i wud just like to respond to some of your comments a few posts ago

I totally agree with your observation on a general watering down of the gospel, and i can verify that it is increasingly prevalent throughout the UK and Ireland as well……however…. with many bible commentaries, and books already published on the gospel, do you think that Tim Keller’s objective was to present the gospel again? considering he’s a preacher in New York i feel it is more likely that he was attempting to introduce a rationale for belief in god to cosmopolitan intellectuals, resolving their fear of intellectual suicide in a society which blindly teaches the theory of evolution as fact…
His ministry however frequently preaches the gospel, but this book is obviously not focussed on it…
..he does go on to describe the concept of grace and Jesus christ, but he barely introduces it, so if that was his objective then he failed miserably.
I think mostly he tries to quell doubts and differenciate christianity from other faiths to demonstrate they are not all equal. As a christian this will invariably be frustrating, because it falls short in respect of the gospel, but is it written for a christian?

You quite rightly picked out some sentences in my post which alluded to valuing intellect, this is a really difficult issue, should we read nothing written by man? perhaps, or perhaps we should value “the Word of God” above all wisdom of this world.

this is strange because i’m largely agreeing with you on these points, but my point was to discuss the real purpose of the book. Of course the purpose of this book is of lesser importance than that of the preaching and understanding of gospel, but i would like to ask if anyone thinks that it is therefore useless?

I think it is important to make a distinction between the Catholic Church and individual Catholics.

While it is possible to attend the Catholic Church and be a Christian, that person would not feel at home there and would disagree with so much of the teachings and doctrines of the RC Church they would not stay long.

As for the Roman Catholic (RC) church as a whole… The teachings of the RC Church are not Christian and are not in keeping with the Gosple. They teach a works based salvation, which is not the Gospel of the Bible. Most RC’s at this point would cry “FOUL! That not what we teach,” but it indeed is and those who are honest about the teaching would admit it.

I recently listened to a debate between Dr. James White and a RC apologist. In that debate the apologist said in a live and recored debate that we are not saved by faith alone, it takes works along with the faith.

I’m sorry, but if you trust in anything that we do for our salvation then you have no salvation at all. Christ + anything = nothing. We cannot add to the work of Christ and anyone who says they can nullify the work that Christ did on the cross.

Hope this helps…

I am confused here, and I don’t really understand this whole Protestant vs Catholic stuff. it seems stupid to me that they are both fighting against one another. I never went to seminary so somebody help me out here.

There is no such thing as “small insignificant things.” Christ said..

Matthew 5:18
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Every letter of Gods word is important.

It is also significant that there is more attention given in scripture to errant doctrine than there is errant behavior. Entire books were written dealing with faulty doctrine.

Do you realize that Jesus spent much more time on doctrine that serving the poor? In fact, can you please show us one instance where Jesus helped someone just because they were oppressed or poor?

The fact is that doctrine is important to our daily life as a christian. Yes, there are some doctrines that we would consider non-essential to the faith, but if we do not stand on doctrine, what do we stand on? Helping the poor is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but helping the poor never converted anyone, preached the Gospel, and no one was forgiven because they helped the poor.

We are forgiven because we bow our knee in submission to the Almighty Sovereign Creator of the Heaven and Earth and glorify Him for His work on the cross bearing the wrath of Almighty God that was rightfully due us.

As for being fundamentalist about “small, insignificant things” I would not consider the True Gospel to be small or insignificant.

For the record, I haven’t “accused millions of people of apostasy” in this thread. Nor have I claimed (like BW has) to be able to read men’s hearts.

Stephen, you just accused millions of people of apostasy! People you have never met or spent even a half-hour of your time to get to know! And you’re criticizing someone for taking God’s place in the judging process? Well I won’t judge you for that, but I will let you know that you just lost my patience and respect.