E.Y. Mullins wrote Christianity at the Crossroads in 1924; reading the passage below it doesn’t seem like much has changed. We who follow Christ still find ourselves at odds with a conflicting worldview which is pervasive in our culture.
On the one hand, man is held to be in bondage to sin and in need of a divine redemptive power working within to emancipate him. On the other, it is held that no such bondage exists. All man needs is education.
With one group, something new is needed by sinful men; with the other, merely a recognition of one’s likeness to God is sufficient.
With one group a power from without, with the other an unfolding from within is required.
With one group, man accepts a saving grace to which by reason of sin he can make no just claim. With the other, he merely claims what is already his own.
With one group, Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, and our Lord and Savior. With the other, he is the son of Joseph and Mary and an inspiring example of filial devotion to God.
With one group, conversion as the result of evangelistic preaching is one of the permanent aims of Christianity. With the other, education and training, or ethical culture, are the only needs.
With one group is a great missionary passion based on the conviction that the world needs a saving Christ. With the other, altruism in the form of schools, hospitals and social reorganization is the chief need.
With the evangelical group, there is no denial of the ethical and social needs and results. Indeed they are held to be implicit in the whole Christian movement. The causes carry the effects in themselves at every stage. But the effects are impossible without the causes. The radical group insist much upon the ethical and social effects, but sever them from the causes, as those are conceived by the evangelical group.
HT: Trevin Waxx
Photo credit: Dave Bullock via Wikimedia Commons (CC By 2.0)