St. Paul on Big Evangelicalism
He only thought he was writing about the Corinthians.
Today during my personal Morning Prayer, I read from 2 Corinthians 11. And certain verses reminded me of today’s Evangelicals, at least in the U. S.:
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. (11:3,4)
Evangelicals – St. Paul only thought he was writing about the church at Corinth – are very welcoming to just about any shiny new teaching or teacher that comes down the road or the bookstore or the internet as long as such claims to be the real deal in Christianity.
That’s not a compliment by the way. Neither St. Paul nor I so intend it. He makes that quite clear later:
And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (11:12-15)
How mean! How not winsome and unwelcoming! Now narrow-minded!
And how correct.
American Evangelicalism used to have a passion to proclaim the undiluted Gospel. I was active in the Duke University chapter of InterVarsity and did beach evangelism during a Spring Break about 40 years ago, so I can tell you even InterVarsity used to have that right passion.
But U. S. Evangelicalism has been too welcoming of trends and fads and errant teachings embedded in them. It has been too unwilling to say NO to false teaching but instead has “put up with it readily enough.” So now InterVarsity and the rest of Big Evangelicalism is a shit show, where Marxist CRT crap is more welcome than orthodoxy.
(Yes, the photo is from InterVarsity’s Urbana 2015 which pushed “Black Lives Matter.”)
If my using “shit show” offends you more than what has become of U. S. Evangelicalism, then maybe you are part of the problem. If you think I am being harsh, read St. Paul again.
It’s enough to drive a man to Anglo-Catholicism.