A Few Questions For Evangelicalism

IMonk (aka Michael Spencer) re-posted Patrol Magazine’s excellent “Get Over It” article a few days ago. (By the way, I linked to via Twitter. Most of the time the way I link to interesting articles, etc., is via my Twitter account, as opposed to putting them on my blog. All this to say, follow me on Twitter to get the linksy things.)

But what I was going to say was that in the comments under IMonk’s re-posting of the Patrol article (whew!) there was a comment by “Justin” with several provocative questions directed toward the “traditional” evangelical understanding of the Christian faith and gospel. These are the kinds of questions many people are really asking today, not how they can be cleansed from the guilt of their sin or how they can be sure they make heaven someday. Instead they listen to the traditional gospel spiels and ask:

• If we call on God as Our Father, why do act as though he is Our Executioner?
• Why did God create the Universe only to destroy it later?
• What did Jesus actually accomplish on the Cross if the vast majority of humanity will end up in Hell?
• What good is a creed [if] it’s revised every couple of generations or by the church down the street?
• Does the world know the disciples of Jesus by their love for one another, or by their doctrine and denominational distinctives?
• Is it a sin to doubt God?

Until we have intelligent, thoughtful, respectful, humble answers to those questions, we won’t have a place at the conversation table with this generation.

Photo by oberazzi.

Tagged as: evangelicalism, imonk, internet monk, justin, michael spencer, patrol magazine