Comments on: Distinguishing Between the Gospel and Religion http://www.foolishcross.com/distinguishing-between-the-gospel-and-religion/ Engaging culture with the foolishness of the cross. Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:35:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: donK http://www.foolishcross.com/distinguishing-between-the-gospel-and-religion/comment-page-1/#comment-158 donK Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:23:54 +0000 http://www.foolishcross.com/distinguishing-between-the-gospel-and-religion/#comment-158 If there is a distinction to be made between the Gospel of Christ and the religion of Christianity, how is this anything but an admission of heresy? Whether the dogma of a particular sect is correct or not, to differ with it makes you a heretic, at least to that sect. While an heretical message may be more palatable to a secular audience I don't think you will gain much traction when you say "Christianity has it wrong, listen to Jesus really said." Or rather "Listen to what Jesus has revealed to ME!" Unless you have some source of divine information not available to any other Christian, that information comes from your own projection, and not from God. Anyone who claims to have a special revelation from God cannot serve an omnipotent God, because by "special" they must mean "unique to me and unavailable to you", thus denying God could or would reveal anything to you or me. God may love you enough to die for you, but He doesn't love you so much that He won't or can't reveal Himself to me. If the church must be "protected from the profane hand of the civil magistrate", what must exist to protect the parishioner from the priest? The resent scandals in the Vatican indicate that civil laws of free nations go farther to protect the innocent than the Dioceses of the Catholic Church. Not just the reputation of the church, but the services of the offenders are more important than the lives of the innocent victims and, by extension, you. If there is a distinction to be made between the Gospel of Christ and the religion of Christianity, how is this anything but an admission of heresy? Whether the dogma of a particular sect is correct or not, to differ with it makes you a heretic, at least to that sect. While an heretical message may be more palatable to a secular audience I don't think you will gain much traction when you say "Christianity has it wrong, listen to Jesus really said." Or rather "Listen to what Jesus has revealed to ME!"

Unless you have some source of divine information not available to any other Christian, that information comes from your own projection, and not from God. Anyone who claims to have a special revelation from God cannot serve an omnipotent God, because by "special" they must mean "unique to me and unavailable to you", thus denying God could or would reveal anything to you or me. God may love you enough to die for you, but He doesn't love you so much that He won't or can't reveal Himself to me.

If the church must be "protected from the profane hand of the civil magistrate", what must exist to protect the parishioner from the priest? The resent scandals in the Vatican indicate that civil laws of free nations go farther to protect the innocent than the Dioceses of the Catholic Church. Not just the reputation of the church, but the services of the offenders are more important than the lives of the innocent victims and, by extension, you.

]]> By: Siarlys Jenkins http://www.foolishcross.com/distinguishing-between-the-gospel-and-religion/comment-page-1/#comment-112 Siarlys Jenkins Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:28:47 +0000 http://www.foolishcross.com/distinguishing-between-the-gospel-and-religion/#comment-112 The distinctions make sense, but I can't go down this road. Secular does not necessarily mean irreligious. In any civil society in which religion has not been debased by a totalitarian hierarchy, there is a necessary secular component, along side the religious. Only thus can the church be protected from the profane hand of the civil magistrate. There is also a difference between religion, generally, and a religion. Our civil constitution does not say that all religions are equally true, it merely provides that our government is incompetent to judge which, if any, are true, leaving that to individual conscience and to God. When it comes to defining what is the Gospel, as distinct from religion, I look first to Jesus, rather than to Paul. Jesus spoke in general terms of his own significance, while Paul tried to bring the Gospel into a very tight focus. That may have been a mistake. Just as C.S. Lewis said that material for a historically accurate biography of Jesus have been deliberately withheld from men, so it may be that Jesus did not intend his ministry to be cast in a sharp doctrinal mold. Jesus said that all the law and the prophets hangs on two commandments. Anyone who sincerely tries (and necessarily fails) to obey these two commandments, particularly because Jesus said to, is a Christian. The distinctions make sense, but I can't go down this road. Secular does not necessarily mean irreligious. In any civil society in which religion has not been debased by a totalitarian hierarchy, there is a necessary secular component, along side the religious. Only thus can the church be protected from the profane hand of the civil magistrate. There is also a difference between religion, generally, and a religion. Our civil constitution does not say that all religions are equally true, it merely provides that our government is incompetent to judge which, if any, are true, leaving that to individual conscience and to God.

When it comes to defining what is the Gospel, as distinct from religion, I look first to Jesus, rather than to Paul. Jesus spoke in general terms of his own significance, while Paul tried to bring the Gospel into a very tight focus. That may have been a mistake. Just as C.S. Lewis said that material for a historically accurate biography of Jesus have been deliberately withheld from men, so it may be that Jesus did not intend his ministry to be cast in a sharp doctrinal mold. Jesus said that all the law and the prophets hangs on two commandments. Anyone who sincerely tries (and necessarily fails) to obey these two commandments, particularly because Jesus said to, is a Christian.

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