Evangelicals: Social Gospel or Faith Gospel? Choose Two!

In my last blog post, I pointed out that the evangelical church in America has grown phenomenally in size during the last 50 years. But at the same time, its influence on the surrounding culture has dramatically diminished. I suggested two reasons for this: we misunderstood the Great Commission to mean make converts instead of disciples, and we failed to love our neighbors without a hidden agenda.

The roots for these problems can actually be traced back to a series of events in the 1920’s and 1930’s that resulted in a major split within Christendom in this country. At its heart, the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy was a disagreement over the authority of Scripture. It began in the Presbyterian Church, the fourth largest Protestant denomination at the time, but its effects quickly spread to most of the other denominations, as well.

The Modernists had abandoned the belief in the historicity of the Bible and favored what has come to be known as a “social gospel.” For them, issues involving social justice, racial tensions, crime, liquor, child labor, bad hygiene, slums and poor schools were at the center of the church’s mission to the world. They were concerned about helping people in need, but turned away from many of the historic doctrines of the Christian faith. They focused on the horizontal relationship between man and man.
The Fundamentalists were committed to the authority of Scripture and favored what might be called a “faith gospel.” They were convinced that the most important issue facing humanity was the need for reconciliation with God. They were steadfast in their commitment to the doctrines of Biblical faith, but tended to withdraw from activities that had their focus on helping people. For them, the vertical relationship between man and God was paramount.

The Fundamentalists who were the predecessors of modern Evangelicals were godly people who desired deeply to be faithful to Scripture and the tenets of their faith. However, the net effect of their decision to emphasize faith issues to the exclusion of social issues was that they withdrew from the culture around them. They sought to obey the first and greatest commandment – to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. But, they forgot the second commandment which is like it – to love your neighbor as yourself. They were legitimately concerned with not being “of” the world. But, the result was that they withdrew from the culture and were no longer “in” the world.

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