I’ve been downloading and listening to this year’s series of discussions concerning Christianity and the Christian church over at The White Horse Inn. Last week and this week thay have been discussing the title of this post. They can both be downloaded from OnePlace.com. Just click the MP3 icon. There is a short registration process (no cost) to download the broadcasts.
Category Archives: The Church
Does God So Love the World? – John MacArthur
This is the beginning of an article by John MacArthur.
“Love is the best known but least understood of all God’s attributes. Almost everyone who believes in God these days sees Him as a God of love. I have even met agnostics who are quite certain that if God exists, He must be benevolent, compassionate, and loving.
All those things are infinitely true about God, of course, but not in the way most people think. Because of the influence of modern liberal theology, many suppose that God’s love and goodness ultimately nullify His righteousness, justice, and holy wrath. They envision God as a benign heavenly grandfather-tolerant, affable, lenient, permissive, devoid of any real displeasure over sin, who without consideration of His holiness will benignly pass over sin and accept people as they are.
Liberal thinking about God’s love also permeates much of evangelicalism today. We have lost the reality of God’s wrath. We have disregarded His hatred for sin. The God most evangelicals now describe is all-loving and not at all angry. We have forgotten that “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). We do not believe in that kind of God anymore.
We must recapture some of the holy terror that comes with a right understanding of God’s righteous anger. We need to remember that God’s wrath does burn against impenitent sinners (Psalm 38:1-3). That reality is the very thing that makes His love so amazing. Only those who see themselves as sinners in the hands of an angry God can fully appreciate the magnitude and wonder of His love.
In that regard, our generation is surely at a greater disadvantage than any previous age. We have been force-fed the doctrines of self-esteem for so long that most people don’t really view themselves as sinners worthy of divine wrath. On top of that, religious liberalism, humanism, evangelical compromise, and ignorance of the Scriptures have all worked against a right understanding of who God is. Ironically, in an age that conceives of God as wholly loving, altogether devoid of wrath, few people really understand what God’s love is all about.”
The entire article can be read here. Just scroll down to the article section after the radio broadcast options. The article presents a very balanced view of God’s love and wrath, while focusing on the need for presenting a balanced view of the love of God to all whom we desire to reach with the Good News of Christ.
The Evils of the Present Time – C. H. Spurgeon
Below are excerpts from Chapter 10 of a volume of Spurgeon’s Presidential Addresses at the Annual Conferences of the Pastors’ College between 1872 and 1890.
Nobody can question that there are evils which are constant throughout the ages; and, on the other hand, there are certain intermittent fevers which rage only at intervals. There are evils of all seasons: evils of winter, evils of summer, evils of autumn, evils of this springtide. Certain evils abound at this particular period, with which we were not so familiar twenty years ago. We meet now with error, and with sin, in forms which they did not commonly assume in the early years of our ministry. Truth is one and the same in all eras, but falsehood changes its shape, and comes and goes like the fashions of dress. To evil things also there is a season, and a time for every doctrine which is not from Heaven.
To some, the teaching of Scripture is not of final authority: their inner consciousness, their culture, or some other unknown quantity, is their fixed point, if they have a fixed point anywhere. The fount of inspiration is not now within the Book, and with the Holy Spirit, but within the man’s own intelligence. We have no longer, “Thus saith the Lord;” but, “Thus saith modern thought.”
There will always be trouble in the churches so long as men are afraid to denounce sin and error.
I see the spirit of compromise concerning holiness and sin, truth and error, far too prevalent. The spirit of compromise comes not of the Spirit of God, but of the spirit of the world. It is always wisest and best to exhibit clear decision upon fundamental points; we must draw the line distinctly, and then stand to it firmly. Do not alter your course because of winds and currents. Do not try to make things pleasant all round.
Another great evil of the times is the insatiable craving for amusements. That men should have rest from labour, and that they should enjoy such amusements as refresh both body and mind, nobody wishes to deny. Within suitable bounds, recreation is necessary and profitable; but it never was the business of the Christian Church to supply the world with amusements.
In reference to ministers, many church-members are indifferent as to the personal piety of the preacher; what they want is talent or cleverness. What the man preaches does not matter now; he must draw a crowd, or please the elite, and that is enough. Cleverness is the main thing. One would think they were looking for a conjuror rather than a pastor. Whether he preaches truth or error, the man is held in admiration so long as he can talk glibly, and keep up a reputation as a speaker.
Compared with what it used to be, it is hard to win attention to the Word of God. I used to think that we had only to preach the gospel, and the people would throng to hear it.
There has been a growing pandering to sensationalism; and, as this wretched appetite increases in fury the more it is gratified, it is at last found to be impossible to meet its demands.
The entire volume can be read here.
News Flash!!!!! We Humans Are the Center of God’s Universe!
Some time ago a man with whom I work commented to another co-worker that the God of his church (one of the two major categories of the Christian church) was more of the kindly grandfather sort than the God spoken of in the past. The other major category, or at least a large section of it, would have us believe that God is SO passionate and SO loving that He sent his own Son to die a bloody death on a cross, just so we can be with Him in the Heaven. After visiting an average church in this category, an ‘unchurched’ person could easily come away thinking that WE are the center of God’s universe! And of course that is what the ‘unchurched’ are supposed to believe!
After years of reading and studying the Bible I have never been able to find that concept within its pages – until yesterday, and by accident! I was driving to work and I heard the host of a local Christian radio station offer the following uplifting quote:
“Mostly what God does is love you.” Ephesians 5:1
What a revelation! With all that God has to do with running the universe, what He does MOST is sit around in Heaven loving ME!
Actually, that wasn’t my immediate reaction. My first thought was, “Gee, I don’t remember that…is it really what Ephesians 5:1 says?” I looked it up and here is what I found for Ephesians 5:1-2 in several translations and a modern paraphrase that is used by many as a translation:
“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” – NKJV
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” – NIV
“Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.” – NET
The above are just three of the translations I researched, but all of the translations were remarkably similar. Here are the same verses from what many consider a translation. In fact, one wildly popular author has prefaced quotes from this version of the Bible with “The bible says. . .”:
“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” – The Message
Please understand that I am not bashing The Message. I had not intended to mention the title, but copyright restrictions require that I do so. This post is about God – specifically, what we think about God. When I heard that quote, the thought that the main activity of God is to sit around in Heaven loving us just didn’t quite ring true. Maybe it’s just me, but that sort of God somehow seemed much smaller than the God I held in my mind and heart.
Does what we think about God make a difference in our lives and how we live out our faith? Does what the Church believes and communicates about God make a difference in the larger context of the Church’s impact on our culture? In answer to those questions I offer the following quotes excerpted from the first chapter of A.W. Tozer’s book, The Knowledge of the Holy. The chapter is titled ‘Why We Must Think Rightly About God’:
“The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above it’s religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater that it’s idea of God.”
.” . .the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”
“Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid. . .”
“Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is unearthed and exposed for what it is.”
“It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.”
“The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him – and of her.”
Readers and friends of this blog, I don’t take this matter lightly. If my grieving heart over this state of affairs is genuine and not self-deception, it is certain that the grief of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God is far, far greater.
Do Today’s Churches Give God a Subordinate Role?
The quote below is borrowed from Old Truth, but on my cluttered bookshelf I do have the referenced work by John MacArthur, first published about 15 years ago.
“Many in the church today believe that the only way to reach the world is to give the unchurched multitudes what they want. . . Subtly the overriding goal is church attendance and worldly acceptability rather than a transformed life. Preaching the Word and boldly confronting sin are seen as archaic, ineffectual means of winning the world. After all, those things actually drive most people away. Why not entice people into the fold by offering what they want, creating a friendly, comfortable environment, and catering to the very desires that constitute their strongest urges? As if we might get them to accept Jesus by somehow making Him more likable or making His message less offensive. That kind of thinking badly skews the mission of the church.
The Great Commission is not a marketing manifesto. Evangelism does not require salesmen, but prophets. It is the Word of God, not any earthly enticement, that plants the seed for the new birth (1 Peter 1:23). We gain nothing but God’s displeasure if we seek to remove the offense of the cross.
Something is wrong with a philosophy that relegates God and His Word to a subordinate role in the church. It is clearly unbiblical to elevate entertainment over biblical preaching and worship in the church service. Sadly, some actually believe that their salesmanship can bring people into the kingdom more effectively than a sovereign God – a philosophy that has opened the door to worldliness in the church.” John MacArthur – Ashamed of the Gospel
In the book, Dr. MacArthur refers to some of the same deep concerns for the church felt by C.H. Spurgeon 100 years earlier!
Is God’s "Unconditional Acceptance" a Biblical Concept?
Some time ago I participated in a Bible study concerning the importance of knowing what we believe as Christians – a great subject! A major point of the study book and materials was the topic of “unconditional acceptance” – God’s unconditional acceptance of us and the need for our unconditional acceptance of others. We should accept others with all their sin and faults, because we know that God accepts us even with our sin. This has become the mantra of much of today’s evangelical church – the new gospel, if you will. But is it biblical?
Well, I can’t find in anywhere in the Bible, and believe me I did my homework. What I do find in the Bible is Christ’s death for our sin as the first point of the gospel message that Paul preached, among others. What the death of Christ in our place means is that God can only accept us through the shed blood of His own Son. Saving faith hinges on recognizing our sin, repentance and a wholehearted turning from it, not bringing it with us!
I found that “unconditional acceptance” became the centerpiece of humanistic psychology beginning in the mid ’50s. It gradually invaded the church until the condition we have today that it is this ‘new gospel’ permits avoiding the sin issue in the proclamation of the good news, as well as the need for continuously confronting the sin in our lives and turning from it in the process of sanctification as we grow spiritually.
Did I pose a rhetorical question? You bet, as far as I am concerned! The myth of God’s “unconditional acceptance” of sinners is the greatest lie the enemy has ever fed the human race (especially the church), except for the original lie in the Garden when he hinted that we can be like God and the first couple bit.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, unless someone can offer solid scriptural proof that I am wrong.
Concerning Fear of God and the Wrath of God
“Why is it that even among those who profess to be the Lord’s people there is so little real subjection to His Word, and that its precepts are so lightly esteemed and so readily set aside? Ah! what needs to be stressed to-day is that God is a God to be feared. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). Happy the soul that has been awed by a view of God’s majesty, that has had a vision of God’s awful greatness, His ineffable holiness, His perfect righteousness, His irresistible power, His sovereign grace. Does someone say, “But it is only the unsaved, those outside of Christ, who need to fear God”? Then the sufficient answer is that the saved, those who are in Christ, are admonished to work out their own salvation with “fear and trembling.” Time was, when it was the general custom to speak of a believer as a “God-fearing man”—that such an appellation has become nearly extinct only serves to show whither we have drifted. Nevertheless, it still stands written, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him” (Psalms 103:13)! —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
“If this generation were to take a crash course in the fear of God, our shallow view of sin would immediately deepen.”
-C.J. Mahaney
“While falling all over ourselves trying to conceal this ’embarrassing’ feature of God’s character, we’ve sent this signal to our culture: God is infinitely understanding, sympathetic, patient, and sentimental. God is nice! God is a kind of cosmic Mr. Rogers, always ready to greet you with a warm smile and a pleasant word.
Because we have difficulty reconciling wrath with our perception of a loving God, the Church and this culture have sought to create God in their own image. But Scripture makes no apologies concerning the wrath of God. In fact, A.W. Pink notes that there are more references to God’s wrath in the Bible than to his love. We probably don’t have any of these passages underlined, but perhaps we should. We need to give serious study to the wrath of God.”
-C.J. Mahaney
The above quotes were borrowed from the Reformed Voices blog. It’s a great place to visit!
"The Rise of Extreme Tolerance"
That’s the title of an article adapted from one of John McArthur’s latest books, a small portion of which is here:
“In the church today, there is a growing reluctance to take a definitive stand on any issue. Discernment is frankly not very welcome in a culture like ours. In fact, the postmodern perspective is more than merely hostile to discernment; it is practically the polar opposite. Think about it: pronouncing anything “true” and calling its antithesis “error” is a breach of postmodernism’s one last impregnable dogma. “Many evangelicals (once known for a very prudent and biblical approach to doctrine) are fast becoming as doctrinally clueless as the unchurched people they are so keen to please. At least three decades of deliberately downplaying doctrine and discernment in order to attract the unchurched has filled many once-sound churches with people who utterly lack any ability to differentiate the very worst fast doctrines from truth. I constantly encounter evangelical church members who are at a loss to answer the most profound errors they hear from cultists, unorthodox media preachers, or other sources of false doctrine. . . .Certainty about anything is out of the question, and all who refuse to equivocate on any point of principle or doctrine are therefore automatically labeled too narrow. Zeal for the truth has become politically incorrect. There is actually zero tolerance for biblical discernment in a “tolerant” climate like that.” – Adapted from The Truth War, © 2007 by John MacArthur
Read the rest of this article at Grace to You. It’s an eye opener. In fact, I highly recommend you pick up the book. I found my copy about a month ago in a local Christian bookstore, in a small section that also contained a few classics by men like A.W. Tozer. that section seems to keep getting smaller and smaller while the quantity of totally self-centered spiritual junk food keeps getting bigger.
Signs of the last times?
What’s wrong with being ‘seeker’ sensitive’?
Disclaimer: this post is not about any specific church, person, style of music, program, or any other contemporary methods involved in what is frequently called ‘doing church’. If you draw a similarity between the topic(s) discussed herein and any actual church you know of or are involved in, please do not accuse me of being hurtful, intolerant, or accusatory. However, do take it to heart, apply the Berean principle and be obedient to what God would have you do (or not do).
First of all, let’s say the principal of ‘seeker-sensitivity’ assumes that deep down inside everyone is seeking God, whether they know it or not. The purpose of being seeker-sensitive is to attract those who do not know Christ to come to church, hear about him and choose him. By the way, I actually heard a sermon propose that to hear of Christ and NOT choose him is to go against human nature. Let’s see what scripture has to say about the ‘natural’ man:
“As it is written:
There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit;
The poison of asps is under their lips;
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:10-18In the above reference, the Apostle Paul spoke specifically to everyone being in the same boat, Jews and Gentiles, NOT seeking God. I’ll leave it to you to look up where “it is written”.
Now hear Paul again, to believers in Ephesus.
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Ephesians 2: 1-30)
Here he tells believers they used to be just like everyone else, spiritually dead and as ‘natural’ men, objects of God’s wrath. So mucn for the ‘natural’ man.
Now let’s assume all men are ‘seekers’. Now that’s a perfectly sound statement. We are all seeking after something. Maslow would tell you the highest goal of ‘natural’ man is self-actualization. If you are unfamiliar with Maslow, the hierarchy of needs’ he developed is still the most prominent and accepted theory of human behavior. Pertaining to the ‘natural’ man, his theory is ‘spot on’, according to the Bible. We live for ourselves.
A couple of points here:
1. Yes, all men are seekers, but NOT after God.
2. Those who do seek God, seek him because they were made alive by the Holy Spirit. (See John 4:44, 65)
If the above is true what does being ‘seeker-sensitive mean?
It means we are in the business of appealing to the spiritually dead who are only attracted to what pleases THEM, and what pleases them isn’t God. We end up using worldly gimmicks and methods because that’s the only way they’ll come. That, my friends, is ‘self-centered’ church and dishonors God.
On the other hand, if we understand that only those whom the Holy Spirit has awakened from the dead will receive the message of the gospel, all we have to do is preach it! The church doors are open to anyone who wants to enter, we preach the gospel in love (including sin, judgment and God’s holy wrath), awakened hearts hear their true condition apart from Christ, are drawn to the Savior, and God receives ALL the glory!
‘Doing’ Church
You hear that phrase quite a lot these days. I’m not sure when the phrase ‘do’ became connected to ‘church’, but the recollection I have of the verb ‘do’ replacing ‘go’ was hearing ‘Let’s do lunch’, probably in a television program or commercial in which a couple of upper middle class friends/business types. It actually sounded a little pretentious. Most ordinary folk either ‘go to’ or ‘eat’ lunch depending on whether or not they are headed that way, or are seated with something ready to be consumed on the table/counter top in front of them. ‘Doing’ lunch includes the other things that will occur during the period of time designated/allotted for an event for two or more people. If you are alone you don’t ‘do’ lunch, unless maybe you are talking to yourself. If you are ‘doing’ lunch you aren’t in the kitchen fixing, cooking, making, or preparing it.
From what I have observed, ‘doing’ church involves the sum of activity that is associated with an entity called ‘church’. The term is used by those involved in planning and presenting, along with those who attend. ‘Doing’ church is ‘hip’, ‘cool’, ‘fun’, and oh. . . ‘so now’ (as opposed to ‘so yesterday’). ‘Doing’ church is contemporary, positive, encouraging, upbeat and exciting. It is never a negative experience. It’s everything YOU could want!
. . .but is it what GOD wants?
First of all, ‘church’ by definition is the ‘called out (of the mass of fallen humanity and by God) body of believers, not buildings, programs or activities. That, however is a small point compared to the bigger issue reflected in the question “WHO is the central focus of ‘doing church’?”
By all appearances, even the casual ‘unchurched’ observer would probably conclude it’s in order to get as many of the ‘unchurched’ IN church and then keep them coming so that they can become ‘churched’? Well, not exactly. The goal is for the ‘unchurched’ to become believers, or followers of Christ, which IS the right goal. So why not just use the term ‘non-believers’? Well, in the always positive, upbeat and encouraging world of ‘doing church’, if we called the ‘unchurched’ ‘non-believers’ it could be perceived as negative, maybe a personal attack, or even hate speech! That’s an opinion – maybe exaggerated a bit, but I think there’s truth in it.
Everywhere I look at the typical American church these days, it seems to all about ‘satisfying the consumer’ than first and foremost about God and his glory. I see self-centeredness instead of God-centeredness. I don’t care if you call it seeker-friendly, purpose driven, ‘real’ church for ‘real’ people, or whatever, if God is not at the center, it’s upside down, and in direct opposition to everything Jesus had to say about the new covenant and discipleship.
This is not about music or worship styles, or any of the other ‘things’ that accompany the gathering of God’s people, although some of the ‘things’ these days are highly questionable. It’s about GOD and HIS glory. But to grasp what that really means, one must have a proper understanding of who we are and who God IS.
. . .and that’s another worthy and much needed discussion these last days.
Be blessed,
B4B
The Battle Cry 