Living Under the Reign of God: Gospel, Church

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Living Under the Reign of God Gospel,
Church Culture in a Postmodern Context

• Baptist Bible College December 2004

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The Lord Mayor of London
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The Lord Mayor of London Parade
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The Church in Crisis

• The Movement Inward - Evangelicalism is now ones
  personal experienceno longer any cognitive
  dissonance with our culturesense of truth and
  character lost theology banished to religious
  aspect of life
• Todays Heroes - the therapist, the CEO...
  therapeutic society nervous search for true
  selfself-absorption..
• Loss of Truth - shift from Theocentric to
  self-centered worshippsychologized preaching,
  pragmatism

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The Churchs Cultural Captivity

• 1. Loss of eschatological urgency
• 2. Framed in the normalcy of the present and
  not the coming kingdom
• 3. Derives its status and forms of power
  from the world
• 4. Seduced to turn the world into the
  kingdom that avoids the cross,
  conversion, goodnews!...

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Lessons to be Learned in the Crisis of a
Crumbling Worldview

• Need to abandon a privatized faith for
  participation in a radical kingdom community...
• Church - culture relationship is not sponsoral,
  religious servants of, citizens rooted in a
  foreign land
• Need to recover the gospel, church the world.

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The Gospel is ...

• A Message about God -
• A Message about Sin - conviction of wrong
  relationship with God and conviction of sin, sins
  and sinfulness
• A Message about Christ - both His person and His
  work
• A Message about Faith Repentance -
  J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the
  Sovereignty of God

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Post-Captivity Evangelism

• Evangelism must be seen as invitation to enter
  the Kingdom and thus the church.
• Converts need to be presented the implications of
  entering a new race of men.
• Can no longer assume that enculturated people
  have a common understanding of language with us.
• Without imposing the gospel, we need to trade on
  the moral point of contact for the gospel.

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Point of Contact for the Gospel

• Inescapable - Sensus Deitatis
• All men know their guilt (worthy of death) that
  they are creatures
• Agency of Word and Spirit in regeneration
• Epistemologically - nothing in common
• Metaphysically - everything in common
• Moral Point of Contact - Judgment, Repent

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Implications for Evangelism Apologetics

• 1. God redemptively engages people in their
  history by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
• 2. There must be a faith community that
  demonstrates that the gospel is true in practice
  and thus in reality.
• 3. By the use of redemptive history we must show
  the narrative is compelling coherent on its own
  terms.
• 4. Our faith narrative must be presented as
  encompassing all of life experience.
• 5. We must honestly fully hear other faiths.
• 6. The gospel should be presented without resort
  to verbal violence against others.

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A Canonical Theology of
Redemptive History

• Creation/Perfection
• Fall/Judgment
• Redemption/Grace
• Consummation/Restoration

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Emerging Mission of the Church
C H U R C H
BETWEEN GOSPEL CULTURE
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The Church an Alternative Culture

• Matthew 513-16
• Salt of the Earth to become foolish
• Light of the World represent kingdom salvation
  to the world
• City Set on a Hill issue is seen or not seen
• Live in Such a Way that the Kingdom Will Be
  Manifested

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Living Under the Reign of God Gospel,
Church Culture in a Postmodern Context
The End

• Baptist Bible College December 2004