The Pointlessness of Liberal Christianity

Often, many people ask me what it would take for me to give up the Christian faith and renounce it. Ok, so actually not a lot of people do this if any at all. I'm kidding. But actually, I ask myself every now and then what it would take for me to be convinced that Christianity is not true. Evolutionary theory or any scientific advancement won’t do it (I’ve dealt with that here). Proof against a Biblical account of history won’t do it (those don’t exist). I think the only way I could ever be persuaded that Christianity isn’t true is if someone could show me the bones of Jesus. I think this is the Biblical answer too.

In the first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul writes that “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” (1 Cor. 15:14-17, ESV). If someone could prove to me that Jesus was not raised from the dead, then I would recant. And rightfully so, since this is the same condition that Paul places on faith. Central to the gospel message is the fact that a dead Man got up from the grave and walked around. The resurrection of Christ means first, that Christ has conquered death and second, that we can now do so too. While there’s a richness to this passage that I can’t possibly do justice to now, I do think that Paul does say something special here about the content of the gospel, especially with respect to mainline and liberal Protestant ideas of the gospel message.

The gospel is a story that is closely tied to the historical fact that Jesus paid for our sins and then was raised to walk again. The resurrection is so important that Paul claims that if it didn’t happen, then Christianity is meaningless. To me, this means that the gospel has a very obvious relationship to spiritual justification, propitiation, atonement, and the forgiveness of sins. Most liberal Christians that I know, however, tend to see the Christian faith strictly in terms of a social gospel. Jesus was a good guy that didn’t really do many supernatural things, but he lived an exemplary life and helped the poor, and so should we. Now don’t mistake me, this is indeed a crucial part of the Christian message, but it is not the only part. Most liberals (and this is a generalization) don’t think of Jesus’s role as a sacrifice for our sins. In doing this, they act like they’ve already found the bones of Jesus. Jesus didn’t have to be raised from the dead in order for us to have a social gospel. He didn’t even really have to die. But the fact that Christianity sees the resurrection as central to the faith means that we as Christians have to go beyond the social gospel to something more. Liberal Christians, on the other hand, are in part living a Christianity that implies that Jesus never got up from the grave and conquered death and appeased God’s wrath. Liberals, while they may not claim that Jesus is still in the ground, nonetheless act as if they’ve already found the bones of Jesus, but keep on going. Why is this? Paul says that if we don’t believe in a risen Christ, then everything we’ve done is in vain. A gospel that doesn’t focus on sin and Christ’s atonement is foolishness. The sad thing is that many liberals are actually consistent. Many liberals out there (like a Bultmann) actually don’t see Christ’s resurrection as necessary for faith.

But thankfully, this is not the whole story. For Paul continues that “in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:20-22, ESV). Christ has in fact been raised, and our love for Him is not in vain, and neither is His atoning work for our sins. What we as Christians should start to do is live in the glorious reality of that fact. We would do well to remember that.

Hey guys a disclaimer: when I say "liberal Christianity" I don't mean like politically liberal. I mean theologically liberal. Those are two different things. We could actually use more politically liberals within Christianity.