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Issues Facing Christians Today
Terrorism
Same-Sex Marriage
Debt Cancellation
The AIDS Pandemic
These are just some of the critical contemporary issues addressed in this book. Issues Facing Christians Today helps thinking Christians sift through and respond to a sweeping array of complex and pressing topics.
Thoroughly revised and updated by Roy McCloughry and fully endorsed by John Stott, this fourth edition continues a two-decades-plus legacy of bringing important current issues under the lens of biblically informed thinking. Combining a keen global awareness with a gift for penetrating analysis, the authors examine such vital topics as
Pluralism and Christian witness
Cohabitation
Environmentalism and ecological stewardship
War and peace
Abortion and euthanasia … and much more
An entirely new chapter on bio-engineering has been contributed by Professor John Wyatt of University College London.
Including a study guide, Issues Facing Christians Today is essential reading for Christians who wish to engage our culture with insight, passion, and faith, knowing that the gospel is as relevant and deeply needed today as at any time in history. As the culture wars continue, this book will remain a critical contribution, helping to define Christian social and ethical thinking in the years ahead.
Same-Sex Marriage
Debt Cancellation
The AIDS Pandemic
These are just some of the critical contemporary issues addressed in this book. Issues Facing Christians Today helps thinking Christians sift through and respond to a sweeping array of complex and pressing topics.
Thoroughly revised and updated by Roy McCloughry and fully endorsed by John Stott, this fourth edition continues a two-decades-plus legacy of bringing important current issues under the lens of biblically informed thinking. Combining a keen global awareness with a gift for penetrating analysis, the authors examine such vital topics as
Pluralism and Christian witness
Cohabitation
Environmentalism and ecological stewardship
War and peace
Abortion and euthanasia … and much more
An entirely new chapter on bio-engineering has been contributed by Professor John Wyatt of University College London.
Including a study guide, Issues Facing Christians Today is essential reading for Christians who wish to engage our culture with insight, passion, and faith, knowing that the gospel is as relevant and deeply needed today as at any time in history. As the culture wars continue, this book will remain a critical contribution, helping to define Christian social and ethical thinking in the years ahead.
528 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1984
93 people are currently reading
335 people want to read
About the author
John R.W. Stott
305 books555 followersJohn R. W. Stott is known worldwide as a preacher, evangelist, and communicator of Scripture. For many years he served as rector of All Souls Church in London, where he carried out an effective urban pastoral ministry. A leader among evangelicals in Britain, the United States and around the world, Stott was a principal framer of the landmark Lausanne Covenant (1974). His many books, including Why I Am a Christian and The Cross of Christ, have sold millions of copies around the world and in dozens of languages. Whether in the West or in the Two-Thirds World, a hallmark of Stott's ministry has been expository preaching that addresses the hearts and minds of contemporary men and women. Stott was honored by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World."
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 14, 2015
A Christian look at issues of the modern world
14 October 2012
This is an interesting book and it tackles a lot of issues that are relevant to us today. While this book was originally written back in the 1970s, John Stott regularly updated it as time progressed since more facts and figures would come to light in some areas, while other areas would begin to take a back seat with regards to the relevance. For instance, the threat of nuclear war subsided a lot with the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, however despite that the threat of nuclear terrorist attacks still loom as a possible threat.
In this commentary I don't really want to go over ground that Stott has already covered, but rather put my thoughts onto three main issues that face us today and to argue that we, as Christians, are going about it incorrectly. These three issues are what one could consider to be the three hot potatoes of Christianity, being sex before marriage, homosexuality, and abortion.
The reason that I say that we are approaching them incorrectly is that we are attempting to impose a Christian moral order onto a non-Christian world, and that is something that cannot be done. In many cases we believe that these are relatively new things, but my argument is that this has been happening pretty much since the year dot. Further, we as Christians spend too much time condemning non-Christians for their ways as opposed to actually demonstrating to the world that Christianity is actually a worthwhile religion in that it is not only inclusive, but it is also caring, supporting, and gives people hope.
I wish to point to two particular sayings of Jesus before I tackle each of the issues, and conclude with why I believe that by fighting against these issues is actually distracting us from the real issues facing the world today. The first saying comes from Matthew 7:1-2 'Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.' That verse, I think, is self explanatory. However we need to remember that as we judge a non-Christian for their actions, we are opening ourselves up for judgement against ourselves, whether it be our greed, our unloving nature, or simply because we are very selective with whom we associate. The second verse is Matthew 7:6 'Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.' Namely, do not attempt to impose a moral order upon people who do not acknowledge the moral order that you acknowledge because people are not stupid, and by you doing that, once again you are opening yourself up to criticism.
Now, the first issue that I will tackle is pre-marital sex. Now, I am not speaking about promiscuous sex (despite that fact that King David, the man after God's own heart, practised promiscuous sex and was never condemned for it). Once again, this has been happening for years, and granted, while God does indicate in Genesis that a man would leave his parents and cleave to his wife, this is an indication of a perfect world, a world in which we do not live. I have heard many times Christian leaders talk about our sex-mad society, when in reality our society no different to any of the other societies that have existed before us (with maybe the exception of Victorian England). However, what I have discovered is that the truly sex-mad people are the Christian leaders who continuously drum on about sex before marriage. What I have noticed is that in doing so we have created a group of young people who have been told that sex is a wonderful thing but that it should only be left for marriage and they end up getting married too early to people simply because they want to have sex. Inevitably the marriage fails (though it does not necessarily mean that it leads to divorce).
To be honest with you, the Bible really does not say anything about sex before marriage, namely because the only definition of marriage, as outlined in Genesis, is a life long committed relationship. It has a lot to say about adultery, which is oath-breaking, and it does speak of sexual immortality, but it does not really indicate anything as to what constitutes the beginning of a marriage with the exception of sex, which effectively, from a biblical point of view, makes sex before marriage impossible.
As for sexual immorality, I have discovered that the word that is used is the Greek word porneia. The translation to sexual immorality I believe is a mistranslation because that word, particularly in modern Greek, but also in Ancient Greek, refers to prostitution - that is the selling of one's body for sexual services. This word actually casts its net quite wide in that it catches pornography as well, though this is a topic that is best left for another time, and there are a number of discussions of pornography, but the main thing I wish to point out is that once an image has been made public, it is like pandora's box, in that it can never be brought back again.
As for homosexuality, this is a question of choice, and that is something that God has granted us, and that is a choice. We, as Christians, have no right to condemn, judge, or persecute anybody because of the choice that they have made. As for gay marriage, well, considering that the modern marriage industry pretty much makes a complete mockery of what marriage was supposed to mean, my position is simply to say if they want to get married then let them. Okay, I hear people scream out that it will undermine the family unit, but my response simply is that the family unit has already been undermined, and it is continuing to be destroyed. The traditional family unit was not the nuclear family of today, and in fact I have even experienced myself how the nuclear family acts to destroy the extended family which was the mainstay of the biblical times. Take Jacob for instance. Look at how his family operated. Yes, it was dysfunctional, but then this is not the perfect world, but it still shows how the family unit extends beyond Mum, Dad, and the kids.
Finally I wish to touch upon abortion. Now this is a tricky issue because I am a big believer in the rights of those who have no voice, and since I believe life begins from conception (and Catholics go even further by saying that by preventing life through contraception is just as bad as terminating an unborn child) I believe that the unborn should also have rights. However, we scream loudly about the rights of the unborn, but completely ignore the rights of the dispossesed, the homeless, and many of the other voiceless people in our world. Secondly, we love to quote statistics on the number of people that have been killed because of abortion, but I will also quote some statistics. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, 12000 innocent civilians, and quite possibly a lot higher, have been killed. According to the WHO, 15 million people die of hunger each year, and by the time you finish reading this, another 500 have probably died. So, we jump up and down about abortion, but what are we doing about world hunger?
And that is where I wish to conclude, namely that by getting upset over these issues, and by protesting and voting on these issues, we are playing into the hands of the neo-liberal elite, the same elite that launched the war against Iraq, and the same elite who live lavishly in the palace-mansions and have enough money to effectively end world poverty. We walk through the supermarkets who are squeezing the farmers and driving them off their land into the arms of poverty because they are attempting to undercut each other on prices. We talk about slum lords who make millions on students, but only leap out of our seats, grab our placards, and march on parliament when we talk about homosexual's getting married. Granted, there are no real differences between the two major parties, but the neo-liberals know that as long as Gay Marriage and Abortion are in the political arena, we play right into their hands, and in many cases, can easily be complicit in the evil that they are inflicting upon this world.
14 October 2012
This is an interesting book and it tackles a lot of issues that are relevant to us today. While this book was originally written back in the 1970s, John Stott regularly updated it as time progressed since more facts and figures would come to light in some areas, while other areas would begin to take a back seat with regards to the relevance. For instance, the threat of nuclear war subsided a lot with the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, however despite that the threat of nuclear terrorist attacks still loom as a possible threat.
In this commentary I don't really want to go over ground that Stott has already covered, but rather put my thoughts onto three main issues that face us today and to argue that we, as Christians, are going about it incorrectly. These three issues are what one could consider to be the three hot potatoes of Christianity, being sex before marriage, homosexuality, and abortion.
The reason that I say that we are approaching them incorrectly is that we are attempting to impose a Christian moral order onto a non-Christian world, and that is something that cannot be done. In many cases we believe that these are relatively new things, but my argument is that this has been happening pretty much since the year dot. Further, we as Christians spend too much time condemning non-Christians for their ways as opposed to actually demonstrating to the world that Christianity is actually a worthwhile religion in that it is not only inclusive, but it is also caring, supporting, and gives people hope.
I wish to point to two particular sayings of Jesus before I tackle each of the issues, and conclude with why I believe that by fighting against these issues is actually distracting us from the real issues facing the world today. The first saying comes from Matthew 7:1-2 'Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.' That verse, I think, is self explanatory. However we need to remember that as we judge a non-Christian for their actions, we are opening ourselves up for judgement against ourselves, whether it be our greed, our unloving nature, or simply because we are very selective with whom we associate. The second verse is Matthew 7:6 'Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.' Namely, do not attempt to impose a moral order upon people who do not acknowledge the moral order that you acknowledge because people are not stupid, and by you doing that, once again you are opening yourself up to criticism.
Now, the first issue that I will tackle is pre-marital sex. Now, I am not speaking about promiscuous sex (despite that fact that King David, the man after God's own heart, practised promiscuous sex and was never condemned for it). Once again, this has been happening for years, and granted, while God does indicate in Genesis that a man would leave his parents and cleave to his wife, this is an indication of a perfect world, a world in which we do not live. I have heard many times Christian leaders talk about our sex-mad society, when in reality our society no different to any of the other societies that have existed before us (with maybe the exception of Victorian England). However, what I have discovered is that the truly sex-mad people are the Christian leaders who continuously drum on about sex before marriage. What I have noticed is that in doing so we have created a group of young people who have been told that sex is a wonderful thing but that it should only be left for marriage and they end up getting married too early to people simply because they want to have sex. Inevitably the marriage fails (though it does not necessarily mean that it leads to divorce).
To be honest with you, the Bible really does not say anything about sex before marriage, namely because the only definition of marriage, as outlined in Genesis, is a life long committed relationship. It has a lot to say about adultery, which is oath-breaking, and it does speak of sexual immortality, but it does not really indicate anything as to what constitutes the beginning of a marriage with the exception of sex, which effectively, from a biblical point of view, makes sex before marriage impossible.
As for sexual immorality, I have discovered that the word that is used is the Greek word porneia. The translation to sexual immorality I believe is a mistranslation because that word, particularly in modern Greek, but also in Ancient Greek, refers to prostitution - that is the selling of one's body for sexual services. This word actually casts its net quite wide in that it catches pornography as well, though this is a topic that is best left for another time, and there are a number of discussions of pornography, but the main thing I wish to point out is that once an image has been made public, it is like pandora's box, in that it can never be brought back again.
As for homosexuality, this is a question of choice, and that is something that God has granted us, and that is a choice. We, as Christians, have no right to condemn, judge, or persecute anybody because of the choice that they have made. As for gay marriage, well, considering that the modern marriage industry pretty much makes a complete mockery of what marriage was supposed to mean, my position is simply to say if they want to get married then let them. Okay, I hear people scream out that it will undermine the family unit, but my response simply is that the family unit has already been undermined, and it is continuing to be destroyed. The traditional family unit was not the nuclear family of today, and in fact I have even experienced myself how the nuclear family acts to destroy the extended family which was the mainstay of the biblical times. Take Jacob for instance. Look at how his family operated. Yes, it was dysfunctional, but then this is not the perfect world, but it still shows how the family unit extends beyond Mum, Dad, and the kids.
Finally I wish to touch upon abortion. Now this is a tricky issue because I am a big believer in the rights of those who have no voice, and since I believe life begins from conception (and Catholics go even further by saying that by preventing life through contraception is just as bad as terminating an unborn child) I believe that the unborn should also have rights. However, we scream loudly about the rights of the unborn, but completely ignore the rights of the dispossesed, the homeless, and many of the other voiceless people in our world. Secondly, we love to quote statistics on the number of people that have been killed because of abortion, but I will also quote some statistics. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, 12000 innocent civilians, and quite possibly a lot higher, have been killed. According to the WHO, 15 million people die of hunger each year, and by the time you finish reading this, another 500 have probably died. So, we jump up and down about abortion, but what are we doing about world hunger?
And that is where I wish to conclude, namely that by getting upset over these issues, and by protesting and voting on these issues, we are playing into the hands of the neo-liberal elite, the same elite that launched the war against Iraq, and the same elite who live lavishly in the palace-mansions and have enough money to effectively end world poverty. We walk through the supermarkets who are squeezing the farmers and driving them off their land into the arms of poverty because they are attempting to undercut each other on prices. We talk about slum lords who make millions on students, but only leap out of our seats, grab our placards, and march on parliament when we talk about homosexual's getting married. Granted, there are no real differences between the two major parties, but the neo-liberals know that as long as Gay Marriage and Abortion are in the political arena, we play right into their hands, and in many cases, can easily be complicit in the evil that they are inflicting upon this world.
Read
July 29, 2021Again, really surprised by how relevant this book still is, I can't think of a more balanced, while biblically uncompromising recent book. Could not recommend it enough to anyone interested in Christianity or even just looking in. Christian morals are coming increasingly into conflict with the secular worldview, and I think this is a valuable resource to teach us humility, and loving compassion while standing on the biblical principles for life.
March 21, 2017
No leí todo el libro, pero buena parte. Como siempre cuando leo algo de Stott, también esta lectura fue un placer. Stott tiene en una mano el diario y en la otra la Biblia. El resultado es este libro.
August 19, 2015
This book was both very helpful and very resourceful. However, not for the hard of thinking.
January 31, 2017
No wonder Stott is going to be a lasting influence in contemporary Christian thought. Enjoyed this one as usual. A faithful Christian, this man. Bless his soul.
March 11, 2020
This book should be on the shelf of every Christian. John Stott and his editors take a no nonsense approach to all the great debates and issues facing Christians. Starting from the evangelical stand point that the Bible is the last word on a subject, but never settling for simplistic responses, the author explores all areas of an issue, and gently teases out the Christian response – the one that follows the example of Christ himself.
Never satisfied with the stock answers, the Bible studies scripture and brings it to bear in all its fullness on an issue. The book is compassionately written by a man of faith.
First class and highly recommended.
Never satisfied with the stock answers, the Bible studies scripture and brings it to bear in all its fullness on an issue. The book is compassionately written by a man of faith.
First class and highly recommended.
January 6, 2022
This book was written in the '70s but has been updated to include topics like Pluralism and Christian witness,Cohabitation, environmentalism, and ecological stewardship, War and peace, Abortion and euthanasia.
This book would be useful as a discussion starter in a youth group or Sunday school class.
This book would be useful as a discussion starter in a youth group or Sunday school class.
November 23, 2022
Not the most recent take on things and I'd love to pick John Stott's brains over some of the latest developments in the world. But you can't fault him for trying to take a biblical approach to dealing with the issues at hand, and in thinking how we as Christians can be bringing light to our world.
July 15, 2023
One amazing book - Christianity in our own realities
Currently reading
September 15, 2010saya baca yg edisi bahasa Indonesia: ISU-ISU GLOBAL. terjemahannya kurang sempurna, jadi cukup sulit dicerna kata2nya. namun isinya bagus n mencerahkan. menjelaskan bagaimana memandang dunia dgn cara pandang Alkitab. ternyata Alkitab relevan dgn isu2 di dunia. dan kita jadi tahu apa peranan org Kristen utk menerangi n menggarami dunia ini
February 9, 2011
buku yang menggugat tentang keterlibatan orang Kristen di tengah dunia tempat ia hidup ini cukup menarik. menyoroti tentang isu-isu yang sedang terjadi di abad 20-21, serta bagaimana penulis memandang isu-isu tsb dari kacamata alkitab. Bahasanya sedikit sulit dimengerti jadi bacalah perlahan atau baca cepat sekali lalu ulang untuk kedua kalinya untuk mendapat pemahaman yang cukup.
August 13, 2016
A good resource which requires regular updating to reflect changing issues, although some key themes remain timeless in the reflected wisdom of the authors. Useful for either individual reading and reflection or group study.
December 16, 2013
Some chapters were a little hit and miss, but a good comprehensive resource and prompting many good discussions in my bible study.
June 28, 2014
thought provoking, provided ground where I can stand
September 25, 2018
This book helps me to see the world from christian view and helps me to teach how can I contribute to the world.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews