I believe we need to save the soul and “save the mind.” I believe what J.P. Moreland is describing is a lack of salvation issue. We are to go and make “mathetes” (disciples) which means to learn. It has the idea of following one's teaching in this case the disciple teaching. (Vine 1996, 523)
If during the Burned-Over District revival people were coming to Christ with no real grasp of Christian Teaching. (Moreland 2012, 17) They were not becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. It is interesting that both Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses deny the Trinity. Both of these teach that Jesus was the Son of God but not equal to God. Jesus they believe is outside of the Trinity. Which is what many at the Burned-Over District revival believed.
I believe that the ignorance we are seeing in the church is due to the gospel message we are presenting. In Mormonism, they have what is called the Lorenzo Snow couplet that says. “As man now is, God once was; As God now is, man may be.” (Mouw 2016, 2) For a person to believe this statement they cannot have any understanding of the gospel message, because this statement denies the reason why only Jesus had to come and die on the cross.
Liberation theology is a major problem in many churches, including a church that I used to attend. Many of the Critical Race Theory tenets come from Black Liberation theology. Liberation theology can be divided into three types black, feminist, and third world. Liberation theology defines salvation as the “deliverance of oppression and exploitation of the powerless classes by the powerful.” (Erickson 2013, 965)
James Cone made the following statement on Black Liberation theology. “Black theology cannot accept a view of God which does not represent him as being for blacks and thus against whites. Living in a world of white oppressors, black people have no time for a neutral God.” (Erickson 2013, 967)
The more I talk through this the more I am convinced that this “ignorance” has a lot to do with the gospel message of today.
References
Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology, 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, Mi: Baker Academic, 2013.
Moreland, J.P. Love the Lord Your God with All Your Mind; The Role of Wisdom in the Heart of the Soul. Colorado: Navpress, 2012.
Mouw, R. J. "Mormons Approaching Orthodoxy: A monthly Journal of Religion and Public life." First things 263 (05 2016).
Vine, W.E. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Edited by Merrill F Unger , & William White. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996.
Comments