Platonic, pagan Christianity?

Renowned evangelist, Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, has just finished his brief visit to Oslo. He is receiving mixed reviews. Here is one of the reasons why.

In his latest book on the cross, The day the Revolution Began, N.T. Wright laments the three-layered mistake of much popular evangelical preaching:  

 "We have Platonized our eschatology (substituting “souls going to heaven” for the promised new creation) and have therefore moralized our anthropology (substituting a qualifying examination of moral performance for the biblical notion of the human vocation), with the result that we have paganized our soteriology, our understanding of “salvation” (substituting the idea of “God killing Jesus to satisfy his wrath” for the genuinely biblical notions we are about to explore). This is a fairly drastic set of charges. Some will no doubt accuse me of caricature, but long experience of what people in churches think they have been taught suggests otherwise.” Wright, N. T.. The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion (p. 147).

Last weekend Franklin Graham preached two sermons in Oslo Spektrum that illustrate exactly what Wright means. The following excerpts are from his Sunday sermon:

 Platonized eschatology (“souls going to heaven” instead of “new creation”)
Franklin: Your soul never dies. Your soul will live as long as God lives. And your soul is gonna reside one day either in heaven or hell. One day they are going to bury you in the ground. You may not want to think about that, but these bodies of ours are gonna die. And then we stand before God in judgment. That’s right, you have a soul, and when you take your last breath on this earth, you are transported into eternity. And it’s either heaven or hell.

Moralized anthropology (“moral performance” instead of “human vocation”)

Franklin: “Sin is an obstacle. Sin is disobedience to God’s laws and his standards. You say, but Franklin, the world is a big place and we have different cultures. There are different standards and things are accepted today that weren’t accepted even 50 years ago. God’s standards are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. They are gonna be the same a million years from now. God does not change his standards. As culture changes, God doesn’t change. He is the same. 

Telling a lie is a sin. Have you ever lied. You say “eh no”, you are a liar. We have all lied. We are all guilty. Franklin Graham is guilty. Stealing is a sin. Adultery. Any type of a sexual relationship outside of a marriage relationship is a sin against God. When I say a marriage relationship (waving his index finger), I’m talking about a marriage relationship between a man and a woman, not two women (applause), not two men (more applause). God’s standard for marriage is a man and a woman. And there are many of you here tonight, you are guilty of sexual sin. etc.

Paganized soteriology (God needing somebody to be killed before he could forgive)

Franklin: “You see, God wants to forgive sin. If you have kept all of God’s laws except one, you are guilty. The Bible says that we have all sinned and come short of God’s glory. That the wages of sin is death. You see there is a death sentence over the human race. But God so loved you, that he sent his son from heaven to this earth. To take our sins. He became a sacrifice to God for our sins. He died in our place”.

Many people loved his preaching. Some even came to Christ through it. Many people got nostalgic about someone again preaching the good old gospel. His emphasis on forgiveness must have been cathartic for many.

And some of us think that if this is the gospel we need another reformation.

Any way Wright should hereby be cleared of the charges of caricature.