The Collapse of Evangelicalism?

About a week ago I was asked to respond to a series of posts online about one man's prediction of the coming collapse of evangelicalism. At the time I thought it was a good idea for a blog posting but upon reading it I realized that an appropriate response would take more effort than I initially expected. What you read today is the point I am at right now deciding that I cannot invest any more time into this one issue. The series is posted below.

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/the-original-coming-evangelical-collapse-posts

I must say that while I read the articles sereval times I do not feel that I quite grasped his point. I found them to be poorly written and hard to follow. The ideas he presents seem to me to be purely speculative and the fact that he addresses the future of the church without any recognizable references to Scripture is just bad practice in general. The church is God's, it is his body and belongs to Him just as your body belongs to you. To understand what lies ahead for Christ's body we simply have to look at how He takes care of it.

While our bodies do not always act exactly how we'd like them to there is a certain level of responsibility we have to steward our bodies as best we can. This mean that we train, strengthen, and nurish our bodies so they may grow while also removing those parts which are damaged, deseased and cancerous. The same is true for God.

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ."
1 Corinthians 12:12 -NIV-

Christ wants his body to be healthy, strong and growing so that He can present it to the Father as a living sacrifice. In order to do this all of its parts must be functioning according to their purpose. As parts of a body we know our purpose and function by looking at our gifts but can we claim that because another part of the body does not look the way we believe it should that it is cancerous or deseased? In order to make that call we must know everything about each part and its purpose. As a hand or a foot or a pancreas we cannot hope to know all of every part. Only a Physician is qualified to make that decision.

"The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"... But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body."
1 Corinthians 12:21&24b -NIV-

While we may not know what will happen to the boday we are a part of looking at the character of The One Whom It Belongs To we can see how we might expect Him to treat us as a unit.

"Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness."
Romans 6:12-13 -NIV-

Within Christ is the fulfillment of ehe Law; the entirety of God's character, and so we know that Christ maintains obedience to the Father in all of his commands, including the one found here. For us this means that Christ will not allow sin to remain in his body. He will use his body not for wickedness but as an offering to God. This also means that any part of his body which is defiled will be separated and thrown away.

"If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell."
Matthew 5:30 -NASB-

As humans this verse does not set well with us. It is one we like to qualify with, Jesus didn't really mean it, or He's not telling you to really cut your hand off. I beg to differ. I believe Jesus says what He means and He means what He says. If Jesus asks us to cut off any parts of our body which defile us, He must be willing do the same as well or else his integrity and character are shot. Lest anyone hesitate to accept that Christ would sacrifice a part of his body to maintain holiness turn to the cross. On the cross He did not sacrifice a limb or apendage but the whole of his body in order to maintain his character. If He can do it once He can do it again. And yet what was left of him was raised and brought back to glory in the Ressurection. The remnant that was his entombed body was raised, ascended and used to send his Spirit. The very Spirit which unites his body to this day. (1 Cor. 12:13) That remnant He has preserved and will continue to preserve for all eternity by his faithfulness.

What does this mean for evangelicalism? Evangelicalism is a terminology used to present a biblical perspective, not fulfill it. Throughout history Christ has maintained his body with the utmost care and attention. His faithfulness testifies to the fact that He will continue in this. If evangelicalism is active, fruitful, growing and healthy it will remain in the body. If it is deseased and infected, consuming vast amounts of energy and resources it will be pruned.

Evangelicalism was not there in the beginning and it will not be there at the end. Christ alone is the priest for all eternity. I am no Physician and so I can not make the call. All I can do is follow Christ's example disallowing sin's reign in my body and instead presenting it as an offering to God. If I do this, clinging to God rather than evangelicalism than I have nothing to fear of its glory or downfall because my hope is in Christ alone.

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