“The demands of humanity are rising to Their ears …It is impossible to believe that They are interested in the views of the fundamentalists or in the theories of the theologians upon the Virgin Birth, the Vicarious Atonement …” (Lucis Trust)

“We are also visioning a new and vital world religion, a universal faith which will have its roots in the past …” (Ibid.)

The past meaning the ancient mystery religions and mysticism. And so we can all just get along:

“… wouldn’t it be better to just talk about Jesus as one among many, rather than lift Him up as some extraordinary example.” (Brian Mclaren)

“… a more liberal Christian, who might think that Jesus was perfectly imaging God’s love, or totally inspired by God’s love but not literally God—To be honest, that’s the direction I am leaning more myself these days. We would have a hard time saying what makes Jesus’ life and example and living love to the death more unique than any other.” (Leif Hanson)

In agreement with Hansen’s response Mclaren says, “RIGHT!”

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13 Things a Lost Person Cannot Do

I’ve not seen any consensus in commentaries that this is the case and it is doubtful that is what the author had in mind.

tr

I certainly am excited with people receive Christ, and I am not getting “worked up” over a simple phrase.

To explain, first understand, although the Bible does indicate that Christ “dwells in our heart,” the verse you demonstrate this with indicates that this is something that occurs after salvation. It does not indicate that this is a way to salvation is to “invite or ask Him” into our hearts.

tr

15from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

16that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

17so that Christ may dwell IN YOUR HEARTS through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love.

It clearly says that Christ dwells in our hearts, yet it is through faith. You are getting all worked up over a simple phrase “Ask Jesus into your heart” when it clearly states here that that is where He dwells. Instead of worrying about what phrase is said when accepting Christ you should be excited that others are being saved from an eternity in hell. God is the only one that can judge the heart and you saying that people do not have a real conversion when they accept Jesus into their heart means that you think you can judge if a person was sincere in their accepting Him. The simple fact is that it doesn’t matter what words are said, it only matters that a person identifies that they are a sinner, ask forgiveness of their sins and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their life.

Let me first identify myself, labels that would probably be applied to me by others are christian, protestant, evangelical, fundamentalist, (and by way of separation non-emergent).

You ask:
“Once again, I am not a theologian, but an advocate for change. I wonder, how would you convince your brothers and sisters to care about the people in Darfur that are dying everyday? About the phonomenon that is HIV/AIDS? to stop a second holocaust in Israel?
or are you among those who believe Palestinians are heathens and should be slaughtered by the Israelites, because they are God’s Chosen?”

My summary response would be that of course we need to care about our brothers and sisters dying in Dafur (as well as the other social ills you mentioned) [Jam 2:14-17] but the basis for that care is that they are made in the image of God and valuable as human beings. We need to love them because God loves them and died on the cross for them. We need to address not only their temporal needs but their ultimate, spiritual needs AS WELL. (sorry to should but there is no other emphasis formatting provided for in these comments). Addressing (or attempting to address) purely the temporal needs of people, without giving them the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ is false help at best.

I believe firmly in the necessity for a sound doctrine and the importance of identifying truth, and that, by all reports McLaren is advocating setting aside the concept of truth in favour of social change for the “betterment of society”. This almost sounds like a “harmonization of all religions” that would lead to a single world religion… or equally validly, no world religion. I don’t see this being that much different from Dawkins’ proposition.

tr

Of course, one approach that could be used is the one that both my parents’ church and my fiancée’s church do, which is to not record or write down beyond notes what they’re preaching about.

These are perhaps *your* understanding of this phrase. The Bible however gives no indication that this contemporary phrase means any of these. Thus the purpose of this post.

These things are indeed good and correct and Biblical. But they are concepts that should be “explained” to folks rather than wrapping the meanings into a phrase that doesn’t explain it, and leaves the person unclear as to what their actions entail.

tr