Karen Swallow Prior: How to re-enchant evangelicalism 

False parallel.

@@loritischler1755 Please educate me why this is a false parallel. Thanks for your comment, eager to understand.

@@thewrightoknow When I have seen someone respond "Please educate me," I have been around long enough to know to doubt the genuineness of the request. But I will respond, briefly, without offering follow-ups, to one thing you've written: "Would we express compassion and connection with someone who commits premeditated murder?" I have. I have been doing so since 2007 when I've begun regularly visiting prisons and jails. And I do believe that we are, in fact, called to do so when in Matthew 25, Christ tells us to visit the prisoners, and that by doing so, we are found to be of the kingdom of God. In context, visiting the prisoner is not just to say hello. At the time, it meant bringing the prisoner food, water, the necessities of life, to keep the prisoner alive, to show the prisoner that his or her life is precious. I am not naive. When a man has told me that his sentence is life plus a hundred years, I know why he's in the prison. Whoever were his victims, they are lost to us, their precious lives, but we also have the person before me. Yes, Christ wants the effort to reach him, and not many people try. If you are serious about learning (I doubt it), then how about trying something I think Dr. Prior implicit recommends here. I'd like for you to read a novel that many people who have read it have enjoyed: Please read Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. See if you can come through reading that without thinking that perhaps even in the killer, there is a life requiring our consideration. Have I ever known of a woman who has killed her child? As a matter of fact, yes. The online social media response was calling for her execution without trial. I can say that if she was found guilty, she has to go to prison. Then what? You need an answer for this in a way that isn't limited to a cultural answer. I am, with this reply, questioning the premises of your first response to Dr. Prior. Wrestle for yourself with the question of what mercy should be for a woman facing an abortion. I can tell you that I won't credit an answer that would not literally help in the literal way that Matthew 25 requires.

@@drunkenpolitician1 Thanks for your response to my question. I have not heard of a False Parallel before. I think we should have compassion on someone in prison who committed pre meditated murder. I am for the death penalty. But if a person has not been given the death penalty every care should be taken that they be treated with dignity in a prison that is safe, non violent and counselling , etc... I think abortion is murder, but if a women has had an abortion, every care should be given to her and not abusive words and judgements. Everyone is created in the image of God. Again, thanks for your comments. I have many friends who at totally in opposition to my values and beliefs and respect them and enjoy their company. Blessings.

Liberalism is a false religion

Ultimately, we have to answer the same question Jesus asked Peter: "Who do you say that I am?" If Jesus is who he said He was, then He did, in fact, rise from the dead and what He said about Himself is trustworthy. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Jesus specifically uses the Greek article for "the"--not A way, or ONE way. Again, if Jesus is who he said he was, then the Bible is itself trustworthy. Would the One who upholds creation be unable to guard the truth of His word against corruption as Muslims claim? 2 Timothy 3:16 states, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness". This verse is the only place in the Bible that uses the Greek word theopneustos, which means "God-breathed, inspired by God, due to the inspiration of God". Both liberal mainline protestants and many contemporary evangelicals have been captured by the culture. The problem I have with many "mainliners" is that they have fallen into apostasy believing the Bible is inspired in spots and they are inspired to pick out the spots. The problem is, as Jeremiah states it, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" The problem I have with many evangelical churches is that they have become untethered from historic Christianity. That's another long discussion. Jesus, unlike all other major moral teachers in history, didn’t come to bring good advice as much as he came to bring good news (which, from that foundation, comes the greatest advice). HE is the good news. And instead of telling us “what to do to be saved”, he tells us “it has been done”, now trust and believe. Jesus never bids us to come and follow a formula; He bids us to follow Himself.

@@HiHoSilveyI agree; scriptures and the Spirit witness to each other as to the Truth (way).

Wonderful comment.

The transactional Christ has also tended to go more towards producing Jesus-worshippers rather than Jesus followers. Jesus point all along was to preach and demonstrate the Reign of God, embodied in his own life. And Evangelicalism has tended to overlook this in favor of Jesus as mythic and personal hero.