This is the third post in a series of posts looking at the Sermon on the Mount. I’ve referenced a blog by Michael L. Westmoreland-White that got me to thinking about these specific points; he in turn credits John Howard Yoder and Glen Stassen. Westmoreland-White describes “dodges” to the Sermon on the Mount, ways in which people seek to get around applying it today. (I might note that he is specifically discussing pacifism, so his comments at times focus on how the Sermon is applied at a national level)

Yesterday we looked at the Dispensational Dodge. Westmoreland-White calls the second view “The Preterist Dodge,” though he throws Albert Schweitzer’s views into the mix, so I don’t know that he’s talking about what I know as preterism. Anyway, this view is the view that Jesus’ teachings were only meant for the first century, for a church that expected the Second Coming to happen within their lifetime. Those holding this view argue that the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount are unsustainable over a long period of time and were only intended for the few decades following Jesus’ death.

Again, how we deal with the Sermon on the Mount really does reflect with how we deal with Jesus himself. If you follow the above argument to its logical extreme, we not only throw out the gospels, but pretty much the rest of the New Testament. While I’m not a big fan of slippery-slope arguments, I do get nervous any time someone starts discounting parts of the Bible, especially if they can’t give me firm parameters on when to ignore what the Bible says and when not to.

The fact that Christians of every generation become convinced that the Second Coming is right around the corner is undeniable. If you don’t believe me, check the billboards around this country. That fact shouldn’t change Christian morality nor Christian theology. We should be living the same way whether Jesus returns tomorrow or returns long after we are dead.

What has changed, I think, is the fear factor. We’re afraid to follow Jesus’ teachings. I know I am! Don’t worry about tomorrow, turn the other cheek… those things can lead you to be poor and oppressed. And they don’t preach well in a society of affluence. But that doesn’t keep them from being true.

Again I say, I don’t see how you can call yourself a Christian and not follow the teachings of Christ. God fearer, maybe. Christian, no.