Legalism and Liberalism

I recently read an article by the leader of a large Christian organization where he says that “Legalism and Liberalism are not the design of” the Gospel. The article, which was in reality a weekly letter meant for the inspiration and encouragement of members of the organization, likens the extraordinary design of the Tower bridge London to the form and function of the Gospel. He says the all the aspects of Jesus message such as “Humility, mercy, brokenness and peacemaking embrace righteousness, holiness, courage and zeal are all in balance.” Like the bridge whose form and function allow the bridge to be a “strong and sure” means of transmitting vehicles and people over the bridge as well as an aesthetically striking landmark, so the Gospel is balanced in it’s beauty and power. Others have said in the Gospel, “Love and justice embrace.” It is a very good analogy. But, in a further point, the author says that the Gospel and is not legalistic or liberalistic. The phrase goes nicely in the author’s chain of alliterating phrases. I believe with all my heart that the Gospel is not legalistic. But is the Gospel not liberalistic? A look at various definitions of liberal and liberalism show a range of meeting: 1. "Open to new behavior and opinions, willing to discard traditional values" If this is the meaning of liberal then I believe it is wrong to say the Gospel is not liberal. Jesus was a "liberal" of his time. He definitely challenged the traditional values and was openly professing new behavior and opinions. As a preacher of the Gospel I hope I help people discard their traditional values that are not in accord with the Gospel. 2. "favorable to individual rights and freedoms" If this is the meaning of liberal then I believe it is wrong to say the Gospel is not liberal. Jesus upheld the rights and freedoms of individuals. This one of the watch words of the Reformation which contributed to the formation of "liberal democracies". The United States is a liberal democracy, meaning that is favorable to individual rights and freedoms. Freedom of religion is one of the great watchwords or our liberal society. Would we have it any other way? Would Americans tolerate the persecution and restrictions of the beliefs of others? Would we prohibit, Muslims to bury their dead in the United States because they are Muslim and not Christian? 3. "concerned with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience rather than technical or professional training" If this is the meaning of liberal then I believe it is wrong to say the Gospel is not liberal since it is indeed concerned with broadening a person's knowledge through the Spirit-led journey of searching for truth. The Gospel is about bringing people New Life and not turning them into religious encyclopedias. John Piper said something like "Brothers, we are not professionals." But if liberalism refers to theological liberalism which does not hold to the inspiration and authority of Scripture and therefore denies that the Bible is God's word, then I could say that yes, the Gospel is not liberal. Salvation of the people God loves depends on “conserving” the reality of the truth of the Scripture and the truth about the Scriptures. If liberal means that the death of Jesus on the Cross is "cosmic child abuse" instead of an atoning sacrifice the redeems a fallen world, the the Gospel is not liberal. If liberal means the libertine throwing off the morality of Jesus concerning such aspects of like as monogamous marriage, the sanctity of life, living with integrity, loving another through taking care of the poor, the Gospel is not liberal. My reason for taking up this issue I am very concerned that Christians turn their back completely on the word liberal. We should not always be conservative as being conservative is not always in keeping with the message of the Gospel. I am a liberal when it comes to the Christian traditional value of not taking care of the environment. I am a liberal when it comes an end-times theology which does not promote good and right treatment of people and the world in the here and now. I am a liberal in challenging the current tradition of tolerance that does not allow Christians to live and be Christian in all theatres of their life. Most of all I am liberal with regard to the habit of many American Christians who always make conservative and liberal black and white categories. I am not always conservative. I am often liberal. But I am not always a liberal and I am often conservative. It all depends on whether being liberal or conservative is in accord with the Gospel. Christians need to be careful in always thinking that the word liberal is a dirty word. It’s not. Thankfullly, the Gospel is liberal in it’s outlook on the life and freedoms of people. It is liberal in that God wants all people to be saved. I am tenaciously conservative in holding on to the liberality of the Gospel.

American Election Day 2006

Aren’t elections wonderful! Don’t they stimulate us! Don’t they make us think! We have the privilege of helping to choose those who govern us. Democracy, government by the people.

And how interesting! Elections are polls of opinion. We get to see some broad opinions. Yes it is difficult to see the individual opinions, and individual reasoning but the broad sweeps are interesting and instructive.

I hope you’ll excuse me for sounding so wide eyed, but I purposely chose to recapture a sense of awe of what is going on.

This American election seems to have been a multiple referenda:

On the many issues of the war in Iraq
On the content and style of the President Bush
On the American economy
On the environment

It seems that abortion and gay marriage, where there are strong majorities against each, have not been the issues people where most concerned about.

But what about the weightier issues of
fairness of economy for all peoples of the world
social injustice all around the world
helping the poor and dealing with poverty and hunger
drug addiction and the horrors it creates for user and producer countries
and the list goes on. How do we know what is priority?

As Christians we are to be in submission to the laws and rulers of a land. But we are also to live and promote righteousness, that is, we are to promote the values of God. So when we live in democratic countries, we need to promote the values of God. God wants us to act in a loving way toward everyone. He want justice for everyone, helping the down trodden. He wants people have the opportunity to seek him. God’s priorities are found all through the preaching of the prophets, the teaching the Jesus and the writings of his followers.

When we have elections, these must be the guiding lights to be our priorities. Fortunately, we can do much of that in the public arena. But the issues of righteous that involve personal and corporate faith must be lived in communities. Faith is a matter of the heart and not something we can legislate. But the values that come from faith, which are the values of God, can be.

At election times, we need to work hard to help people realize that we are voting our conscience and not forcing faith on people. Faith cannot be forced. Moral values however can be agreed upon and enforced. Elections need to continue to be referenda on values. For it is the values that we put in place that will guide us, and our elected officials, in how to govern a country and a world

And thanks be to God, that we have him to guide us as we sort through the difficult issues of picking elected leaders and the values that govern us.