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Os Guinness: The Christian Church And The Western World

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Christian author and scholar, Os Guinness, describes what he sees as the greatest challenge facing the Western church. Though brief, this little video is packed with insight.  We are, he argues, at a place Martin Luther would describe as, “Babylonian captivity.”  Also, check out this interview, conducted by Justin Taylor, in which Guinness discusses his book The Last Christian on Earth and expounds upon the ideas in this clip. The challenge for our generation, he concludes is, “Can we have a faith with integrity that prevails against the teeth of our modern world?”

Comments

  2. As you know, I only have one string on my guitar and I pluck it constantly: Christ, and Him Crucified, the sum of the gospel, because eternal truth is always relevant and never out of style.

    The only hope of resurrection in this country is repentance; the only hope for repentance is revival; the only hope for revival is reformation; the only hope for reformation is redemption in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, according to scripture alone, for God’s glory alone.

    Thanks for posting this, dear sister. We love you and miss you.

    • And this is why the body needs you, Jon … because you always bring it back home to the cross. Please keep plucking away at that one string; we need to hear it! Missing you and Lisa but in our hearts, you are never far.

    • Jon, I so appreciate your constancy to truth. I fear even the Calvinists are in danger of caving to pragmatism.
      God bless you brother.

  3. Christina, if you have time (hmm yeah) get his book “The Dust of Death” originally published in 1973 by InterVarsity Press.

    Thank you for posting this interview.

    Love,
    Lisa

    • I will definitely check it out Lisa! 🙂 I’ve had one of his books on my shelf for some time now but haven’t had a chance to read it. It’s called, “Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About it”. Simply so many books and so little time!

  4. Thank you for posting this Christina. We do live in perilous times in the west – How do we not fit Rev. 3:17?
    “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

    Wish we didn’t live so far apart.

    • That is a very sobering verse to apply here. It underscores the danger of self delusion that, by God’s grace, we must guard against. Worldly prosperity can most certainly be a damnable thing.

  5. Jon said it best…so much truth in that comment brother- as well as in this short video. The doctrines of grace have slipped away in the churches of America and England in favor of decisionism and man made methodologies and we are seeing the devastating results. Tons of professing Christians honoring Christ with their lips but their hearts love the world and it’s fleeting pleasures. They are in bondage to sin and they love it. There are few Bereans in the pews, instead the pews are filled with puppets who think, say and do as their pastor commands and believe what they hear without examining the words in light of God’s word. There is no call to holiness from the pulpits, no cry for obedience.
    Christina, you are familiar with Dr. Boice’s book concerning the doctrines of grace, this is something he was driving home in the time God gave him here, and others long before his time spoke diligently of. We need more like him who will cry out for a turning back to these essential doctrines: man is radically depraved and without hope apart from grace. Christ is the propitiation for sin for those who receive this grace according to His mercy. The tax collector said much when he cried’ God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

    lyn

    • Well said! In many ways, the blame for the degradation of our society that we are experiencing — at virtually every level, falls squarely on the church. A compromised gospel will do nothing to influence the world — if anything it will only serve to pollute it more. I join you in crying out to God for nothing short of a new Reformation and Awakening. And yes, I most certainly have read Boice’s book re: the doctrines of grace. It is one of my favorites and one of the earlier books that I picked up when seeking to understand the doctrines of grace. Wishing you a beautiful Lord’s day!