Quotes and Musings 7.7.16

"The final problem is not to prove men wrong but to win them back to Christ. Therefore, the only ultimately successful apologetic is, first, a clear, intellectual statement of what is wrong with the false doctrine, plus a clear, intellectual return to the proper Scriptural emphasis, in all its vitality and in its relation to the total Christian Faith, plus a demonstration in the life that this correct and vital Scriptural emphasis meets the genuine needs and aspirations of men in a way that Satan’s counterfeit does not." ~ Francis Schaeffer


Here's Baptist theologian E. Y. Mullins - 92 years ago, in 1924, on the crossroads Christians were facing. We're still there!

"On the one hand, man is held to be in bondage to sin and in need of a divine redemptive power working within to emancipate him. On the other, it is held that no such bondage exists. All man needs is education.

With one group, something new is needed by sinful men; with the other, merely a recognition of one’s likeness to God is sufficient.

With one group a power from without, with the other an unfolding from within is required.

With one group, man accepts a saving grace to which by reason of sin he can make no just claim. With the other, he merely claims what is already his own.

With one group, Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, and our Lord and Savior. With the other, he is the son of Joseph and Mary and an inspiring example of filial devotion to God.

With one group, conversion as the result of evangelistic preaching is one of the permanent aims of Christianity. With the other, education and training, or ethical culture, are the only needs.

With one group is a great missionary passion based on the conviction that the world needs a saving Christ. With the other, altruism in the form of schools, hospitals and social reorganization is the chief need.

With the evangelical group, there is no denial of the ethical and social needs and results. Indeed they are held to be implicit in the whole Christian movement. The causes carry the effects in themselves at every stage. But the effects are impossible without the causes. The radical group insist much upon the ethical and social effects, but sever them from the causes, as those are conceived by the evangelical group."