I Am Going Off On This Book…

Okay… I have been reading Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna. Read this quote from the authors. The quote’s context is the author’s objections to D. L Moody’s primary focus of bring people to Christ:

We believe that by viewing redemption as God’s ultimate purpose, [Moody] failed to communicate the scope of      God’s complete plan.

No evangelist or apostle in the New Testament brought souls to Christ simply to save them from hell. Such a thought was unknown to the early Christians. The early Christians won people to the Lord to bring them into God’s community, the church.

In the first century, people were saved with the idea of adding them to the ekklesia. Conversion and community were not separate; they were inextricably intertwined (I agree…). In the words of Gilbert Bilezikian: “Christ did not die just to save us from sins, but to bring us together into community.

So God sent His only Son not only so we can have eternal life, but also so that we can come together and have a sweet time? Wow. Community is a benefit, not the purpose of Christ’s death. 

It is these kinds of statements that further confirms my thinking that just because a book has been published and marketed well, does not mean that it is truth. Maybe just “truthy” (thank you Stephen Colbert)