H. Richard Niebuhr famously skewered the liberal Protestantism of his day with this distillation of its message:
A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.
Seven decades later, some Dutch clergy are taking it to the next logical level: a God without existence brings men without beliefs into a kingdom without hope through the ministrations of a Christ without a life.
What would have functioned as a parody of liberalism a generation or two ago is now a tragic, pathetic reality. Abraham Kuyper must be spinning in his grave.
Thankfully there are still many thousands in the Netherlands who have not bowed the knee. Pray for them — and for revival in their homeland.
Just after reading this, I ran across some prescient words of B.B. Warfield in his essay on “Calivinism Today”. Writing of the repudiation of supernaturalism in salvation in “modern naturalism”, he saw it resulting in
Full essay here:
http://www.the-highway.com/caltoday_Warfield.html
Quote is in the 8th last paragraph. (Or use CTRL-F!)
David Reimer