The Importance of Incarnation

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Liberal theologians often use words the church has always used, but they mean something entirely different by them. Tommy Mason: For a kind of classic liberal theologian, incarnation is at best an idea. resurrection isn't some metaphor for enlightenment, it's an actual fact. He says we sometimes are too content with easy answers to the text and short circuits our ability to ponder the depth and beauty of what's actually taking place among us.

What’s in a name?

In the past, when Christians talked about Jesus, it was safe to assume we were talking about the son of God become man who conquered death to save the lost. You know, the person the Bible’s about.

But with the rise of liberal theology in the 19th and 20th centuries, that meaning began to change. At least for some people. Christ, liberal theologians said, might be better understood as an idea, a metaphor, or a good example, rather than the sinless supernatural savior who accomplished our redemption in the first century.

This was J. Gresham Machen’s line in the sand in 1923. If we don’t worship the same Christ, Machen said, we don’t have the same religion.

Politics. Technology. Identity. Power. Science. Everything seems to be changing. So why not faith?

Visit christianityandliberalism.com for more on the book, audiobook, and show.

Music: “Line in the Sand (C&L)” by Timothy Brindle Produced by Nobody Special Wrath and Grace Records Music Licensing Codes: G80CW5LAONGBUAXB BYDTC3Y8K96ACYJ2