Mar 31, 2012

Integrity in Proclaiming the Resurrection

  
"The church today should examine itself with respect to the integrity of its proclamation of the resurrection. It must first ask whether it continues to proclaim the apostolic faith or whether the corrosive effects of modernity have softened the hard edges of the resurrection truth in the church's preaching and teaching. The church needs to consider the slow collapse of creedal commitment among its members, and even its leaders. The popularity of the 'historical Jesus' as a touchstone for many communities needs careful analysis and criticism. Certainly, the learning of history in order to be better readers of the Gospel is to be applauded; but a reconstruction of Jesus' ministry by historical means cannot replace the Gospels, which are written from beginning to end in light of the resurrection—that is, in light of the faith shared by the church of the evangelists, and the church today, if indeed it is."

Luke Timothy Johnson, Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011), 183.

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