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Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church

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It is no small thing to take upon oneself the name Christian. Though it was first used as a form of derision when unbelievers mocked the "little Christs," the name was embraced by the earliest believers. The term, even when used mockingly, nicely encapsulated what they sought to do, namely, to imitate their Lord and Savior. Sadly, in the centuries since then, the word has become far too ambiguous and now refers to any number of faiths that, in one way or another, honor or respect Christ or that have some historical connection to his teachings. Amazingly, some of those called by the name of Christ actually deny him--perhaps not his existence but at least his uniqueness and his divinity. In Christless Christianity Michael Horton argues that such denial of Christ may not be too far from home. More and more evangelical churches, he says, are now essentially Christless. "Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups." Many churches have tossed out Christ and continue on without him, sometimes not even realizing that he has been lost along the way.

This is not to say that American evangelicalism has already reached a point of no return or that every church has rejected Christ. "I am not arguing in this book that we have arrived at Christless Christianity," says Horton, "but that we are well on our way. ... My concern is that we are getting dangerously close to the place in everyday American church life where the Bible is mined for `relevant' quotes but is largely irrelevant on its own terms; God is used as a personal resource rather than known, worshiped and trusted; Jesus Christ is a coach with a good game plan for our victory rather than a Savior who has already achieved it for us; salvation is more a matter of having our best life now than being saved from God's judgment by God himself; and the Holy Spirit is an electrical outlet we can plug into for the power we need to be all that we can be." Jesus has become supplemental instead of instrumental to the church. As the church has focused on "deeds, not creeds" she has become increasingly irrelevant and unfaithful. Church has become just another area in which Americans can live out the American dream. "In my view, we are living out our creed, but that creed is closer to the American Dream than it is to the Christian faith. The claim I am laying out in this book is that the most dominant form of Christianity today reflects `a zeal for God' that is nevertheless without knowledge--particularly, as Paul himself specifies, the knowledge of God's justification of the wicked by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works."

Amazingly, it is not theological liberalism that has drawn the church away from her creed, away from her biblical foundation. Instead, it is a kind of unbearable lightness--a faith that eschews biblical theology in favor of whatever happens to be the flavor of the day. Says Horton, "My argument in this book is not that evangelicalism is becoming theologically liberal but that it is becoming theologically vacuous. ... We come to church, it seems, less to be transformed by the Good News than to celebrate our own transformation and to receive fresh marching orders for transforming ourselves and our world. ... Just as you don't really need Jesus Christ in order to have T-shirts and coffee mugs, it is unclear to me why he is necessary for most of the things I hear a lot of pastors and Christians talking about in church these days."

Horton offers a description of this brand of "Christianity" that pervades so much of the evangelical scene these days. Following sociologist Christian Smith, he calls it moralistic, therapeutic deism. It offers this kind of working theology: God created the world; God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and most world religions; The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself; God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when needed to resolve a problem; Good people go to heaven when they die. Pause to consider much of the teaching you might find on your television on a Sunday morning and you'll see how apt a description this is. Horton traces this through Finney, through modern day Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism and into the pulpits of Joel Osteen and other popular smooth talking preachers. He describes the kind of can-do spirit that allows such preachers to thrive. "When looking for ultimate answers, we turn within ourselves, trusting our own experience rather than looking outside ourselves to God's external Word." And here is where the Osteen's of the world are so skilled--they simply reflect and direct human wisdom back at humans all the while pretending as if they gleaned this wisdom from the Word of God. He shows that such preachers, while appearing to perhaps teach a kind of freedom from the law, actually do the opposite, burdening people with a new kind of legalism. "One could easily come away from this type of message concluding that we are not saved by Christ's objective work for us but by our subjective personal relationship with Jesus through a series of works that we perform to secure his favor and blessing. God has set up all of these laws, and now it's up to us to follow them so we can be blessed." This kind of Christianity makes God merely a means to an end rather than an end in and of himself.

In an insightful chapter discussing "how we turn good news into good advice," Horton shows how Christians are prone to turn indicatives into imperatives. In other words, we take a statement of fact and turn it into an exhortation. This, too, drives people to a form of legalism in which they are ultimately responsible for their own salvation and sanctification, even without understanding or embracing the gospel message. "Across the board in contemporary American Christianity, that basic message seems to be some form of law (do this) without gospel (this is what has been done)." He deals well here with the constant exhortations in the church today to "be the gospel," amazed at the hubris of such a statement. "[Unbelievers] may not like our message anyway, but at least they might be relieved that we have stopped holding ourselves up as the way, the truth, and the life. If the message the church proclaims makes sense without conversion, if it does not offend even lifelong believers from time to time so that they too need to die more to themselves and live more to Christ, then it is not the gospel." St. Francis' exhortation to "Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary use words" has never offended a soul.

Final chapters look to "your own personal Jesus" and the resurgence of Gnosticism and to "delivering Christ," examining the relationship between the message and the medium. Horton notes that men like Barna and so many others are advocating a wholesale abandonment of the institutional church. "Instead of churching the unchurched," he laments, "we are well on our way to even unchurching the churched." Here he speaks of the critical importance of the local church and says "the faithful ministry of Word, sacrament, and discipline is the mission" of the church. "A genuinely evangelical church will be an evangelistic church: a place where the gospel is delivered through Word and sacrament and a people who witness to it in the world." He calls for the church to narrow its commission from fixing all of the world's ills to simply returning to the basics. "The church as people--scattered as salt and light through the week--has many different callings, but the church as place (gathered publicly by God's summons each Lord's Day) has one calling: to deliver (and receive) Christ through preaching and sacrament." Of course Christians, the church as people, should pursue justice and peace, but this ought to be done through common grace institutions along side non-Christians rather than through the church as a place. The church needs to mind its own business and get its own house in order.

In the final chapter, Horton calls for resistance. "What is called for in these days, as in any other time, is a church that is a genuine covenantal community defined by the gospel rather than a service provider defined by laws of the market, political ideologies, ethnic distinctives, or other alternatives to the catholic community that the Father is creating by his Spirit in his Son. For this, we need nothing less than a new Christian where the only demographic that matters is in Christ."

Through all of this I'd suggest the most important statement in the book may just be this: "It is not heresy as much as silliness that is killing us softly." This is where the book may be most useful for the conservative Christians who are the audience most likely to read it. All of us can fall into silliness without tossing aside the gospel. We can hold fast to Christian theology, even while allowing silliness and levity to pervade the very fabric of our church. A once-serious institution can become overrun by programs and purposes that slowly erode the gravity and simplicity of the church's unique calling. This book is a call for the church to return to its biblical foundations and to remain true to those convictions. It is a clarion call and one that Christians would do well to heed. Christless Christianity is an excellent and timely book and one I would not hesitate to recommend to any Christian.

Horton is a prolific Christian advocate for historic Christianity which is catholic (universal) and relevant for any culture, any time. This he finds increasingly being blurred and almost to the point of taking Christ completely out of the church for many in America.

He correctly builds the case that this slippage is towards not any new heresy, but towards old heresies with new names and slogans and personalities: "When our churches assume the gospel, reduce it to slogans, or confuse it with moralism and hype, it is not surprising that the type of spirituality we fall back on is moralistic, therapeutic deism. In a therapeutic worldview, the self is always sovereign. Accommodating this false religion is not love--either of God or neighbor--but sloth, depriving human beings of genuine liberation and depriving God of the glory that is his due." n Dangerous to attach Christ directly, these anti-Christs then believe falsely they can change the Gospel, but in doing so, change the Christ even to the point of taking Him out of the picture. (see the dustcover shot)

Tendencies of American bred Christianity which is more attuned to sola cultura rather than sola Scriptura evidences itself in confusion of law and gospel, importing of unbiblical methods and paradigms from marketing, management, etc. in Church Growth movement, unbiblical ecclessiology, more focus on the Christian rather than on the Christ, and a fear of the scandal of particularity which the pure gospel preached and the Sacraments properly instituted as mandated are well documented in this work. As he writes: "the Good News concerning Christ is not a stepping-stone to something greater and more relevant."

The excellent wordsmithing is a joy to read, but don't let the smooth and creative turning of the words deceive the reader, Horton has researched his points well and thought through them and thus presents a solid, growing amount of evidence for these charges. Just but one example: "a moralistic religion of self-salvation is our default setting as fallen creatures. If we are not explicitly and regularly taught out of it, we will always turn the message of God's rescue operation into a message of self-help."

He slaps these driftings not onto any one end of the theological range of conservative or liberal, not any one denomination or family of theological inheritance, but finds this cancerous invasion branching out throughout the theological spectrum. His findings indict likely targets such as the Osteen's, Hybels, R. Warren's, Barna's etc., as well what have been more classical, orthodox Christian streams of the Reformation such as us Lutherans. He well provides evidence from their writings, and one can easily pursue this evidence as this reviewer has in the referenced and quoted works and find these charges in abundance unfortunately.

He provides resistance strategy as well that is focused on fixing the problems, which is properly correcting the increasing tendency to make "mission" the overarching dominant in the church, with little effort to make the "message" the "mission" which it should be. This comes with proper practice of the means of grace, rather than means of commitment, and the restoration of the office of the public ministry to be the proclamation of the pure gospel, even in spite of cultural offense and resistance.

I can emphatically recommend this book to be read, digested, discussed and spread. It is much necessary, and will bless the church if heeded.

Is God perhaps a supporting character in your life movie, however strong and important a character he may be, or have you been rewritten as a new character in God's drama of redemption? If the former, then the focus is on us and our activity rather than on God and his work in Jesus Christ. "Us and out activities" may be all very fine things. Perhaps we're fixing our marriages, becoming relevant to the culture, making disciples, doing what Jesus would do, overcoming addictions, even blogging and destroying apostate thought in all its forms. We have a "purpose driven life," and "purpose driven churches." We are putting biblical principles in action and seeing "success" in our lives. Better kids, better marriages, and we even make it to every church function in the calendar year. Awesome worship music, and even "awesomer" preaching (they even say "Dude"), all of course ever so "relevant" to our culture. Shoot, this aint your daddy's Christianity, our kid's pagan friends actually have fun at our churches. We're doing just fine, thank you. Oh, by the way, where's Jesus Christ in all of this?

Judging by the tremendous "commercial, political, and media success, the evangelical movement seems to be booming. But is it still Christian?", asks Mike Horton in his latest book, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church. Of course we still say we believe in Jesus, salvation by grace, the Bible, and the resurrection. That's not in question. But when our teaching and practice is analyzed, what does that say we believe? Horton thinks "that the church in America is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps even well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs." The regular diet the sheep are fed in many of today's churches is, "Do more, try harder." Horton's concern "is that we're getting dangerously close to the place in everyday American church life where the Bible is mined for `relevant' quotes but is largely irrelevant on its own terms; God is used as a personal resource rather than known, worshiped, and trusted; Jesus is a coach with a good plan for our victory rather than a Savior who has already achieved it for us; salvation is more a matter of having our best life now than being saved from God's judgment by God himself; and the holy Spirit is an electrical outlet we can plug into for the power we need to be all we can be."

Horton doesn't deny that there are some churches, pastors, evangelists, and distinguished laypeople who are proclaiming Christ and fulfilling their vocations with integrity. He's not addressing them, and thinks they would join him in his worries. He is also not saying that we have arrived at a Christless Christianity, just that we are well on our way. He is not questioning American Christianity at the level of zeal either. But it's a zeal without knowledge. It's not that we have our doctrine but are not living it. Rather it's that we are living out our distorted doctrine quite well. Our creed is closer to the American dream than to the historic Christian faith, says Horton.

In Christless Christianity Horton offers a massive amount of statistics showing that those raised in "Bible believing churches know as little of the Bible`s actual content as their unchurched neighbors." But despite this, Christ is everywhere in this subculture, "but more as an adjective than as a proper name." We are swarmed by "Christian things" while Christ has been reduced to mascot of that subculture. We take Christ's name in vain for our own personal crusades and talking points, we trivialize his word in countless ways, and then express moral indignation when a movie trivializes Christ. We like to pretend we are persecuted by evil Hollywood and the Democrats. "But if we ever were really persecuted, would it be because of our offensive posturing and self-righteousness or because we would not weaken the offense of the cross?" Horton contends that his and other's experience has shown that "believers who challenge the human-centered process of trivializing the faith are more likely to be persecuted--or at least viewed as troublesome--by their church." Horton's bigger concern is not that God is taken lightly in American culture, but more-so that he's not taken seriously in the faith and practice of believers.

Horton's argument in the book is "not that evangelicalism is becoming theologically liberal but that it is becoming theologically vacuous." Today it is becoming more and more common to see Christianity as about "spiritual and moral makeovers" than about "death and resurrection--radical judgment and radical grace." The Word is a resource for how to get what we've already decided we need, rather than a "criticism of our religion, morality, and pious experience." God's word is something we use to make our life story more exciting. And so "Jesus has been dressed up as a corporate CEO, life coach, culture-warrior, political revolutionary, philosopher, copilot, cosufferer, moral example, and partner in fulfilling our personal and social dreams. But in all these ways we are reducing the central character I the drama of redemption to a prop for our own play." Liberals, conservatives, Arminian, Calvinist. Those labels cease to matter when the message is "What would Jesus do," rather than "What has Jesus done." And so Horton's "aim is not to target any particular wing, movement, person, or group. We are all victims and accomplices in our own captivity." Horton then is "writing about `us'--all of us who profess the name of Christ..."

The above illness is defined by sociologist Christian Smith as "Therapeutic Moral Deism." Horton follows Smith in this diagnosis. After a "remarkable" study of teen spirituality in America, Smith observed that most teens said that their faith is "very important" to them, yet they are "stunningly inarticulate" about the content of that faith. The separation of deeds from creeds of course moves everything into the inner person. Moralistic, therapeutic deism is defined by Smith as: (i) God created the world; (ii) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other; (iii) the central goal in life is to be happy and feel good about oneself; (iv) God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when needed to solve a problem; (v) people go to heaven when they die. Horton shows through persuasive, detailed, and ubiquitous analysis that the above has infected the American church. He identifies one main cause as our "default setting": (semi-) Pelagianism. Horton contends that the gospel of Jesus Christ is unnatural to our Adamic ears. It is easily forgotten. All too often we treat God as giving us that initial "oomph" and then we go out and accomplish the rest, treating our religion as a do-it-yourself guide for personal satisfaction. God saves us and then we go our and save our cars by placing Jesus bumper stickers on them. Or perhaps we're more ambitious and we go out and "take back America for Jesus!", sanctifying the unjustified. The good news becomes good advice.

As default (semi-) Pelagians, we often turn the good news into good advice. Horton lists main ways of how we do this, the most prominent is to confuse law and gospel. Briefly, the law is "do this" and the gospel is "done." Of course this isn't to deny sanctification, or "doing" things. But Horton's critiquing our emphasis and focus. One way in which we can see the gospel turned into law is in the popular saying, "Living the gospel." The gospel is something done by Jesus in history and announced to us, not something we do. Emergent church leader Dan Kimball is on record as saying, "Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words." Kimball says "Our lives will preach better than anything we can say." Horton rightly points out that "this is just more bad news, not only because of the statistics we have already seen, which evidence no real difference between Christians and non-Christians, but because in spite of my best intentions, I am not an exemplary creature. The best examples and instructions--even the best doctrines--will not relieve me of the battle with indwelling sin until I draw my last breath. Find me on my best day--and attitudes--and I will always provide fodder for the hypocrisy charge and will let down those who would become Christians because they think I and my fellow Christians are the gospel. ... I am not the gospel; Jesus Christ alone is the gospel. ... We do not preach ourselves, but Christ. The more we talk about Christ as the Bible's unfolding mystery and less about our own transformation, the more likely we are to be actually transformed rather than either self-righteous or despairing."

This reminds me of the very last SCCCS conference. On the last day a movie was played where a nice, white, all-American man threw a birthday party for a prostitute at a diner. She never had anyone do anything "nice" for her, and most people treated her as trash. But this man did what other's had not done. Of course the man was supposed to be a "Christian," but he may just as well have well been a Mormon missionary. The movie ended with the girl walking out of the diner and we see a Catholic church off in the distance. After the movie one of the speakers, a PCA pastor, stood up and said, "I would have no problem playing that for the sermon on Sunday morning, because that was the gospel." Look's like Horton's worries are confirmed, even among (what are supposed to be) "Reformed" ministers of the gospel.

One of the dangers that lead to the above is what is called "the assumed gospel." We all "get" the gospel, we're just not living it. Of course Horton decimates this idea with his massive stock pile of statistics marshaled throughout each chapter as well as the theological rejoinder that, actually, we don't "get" it; or, at least, that we easily forget the gospel. We're wired for law, see. "The gospel is so odd, even to us Christians, that we have to get it again and again," says Horton. Treat Christianity primarily as a means of "getting your marriage" on track, and you'll be welcomed in the public sphere. If religion is private therapy to improve our lives and make us better, it has an important place in society. If you "treat it as public truth--Good news to the whole world--and it provokes offence. Moral and spiritual enlightenment is one thing; redemption by a one-sided divine rescue operation is another." When we assume we know the gospel, we slip right into our (semi-) Pelegian moralism all too easily. We need the gospel again and again. Every single Lord's day. Rather than the constant burden to "do more" in our lives and church, we need first and foremost to be reminded of what was done for us. Only if this gospel has been properly preached can the Christian go out and love his neighbor and minister to others in the body.

But all too often our religion places one demand on us after another. We are constantly "transforming all areas of life" or looking for that next set of principles that we can put into action so as to this time be "on fire for Jesus," that we get burned out. Do this, do that, place a fish on your car and make sure to invite your entire neighborhood to go see The Passion of the Christ. "Get involved" in this ministry and that ministry. On top of that make sure to be a "Promise keeper." Sing your heart out to Jesus on Sunday morning. Give your all to God . We forget that God gives to us. He invites us to church so he can feed us and clean through Word and Sacrament. We get so busy so "doing things for the kingdom" that we've forgot the King and what he did, and continues to do, for us. Horton does not deny the good things that Christians can and should do. But he laments that it is taking place minus the constant bombardment of the gospel. "Christianity Lite." "Christ as adjective" for my car or my coffee shop. Look at me take back my neighborhood by serving "Christian coffee" at a "Christian coffee house." After a day's work I drive home in my "transformed" Suburban with my WWJD bumper sticker. I've got to be faithful like Abraham, devoted like Moses. Quote-mine Joshua's life so I can be a Joshua at the office. And, of course, we should all "dare to be a Daniel." This is moralism. The constant preaching of this burns us out. We need a rest. We can do more when rested.

Horton offers the story of David as an example of how the Bible presents its stories and how therapeutic moralism cannot be gleaned from the proper reading of the Scriptures. He cites Graeme Goldsworthy's comments on Martin Luther's own comments on David's victory over Goliath:

"The important point to note is that Luther has made the link between the saving acts of God through Christ. Once we see the connection, it is impossible to use David as a mere model for Christian living since his victory was vicarious and the Israelites could only rejoice in what was won for them. In terms of our interpretive principles, we see David's victory as a salvation event in that the existence of the people of God in the promised land was at stake."

Reading this I was reminded of the movie In The Valley of Elah. In a scene where the movie gets its title, Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones), retired MP, tells the young son of the detective he's working with to solve his son's murder, the story of when David meets Goliath in the Valley of Elah. Hank is a outwardly religious man. Surely loves God, his country, Mom, and apple pie. He prays before every meal. He's a paradigmatic therapeutic, moral deist. He gives the young boy, also named David, a "life lesson" from the biblical David's life. What is gleaned from the text?: Face down your monsters, look them in the eye, exhibit courage even when all the odds are stacked against you. (Deerfield was obviously no Aristotelian, that's for sure.! But I digress...) Even Hollywood understands what "Christians" have turned the Bible into! Jones's bed time story could easily been stolen from the preaching of almost any church across the country. That's what happens when the Bible is turned into a plan for "Your best life now."

Horton confronts modern evangelicalism, issuing a warning call to the catholic Church. Christless Christianity stands in the same league with Machen's Christianity and Libealism. It's a modern day counterpart. His scathing indictment is backed by thorough analysis and myriad examples. His conclusions hard to deny. He uses the insights of sociologists and statisticians like Barna, Bloom, Lee, Mullen, Noll, Smith, Witten, and many others. He also uses as fodder such names as Charles Finney, Joel Osteen, and Brian McLaren to make many of his main points. The danger here is in thinking that us Reformed escape Horton's critique. But we don't. Reading his book I was shown that I am and have been guilty of following a Christless Christianity. I am no better than the Arminians we critique on this blog for example. Until I get to heaven, I will constantly forget and water down the gospel. Am I better because my (semi-) Pelagianism is outwardly denied even though I repeatedly fall back into it through my actions and my assumption of the gospel?

So this isn't just a book to self-righteously give your "evangelical" friends. Even showing your moralism by treating Horton's book as some kind of "plan" or "set of principles" that will get their life on track. This is a book you get and read and apply to yourself first. This is a book for all of us, and all of us need to read it and take its warnings seriously. So, take a break from "transforming" your neighborhood for Jesus and get acquainted with the gospel all over again. Step outside of your narcissistic personalizing of Jesus and get the focus back on an actual historical event that comes to us by way of announcement. Bring back the idea that we go to church to get served rather than primarily to serve. Knock off the self-feeding and get fed. "For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God."

Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church by Michael Horton is a book that slipped by me. I read several good reviews. I saw it in the bookstore.

But because I am an avid listener of Horton's radio show, The White Horse Inn, I thought I would be already (overly, perhaps) familiar with the gist of the book. So my attention was diverted elsewhere.

Then, several weeks ago, John Frame, professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, wrote a scathing review of the book. Frame devoted so many pages to debunking Horton's thesis that I became very intrigued. What is up with this book that it would cause such consternation from someone who agrees with Horton in so many areas?

So I decided to pick up the book for myself. It is always a dangerous thing to read a book after you've read an extensive review. There is always the possibility you will see the book through the eyes of the reviewer and not be fair to the author. But in this case, I think Frame's review (though helpful in some respects) is unfairly tilted against Horton. After having read it for myself, I believe Horton's book deserves careful consideration by all who are concerned about the current direction of evangelicalism.

Christless Christianity can best be described as "prophetic." It is a wake-up call to the American church to shake off the slumber of consumerist complacency. It is a rallying cry to put Jesus back in the center of our preaching, worship, and devotion.

Because Horton's work is prophetic, he occasionally makes judgments that may be too sweeping (as he himself admits [27]). But criticizing him for occasional generalizations is like taking Isaiah to task for condemning Israel's false worship. Come on, Isaiah! Surely you don't mean that all our offerings are in vain? The nature of a prophetic book is to passionately call people to renewed faith, and Horton fulfills this role admirably.

Horton does not accuse all Americans of denying the faith. Instead, he warns against being so distracted that we miss the essence of the gospel. We are inclined to turn in on ourselves and tell our stories rather than Christ's. We make worship about our needs rather than his glory. We make salvation about self-fulfillment rather than rescue from sin and its punishment.

Those who are familiar with Horton's work will not find any surprises in Christless Christianity. But nowhere else will you find such a well-written critique of the American evangelical church.

The chapter on Joel Osteen - "Smooth Talking and Christless Christianity" - is the single best treatment of Osteen's theological outlook that has been written. Horton's chapter on Osteen is so devastating that it's like bringing out a bulldozer to displace a stone, or a high-powered fan to move a feather.

Frame was right to point out that there are places where Horton might swing the pendulum too far. Horton's assertion that "Christianity is not a worldview, a way of life, or a program for personal and societal change; it is a gospel" (105) is too restrictive. It is true that the gospel is not a worldview or way of life, but Christianity is indeed a way of seeing the world. The gospel message itself makes little sense unless placed within the broader, biblical framework ("worldview") in which it is announced.

In another section, Horton declares that "the worst thing that can happen to the church is confuse law and gospel" (122). While confusing the theological categories of law and gospel can indeed by dangerous, is this the worst thing that can happen? If so, why did Paul not specifically warn against this confusion of categories in Scripture?

Horton's separation of law and gospel leads him to say that "any form of doing the gospel is a confusion of categories." And yet, Paul himself speaks of "obeying the gospel" (Rom. 10:16; 2 Thess. 1:8). So does Peter (1 Pet. 4:17). Horton's exhortation to carefully distinguish between law and gospel is good. But sometimes he creates such a dichotomy between the indicative and imperative that the complexity of the New Testament texts are flattened.

These quibbles aside, Christless Christianity is well worth your time. Horton is at his best when he is not only demonstrating where we are wrong, but where we should be right. One reason I have always admired Horton is that he recognizes temptations within his own theological tradition.

"Our temptation as Reformed Christians is to pride ourselves on bearing the marks of a true church regardless of whether people actually being added to the church," he writes. (197)

He is absolutely right to insist that "without the marks, the mission is blind; without the mission, the marks are dead" (205).

In the end, Frame's review strikes me as too sweeping (and surprisingly personal). Horton's book, on the other hand, is strong medicine for a sick church. We need to heed many of his warnings if we are to be faithful to the gospel.

I was quite disappointed in Horton's conclusions in this book. He nailed the problems of the American Church very eloquently and with lots of fervor. However, I disagreed with his bottom line on the answer. He is right about the Pelagianism that has infiltrated most American Christianity. He is right about Charles G. Finney and Joel Osteen and Robert Schuller and TBN. But he is wrong, in my opinion, in thinking that theological correctness is the ONLY answer. Academic orthodoxy is only half an answer. According to Scripture we also need the Holy Spirit.

Horton comes out very strongly against revival, which I found baffling. To Horton, spiritual revivals such as the Great Awakening (Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, David Brainerd) or the first and second Welsh revivals (which brought us G. Campbell Morgan, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Evan Roberts), are part of the problem rather than part of the answer. For him, the answer lies in a kind of academic neo-scholasticism. Horton believes that right doctrine will bring about the desired result, while revival will only bring wildfire.

I think he is dead wrong. I think you must have BOTH the Word and the Spirit in order to have a Christ-filled Christianity. Orthodoxy can be 100% correct and 100% dead at the same time (as the Pharisees and the Fundamentalists have proven over and over).

I'm going to disagree with Horton, but agree with Edwards and Roberts and Morgan and Lloyd-Jones and Spurgeon and Habakkuk that we need a revival of the Word and Spirit of God. Horton is right about the problems. And he is right about the need for orthodox theology. But he only gives us half the solution. And we need a whole Gospel to revive a lifeless American Christianity.

"O Lord, Revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy." (Hab. 3:2).

"I do not understand Christian people who are not thrilled by the whole idea of revival... If you want a perfect exposition of 1 Corinthians 1:25-31, read books on revival." (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones).

I've read a fair number of books in my lifetime, but very few books really make such an impression on me that I feel compelled to do something about it. Dr. Michael Horton's book Christless Christianity is one of those books. Dr. Horton is a professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California and a host on the weekly radio program, White Horse Inn. I've mentioned this book in previous posts now for the past several weeks (I'm a slow reader). There is even a YouTube video clip that I posted about the subject a few days ago. The impact this book has had on me is more than likely due to the fact that I have experienced, in part, what Dr. Horton talks about. This book is a 'wake up' call to American Evangelicalism that unless we do something soon to change the path we're on, we are in danger of at best marginalizing the gospel, and at worst losing it all together.

Dr. Horton's premise in this book is the influence of our uniquely American culture (e.g., rugged individualism, pragmatic nature, disdain for anything overly 'intellectual', and our constant drive for the new and novel) combined with the revivalist movement of the second great awakening in the 19th century (beginning with Charles G. Finney), American Evangelicalism has shifted from the bold preaching of the gospel (Christ and him crucified) into a "moralistic, therapeutic deism." This is evident today in the ministry of Joel Osteen (a whole chapter is devoted to critiquing his ministry) as well as the Emergent Church movement of Brian McLaren (a whole chapter is devoted to critiquing this movement as well).

This moralistic, therapeutic deism eschews the historic creeds and confessions of the Protestant Reformation and instead focuses on personal piety and holiness. American Evangelicalism focuses now on deeds, not creeds. This may seem like a good thing to many Christians. Who really cares about doctrine and theology? What's important is following the example of Christ and living our Christianity in practice. This mindset, if one is not careful, can turn Christianity from an objective, historic faith into a subjective, practical religion. If we lose our moorings from our historic foundation, all we're left with is our personal piety; and if that happens, what distinguishes us from any other religion? What makes Christianity distinctly Christian is the fact that our faith is based on an historic fact: The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, our faith is anchored on what Christ did in his life (fulfilling the righteousness of God), through his death (make atonement for our sins) and his resurrection (provide the means of our justification).

The moralistic, therapeutic deism of American Evangelicalism essentially assumes the gospel (as Horton asserts) and focuses our efforts on how we can be 'better Christians' (or in the words of Osteen, 'becoming a better you'). This turns our faith into a narcissistic endeavor for self-improvement. The result is because we assume the gospel, we ignore the very means of grace that God provided for our nourishment; namely the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper). Because Christians aren't taught what they believe and why they believe it, they either suffer burn-out in the process of self-sanctification, or they give up hope altogether in the endeavor of self-improvement.

What made this book poignant to me was that I can see this happening in the churches I have attended. The focus is on how to live the Christian life through practical tips and 'to-do' lists. The preaching tends to be topical and primarily focused on practical application. Again, this isn't necessarily wrong or un-Biblical, but when practical application is divorced from doctrine and what Christ has already done for us, the church essentially engages in behavior modification.

I highly recommend this book. My hope is that every Christian, pastor and layman alike, reads this book. We need to recover the gospel before American Evangelicalism fades into insignificance! We need another reformation!

Christless Christianity is Michael Horton's diagnosis and prognosis of the state of the Christian church in America. Going into painful detail, he presses in on the places where the church has shifted its focus from God's activity to ours, from Christ as Savior to Christ as coach, from the transforming Good News to our own transformed lives.

Horton says that our narcissism has taken the form of what has been coined "moralistic, therapeutic deism", but he suggests that, at its core, it is simply a repackaged Pelagianism. He calls it "the default setting of the human heart: the religion of self-salvation".

While Horton seems uncomfortably spot on through much of the book, I imagine every reader will find a critique with which they might disagree (or in the case of the fans of Joel Osteen, an entire chapter). Also placed under the microscope are the Emergent Church, fundamentalism and the religious left and right, but his diagnosis is so often returning to the Gospel message that it is hard to argue against it.

While Michael's writing style flows well and moves at a good pace, there was one thing that made this book a slightly harder read: 260 pages were broken up between only seven chapters. I know this is a bit of a juvenile complaint, but long chapters just make a book feel longer.

Christless Christianity is sharp critique of the state of the modern church, and I imagine that no one can walk away from this book perfectly unscathed. However, it is well-reasoned and -argued, and the cuts it makes seem to be the necessary and precise cuts of a surgeon.

This is a hard-hitting wake-up call for those of us in the American Church. Horton, a professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, essentially dismantles what passes for theology at most evangelical churches in this country.

While he does confront the errors of "pop theology" movements such as the "Word-Faith" or "Prosperity Gospel" of Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen, and the "seeker-sensitive" or "Emergent Church" of guys like Brian McLaren, his harshest criticism is reserved for those of us who attend conservative evangelical churches. His primary argument "is not that evangelicalism is becoming theologically liberal, but that it is becoming theologically vacuous". In other words, it doesn't take a great heresy to lead the Church into apostasy. All that is necessary to make the Church ineffective is for Satan to succeed in de-emphasizing the centrality of Christ in our churches. Horton's argument is that the vast majority of churches follow a "flavor of the moment" mentality, emphasizing programs, political activism, and social work -- in and of themselves all admirable undertakings -- at the expense of the preaching and understanding of God's Word. This leads to a lack of discernment among professing believers, leaving many unable to even tell the difference between sound doctrine and heresy.

This is not to say that this book is merely a collection of criticisms. After all, anyone can identify problems. What is needed are visionaries who offer solutions. This is the purpose of the final chapter in the book, in which Horton calls for the Church-at-large as well as individual church congregations to recommit themselves to theology, and, most of all, to the power of Christ and the Word. After all, it is the Word of God that equips us for good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Still, read by itself, this book is long on critique and short on solutions. However, Horton wrote in the introduction that this would be the case, as this book is actually part one of a two-book effort in this area. Its counterpart, "The Gospel-Driven Life", is entirely solution oriented, giving direction for those who, like Horton, do not believe that the Church has already arrived at "Christless Christianity", and that reformation is not only possible, but imperative. I hope to offer a review of this second book in the next month or two.

All in all, this is a great read, though you should be prepared to be convicted by it. I certainly was!

No one would argue that any of us are immune to the influences of the culture in which we live. The question that Michael Horton raises in Christless Christianity is just how much has American culture influenced the American evangelical church? In the minds of some, America is a Christian nation, and patriotism and Christianity go hand and hand. Being a Christian is part of being a good American. Others, in my opinion more perceptive and informed, would claim that America is in as much need of evangelization as any other country, and that whatever Christian roots America may have, it is now following after other gods. Horton would be, in my opinion, in the latter camp, and is concerned that American culture has greatly influenced the American Church to the point that there is little room left for Christ within it. All who are concerned about true religion, and those who take the teachings about being salt and light within the culture seriously, will likely find this book to be valuable. For many of us, this may be a difficult book to read, for it asks us to critically evaluate our culture and the many voices that claim to be Christian within it. Nevertheless, I think the exercise to be well worth while and rewarding to those who will hear him out.

Horton is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California. He received a B.A. degree from Biola University, an M.A. degree from Westminster Seminary California, a Ph.D. degree from Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Coventry University, and also completed a Research Fellowship at Yale Divinity School. He is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America and has served two congregations in southern California. He is the editor of Modern Reformation magazine, and is host of the nationally syndicated radio program, The White Horse Inn. He has written or edited about twenty books, including The Agony of Deceit/What Some TV Preachers Are Really Teaching, Made in America: The Shaping of Modern American Evangelicalism, Power Religion: The Selling Out of the Evangelical Church?, Beyond Culture Wars: Is America a Mission Field or Battlefield?, and Where in the World Is the Church?: A Christian View of Culture and Your Role in It.

The book Christless Christianity contains seven chapters. Chapter 1 is titled Christless Christianity: The American Captivity of the Church. Chapter 2 is titled Naming Our Captivity: Moralistic, Therapeutic Deism. Chapter 3 is titled Smooth Talking and Christless Christianity. Chapter 4 is How We Turn Good News into Good Advice. Chapter 5 is Your Own Personal Jesus. Chapter 6 is Delivering Christ: The Message and the Medium. Chapter 7 is titled A Call to the Resistance.

In Chapter 1, Horton, who has been a critical observer of the American scene for quite some time, writes "I think that the church in America today is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps even well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups." Commenting further on how patriotism and evangelical faith may well be often confused, Horton writes "Heaven and hell still figure prominently in this version. Especially on the `high holy days' of the American church calendar (that is, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Father's Day, and Mother's Day), often complete with giant American flags, a color guard, and patriotic songs, this sterner version of `do more, try harder' helped get the culture wars off the ground." "As this new gospel becomes more obviously American than Christian, we all have to take a step back and ask ourselves whether evangelicalism is increasingly a cultural and political movement with a sentimental attachment to the image of Jesus more than a witness to `Jesus Christ and him crucified' (1 Cor. 2:2)." Perhaps you think he is exaggerating and doesn't really mean it in quite such strong terms, but the remainder of the book develops these thoughts in detail.

In Chapter 2, Horton claims that American evangelicalism is primarily moralistic, therapeutic deism. Horton writes that "evangelicals are as likely as mainliners today to talk pop psychology, politics, or moralism instead of the gospel." Horton quotes George Barna as follows: "the spirituality of America is Christian in name only". According to Horton, "The challenge before us as Christian witnesses is whether we will offer Jesus Christ as the key to fulfilling our narcissistic preoccupation or as the Redeemer who liberates us from its guilt and power."

In Chapter 3, Horton claims that evangelicals give lip service to true Christianity while actually leading the way in secularization of the faith. He writes: "Not only have evangelicals caught up with their liberal rivals in accommodating religion to secular culture, they are now clearly in the lead. No secular self-help guru comes close to the sales of evangelical rivals." Horton gives a great deal of space to analyzing the "ministry" of Joel Osteen (he gives some space also to Kenneth Copland, T. D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, and Joyce Meyer). He concentrates on Osteen because of the phenomenal success, in terms of numbers, of Osteen, but also because he so clearly, according to Horton, displays the characteristics that Horton criticizes in his book. Horton writes, "There is no condemnation in Osteen's message for failing to fulfill God's righteous law. On the other hand, there is no justification. Instead of either message, there is an upbeat moralism that is somewhere in the middle: Do your best, follow the instructions I give you, and God will make your life successful." "Osteen seems to think that we are basically good people and God has a very easy way for us to save ourselves - not from his judgment, but from our lack of success in life - with his help." "While Osteen is hardly unique, his message is one of the clearest examples of moralistic, therapeutic deism. Is it possible to have evangelism without the evangel? Christian outreach without a Christian message?" "Osteen's outlook may resonate with Americans steeped in a sentimentalized version of the Pelagian heresy of self-salvation. But it is not Christianity." "You do not need Christ for the things that Osteen and many other preachers today promise. You do not need the Bible, just Tony Robbins. You do not need the kind of redemption that is promised in the Gospels. It is not even clear why you would need God simply to have a more positive outlook on life."

In Chapter 5, Horton claims that "While evangelicals talk a lot about truth, their witness, worship, and spirituality seem in many ways more like Mormon, New Age, and liberal nemeses than anything like historical Christianity." Then he approvingly quotes Curtis White: "We would prefer to be left alone, warmed by our beliefs-that-make-no-sense, whether they are the quotidian platitudes of ordinary Americans, the magical thinking of evangelicals, the mystical thinking of New Age Gnostics, the teary-eyed patriotism of social conservatives, or the perfervid loyalty of the rich to their free-market Mammon. We are thus the congregation of the Church of the Infinitely Fractured, splendidly alone together. . . . Aren't these all the false gods that Isaiah and Jeremiah confronted, the cults of the `hot air gods'? The gods that couldn't scare birds from a cucumber patch? Belief of every kind and cult, self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement of every degree, all flourish. And yet God is abandoned."

In Chapter 6, Horton summarizes what he thinks should be the message presented in Christian churches. "The faithful ministry of Word, sacrament, and discipline is the mission (Matt. 28: 19-20). A church that is not outward looking, eager to bring the Good News to the ends of the earth, is not really bringing it to those already gathered into Christ's flock. A genuinely evangelical church will be an evangelical church: a place where the gospel is delivered through Word and sacrament and a people who witness to it in the world. It will be a place where believers and unbelievers alike will be recipients of God's Good News." "Preaching is central, not because we value the intellect to the exclusion of the emotions and the will, but because it is God's action rather than our own. The God who accomplished our salvation now delivers it to us."

In Chapter 7, the last chapter, Horton appeals to true Christians to resist the secularization of the church. "It begins by challenging not only weak views of God, sin, and grace but the plausibility structures, paradigms, or worldviews that make biblical views increasingly incomprehensible even for most laypeople and pastors. In the Christian discourse of resistance, God is the speaker. It is time to start listening to God's voice in Scripture again, taking our covenant Lord more seriously than we do ourselves and the wider secular audience that needs to be saved from its self-talk."

[...]

Larry D. Paarmann

I have greatly profited from the work of Michael Horton over the years. I have certainly moved on from many of the things he emphasizes, but I still enjoy reading his work. In Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, Horton seeks to analyze the American church to see what is wrong, and to find the solution for the ills which plague us. Horton's analysis of much of the American church, that it is essentially a moralistic, therapeuic deism is certainly sound. He discusses the "thought" of Joel Osteen, if it can really be considered any sort of coherent thinking. He also discusses the so-called "Emergent Church", which I do not pretend to know much about, as it is not an interest of mine in the least (though I plan to read their work someday, if/when I have the time).

I also appreciate the fact that Horton will point fingers at his own tradition (of which I am a member), as well as the Church at large. It is a systemic problem with the American church, in that it is far too American and not Christian enough and it is "pervasive" and crossing "all denominational lines" (p.27). He also sees much American religion being both Gnostic and Pelagian, which is based on the Americanism seditiously infiltrating the church. I agree with Horton's analysis of the problems afflicting American Christianity, but it is when he gets into his solution that I start to have some somewhat sharp disagreements.

Often it seems that Horton treats the Gospel as if it were some abstract entity that only be assented to in an abstract theological manner. I am sure this is not Horton's position, as I happen to know he is quite sacramental in his thinking, but in denigrating those who talk about "living the gospel" or "narrarating the gospel", I think it misses the more contemplative/mystical elements of the Gospel that cannot be reduced to abstract concepts (though he would more than likely object to his view as being abstract, so to be charitable, my interpretation could be incorrect) . In seeking to overcome the shallow anti-intellectualism of much contemporary American life in general, and American Christianity in particular, it seems he has gone a little further than warranted. He is right to emphasize the fact that the Gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus (though the Incarnation should certainly be added to this, since we are the renewed humanity, restored to our original purpose through the God-Man) and is in a real sense final, but there are more helpful ways of relating this to our own application of it. Seeing our own relation to the Gospel as in some way completing the final act of the drama of redemption is, I think, a helpful corrective to what seems to be, at-times, an overly rigid construction of the Gospel.

I certainly do not agree with some of his interpretation of Paul, either. While this may put me outside the bounds in some circles, I still do not think there is such a rigid distinction between law/gospel as Horton is wont to make. While some of the difference may be more of an accidental quibble than a substantial one, as he does not denigrate good works in any way, but he consigns it to the law or works-righteousness. While much preaching today is certainly rubbish, I don't think that works necessarily have to be consigned to the level of "law", when that seems to be abstracting the concept of "law" from it's Jewish context as the chosen people of God, given to them for their own benefit to mark them out as the people of God. It seems that is what Paul had in mind when discussing the law, not the idea of merit, as in Medieval Catholicism.

While these are not completely minor quibbles, they do not change the fact that Horton has shown himself astute at analyzing cultural conditions. While I cannot "assent" (pun intended) to everything he says with regards to the cure for what ills us, this is certainly a good book.