The Function and Future of the Church
Evangelical	Liberal
Bible is God's Word	Bible contains God's Word
Sin in individual by heredity	Social structures­sin in envirnment
Evangelism­proclamation of Gospel	Social action to correct evils
Justification	Justice
Vertical­relate to God by Faith	Horizontal­love to man
Salvation of eternal soul	Service for temporal physical well-being
Saved to serve	Saved in and by service
Church, Christ's bride	Kingdom on earth by mans efforts
Faith	Works
Individual salvation	Corporate salvation
Amillennial or premillennial	Postmillennial
Cataclysmic supernatural end to age	Church will cleanse world of racism, war, injustice, and inequality
God is transcendent	God is immanent
Transform individual by new birth	Transform society by education and legislation
Stress theology	Stress social sciences
Other-world orientation	This-worldly orientation
Indirect social action by individuals	Direct social action by church
Christ centered	Man centered
Spiritual conviction	Social conscience
Proximate solution to man's problems in time, final beyond history	Final solutions in history often socialistic or Marxian
Millennium (Eden regained)	Utopian order
Renovation	Reforms or revolution

The truth lies not in "either/or" but in both/and." The task of the church is first evangelism (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8) to relate persons vertically to God by faith. These persons will then show love in actions in society as they live and serve until their hope of Christ's second coming becomes fact (Eph. 2:10; 1 Cor. 3:11-12; Titus 3:8).

From Earle E. Cairns, Christianity Through the Centuries, 1996, Zondervan, p. 464.

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