Thoughts to Ponder are my musings regarding community, things of the Spirit, and living as a Christ-follower. I don't offer the words of a professional or an expert; just a fellow traveler and explorer. Please don't take my musings more serious than I do. I've discovered a long time ago that I do not hold the keys of knowledge or wisdom. If I did, I misplaced them somewhere...typical.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Gospel of Sin Managment (Dallas Willard Quote)

The gospel of sin management produces vampire Christians who want Jesus for his blood and little else…At the heart of right-wing theology is the individual forgiveness of sins. On the left it is the removal of social or structural evils. The current gospel then becomes a gospel of sin management. Transformation of heart and character is no part of the redemptive message. Moment to moment human reality is not the arena of faith and eternal living. What right and left have in common is neither has a coherent framework of knowledge and practical direction adequate to personal transformation toward the abundance and the obedience emphasized in the New Testament.

-Dallas Willard

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

...You need to know that the beginning analogy creeped me out a little bit. XD But I love you anyways, and agree. Who's Dallas?

Darryl said...

Dallas Willard: a professor of Philosophy and author of books like The Spirit of the Disciplines, A Divine Conspiracy, and a few others. I believe he is a friend of Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline) and is usually spoken of in the same breath as Foster.