The Gospel/Epistle Disconnect:

Been thinking about something Michael Spencer said a while back about The Jesus Disconnect:

Nothing has impressed me more in my last few years of writing, reading and discussion than the disconnect the average Christian believer feels from the ministry of Jesus, specifically his miracles, exorcisms, teachings, training of disciples and encounters with individuals as described in the first half of the Gospels.

For many Christians, their view of Jesus is much like the movie Passion of the Christ. The story of Jesus begins with the suffering of Jesus, with the ministry of Jesus fading anonymously into the background, appearing occasionally in a few moralistic or sentimentally devotional flashbacks.

Sometimes believers, denominations and theological traditions do seem to divide into two camps on the subject of Jesus and the Gospels.

On one side are the conservative evangelicals who center their teaching and evangelism on the New Testament epistles, especially Paul, and tend to put the four Gospels into the background. Jesus' actions during His ministry are seen as having limited application as a model for present ministry. Some Dispensationalists even put basically all of Jesus' teaching into the past or the future, with little or no relevance for today. And, of course, all the miraculous stuff can't apply to today.

There are two types of traditions that emphasize the Gospels over the epistles. First, there are the social justice types who emphasize Jesus' teaching on justice, the poor and social action, but relatively ignore the epistle's teachings on grace and justification, as well as the eschatological context for Jesus' words. Secondly, there are Pentecostal types who emphasize the miraculous aspects of Jesus' ministry and the disciples in the Book of Acts as the continuing model for today, with relatively limited teaching on the theology of the epistles - certainly not on anything that would limit signs and miracles.

How do we put the two sides together? Is there a unified model of theology and ministry that puts the Gospel model and epistolary teaching together in balance?

Some thoughts tomorrow.