Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology: Form Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 7.2

CHAPTER 7
A RESPONSE TO BRIAN MCLAREN SOTERIOLOGY

The Gospel According to the Story in Acts

       
Because McLaren emphasizes story over propositions, it is best to critique his movement by defining the gospel through the biblical narrative.  Therefore, a brief survey of Acts, which consists of various cultures as its background, will prove the transcendence of the gospel.  Acts is a story from beginning to end narrating how Christ grew His church on the gospel.  If the gospel remained transcendent when the early church traveled the Roman world, with its different cultures, then the gospel is not subject to adaption due to changes in any cultural.
       
Acts begins with Jesus’ Great Commission prior to His ascension, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  From the beginning, then, Christ commissions the disciples to preach the gospel to everyone regardless of culture, people group, geographical location, race, gender, or background.  Christ says nothing about contextualizing the gospel, but only to preach it as it is.  The rest of Acts records how the apostles fulfilled this commission and Acts 1:8 serves as an outline of how they did that.
       
The gospel began to spread first in Jerusalem.  After being filled with the Spirit, Peter stood up and began to preach the gospel to the crowd.  Peter finds himself in a Jewish context and in a Jewish culture.  Although the Romans were the ruling power, Judaism remained the dominate culture in the city.  These events took place during Pentecost (2:1); a Jewish holiday.  In the city was the Jewish Temple, the center of Jewish worship.
       
In this Jewish culture, Peter preaches the gospel.  Beginning with the Old Testament, Peter explains that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah foretold in the Old Testament.  Jesus, according to Peter, was crucified (2:23; 2:36), raised from the dead by God (2:32), seated at the right hand of God (2:34), and is both Lord and Christ (2:36).  Peter exhorts the crowd to “save yourselves from this crooked generation” (2:40).         
Those who accepted the message were baptized subjecting themselves to the teachings (propositions) of the apostles and living lives that reflected obedience and regeneration.  In other words, those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah and Lord over all sent from God to be crucified and raised from the dead repented fully subjecting themselves to the will of Christ.
       
The same message, with the same culture and context, is preached throughout Jerusalem.  In chapter 3, after healing a lame man, Peter and John proclaimed the divinity, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Therefore, Peter exhorts his Jewish readers to “repent . . . and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out” (3:19).  And those who repented did so publically.
       
Beginning in 8:4, the gospel begins to spread outside of the city into Judea and Samaria.  In both regions, the gospel encountered different cultures, contexts, nationality, traditions, and backgrounds.  In the eyes of the Jews, Samaritans were outcasts and considered half-Jews, but though the setting and the culture changed, the gospel remained the same.
       
Philip is sent to Gaza to preach the gospel where he meets a man reading Isaiah 53 and is unsure of its meaning.  Philip explained that Isaiah foretold of Jesus Christ would be crucified on our account.  The man believed and evidenced his repentance by being baptized.  So even though the gospel was in a different culture it had not changed. 
       
Chapter 10 introduces the gospel to the Gentiles.  Peter’s mission to Cornelius best illustrates the transcendence of the gospel.  The message Peter preaches to Cornelius is the same message preached in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria even though Peter (who preached in each of these regions) finds himself in a very different culture and context.  He begins by identifying Jesus Christ as “Lord of all” (10:36) describing how Jesus was appointed by God and performed many signs and wonders (10:38-39).  This Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead (10:39-40).  It is through this raised Messiah, that God expects all to seek the “forgiveness of sins through his name” (10:43).  As a result of their repentance, those who believed were baptized.
       
Finally, from chapter 12-28, the spread of the gospel is told from Paul’s perspective as he preaches the gospel to both Jews (in the synagogues) and Gentiles everywhere he goes.  Paul, like Peter, preached the same message of repentance (17:30; 26:20) and belief in Jesus Christ (13:41; 15:7; 15:11; 16:31; 19:4; 26:27) who died and was raised from the grave everywhere he went regardless of the surrounding culture or context.  Nowhere in Acts is the gospel subject to cultural accommodation nor do the apostles debate contexualization.


Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accomodation to the Kindgom of God - Chapter 1
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 2.1
Thesis| Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 2.2
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 2.3
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 3.1
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 3.2
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 4.1a
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 4.2
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 5.1
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 5.2
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 5.3 
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 5.4  
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 5.5
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 6.1  
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 6.1a
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 6.1b 
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  Form Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 7.1  
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology:  Form Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 7.2 


For more:
Theology - The Clarity of Ambiguity: The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the Emergent Church - Part 1
Theology -  The Clarity of Ambiguity:  The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the Emergent Church - Part 2
Theology - The Clarity of Ambiguity:  The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the Emergent Church - Part 3
Theology - The Clarity of Ambiguity:  The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the Emergent Church - Part 4
Theology -  The Clarity of Ambiguity:  The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the emergent Church - Part 5
Theology/Reviews - "A New Kind of Christianity" - A 11 part review and critique of McLaren's book
Reviews - McLaren - A Generous Orthodoxy
Reviews - McLaren - A New Kind of Christian 
Reviews -McLaren - A Search For What Makes Sense: Finding Faith 
Reviews -McLaren - Adventures In Missing The Point 
Reviews - McLaren - Church On The Other Side 
Reviews -McLaren - Everything Must Change 
Reviews -McLaren - Finding Faith 
Reviews -McLaren - More Ready Than You Realize 
Reviews - McLaren - The Justice Project 
Reviews - McLaren - The Secret Message of Jesus 
Reviews -McLaren - The Voice of Luke  
Theology - Revelation and the Ambiguity of Justification: McLaren Adds to the Confusion 
Theology -  Does McLaren Reject Penal Substitution?: A Review of the Evidence
Blogizomai - Where is He Now?  McLaren on the Question of bin Laden's Final Destination  
Theology -   Hamilton: McLaren and Whole Foods Stores
Theology -   SBTS and McLaren: A Response to SBTS Panel Discussion
Theology -   The Evolving God: McKnight's Critique of McLaren
Theology -   The Future of the Emergent Church: McLaren Weighs In
Theology -   The Immutability of God: Its Truth and Relevancy - Introduction
Theology -   The Postmodern Social Gospel: Brian McLaren Proves My Point
Theology -   Where to Begin?: 10 Emergent Must Reads
Theology -   Who Isn't One?: Brian McLaren and Social Christians
Theology -  A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Narrative Question - Part 1
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Authority Question - Part 2 
Theology -  A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The God Question - Part 3 
Theology -  A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Jesus Question - Part 4
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Gospel Question - Part 5 
Theology -  A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Church Question - Part 6
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Sex Question - Part 7
Theology -  A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Future Question - Part 8 
Theology -  A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Pluralism Question - Part 9 
Theology -  A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: Where Do We Go From Here - Part 10
Theology -  A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: Some Final Thoughts - Part 11