The Altar Call is built on a spurious theological foundation.
Misunderstanding conversion, the gospel, sin, repentance and salvation it is a
dangerous caricature of the true gospel invitation to heartfelt repentance and brokenness.
At this point I heartily agree with Murray, who condemns the
theology of Charles Finney as well as those who came after him and took up his
mantle and legacy. This theology gave us Moody, Sunday, Graham and it could be
argued was re-cast once more in the Seeker movement. These men have done irreparable
harm to the cause of Christ.
And yet, for all that, in another form this is the very
theology advocated by Murray.
How so?
It is clear that Murray in his recent work on JC Ryle wishes
to promote the idea that Christianity is something that can be legislated,
something that can be imprinted on society through cultural and social
institutions.
This is extra-Scriptural, a gospel method that is alien to
the New Testament. Nowhere does the Scripture suggest that the gospel is spread
by means of culture or the state. This is not remotely what Paul was suggesting
in Romans 13.
In the end, it's yet another version of the Altar Call, a
contrived system of manipulation and coercion dependent on a diluted definition
of Christianity. The Sacral theology of Christendom, the idea that the state
and cultural institutions will somehow manipulate and bring about conformity
and that this conformity (which is rooted not in true Spirit-wrought repentance,
but social stigma, coercion and shame) will somehow produce 'Christians' is
little different from the Pelagian system of Charles Finney and his
method-based approach to salvation.
If we can just get kids into proper schools, have proper
legislation and policing, if we can force people to attend church, then we can
have a Christian society.
The New Testament knows nothing of this. An advocate of such
a theology cannot possibly hold to Total Depravity, the Gospel of Grace or even
Sola Scriptura. This is a humanistic system.
Though it drives Postmillennialists mad, it must be said
again. Their theology is little more than a conservative version of the Social
Gospel. Or more properly the Social Gospel is simply a liberalised version of
their vision. Essentially they are the same creature. Though they decry this
analogy and argue the liberal version is built on a different foundation,
ultimately the means, if not the vision are the same.
Postmillennialists like Murray look for the Millennial Golden
Age as Christendom brought about through revival. And yet it would seem in his
frustration with culture he has turned more to the Theonomic-Reconstructionist
vision that believes the so-called Golden Age comes through culture war and
mandated social transformation. Liberal or conservative, whether Capitalist and
Militarist or Socialist and philanthropic... both camps view the world system
as the tools by which the Kingdom is built and advanced.
As I've argued continuously, I embrace a theology of Means.
I'm not a Hyper-Calvinist or a Baptist. But the Means have to be God ordained
and delineated. The Means operate within the confines of the Covenant. They did
not and do not apply to the 'Gentiles' in either the Old or New
Testaments.
As Christians we raise our children in the Lord. But this is
within the confines of the Covenant, within the context of the Church. Our
children are reckoned part of the Church, holy and in a sanctified relationship
with God through Christ. And we raise them accordingly.
Broadening the definition of the Church doesn't make the
Church or Covenant bigger, it simply waters down the definitions to the point
in which they become all but meaningless.
The Invitation System of Finney and his spiritual descendants
watered down Christianity and sought to make Christians through moralistic
man-made means. The Christianity it produced was often little more than a
veneer. The backlash was the creation of Burned Over Districts, like Western
New York, areas almost inoculated to Christianity.
The Sacral Theology of Christendom which birthed American and
British Christianity have done this on a large scale. We have Burned Over
societies... burned out on Christianity.
Sadly, just as the many folks who have fallen prey to the
Cheap Grace gospel of Finney, the majority of people in Western Christendom
have never actually encountered Biblical Christianity or its Gospel. And yet at
this point it's almost as if the damage has been done.
They will not hear it.
Rather than fall back into old patterns, let us learn from
the foolishness and error of JC Ryle. With 20/20 hindsight we can see that he
wasn't a prophet but a fool, morally blind to the evil he was supporting and
the false Christianity he championed. That said, I don't doubt for a moment
Ryle was a Christian. Many of his works, and Murray's too are excellent and I
have greatly benefitted from them. But on this point, they couldn't be more
mistaken. Their message needs to be heard today. Heard, but not embraced. We
need to learn from their error.