Coming Out of the Hangar: Confessions of an Evangelical Deist

Anyone aware of the decline of the Christian religion in the West in the face of its astonishing growth in the Third World must wonder about its vitality there and its paralysis and exhaustion here. Are Third-World people simply more naive and susceptible to faith than more sophisticated and skeptical westerners? That’s certainly one way to see it. Meanwhile the economic and cultural underclasses of the world are pouring into the kingdom of God while the Christians in the West play church, rearrange deckchairs, and offer no compelling witness to the reality and power of their faith.

Ironically, the evangelical church while combating the deistic and rationalistic heritage of the Enlightenment, has largely succumbed to a rationalistic spirit in its evangelism and ministry. While rejecting the undue emphasis on subjectivity and religious feelings of 19th-century liberalism and more recent religious existentialism, the evangelical church champions a gospel ministry whose manifestation is almost wholly subjective and psychological. While rightly repudiating the nature-grace dualism of medieval scholasticism and the nature-freedom dualism of the Enlightenment, evangelicals have preached a largely “upper-story” salvation: “Christ came into my heart and gave meaning to my life.” There is no practical difference between this gospel and the feel-good, self-help therapies so prevalent in the culture around us. In some cases, the occult and new-age religions offer more tangible power.

In the ministry of Jesus and the apostolic church, by contrast, the proclamation of the gospel was typically accompanied by extraordinary demonstrations of God’s power:

1. Healing the sick and casting out demons (see appendix 1 in this book, “Power Evangelism and the New Testament Evidence;” Matt. 4:23; 9:35,36; 10:1,7-8; Matt. 11:5; 12:15, 18; 15:30; 19:2 [cf. Mark 10:1]; 21:14 [cf. Luke 21:37]; Mark 1: 38-39; 2:2, 11; 3:14-15; Mark 6:12-13; 10:1 [cf. Matt. 19:2]; Luke 4:18; 5:17, 24; 6:6-11,17-18; 7:22; 9:1,2; 10:9,13; 13:10-13,22, 32; 14:4,7ff.; 21:37 [cf. Matt. 21:14]; 16:15-18,20; John 3:2; 7:14,15,21-23,31,38; 10:25,32,38; 12:37,49; 14:10,12; Acts 1:1; 2:22; 3:6,12; 4:29,30; 5:12-16,20,21,28,42; 6:8,10; 8:4-7,12; 9:17,18 [cf. 22:13],34,35; 10:38; 14:3,8-10,15ff.; 15:12,36; 18:5,11 [cf. 2 Cor. 12:12; 1 Cor. 2:4,5]; 19:8-12; Rom. 15:18,19; 1 Cor. 2:4,5; 11:1; 12:1-11,28-31; 14:22-25; 2 Cor. 12:12; Gal. 3:5; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 1:5,6; Heb. 2:3,4; 6:1,2; Jas. 5:13-16).
2. Speaking words of supernatural insight and knowledge (Matt. 9:4; Mark 2:8; Luke 5:22; 6:8; 7:39-40,47; 9:47; John 1:48,50; 4:17,18; Acts 5:3; 9:11,12; 10:3-6,19; 11:28; 22:17,18; 23:11; 27:24,25; 1 Cor. 14:24,25).
3. Teleporting a person across great distances (John 6:21b; Acts 8:39,40; 2 Cor. 12:1-5).
4. Seeing visions (John 1:48-50; Acts 7:55; 9:10-12; 10:3,11-13; 11:5; 16:9,10; 18:9; 22:17,18; 26:19; 2 Cor. 12:1-5; Rev. 1:9ff.).
5. Experiencing extraordinary rescue, protection, and provision (Luke 4:30; Acts 12:3-17; 16:25-26; 23:12-33; 27:13-44; Acts 28:3-6).
6. Witnessing God answer intercessory prayer in powerful and unambiguous ways (Acts 4:29-31; and Acts 5:12-16; 12: 3-17).

When we speak of the work of Christ, the church focuses—rightly—on the Cross and resurrection. In doing so, the life and ministry of Jesus leading up to Calvary are often overlooked or ignored. Here Jesus modeled for three years the work he expected his disciples to carry on: the proclamation and demonstration by the power of the Holy Spirit that the kingdom of God has come in Jesus Christ (Matt. 10:1,7-8; Matt. 28:20a; Mark 6:7,12-13; Luke 9:1-2; 10:1,9; Acts 1:3; 8:5-7,12; 14:3,22; 19:8-11; 28:31). The rule of God is being re-established and extended in the midst of a rebel world. By the power of Christ’s death and resurrection God is making creation new and is making a new humanity. That’s the gospel—the “good news of the Kingdom of God” (Acts 8:12). God’s kingdom come…and still coming.

For the most part, the evangelical church preaches, teaches, and practices a gospel that is only half the gospel. It is all proclamation and little or no power (see 1 Thes. 1:5 “our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power”). The gospel enacted through signs and wonders has been amputated. We are left with a gospel that hobbles on one foot.

Why are Europeans and North Americans so reluctant to embrace a one-legged gospel? That is not hard to figure out. Men and women long for wholeness. They want to believe in something that has real—not imagined—power to heal their deepest hurt and brokenness. They want more than mind games and good feelings. They experience themselves—rightly—as body-and-soul beings, and they long for power that gives wholeness to their bodies and souls—a salvation that offers hope to them and the whole creation.

That hope and wholeness is the whole gospel of Jesus Christ. The salvation of creation—what Paul described as the liberation and glory of the sons and daughters of God in a world set free forever from its slavery to sin and corruption (Rom. 8:18-39)—that salvation awaits a fullness which will come on the day of Christ, when Jesus returns in glory. But a real concrete measure of salvation has already broken upon the world when the Son of God became human, lived among us and conquered sin and Satan, died and conquered death. The church, as the body of Christ in the world, living in the power of the Holy Spirit, can expect substantial signs, even now in this in-between time, of the reality, presence, and power of God’s kingdom (Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20; 12:1-14:40; Gal. 3:5; 1 Thes. 1:5,6; 1 Thes. 5:19,20; Heb. 6:5; Jas. 5:14-16). The Lord Jesus inaugurated that kingdom, and entrusted his kingdom-ministry of preaching and power to his church (Matt. 10:1,7-8; 28:20a; Mark 6:7,12-13; Luke 9:1,2; 10:1,9; Acts 1:8; 8:5-7,12; 14:3,22; 19:8-11; Rom. 15:18,19; 1 Cor. 11:1; 12:8-10; 14:24,25; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 1:5,6; on this point, see Don Williams’ chapter “Following Christ’s Example: A Biblical View of Discipleship” [reprinted in the Summer 2007 issue of The Pneuma Review] and appendix 2 and 3 in this book).

So where is the power?

Paul spoke prophetically of a future church retreating from the full truth of the gospel, “holding to a form of godliness, while denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:5). Was the Lord showing him a glimpse of the evangelical church at the beginning the 21st century?

It is a testimony to God’s powerful grace that even a one-legged myopic church, such as it is, can still do ministry, can still sow the Word and gather to harvest. The Holy Spirit graciously comes alongside this hobbling church and blesses its work. I am a Christian today because of this faithful ministry, and so perhaps are you. And yet the ministry of the evangelical church also fitted me with a pair of distorted spectacles which kept me from reading and seeing what was plainly in God’s Word about life in the Spirit.

Tags: coming, confessions, deist, evangelical, hangar

Category: Living the Faith, Spring 2008