Brian McLaren, liberal/”emergent” theologian, says it is time to re-write all the pro-war hymns.
No more “Onward Christian Soldiers” with all those military lyrics and the “marching off to war” stuff.
To continue reshaping faith in America, McLaren is also rewriting traditional Christian hymns, especially those he and others consider dangerously outdated theologically.
One of the chief offenders, McLaren told Baptist News Global, is Onward, Christian Soldiers, the 19th-century English hymn that connects Christian beliefs with militaristic images and metaphors.
Nevermind the fact that military language is a prominent metaphor of the Bible: “fighting the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12) and “abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11) being just two examples among many.
In contrast to McLaren, I recently enjoyed a two minute video clip from my friend Ken Graves, Pastor of Calvary Chapel in Bangor Maine.
Password: ARP
In this brief word of challenge, Graves reminds Christians that we are still in a battle and that our weapon is the Bible, the “sword of the Lord.” And yet, we cannot use the Word if we do not read it and know it.
So, Graves exhorts all Christians, but especially pastors, to regain an unshakable confidence in the sufficiency of the Scripture to change the world. That’s what Graves prays and hopes for.
He says:
“I pray for a revival, first, in the hearts of America’s pastors. A revival in the confidence of the total sufficiency of the Word of God. It is what our people need now more than ever. At the root of everything wrong with our culture, our society, politically…biblical ignorance is the problem.”
True change doesn’t come from where the world thinks it does. True change comes from the Word of God—the sword!
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14-17)
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