Skye: I’m no longer surprised by the number of Christians who take pride in being afraid. (26 min)
The millennials have a distaste for the national power politics like the church took in the 1980s and 90s.
That activism was for the church rather than society/others.
When Christians have had power, they have used it for bad ends (30 min)
What do you do when you encounter hypersensitive people who are not confident, who want to be fully accepted/embraced? (47 min)
Skye Jethani Video: What is the Gospel?
Defining the Gospel has become a very debated and divisive question among Christians because the way we define the Gospel dictates the entire scope and emphasis of the Christian faith. How we live, how we engage the world, what we believe our purpose and mission to be—all of these are determined by our understanding of the Gospel that Jesus and his Apostles proclaimed.
This message explains why we have so many competing definitions, and then searches the Scriptures for clarity. The sermon is organized into four parts:
1. “Gospel” Defined – What does the word actually mean and how was it used before Christianity?
2. Gospel Explained – How did the Apostle Paul explain his message in 1 Corinthians 15?
3. Gospel Proclaimed – How was the Gospel preached in the book of Acts by Jesus’ followers?
4. So What? – Having arrived at a Biblical understanding of the Gospel, what are the implications for our lives?
Trump and the Heresy of Christianism
Those younger then me, the Millennials, are now learning to associate “evangelical” with Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and the NRA.
.. Back in 2003, he said, “I have a new term for those on the fringes of the religious right who have used the Gospels to perpetuate their own aspirations for power, control and oppression: Christianists. They are as anathema to true Christians as the Islamists are to true Islam.”
.. However, his “Make America Great Again” slogan, along with his maligning of women, immigrants, and all “losers” while triumphantly holding up a Bible, fits Christianism perfectly.
.. The current presidential campaign is revealing how far popular evangelicalism has drifted from it theological moorings.
.. It’s time to acknowledge that large sections of the evangelical movement have d/evolved into an entirely different animal—a species with seven heads and ten horns, a beast that takes Christ’s name while opposing everything his kingdom stands for. I cannot force the news media to stop using the “evangelical” nomenclature, but going forward I am committed to identifying this movement’s true name. It is the heresy of Christianism.
The Age of Secular Pharisees
A generation ago, the central question was, “Is there a God?” While the question still fuels the books of popular atheist writers, Duin reported that the issue of God’s existence is not on the mind of most Millennials. Most of them, as the surveys reveal, do not question whether God is real. Instead, they question whether he is good.
.. “Their biggest complaint,” he said,“is that God acts in morally inferior ways compared to us.” In other words, young adults formed by a tolerant, open-minded culture without sexual boundaries or limitations on self-expression, believe they are more moral than God.
Much has been written about the inflated self-esteem of Millennials—a generation coddled by helicopter parents and taught by social media that narcissism is a virtue—but could their self-image really be so high that even God is below them?
.. He calls them “iGens” and believes their self-esteem is a significant barrier to Christianity.
.. The Pharisees, on the other hand, rejected Jesus because they were convinced of their own righteousness; they were perfectly healthy (or so they thought). Today, we increasingly live in a culture of secular Pharisees—non-religious people convinced of their own righteousness who view Jesus as a morally inferior kook followed only by simpletons.
.. Like Paul, today’s secular Pharisees need an encounter with God not to convince them of his existence but to awaken them to his goodness.