Customer Reviews

Transforming Our World: A Call to Action

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although written by many of the heavyweights of the Christian community - Charles Colson, James Boice, William F. Buckley, Os Guinness, R. C. Sproul, J. I. Packer, John Perkins, Richard John Neuhaus - most of the essays have an underlying pessimistic tone about the possibility of real Christian victory in transforming American culture. Boice sets the tone off: "We do not have all the answers. We must begin by saying that. At best we are part of the solution, and we may even be part of the problem" (p. 28). I can appreciate Boice's humility, but if the Scriptures don't give answers, where are we going to get them? This is defeatism in the name of the Bible, an inerrant one at that! Do we use human reasoning, the boogaboo secular humanism, that they so often condemn? Buckley's essay demonstrates the absurdity of American cultural social sanctions like "it's a heinous sin to throw a piece of trash on the ground" compared to the biblical social sanctions like "don't commit adultery or fornication." Does this mean that he would enact Scriptural law into American law, like sanctions against adultery? Heaven forbid. He only smiles about the absurdity of having such strong penalties for littering.

I was surprised at how many of the essays claimed that the Scriptures were at once the standard bearer for our culture, and then put in a disclaimer, saying that most of the Scriptures weren't applicable for today. Even Calvinist Packer writes, "What is [Christian freedom] meant was that Christians are not bound to the law in any form as a system of salvation, nor to any of the typical rites and restrictions that God imposed under the old covenant" (p. 94). He then goes on to define sin in very vague terms: whatever is not spiritually helpful to oneself and others. Even Neuhaus stresses the "being" of the church in opposition to its "doing." "The biblical view is not of the church as God's tool, but of the church as God's people. The church is not an instrument to be used [of God] but a community to be served" (p. 117). He "throws into question all programs, causes, campaigns, and concerns" of the church, and then questions the success of the church in its attempt to bring justice and mercy to this world. What happened to obedience to God? What happened to the resurrection? What happened to God's promises of victory? What happened to the power of God? What happened to being the salt and light of the world?

For the most part these essays demonstrate evangelical pessimism and biblical nothingness. "I believe in the inerrancy of the Scriptures!" But the Bible doesn't really apply to today, only in a vague sense. Even Colson writes, Christianity "is not a creed. It is not a set of beliefs. It is not a formula for better living" (p. 147). And like Colson, the authors claim that we need obedience to the Scriptures, but when they have already relativized the Bible's content, they are left without a standard, without a message. Sin becomes whatever any evangelical claims it to be. Definitions become sloppy. Indeed, Perkins, as always, defines biblical justice as charity, confusing the two concepts and never systematically examining the Scripture. And all the evangelicals say, "Amen!"

The only bright spots in this collection of essays are the ones by Sproul and Guinness. Sproul demonstrates the absurdity of non-Christian humanism and the foundation of true humanism and the sanctity of human life. Guinness is always profound, but always writing in paradoxes, and seldom arriving at solid biblical assertions. Guinness is one of the most insightful writers of contemporary evangelicalism, calling for Christian prophets to stand forth with a strong message for American culture. Even though he complains that there is no powerful evangelical mind, he is one. Yet Guinness is not fully a prophet in his own generation. He mostly has a correct diagnosis, but he does not proclaim a return to God's law, as did the prophets of old. Our country and culture need a Josiah or David, who newly discovered God's law/word as the plumbline for righteousness. They need to proclaim the power of God's victorious resurrection, that Christians can transform the world, and that victory is not only promised but accomplished in Christ's resurrection and the coming of the Spirit. Until evangelicals do, their calls to action will fall on deaf ears. Or evangelicals will be hearing their watered down gospel, and doing it. That could be why most American evangelicals are not much different from American culture itself. They are acting upon these vague "calls."