AN EXCERPT FROM A NEW BOOKLET TO BE PUBLISHED IN mAY: “IS THERE SALVATION IN THE CHURCH?”
HAS THE CHURCH FAILED?
If you talk to people who speak of being Spiritual but not Religious, they often speak of the failure of the church to exhibit its own faith in its life together. They seek to continue their spiritual search but separate themselves from what they see as the failure of the church community to live its faith. Quite often outsiders have a very high doctrine of the church in their expectation
THE FALLACY OF SUPERSESSIONISM
Can we support the historic claim that God established the church as the instrument of our salvation? Even if God once chose the church as an instrument of our salvation, should we now conclude that this divine experiment was a failure? Supersessionism in the historic Christian faith concludes that Israel failed to be obedient to God’s gracious choice, so God replaced them with the Christian community. It is undeniable that the church has some very shameful chapters in its history. Should we now conclude that the church has also failed, so God will have to start again?2 Islam began as a response to what they saw as the failure of both Judaism and Christianity. More recently, the Mormon church was a response to what was seen as the failure of Christianity,
The logic of such thinking not only places the church in question but also challenges the omniscience of God. If Jesus founding of the church on the rock of Peter is not a failure, how do we understand what has been taking place in the church? How does one understand the means by which God intends to effect the salvation of the world? If we can answer that question, we have a basis for conversation with the Spiritual but Not Religious.
