Masquerades: Activism

Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, have a chapter in the beginning called The Gospel Gap in which they identify Christian externalism as a false replacement for gospel-shaped, Christ-confident, and change-committed Christianity.  There are 7 things that surface which deceptively replace authentic Christianity that the next few blog posts will share as I quote from them:

Activism

Shirley stands on the right-to-life picket line wondering why more Christians aren’t there. Of course, Shirley feels the same about protests at the adult bookstore and her work on the coming local election. These causes define what it means to be a Christian. Her constant refrain is, “Stand up for what is right, wherever and whenever it is needed.” There is something admirable about Shirley’s willingness to devote time, energy, and money to stand up for what is right.

But on closer examination, Shirley’s Christianity is more of a defense of what’s right than a joyful pursuit of Christ. The focus of this kind of Christian activism is always on external evil. As a result, it can take on the form of a modern monasticism. The monastics essentially said, “There is an evil world out there, and the way to fight evil is to separate from it.” But monasteries failed because they forgot to focus on the evil inside every monk who entered their walls!

Whenever you believe that the evil outside you is greater than the evil inside you, a heartfelt pursuit of Christ will be replaced by a zealous fighting of the “evil” around you. A celebration of the grace that rescues you from your own sin will be replaced by a crusade to rescue the church from the ills of the surrounding culture. Christian maturity becomes defined as a willingness to defend right from wrong. The gospel is reduced to participation in Christian causes.

Masquerades: Mysticism

Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, have a chapter in the beginning called The Gospel Gap in which they identify Christian externalism as a false replacement for gospel-shaped, Christ-confident, and change-committed Christianity.  There are 7 things that surface which deceptively replace authentic Christianity that the next few blog posts will share as I quote from them:

Mysticism

Christine careens from emotional experience to emotional experience. She is constantly hunting for a spiritual high, a dynamic encounter with God. Because of this, she never stays with one church very long. She is more a consumer of experience than a committed member of the body of Christ. Yet in between the dynamic experiences, Christine’s faith often falls flat. She struggles with discouragement and often finds herself wondering if she is even a believer. Despite the excitement of powerful moments, Christine isn’t growing in faith and character.

Biblical faith is not stoic; true Christianity is dyed with all the colors of human emotion. But you cannot reduce the t\gospel to dynamic emotional experiences with God. As the Holy Spirit indwells us and the Word of God impacts us, most of the changes in our hearts and lives take place in the little moments in life. The danger of mysticism is that it can become more of a pursuit of experience than a pursuit of Christ. It reduces the gospel to dynamic emotional and spiritual experiences.

Masquerades: Legalism

Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, have a chapter in the beginning called The Gospel Gap in which they identify Christian externalism as a false replacement for gospel-shaped, Christ-confident, and change-committed Christianity.  There are 7 things that surface which deceptively replace authentic Christianity that the next few blog posts will share as I quote from them:

Legalism

Sally is a walking list of dos and don’ts. She has a set of rules for everything. They are her way of evaluating herself and everyone around her. Her children live under the crushing weight of her legalism. To them, God is a harsh judge who places unreasonable standards on them and then condemns them when they can’t keep them. There is no joy in Sally’s home because there is no grace to be celebrated. Sally thinks that performing her list gives her standing with God. She has no appreciation for the grace given her in Christ Jesus.

Legalism completely misses the fact that no one can satisfy God’s requirements. While Sally rigidly keeps her rules, her pride, impatience, and judgmental spirit go untouched. Legalism ignores the depth of our inability to earn God’s favor. It forgets the need for our hearts to be transformed by God’s grace. Legalism is not just a reduction of the gospel, it is another gospel altogether (see Galatians), where salvation is earned by keeping the rules we have established.

Masquerades: Formalism

Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, have a chapter in the beginning called The Gospel Gap in which they identify Christian externalism as a false replacement for gospel-shaped, Christ-confident, and change-committed Christianity.  There are 7 things that surface which deceptively replace authentic Christianity that the next few blog posts will share as I quote from them:

 

Formalism

If you want to know the church calendar, just look at Jim’s schedule. Whatever the meeting or ministry, Jim is there, Bible in hand. He’s done his stint as a Sunday school teacher and regularly volunteers for short term missions trips. He is faithful in giving and a willing volunteer when work needs to be done around the church. But Jim’s world and God’s world never meet. All of his church activities have little impact on his heart and how he lives his life.

God railed against the formalism of Israelites (see Isa. 1), and Christ condemned the formalism of the Pharisees (see Matt. 23:23 -28). Why? Because formalism allows me to retain control of my life, my time, and my agenda. Formalism is blind to the seriousness of my spiritual condition and my constant need of God’s grace to rescue me. Jim sees his church participation simply as one healthy aspect of a good life. He has no noticeable hunger for God’s help in any other area. For him, the gospel is reduced to participation in the meetings and ministries of the church.

The God that American Teenagers Worship

Ray Van Neste:

Christian Smith has written a brief article condensing his research on the religious beliefs of American teenagers. It is well worth reading. He argues that the functional religious of American youth (which as he says they learned from the adults around them) is “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This is the functional religion even though many identify themselves as Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, or Muslim. His assessment squares well with what I see going on around me.

The three terms in his description are important. This functional religion is “moralistic” because it centers not on redemption or being made right with God but on being a good person- as defined by ourselves. It is “therapeutic” because it centers on feeling good about yourself. It is “deism” because the God in view is removed, not calling us to account. (emphasis mine) As Smith points out this “religion” is not unique to younger people. They are simply reflecting what has been encouraged in our culture for some time.

Here are a few quotes:

“ ‘God is a spirit that grants you anything you want, but not anything bad’ . .
. . ‘God’s all around you, all the time. He believes in forgiving people and whatnot, and he’s there to guide us, for somebody to talk to and help us through our problems. Of course, he doesn’t talk back.’ This last statement is perhaps doubly telling. . . .[God] also does not offer any challenging comebacks to or arguments about our requests.” 50 (page 4 of the online .pdf)

“Thus, one sixteen-year-old white mainline Protestant boy from Texas complained with some sarcasm in his interview that, ‘Well, God is almighty, I guess [yawns]. But I think he’s on vacation right now because of all the crap that’s happening in the world, cause it wasn’t like this back when he was famous.’” 50 (page 4 of the online .pdf)

“Our religiously conventional adolescents seem to be merely absorbing and reflecting religiously what the adult world is routinely modeling for and inculcating in its youth.” 51(page 5 of the online .pdf)

“In short, our teen interview transcripts reveal clearly that the language that dominates U.S. adolescent interests and thinking about life—including religious and spiritual life—is primarily about personally feeling good and being happy.”
53 (page 7 of the online .pdf)

“. . . we have come with some confidence to believe that a significant part of ‘Christianity’ in the United States is actually only tenuously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity’s misbegotten step-cousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” 56 (page 10 of the online .pdf)

Original Source: “Summary Interpretation: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” from Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton, copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

My response? Those, who work especially with youth, understand that their view of God most likely has been transmitted down by their parents. So, it is not an easy task to fill what is lacking, but Christ is sufficient for these things:
1. Labor to show the ugliness of our sin nature from the view of a Holy God in Scripture. Sin is not those bad things I happen to do
occasionally. Sin is who I am. Beeline to Jesus as the source of deliverance from yourself.
2. Labor to show the end of all eternal things is being glad in God. Give them a thirst for Christian hedonism.
3. Labor to show them the character of the God we serve. Give them a passion for the majesty of God. Show them how their lives are overseen by the One with Whom we have to do.

Ever Wonder What Happened to the Peanut Characters when They Grew up?

From Mikey’s Funnies:

GOODBYE, CHARLIE
In honor of the late Charles Schultz

Most cartoon characters remain frozen in time. Though they’ve been around almost 50 years the members of the Peanuts gang are in some unspecified elementary school holding pattern. But what if they had been allowed to age like the rest of us?

CHARLIE BROWN:
Operates Good Grief Counseling Inc., which specializes in manic-depressives and people who are just having a bad day. Moonlights as a pitching coach at high school and college levels. Married to Marcie. They have a roundheaded son who wears glasses.

LINUS:
Developer of Security Blanket Software, which is a hot item on the New York Stock Exchange. Worth millions but is actively involved in charitable causes, including the Great Pumpkin 5K Fun Run every Halloween. Only man who makes Bill Gates nervous.

LUCY:
Serving her seventh term in Congress. Never married. Claims she hasn’t thought about Schroeder in years, but her ringtone is Beethoven.

SCHROEDER:
After years on the classical performing circuit, he runs a piano bar in Carmel, Calif. Won’t let anybody lean on his piano.

SALLY:
Never quite got over being spurned by Linus. Has a cat named Sweet Baboo. Sells Mary Kay.

PEPPERMINT PATTY:
Women’s athletic director at a midwestern university. Her fashion credo: “Sandals go with everything.”

SNOOPY:
In dog years, he’ll be 350. What do you think would’ve happened to him? Linus has created an endowment at Daisy Hill Puppy farm in Snoopy’s memory.

Christian Narcissism

Certainly, our culture and man’s tendency is to self-worship. Romans 1 reminds us that when the God of the Word is not worshiped, some aspect of creation will be put in His place. Most of the time that part of creation that is replaced and worshiped is one’s self. And, surprisingly, even we who have been called out as worshipers in spirit and in truth of the one true God allow the narcissism of the day to seep into our Christian life. How do we do this? Here are a few insights into our tendency to be anthrocentric rather than theocentric. Tim Chester, writing in his book Total Church, quotes Chris Wright in The Mission of God when he writes:

Narcissist

-We ask, “Where does God fit into the story of my life?,” when the real question is “Where does my little life fit into this great story of God’s mission?”

-We want to be driven by a purpose that has been tailored just right for our own individual lives, when we should be seeing the purpose of all life, including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole of creation.

-We talk about “applying the Bible to our lives.” What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible instead, assuming the Bible to be the reality–the real story–to which we are called to conform ourselves?

-We wrestle with “making the gospel relevant to the world.” But in this story, God is about the business of transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel.

-We argue about what can legitimately be included in the mission that God expects from the church, when we should ask what kind of church God wants for the whole range of his mission.

-I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should be asking what kind of me God wants for his mission.”

It’s very thought provoking when we see life from God’s perspective rather than ours. How do you think this reflects on Christianity today?

Did You Take Your Medicine Today?

Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham and pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian (formerly pastored by D. James Kennedy till his death), shares again how the Gospel is not just our entrance into fellowship with God, but the center, motivation, aim, and cure for the rest of your Christian life as well. He has suggested reading also below to deepen your understanding:

As I’ve said before, I once assumed (along with the vast majority of professing Christians) that the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, while afterward we advance to deeper theological waters. But I’ve come to realize that “the gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths, but more like the hub in a wheel of truth.” As Tim Keller explains it, the gospel isn’t simply the ABCs of Christianity, but the A-through-Z. The gospel doesn’t just ignite the Christian life; it’s the fuel that keeps Christians going every day. Once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel, but to move them more deeply into it. After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel—and since Christians remain sinners even after they’re converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day. Since we never leave off sinning, we can never leave the gospel.

This idea that the gospel is just as much for Christians as it is for non-Christians may seem like a new idea to many but in fact it is really a very old idea.

In his letter to the Christians of Colossae, the apostle Paul quickly portrays the gospel as the instrument of all continued growth and spiritual progress for believers after conversion: “All over the world,” he writes, “this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth” (Colossians 1:6, NIV).

Martin Luther understood this as well. He often employed the phrase simul justus et peccator to describe his condition as a Christian. It means “simultaneously justified and sinful.” He understood that while he’d already been saved (through justification) from sin’s penalty, he was in daily need of salvation from sin’s power. And since the gospel is the “power of God for salvation,” he knew that even for the most saintly of saints the gospel is wholly relevant and vitally necessary—day in and day out. This means that heralded preachers need the gospel just as much as hardened pagans.

Well, I’ve had some great help along the way as I’ve wrestled with this “new idea.” There have been some books (beneath the Bible) which have helped me better understand that God intends the reality of the gospel to mold and shape us at every point and in every way–that it should define the way we think, feel, and live. The following list of books is not exhaustive, but if you read them they will get you moving in the right direction toward a better, more Biblical understanding of the Christian’s need for the gospel. If this idea is as “new” to you as it once was to me, these reliable teachers will serve you well (these books are in no particular order):

1. Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges
2. The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges
3. The Prodigal God by Tim Keller
4. Living the Cross-Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney
5. The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges
6. The Reign of Grace by Scotty Smith
7. The Jesus Story Book Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
8. How People Change by Tim Lane
9. Broken Down House by Paul Tripp
10. The Enemy Within by Kris Lungaard

Begin with these. It will do your soul good. I promise.

I pray that as you come to a better understanding of the length and breadth of the gospel you will be recaptured by the “God of great expenditure” who gave everything that we might possess all.

“We have been without you almost as long as we know how to be!”

Vitamin Z shares some gleanings from the Trinity Church Blog about Jonathan Edwards and the discipleship of his children. I always enjoy seeing the “real life” of some of the great leaders of the past and this excerpt certainly peels back the legend and shares the bolts and nuts of the Edwards’ family:

The Trinity Church Blog:

I’m currently enjoyng George Marsden’s wonderful biography on Jonathan Edwards. Chapter 20 includes a snapshot of parenting in the Edwards home. We can learn much from the following excerpts, not least the final one which underscores just how thankful we men should be for our godly wives:

The first impression a visitor would have upon arriving at the Edwards home was that there were a lot of children. The second impression would be that they were very well disciplined. Jonathan aided Sarah in disciplining the children from an early age. ‘When they first discovered any considerable degree of will and stubbornness,’ wrote biographer Samuel Hopkins, ‘he would attend to them till he had thoroughly subdued them and brought them to submit with the greatest calmness, and commonly without striking a blow, effectively establishing his parental authority and producing a cheerful obedience ever after.

Care for his children’s souls was his preeminent concern. In morning devotions he quizzed them on Scripture with questions appropriate to their ages. On Saturday evenings, the beginning of the Sabbath, he taught them the Westminster Shorter Catechism, making sure they understood as well as memorized the answers.

Edwards also believed in not holding back the terrors of hell from his children. ‘As innocent as children seem to us,’ he wrote, ‘if they are out of Christ, they are not so in God’s sight, but are young vipers….’ At the judgment day unregenerate children would hardly thank their parents for sentimental tenderness that protected them from knowing the true dangers of their estate. Always looking for opportunities to awaken the young to their condition, he had taken the children to view the remains of the Lyman house fire that claimed two girls’ lives.

By far the greater burden of childrearing fell to Sarah….On one occasion, when she was out of town in 1748, Jonathan was soon near his wits’ end. Children of almost every age needed to be cared for. ‘We have been without you,’ Jonathan lamented in a letter, ‘almost as long as we know how to be!’

– Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George Marsden, pp. 321-323

“Like A Ship Driven Along By Its Sail”

“God has declared in the gospel that whenever we come to him, we are to call upon him freely and openly as our Father, who has adopted us as his children. If we do not have this assurance, the thought of serving God will make us grind our teeth.

If, however, we are persuaded that God looks upon us favourably; if, though we are weak and can do nothing worthy of his approval, he accepts us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will surely be filled with courage.

We will be like a ship’s sail that has been stretched and filled by the breeze! Thus, our hearts will run to obey him, like a ship driven along by its sail, when we know that God delights in us and accepts our works, not wanting us to be compelled into servitude. He is happy for us to be his children, and that we desire to obey him.”
Sermons on Galatians (Gal 5:1-3)

The Bridge That Will Hold Any Weight

“The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by the thousands, by their myriads, e’er since that day when Christ first entered His glory.

They come and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them, trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them.”

- Charles Spurgeon

The Gods We Worship Show Us What We Treasure

Tim Challies has some good observations on the pervasive idolatry of our culture, such as that was exhibited yesterday, that makes us no different than the worshippers of many gods in a country like India:

The Idolatry of Pluralism

Jackson’s service was an representation of just the kind of pluralism that has marked India. Everybody involved wanted to invoke God’s name, as you’re supposed to do when remembering a loved one, but it was clear that most of them invoked a god made in their own image. Even those who spoke of Jesus or who prayed to Jesus did so without any clear reference to the Jesus of the Bible. They spoke of a Jesus who accepts all and even (or perhaps especially) those who had rejected him. Never did Michael Jackson give any evidence of putting his faith in Jesus Christ, yet those who watched were assured, time and again, that he was now safe in the presence of the Lord, waiting there for the rest of us to arrive. Words and phrases invoked God and used the Christian lexicon but without any reference to the gospel, the true gospel, the gospel that saves. Lost men declared to other lost men untruths about the god they wish for, not the God who is.

During the singing of the old song We Are the World, those who watched saw religious symbols from all faiths spinning across a video screen, blurring, blending their lies to the already blind.

All faiths are the same, don’t you know? Why dwell on such petty distinctions? God is whoever you want him (or her or it) to be. We are the world. We are god.

What surprised me more than anything was the genuine grief, the genuine mourning, of those who attended the memorial service. Of course his brothers and sister and daughter were distraught, but so too were many of the fans who so loved him. On the radio I heard an interview with a woman from Toronto who attended a screening of the service. She told how when she heard of Jackson’s death she collapsed and was inconsolable, at least until she could go to a tattoo parlor and have “Gone too soon” tattooed onto her body; that was the beginning of the healing process. She had brought her young son to the memorial service so he could see his mother’s love for this man she so venerated. All across North America, all across the world, there are similar stories of worship. Can we call it anything other than worship? I don’t think this is too strong a word. For many people, Jackson was a god; for many people celebrity is idolatry.

Yesterday we saw idolatry of a whole different order yet idolatry that is so similar to what I saw in The Story of India. There are some who, in their idolatry, bow low before gods of wood and stone and burnished bronze. There are others who, in their idolatry, live vicariously through celebrities and who bow low before the spirit of the age. Michael Jackson’s funeral, where God’s name was invoked and where Jesus’ name was supposedly held high, was as vivid an expression of idolatry as was the footage of hordes of Indian Hindus dancing with joy and veneration before their statues. One is a base idolatry, the other is sophisticated and proper. Both are the same ancient sin, the same ancient rebellion against the one true God.

Are You Pretty Safe?

This clip convicted me to take risks for Jesus:

Francis Chan also has a book, Crazy Love, that is available for free download till August 1st in audio format from Christianaudio.com. I’m listening to it and it is powerful and edifying so far.

Christ Reigns In Hell Also

Image via Wikipedia

Mark Dever writes, “Here’s how Charles Spurgeon did it on Oct. 30, 1859 as a 24-year-old preacher. He was talking about the many crowns of Christ (from Rev. 19:12) and he was speaking of crowns of dominions and victorys and thankfulnesses. And in the crowns of dominion, he extolled Christ’s crowns of dominion in heaven, hell and earth. And this is how he talked about Christ’s reign in Hell:

“It is the iron crown of hell, for Christ reigneth there supreme. Not only in the dazzling brightness of heaven, but in the black impenetrable darkness of hell is his omnipotence felt, and his sovereignty acknowledged; the chains which bind damned spirits are the chains of his strength; the fires which burn are the fires of his vengeance; the burning rays that scorch through their eyeballs, and melt their very heart, are flashed from his vindictive eye. There is no power in hell besides his. The very devils show his might. He chaineth the great dragon. If he give him a temporary liberty, yet is the chain in his hand, and he can draw him back lest he go beyond his limit. Hell trembles at him. The very howlings of lost spirits are but deep bass notes of his praise . While in heaven the glorious notes shout forth his goodness; in hell the deep growlings resound his justice, and his certain victory over all his foes. Thus his empire is higher than the highest heaven, and deeper than the lowest hell.” C. H. Spurgeon, “The Savior’s Many Crowns” Oct. 30, 1859, printed in New Park Street Pulpit, vol. 5, p. 450.”

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Joel Tetreau puts into words what I’ve been feeling the last 5 yrs. or so about where I “fit” in fundamentalism:

Discomfort with Movements on the “Right” and “Left”

“Historically speaking, all churches that are orthodox in their faith and militant about the gospel are in a sense fundamentalist churches. Fundamentalism has been right about many important things over the years. In its struggle with liberalism, it was right about a pure gospel. In its struggle with New Evangelicalism, it was right about the clear gospel. SVBC has an apreciation (sic) for its separatist heritage. From the very beginning we have been a bit different than your typical fundamental church. We are excited about historic Fundamentalism as an idea; however, we have not been nor continue to be as equally excited about Fundamentalism as a movement.

Too much modern-day Fundamentalism is riddled with leadership abuse, ecclesiastical politics, schisms over nonessentials, and the problem of equating men’s standards with the doctrines of God. So in a sense we find ourselves between two worlds. On the one hand we are uncomfortable with the main of Evangelicalism (especially New Evangelicalism) with its ecumenicalism and adoption of the world. On the other hand, we are uncomfortable with much of the fundamentalist movement and its propensity toward self-righteousness.

We have found that as we follow after Christ, we make more friends with those who are walking in the same direction we are. We are grateful for those relationships and frankly find real “koinonia” with those sister ministries. That is far superior in our opinion than making ourselves “fit” within a movement that dishonors God in one form or another.”