Christ and Culture Revisited

by D.A. Carson

When we decry the most virulent forms of secular humanism, we are tempted to argue that it is a form of “religion” (i.e., with its own absolutes, its own pursuit of the ideal life, its own “gods,” and so forth), intimating, implicitly or explicitly, that secular humanists cannot fairly write us off as people of “religion” when they are people of “religion” as much as we — though a few minutes later, in another discourse, we decry “religion,” or, in another conversation, defend religious people over against secularists.

the church is the people of God called out by the gospel. This suggests that maintaining fidelity to the biblical gospel is of paramount importance for identifying the church.

the church is the people of God where the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, where the sacraments/ordinances are rightly observed, and where godly corporate discipline operates.