基督------幫助我克服壞習慣的生活教練？Christ – My Life Coach Helping Me Overcome My Bad Habits?
摘錄者：Shane Lems/Maria
下面是魏利蒙（William Willimon ）对邁克‧何頓（Michael Horton）所著的解剖美国教会的新书，《沒有基督的基督教-美國教會的另類福音》Christless Christianity：The Alternative Gospel of the American的评价：
「本書揭露我們今天的神學毛病的根源何在，並且指出，當我們看重自己過於看重神之時，我們便走錯方向。作者在書中攻擊當代教會苦悶俗套的現狀。何頓以一種讓人震驚，令人無法逃避的坦誠對我們的問題做出診斷。他稱之為治療為本、功利主義的自然神論（therapeutic, utilitarian Deism），並且被點名道姓、死死按住，並被神賜予我們最精良的武器——耶穌基督的福音——所擊潰。據作者推測，福音派基督教被揭露為那毫無生氣，妥協文化的自由主義運動旗下的最新成員。在閱讀的過程中我也受到了審察。 蕭律柏（Robert Schuller）；或譯羅伯特·舒勒）那索然無味的教會論充滿了我們，而我的證道比起約爾·歐斯汀（Joel Osteen）的講道，我的講章只是略微少些愚蠢和妥協罷了。我有罪，我有罪，我有罪！」（8頁）
以下是我做的一些書摘：
「我擔心的是，我們美國教會的日常生態已近乎淪落到一種境地：人們從聖經發掘「適切需要」的經句，但其實卻把聖經本身當作大部份都會不合時宜的；神被利用作個人的資源，而不是我們要認識、敬拜和信靠的對象；耶穌基督只是一位擁有優良行動計劃的教練，足以叫我們得勝，但祂卻不是已經為我們得勝的救主；救恩更多的是讓我們活出美好人生，而不是蒙神自己拯救脫離祂的審判；而聖靈則是個電源插座，讓我們連接上並得著所需的能力，成為我們所能成為的人。」（18頁）
「正在如溫水煮蛙般的地消滅我們的，與其說是異端，不如說是愚蠢！神並沒有被否定，只是變得微不足道罷了，祂被徵用來服侍我們的人生大計，而非被我們接受、敬拜、和享受。」（24頁）
「神希望把永生賜給我們，我們卻滿意於膚淺的需要得著了瑣碎的滿足，而這些膚淺的需要，在很大程度上是由市場文化在我們裡面塑造的。」（40頁）
上述言辭尖銳深刻，是我們迫切需要的沖擊。拿起此書來讀，感受它的震撼吧；它將幫助你清除那些已讓美國教會淪為階下囚的自愛與積極思想的糟粕和瞎說。
還有一個注意事項：此书是送給你的牧師和長老的完美之書。為你自己保留一本之後，再買一本送給他們。
Christ
– My Life Coach Helping Me Overcome My Bad Habits? Oct
by
Reformed Reader
Here’s
what Willimon says about Horton’s new book which diagnoses the Amerincan
church, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008): “Here the roots of our current theological malaise
are exposed and we see the wrong turns we took when we began taking ourselves
more seriously than God. Michael Horton
diagnoses our trouble in stunning, unavoidable character. Therapeutic, utilitarian deism is named,
nailed, and defeated with the best weapon God has given us – the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Presumptively evangelical
Christianity is exposed as the latest recruit to the cause of insipid,
culturally compromised liberalism. I am
judged in the process. Robert Schuller’s
vapid ecclesiology is us all over. My
sermons are only slightly less silly and compromised than Joel Osteen’s. Mea culpa.
Mea culpa. Mea Culpa” (p. 10)
Here
are a few blurbs from the book:
“My
concern is that we are getting dangerously close to the place in everyday
American church life where the Bible is mined for ‘relevant’ quotes but is
largely irrelevant on its own terms; God is used as a personal resource rather
than known, worshiped, and trusted; Jesus Christ is a coach with a good game
plan for our victory rather than a Savior who has already achieved it for us;
salvation is more a matter of having our best life now than being saved from
God’s judgment by God himself; and the Holy Spirit is an electrical outlet we
can plug into for the power we need to be all that we can be” (p. 19).
“It
is not heresy as much as silliness that is killing us softly. God is not denied but trivialized – used for
our life programs rather than received, worshiped, and enjoyed” (p. 24).
“While
God wants to give us everlasting life, we settle for trivial satisfaction of
superficial needs that are to a large extent created within us by the culture
of marketing” (p. 34).
This
is hard hitting stuff, and much needed hard hits. Read this book and take the blows; it will
help purge you of the dross and drivel of self-love and positive thinking that
has taken the American church captive.
One
more note: this is the perfect book to give your elders and pastors after you
get a copy for yourself.
shane
lems
sunnyside
wa