An excerpt from Smalling's
book, The New Evangelical Social Gospel: A
critique
LetÕs
peek inside the average Bible-preaching church. We find transformed sinners of
all stamps: ex-drunks, ex-addicts, families restored, formerly wayward youth
and the worst sinners of all, former arrogant rebels who thought they did not
need Jesus.
This makes the church the
most outstanding social success the world has ever seen. Is there any other
institution that can boast such achievements with people? The church is GodÕs
social justice program and it accomplishes its job when it does what God tells
it to doÉpreach the word.
The church is far from being
a failure. One pastor put it well.
How
much stronger are the people of God now than at any point in the history of
Israel or the early church! The church should respect herself for her wondrous
past, present, and future, realizing that she bestrides history and our narrow
world like a colossus.
She
is at much greater risk from her power than from her weakness. It is a failure
of faith of the first order to lash out on her behalf, as if she needed defending;
it only reflects the narrowness of our own experience.[1]
Rauschenbusch[2] thought
so, for he referred to Éthe failure of Christianity
to undertake its reconstructive social mission.[3] To him, it a given that reconstructing society is
the mission of the church.
This new brand of social
gospel also takes it for granted that Christianity in the western world has
failed by neglecting to meet the material needs of impoverished humanity.
The problem is a failure to
see the church itself as a society. It is the ekklesia, as the Greek puts it, those Òcalled outÓ from the surrounding
community to form a new kind of humanity, representing GodÕs kingdom. If we
want to know if the church is successful, the place to look is inside, not
judging from the outside as to how many poor it is feeding.
It was testimony time during
Sunday service in a peasant village in Latin America where we were helping to plant
a church. Dirt floor. Thatched roof. The smells and sounds of farm life. We had
just finished singing.
JosŽ, about three years old
in the Lord, stood to speak. ÒI have been singing that song for a long time,
wondering if it was really true. I found out it is. Since IÕve been doing what
it says, our family has lacked for nothing. I donÕt know exactly how it is has
worked out, but it has.Ó His eyes got misty. ÒIt really does work.Ó
He was referring to a song
in Spanish based on Matthew 6:33, But
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well.
On the basis of this
promise, along with a few others from scripture, we had taught them biblical
priorities. The principles of giving the first fruits to GodÕs work and the
pursuit of righteousness will result in God meeting our needs. No, he does not
promise riches. He promises enough. The seed of the righteous do not beg for
bread.
In another church in the
capital among upper middle class businessmen, a man stood and shared how his
business had been in trouble. He remembered Matthew 6:33 because we sang the
same chorus in that church also. He had been a faithful giver and was involved
in the leadership-training program as a candidate for elder.
His testimony? Exactly the
same as the villagerÕs. Different culture, different society. He was unclear on
exactly how it worked but his business was out of the hole. He was learning to
stand on the promises of God.
Both of those churches, the
village and the city, are successes if that is how they are teaching people to
live.
What is the bridge for
bringing the spiritual into the material? Answer: The promises of God. This is
exactly what the word of God has said all along.
But
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well. Mt. 6:33
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in
Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:19
Give,
and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and
running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it
will be measured to you.Ó Luke 6:38
They really work. Really,
really.
We were sitting around the
dinner table in another village about to enjoy a very fresh chicken stew. The
chicken had been alive an hour before. My missionary partner was conversing
with the host, Enrique, about eighteen months old in the Lord.
ÒYou know,Ó Enrique said,
Òearning a living here is hard. The only work in our village is in the cane
fields, cutting sugar cane for the whiskey business. It doesnÕt pay well
either. I wish God would provide some other kind of work to do.Ó
My missionary friend
replied, ÒLetÕs pray about it.Ó
A few minutes later, the
missionary said, ÒEnrique, who made this table we are sitting around?Ó
ÒI did,Ó he replied.
ÒI thought so. You said
earlier you made all the furniture in your house. Why not make furniture for
the village?Ó
Enrique thought for moment
and said, ÒIf I give up my job in the fields and it does not work out, weÕll
starve. Besides, my tools are old and worn out.Ó
The missionary said, ÒIÕll
tell you what. IÕll loan you my tools. You can make one piece of furniture and
see if you sell it. If it starts to work out, you can go into business until
you have money for your own tools.Ó
Result: Enrique no longer
works in the cane fields. He is the village c[-[rpenter
and doing well financially. Another man in the church, inspired by EnriqueÕs
success, also went into the carpentry business.
Though some church members
still work in the cane fields, the church is its own community and they help
each other. They also take turns visiting outlying villages to reach them with the
gospel. This is success in biblical terms.
We would like to say the
village population reached a tipping point in its understanding and came into
the church in droves as they saw the kingdom of God manifest in word and deed. That would be a lie.
The reality is that
persecution continues. Some villagers feel the Christians have betrayed the
local religion and rocks occasionally bounce off the building during services. That
is the real world of gospel ministry.
The promises of God are the
bridge between the spiritual and the physical.
Mercy ministry is not that
bridge. Some may not see this as Òpractical.Ó But then, we donÕt see leaven
working either.
The best that mercy ministry
can do is show that Christians are sincere in their message. This may indeed
gain a hearing among some for the gospel but is not the gospel itself nor the
norm for gospel ministry.
So the issue is what it has
always been; believing God. The problem of the world is not a failure of the
church to supply the physical needs of humanity to prove the gospel. The
problem is unbelief, plain and simple.
The social gospel has always
criticized conservatives for falling into the old platonic dualism which
separates the spiritual and material into distinct realms, ignoring the practical
realities of suffering around them.
This may be true in some
cases. Such is deplorable. What is even more deplorable is the new social
gospel answer to the problem.
The solution is to do what
Jesus said in the Great Commission, what the apostles modeled and proscribed. Go preach
the gospel to the community. Teach those who want to hear. If you run into
someone starving, give him food; NOT spend half the resources on creating
social justice programs in the hopes the world will be impressed and take
notice. It wonÕt be and will do its best not to notice.
Enough hospitals, rescue
missions, orphanages, counseling centers and social works of all kinds have
been done by Christians so that if mercy ministry could convince people, the
world would have been converted by now. The reality is that mercy ministries
often supplement gospel work, yet do not produce the wonderfully powerful results
the social gospel adherents envision. At times it becomes the tail that wags
the dog.
John MacArthur has a
realistic approach,
The
church is not supposed to be some benevolent, nonthreatening agency whose
primary goal is to achieve prestige, popularity, and intellectual acceptance.
Contemporary Christians seem to think that if the world likes us, it will like
our Savior. That is not the case (John 15:18).[4]
We have seen in practice how
the world takes notice. It doesnÕt.
Yet the new social gospel
followers are convinced it will be different in the future if the church will
only buy into the ÒbalanceÓ
philosophy.
Picture
a different world. Imagine one in which two billion Christians embrace this
gospel—the whole gospel— Éand completing GodÕs stunning vision of a reclaimed and
redeemed world—the kingdom of God among usÉMight the world take notice? É[they will
say] Who is the
God they serve? And most important, Can we serve Him too?[5] (Stearns,
World Vision)
This
whole
gospel is
truly good news for the poor, and it is the foundation for a social revolution that has the power to change
the world.[6]
Did God leave the church
with any criteria for measuring its own success?
HereÕs one: Persecution.
The world persecutes the
church when it feels it can no longer ignore it. This proves the message is
getting through. People cannot suppress what they do not perceive.
The maligning of evangelicals
in the media, documentaries portraying Christians as intolerant because we
insist there is one Savior, are clear proof the message has been heard and
despised as always. Mercy ministries and transformed sinners have not changed
this fact.
In ChristÕs communiquŽ in
the book of Revelation to the seven churches of Asia Minor, it is interesting
to see what he does not mention as criteria for his praises or rebukes. Church
growth strategy is never an issue, nor is appearing useful to the world.
His criteria seem to be two
things: Enduring persecution and faithfulness to His name. Social justice seems
to be glaringly absent.
By these criteria, a church
faithfully preaching the word of God, attempting to reach the community with the
gospel and caring for its own, is success.
From this chapter we learnÉ
á
The church
itself is a community and insofar it is composed of saved sinners, it is an
outstanding success.
á
The bridge God
has provided between the spiritual and material is his promises, which when
applied, really work.
á
Persecution is a
good measure of the success of a church, for people persecute only what they
perceive.