"Christless Christianity"

“Christless Christianity—The Alternative Gospel of the American Church” is book that was recommended to me by Rick Mastalka. While I don’t agree with all of his theology, it is still a good and challenging read that I recommend. The author is Michael Horton. Here are some excerpts:


Thoughts on how our focus on self is often demonstrated in our worship:

“Besides the preaching, our practices reveal that we are focused on ourselves and our activity more than on God and his saving work among us. Across the board, from conservative to liberal, Roman Catholic to Anabaptist, New Age to Southern Baptist, the ‘search for the sacred’ in America is largely oriented to what happens inside of us, in our own personal experience, rather than what God has done for us in history. Even baptism and the Supper are described as ‘means of commitment’ rather than ‘means of grace’ in a host of contemporary systematic theology by conservative as well as progressive evangelicals. Rather than letting ‘the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God’ (Col. 3:16), the purpose of singing (the ‘worship time’) seems today more focused on our opportunity to express our own individual piety, experience, and commitment. We come to church, it seems, less to be transformed by the Good News than to celebrate our own transformation and to receive fresh marching orders for transforming ourselves and our world. Rather than being swept into God’s new world, we come to church to find out how we can make God relevant to the ‘real world’ that the New Testament identifies as the one that is actually fading away.”

He talks about how we make secondary questions the primary ones. Our minister, Collin Packer talked about the following just this past Sunday:

“The Pharisees quizzed Jesus about marriage and divorce, adultery, and taxes, and they criticized him for picking grain on the Sabbath and eating and drinking with publicans and sinners (Matt 11: 19). Focused on ushering in God’s kingdom by strictly observing the rules of the elders—and trying to trap Jesus on legal questions—they were sidetracked from the real mission of the Messiah. Looking at themselves when they should have been looking to Christ as the ‘Lamb of God’, who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29), they were distracted.”

Jesus was focused on the ultimate mission, the cross. I think we are often distracted today away from the cross.

The following talks about a need to encounter God’s law:

“What we need today is a fresh encounter with God’s law in its full force…..

God’s law is not a list of suggestions. Nor is the principal reason for the law our happiness, although we were created in God’s image and therefore were designed to find our deepest fulfillment in glorifying and enjoying God. The law is an expression of God’s own glory—his moral character. Furthermore, the covenant of law sworn by Israel at Mount Sinai was not, ‘We will really try hard to have our best in life now,’ but, ‘All this we do.’ To confirm their oath, Moses splashed blood on the people, visually ratifying their commitment to personally and perfectly fulfill the terms of the covenant. It is no wonder that the Israelites, terrified by God’s commanding voice, begged Moses to be their mediator. Yet when Moses was absent from the congregation, receiving this law from God on the mountain, the people decided to construct a more user-friendly representation of God—the golden calf—which, instead of inspiring awe and fear, encouraged them to a lighter form of worship: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play’ (Exod. 32:6)

If God’s voice of law does not de-center us, throw us off balance, and judge our best efforts as having fallen short of God’s glory, we will never flee to Christ as our Mediator greater than Moses.”

Our culture tells us to focus on self....our focus should be on Jesus and what he has done for us....not what we mistakenly think we have done for Him.