Iron in our blood. The Evangelical need to pick a fight

I have been reading a very interesting blog, in which I found the following paragraph:

the culture of conservative evangelicals (and especially of the conservatively reformed) is sickening to me. everything is about a battle for x’ or ‘defending the heart of the gospel’ (which changes as the opponent changes…one day it’s justification and n.t. wright is a heretic, the next day it’s inerrancy and kenton sparks is a heretic). that’s not what i want to do with my time. i didn’t go to seminary so that i could get a ‘heresy hunter’ license and claim my spot among machen’s warrior children. i went to seminary because i want to positively contribute to the way christians think about the bible, about their god, and about how to live their lives in relationship to that god.

One can easily get that from listening to the White Horse Inn or Issues Etc. Mind you, I listen to them every week, and in the case of the later, every day. Their shows are interesting, but you just wondered if they ever have a positive view of something that does not involve Calvin, Machen or Luther.

Take for example Issues Etc, if you don't read Scripture under the lenses of Law and Gospel, you are no better than a donkey reading the newspaper, you just won't understand it. But if you if apply the Lutheran Method, then your eyes will be open and then you will understand the message. This sounds to me more like the Jehovah Witness claim about need to read the books written by Russel in order to understand Scripture. I guess both never heard about the guidance of the Holy Spirit!!!

In the case of the New Reformed, if you say that that Reformers' claim that Justification by faith is not the center of the gospel, you may as well reject being a christian. Jesus' proclamation was not that all were saved by justification by faith, which of course, was a central theme that was developed by Paul, but his initial and final instructions were the following:

Mark 1:14.."The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

and:

Mark 16:15...He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.

It looks like Jesus is very consistant about what the gospel was all about, was about the kingdom. Later, and rightly, the other historical aspects were added, cf. I Cor. 15:3-7.

But what I like about the article, is that the author rightly points out that the "heart" of the gospels changes so much, from every "defender" of it, that it looks more like the gospel is an octopus, with many hearts. The octopus has 3, but my neo Reformed friends, and other conservatives, are starting to look like the Roman Catholics at the time of the Reformation, having many of Peter's heads, as well as more bones from the apostles than the apostles themselves had!!!!!!

Sounds like we got rid of some relics, to pick up another ones, more acceptable to their liking. Once the common enemy of the time, the Catholics, were "vanquished", the Protestants turned, and still turned against each other to say to the other that they were wrong. The Reformers would be turning in their graves if they would know what sort of legacy would follow their bible loving, Scripture upholding and true christian followers.

Looks like we have a long way to go in order to reach unity in the body of Christ.

Luis A. Jovel