Signs of Revolution

"As Christians, we must be rubbed into the fabric of this world," Dr. David Jeremiah poignantly suggested (suggested in name only) to authentic believers in Charlotte, NC last Thursday night at his Signs of Life rally. Christians are to be the "salt of the earth." I certainly don't want an amazingly stale Christianity. Yet, if I only stay hold up in Ft. God, fending myself off from the savages of Sin, Satan, and the World, waiting on eternity, then my bread of life will have been bought at the day-old discount store. It will taste even worse.

However, for many believers this presents a moral delimma. For some who do brave the trek into the worldly jungle, mission work should merely consist of telling people to accept Jesus. I have been told in no uncertian terms before, "I would rather save their soul then simply give them a piece of bread." For others missionary work is what has corrupted this world and if not cast aside all-together should at least have the decency to only do good works. Clearly both of these ideas represent the extremes of conservative and liberal philosophies of the practice of Christianity. To be fair my ultra-conservative friend sought to retain the essential reason for venturing into the great unknown worldly wilderness in the first place--namely to people reconciled to God. And the presence of the ultra-theologically liberal attitude cited above fans the flames of fundamentalist fear.

Is it possible to have somewhat of a happy medium? Jeremiah emotionally recalled sitting around his father's dinner table as a kid. His father, who helped to found the historical Fundamentalist movement, often lamented that many had given up the heart of Christianity by only doing good works. Though sympathetic to his father's camp, Jeremiah insisted that they neglected to read the whole message of Salvation as seen in Ephesians 2:8-10:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (ESV, italics mine).

Jeremiah emphatically appealed that we are most certainly saved by grace through faith alone, but that we are saved for good works. Towards the end of his message he said that he dreamed of starting a revolution of true believers who take God's Word seriously enough to move out from the four walls and into true service of the poor and those caught in sin. I believe his Signs of Life rally is but one of the amazing signs of revolution currently going on in orthodox Evangelicalism.

Dr. Jeremiah's picture is from the website: http://www.nelsonministryservices.com/nms/bio.asp?cid=924