{"id":9357,"date":"2015-07-26T15:08:14","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T20:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=9357"},"modified":"2015-07-26T15:08:14","modified_gmt":"2015-07-26T20:08:14","slug":"book-review-onward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=9357","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Onward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Onward-Engaging-Culture-without-Losing\/dp\/1433686171\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1437938456&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=onward+russell+moore\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-9358\" alt=\"onward-cvr3d\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/onward-cvr3d-280x300.png\" width=\"280\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/onward-cvr3d-280x300.png 280w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/onward-cvr3d.png 504w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Let\u2019s not seek to resuscitate the old civil religions. \u00a0Let\u2019s work instead for something new, and for something old: the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven, gathered in churches of transformed people, reconciled to one another, on mission with one another, holding together the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ.&#8221;<\/em> Russell Moore, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Onward-Engaging-Culture-without-Losing\/dp\/1433686171\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1437938456&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=onward+russell+moore\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Onward<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bruce Jenner. \u00a0The Charleston Shootings. \u00a0The Confederate Flag. \u00a0Gay Marriage. \u00a0Planned Parenthood. \u00a0Donald Trump. \u00a0The Chattanooga Shootings. \u00a0The Louisiana Shootings. \u00a0Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Wherever you stand on any of these issues&#8230;the summer of 2015 will go down as one where we saw some major culture shifts take place. \u00a0None of these started in 2015&#8230;we had been inching towards several of them for years&#8230;but the major shift occurred as these headlines took over our newcasts, podcasts, blogfeeds, twitter, and more. \u00a0The good news? \u00a0None of this was a surprise to God. \u00a0It really never should have been a surprise to us either. \u00a0If you have read Genesis 3, then you know that the world is not what it was originally intended to be&#8230;and thus, people make choices and do things that they weren&#8217;t originally created to do.<\/p>\n<p>In his newest book, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Onward-Engaging-Culture-without-Losing\/dp\/1433686171\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1437938456&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=onward+russell+moore\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Onward<\/em><\/a>, Russell Moore, the President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Commission makes a plea for Christ followers to engage culture while holding fast to the gospel. \u00a0We have compromised the gospel for far too long in favor of building a bridge to the culture or trying to fit in. \u00a0That&#8217;s not at all what we have been called to do. \u00a0We also haven&#8217;t been called to be mean, bigoted, hateful people. \u00a0We come bearing good news&#8230;Christ has died. \u00a0Christ has risen. \u00a0Christ will come again. \u00a0We are called to live lives in which we love God first and then love others second with the hope of having an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all those we come in contact with.<\/p>\n<p><em>Onward<\/em> is a great read for anyone that desires to step away from the hype of the six o&#8217;clock news in favor of studying what God&#8217;s word has to say about how a Christian should live in light of the world around us. \u00a0If you are ready to focus on God&#8217;s truth and truly live out the gospel, this book is a great tool to understanding the authority of Scripture and the supremacy of Christ. \u00a0Don&#8217;t be fearful, be prepared to love others well.<\/p>\n<p>Below I have listed several things that I highlighted while reading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"no\"?--><\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.\u201d Matthew 16:18<\/li>\n<li>Walking away from our own lordship\u2014or from the tyranny of our desires\u2014has always been a narrow way.<\/li>\n<li>Our call is to an engage alienation, a Christianity that preserves the distinctiveness of our gospel while not retreating from our callings as neighbors, and friends, and citizens.<\/li>\n<li>Our end goal is not a Christian America, either of the made-up past or the hoped-for future. \u00a0Our end goal is the kingdom of Christ, made up of every tribe, tongue, nation, and language.<\/li>\n<li>Before the culture war came to the ballot box, it came to the jukebox.<\/li>\n<li>If we were ever a moral majority, we are no longer.<\/li>\n<li>That\u2019s why the Bible warns us that \u201cthe anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.\u201d (James 1:20)<\/li>\n<li>We ought not to shy away then from saying, \u201cthe Bible says.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>We must learn to be strange enough to have a prophetic voice, but connected enough to prophesy to those who need to hear. \u00a0We need to be those who know both how to warn and to welcome, to weep and to dream.<\/li>\n<li>The kingdoms of the moment, whatever they are, seem more important than the kingdom of Christ, without our ever even realizing it. \u00a0That\u2019s why our blood pressure is more likely to rise when we hear someone disagree with us about our political party or our sports team or an item in the news than when we hear faulty teaching from a Christian pulpit.<\/li>\n<li>Implicit in Jesus\u2019 preaching in the synagogue was the message he would preach everywhere else later, to seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness. \u00a0Kingdom first does not mean kingdom only. \u00a0Since the kingdom is a kingdom of justice and righteousness, seeking the kingdom means that we come to know what to care about in the first place.<\/li>\n<li>The church is a signpost of God\u2019s coming kingdom (Ephesians 3:10), a preview to the watching world of what the reign of God in Christ is to look like, a colony of the kingdom coming.<\/li>\n<li>We do not seek to legislate the kingdom of God into existence, any more than we seek to legislate the unique covenantal order of Old Testament Israel. \u00a0But the pattern of justice in Israel, and even more so, the pattern of the restored future can give us a moral framework to question the assumptions of our ambient culture. \u00a0The priorities of the King, seen in the ultimate restoration of creation, become the priorities of the colony of the kingdom: the church.<\/li>\n<li>All the promises of God find their \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cAmen\u201d in him. \u00a0(2 Corinthians 1:20)<\/li>\n<li>There\u2019s no doubt that we should want to see widespread repentance and the seeking of God in our country. \u00a0That\u2019s not the problem. \u00a0The problem is that the application of this, and other passages, to the United States\u2014or any other nation, for that matter\u2014is a confusion of the question of who \u201cwe\u201d are. \u00a0The United States, or any other modern nation, is not in a covenant with God. \u00a0Second Chronicles 7:14 is not a general statement about humbling or blessing, but about the gospel.<\/li>\n<li>A prosperity gospel applied to a nation is no more biblical than a prosperity gospel applied to a person.<\/li>\n<li>With a kingdom vision, we recognize that the priorities of this present world system are different from those of the age to come.<\/li>\n<li>The internal doctrinal and more ordering of the church is a matter of mission. \u00a0Without it, the presence of Christ is gone, the lamp stand removed (Revelation 2:5), and with it the light that shines out into the world. \u00a0A church that loses its distinctiveness is a church that has nothing distinctive with which to engage the culture. \u00a0A worldly culture is of no good to the world.<\/li>\n<li>Let\u2019s not aspire to be a moral majority but a gospel community, one that doesn\u2019t exist for itself but for the larger mission of reaching the whole world with the whole gospel.<\/li>\n<li>The future of Christian social witness cannot assume the gospel, but must articulate it explicitly and coherently, not silly as the tagline at the end of our activism but as the ground and underpinning of it.<\/li>\n<li>The word of God exposes the conscience in order to drive it to the goodness of the gospel news, even at those points where the conscience argues that the word of God ought not to have jurisdiction.<\/li>\n<li>The gospel teaches us to differentiate between the \u201cvery good\u201d of God\u2019s original creation along with the \u201ceven better\u201d of his coming new creation from the pain and suffering of sin and curse.<\/li>\n<li>The gospel does not expose sin in order to condemn but in order to reconcile.<\/li>\n<li>Any \u201cgospel\u201d that evacuates the cross of judgement against sin, that alienates the gospel from personal reconciliation with God and with others, is something other than the gospel \u00a0of Jesus Christ. \u00a0And any Christianity that turns us away from the truths handed down to us about Jesus\u2014his deity, his humanity, his miracles, his atoning death, his bodily resurrection, his future return, his authority in Scripture, his building of his church\u2014is pointing us to some different Messiah.<\/li>\n<li>Those who develop a sense of how human dignity fits in the larger meaning of the universe have consciences that can be trained to see related issues of racial reconciliation, euthanasia, war and peace, treatment of migrants and workers, capital punishment and prison conditions, as well as the rapidly changing challenges to human uniqueness proposed by technologies that promise life-extension and even artificial intelligence.<\/li>\n<li>A Christianity that doesn\u2019t prophetically speak for human dignity is a Christianity that has lost anything distinctive to say.<\/li>\n<li>A vision of human dignity can exist within the common grace structures of the world, but a distinctively Christian vision of why humanity should be protected must emerge from a larger framework of kingdom and culture and mission.<\/li>\n<li>Even those who reject Christian doctrine, or even any religious teaching at all, can acknowledge that something seems wrong with the world.<\/li>\n<li>The universe was called into existence as an inheritance for Jesus, that in all things he might have the preeminence (Colossians 1:18).<\/li>\n<li>The image of God, biblically speaking, is a mysterious reality in which the invisible world and even inanimate nature seems to recognize in humanity the distinctive mark of our Creator (Romans 8:19-23). \u00a0This image is about who we are\u2014not just about what we do\u2014but clearly the image of God defines and equips us to carry our God\u2019s mission, ruling beneath and for him over the rest of the creation. \u00a0This is the end-result of redemption\u2014a humanity once again, under God, on the throne of the cosmos.<\/li>\n<li>Our task as the people of God is to recognize this culture where we see it, to know where this comes from, and to speak a different story.<\/li>\n<li>We must repent of the way that we, sometimes without even knowing it, have prized the powerful over the powerless.<\/li>\n<li>We must first deal with the question, contested in our time, of whether children are persons or property, based simply on whether they are existing inside or outside the biosphere of the womb.<\/li>\n<li>We cannot combat a culture of death merely with appeals to abstract human dignity based on natural law (not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that). \u00a0In every assault on human life, there\u2019s not only a life left for dead but also a conscience left for hell. \u00a0The gospel addresses both.<\/li>\n<li>A religion that needs state power to enforce obedience to its beliefs is a religion that has lost confidence in the power of its Deity.<\/li>\n<li>The gospel is big enough to fight for itself.<\/li>\n<li>The most important thing the church can do to protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience is to hold to the gospel itself.<\/li>\n<li>There will come a day when Old Glory yields to an older glory, when the new republic succumbs to a new creation. \u00a0We must not shirk our callings as citizens, but we also must not see our citizenship of the moment as the final word. \u00a0We are Americans best when we are not Americans first.<\/li>\n<li>The \u201ccrisis in the American family\u201d isn\u2019t downstream from Woodstock or the Pill\u2014whatever factors cultural trends may have played\u2014but downstream from the wreckage of Eden.<\/li>\n<li>The household is not just a \u201crelationship\u201d, but an economy, an economy where we learns something of what it means to be the children of God. \u00a0Disharmony between parents and children is not simply a cultural problem; it implicitly pictures a false gospel of a Father who does not hear his Son, a Son who does not honor his Father, a church that is not mother to those of the faith.<\/li>\n<li>How can churches castigate the outside culture for believing the family structure is socially malleable when we fail in our church households to maintain a consistent witness to the kingdom of God?<\/li>\n<li>We ought to love those who disagree with us, including those who see us as bigots. \u00a0They are not our enemies.<\/li>\n<li>We need to be ready, after all that, to point a light toward older paths, toward water than can satisfy. \u00a0We need to be a John 3:16 people in a John 4:16 world.<\/li>\n<li>Kindness and gentleness grow, not when we downplay warfare, but when we emphasize it. \u00a0For Paul, kindness is not politeness. \u00a0It\u2019s a weapon in spiritual warfare. \u00a0We teach and rebuke with kindness and gentleness, so that \u201cGod may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may\u2026escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to his will\u201d (2 Timothy 2:25-26).<\/li>\n<li>The line between light and darkness doesn\u2019t line up by party affiliation or by moral values, but right through everyone one of our hearts and souls.<\/li>\n<li>The Scriptures command us to be gentle and kind to unbelievers, not because we are not at war, but because we\u2019re not at war with them (2 Timothy 2:26).<\/li>\n<li>In our message, people are to hear the Galilean accent of Jesus of Nazareth.<\/li>\n<li>We stand and we speak, with reconciliation in view. \u00a0We see, therefore, even our most passionate critic not as an argument to be vaporized but as a neighbor to be evangelized. \u00a0This doesn\u2019t mean that we back down one iota from the truth. \u00a0But we proclaim the whole gospel of truth and grace, never backing down from either.<\/li>\n<li>Preachy propaganda doesn&#8217;t arrest the conscience. \u00a0We, as ambassadors of Christ, are dealing with the aroma of life and the stench of death (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). \u00a0We must appeal to the depths of accused consciences that already know God, but shrink back from him in fear.<\/li>\n<li>Kindness does not avoid conflict; kindness engages conflict, but with a goal of reconciliation.<\/li>\n<li>We are the voice of the future, of the coming kingdom of God. \u00a0The message of the kingdom isn\u2019t \u201cYou kids, get off our lawn.\u201d \u00a0The message of the kingdom is, \u201cMake way for the coming of the Lord.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cFor where jealously and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. \u00a0But the widow from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.\u201d \u00a0James 3:16-17<\/li>\n<li>Let\u2019s not seek to resuscitate the old civil religions. \u00a0Let\u2019s work instead for something new, and for something old: the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven, gathered in churches of transformed people, reconciled to one another, on mission with one another, holding together the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\"><em>Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s 16 CFR, Part 255 &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.access.gpo.gov\/nara\/cfr\/waisidx_03\/16cfr255_03.html\"><span style=\"color: #999999;\">http:\/\/www.access.gpo.gov\/nara\/cfr\/waisidx_03\/16cfr255_03.html<\/span><\/a>&gt; : \u201cGuides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Let\u2019s not seek to resuscitate the old civil religions. \u00a0Let\u2019s work instead for something new, and for something old: the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven, gathered in churches of transformed people, reconciled to one another, on mission with one another, holding together the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ.&#8221; Russell Moore, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,21,14,22,25,23,28,17,32,18,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adoption","category-bible-study","category-book-review","category-cedarcrest-church","category-education","category-generosity","category-integrity","category-leadership","category-marriage","category-north-cobb-christian","category-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}