Getting Rid Of "Saved".

The Christian Post Online had a story September 1st 2011.

Apparently Tim Stevens the executive pastor of Granger Community Church, an Indiana “megachurch”, wants to remove the word “saved” from the Christian vocabulary.

Indiana Pastor: 'Saved' Should Be Removed From Church Vocabulary?

There’s an agenda going on here.
This one was quite tempting. I have been used in our church with the gift of “discerning of spirits” (1 Corinthians 12:10) and I was going to post that I agreed with this guy.

I liked this part…

“I think that so often when we use those terms in-house, we’re talking among Christians, we forget where we are at and we forget who we are with,” he said. “We use those words to translate outside (the Christian community) when they don’t mean anything to anyone or they ostracize or set us apart when we really want to be making connections.”

Stevens writes that he realizes “saved” “is a foundational word in the Christian faith, taken largely from Romans 10:13: 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"

He said “saved” can also imply “a once-and-for-all, passive event that happens to someone. Like they did nothing at all. And once they get it, they are good forever. I realize both of those things are true at their core. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. But it requires me to accept the gift and give my life to Him.”

When a Christian accepts Jesus into their life they are on a new life course and journey, he said.

“I think the word ‘saved’ doesn’t fully embrace that. It kind of points at the point of transaction and not the changed life. I don’t think it is the whole truth. It’s a discipleship process. Yes, maybe in a moment as I start on that journey.”

I can agree to that part. Maybe we should cool it with the “Christianese” around new believers until they know the definitions.
So long as we elaborate on terms and definitions. “Saved” is not just saved from hell but also “saved” for holiness, (2 Timothy 1:9).
I would like to elaborate on that and make sure people understand that.
Because I don’t think many do.

However…

The discernment red light went off when I saw…

Stevens likes to substitute the word “saved” and describe committed Christians with phrases like “Christ follower,” “following Jesus,” and “someone that started on the journey of following Jesus.”

Ah, ha… Okay, now I get it.

This is one of the growing number of pastors wanting to remove words like “Christian” from defining us.
They say “Christian” carried too much baggage with it and we need to change it to “Christ follower”. What they really mean is make it more palatable.

I can say “amen” to pulling back on the buzz words until we have clearly defined what they mean but this guy is not talking about that. (Oh, he sounds like he is. I almost drank this Kool-aid.)
But he and the rest of the emergent community know what he’s really saying.

They do not want to change the evangelical vocabulary. They want to change the evangelical dictionary.
They want to do like Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses and use the same words but their definitions are not the same.

This one is different. They want to ditch the Biblical words and swap them for new ones that sound Biblical but… Who defines them?

“Saved” already has it’s definitions…

Romans 10:9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But “Christ follower”? Sounds good, I guess.
But who defines exactly what that means?

These new emergent guys with their “social gospel” will define it.

Get rid of the “old” words that have power and blessings on them, “cross”, “blood”, “holy”, “repentance from sin”, and replace them with words that sound Christian but actually mean, “save the planet from the big oil companies”.

Very, very insidious.