How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
The Evangelical Fallacy
These guiding principles of the Evangelical Hermeneutic stem from the original misspelled DNA of the cancer—the Evangelical Fallacy. The Evangelical Fallacy is the bastardization of a logical equation which is never allowed to be resolved—its resolution would overcome the contemporary Christian and reveal their god to be the monster he is and confirm their own long suspected, but unconsciously hidden conviction that they are doomed. That they will not die but live everlasting torture assigned by the gleeful dripping jaws of a sadistic god, who snarls endlessly, “I told you so. I warned you.”
The logical equation that is written in the DNA of the Contemporary Christian is simple:
A then B therefore C
But in practice it is always and must always be:
A then B therefore…
The equation is never, and must never be, resolved.
A. God will love you and save you if you are good.
B. You are a sinner and can never be good.
Therefore
C. God will never love you and save you.
February 21, 2008 at 8:55 pm
That is not my experience of evangelicalism at all. I’m not that anymore, but it’s where I grew up, and in all my years of Sunday School and Bible camp and sermons, I never heard a teacher say “God will love you and save you if you are good.” Not once.
The order you put them in is wrong too, at least in my experience. The line that came first (and came often) was “You are a sinner and can never be good.” The second line was “God loves you anyway and sent his son to die in your place.” And the therefore was, “Therefore, believe in Jesus, and show your gratitude by living a new life.”
There was never any question of God’s love, and there was adamant and repeated objection to the idea that we can earn God’s love by good behavior.