Michael Horton - Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church

Christless
Christianity

Christless
Christianity

The Alternative Gospel of the
American Church

Michael Horton

BakerBooks
a division of publishing Group
Grand Rapids, Michigan

2008 by Michael Horton

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Horton, Michael Scott.

Christless Christianity : the alternative gospel of the American church / Michael Horton.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 978-0-8010-1318-8 (cloth)

1. EvangelicalismUnited States. 2. United StatesReligious life and customs. 3. Jesus ChristHistory of doctrinesUnited States. I. Title.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

To our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have
now received reconciliation

Romans 5:11

Contents

H ere we are in the North American churchconservative or liberal, evangelical or mainline, Protestant or Catholic, emergent or otherwisecranking along just fine, thank you. So were busy downsizing, becoming culturally relevant, reaching out, drawing in, making disciples, managing the machinery, utilizing biblical principles, celebrating recovery, user-friendly, techno savvy, finding the purposeful life, practicing peace with justice, utilizing spiritual disciplines, growing in self-esteem, reinventing ourselves as effective ecclesiastical entrepreneurs, and, in general, feeling ever so much better about our achievements.

Notice anything missing in this pretty picture? Jesus Christ!

Jesus Christ indeed. In Flannery OConnors wild, wickedly funny novella, Wise Blood, her antipreacher preacher, Hazel Motes, preaches a Church without Christ where nobody sheds blood, and theres no redemption cause there aint no sin to redeem, and whats dead stays that way. I always thought OConnors book an outrageous, wildly improbable satire. Then Mike Horton comes along and names the Church without Christ as our pervasive ecclesial reality. Horton accuses us of achieving what has never transpired in the entire history of Christendom. Somehow weve managed to preach Christ crucified in such a way that few are offended, a once unmanageable God suddenly seems nice, and the gospel makes good senseas we are accustomed to making sense. We just cant stand to submit to the machinations of a living God who is determined to have us on Gods terms rather than ours, so we devise a god on our own terms. Flaccid, contemporary Christianity is the result.

This is a tough book, but well written, fast paced, and wonderfully grounded in classical Reformation Christianity. Our poor old, compromised, accommodating church is here subjected to withering theological critique. 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. The boredom and conventionality of the contemporary church are assaulted. Michael Horton diagnoses our trouble in stunning, unavoidable candor. Therapeutic, utilitarian deism is named, nailed, and and defeated with the best weapon God has given usthe 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 Schullers vapid ecclesiology is us all over. My sermons are only slightly less silly and compromised than Joel Osteens. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

But this book is not all critique. Horton mounts a wonderfully hopeful argument. His sermon is not only tough but also invigorating and empowering. In the process of reading this Jesus-induced polemic, you will be recalled to the power of the gospel. God forgive us for selling out our great intellectual treasurethe gospel of God with usfor a mess of psychobabble and pragmatic, utilitarian, self-help triviality.

Horton joyfully reminds us that theological thinking is so much more interesting than all of the distractions that keep us busy but malnourished. The peculiar Good News of Jesus Christ is better than anything William James or Charles G. Finney and their innumerable heirs have to offer. The determination of God in Jesus Christ to love sinners and to enlist them in the invasion that is his kingdom is so much more relevant to our true condition than our inclination to meet the felt needs of narcissistic North American consumers.

Have a wonderful adventure reading this book. Enjoy being enticed into the strange new world of vibrant Christianity in Hortons spirited gospel recovery operation. In the process, you will be liberated from our cultural captivity so that again you will be free to worship, in word and deed, the risen Christ.

Lets put Christ back in Christianity.

William Willimon
Bishop of the United Methodist Church
Birmingham, Alabama

A lthough I have debts to many for this book, especially to those who have provided wonderful examples of faithfulness to the gospel over many years, I will limit acknowledgments here to the Baker team, including Bob Hosack and Mary Wenger, but especially to Jack Kuhatschek, whose encouragement and patient direction on this project proved invaluable. Finally, I am grateful to my Westminster Seminary California colleagues and students, to the White Horse Inn/ Modern Reformation staff, and Christ United Reformed Church, but especially to my wife, Lisa, and our children, James, Olivia, Matthew, and Adam, for always being a reminder to me of why these issues are so important.

W hat would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over a half century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, Yes, sir and No, maam, and the churches would be full every Sunday