Modern liberal theology holds that the message of the Bible has to be adapted, more or less, to the requirements of a secular world. This process of debasing Christianity leads, in the long run, to a complete perversion and falsification of the essence of Christianity. The real Gospel becomes replaced by a social gospel. The denial of self becomes the satiation of self. Happiness is made out to be ours by right, to be sought; a must to be provided. We are, after all, deserving little gods made in the image of the Creator God. And when we do wrong, we are “only human after all” which is an excuse, a salve to deaden the conscience, to expunge the guilt because who can blame us, who can throw the first stone, who can be so hard-hearted not to understand and know it was all to do with how we were raised and all that?

Yes, it does have something to do with how we were raised… if we were raised on the social gospel instead of the Gospel of Christ.

It’s quite funny when you read something you wrote quite a while ago and had practically forgotten that you had ever written it. I came across one of such things on the newly made-over website of a friend. It was quite properly there, because that is where it was first published - and I think it is somewhere near the beginning of Judah’s Journal as well, back in the very early days stuff. I daren’t go looking - too many cobwebs! But it is kind of “On Topic” with several other blog entries of two online friends of mine, so here are the links:

1. What I wrote:
The Proof of the Pudding…

…comes from eating your vegies.

The church that I once attended had a hugely charismatic Vicar who drew a full congregation every Sunday evening. He was a big-hearted seeming man with a real gift for oratory, a poetic way with words, and penchant for telling anecdotes as parables. We loved to settle down and listen as his words flowed over us, stirring all kinds of feelings in our hearts and souls. I still remember a number of these tragic-romantic stories although I'm not exactly sure I can say what the rest of the message was about. It was excellent “feel good” stuff, and we left the church each Sunday evening with the week's stress washed from our faces, vaccinated against the Mondayitis that had threatened to cloud over in another few hours. It was like eating dessert without having to deal with one's vegetables first.
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2. What Puritan Lad wrote:
John the Baptist: Seeker Sensitive Version

3. What Puritan Lad wrote before that:
The Babbling Tower of Emotional Health

4. What August wrote too:
Back to the Gospel

Postscript ~

5. And what Puritan Lad has written since:
The Idol of Self-Esteem