I just finished skimming through the latest Evangelical Missions Quarterly. Once again, lots on contextualization.
One aspect which tends to be overlooked in these discussions is the simple fact that mankind’s perception of God in nature, the conscience, and the sense of transcendence are part of our humanness, reflective of the fact that we are created in the image of God. In other words, human beings instinctively recognize God to some degree, and seek to serve Him through one system of religion or another.
However, this does not automatically mean that the more palatable aspects of those religions need be preserved—after all, those perceptions of divinity are an inherent part of our humanness, and not of the religious system in question. One cannot infer from the fact that this-or-that religion seeks to satisfy an inherent need, an inbuilt desire, that it leads to recognition of the triune God who graciously reaches out to people in Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible suggests the opposite: People are described as “futile in their thinking… their foolish hearts darkened… exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom 1:21-23). In short, at best other religions are palliatives which may silence inbuilt longings but cannot solve the problem of how the sinner can be reconciled with a holy God.
No religious system can solve that problem. The solution is a gift of grace which flows from the God of grace whose righteousness and love were reconciled in Christ’s substitutionary atonement. Only when He graciously reaches down to change a person’s orientation and desires will the individual respond to Him in repentance and faith. That is the spiritual rebirth Christ talked about takes place, and that is the gospel we must preach sensitively and in a way people can grasp. Once grasped any desire to hang on to any aspect of the former ersatz substitute quickly disappears.
PP