The Mark Noll Conference

You have heard the old adage, "Kill two birds with one stone."  I got to knock off my bucket list two dreams in one event.  I have always wanted to visit Notre Dame University and I have also always wanted to meet Mark Noll.  I went to the Mark Noll retirement Conference which was literally a whose who of Evangelical church history scholars.  I met people like Martin Marty (90 years old and was like a rock star at this event) and George Marsden and David Bebbington as well as people like Jonathon Wilson.

The most divine appointment of the whole conference for me was not meeting Mark Noll although it was a precious moment.  The divine appointment for me was to meet an Evangelical man turned Catholic I met at this conference.  His love for history, the Catholic Faith, his love for great Christian biblical scholarship, and his Christ-like humility was such a breath of fresh air for me as well as a kindred spirit. The sweet beauty of the Holy Spirit filled the air during our long conversation.

Besides, NDU wining and dining everyone making one feel like a King or Prince (Kudos for this Catholic school) but there was a very enlightening conversation and discussion on the future of evangelicalism. David Bebbington shined the brightest in this conversation but the panel of top notch Evangelical historians were all excellent.

I also heard many concerns by the younger Evangelicals that they did not like how Evangelicals were tied to politics or particularly Trump.  They were frustrated by the lack of diversity and circle the wagons approach by too many Evangelicals today while also lamenting of being tired of the political correctness and shaming and blaming of white males for every injustice in the world. 

These young Evangelicals lamented how too many older Evangelicals are still taking a one dimensional approach to the Bible as well as being too often anti-science.  Some of these young Evangelicals were asking, "Why should we stay?" which maybe reveals a greater crises among Evangelicalism than the way the media has tried to tie Evangelicals to Donald Trump.  If Evangelicals start losing some of their best and brightest among the younger generation, Evangelicalism will truly reap the whirl wind in the future.

There is a rise of atheism in America as well as many Evangelicals turning towards Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism to find spiritual renewal of their fragmented Protestant faith.  Hope on the horizon may be younger Evangelicals coming from the southern parts of the globe to evangelize the west which could possibly renew Evangelicalism for the future?  Time will tell whether there will be promise or peril for the Evangelical future?

Trading the Gospel for Political Pie

As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or, more correctly, Judaism(s).  In this post-Christian era, we have frantic groups longing to return to the Promised Land. Each group, just as in Jesus’ day, thinks they know how to get America back again. Consider the Pharigelicals for whom law is King, especially at the Supreme Court level. Then there’s the Sadducelicals who long to cross the aisle, not rock the boat and “just get-along.” The Herodigelicals don’t fool around, grabbing for all the power and following the money. Every age has its Essenigelicals, the pious few, the self-appointed faithful remnant who “fold the fort” ’til Jesus comes again. Watch out for the Zealogelicals whose slogan is “Guns, God, and the US Constitution!”

All this furor within the blood-soaked, gun-running, drug-dealing, super exceptional USAmerican Empire slouching toward a dominant globalism. “In God ‘Money’ We Trust.”

In the midst of being exiled from the public square, the US Church wants their “land” back. When Trump barks, “Make America great again,” hordes of believers hear, “Make the church great again!” One Christian blogger, committed to prayer for the state of the church, characterizes the screechy clamor belching from all the evangelical factions as a frantic looking for the political messiah, be it Trump or Clinton.

I have seen, sadly, good friends sell out unity in Christ for unity of Party or candidate. One prominent Christian author even demanded on FaceBook to unfriend her if you plan on voting for Trump. Let’s pour political poop all over Philippians 2:1-4 and exile the “mind of Christ” into oblivion. Far be it from non-Trump Christians to come to the Table with Trumpites. America has built the dividing wall, not on the border with Mexico, but right in the heart of the church. The Table of the Lord is now an ecclesial mockery in the degenerate state of the Church in the USA.

One prominent Christian leader actually wants us to wink at all of Trump’s deplorably pagan, and I mean pagan qualities because Trump is an alleged “baby Christian.” All this wasted passion toward flesh and blood entities all the while purporting to believe that the church’s struggle is not against flesh and blood. Evangelical leaders, followers, FaceBookers, bloggers, you name it, are talking out of both sides of their mouths and have become stupidly unintelligible. Even unbelievers are questioning Evangelicals for trading in the Gospel for a piece of political pie!

A thoughtful millennial evangelical laments the sorry mess handed to her and her peers by a Church sold out to an elephant and an ass. Isn’t that considered idolatry? “Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is Hillary.” Why don’t we admit that is where so many hearts are set? I don’t think either Hillary or Trump died on the Cross for me. Can I tell this young millennial that?

When I was a child I was seeking to know the signs of the times and who the anti-Christ was and shuddered at the thought of being “Left Behind.” But when I became a man, I still believed in a rugged biblical idea: God’s judgment on the church first. “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God” ought to slap some sense into us for selling out to Caesar. Many will say, ‘We’re just exercising our American right to vote.” Then why are those many covered in stinky political slime? Why does their vote come at the expense of brothers and sisters who make up the bride of Christ? Shouldn’t we stop talking about Jesus’ body in filthy ways merely to advance a human, fleeting kingdom?

(Written by John Frye)

Retro-Christianity

"STAND BY THE ROADS, AND LOOK, AND ASK FOR THE ANCIENT PATHS, WHERE THE GOOD WAY IS; AND WALK IN IT, AND FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS" - Jeremiah 6:16

Christianity is heading all over the place and going in many directions.  People struggle today as much with "which church?" as well as "which Bible?"  Churches more often compete with each other in today's consumer market and Christian bookstores which are going the way of the dinosaur display the many versions of the Bible like picking a Bible is like what kind of dress are you going to wear or what kind of deordorant are you going to put on?

There are some Christian groups that earnestly desire a better way of doing church today or if you prefer, can we get back to the ancient way of the early christians?  Reform and restoration movements abound and even these groups it seems may have started in the Spirit but have ended up in the flesh.  So what is a Christian to do in all the chaos and confusion?  Michael Svigel, a Protestant church history teacher tries to skillfully and carefully point people back to the ancient markers and ancient practices of the early church and patristic church fathers while appreciating all of church history throughout the ages.

Although I applaud Svigel's suggestion and directions especially for Evangelicals and the Evangelical church today, there are some glaring problems or nagging questions in all this?  Did the Reformation have to happen and visible separation and disunity where God wants us all to stay put?  And should we not listen and learn from the two most ancient church traditions, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox?  Are there not some insights and pitfalls they could teach us in mining the riches of the ancient church traditions? 

There also seems to be an underlying individualism in studying church history and discipleship.  Private study is important but is that all there is to discipleship and history?  What about the corporate dimensions of study from examing Scripture with orthodox Jews to the Eastern Orthodox?  What about living out the Christian life in monastaries, Almish counter-cultural communities, or long group retreats designed to sharpen spiritual thinking and spiritual living in a secular age?  Maybe some of these ideas sound too radical but one still needs to raise the question to Evangelicals?  Are you willing to get so radical in your faith so as to get outside your comfort zones, your preferences, your respectable ways of doing Christianity?  Now that's the question and the rub!

Evangelicalism: Is it still worth fighting for?

I am looking forward to reading D. A. Carson's new book "Evangelicalism." Evangelicalism is neither dead or over but many are seeing great glaring problems or holes in the bottom of the boat that desperately need to be fixed. One of the reasons I understand Carson wrote the book was his disagreement and critique of Mark Noll's book "Is the Reformation Over?" Noll in contrarian fashion answers with a "yes" and a No." Yes in the sense of how Catholics and Protestants understand the gospel and salvation (justification by faith) but no in the sense that the Protestant vision of scripture checking tradition and gospel checking contemporary practices of the church are still needed. I suspect Carson still views the Catholic Church vision on salvation as still defective but I will have to wait and see?

What Reformation churches need to come to terms with (and this is not just a Catholic critique) but self-criticism from within it's own ranks is how the Reformation shifted theology from the early church focus on Christology to Soteriology (Salvation) and how the gospel has also mutated and shifted from the story of Israel, Jesus, and the church to the a simple four or five point exercise called "the plan of salvation" or what Scot McKnight calls "the gospel of Soterians."

Christianity today in the Western Church has become a gospel of salvation without discipleship and a private enterprise disconnected from real life (the sacred and secular split). What we continue to see is what Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace" or what others call "powerless Christianity." Either way the corporate dimensions of faith, the heart of discipleship, and transformation and missions must once again come to the forefront of Western Christianity if it is going to go out with a bang and not simply more and more disappear with a whimper.