Notes on Walter Rauschenbusch and The Social Gospel

Social Gospel - Walter Rauschenbusch - Notes from Wikipedia article

-Denied that Jesus bore the sins of individuals.
-Posited that Jesus bore the sins of the society.
-Posited that the sins of the society are caused by the sins of individuals.

-Denied that Jesus' death was for salvation of individuals.
-Posited that Jesus' death was for salvation of societies by replacing selfishness for love in society. QUESTION: What was selfish about Jesus staying alive?  That is, why was Jesus' death necessary at all in Rauschenbusch's theology?

-Posited 6 public sins that led to kill Jesus, and also lead to the suffering of all humans.
--A) Religious bigotry
--B) graft + political power
--C) corruption of justice
--D) mob spirit (insane social group) and mob action
--E) militarism
--F) class contempt
-Posited that those 6 public sins were due to the sins of individuals, so that the public sins stood for individual sins, and thus Jesus bore in His body individual sins only at a remove through the literal reality of bearing in His body these 6 sins of society.
-Posited that evil was not in individuals, but in 4 suprapersonal entities, which are socio-economic and political institutions.
--A) militarism
--B) individualism
--C) capitalism
--D) nationalism
-Posited correctives to those 4 sources of posited evil.
--A) pacifism
--B) collectivism
--C) socialism
--D) internationalism

-Denied that John the Baptist thought of baptism in terms of individual salvation.
-Posited that John the Baptist thought of baptism in terms of a religio-social movement.

-Denied the preaching of Hell brings in the Kingdom of God.
-Posited the action of individual morality brings in the Kingdom of God.

By taking action to correct evil by the plans implied in his thinking, he thought of following Jesus as fulfilling what he thought Jesus started.  He thought this action would bring in the Kingdom of God.

NOTE: This seems to be the current politico-religio-secular action to bring in Satan's Kingdom under the Antichrist.  His rejection of Jesus' blood atonement and his rejection that individual sins (eg. of Pilate and individual Jews in the crowd that demanded that Pilate not release Him) are directly to blame for Jesus' death have set the stage for his dealings with the problem of evil which seem to have caused great evil in modern society.

NOTE: In Rauschenbusch's framework, individual morality is really only useful as it leads to actions that bring change in society. Thus, there is not use to having good thoughts or internal disciplines, as long as the external personal interface with society is effective in bringing change to his 6 sins across his 4 domains of needful change.

NOTE: Charles Sheldon's, "In His Steps", along with the phrase, "What would Jesus do?", is a powerful and practical outworking of Rauschenbusch's framework.  QUESTION: Did Charles Sheldon preach individual salvation through Christ's death?

NOTE: Morality is the effect of salvation and not its cause!  This is the essential difference between Christianity and this modern formulation of Pseudo-Christianity.

"Master Jesus, please go against this attack on Your Church. If it is Your will, please remove Your Church from seeing the fruition of this great heresy, to Your glory and praise. Make us endure all for You and for Your great name, our Master Jesus Christ. Amen."

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