Remembering Tim Keller

[@kaymonson5679]

Yes, still teary. Thank you for this.

[@besratbekele1032]

Thank you very much!

[@c.m.granger6870]

Let's not forget he was also a Leftist social justice warrior who thought all white people were responsible for racial disparities, even Norwegians!

[@hjlydia]

What is wrong with advocating for social justice? Is that something the OT and the NT explicitly and/or implicitly ask Christians NOT to do?

[@c.m.granger6870]

@hjlydia There’s no such thing as "social" justice in the Bible. That's the rebranded term for identity politics and cultural Marxism. Justice in Scripture has no adjectives. Justice is Justice, related to individuals not ethnic groups.

[@c.m.granger6870]

It's going to take decades to undo the damage he's done to the gospel and the church. He redefined biblical terms like sin, hell, and salvation to make them more palatable for our modern cultural zeitgeist. Hansen is simply a Keller fanboy and apologist. Keller's popularly is an illustration of the sorry state of evangelicalism.

[@hjlydia]

I thought making things more palatable and thus understandable to fellow humans who aren't Christians was a good thing. I am not sure what you mean by "redefining" biblical terms, but I'd choose Tim Keller's sermons over Joel Osteen's sermons any time, any day.

[@c.m.granger6870]

@hjlydia He made them more palatable not by communicating the Scriptures more clearly and with understanding, but rather pouring meaning into them that a fallen, wicked culture would accept. For example, teaching that sin is making something other than God your primary identity rather than that its breaking God's law, or that hell is not a place of eternally suffering God's wrath for your sin but a state of mind. Keller watered it down for modern consumption rather than preach these things as they're revealed in the Bible. Joel Osteen is a false teacher.

[@hjlydia]

@@c.m.granger6870 Well, I don't quite see the problem with "pouring meaning into" a notion so that a fallen society can have a better grasp of something the Bible is trying to convey. However, I understand your insistence that we must only and always use the Bible verbatim lest we err if that is your belief. Methinks that Jesus should never have used any parables then if that were the case as Moses and the prophets didn't and during the first century those books were the only "Scripture" available to the Jews. Did Jesus "water down" the message too for the "modern consumption" of his time?

[@c.m.granger6870]

@hjlydia All Scripture is God-breathed. So your question here reveals a deficient understanding of what the Bible is. Perhaps this is an illustration of the problems with Keller's ministry. You don't get to pour your own meaning into the Scriptures. You unpack the meaning that God intended from His special revelation. In order to understand biblical terms, you must use the biblical definitions of those terms. Sin is the breaking of God’s law, by omission or commission. It isn't failing to find your identity in God. The sacred text isn't a wax nose to be molded however the times deem it necessary.

[@hjlydia]

@@c.m.granger6870 I suppose you are talking about the difference between eisegesis an exegesis. To be honest, I have yet to find any of Keller's sermons to be the former.