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Editorial Introduction
by Major
Stephen Court, Editor
Greetings in the name of our great God
and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to JAC146 - the
146th issue of Journal of Aggressive Christianity.
This is a short issue with a theme that will emerge
naturally to you, the careful reader.
We lead off JAC146 with a 'JAC First Person'
feature, a testimony
called Identity
by Tara Foster, a soldier in Canada. This will be
enlightening to some and liberating to others.
Envoy Steve Bussey, territorial mission
strategist in USE territory, follows with a 'Denominational'
breakdown, clarifying for casual readers and casual 'salvos'
what we are and what we aren't.
And then we've got a little feature
updating General William Booth's Chief Dangers of the last
century. Here's
some context:
This is a day in which influential
voices among the people of God in western society have
publicly expressed personal doubts about their faith,
questioned time-honoured beliefs, and even renounced
Christianity. The
trendy deconstruction of our theology has reached a critical
inflection point.
Some are decidedly pessimistic about Kingdom prospects in the
developed world in light of cultural moral declension.
But Salvationists have always been
missionally optimistic.
Though not official doctrine, primitive Salvationists,
following the Founders, were confirmed post-millennialists,
believing that their movement would inaugurate the millennium!
At the turn of the last century (1900),
in response to a query about his perspective on the future and
the Gospel, William Booth opined:
“The chief danger
that confronts the coming century will be religion without the
Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without
repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without
God, heaven without hell.”[1]
It’s a huge prophecy, one that has
straddled a couple of centuries now.
And it has proven true.
We're going to add a few more dangers for a new century
in JAC146. These
are far from exhaustive, but might get our thinking hats on
and our prayer knee pads on.
They are;
Friendship Without Evangelism
Conversion Without Discipleship
Professionalization Without
Democratization
Read, pray, share, apply.
And if you finish before Jesus returns and before the
next JAC issue, then feel free to plunge into the free
archives, 145 issues' worth.
Courage and Godspeed!
[1]
We should emphasize here that Booth was, as a
futurist, an extreme optimist.
His landmark article ‘The Millenium’ sets the
tone for those convictions
(http://armybarmy.com/JAC/article3-120.html).
The context of the statement is as follows:
“What
is the chief danger, social or political, confronting
the new century?”
“In
answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief
dangers which confront the coming century will be
religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without
Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation
without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven
without hell.”
The reference for the
quote is The Homiletic Review, Volume 44. Funk and
Wagnalls. 1902.
It originally appeared in The Christian Budget
(in England) in response to the question, “What is the
chief danger, social or political, confronting the new
century?” (apparently in 1900)
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