White Horse Inn transcript (seminary approved intellectual Christian talk)
-We've got a new poll!
-Dear God, what are the unwashed getting wrong now?
-We asked 100 Christians outside some kind of Christian gathering if this statement were true: Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell. Ninety percent agreed with that statement.
-Dear God...
-Unbelievable...
-If the respondents were more educated (or intelligent) we could give them the benefit of the doubt that they were answering based on what the rather simple question basically is saying rather than based on a typically ignorant belief in works righteousness.
-These were evangelicals...
-Ah oh. Not a high I.Q. crowd. Let's just assume they are ignorant of the Gospel, guys.
-Yes.
-This reminds me when I met a Christian who said there is no apple in Genesis.
-Is there an apple in Genesis?
-It's clearly *implied.*
-Certainly, so this lay person thought he was showing you up.
-In the old days that would be worth three years in a dark hole.
-Amen.
-Amen.
-Amen.
-Scott Hahn has a good take on this form of modern cultural ignorance. He states that in a better era there were solid church organizations that policed what people learned.
-Jesuits.
-Yes!
-Dominicans too.
-But some of them were Jesuits too, I believe.
-I think you may be right.
-Hahn is a good seminary man.
-Which is what people don't generally realize about the so-called Puritans.
-Not a lot of seminary degrees there!
-Uh, noooo??? Hello?
-Did 'Puritans' even exist?
-There were some enthusiasts who wrote about gnostic staple nonsense such as regeneration and spiritual warfare.
-This is not the Gospel. This has no place in orthodox Christianity.
-Small 'o' orthodoxy!
-But of course!
-Has Scott Hahn written anything condemning regeneration?
-I'm sure he has. I would be surprised if he hasn't written on that important theme.
-Especially in today's culture of general biblical ignorance.
-This notion of regeneration is perhaps more pernicious today than ever before.
-King James Bible white trash alert!
-Oh, and look! there's demons all around me! Watch, I'll kill them with my sword...!
-Ha, ha, ha!!!
-Stop!
-A bad example!!!
-Just kidding, guys.
-Was that a sword from Stars Wars or something?
-But listen, ask people what the Gospel is and you are likely to get as many different answers as there are I.Q. points in the heads of the average evangelical Christian.
-That would be under 100, no?
-99 is still a lot!
-I pulled a hamstring playing wiffle ball.
-God has a plan for your life, sir!
-Evil wiffle ball!
-Did the crowd demand we make the country safe from wiffle balls?
-And you know he had a crowd of witnesses for this game of wiffle ball.
-Listen, we had a few. They called for legislation.
-Getting back on topic.
-I was on topic.
-If the topic is the general ignorance of un-seminaried evangelicals!
(May I spare the reading audience the rest of this transcript? Michael Horton, the guy who sounds like he's sixteen years old, basically finished with a litany of evidence that nobody knows anything about the Gospel and then he stated evidence for more things to be aghast about regarding modern day evangelicalism. Then he announced the next program's theme which will be more evidence that nobody knows anything about the Gospel. More poll questions coming up as well, and those man-on-the-street Q and A's which demonstrate that when you confront a pedestrian on his way to work or lunch with a theological question they often can't give you a crisp, smart, well-defined response immediately. Which is typical of our modern culture of biblical ignorance. The rest of the crew then sighed and verbally threw up their hands. The end.)
6 Comments:
I assume you're annoyed with Horton for endorsing Hahn's book? Yes, that was a stupid move, but what does that have to with pointing out the shallowness and errors common to evangelicalism? Forgetting things like the Atonement even when being interviewed on the spot is a little like forgetting your own name, but it's not surprising when people get a steady diet of Osteen/social gospel/whatever.
It seems you are in violation of Mt 7:1 here. This is one case where it actually applies. You are judging that Horton is guilty of snobbery, when you don't know that. You'll admit were it not for your dislike of him, what he is doing is valid? (ie in exposing the danger the church is in).
And what should he do regarding the crisis in the churches? Don't you do the same thing, warning people about the dangers you see? Sheesh. Watchman on the wall and all that.
They're blathering. Two parts academia, 1/2 part Reformed Theology (good, I'll give them that), 1/2 part anemic Reformed Theology. It's a weak mix, and their drone (un-self-aware obviously) about people 'not knowing the Gospel' because they get their gotcha poll questions wrong or don't state it in a way to armor them against White Horse Inn mockery hardly shows a love for the brethren. They aren't teachers. They're too immature and intellectually juvenile. Yet they have attained to teaching and leadership positions. It convicts the churches and the institutions called 'seminaries'. Another good biblical word there: seminary.
You can't fight shallowness with shallowness.
[Off topic]
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I just learned of it today. I find it confusing that there is a Manhattan Declaration regarding climate issues as well. I googled Manhattan Declaration and both come up. You'd think they'd have googled it first. But I don't want to sound picayune.
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