“The Bible Belt is teetering toward collapse, and I say let it fall.”<\/p>\n
You cannot even escape the introduction to Russell Moore’s,\u00a0Onward\u00a0<\/em>without hearing canon blasts of gospel truth. This book takes on the nature of the gospel in the sense that the gospel is both offensive and life giving.\u00a0Onward\u00a0<\/em>is chalked full of gospel proclamations while Moore explores the depths of gospel implications, especially in terms of how Christians engage the culture around them.<\/p>\n Moore has a uniquely creative way of stating old gospel truths in fresh verbiage, in order to drive home his points. For example, in his chapter on Family Stability, Moore states, “Jesus of Nazareth is alive. There is no family revolution that can get him back into Joseph of Arimathea’s grave.” Or these two quotes from his final chapter on Convictional Kindess, “Jesus is marching onward, with us or without us, and if the gates of hell cannot hold him back, why on earth would he be panicked by Hollywood or Capitol Hill?” and “The gospel commands us to speak, and that speech is often forceful. But a prophetic witness in the new covenant era never stops with “You brood of vipers!” It always continues on to say, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.””<\/p>\n There are two main themes throughout Moore’s book that I really enjoyed. One was that he was continually drawing out the distinctions between Americanized Christianity and Biblical Christianity. The Christianity of the Bible is not American, and America and the New Jerusalem are not one in the same. Moore continually showed how the way we view this has serious implications for how we proclaim the gospel to a lost and dying world. The Church of Jesus Christ is winning and will win whether Christians win America or not. Jesus does not need America to advance His Kingdom. Jesus was after all, a Jewish carpenter from the Middle Eastern village of Nazareth who recruited a Middle Eastern fisherman to build His church upon. The more we understand this, the less fearful of our ever secularizing culture we become and the more boldly we will proclaim the never changing gospel of Jesus Christ into the culture we are engaging.<\/p>\n The second main theme Moore continually brings to bear is the strangeness of Christianity. The fact is, Christianity is strange and has strange beliefs. The more the American Bible belt fades away, the more we will see this. It is unheard of in most portions of America that people actually believe God’s plan for sexuality is between man and woman within the covenant of marriage. And if that’s strange, then how much more strange is it that we believe a Jewish man named Jesus of Nazareth is God in the flesh, died, rose again, and will return again one day in the clouds on a white horse as our personal Lord and Savior. That’s strange. But we believe it. And this strangeness is the power of God unto salvation. Moore urges believers to readily embrace this strangeness. Without this distinctiveness from our culture we will have no positive impact on our culture.<\/p>\n I encourage any believer who is fearful of the craziness taking place in America or the world to read this book and be encouraged.<\/p>\n “As a matter of fact, I think the future of the church is incandescently bright. That’s not because of promises made at Independence Hall, but a promise made at Caesarea Philippi – “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”<\/p>\n For highlight quotes search #Onward on Twitter for my tweets I sent out during my journey through the book.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “The Bible Belt is teetering toward collapse, and I say let it fall.” You cannot even escape the introduction to Russell Moore’s,\u00a0Onward\u00a0without hearing canon blasts of gospel truth. This book takes on the nature of the gospel in the sense that the gospel is both offensive and life giving.\u00a0Onward\u00a0is chalked full of gospel proclamations while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[220,562,679,833,891,1070],"class_list":{"0":"post-470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-book","9":"tag-gospel","10":"tag-jesus","11":"tag-moore","12":"tag-onward","13":"tag-russell","14":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":465,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/book-review-the-story-of-everything-by-jared-c-wilson\/","url_meta":{"origin":470,"position":0},"title":"Book Review: The Story of Everything by Jared C. Wilson","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"November 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently listened to a lecture where the professor noted that only 9% of professing Christians live their lives according to a biblical worldview. While I am not sure on the complete accuracy of the statistic, I am sure that it is not far off. This is an epidemic. Too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/storyofeverything.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2175,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/protecting-gospel-purity-in-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":470,"position":1},"title":"Protecting Gospel Purity in the Church","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"June 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 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That was dumb. In Russell Moore's book Onward he talked about how the cultural Christianity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/08\/guardian-angel-graphics-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/08\/guardian-angel-graphics-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/08\/guardian-angel-graphics-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3468,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/crazy-good-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":470,"position":3},"title":"Crazy Good News","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"January 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that guilty sinners are reconciled to a holy and just God through the perfect life, sacrificial death, bodily resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God where he sits even now interceding for his people. 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