Beyond Culture Wars

This quote is from an article written by Michael S. Horton. It originally appeared in Modern Reformation in 1993 and was reprinted in the current issue September/October 2008. Visit www.modernreformation.org to read the whole article.
"If you believe that our society's greatest problem or any individual's greatest problem is behavioral, you have a weak view of sin, and the consequent weak view of grace. If you view sin in terms of actions and not primarily in terms of conditions, you will see the answer primarily in the terms of moral reform, not in terms of throwing yourself on the mercy of God. That is why Charles Finney, who said, "A revival is the work of man not God; it's simply the right use of means," was also the father of the temperance movement. You don't need a cross in this scenario, you need a kit to help you put your life back together or a law or a rule to govern your behavior so you don't get out of hand. No, I must insist secular humanism is a theological issue and when we put it in its natural theological habitat a strange thing happens; we realize that we ourselves are the secular humanists. LaHaye observes that the chief mark of secular humanism is to place man at the center of existence. But that is exactly what I see being done in churches across America. Aren't our testimonies designed to show people how God made me happy, how he satisfied me, how he worked for me? Aren't our worship services for our tastes very often and not for God's? Don't we tell people that once they become Christians they too will experience the abundant life? What we should be telling people is that salvation isn't a matter of God making sure we are happy with him, but his making sure he is happy with us, and that is why we have the cross at the middle of it all".