“The financial crisis showed us that the idol of materialism has failed”

The Spanish Evangelical Student and Graduate movement GBU España had in December 2014 its biggest event: “Forum GBU”. Once every 5 years, the conference offers a broad program to discuss topics relating the Gospel and its impact on Society.

This year’s edition united 500 people of all ages to reflect on the topic: “Transformation: the relationships of Christians in a changing world”. More than 20 speakers shared their views on areas like Work, Family, Politics, Finance, Education, Psychology, Theology, Arts, Student ministries, etc.

The speakers of the main plenary sessions were Dr Michael Schluter (United Kingdom, president of the Jubilee Centre) and the theologian and journalist José de Segovia. We summarize some the most interesting ideas Segovia shared in his three Bible expositions in this tweet-like list:

THE CHURCH’S MISSION

1. “We must look around us with compassion as we begin to understand the havoc that sin has wreaked.”

2. “The great message of the Bible is that the tragedy is entirely our doing, but salvation is entirely God’s.”

3. “The Evangelical world has been too tolerant of lone wolves working in isolation. But God has no tolerance of individualism.”

4. “Beware of pragmatism. The Church is the work of Christ, and we must not accommodate it to our own models.”

5. “Any priesthood which claims to lead us to God is an impostor, as it usurps the mission that belongs to Christ alone.”

6. “The greatest enemies of the extension of Christianity are often those who claim to be its followers.”

7. “Moralism is not going to make us salt and light to the world. What moves us to act is hope. The Christian who does not have the hope of heaven in mind will be useless on earth.”
 

MATERIALISM AND THE CRISIS

8. “We must admit that we tend to expect from mere ‘things’ a satisfaction that they will not be able to deliver.”

9.  “The financial crisis has shown us how traumatic it is to be dispossessed. The idol of materialism has failed.”

10. “Our greatest problems are relationship problems.”

11. “A problem is that we have an affective relationship with material things, not a functional one.”

12. “Christianity must go beyond the obvious condemnation of corruption. It must cast light on the sin that lies at its root.”

THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING

13. “The response of Christ to evil is: Jesus wept. God feels, He is not indifferent to our pain.”

14. “Every good thing comes from God. We cannot explain the whole problem of evil, but we can identify where good comes from.”

15. “We cannot hold God responsible for any of the bad things that happen to us. The problem of evil is an enigma. Death and suffering are essentially alien to us. We were not made to die.”

16. “There is nothing in human life that has not been affected by the fall.”

17. “We have swallowed the lie that we can discover who we are on our own.”

GOD AND THEOLOGIES

18. “God does not see us as we see ourselves. He sees us in Christ, and he takes pleasure in us.”

19. “God, the God of the Bible, takes pleasure in what he has done. The ‘god’ of religion, by contrast, has no interest in pleasure.”

20. “Our problem has nothing to do with intelligence. There is no salvation in any intellectual alternative.”

21. “None of us has a perfect theology. We should beware of our pride in our ‘sound doctrine.’”

22. “Islam and Marxism strive to convert by force. But neither law nor force can change the human heart.”

23. “If Creation has value for God, who will give it to his Son (Ephesians 1 v 9-10), who are we to despise it?”
 

José de Segovia is the pastor of a church in Madrid (Spain) and is member of the board of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance. He  writes for Evangelical Focus in his blog "Between the lines".