Albert Mohler es el presidente del Seminario teológico de los Bautistas del Sur, además de un conocido conferenciante y escritor. En un reciente artículo ha expresado su preocupación ante el desafío de una cultura postmoderna «que duda del concepto de verdad y niega la verdad revelada», lo que el pastor considera una filosofía que al entrar en la iglesia puede desembocar en el «fin de la evangelización». Para Mohler, los evangélicos deben «recuperar el valor teológico y la convicción o nos enfrentaremos a la trágica realidad de que esta podría ser la última generación que evangeliza».Mohler se muestra muy crítico con «algunas tendencias de «evangelismo contemporáneo» que amenazan la integridad del mensaje, ya que «por definición, los evangélicos deben ser gente del Evangelio, que aprecia, enseña y comparte el Evangelio de Jesucristo». Alerta además del peligro de abandonar el centro del evangelio, «la verdad objetiva de que Cristo murió por los pecadores, y de que esa salvación es únicamente por gracia a través de la fe solamente en Cristo». Señala Mohler el testimonio de Lutero, que sostuvo que la doctrina fundamental de la justificación por fe es «el artículo por el cual la iglesia se levanta o cae».
Y bajo ese parámetro, Mohler advierte de la deriva actual de muchas iglesias - «lideradas por predicadores de televisión» - que en lugar de advertir del pecado, anima a «que busquen riquezas, bendiciones materiales, salud excelente, y recompensas terrenales». De esta forma la salvación «se empaqueta como un producto para ser pregonado y vendido con descuento», desapareciendo, a juicio de Mohler, la doctrina de la salvación, que en esa proclama se parece a «un regalo de autoayuda».
Para Mohler, hay una «izquierda teológica» que había transformado el mensaje del evangelio en algo social y político «de liberación de la opresión». Pero ahora, «algunos de los que se consideran evangélicos han reducido el Evangelio a una terapia». De esta forma, «se promete salvación como respuesta a una baja autoestima o vacío interior».
CULTURA DE FALSA TOLERANCIA
Otro de los aspectos que Mohler critica es la cultura de tolerancia y corrección política que puede llevar a los cristianos a admitir otras formas de salvación, cuando «la salvación viene a través de Jesucristo y sólo a través de Jesucristo». Un criterio que «no se puede negociar» a pesar de que su afirmación resulte inaceptable para muchos. «Jesús se identificó a sí mismo como el Camino, la Verdad, y la Vida». Una declaración que el pastor apoya en esta y otras citas bíblicas.
Pero hay otros peligros que afrontar desde la doctrina cristiana. Mohler cita distintas corrientes, como «un universalismo abierto en el que todos se salvan al final», o «el pluralismo, prometiendo que todos los caminos llevarán a Dios al final, y que ninguna fe tiene la afirmación privilegiada de la verdad». También reconoce que están «más cerca del cristianismo los que abogan por una forma de inclusión en la que se ve otras religiones y creencias como incluidas en la obra de Cristo», pero que algunos ven como «una forma de ´Cristianismo anónimo´ o una oportunidad posmoderna de confesar a Cristo».
Es por ello que Mohler concluye defendiendo un evangelismo basado en la proclamación de que «la salvación sólo se encuentra a través de la fe en Cristo. Esta es la lógica del mandato misionero y de la convicción que nos mueve al evangelismo». Una visión del mundo que «no concuerda con la que muchos mantienen hoy, especialmente los de clases cultas, que rechazan rotundamente tales afirmaciones por ser imperialistas y arrogantes».
Mohler es drástico advirtiendo lo que ya el sociólogo James Davison Hunter dijo sobre los evangélicos más jóvenes, «que tienden a ser permisivos. Esta generación ha sido enseñada a no hacer declaraciones exclusivas sobre la verdad». El pastor bautista considera que «a menos que cambiemos de dirección, no habrá evangélicos en la próxima generación».
Finaliza Mohler citando a Charles Spurgeon: «Hemos llegado a un punto decisivo en el camino. Si giramos a la derecha, quizás nuestros hijos y los hijos de nuestros hijos irán por ese camino; pero si giramos a la izquierda, las generaciones venideras nos maldecirán por haber sido infieles a Dios y a su Palabra». Unas palabras que «suenan con urgencia profética después de más de un siglo de que se hayan escrito».
Fuente: RNS. Traducción: Elena Díaz. Redacción: ACPress.net
Rev. Albert Mohler*Is this evangelicalism's terminal generation? Without doubt, we are facing an unprecedented set of challenges to evangelical identity. The rise of a postmodern culture has produced an intellectual context in which the very concept of truth is held under suspicion, and claims to revealed truth are simply ruled out of order. Benjamin Franklin, caught on the street during a break in the Constitutional Convention, is said to have been asked by a passerby to describe the new order to be proposed. "A republic," he answered, "if you can keep it." By definition, evangelicals are to be a Gospel people, cherishing, teaching, and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We will remain evangelical only insofar as we maintain the integrity of our Gospel witness--if we can keep it. We are truly evangelical only if we keep our testimony to the Gospel without confusion or compromise.
We should be very concerned about certain trends in contemporary evangelicalism that threaten this integrity. The first is an ominous confusion about the Gospel itself. The heart of the Gospel is the objective truth that Christ died for sinners, and that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Christ--alone. The cardinal doctrine of justification by faith is, as Martin Luther warned, "the article by which the church stands or falls."
If so, the church is falling in many quarters. Much of what is presented in many pulpits--and marketed by flashy television preachers--bears little resemblance to this simple message. Instead, sinners are told to seek after riches, material blessings, vibrant health, and earthly rewards. Salvation is packaged as a product to be hawked on the airwaves and sold at a discount. The notion of salvation from sin and judgment is entirely missing from this scenario. Instead, salvation is presented as a gift of self-enhancement.
On the theological left, the Gospel had long ago been transformed into a social and political message of liberation from oppression. Now, among some who consider themselves evangelicals, the Gospel of Christ has been reduced to a form of self-expression or therapy. Salvation is promised as the answer to low self-esteem and emptiness. Gone is any notion of a holy God who offers salvation from sin and its eternal penalty.
The other pressing front in the current battle for the Gospel concerns the exclusivity of the work of Christ. The testimony of the Bible could not be more clear. Salvation comes to all who call upon the name of the Lord. Salvation comes through Jesus Christ--and through Jesus Christ alone. In our culture of political correctness and intolerant tolerance, we are told that such a claim is simply unacceptable. There cannot be only one way of salvation. Who is to say that the religions of the world are wrong, and that Christianity alone is true?
Well, that is the non-negotiable criterion of evangelical faithfulness. Jesus identified Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life--and "no one comes to the Father, but through Me" [John 14:6]. Without this clear testimony, the Gospel is emptied of its integrity. The Bible allows no misunderstanding. Without conscious faith in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation.
Dean Kelley, a liberal Protestant, once noted that, "Even the most gentle, humble, and loving Christians must divide the world into those who confess Jesus as Lord and those who don't." Given the clarity of the Gospel, we have no other choice.
Even so, various forms of compromise erupt on this crucial front in the battle for the Gospel. Some advocate an open universalism, in which all persons are eventually saved. Others promote pluralism, promising that all roads will eventually lead to God, and that no faith has a privileged claim to truth. Closer to home, some have advocated a form of inclusivism in which other religions and faiths are seen to be included in the work of Christ. Still others advocate a form of "anonymous Christianity" or a post-mortem opportunity to confess Christ.
Against these various attempts to evade the simple clarity of the Gospel stands the Word of God. Our evangelical integrity stands or falls on this truth--salvation is found through faith in Christ alone. This is the logic of the missionary mandate and the sustaining conviction for all evangelism. Nevertheless, the worldview held by many individuals today--especially those among the educated classes--flatly rejects such claims as imperialistic and arrogant.
Sociologist James Davison Hunter has long warned that younger evangelicals tend to go soft on this doctrine. Educated in a culture of postmodern relativism and ideological pluralism, this generation has been taught to avoid making any exclusive claim to truth. Speak of your truth, if you must--but never claim to know the Truth. Unless this course is reversed, there will be no evangelicals in the next generation.
Charles Spurgeon stated it plainly: "We have come to a turning-point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word." Those words ring with prophetic urgency more than a century after they were written. Evangelicals must regain theological courage and conviction, or we must face the tragic reality that this may be evangelicalism's terminal generation.
* Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., serves as the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has been recognized by such influential publications as Time and Christianity Today as a leader among American evangelicals. In fact, Time.com called him the “reigning intellectual of the evangelical movement in the U.S.” www.sbts.edu
We should be very concerned about certain trends in contemporary evangelicalism that threaten this integrity. The first is an ominous confusion about the Gospel itself. The heart of the Gospel is the objective truth that Christ died for sinners, and that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Christ--alone. The cardinal doctrine of justification by faith is, as Martin Luther warned, "the article by which the church stands or falls."
If so, the church is falling in many quarters. Much of what is presented in many pulpits--and marketed by flashy television preachers--bears little resemblance to this simple message. Instead, sinners are told to seek after riches, material blessings, vibrant health, and earthly rewards. Salvation is packaged as a product to be hawked on the airwaves and sold at a discount. The notion of salvation from sin and judgment is entirely missing from this scenario. Instead, salvation is presented as a gift of self-enhancement.
On the theological left, the Gospel had long ago been transformed into a social and political message of liberation from oppression. Now, among some who consider themselves evangelicals, the Gospel of Christ has been reduced to a form of self-expression or therapy. Salvation is promised as the answer to low self-esteem and emptiness. Gone is any notion of a holy God who offers salvation from sin and its eternal penalty.
The other pressing front in the current battle for the Gospel concerns the exclusivity of the work of Christ. The testimony of the Bible could not be more clear. Salvation comes to all who call upon the name of the Lord. Salvation comes through Jesus Christ--and through Jesus Christ alone. In our culture of political correctness and intolerant tolerance, we are told that such a claim is simply unacceptable. There cannot be only one way of salvation. Who is to say that the religions of the world are wrong, and that Christianity alone is true?
Well, that is the non-negotiable criterion of evangelical faithfulness. Jesus identified Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life--and "no one comes to the Father, but through Me" [John 14:6]. Without this clear testimony, the Gospel is emptied of its integrity. The Bible allows no misunderstanding. Without conscious faith in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation.
Dean Kelley, a liberal Protestant, once noted that, "Even the most gentle, humble, and loving Christians must divide the world into those who confess Jesus as Lord and those who don't." Given the clarity of the Gospel, we have no other choice.
Even so, various forms of compromise erupt on this crucial front in the battle for the Gospel. Some advocate an open universalism, in which all persons are eventually saved. Others promote pluralism, promising that all roads will eventually lead to God, and that no faith has a privileged claim to truth. Closer to home, some have advocated a form of inclusivism in which other religions and faiths are seen to be included in the work of Christ. Still others advocate a form of "anonymous Christianity" or a post-mortem opportunity to confess Christ.
Against these various attempts to evade the simple clarity of the Gospel stands the Word of God. Our evangelical integrity stands or falls on this truth--salvation is found through faith in Christ alone. This is the logic of the missionary mandate and the sustaining conviction for all evangelism. Nevertheless, the worldview held by many individuals today--especially those among the educated classes--flatly rejects such claims as imperialistic and arrogant.
Sociologist James Davison Hunter has long warned that younger evangelicals tend to go soft on this doctrine. Educated in a culture of postmodern relativism and ideological pluralism, this generation has been taught to avoid making any exclusive claim to truth. Speak of your truth, if you must--but never claim to know the Truth. Unless this course is reversed, there will be no evangelicals in the next generation.
Charles Spurgeon stated it plainly: "We have come to a turning-point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word." Those words ring with prophetic urgency more than a century after they were written. Evangelicals must regain theological courage and conviction, or we must face the tragic reality that this may be evangelicalism's terminal generation.
* Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., serves as the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has been recognized by such influential publications as Time and Christianity Today as a leader among American evangelicals. In fact, Time.com called him the “reigning intellectual of the evangelical movement in the U.S.” www.sbts.edu
Fuente: www.albertmohler.com
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