TEN DEADLY TRAPPINGS OF EVANGELICALISM
By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Sep 8, 2007 in Current Issues
From Christian Research Net, the sister of Apprising Ministries:
Here is a fantastic article written by Joe Carter at the Evangelical Outpost blog that takes a critical look at ten trappings in American Evangelicalism that are harmful to Christianity. The ten trappings that Carter lists are…
• Making Converts
• The Sinner’s Prayer
• “Do you know Jesus as…”
• Tribulationism
• Testimonies
• The Altar Call
• Witnessing
• Protestant Prayers
• The Church Growth Movement
• Chick Tracts
This article is thoughtful and challenging and you can read the rest of it here.
My personal thoughts on these important issues is that CRN and AM agree with Carter’s article and his conclusion:
We evangelicals don’t need tools of evangelism. We don’t need fads and fixtures. We don’t need anything more than the Gospel. For that is one fixture of our faith that will never go out of style.
And furthermore as he shares his conviction in Christ that, “I really do believe that these ‘fixtures’ have become detrimental to the making of disciples. Am I wrong? I’m open to hearing counter-claims.” What I’d like to stress for the edification for the new evangelicals who have bought into the repainted social gospel within the new infomercial Christianity is this: Carter is completely within Christian ethics by engaging those with “counter-claims.”
I commend my brother for this willingness to have dialogue on these matters. However at the same time, I am also within Christian ethics to stress that in my view the time has arrived where we also need men to arise with the spiritual fortitude to proclaim what God is saying to our gelatinous generation. Like Luther knew, so some of us also know, there comes a time when reform will require action and not mere talk about said reforms.