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D.A. Carson on the Relationship of the Gospel and Activism in Social Issues

Mar 16th, 2009 by J. D. Greear Print This Post

Raleigh-Durham has its share of seminaries and seminarians. As a result, I am never short on hearing of how people who really serve and love God will be involved in this or that social issue: whether that is support for the pro-life position; preservation of the family; ecological preservation; care for the poor, etc. The below is not to imply that any of those things are not important.

But here is a great little snippit from D. A. Carson reflecting on this, with what I believe is an excellent perspective on it. (I owe the blog “Between Two Worlds” for this…also, to note, I thought Carson’s short exposition of 1 Cor 1-5, called The Cross and Christian Ministry, was one of the best short books on Christian ministry I had read, in which he makes this and several other pertinent points.)

Pundits have often noted that many in the Western world have become single-issue people. The church is not immune from such influences. The result is that many Christians assume the gospel (often, regrettably, some form of the ‘simple gospel’) but are passionate about something on the relative periphery: abortion, poverty, forms of worship, cultural decay, ecology, overpopulation, pornography, family breakdown, and much more. By labelling these complex subjects ‘relatively peripheral’ I open myself to attack from as many quarters as there are subjects on the list. For example, some of those whose every thought is shaded green will not be convinced that the ecological problems we face are peripheral to human survival. But I remain quite unrepentant. From a biblical-theological perspective, these challenges, as serious as they are, are reflections of the still deeper problem—our odious alienation from God. If we tackle these problems without tackling what is central, we are merely playing around with symptoms. This is no excuse for Christians not to get involved in these and many other issues. But it is to insist that where we get involved in such issues, many of which are explicitly laid upon us in scripture, we do so from the centre out, ie beginning with full-orbed gospel proclamation and witness and passion, and then, while acknowledging that no one can do everything, doing our ‘significant something’ to address the wretched entailments of sin in our world. The good news of Jesus Christ will never allow us to be smug and other-worldly in the face of suffering and evil. But what does it profit us to save the world from smog and damn our own souls? There are lots of ways of getting rid of pornography. For instance, one does not find much smut in Saudi Arabia. But one doesn’t find much of the gospel there, either.

The point is that in all our efforts to address painful and complex societal problems, we must do so from the centre, out of a profound passion for the gospel. This is for us both a creedal necessity and a strategic choice. It is a creedal necessity because this gospel alone prepares men and women for eternity, for meeting our Maker—and all problems are relativized in the contemplation of the cross, the final judgement, and eternity. It is a strategic choice because we are persuaded that the gospel, comprehensively preached in the power of the Spirit, will do more to transform men and women, not least their attitudes, than anything else in the world. (From For Such a Time as This: Perspectives on Evangelicalism, Past, Present and Future, p. 83)

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