WHEN IT’S NO GOSPEL AT ALL
15/11/24 16:30
A gospel that makes the law the end-point of Christ’s work among us is out of alignment with the vision of God and the purpose of salvation. Real Life joins you and the creation to God. Real Life is Jesus Christ.
GOSPELS
Any Gospel that is a continuation of the law in the post cross age is not Christ’s Gospel but ‘another gospel.’ A gospel that in Paul’s words attracts a curse. This curse involves a broken view of God and a crippled view of the self and our relation to the Earth. A gospel that excels in praise and worship and is dismissive of h0w we treat the earth is at best hollow and at worst antichrist.
Any gospel that is ok about reducing life to money and in denial about climate change is ‘no gospel at all’. Care for the earth is not a cult – but materialism and libidinous consumption is. Any mindset that is innately anti-life is not Christ’s Gospel. It’s aligned with the culture that killed the Christ when He came among us. Any version of Christianity that is carless of the wellbeing of society as a whole and dismissive of the health of the earth is not the Gospel of Christ. God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His only son. We might ponder the truth that Jesus gave his life for people and the earth, its landscape animals and every form of life. Genuine Christianity is never an excuse to plunder the earth.
FRACTURED EXISTENCE
Thomas Torrance observes that “The rupture in the relation between God and man, and man and woman, entails a rupture within each between what a person is and what the person ought to be. Once the constitutive bond between God and man is broken, every other relation suffers irreparable damage.” And so we find the relation between man and the environment broken.
THE PERVADING CULT
Care for the environment is not a cult. Materialism/capitalism is a cult and it is killing the earth. Greed and selfishness called ‘investment’ is a cult. If you love Jesus and consider yourself a representative of His life and His love, you will have a wider vision for society than ‘jobs and growth,’ and you will not be deluded by the lie of climate change denial. People are not immune to ignorance just because they are our friends and nice people. Mass stupidity elects men like Donald Trump to the white house.
WHO CONDEMNS?
Whether every summer in Australia and other places becomes a time when we burn our forests, houses and animals to death remains to be seen. Or maybe our carelessness will result in our homes and businesses being inundated with floods because we live in denial. And with our head in the sand and the mentality of the boof-head we make ourselves vulnerable to that which wisdom and discretion could have prevented. Stupid is as stupid does.
BLIND PEOPLE LOVE BLIND GUIDES
It helps to reason from cause to effect and to not place our faith in ignorant people just because they are nice and our friends. Jesus does not condemn people. They condemn themselves by the ideas they embrace and the practices they could have changed but didn’t because they were too obstinate to be informed by the wise. We are not compelled to belong to the delusive culture of the ‘all things continue as they were crowd’.
‘Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’ 2 Peter 4.4 NIV.
GOSPELS
Any Gospel that is a continuation of the law in the post cross age is not Christ’s Gospel but ‘another gospel.’ A gospel that in Paul’s words attracts a curse. This curse involves a broken view of God and a crippled view of the self and our relation to the Earth. A gospel that excels in praise and worship and is dismissive of h0w we treat the earth is at best hollow and at worst antichrist.
Any gospel that is ok about reducing life to money and in denial about climate change is ‘no gospel at all’. Care for the earth is not a cult – but materialism and libidinous consumption is. Any mindset that is innately anti-life is not Christ’s Gospel. It’s aligned with the culture that killed the Christ when He came among us. Any version of Christianity that is carless of the wellbeing of society as a whole and dismissive of the health of the earth is not the Gospel of Christ. God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His only son. We might ponder the truth that Jesus gave his life for people and the earth, its landscape animals and every form of life. Genuine Christianity is never an excuse to plunder the earth.
FRACTURED EXISTENCE
Thomas Torrance observes that “The rupture in the relation between God and man, and man and woman, entails a rupture within each between what a person is and what the person ought to be. Once the constitutive bond between God and man is broken, every other relation suffers irreparable damage.” And so we find the relation between man and the environment broken.
THE PERVADING CULT
Care for the environment is not a cult. Materialism/capitalism is a cult and it is killing the earth. Greed and selfishness called ‘investment’ is a cult. If you love Jesus and consider yourself a representative of His life and His love, you will have a wider vision for society than ‘jobs and growth,’ and you will not be deluded by the lie of climate change denial. People are not immune to ignorance just because they are our friends and nice people. Mass stupidity elects men like Donald Trump to the white house.
WHO CONDEMNS?
Whether every summer in Australia and other places becomes a time when we burn our forests, houses and animals to death remains to be seen. Or maybe our carelessness will result in our homes and businesses being inundated with floods because we live in denial. And with our head in the sand and the mentality of the boof-head we make ourselves vulnerable to that which wisdom and discretion could have prevented. Stupid is as stupid does.
BLIND PEOPLE LOVE BLIND GUIDES
It helps to reason from cause to effect and to not place our faith in ignorant people just because they are nice and our friends. Jesus does not condemn people. They condemn themselves by the ideas they embrace and the practices they could have changed but didn’t because they were too obstinate to be informed by the wise. We are not compelled to belong to the delusive culture of the ‘all things continue as they were crowd’.
‘Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’ 2 Peter 4.4 NIV.
