…Might as well be a Baptist preacher…

The following is an important article posted in a recent issue of Christianity Today. It is both daring and courageous, and I, for one, am glad someone had the guts to address this lingering issue in modern evangelical Christianity–or at least what passes for it.

JESUS AND THE SINNER’S PRAYER
What Jesus says doesn’t usually match what we say
David P. Gushee

Is it permissible to reopen the question of salvation? If we do, how will Jesus’ teachings stand up to our inherited traditions?

These questions came to me acutely not long ago. I was getting ready to preach. As the worship leader was finishing the music set, he offered some unscripted theological reflections. He said something like: “The only thing required of us is to believe that Jesus’ blood saves us. Nothing more. It’s nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

In my Baptist context, we’ve heard these thoughts a thousand times. The problem was that I had in my pocket a message in which Jesus himself had a very different answer to the question of salvation.

The Big Question

In reading through Luke, I had discovered that twice (10:25, 18:18) Jesus is asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Continue reading »