10 DECEPTIONS SHAPING OUR TIMES

 

10 DECEPTIONS SHAPING OUR TIMES

By Pastor Rick Jones

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.  They have compartmentalized and consequently lost the power of the Gospel.

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.

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).   

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.

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 thekingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in theHoly Ghost.”  (Romans 14:17). 

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.