The Political Gospel

Another instance of confusing the Kingdom of Christ with a mandate for power. I haven't even read the second part yet and I can tell where he's going. Seek the Kingdom...conquer the culture and the world.

Everyone refuses to accept the fact that the Kingdom is in Heaven. It is Heaven. It is Christ Himself seated in Heaven. For all their talk of Bibliocentric thinking and Biblical Worldview, they've missed the central theme, the very center of Scripture...Christ himself.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/why-is-christianity-losing-in-america-97168/

I left a comment after the article. We'll see if it gains any traction. These sites are loaded with political Evangelicals and not a few theological liberals and atheist trolls. But there aren't very many people standing on Scripture who reject the political gospel and all that goes with it.

 

My comment:

 

This article rests on a deeply flawed premise. Nowhere is the Kingdom defined in terms of political power or cultural attainment. He has missed the essential component of the Kingdom...it is spiritual and wrought by the Holy Spirit. It is redemptive. Political action, attainment and the wielding of power do not build the Kingdom or maintain it. The state's power is coercive and cannot regenerate the heart nor aid in sanctification. Cultural attainments serve a purpose but again are not Redemptive. They are not generated by the Holy Spirit. Would he literally say Michelangelo was 'inspired'? I hope not. The Scripture plainly teaches the works of man will burn. Only that which is born of the Spirit will possess the New Heavens and Earth of the Age to Come.

He seeks to bring about a Christianity which will transform culture and unwittingly is establishing the mechanism which leads to acculturated Christianity, a Christianity which baptizes culture. This is simply an argument for neo-Christendom. This is but another recasting of the same flawed project attempted by Constantine, Charlemagne, the Papacy, and the Magisterial Reformers.

The gospel message is apparently insufficient. The Church has reformed the Cultural Mandate and ignoring the implications of the Fall seek to transform this present evil age into an Edenic Zion. But you won't get Zion...what you'll end up with is a compromised Church wedded to power. You'll end up with an adulterous Church that defines the Kingdom in terms of culture and power. Truth has no part in this agenda. This is the baptizing of fallen man's old aspiration to claim the divine presence and blessing, the heavenly mandate as he seeks to make a name for himself and gain ascendancy on the earth.

Romans 8.36-37 define our victory. Man's flawed and fallen wisdom calls this losing. The reason the Church is collapsing in this country is because the people in the pews refuse to submit to the teaching of Scripture and have made an idol of their nation and culture. They have confused the Kingdom of God with middle class aspirations and the support of militarism.