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Christianity Today senior managing editor Mark Galli recently spoke with Horton about the concerns he raised in his latest books, Christless Christianity and its sequel, The Gospel-Driven Life. The first book outlines the problem and the second proposes the solution: the preaching of the gospel. Here’s a portion of Galli’s interview: |  |
CT: But aren’t many churches doing good preaching about how to improve your marriage, transform your life, and serve the poor?
Horton: The question is whether this is the Good News. There is nothing wrong with law, but law isn’t gospel. The gospel isn’t “Follow Jesus’ example” or “Transform your life” or “How to raise good children.” The gospel is: Jesus Christ came to save sinners—even bad parents, even lousy followers of Jesus, which we all are on our best days. All of the emphasis falls on “What would Jesus do?” rather than “What has Jesus done?”
CT: Is this a new challenge?
Horton: Of course it’s perennial. That’s why Paul said that the gospel is foolishness to Greeks, and most of us in the church are Greeks. But today we have a new situation. We are facing a bewildering diversity of opposition to Christianity that is increasingly explicit—at the same time that not only people in the pews but also pastors and theologians seem the least capable of articulating the Christian faith, much less of offering persuasive arguments for it.
A recent issue of Newsweek featured an article, “We Are All Hindus Now,” by Lisa Miller. She acknowledges that, of course, most Americans aren’t practicing Hindus [76 percent claim to be Christian]. But she appeals to various surveys to show that most Christians, including many evangelicals, embrace more Hindu tenets than Christian ones.
Two examples: First, the resurrection of the body. Miller points out that most Americans assume that at death, the soul, which they think of as the real part of a person, is finally released from its bodily prison to float off somewhere or to be reincarnated [24 percent]. Second, she refers more generally to the widespread belief that all paths lead to God or the divine [65 percent], another major Hindu tenet but of course opposed to Christianity’s central claim that Jesus is the only Mediator and Savior.