Darryl's Blog
Rescuing souls vs. loving neighbors
I'm still finding that social justice sometimes takes a backseat to evangelism in some circles. In others, it's just the opposite. In his book Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life, Robert Lupton argues that valuing people's souls more than their bodies does great harm:
If you believe that either eternal bliss or eternal damnation awaits every person after death, then the most loving act is to present the truth of the gospel to as many people as possible and thus save them from everlasting destruction. It’s a compelling argument. The problem, of course, is that it leads toward viewing others as souls instead of people. And when we opt for rescuing souls over loving neighbors, compassionate acts can soon degenerate into evangelism techniques; pressing human needs depreciate in importance, and the spirit becomes the only thing worth caring about. Thus, the powerful leaven of unconditional, sacrificial love is diminished in society and the wounded are left lying beside the road. When we skip over the Great Commandment on the way to fulfilling the Great Commission, we do great harm to the authenticity of the faith…
'Sets N Service reflects on this quote:
I repent Lord of treating the gospel like it was merely a matter of a new heaven and not a new earth…
I repent Lord of treating people as souls rather than persons in the midst of their own life circumstances that need redeeming as well…
I repent Lord of isolating the new creation work of Jesus to what one believes in their minds alone rather than what one experiences and embraces with all their life…
I repent Lord for offering your widows and orphans a tract while sending them back out into the cold and hard night of destitution, desease, and hunger…
I repent Lord for mistaking sympathy for witness, and the ‘Roman’s Road Conversion Speak’ as the full inacting of the gospel of grace…
Good and important words.
Categories
Church , Faith , Social Justice & Compassion , Theology0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Rescuing souls vs. loving neighbors.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.dashhouse.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1785
Does this guy "believe that either eternal bliss or eternal damnation awaits every person after death"?
I don't know Lupton well, but I found the book at a Reformed blog and it's being sold in a Reformed bookstore (http://tinyurl.com/yqjxj5).
It's interesting that you asked. I'm glad that what he said is being echoed in theologically sound circles.
How about we do both. We tell people the truth of the Gospel as we reach out to them practically.
I'm always wary of folks who start downplaying the message of the Gospel that leads to eternal life. I want to ask them if they themselves are assured of their own eternal life. I cannot fathom someone who would claim to have eternal life not wanting to reach out to others so they too can come to receive it.
Its the main reason I don't understand the emerging church mind set of social gospel without clear truth.
Its why I believe many people engage in social gospel hoping it will justify them before God. Its works righteousness. It will never save.
Darryl,
Thanks for linking to the piece.
Jacob,
Robert Lupton does beleive in an eternal heaven and hell, he's very 'evangelical' but like Ron Sider he's attempting to pickup language we take for granted and shock us into a realization that the we may be more gnostic than Christian in the way we apply the gospel to our lives. Or to pick a musical analogy, he's a little like Derek Webb, 'tortured but truthful'.
I.E. we may by disjunction forget the body because of an unbibilcal overemphasis on the soul...
Anyway he's a very stirring writter but you have to allow for some sense of literary rhetoric in his use of language otherwise you can easily walk away thinking, hmm, maybe lupton doesn't believe in heaven and hell and judgement, etc.
Blessings, Tony
All righty then, is this your response to John Pipers little gem?
The bridge collapse, God's pinky gem.
Bene:
Actually, no. Just a recurring theme around here. I didn't have Piper in mind when I posted this.
Bene, can we assume you agreed with Piper?
It was a great post he had after the bridge collapse, folks should read it.
http://tinyurl.com/378fjz
George,
That is the article Bene was referring to. And we're not going to discuss it under this post!