Worst of all, when the church speaks to the world, it
perpetuates the same false system of salvation. It is clearly heard as
saying that the world can be saved only by getting its act together.
But besides being false, that is an utterly unrealistic apologetic.
For everyone knows perfectly well that the world never has gotten its
act together and never will – that disaster has been the hallmark of
its history – and that if there is no one who can save it in its
disasters, there is no one who can save it. And therefore when the
church comes to the world mouthing the hot air that the future is
amenable to reform – that the kingdom can be built here by plausible
devices, by something other than the mystery of the passion – the
church convinces no one. Murphy’s Law vincit omnia: late or soon, the
world is going down the drain; only a Savior who is willing to work at
the bottom of the drain can redeem it. The world does indeed have a
future and the church alone has that future to proclaim. But that
future is neither pie on earth nor pie in the sky. It is resurrection
from the dead – and without death, there can be no resurrection.

- Robert Farrar Capon