How Not To Make God Relevant

“The piety in which many of us were raised encourages a heavenly mindedness that sometimes tends to denigrate our common lives and callings here and now. Reacting against this flight away from the here and now, others preach a more this-worldly salvation. This message comes in two seemingly different packages: a prosperity gospel, focusing on either personal peace and happiness, or a social gospel, focusing on redemptive political policies and action. But whether it promises “your best life now” or “our best world now,” the assumptions are similar. We’re tired of waiting for “pie in the sky bye and bye,” and if God is going to be relevant, we have to see results now. Both versions make God a means to an end and make us rather than Christ alone the agent of redemption. Either one plays better in our culture than the call of Jesus Christ to die to ourselves and be raised with Christ. It is being baptized into Christ as the firstfruits of the age to come that gives us faith, hope, and love to endure the present evil age with neither resentment nor triumphalism.” [emphasis added]

Michael Horton. Calvin On The Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever