Comments on: The Two Christianities http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html Looking for the 1st century Church in 21st century America Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:23:35 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Links for April 26, 2007 | Based on a True Story http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html#comment-45682 Links for April 26, 2007 | Based on a True Story Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:21:58 +0000 http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html#comment-45682 [...] post on the Two Christianities: Externally-Motivated and Internally-Motivated. (ht) ———————– While Tim Challies and I don’t [...]

[...] post on the Two Christianities: Externally-Motivated and Internally-Motivated. (ht) ———————– While Tim Challies and I don’t [...]

]]> By: The Two Christianities on Display | Cerulean Sanctum http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html#comment-42006 The Two Christianities on Display | Cerulean Sanctum Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:18:17 +0000 http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html#comment-42006 [...] The Two Christianities [...]

[...] The Two Christianities [...]

]]> By: The Best of Cerulean Sanctum 2007 | Cerulean Sanctum http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html#comment-33786 The Best of Cerulean Sanctum 2007 | Cerulean Sanctum Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:03:08 +0000 http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html#comment-33786 [...] The Two Christianities & The Two Christianities: Comparison Table Two other posts that got plenty of others talking. Has American Christianity bifurcated into two separate branches with entirely different worldviews? I believe it has. What do you think? [...]

[...] The Two Christianities & The Two Christianities: Comparison Table Two other posts that got plenty of others talking. Has American Christianity bifurcated into two separate branches with entirely different worldviews? I believe it has. What do you think? [...]

]]> By: sharktacos http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html#comment-28241 sharktacos Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:08:09 +0000 http://ceruleansanctum.com/2007/04/the-two-christianities.html#comment-28241 One the one hand I think what you say is an important caution to Christian hoping to be involved in power politics not to underestimate how seductive and corrupting power can be. At the same time there are a lot of good things that Christians have been able to bring into government when they focused on advocating "power from under". Consider for instance that it was the church that invented orphanages, hospitals, and homeless shelters. There was a time when if a person was an orphan and had no family they would have had no one. If a person in the time of Jesus had a crippling disease, they would have simply died. Now we have government sponsored help that makes sure that they don't, and that no child has to die because their parents can't afford health care. That was not always the case (say in the year 1400 for example). So we need to remember what Karl Barth said "we are not permitted to take sin more seriously than we do grace." Despite the seduction and corruption of power, we need to work towards building up the kingdom of God. There will always be abuse and corruption and people motivated by selfish ends, but we need to be light in the middle of that. Think what the world would be like if no one ever tried to feed the starving, or care for the least because the world was too corrupt. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Believing that in our world requires faith in the invisible and the impossible. It's not realpolitics, it's Jesuspolitics. One the one hand I think what you say is an important caution to Christian hoping to be involved in power politics not to underestimate how seductive and corrupting power can be.

At the same time there are a lot of good things that Christians have been able to bring into government when they focused on advocating “power from under”. Consider for instance that it was the church that invented orphanages, hospitals, and homeless shelters. There was a time when if a person was an orphan and had no family they would have had no one. If a person in the time of Jesus had a crippling disease, they would have simply died. Now we have government sponsored help that makes sure that they don’t, and that no child has to die because their parents can’t afford health care. That was not always the case (say in the year 1400 for example). So we need to remember what Karl Barth said “we are not permitted to take sin more seriously than we do grace.” Despite the seduction and corruption of power, we need to work towards building up the kingdom of God. There will always be abuse and corruption and people motivated by selfish ends, but we need to be light in the middle of that. Think what the world would be like if no one ever tried to feed the starving, or care for the least because the world was too corrupt. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Believing that in our world requires faith in the invisible and the impossible. It’s not realpolitics, it’s Jesuspolitics.

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