James Baxter

The Book of Deuteronomy and Post-modern Christianity: James Baxter

As a dominant voice in our society, Western Christianity (including fundamentalism) is dying despite the growing tendency of people to identify as spiritual but not religious. In the face of this reality, churches continue to preach the same message of sin, judgment, and guilt in order to be saved, or in the case of more progressive churches, feel-good messages. No wonder Western Christianity is failing. If it is ever to regain its viability, Christianity must rethink its total devotion to Christ and look again at its roots. A new Christianity must start over with the original vision of God's dream for us as expressed by Moses and Jesus. Jesus was not a Christian. He was a Jewish reformer and he worked within the context of the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament). Deuteronomy was one of these books. When this ancient wisdom is paired with post-modern Christianity, we see that the teachings of Moses and Jesus are as relevant today as they were two to three thousand years ago, perhaps even more so.