Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

136
Christ, to do the same, amounts to nothing less than apostasy. These “clouds without
water, carried about by the winds” (Jde. 12), are those who have embraced human
arrogance. They have long since given up the true faith for some religious construction
that tickles their rebellious ears.
While there is nothing wrong with mining the deeper truths of Scripture (cf., Pro. 2),
and digging into the historical evidences of the faith, setting puny human minds above
God’s eternal wisdom and understanding is dangerous business. It leads to all manner of
human justifications, self-deceptions and a certain decline into apostasy, which is
precisely what has happened to some US churches (cf., EC-USA, UCC), who years ago
embraced Liberal teachings and put themselves above God. “These are grumblers,
complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words,
flattering people to gain advantage” (Jde. 16). These same arrogant boasters then even
put themselves in judgment of their non-Western brethren who dare to trust in Scripture
and the God who gave it. May God continue to bless His faithful remnant.
Historical Christendom
To better understand the contemporary impact of Post-Christendom, we will now
briefly trace the historical development of Christendom. Stuart Murray, in Post-
Christendom (2004), provides a much fuller discussion on this. Ralph D. Winter
provides additional valuable insights in his supplement to Latourette’s great historical
work (The World Christian Movement 1950-1975: An Interpretive Essay, in Latourette,
1975:2), as does Andrew F. Walls in, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History
(2002), chapter 3.
Early Christianity had many competitors. In addition to the imperial cultus were the
mystery religions, and the more traditional religious and philosophical cults inherited
from the Greeks and various other cultures. Because Judaism was uniquely tolerated by
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa