Snowballs in Hell

It’s January 2020, and hell is freezing over. Not only do I find myself agreeing with Beth Moore, who recently called nationalism a sin (https://www.lightworkers.com/is-nationalism-a-sin/), but also with David Platt, who wants us to distinguish between Americanism and the gospel.

            It seems that the Church is in flux these days and nobody is quite sure what to make of it. The Gospel Coalition finds itself endorsing works by Paula White (https://julieroys.com/leading-evangelicals-endorse-prosperity-preacher-paula-whites-new-book/) while some conservative theologians find themselves relegated to the ends of Christendom. What is happening? What can explain some of these developments?

            The big and divisive event seems to be the election of 2016 which exposed some theological fault-lines in the Evangelical Church that were previously hidden. Many found themselves supporting Donald Trump while others found themselves on the opposite spectrum. Beth Moore, stated that Evangelicalism as we knew it died in 2016 (https://capstonereport.com/2019/12/27/beth-moore-is-still-bitter-about-donald-trumps-election/33675/).  While some view this as evidence of Moore’s bitterness about the election results, it seems that she is on to something.

            Evangelicals find themselves locked in an argument about the very nature of their identity.  What does it mean to be an evangelical? Do we know? Did we ever know? Does one have to support President Trump in order to be an Evangelical? Or does support for the President indicate a lack of theological integrity? Or does not supporting the president indicate that one has compromised the gospel and caved into the liberal agenda?

            As we approach the election cycle for 2020, we cannot imagine that these disputes will go away, but will get more intense.  As we join sides and argue amongst ourselves as to the future of the country, we need to some self-reflection and some analysis before we continue.  This year will see (probably) a slew of books about politics and election. Tremper Longman has already published The Bible and the Ballot (2020) just in time for the election.  One can expect that Wayne Grudem’s Politics According the Bible (2010) coming back into the debate. We might even see a call back to the political theologians of the past: to St. Thomas and John Yoder as we enter into a full on debate not only about the country, but about the future of the church as well.  

            For us to understand each other…and ourselves, we should go back to the questions that N.T. Wright asks of 1^st Century Judaism. His five questions are (1) Who are we? (2) Where are we? (3) What’s wrong? (4) What’s the solution and (5) What time is it? By asking these questions we can begin to understand how we see ourselves, but more importantly how we evaluate others around us.

            So I invite us to spend some time over the next few weeks to look internally as to how we answer these questions.  I will be referencing my own understanding of the Evangelical Church so we can see how we might answer these questions and grow more in our understanding of one another.