Do hope you continue to visit the site for as you do you will see a refreshingly theological vision for ministry and life.

For Christ and His Church,
Mike Pohlman
Executive Editor, The Gospel Coalition

In the case of this particular statement, there is a distinct evangelical tone, some Reformed theology, and much of the current agenda of the Republican party. Without doing an exhaustive line by line, you can see the evangelical tone throughout, the Reformed theology (predestination) in #1, and the political agenda in #3 where both sexual orientation and "headship" as the definer of heterosexual are brought out. There is more Reformed theology in # 5 (election), and political in #6 (inerrant bible). And so on.

I see Tim Keller & Al Mohler are both on the Council, which for me would account for much of the Reformed from Keller and much of the political from Mohler. While there is nothing at all wrong with such writing, I do not believe it does much for the Church. It does a good deal for those who aspire to leadership in the evangelical movement as all leaders in all areas of human endeavor are known by the company they keep and the positions they take. This coalition gives its members both.

Rather than such things, I prefer serious theology, like Jenson or Newbigin or Zizoulas. They are people who are after truth, not a short tem accomplishment on the current American religious scene. I do not discount Keller & Mohler, et. al. They are good Christian people who are actively engaged. But they are so involved with current church politics that I think they miss the larger movements of God. - -To which critique they may properly reply that if "others" (like me) discern the larger movements of God, what good is that private knowledge as the "others" are not able to get that word out to the masses.

We all have to bloom where we are planted, to quote a 60's bunper sticker, and this sort of political theology has never interested me, whether of the right or left variety. It doesn’t help those struggling, hoping, communities that I love to be with. I have played some with the "power people" and found it neither fun nor nourishing.

Briefly, I submit for Scriptural and experiential verification the Gospel of Jesus Christ as defined originally with the following characteristics:

1)Exclusively of divine origin;

2)Wholly in accordance with the Scriptures of Moses, the writings of the prophets, the Psalms, and the teachings of Jesus Christ;

3)Complete with Jesus' baptism work in the Holy Spirit; and

4)Nothing more or less than the perpetual vision of Jesus Christ's self-revelation, as immortal, in his diacritical death on the cross for our non-stop feasting from the "tree of life", reproduction in his own image and growth in his knowledge and grace.

The hard choice is between the real gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ and the "other gospel" with their corresponding advantages and disadvantages!

May God help us!