Rescuing the Doctrine of Father-God from Contextualization Gone Awry:God and Time as a Test Case of Syncretism

Authors

  • Mark R. Kreitzer

Abstract

 Our Father-God desires that we strip the core truths of the Gospel from Western culture’s husk and cleanse them from any syncretistic impurities in the core message. Only then can the purified, inner, life-giving seed (Lk 8:11) be re-contextualized into understandable forms in order to flourish in every other ethno-linguistic group on earth (Jn 1:11-12; see 1 Cor 9:19-23). Certainly, the biblical doctrine of Father-God is at the very core of that Gospel seed we are called to sow (1 Pet 1:23; Jn 17:1-3). The Bible also teaches that knowing Father-God comes by the “ordinary means” of clear Scripture because knowing him is “necessary . . . for salvation” (WCF 1.7; Jn 14:6, 17:3). Certainly, not every passage is as clear as every other, but clear passages must interpret any unclear pericope (e.g., WCF 1.7) without reading into any passage non-biblical, cultural presuppositions.  

Author Biography

Mark R. Kreitzer

Issue

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