Response to Understanding American Evangelicalism

White Horse Inn Broadcast of the week of January the 8th!

My goal for these entries under the label of The Roman Journey is give a written response to The Roman Revolutions on the White Horse Inn during the 2006 year.

I have spent early years of my Christian life recovering from all of the trends that come with being a follower of the American religion of self-salvation. I struggled with this since 1984 when I started working a local Christian bookstore. About 10 years later there has been a reformation of my heart. Like the Reformation of the 15th century where there was a recovery of the Gospel. I discovered the true content of the gospel that is not a part of the American religion. It started with RC Sproul teaching Justification from the book of Romans from a video series we sold at the bookstore that I worked.

I have been thinking a lot about John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me…” (ESV – of course) It is where I was many years ago. I would study the Bible with enthusiasm but Christ was not the center. My motivation was not to study the Bible to find Christ in all of the scripture but motivation was to prepare myself to win arguments. Really didn’t have the true spirit of apologetics at that time. I guess I was like the Pharisees because they were Bible lover but never could see that it was all about Him.

Like most Christian today they “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Roman 10:2 – ESV). I think most of the problem is because of the spiritual diet in the American Christianity. Today with books Purpose Driven Life and authors like Joel Osteen has created “a zeal” for God but not according to knowledge because many are being fed with spiritual junk food.

After firmly planted on the path of the Reformed faith I discovered the Confessions and Catechism of the early Reformation churches in the Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible for the FIRST TIME! Wow! I said to myself. If I had read these confessions when I was younger my journey to the reformed faith wouldn’t have been so rough. The only thing I was every exposed to was a simple statement of faith of a church that I became a member of years ago. As I look back I am amazed how small it was. Well at least they had included the premillennial, pre-tribulational rapture in the statement of faith so that we agree on the important issue of the faith. I am sarcastic! And maybe I shouldn’t be!?!

More to come.

Timotheus
TimDaManWV on AIMS