Thursday, January 18, 2007

Rauschenbusch on Kingdom Centrality for Jesus and Church

"Jesus always moved with a purpose and his purpose was the Kingdom of God…the social redemption of the entire human race on earth. If we regard him in any sense as our leader and master, we cannot treat as secondary what to him was the essence of his mission. If we regard him as the Son of God, the revelation of the very mind and will and nature of the Eternal, the obligation to complete what he began comes upon us with an absolute claim to obedience" - Christianizing the Social Order67


"We do not want less religion; we want more; but it must be a religion that gets its orientation from the Kingdom of God. To concentrate on personal salvation, as orthodoxy was done, or on soul culture, as liberalism has done, comes close to refined selfishness. All of us who have been trained in egotistic religion need a conversion to Christian Christianity, even if we are bishops or theological professors. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and the salvation of your souls will be added unto you." - Christianizing the Social Order 464

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