{"id":8560,"date":"2011-05-26T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=8560"},"modified":"2011-05-26T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T10:00:15","slug":"christless-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/05\/christless-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Christless Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On Sunday, Pastor Douthwaite at our church gave one of the best comments on the Harold Camping fiasco.\u00a0 From his sermon on John 14:<\/p>\n

Thomas and Philip didn\u2019t quite understand all that Jesus was saying. They ask questions. Their knowledge isn\u2019t quite right or complete. But don\u2019t mock them or think less of them for this \u2013 for who among us understands all this? Especially the mystery of the Trinity which Jesus here is teaching. But give Thomas and Philip credit for this \u2013 though they didn\u2019t fully understand, they looked to Jesus for the answers. They clung to Him tenaciously.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not only a good example for us, it is what a certain Mr. Harold Camping missed this weekend. I\u2019m certain that you\u2019ve heard of him. The media has paid an unusual amount of attention to him and his prediction that the end of the world was going to begin yesterday. I don\u2019t want to go into the details of all that he said. But you know what he missed? Christ. Not that he\u2019s not a Christian. I\u2019m not saying that. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s in his heart. But in all his study of the Bible, he looked for numbers and clues and codes and all sorts of things . . . but he missed Christ. And that\u2019s what the Scriptures are all about. They\u2019re not about hidden clues, secret teachings, mysterious numbers, and being able to calculate days and times. They\u2019re all about Jesus. About his death and resurrection. That dying and rising with Jesus is the truth, and the way to eternal life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

via St. Athanasius Lutheran Church<\/a>\n

Camping is not alone in spinning a Christless Christianity.\u00a0 I have read \u201cChristian\u201d books going into all kinds of profound theology and teachings about Christian living that did not so much as mention Christ.\u00a0 I have heard sermons, even evangelistic sermons, that left out Christ.\u00a0\u00a0 I have heard expositions of the Bible that said nothing about Christ.\u00a0 I have heard personal testimonies and evangelistic witnesses that leave Jesus out of the picture.\u00a0 I have looked at lots of Sunday school curriculum and \u201cChristian\u201d children\u2019s books that are pure moralism, without a shred of Jesus and His gospel.\u00a0 Since the root of \u201cChristianity\u201d is, you know, \u201cChrist,\u201d how is this possible?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you have a different religion if you leave Jesus out of your Christianity?<\/p>\n

P.S.:\u00a0 This is the reason to discuss Camping and not just to ignore him, as some of you were recommending:\u00a0 To discern how his particular spirit may be manifesting itself in other contexts closer to home.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s the theme of this post and the one below.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, Pastor Douthwaite at our church gave one of the best comments on the Harold Camping fiasco.\u00a0 From his sermon on John 14: Thomas and Philip didn\u2019t quite understand all that Jesus was saying. They ask questions. Their knowledge isn\u2019t quite right or complete. But don\u2019t mock them or think less of them for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10,11,47],"tags":[573,990,1161],"class_list":["post-8560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-christ","category-church","category-theology","tag-contemporary-christianity","tag-harold-camping","tag-jesus-christ"],"yoast_head":"\nChristless Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Sunday, Pastor Douthwaite at our church gave one of the best comments on the Harold Camping fiasco.\u00a0 From his sermon on John 14: Thomas and Philip\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/05\/christless-christianity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christless Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Sunday, Pastor Douthwaite at our church gave one of the best comments on the Harold Camping fiasco.\u00a0 From his sermon on John 14: Thomas and Philip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/05\/christless-christianity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-26T10:00:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/05\/christless-christianity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/05\/christless-christianity\/\",\"name\":\"Christless Christianity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-26T10:00:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-26T10:00:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"On Sunday, Pastor Douthwaite at our church gave one of the best comments on the Harold Camping fiasco.\u00a0 From his sermon on John 14: Thomas and Philip\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/05\/christless-christianity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/05\/christless-christianity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/05\/christless-christianity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Christless Christianity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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