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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Who Accepts Who?

Sobering, spot-on stuff from D. A. Carson:

"In much contemporary evangelism, there is little concern for whether or not God will accept us, and much concern for whether or not we will accept Him.

Little attention is paid to whether or not we please Him and much to whether or not He pleases us.

Many popular evangelistic methods are molded by these considerations.

As a result, there is far too little stress on God's character and the requirements of the kingdom, and far too much stress on our needs. Worse, our needs are cast in preeminently psychological categories, not moral ones (alienation and loneliness, not bitterness and self-seeking and hatred; frustration and fear, not prayerlessness and unbelief).

To top it off, peace, joy, and love are preached as desirable goals. These are desirable, but they suffer from two defects.

First, virtues such as peace, joy, and love can easily be interpreted in merely personal, almost mystical terms. As a result, the biblical emphases on peace with God and with men, joy in the Lord, and tough-minded love which gives sacrificially to both God and men, are reduced to a warm, pleasant glow."



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