1. FATE
not FAITH determines eternity.
This
tenacious error of the ancient world has been adapted and embraced by growing
numbers of Christian believers. “When
it’s your time to go, you’ll go.” “God, and God alone decides who will be saved and who will be damned.
Man
has absolutely nothing to do with his salvation.”
The
Scriptures reveal that God is the Lord of history. But it is abundantly clear that God granted personal
sovereignty to those He created “in His
own image.” To think otherwise makes
God Himself the author of Adam’s disobedience, relieves Adam’s descendents of
moral responsibility for their God-ordained behaviors, and removes the
necessity for rebellious men to repent and to seek sanctifying grace.
With
so many challenges, so much that is wrong with the world, and even so much that
we see wrong within us, the retreat into fatalism—“whatever will be, will be” or
even “whatever is, is of God’s making” is a convenient escape for the
fainthearted and a cherished rationalization for the carnal hearted.
2. DEMOGRAPHICS
not IDEOLOGY decides destiny.
As
the United States slips closer to its nadir, finger pointing is rampant. Many point to our nation’s changing
demographics to explain our decline. We are more urban than we used to be. We are more culturally diverse than we used
to be. We are browner than we used to
be. The strident xenophobes avow that
demographics make an American renaissance impossible.
But
the Word of God declares, “we wrestle not
against flesh and blood.” Ours is an
ideological, spiritual war, “against the
rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual
forces of evil.” It is admittedly easy to associate appearances with
ideologies, but it is wrong. It is not
the color of a person’s skin that matters.
It is the content of our character, the turn of our minds, and the habits
of the heart that count.
3. FREEDOM
guarantees FREEDOM.
As
Os Guinness so rightly observed, “The greatest enemy of freedom is freedom.” In his new classic, “The Suicide of a Free People,” Guinness argues, “Freedom requires
virtue, virtue requires faith, and faith requires freedom.” “Freedom without
virtue will bring the Republic to its knees.”
Moderns
equate lawlessness with freedom. But
lawlessness yields anarchy.
Freedom
is not simply secured by the lifting of external restraints. That “negative freedom” is only one part of
true freedom. Freedom is secured when we
are free to think, to do, and to be right.
They whom the Son sets free, are free indeed.
One
man said, “That man is truly free who is conscious of being the author of the
law he obeys.” When the law of God is
written on our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us, obedience is not
imposed it is spontaneous.
Freedom
does not secure Freedom, the Spirit of God does.
4. GOVERNMENT
SECURES SECURITY.
A
few weeks ago a young lad said to me, “The government is our best friend.” Our coinage says, “In God we Trust,” but more
and more it is clear that it is “In Government we Trust.”
What
folly. Governments are ordained by God,
but they are not the guarantors of security, the source of sustenance, nor are
they the arbiters of morality. These are
endowed by our Creator.
Men who depend on men are inevitably
disillusioned. Only men who fully rely
on the God of Scripture are truly secure. “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the
watchman waketh but in vain.” Psalm 127:1.
5. VIRTUE,
TRUTH, LOVE ARE IDEAS THAT ARE MAN-MADE, MAN-DEFINED, AND MAN-CENTERED.
In a recent political convention held in Charlotte, NC, Americans were told,
“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like, or
where [sic. who] you love.” At a White House bill signing, the President told
Americans that we are, “building a nation in which we’re all free to live and
love as we see fit.”
These
are the sentiments of modern men who have rejected the authority of God and
made man himself the measure of all things.
The
post-modernist deconstruction of Virtue, Truth, and Love have set us back 3,000
years—“every man did that which was right
in his own eyes.” Judges 17:6,
Judges 21:25.
Until
God’s authority is embraced and God’s Word is esteemed, we will continue “Slouching
towards Gomorrah.” The Apostle Paul’s
inspired narrative of the demoralization of society (Romans 1:21-32) is
striking in its perfect description of our generation. “Professing themselves to be
wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God…” Looking at the tragic end of that generation
portends trouble ahead for this generation.
6. CHRISTIANITY
IS ONE DIMENSIONAL.
In
an effort to make Christianity marketable and more acceptable, too many have reformulated
the Gospel from its all-encompassing implications into a set of specific
requirements.
Salvation
has been reduced to intellectual assent (believe these facts), ethical
compliance (follow these rules), or spiritual experience (experience ecstasy in
worship or prayer) and you will be saved.
By insisting on only one or the other of these aspects the enemy has
diluted the Gospel and limited the all encompassing power of the Gospel.
The
need of our day is what Nancy Pearcey called, “Total Truth.” We need a Gospel that intellectually,
morally, and spiritually transforms men and their relationships with God and
each other.
We
need Christians who will believe and live so that “in all things He [Christ] might have the preeminence.” (Colossians
1:18). Sincere Christians prayerfully,
thoughtfully, and willingly embrace Christian culture above popular culture.
7. HOLINESS
IS IMPOSSIBLE.
Orthodox
Christians believe that Adam and Eve were created sinless and without even an inclination
to sin. Adam and Eve’s disobedience
changed everything. As Adam was created “in the image of God,” (Genesis 1:27)
Adam’s son was begotten “in his own
likeness and image.” (Genesis 5:3).
Every child since has inherited a nature that rebels against God’s
authority and that is prone to sin—to disobey God.
Orthodox
Christians are universal in their belief that only “the pure in heart…shall see God.”
(Matthew 5:8) . We all believe that
man’s rebellious nature must be sanctified before he can enter
heaven. Most believe that this purity is
granted in the moment the Christian believer dies.
Some
believe that man’s rebellious nature can be restrained through the power of the
Holy Spirit. Others believe that man’s
rebellious nature can refined through the power of the Holy Spirit. Few would contend that man’s rebellious
nature can be so wholly sanctified that in the place of the rebellious
self-will would be a pure love for God’s will.
So
long as Christians are convinced that the rebellious nature is beyond the scope
of redeeming grace no remedy will be found.
But throughout the New Testament, Christians are urged to pray that they
would “know the Love of Christ and be
filled with all the fullness of God,” (Ephesians 3:19), that “the very God of peace would sanctify
wholly” (1 Thessalonians 5:23), that “the
love of God [would be] shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost,”(Romans
5:5), and that they would be made perfect (Hebrews 13:21, 1 Peter 5:10) in that
love which “casts out fear.” (1 John
4:18).
8. ALL
IDEAS ARE EQUALLY VALID
Open-mindedness
is the virtue of our day. In his
classic, “The Closing of the American Mind,” Allan Bloom laments, “Openness—and
the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various
claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings—is the great
insight of our times. The true believer
is the real danger. The study of history
and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always
thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery,
xenophobia, racism, and chauvinism. The
point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to
think you are right at all.”
Moderns
even have an out of context Bible verse to justify their open-mindedness. Jesus said, “Judge not.” (Matthew 7:1).
It
is certainly important to learn and understand the perspectives of others. It is not true that all viewpoints are
equally valid or correct. Some ideas are right.
C. S. Lewis observes, “"An open mind, in questions that are not
ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of
Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy." (The Abolition of
Man). We have arrived.
9. SPIRITED
IS SPIRITUAL
“Oh
Pastor, we saw the most spiritual church service on television,” the people
exclaimed.
“Really?”
I asked, “What made you think so?”
“Oh
the people were jumping up and down and some were running around the building,”
They explained further, “the music just made you want to get up and dance!”
Excited
spectators love a good show.
We
love to sense God’s Spirit in the Church.
We relish the joy of God’s presence among His people. We are thrilled when people sense God moving
in their hearts and fall to their knees to seek Him. But we
are left cold by carnal displays of fleshly entertainment that parade
themselves as super spiritual. You will
not see tears of repentance, willing restitutions, or testimonies of victory
over sin in the party-church.
Spirit-ed
is not the same as spiritual. When the
Holy Spirit comes there is one infallible evidence that He is at work—namely
this: holiness! Holy love: “Though we speak with the tongues of men and
of angels, and have not charity I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Holy truth: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:” (John 16:3) Holy living: “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness,
but unto holiness.” (1 Thessalonians 4:7).
And Holy joy, “For the
kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy
in the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 14:17).
10. GENDER
IS MALLEABLE & IMMATERIAL
Miss
Canada was recently disqualified from the Miss Universe Pageant because it was
discovered that she was a he. He had the
hair of a lovely woman. He had the physical appearance of a beauty queen. He wore the clothing of a pageant
winner. But he was not what he appeared
to be.
In
Genesis we read, “God created man in his
own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he
them.” (Genesis 1:27). Attempts by modern men and women to deny,
alter, or blur their God-given gender identity are more than folly, they are
sinful.
For
the first 20 centuries, the Church of Jesus Christ placed a strong emphasis
upon gender identity.
We
urged our men to be providers (But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the
faith, and is worse than an infidel. 1 Timothy 5:8), to be protectors (Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself for it; Ephesians 5:25), and to be godly leaders, ( For the husband is the head of the wife,
even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Ephesians 5:23).
We reproved effeminacy in men (Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, …nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,… shall inherit the kingdom
of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9,10), and accented our unique gender by our
appearance, (Doth not even nature itself
teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?15 But
if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for
a covering 1 Corinthians 11:14,15 and 5 The woman shall not wear that
which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for
all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. Deuteronomy 22:5).
We upheld the
complementary roles of gender and disapproved of the unisex philosophy and
look. Christian men are to treat
Christian women with honor, and Christian wives are to respect their husbands, (…and the wife see that she reverence her
husband. Ephesians 5:23) and are submissive to their husbands in the Lord,
(Wives, submit yourselves unto your own
husbands, as unto the Lord. Ephesians 5:22, Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any
obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of
the wives; 2 While they
behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. 3 Whose adorning let it not
be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of
putting on of apparel; 4 But
let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great
price. 5 For after this
manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves,
being in subjection unto their own husbands: 6 Even as Sara
obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do
well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
1 Peter 3:1-6).
Today
our civilization is reaping the result of a godless humanism which dethrones
God, and enthrones carnal men. It is
carnal rebellion that lies at the root of our refusal to be who God made us to
be, to do what God commands us to do, and to look the way God teaches us to
look. .
We
may fuss with God, we may refuse His Word, we may reject His will, but hidden
in the DNA of every cell of our bodies lies the truth of our given gender.
Long
after Miss Canada lies moldering in the grave, archeologists may uncover his
grave and assume that he is a she. But
genetics will reveal, what Miss Canada refused to accept, “she” is a he. Men who suppose that they can deny nature
and nature’s God are destined for dissatisfaction here and destruction in the
hereafter.
Churchill: What kind of people do they think we are?
Guinness: What kind of people do we think we are?
Jesus:
What kind of people does God think we are?
God looks on the heart.
