
The atheist is no longer content to live in the freedom of Western culture. He has become an evangelist with the goal of tearing down the foundations. As the culture has moved away from Biblical theism, the principles of self-government give way to lawlessness.
Our forms of government will not stand apart from the spirit that inspired them. Will the church return again to its first love and renew the first things of its authority, of its role and of its gospel?