Humanismo
Muchos cristianos han tomado la idea de que van a transformar el mundo (a una utopia). Esta transformación es el resultado de enseñar la gente a ser “mejores” personas. Hace cien años era por medio de hacer el mundo una democracia o por darles una educación. Hoy estamos buscando un mundo mejor.Estoy de acuerdo que el cristianismo transforma (progreso moral) el mundo. Pero no es porque estamos buscando una transformación del mundo, sino porque estamos buscando a Cristo.
Este articulo es una respuesta a este tipo de humanismo que cree que podemos hacer un hombre mejor. En lugar de hacer un hombre mejor, necesitamos hacer un “hombre nuevo” (Efesios 2:15).
Hernán Dooyeweerd decía en su libro, Las raíces de la cultura, que hay cuatro religiones en la civilización occidental: 1. Paganismo, 2. Catolicismo, 3. Humanismo y 4. Cristianismo Bíblico.
La religión humanista dice que la solución de los problemas básicos lo tiene que resolver el humano. El futuro esta en su decisión, en sus valores, y su determinación. El futuro esta sólo en las manos de ser humano (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanismo_religioso).
Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) es un ejemplo del humanismo existencialista atea. El cree que todo esta determinado por la decisión humana. “Eres lo que decides.”
El humanismo recibió su puerta abierta a cristianismo a través de Santo Tomás de Aquino (1225-1274) según Francis Schaffer, Huyendo de la razón, CLIE. Tomás aceptó las enseñanzas de Aristóteles. La visión del mundo de Aristótoles donde el enfoque estaban en lo particular, el individuo y lo físico.
El humanismo religioso no tiene nada de ver con el cristianismo bíblico. El cristianismo bíblico dice que la única solución al problema humano esta en la cruz de Cristo. Si Dios no interviene en la historia, si Dios no tiene compasión de nosotros, no tenemos una solución a los problemas de este mundo. No tenemos una solución en el alcance de nuestras decisiones que puede resolver el problema.
La Biblia no pone la solución en la decisión humana. De hecho en 1 Juan cuando se levanta la pregunta si uno es cristiano o no; no regresa a una decisión para determinar la identidad del cristiano. Regresa al ser. No somos salvos por tomar una buena y duradera decisión. Somos salvos por lo que Jesús hizo en su muerte y resurrección.
Humanismo ganó la ventaja con la entrada de la ilustración o modernismo. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) cambió el punto de arranque de la revelación de Dios a la existencia de nuestro “yo”. Immanuel Kant (1738-1804) limitó el conocimiento a lo que el hombre puede precibir. No hay revelación de Dios. Años más tarde en el furor de la revolución frances (1789) el catedral “Notre Dame” fue cambiado a “un templo de la razón” humana. Hoy Dios ha sido expulsado de la universidad. Casi todo el enfoque universitario occidental está en la perspectiva humanista desde que ha adoptado los principios de la ilustración.
Augusto Comte (1798-1857), un ateo francés, explico el progreso humano en tres etapas: 1. La etapa religiosa, donde todo el universo está explicado con base en un ser divino; 2. La etapa filosófica, donde todo esta explicada en basé de la filosofía; 3. La etapa científica, donde todo esta basada en las ciencias empíricas. Siguiendo a Comte y los otros positivistas se han ido eliminado la religión y la filosofía de la educación.
Cómo ya no existe el cielo o Dios para la educación pública , todo nuestra esperanza para el futuro esta en nuestra familia, el bien estar (prosperidad) nacional y personal, la fiesta, la educación, la solución de los problemas de la pobreza, y el salud. Tampoco existe en la política. La orientación de las instituciones fuera de la iglesia esta hacía el mundo. Y la orientación de la iglesia de Cristo esta en otro rumbo.
Nosotros, los cristianos, no creemos que el hombre puede mejorar el mundo. Dios la va a juzgar y destruir. Si fuera posible una mejora Pedro no hubiera dicho que Dios la destruyera (2 Pedro 3:10). Nuestra única esperanza es una reconciliación con Dios y una resurrección.
“No amen al mundo ni las cosas que están en el mundo. Si alguien ama al mundo, el amor del Padre no está en el. Porque todo lo que hay en el mundo la pasión de la carne, la pasión de los ojos, y la arrogancia de la vida (las riquezas), no proviene del Padre, sino del mundo. El mundo pasa, y también sus pasiones, pero el que hace la voluntad de Dios permanece para siempre.” 1 Juan 2:15-17
Bibliografía:
Francis Schaffer, Huyendo de la razón, CLIE.
Henan Dooyeweerd, Las raíces de la cultura occidental, CLIE.
Roy Clouser, El mito de la neutralidad religiosa, CLIE.
Excelentes puntos sobre el Humanismo. Es muy triste y alarmante ver como la mayoira de las iglesias evangelicas actuales predican mas un evangelio humanistico. El evangelio NO es humanisco. Esto es predicar una herejia. En lugar de vestirse como hijos de Dios, lo unico es mantenerse como hijos de Adan. Todo esto como resultado de una falta de informacion profunda de las escrituras y conformarse al viejo hombre. Sin renovacion de sus mentes.
ResponderBorrarLes comparto este articulo (en ingles). Es preocupante ver que las iglesias evangelicas se predique un evengelio social, en el cual se basa en una justicia entre los miembros y puntos morales.
ResponderBorrarWhy Moralism Is Not the Gospel — And Why So Many Christians Think It Is
Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.,
One of the most amazing statements by the Apostle Paul is his indictment of the Galatian Christians for abandoning the Gospel. “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel,” Paul declared. As he stated so emphatically, the Galatians had failed in the crucial test of discerning the authentic Gospel from its counterfeits.
His words could not be more clear: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, he is to be accursed!” [Gal. 1:6-7]
This warning from the Apostle Paul, expressed in the language of the Apostle’s shock and grief, is addressed not only to the church in Galatia, but to every congregation in every age. In our own day — and in our own churches — we desperately need to hear and to heed this warning. In our own time, we face false gospels no less subversive and seductive than those encountered and embraced by the Galatians.
In our own context, one of the most seductive false gospels is moralism. This false gospel can take many forms and can emerge from any number of political and cultural impulses.
Nevertheless, the basic structure of moralism comes down to this — the belief that the Gospel can be reduced to improvements in behavior.
Sadly, this false gospel is particularly attractive to those who believe themselves to be evangelicals motivated by a biblical impulse. Far too many believers and their churches succumb to the logic of moralism and reduce the Gospel to a message of moral improvement. In other words, we communicate to lost persons the message that what God desires for them and demands of them is to get their lives straight.
In one sense, we are born to be moralists. Created in God’s image, we have been given the moral capacity of conscience. From our earliest days our conscience cries out to us the knowledge of our guilt, shortcomings, and misbehaviors. In other words, our conscience communicates our sinfulness.
cont 2
ResponderBorrarAdd to this the fact that the process of parenting and child rearing tends to inculcate moralism from our earliest years. Very quickly we learn that our parents are concerned with our behavior. Well behaved children are rewarded with parental approval, while misbehavior brings parental sanction. This message is reinforced by other authorities in young lives and pervades the culture at large.
Writing about his own childhood in rural Georgia, the novelist Ferrol Sams described the deeply-ingrained tradition of being “raised right.” As he explained, the child who is “raised right” pleases his parents and other adults by adhering to moral conventions and social etiquette. A young person who is “raised right” emerges as an adult who obeys the laws, respects his neighbors, gives at least lip service to religious expectations, and stays away from scandal. The point is clear — this is what parents expect, the culture affirms, and many churches celebrate. But our communities are filled with people who have been “raised right” but are headed for hell.
The seduction of moralism is the essence of its power. We are so easily seduced into believing that we actually can gain all the approval we need by our behavior. Of course, in order to participate in this seduction, we must negotiate a moral code that defines acceptable behavior with innumerable loopholes. Most moralists would not claim to be without sin, but merely beyond scandal. That is considered sufficient.
Moralists can be categorized as both liberal and conservative. In each case, a specific set of moral concerns frames the moral expectation. As a generalization, it is often true that liberals focus on a set of moral expectations related to social ethics while conservatives tend to focus on personal ethics. The essence of moralism is apparent in both — the belief that we can achieve righteousness by means of proper behavior.
The theological temptation of moralism is one many Christians and churches find it difficult to resist. The danger is that the church will communicate by both direct and indirect means that what God expects of fallen humanity is moral improvement. In so doing, the church subverts the Gospel and communicates a false gospel to a fallen world.
Christ’s Church has no option but to teach the Word of God, and the Bible faithfully reveals the law of God and a comprehensive moral code. Christians understand that God has revealed Himself throughout creation in such a way that He has gifted all humanity with the restraining power of the law. Furthermore, He has spoken to us in His word with the gift of specific commands and comprehensive moral instruction.
The faithful Church of the Lord Jesus Christ must contend for the righteousness of these commands and the grace given to us in the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. We also have a responsibility to bear witness of this knowledge of good and evil to our neighbors. The restraining power of the law is essential to human community and to civilization.
Just as parents rightly teach their children to obey moral instruction, the church also bears responsibility to teach its own the moral commands of God and to bear witness to the larger society of what God has declared to be right and good for His human creatures.
cont 3 (final)
ResponderBorrarBut these impulses, right and necessary as they are, are not the Gospel. Indeed, one of the most insidious false gospels is a moralism that promises the favor of God and the satisfaction of God’s righteousness to sinners if they will only behave and commit themselves to moral improvement.
The moralist impulse in the church reduces the Bible to a codebook for human behavior and substitutes moral instruction for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Far too many evangelical pulpits are given over to moralistic messages rather than the preaching of the Gospel.
The corrective to moralism comes directly from the Apostle Paul when he insists that “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus.” Salvation comes to those who are “justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” [Gal. 2:16]
We sin against Christ and we misrepresent the Gospel when we suggest to sinners that what God demands of them is moral improvement in accordance with the Law. Moralism makes sense to sinners, for it is but an expansion of what we have been taught from our earliest days. But moralism is not the Gospel, and it will not save. The only gospel that saves is the Gospel of Christ. As Paul reminded the Galatians, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” [Gal. 4:4-5]
We are justified by faith alone, saved by grace alone, and redeemed from our sin by Christ alone. Moralism produces sinners who are (potentially) better behaved. The Gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God.
The Church must never evade, accommodate, revise, or hide the law of God. Indeed, it is the Law that shows us our sin and makes clear our inadequacy and our total lack of righteousness. The Law cannot impart life but, as Paul insists, it “has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” [Gal. 3:24]
The deadly danger of moralism has been a constant temptation to the church and an ever-convenient substitute for the Gospel. Clearly, millions of our neighbors believe that moralism is our message. Nothing less than the boldest preaching of the Gospel will suffice to correct this impression and to lead sinners to salvation in Christ.
Hell will be highly populated with those who were “raised right.” The citizens of heaven will be those who, by the sheer grace and mercy of God, are there solely because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Moralism is not the gospel.