It seems that each day I am confronted with realities of living in a post-Christian, secular culture. The outright attacks on the very existence of God, or at “best”, attacks on His Truth and the subsequent attempts to squelch those who proclaim it are increasing at an alarming rate. From attacks by respected scientists, like British writer Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), to our own American phenomenon, Starbucks, the attacks just keep rolling. Try as they will though, God is still standing, and by his grace, so too will this preacher! Take for instance the alarm I felt when I found in an article at WorldNet Daily, that Starbucks has released a coffee cup with another of their vintage anti-God messages. The attack comes in the form of a “conversation starter” on the back of the cup entitled, “The Way I See It #247”. Here is the message:
"Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."
These segments of rather hip, humanistic, and very post-modern “conversation starters” portray a rising hatred for all things Christian and God-centered. On May 14th, the Larry King Live show hosted several leading religious figures in American culture over what part faith should play in politics, and in particular, the 2008 Presidential election. It was clear from the outset that all but one, he being Dr. Albert Mohler, were bent on the diminishment of God or His Truth, or both. Each of the panel members, except Dr. Mohler, made painstaking efforts to eliminate God from the picture, and instead focus on the anthropocentric issues such as poverty, suffering, disease, etc., all of which have no hope outside of the God they are trying to eliminate.
Another recent example of the rising cultural trend toward atheism was seen on ABC’s Nightline, in which former actor Kirk Cameron and evangelist Ray Comfort squared off in a debate against the “rational response squad”. During not only the debate, but in the extra footage as well, those espousing atheism vehemently, and sometimes violently tried to make their voices heard.
We as Bible believing, evangelical Christians, must wake up to the fact that we are no longer living in a “Christian” nation. Indeed, if one is to take the Biblical model of a people who are truly Christian, and not simply the rhetoric of its professing believers, America is anything but Christian. It would be totally incorrect to say that the fight for the existence of God is on the line, because the Truth is that whether any human being ever acknowledged His existence or not, one fact remains, HE IS! (See Exodus 3:15 and John 8:58). According to Romans chapter 1, creation and conscience are enough to validate and prove His existence. The battle then is over the right for true Christians to believe, proclaim, and live out the reality of God in their lives, and not to have Him eliminated from all of society. It is as simple as this, the atheists, be they, Dawkins, Starbucks, Rev. Barry Linn, the “rational response squad”, or anyone else, hold as their agenda the elimination of God from all walks of life, including your personal life! Theirs is an energized and sweeping agenda to pull everyone to their denial of God and His Truth.
How are we as Christians then to view and to respond to this crisis of belief for so many in our culture.
1) Realize the Scriptural pronouncement
Psalm 14:1
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’.”
Romans 1:18, 21
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the Truth in unrighteousness…For even though they knew God they did not honor Him as God…”
The pronouncement of Scripture is clear, that to deny God is an open declaration of antipathy toward all things good and right, and a love for what is wrong and evil, and thus be judged a fool. This goes against all of modern culture for the following reasons: the judgment is authoritative, absolute, clear, and binding. These are not qualities that our up and coming, postmodern, tolerant, American culture want to hear. However, that does not change the Truth!
2) Proclaim Him from the mountain top
Whenever opposition to God has arisen throughout history, the true church of Jesus Christ has always risen higher. Sometimes through words, sometimes through actions, sometimes through blood, but always with a life and message of great clarity, proclaiming that He Is! We must sharpen our minds with the Word of God and be ready to proclaim Its Truth anywhere and anytime. (Ours is simply to proclaim, the Scripture will prove and defend Itself!)
I especially see that the battles of Modernism are alive and well, and therefore, we must be prepared more than ever to proclaim the Truth of God in science. Darwinian philosophy has so pervaded our culture that I believe that battle must be won on the grounds of showing God’s existence through His act of creation. This is no time for the church to flirt with evolution or its step-children like the Day Age theory, theistic evolution, the Gap theory, etc.
From this launching ground, we must be ready to prove the existence of God through the natural order of morality and human sexuality. In a culture that values impurity, God must be seen through the church’s love of moral excellence and purity. We must demonstrate that God is because we know how to love our spouses, and are only captivated in a physical sense with that one person whom God is given. It is no time for the church to “re-think” its position on moral issues such as adultery or homosexuality. Already some leading “evangelical” personalities have softened or muted their stance on such issues and the culture has seized the opportunity to claim acceptance by God for their lifestyle, because pastor so and so has accepted me. However, if God is not completely Holy and set apart from every type of sin and moral degradation, then He does not exist as the God of creation, and exists only as a created being of human imagination and projection. For the God Who Is, is a God of complete purity. We must realize that our stance on moral and sexual issues, both in word and deed, prove the existence of God.
Third, I believe we must fearlessly and tirelessly proclaim Christ. Only by Gospel proclamation and the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment of radically depraved eyes will anyone ever acknowledge the existence of God. Just as God has appointed those people who will believe that He is and that Christ is their sin-bearer, so too He has appointed you and I to be the instruments through which He will work. We must train our children to stand in every arena of life and proclaim the immutable and unending existence of God.
3) Prepare for resistance
If the church is going to be successful in standing for God now, it must be because we are willing to live differently than the culture, and as such, suffer the consequences for doing so.
II Timothy 3:12
“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted.”
The culture is not simply wanting a dialogue so that their view will be heard, known and accepted. The culture wants everyone to join them in their atheism, and for those who refuse, elimination is their deserved lot in life.
And so, let we who are the true and confessing church of Jesus Christ suffer in their realm of ungodliness for proclaiming Him. This realm and world is not our home, and we must never become so attached and engrained with the culture and its thinking that it bothers us to be ostracized, belittled, or even killed. We cannot hope that culture somehow will become better and more accepting of God and His Truth, but we can pray and labor to become more faithful followers of Jesus Christ!
Friday, May 25, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
What Are They Thinking?!!!!
Among conservative, Biblically conscious, historic/orthodox Christians, there has always been concern about certain leaders and movements within broader evangelicalism. Those concerns for me have moved out of the category of “scary”, “divisive”, “potentially dangerous”, “simply a different vantage point”, etc. to an all out “deal-breaker” if you will. For years there has been growing chatter about the unbiblical nature of The Seeker Movement, and most recently, the Emerging Church Movement. For me however, it is time for the chatter to end over the experiential and pragmatically minded evangelical leaders of our day, and for all out calls of repentance (meaning confession and change) to begin, if these people are to be considered fellow Christians at all. You may be asking “why?” and “who?” are you talking about. My purpose in utilizing this blog is not to be nasty, but necessary, and I believe it is time to be very necessary.
Two recent “scandals” have captured my imagination, and fueled my “O.T. Prophet” zeal. The first is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle from Thursday, May 10th, 2007. The headline reads, “DNC Chair Dean says party needs to invite young evangelical Christians”. This may sound to you like typical political rhetoric, but it extends far beyond that. The Democratic Party was outraged by (and jealous of) the “Christian Right-Wing” movement that elected Republicans in the 2004 campaign. They realized that in order to become the party of power again they would have to swing evangelicals to their side once again. No doubt that there has been much talk in the DNC war-rooms and think tanks over how to tap into this vast resource of motivated voters.
ENTER RICK WARREN and JOEL OSTEEN
For years the Seeker Movement/Churches have prided themselves on a philosophy of postmodernism that wants to avoid offending people at all costs, kind of an “evangelical tolerance movement” you could say. At the same time, the DNC (Democratic National Committee) has been inundated by those with the secular version of the same philosophy. Words like, “inclusivism”, “tolerance”, and “acceptance” have meant big business and even bigger contributions. Since 2004 the proverbial light went off for the DNC or should I say the Seeker/Emergent Church leaders, or…???? And just like that, the lines are blurred. Who is emulating whom? Has the DNC become like the modern church, or has the modern church become like the DNC? No one really knows for sure, but DNC president and 2004 Democratic candidate Howard Dean has seized the opportunity to marry the two together. In the Chronicle Article dated May 10th, Dean is quoted as saying,
“We ought to reach out to those folks (evangelical Christians)”
And so they did! So much so that in the 2006 mid-terms, 30% of professing evangelical Christians voted democrat. Dean then went on to say about the rise in re-claiming almost one- third of evangelical voters,
“We went out and advertised on Christian broadcast networks…because in the evangelical movement, young people are changing America—and they’re changing the evangelical movement. People don’t want to go to church anymore…and come out feeling bad because they happen to know somebody who’s gay. People want to go to church because they know what they can do about poverty, about Darfur, about the environment.”
The article then cites Dean’s specific credits of “Christian leaders” Rick Warren and Joel Osteen for bringing about this change for the DNC.
One who is Biblically-minded must ask themselves the question, “What are they thinking!!!!!!?” In a party where the new morality is no morality, the new life is to end life, and the rule of law is to have no law (or at best a personal law), where does a Christian fit into that agenda? The answer is no where!!!! And yet arguably, the two most influential evangelical leaders of our day (Warren and Osteen) are credited with aiding this agenda because they have traded the older, and out of fashion, Biblical ministry in for the newer, sleeker, and more acceptable model of social activism, which is the mantra of the DNC. Don’t misunderstand, what is going on in Darfur is a tragedy, people dying of AIDS is pathetic, starving children are heart-breaking, but the greatest sorrow is the abandonment of the God and Truth that can change many, if not all, of these things. That my friend, is exactly what people like Warren and Osteen are doing, they are selling out the Bible for a message that sells and promotes themselves, and in so doing aiding an immoral agenda of an immoral political party. (Just a note: Many Republicans are not much better. My purpose here is not political, but Biblical). A Mega-Church must have people to pay for and operate its enormous facilities and programs, and if the people be offended and migrate elsewhere, who will foot the bill? Biblical preaching and godly living are not the goals, business practices that produce results are. Tragically this philosophy has at last “married” the Seeker/Emerging Church movements and their man-centered view of God, with a secular political agenda determined to destroy God.
Aside from dalliance in the political quagmire, Rick Warren has also implicated himself in the moral quagmire of pornography. While Rick Warren certainly would not recommend indulging one’s self in the filth of pornography, he has nonetheless become the defacto beneficiary of one of the world’s largest pornographic industries.
ENTER RUPERT MURDOCH
Rupert Murdoch is arguably the largest media mogul in the world, running a media kingdom that covers everything from print to film to television to internet. Woven into his carefully diversified scheme of media ownership is a web of pornographic endeavors. His DirecTV holdings brought in $200 million alone through pornographic pay per-view options under the satellite television company according to the New York Times in 2000. While his business endeavors are reprehensible, his membership at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Community Church is unthinkable. How can a pastor knowingly accept a man into his fellowship who is producing such vile things as the sexual exploitation of women and men. The Biblical mandate to any pastor who finds an unrepentant man such as Murdoch in his church is to discipline him. However, Warren has done the opposite, accepting a $2 Million gift from Murdoch for his P.E.A.C.E. plan in Africa, and reaping record profits for his books through Zondervan Publishing, also owned by Murdoch.
When interviewed by the Orange County Register on November 12, 2006, about the ties between he and Murdoch, Warren responded,
“I don’t have to agree with 100 percent of what another person does in order to work with them on the 20 percent that we do agree on.”
What? We’re not talking about agreeing on which baseball team to root for here, or whether Ford is superior to Chevy, we’re talking about something that the Scripture explicitly calls wicked and demands that Christians remove from their midst! This is no matter of minutia that can be glibly overlooked!
Again, for any mind that has the faintest glimmer of discernment, we must say, “what are they thinking?” The answer is a resounding , “not Biblically”. In a post-Christian world it is increasingly imperative that we think and act Biblically. This will produce a life that may not be popular, but it will testify to the reality of the change that has been made in us through the Gospel.
In closing, let me leave you with the words of the New Testament writer James,
James 4:4
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Two recent “scandals” have captured my imagination, and fueled my “O.T. Prophet” zeal. The first is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle from Thursday, May 10th, 2007. The headline reads, “DNC Chair Dean says party needs to invite young evangelical Christians”. This may sound to you like typical political rhetoric, but it extends far beyond that. The Democratic Party was outraged by (and jealous of) the “Christian Right-Wing” movement that elected Republicans in the 2004 campaign. They realized that in order to become the party of power again they would have to swing evangelicals to their side once again. No doubt that there has been much talk in the DNC war-rooms and think tanks over how to tap into this vast resource of motivated voters.
ENTER RICK WARREN and JOEL OSTEEN
For years the Seeker Movement/Churches have prided themselves on a philosophy of postmodernism that wants to avoid offending people at all costs, kind of an “evangelical tolerance movement” you could say. At the same time, the DNC (Democratic National Committee) has been inundated by those with the secular version of the same philosophy. Words like, “inclusivism”, “tolerance”, and “acceptance” have meant big business and even bigger contributions. Since 2004 the proverbial light went off for the DNC or should I say the Seeker/Emergent Church leaders, or…???? And just like that, the lines are blurred. Who is emulating whom? Has the DNC become like the modern church, or has the modern church become like the DNC? No one really knows for sure, but DNC president and 2004 Democratic candidate Howard Dean has seized the opportunity to marry the two together. In the Chronicle Article dated May 10th, Dean is quoted as saying,
“We ought to reach out to those folks (evangelical Christians)”
And so they did! So much so that in the 2006 mid-terms, 30% of professing evangelical Christians voted democrat. Dean then went on to say about the rise in re-claiming almost one- third of evangelical voters,
“We went out and advertised on Christian broadcast networks…because in the evangelical movement, young people are changing America—and they’re changing the evangelical movement. People don’t want to go to church anymore…and come out feeling bad because they happen to know somebody who’s gay. People want to go to church because they know what they can do about poverty, about Darfur, about the environment.”
The article then cites Dean’s specific credits of “Christian leaders” Rick Warren and Joel Osteen for bringing about this change for the DNC.
One who is Biblically-minded must ask themselves the question, “What are they thinking!!!!!!?” In a party where the new morality is no morality, the new life is to end life, and the rule of law is to have no law (or at best a personal law), where does a Christian fit into that agenda? The answer is no where!!!! And yet arguably, the two most influential evangelical leaders of our day (Warren and Osteen) are credited with aiding this agenda because they have traded the older, and out of fashion, Biblical ministry in for the newer, sleeker, and more acceptable model of social activism, which is the mantra of the DNC. Don’t misunderstand, what is going on in Darfur is a tragedy, people dying of AIDS is pathetic, starving children are heart-breaking, but the greatest sorrow is the abandonment of the God and Truth that can change many, if not all, of these things. That my friend, is exactly what people like Warren and Osteen are doing, they are selling out the Bible for a message that sells and promotes themselves, and in so doing aiding an immoral agenda of an immoral political party. (Just a note: Many Republicans are not much better. My purpose here is not political, but Biblical). A Mega-Church must have people to pay for and operate its enormous facilities and programs, and if the people be offended and migrate elsewhere, who will foot the bill? Biblical preaching and godly living are not the goals, business practices that produce results are. Tragically this philosophy has at last “married” the Seeker/Emerging Church movements and their man-centered view of God, with a secular political agenda determined to destroy God.
Aside from dalliance in the political quagmire, Rick Warren has also implicated himself in the moral quagmire of pornography. While Rick Warren certainly would not recommend indulging one’s self in the filth of pornography, he has nonetheless become the defacto beneficiary of one of the world’s largest pornographic industries.
ENTER RUPERT MURDOCH
Rupert Murdoch is arguably the largest media mogul in the world, running a media kingdom that covers everything from print to film to television to internet. Woven into his carefully diversified scheme of media ownership is a web of pornographic endeavors. His DirecTV holdings brought in $200 million alone through pornographic pay per-view options under the satellite television company according to the New York Times in 2000. While his business endeavors are reprehensible, his membership at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Community Church is unthinkable. How can a pastor knowingly accept a man into his fellowship who is producing such vile things as the sexual exploitation of women and men. The Biblical mandate to any pastor who finds an unrepentant man such as Murdoch in his church is to discipline him. However, Warren has done the opposite, accepting a $2 Million gift from Murdoch for his P.E.A.C.E. plan in Africa, and reaping record profits for his books through Zondervan Publishing, also owned by Murdoch.
When interviewed by the Orange County Register on November 12, 2006, about the ties between he and Murdoch, Warren responded,
“I don’t have to agree with 100 percent of what another person does in order to work with them on the 20 percent that we do agree on.”
What? We’re not talking about agreeing on which baseball team to root for here, or whether Ford is superior to Chevy, we’re talking about something that the Scripture explicitly calls wicked and demands that Christians remove from their midst! This is no matter of minutia that can be glibly overlooked!
Again, for any mind that has the faintest glimmer of discernment, we must say, “what are they thinking?” The answer is a resounding , “not Biblically”. In a post-Christian world it is increasingly imperative that we think and act Biblically. This will produce a life that may not be popular, but it will testify to the reality of the change that has been made in us through the Gospel.
In closing, let me leave you with the words of the New Testament writer James,
James 4:4
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
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