Post Modernist Theology
Post Modernism takes delight in its inbuilt precommitment to pluralism (inherited from modernist), and many regard it to be a deliberate reaction to totalization of the Englightment.
I agree with some comments about the church, and their portrayals and interpretation of the gospel, of the coming kingdom, and the absoluteness of God.
Sadly we have had many years of preaching to ‘itching ears’ with the feel good factor, and alls well with the world….”because you won’t suffer for your faith, you will just be blessed beyond what you can imagine!”. Which still continues today with the prosperity gospel and one of the prominent teaching of …..dare I say it…. the pretribulation rapture, and the imminent return of the Lord. As the scripture says..”With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day”..one way to look at His ascension, is that it was only two days ago!! Sorry going off on a tangent, but you see my point.
Although I don’t agree with Post Modernist theology because of its embracement of world, however, for people to say that its roots are in New Ageism and therefore satanic is totally incorrect, again a lack of theological understanding. It’s roots are based in Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, who were absolute great thinkers and Fathers of our faith!!
Conversely, from a sociologically perspective there many cultural influences in my life, as the rest of the world. Culture is the acceptable norms and values of a society, those on the side of nurture would argue that ‘we are who we’ because of the culture we were raised within.
However, as Christians we are called to be counter culture. The gospel has not changed in 2000 years, and yet we have to present it in different formats so as it is relevant and acceptable.
God has not changed and nor has the human heart condition.
Blessings
Tags: Church Life
April 24th, 2009 at 3:21 am
A most interesting and worthwhile blog. You would undoubtedly enjoy visiting the POWERED BY CHRIST MINISTRIES site and reading “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty.” The portraits of early dispensationalists such as Irving and Darby, not to mention later ones including Scofield and Walvoord, would be worth the look. God bless. Michael
April 24th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Hi Michael
Thanks very much for your comments. I will have a look at that site, and I am sure it will receive a loud Amen from me.
Personally I don’t have a problem with dispensationalism generally, when used in its true semantic form. However, sadly I believe that the likes of Darby and Scofield have marred dispensationalists by their error of teaching the pretrib hypothesis. The foundation of this teaching may have origins in demonic influences, through a young woman called Margaret McDonald. Some suggest that she was a female psychic and others say that she was a prophetess from the Scottish Irvingite sect in the 1800′s. Whether this is true or untrue is not the issue for me, but the fact that scripturally the teaching is totally unsound.
The major crux of this teaching relies upon Rev 3:10 “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth”. When relying on this text the dispensationalists totally ignore all normal biblical standards of interpretation. It was written to the Philadelphain church not to the whole of the Asia Minor churches and therefore in context cannot be directly applied 2000 years later to the universal church. Even if we are to literally interpret this text and apply to the rapture, the end times and the whole church. It says “He will keep us in the trials. Keep is to protect and preserve, not to remove. Matt 22 clearly shows that the body of Christ will pass through the tribulation, as those days will be cut short because of the elect. Equally we are warned, there will be many deceivers and the enemy will even try to deceive the elect if that were possible.
My biggest worry because of this teaching is that Christendom in general is unprepared for any tribulation. There is an atmosphere of ‘don’t concern yourself with what may happen, as we will be ‘raptured’ away before any of it begins’ I feel that we have seen elements of this already with the beginnings of the financial and economic meltdown facing the world. Many Christians were caught out (not up!) by trusting and believing in these systems. The politicians, Wall Street, and the City of London have been telling us that “all’s well, we are all entitled to have whatever we want, and it is our right to have financial peace and security. We should all own our homes, and buy whatever else we fancy on credit, without worry, as you can use the collateral in your house, which is rising daily because of the wonderful boom in real estate. The good times are here and here to stay“. Theses are lies from the pit of hell itself, as the rest of the world struggle to feed themselves, the West lives in luxury, but yet never sated. Unfortunately though, these lies were believed by many.
Anyway that’s my rant for the day, but let me return to the pretrib rapture. IF and that is a big IF and we are all raptured before the great tribulation and I am proved wrong, I will at the front of the procession praising and thanking my Lord and my God. However, until then, let us at least be prepared and have oil in our lamps, along with discernment and wisdom, so that when tribulation does come along is not a shock. The scriptures tells us not to worry, as He will protect us and preserve our souls, not necessarily our lives, and also tell us to be watchful, be prepared and expect it!
Blessings