Zoomer Contemplation

Protestantism and the Dog That Caught the Car Problem

Much has been written about the young men and their conversions to Rome and Constantinople. I’ve gestured toward the nature of the problem in my first post, What Young Men Actually Want Is Prayer.

The point of this post is not to debate justification or sola fide or penal substitutionary atonement. But it is to explain the actual existing interpretation of these things in Protestant evangelical churches in 2025, and its practical implications.

“The Gospel.” That’s a big word. Often used in sermons and so forth. Occasionally even defined. And it’s important that we define it. Because presumably this is the core thing involved in Christianity.

You have basically two definitions floating around:

  1. The Evangelical-Protestant Gospel: Man deserves eternal hell due to his sin. A penal substitution on the cross atoned for this sin. So now one’s cosmic account balance is zero.

  2. The Orthodox-Catholic Gospel: Prior to the arrival of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of the Israelites and the Logos of the Greeks, man could not know God in himself and participate in his divine life. Jesus, the Christ, revealed God as he is in himself and therefore by imitating his life and participating in his church, man might enter the divine life.

Ok, so you’ve got two different gospels here, and thus two different Christianities. And importantly, the first one is not actually a revelation. It doesn’t actually reveal anything about the nature of God in himself.

So, what is the practical import of Gospel #1. At my aforementioned high school megachurch there was a massive wall on which were a bunch of mostly unlit lightbulbs. Whenever someone would answer the pastor’s altar call and “give their life to Jesus” (definition unclear), a new bulb would be lit.

And this was the point of Christianity.

So, the point of Christianity was to make more Christians.

This is called a recursive definition. Maybe even a multi-level marketing scheme.

So, you’re telling young men to become Christians. And they’re the dog chasing the car. And then they catch the car! Lightbulb on wall! Now what?