Speaking for God

"The main thing is the GOSPEL. The Gospel is simply the good news that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ's finished work on the cross -- period. We can never earn salvation or add to it. . .only accept it."

The above statement came from a website of a church I came across yesterday. Let me first begin by saying that I do not want this to be derogatory post on a church or churches who would state the same ideas, but more of a reflection on the statement. This statement embodies beliefs and ideas that are deeply rooted in modern thought and are foundational to many churches and individuals. It is a doctrine that distinguishes communities as evangelical and sets itself apart from Roman Catholic belief. This is not unique to the modern Protestant movement. Without a doubt, both Catholic and Protestants have worked hard at providing a set of distinct positions on theological issues in order to provide Christians with a foundation of, "Truth".

William of Ockham

William of Ockham produced a very influential philosophy known as Ockham's razor. The razor basically states, "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." William, who was also a Franciscan friar, carried this philosophy to a host of theological positions. The working out of many of the "Simplest" solutions had yet to be done by the time of his death in the late 14^th century. However, most of these continued to be worked out by the Enlightenment and modern era.

A Simple Gospel

Modern evangelism has sought to explain the story of God to an easy-to-understand method whereby people can either chose to accept or deny God. By boiling down the Gospel to a mere propositional statement (s), we have minimalized large sections of Scripture. We sought to find the truth out of all the stories, miracles, and other odd elements by ascribing them to ways of understanding the truth instead of seeing them as truth. Modern conservatives blame liberals for denying miracles but have failed to see that by their reductionism, they themselves have denied miracles as having any weight. With each theologian, scholar, pastor, professor, and lay person comes the lenses by which one understands value. Each of us has our own set of lenses or presuppositions. Approaching Scripture is a daunting task and perhaps breaking down our presuppositions is impossible. We must acknowledge our presuppositions and be able to think in a historical manner that is able to embody first century eyes.

If the word Gospel is translated to "Good news" than what is the "news" and for who is it "good"? Only too easy can we arrive at an answer to this question and although many books and articles have been written concerning this, I will not attempt to go that route suffice to say this; can the Gospel be simplified to a belief and not include action? Such emphasis placed on faith apart from works was the heart cry of the Protestant Reformation. It is very important to note that the Protestant Reformation was good in many ways, but there were also many failures upon those who did the protesting. In the next blog I will unpack this a little bit more.