Post Series
Introduction
Reimagining Christian Religious Identity (Part 1: The Crisis of Christian Identity)
Reformulating Christian Doctrine (Part 2: The Doctrinal Challenge–1)
Reformulating Christian Doctrine (Part 2: The Doctrinal Challenge–2)
Reconstructing Christian Practices (Part 3: The Liturgical Challenge)
Redefining Christian mission (Part 4: The Missional Challenge)
This post is the first in a series examining the ideas in Brian McLaren’s newest book, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World
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Brian McLaren reminds me a lot of Thomas Jefferson: He conveniently ignores large portions of the Holy Scripture that do not conform to His worldview.
Jefferson is known to have cobbled together a Bible that cut out the miracles of Jesus and supernatural elements of the Gospels, because they didn’t conform to his modern, Enlightenment worldview. Similarly, in his newest book, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World, McLaren has ignored entire portions of the Bible that don’t conform to his postmodern, pluralism worldview.
He has ignored the Lord’s command to Israel to not worship any other God but YHWH. He has ignored the anger and judgement of God over Israel’s pervasive pattern of idolatry throughout the Old Testament. He has ignored the New Testament’s teachings that Jesus Christ Himself is the only one true God. He has ignored Scripture’s teachings on salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, that there is no under name under heaven by which a person can be rescued.
Like Jefferson, McLaren has conveniently ignored the Bible in favor of a Christian religious identity that isn’t actually Christian. Instead, it is fundamentally foreign to the Holy Scripture and historic Christian faith.
Now understand, I am not arguing McLaren himself is not a Christian. That’s not for me to decide; God holds final judgment in that regard. What I am arguing is that his ideas are not Christian. Outlining McLaren’s postmodern, pluralistic worldview will show that his gospel is no gospel at all. It is a false gospel that ignores the Bible and fundamentals of the Christian faith.
McLaren’s gospel hinges on his desire to develop “a healthy, sane and faithful Christian identity in a multi-faith world.” (9) This is an admirable desire. Given our multi-faith reality, finding a way to get along and exist as Christians alongside people of other religions is indeed needed. But the way McLaren goes about it is faulty, as he has no regard for the exclusivity of faith in Jesus Christ as single Lord and Savior. Instead, he wants to develop a Christian religious identity “that moves me toward people of other faiths in wholehearted love, not in spit of their non-Christian identity and not in spite or my own Christian identity, but because of my identity as a follower of God in the way of Jesus.” (11) Notice that McLaren isn’t a follower of Jesus, but instead a follower of God in the way of Jesus. This distinction is crucial, because this descriptive nuance broadens the solution to our problem well beyond Jesus Christ and into religious pluralism along the lines other religious pluralists have been arguing for years. For McLaren, the point is following God—a vanilla, pan-deity that stands as the Higher Being of all religious faiths—and Jesus is merely one way among many possible ways to follow.
While the Christian gospel insists that salvation is found in no one other than Jesus Christ, McLaren’s gospel insists that something good shines from the heart of all religions, which is “a saving drive toward peace, goodness, self-control, integrity, charity, beauty, duty.” (20) McLaren is on mission to rethink Christian identity in a multi-faith world, and in so doing he completely redefines and reimagines the Christian faith itself.
We will explore McLaren’s reimagining enterprise by explaining his reimagining of a Christian religious identity, his reformulation of key doctrines of the Christian faith, his reconstruction of important Church practices, and his redefinition of Christian mission. While McLaren’s latest enterprise is indeed sad, it shouldn’t surprise anyone because it is a firm extension of the generational enterprise of theological liberalism. This iteration is the logical extension of the liberal gospel for a postmodern day.
As I read McLaren’s newest book I couldn’t help but think about Paul’s journey to Athens recorded in Acts 17. For longtime Christians it’s a well-known story in which Paul encounters a marketplace “full of idols” in Athens, much like our own multi-faith day in America. How does Paul respond? First, he follows McLaren’s cues in moving toward people of other faiths “in wholehearted love” by acknowledging and appreciating their religiosity. But unlike McLaren, he carries that love further, beyond mere tolerance, to confronting these religious people with the only one true God of the Holy Scriptures. After calling them “ignorant,” Paul then goes on to tell the Story of this God. He then boldly, courageously calls these idolaters out from their ignorance by repenting, saying that “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands people everywhere to repent,” (Acts 17:30) to repent of their false worship of false gods. In fact, God “has set a day when He will judge the world” (Acts 17:31) for the very ignorant idolatry that McLaren champions! Unlike the apology McLaren has written, what we see here in Acts 17 is the only posture the Church has ever taken toward other religions, and it is one that’s especially important for Christian identity in a multi-faith world.
So, according to McLaren, why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed cross the road? “Because they hoped we would follow them.” (12) McLaren’s gospel truly sketches a brand new kind of Christianity for a multi-faith world, which isn’t good news for anyone.
