Ed and Patsy now live in Athens, Alabama and are members at the Pepper Road church. As administrator of this blog, he enjoys sharing thoughts about spiritual maters. Not only his thoughts but good articles from other authors. He is also thankful to have been able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ for over sixty years.
We “conservatives” sometimes speak of the “Social Gospel” in a way that shows we know very little about it. Many think the Social Gospel is all about churches sponsoring social activities like social meals and recreational activities. While these unscriptural practices are wrong and may have in some way grown out the social gospel movement, they are not at the core of it.
Historically, the social gospel is a Protestant movement that began late in the nineteenth century, becoming a strong influence early in the twentieth century. It was started by classic theological liberals (Modernists) who had basically lost faith in the hereafter and were trying to make Christianity still relevant by making it a means of reforming the present world order.
Its influence continues to shape religious thinking, preaching, and church practice in this century. More and more attention is being given to salvation from social evils with less and less to salvation from sin and God’s wrath. The role of Jesus as the Savior of mankind is being replaced with Jesus as a wise philosopher whose teaching is reshaping society. The theory fosters the notion that sin is caused by the corruption and inequities of our social systems. The solution is to produce a better world order and sin will diminish. In fact, sin is thought of as being against society rather than against God. Thus, emphasis in preaching has turned to social reform and away to from personal conversion to Christ.
Think of the themes and topics for “gospel meetings,” “seminars,” “specials” and even “Sunday sermons” that you see from churches. How many of them suggest that they will be addressing matters of spiritual and eternal import? Or will it be matters that are designed primarily to improve life in the here and now? Will the lessons from the Bible be designed to tell how to better prepare of heaven? Or will they be more designed to take the Bible as a manual for physical and social improvement? Also, take note of the many social ministries listed on churches’ webpages today along the ministers to run them. Even when the gospel does address Christians’ responsibilities in the home, the community, or work place, it is not that improvement in these areas is an end within itself, but as a part of living here, as pilgrims, in a way that prepares one to live in heaven in the hereafter.
The social gospel’s shift is often so subtle that it is hard for us to see. Sure, the gospel addresses a Christian’s behavior in this present world (Tit. 2:11, 12), but in the context of how these things affect his pursuit of the future world (v. 13).
I suspect that we all may have been influenced by the social gospel concept than we have realized and need to be careful to preach the gospel as the apostles preached it. Church sponsored social activities may be a spin-off from the social gospel, but the social gospel manifests itself in far more ways than that.