Mbase1970
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 11, 2015
- 6,054
- 4,601
The Christian is called to love his/her neighbour. This love is to be expressed in a deep concern both for man's spiritual needs and also for material needs in everyday life. The difficulty lies in keeping these two aspects of ministry in balance together. Evangelical Christians have sometimes tended to emphasise the evangelistic call that social side of the Gospel has been underplayed. Over the past decades the World Council of Churches has moved strongly in the other direction. At first this was expressed in a concern for social aid, but it was increasingly realised that poverty and material needs were often due to political structures which perpetuated injustice. Changing these political or social structures became therefore the new dimension in Christianity ministry.
Men of influence and wealthy prefer to maintain the status quo. Violence seemed to be the only effective way to change existing political systems of oppression in the search for equality and justice. So the WCC supported revolutionary movements in Africa, and leading Churchmen may be involved in violent Marxist activity in Latin America.
'Violence of some sort is inevitable,' they say. 'Imperialism, economic oppression and social injustice are types of violence which lead to the imprisonment, starvation and death. Is overt revolution perhaps a lesser form which may introduce a new society of justice and righteousness? This would be the view of many today, including the exponents of Black Theology and the Theology of Liberation. Others maintain that violence always breeds more violence, and bitterness can never the harbinger of love.
As biblical Christians we need to ask ourselves whether violence can be countenanced by scripture? Mere philosophical or pragmatic answers cannot suffice.
The book of Revelation shows God in violent actions of judgment and to a lesser degree we see this same divine violence in other parts of the scrip. Man preaches and demands of God for justice and righteousness; but such zeal must also be tempted with patient realism which recognises that the characteristics of the perfect kingdom of God cannot in this age be fully realised. On the other hand we are not to sit back idly and bemoan the world's slide into increasing evil. God's passion for righteousness and for social justice is to enflame our hearts and drive us to loving action in word and deed. Nevertheless violence remains the activity of God in judgement.
Men of influence and wealthy prefer to maintain the status quo. Violence seemed to be the only effective way to change existing political systems of oppression in the search for equality and justice. So the WCC supported revolutionary movements in Africa, and leading Churchmen may be involved in violent Marxist activity in Latin America.
'Violence of some sort is inevitable,' they say. 'Imperialism, economic oppression and social injustice are types of violence which lead to the imprisonment, starvation and death. Is overt revolution perhaps a lesser form which may introduce a new society of justice and righteousness? This would be the view of many today, including the exponents of Black Theology and the Theology of Liberation. Others maintain that violence always breeds more violence, and bitterness can never the harbinger of love.
As biblical Christians we need to ask ourselves whether violence can be countenanced by scripture? Mere philosophical or pragmatic answers cannot suffice.
The book of Revelation shows God in violent actions of judgment and to a lesser degree we see this same divine violence in other parts of the scrip. Man preaches and demands of God for justice and righteousness; but such zeal must also be tempted with patient realism which recognises that the characteristics of the perfect kingdom of God cannot in this age be fully realised. On the other hand we are not to sit back idly and bemoan the world's slide into increasing evil. God's passion for righteousness and for social justice is to enflame our hearts and drive us to loving action in word and deed. Nevertheless violence remains the activity of God in judgement.
