Marcion Was a Red-Letter Christian

I just ran across a great article entitled "Why I'm Not a Red Letter Christian."

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Christianity Today article entitled "When Red is Blue" may be helpful. It contains a letter by Stan Guthrie with a response by Tony Campolo. The letters are tremendously revealing, both in their content and in the apparently disingenuous nature of Campolo's response.

Just to be fair, here is Campolo's earlier article, "What's a 'Red-Letter Christian'?" The attendance list in the second paragraph will speak volumes to many alert readers.

gotquestions.org gave a helpful response entitled "What Are Red-Letter Christians?" They make the following observations:

All politics aside, there are some problems associated with the Red Letter Christian movement. The first concerns the group’s open theology. Bringing together various faith backgrounds is very tolerant and progressive, but theologically untenable. Founders of the movement include those who believe that we must earn our way to heaven and those who distrust the inspiration of the Word of God.

The second problem involves the group’s piecemeal approach to Scripture. To concentrate on certain parts of the Bible to the exclusion of others is unbalanced and dangerous. “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). The Epistles, for example, were written to instruct us on the practical outworking of Jesus’ teaching and are just as inspired as Jesus’ own words. Paul’s words should not be considered inferior, as the term Red Letter Christians implies.

A third problem relates to their interpretation of Jesus’ words. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was not trying to write national government policy. He was presenting Himself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law (Matthew 5:17) and the Savior from sin for all who would believe in Him. He clearly separated Himself from all political movements and paradigms when He said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

While it is true that Jesus was neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and we need public discussion on all moral values, not just abortion and homosexuality, we must handle God’s Word honestly and guard against those who undermine the sufficiency of Scripture and the sacrifice of Christ.

That sounds about right.