SpiritFarmer


The twin products of apostasy
April 13, 2008, 8:58 am
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Capitalism and Marxism are the twin products of the apostasy of the European intellectuals of the eighteenth century.  They turned their backs on the Christian revolution, except as an option for the private life of the individual, and adopted a radically different faith as the public faith that would control education, government and business.  And that faith was more an ideology than a faith.  It was one that put human beings at the centre of the universe and exalted the autonomous human reason as the sole measure and motor of human advancement.

Capitalism and Marxism are indeed the twin products of that apostasy.  The proposal to understand all human affairs in terms of a classification of human beings as oppressors or oppressed, and the identification of the oppressed as the bearers of meaning and hope for history, is an obvious carry-over from Marxism.  We are all, in some measure, both oppressors and oppressed.  The gospel, the good news with which we are charged, is that the reign of God, present in Jesus, has brought us all together under judgment and has in the same act brought us all together under blessing.  In the presence of the cross there are no innocent parties.  In its presence we know that we are together guilty and yet all together forgiven, loved, set free.  The good news is that we are liberated, and it is out of that actually given liberation that our actions for justice and mercy flow. 

– Lesslie Newbigin, Mission in Christ’s Way, 1987


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I just finished reading the cartoon history of the United States and I totally agree. 🙂

Comment by Ronnie




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