I am in a seminary class on John Wesley’s theology and its application in today’s world. One of my classmates, the good Mr. Thomas Widlund (http://twidlund.typepad.com/ramblings/) has been challenging me to pick up writing my blog again. He is a frequent writer, and so I encourage you to check out his blog. I am more of a writer in spurts blown by the recently slow winds of inspiration.
However, for this class, we are reading a book by Albert Outler called “Evangelism and Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit” and it has been really good and challenging at the same time. One of the interesting things Outler points out is that in the past, the idea of salvation and the courtroom have been linked in successful evangelism. People had enough of a belief/fear in God that the idea of standing before God in judgement was motivating and the idea of our being pardoned of our guilt because of Jesus’ work was comforting and ultimately what could lead to putting your trust in Jesus. Well, Outler points out in this book (based on two lectures from the 1970s) that times are changing such that people don’t feel guilt before God anymore. There is still a restlessness and anxiety, but there is no guilt.
That struck me because I feel like this trend has continued into the new millennium. We have become such a culture of “tolerance” that the only thing we are intolerant of is intolerance! Thus, the idea that God would even have the right to judge us is offensive. You’re supposed to just accept me as I am because I let you be who you are. That’s one of the main reasons why the preachers in Turlington Plaza on UF’s campus don’t reach many people. Its not that they’re yelling, but its that what they are yelling doesn’t resonate in people’s spirit. Yet, the “gospel is offensive” and we should never water down the cross, the human condition, our place before God, or our need of salvation by faith alone. However, the Bible has other ways of presenting the Gospel. Outler points to probably the most well-known Scripture- John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)
There’s something that resonates today. God loves us, and accepts us. As part of that love, there was a sacrifice on our behalf that leads to our ultimate benefit. While we may have left out guilt behind, we certainly still have our struggles, our pain, our scars, our doubts, and our secrets. But God is the healer and the redeemer. God is the one that can offer forgiveness to us when we finally do realize the place of sin in our life.
What do you think? How do we share the Gospel in these “guilt-less” times?
Peace,
Dan
April 7, 2008 at 11:29 am |
I think C.S. Lewis went beyond the thought that people no longer feel the guilt of sin in his essay “God in the Dock.” He writes of how in previous times, the courtroom analogy held (to man’s relation to God) with God in the judge’s seat and man as defendant. Now, however, our modern times have turned the tables and we still apply the courtroom analogy, but now we humans sit in the judge’s seat and put God as defendant in the dock. It certainly is destructive for humans to lose their sense of guilt of sin, but it would seem to me even worse to think of us as judge of God’s actions. How do we share the gospel in these times? I don’t know; your post just made me think of that bit of Lewis’s work.