Part 3
My vehement disagreement with George Barna should not be misinterpreted as a carte blanche defense of today’s listless and lifeless local churches. I’ve attended more than a few so-called church services that were tantamount in my mind to a form of spiritual Chinese water torture. The pulpit was void of anointing, the music was void of joy, the prayers were void of heart and, to no surprise, the pews were void of people. I’ve sprung from many an attended church service like a paroled prisoner does from a federal penitentiary.
We all know the tragic truth that much of what passes for “church” today is nothing more than the congregating of a bunch of navel-gazers; that is, people so concentrated upon themselves that they’ve lost sight of everything else. Everyone who finds themselves in one of these self-absorbed spiritual mausoleums should immediately flee for fear of their spiritual lives. Still, this doesn’t justify, as Barna portends, throwing the “baby” of the local church out with the dirty, cold, “bath water” of its manifold present-day counterfeits.
Much of the present-day plight of the local church is actually attributable to church growth gurus like George Barna. By his own admission, much of his polling-based preaching to the contemporary church has proven to be both flawed and ineffectual. For instance, he personally helped plant a new church that ultimately failed to survive, much less thrive. Still, despite his dismal batting average, here we are again breathlessly listening to his latest advice; namely, to abandon the “hollow” concept of the local church that he and others helped hollow out.
Barna contends that his latest and most radical polling-based proposition will take twenty to thirty years to come to fruition. So we’ll have to wait that long to see if his advocacy of the abandonment of the local church will prove to be a spiritual boon or bust. Never mind that all of his “sage” advice up till now has “failed” and proven “flawed” by his own admission, or that traveling a wrong path paved by the shifting sand of public opinion polls for so long may lead the church into an inescapable bog, Barna, a man often wrong but never in doubt, still expects to be given the benefit of the doubt.
If one looks carefully at Barna’s counsel to the contemporary church, it always boils down to a suggestion that the church grab a canoe to go with the flow of contemporary culture. Barna’s polling shows the latest trends and fads, then, Barna draws a bull’s-eye around them and counsels the church to aim for the target drawn by public opinion. By doing so, Barna contends that the church will woo the world by catering to all of its current crazes.
Barna’s so-called “Revolution” or “Reawakening” is actually nothing more than the present-day movement of a profane culture away from everything Christian. It is the spirit of the age or what the Bible calls “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4).
The Greek word Paul uses for “world” in Galatians 1:4 (aion) means “age.” It is best understood as the man-centered system of thought that most characterizes our time. According to C. Fred Dickason, the former head of the theology department of Moody Bible Institute, “The Greek term, aion, refers in its various contexts to a spirit of the age that rejects the true God and sets up a counterfeit life and substitute religion with the creature at the center.”
Far from targeting the spirit of our age, as George Barna proposes, the Apostle Paul taught that Christ died to deliver us from it. Rather than fitting in, the church should be standing out, as the Scripture clearly teaches:
- “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17)
- “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1 Peter 2:11)
- “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)
- “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14)
- “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14)
Though Madison Avenue may applaud the contemporary church’s use of public opinion polls to market itself, I’m quite sure that Heaven’s golden streets are less taken with the church replacing the preaching of the cross with the peddling of itself.
While many a starry-eyed, present-day professor of Christ will readily embrace Barna’s redefining of a profane culture’s spiritual obstinacy as an opportunity for spiritual revolution, God’s true remnant must refuse to stare through the looking glass into George Barna’s polling Wonderland. Instead, we must face the harsh reality of our times so that we’ll “know what [we] ought to do,” for, as our Lord Himself predicted, the “night is [quickly] coming when no man can work” (1 Chronicles 12:32; John 9:24).
Part 4
Should the church really attempt to redefine itself so as to accommodate the fickle opinions and fragile feelings
of unbelievers who are at enmity with God? According to the Barnas, Kinnamans and Lyons of our world, we should, despite the fact that the Bible teaches:
❶ Unbelievers have "foolish" and "darkened hearts" (Romans 1:21)
❷ Unbelievers are "blinded by the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4)
❸ Unbelievers are "bound by the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2)
❹ Unbelievers see "the Gospel" and "spiritual things" as "foolishness," because they "are perishing" and "without spiritual understanding" (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2:14).
According to the Barnas, Kinnamans and Lyons of our world, the church must come up with a way to spoon-feed a palatable Gospel to a world at enmity with God without offending the sensitive feelings of thin-skinned sinners. Yet, the Apostle Paul taught that the preaching of the cross was an inevitable "offense" to everyone refusing to embrace it (Galatians 5:11). Furthermore, Paul taught that all who faithfully preach an unadulterated cross will suffer persecution and estrangement from this fallen world (Galatians 6:12-14).
Why is the cross unavoidably offensive to the world? To begin with, there is the vulgarity of the blood. The Bible has been called a bloody book and Christianity a bloody religion. Someone has insightfully quipped, "You can cut the Bible anywhere and it will bleed with the blood of the Lamb." Indeed it will!
Why all this emphasis on blood, something so repulsive to the world. The answer lies in the scriptural truth that "without the shedding of blood" there can be no forgiveness for our sins (Hebrews 9:22). Why blood? The Bible teaches that "life is in the blood" and that "the wages of sin is death" (Leviticus 17:11; Romans 6:23). This means that for every sin ever committed someone must surely die; that is, someone's blood (life) must be poured out.
God is a just God; consequently, He cannot allow one sin to slip by unpunished. God cannot wink at our sins. All sin must be punished, lest God cease to be just. Therefore, the only hope we have of God's forgiveness of our sins is if someone should dare to die in our place and pour out their blood in place of ours.
To qualify as our sin substitute, one must be both like us (a man) and nothing like us (sinless). He can't be man's substitute if he himself is not a man. Neither can he die for man's sins if he himself is a sinner, since all sinners are condemned to death for their own sins. This explains the miracle of the Incarnation; why God became a man in the man Christ Jesus. Only by becoming a man and living a sinless life could God substitute Himself for mankind and pour out His blood in place of ours upon the cross of Calvary.
This is the incredible message of the cross. It is the greatest love story ever told. It is the riveting tale of God's incomprehensible love for fallen humanity. The story of divine love so great that the Almighty Himself invaded our world in a mortal body so that He could die in our place on the cross of Calvary! On Calvary's rugged cross, Christ did for us what none of us could have ever done for ourselves. As a result, our sins can be forgiven and we can be reconciled to God simply by believing in the sufficiency of Christ's substitutionary work for us upon the cross.
To prove how utterly blind today's world is to the things of the Spirit of God, consider the fact that much of today's world condemns the preaching of the cross as "hatespeech" and all who preach it as "hatemongers." How blind is a heart that views the bloody and bruised figure of Christ on the tree as an intolerant message perpetrating trouble in today's politically correct world? Furthermore, how blind is the church when it begins trying to clean up and sanitize the message of the cross so as to make it inoffensive to a cross-spurning, spiritually blind and fallen planet?
Remember the words of our Redeemer, "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" (Matthew 15:14). Is today's church not being ditched by church growth gurus like George Barna, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons?
Part 5
A second reason the cross is unavoidably offensive to the world is its exposure of human depravity. If anyone doubts the dark heart of man, all he has to do to remove all doubt is look at the bruised and bloody figure of Christ on the cross. It was the “desperately wicked” heart of man that condemned the sinless Christ to the tree (Jeremiah 17:9).
In addition to the unspeakable crime of the crucifixion, man’s depravity is also clearly seen in the necessity of it. Mankind is so hopelessly and helplessly undone that there is nothing we can do to deliver ourselves from our spiritual degeneracy. Thus, Christ had to come and do it all for us, because we could do none of it for ourselves. Now that Christ has done everything that needed to be done for our salvation, all that remains for us to do is swallow our pride, come to Christ humbly on our knees and reach out by faith and accept from Him a nail-scarred handout—“the gift of God [which] is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
It is easy to see from the above why the preaching of the cross is offensive to men who insist upon believing in their own innate goodness. Mankind is so convinced of its own goodness that it believes itself capable of producing a paradisiacal planet, as well as earning for itself God’s acceptance. Thus, the preaching of the cross is an obstacle to man’s illusive one world government and universal religion. It is out of step with today’s politically correct parade, which sees itself marching to some storybook Shangri-La. Is there any wonder, therefore, that the Christian faith stays in the sights of today’s trigger-happy Utopians?
Sinners spurn the very idea of their need of a Savior. It is insulting to them. It speaks to them of their sinfulness and utter inability to save themselves. It teaches them the painful truth that they will never be good enough or do enough good to earn God’s acceptance. To a world determined to believe that “I’m okay and your okay,” the cross is both inexplicable and inescapable. Every sanctimonious sinner in a spiritually hoodwinked world finds himself under its haunting and intolerable shadow.
How do we explain contemporary society’s peculiar and militant hostility toward the Christian faith. Is it not found in the fact that Christianity, unlike every other religious faith in the world, teaches man’s need of a Savior and inability to save himself? According to the message of the cross, salvation is not to be had on the basis of our goodness, but only on the basis of God’s grace. It has nothing to do with who we are or with what we have done, but everything to do with who Christ is and with what He has done for us.
I believe all of this serves as proof positive that the Christian faith is the one and only true faith in all of the world. Unlike all other faiths, it cannot possibly be the invention of the prideful, unregenerate heart of man. No man would have ever imagined so unflattering a faith. Neither would any man ever turn to such an unflattering faith apart from the miracle of regeneration, no matter how well it is marketed or pitched.
Part 6
Another reason the cross is unavoidably offensive to the world is its call for self-denial. While
the world believes that the cure-all for all human ills is found in self-esteem, the cross calls for self-denial. Jesus said, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it" (Mark 8:34-35).
Contrary to popular opinion, there is no such thing as a crossless Christian or a crossless Christianity. You cannot follow Christ without shouldering the cross, and you cannot shoulder the cross as long as you refuse to let go of your personal bill of rights. The cross means death; death to self. It means dying to your will so that you can live your life in fulfillment of Christ's will. It means what you want no longer matters; all that matters to you now is what Christ wants.
Obviously, the cross is an intolerable offense to today's narcissistic world. That today's world is populated by narcissists is proven by the phenomenal growth of social media, especially social networking services like Facebook, with its 850 million active users. Many of these users actually believe that the world is breathlessly waiting for the latest update on their everyday activities. In their minds, the world itself is centered around their lives and so captivated by every detail that it has hit their Facebook wall, been stopped dead in its tracks and just sits there anxiously waiting for their next posting.
It's easy to see how the cross is offensive to today's self-absorbed plebeians, who perceive it as a wrecking ball to their Facebook wall. The cross cries out that it is not about us, but it's about Christ. He is the one who matters; consequently, we should be willing to forget about ourselves and lay down our lives for Him and the Gospel. What could be more insulting to a world enamored with itself than the message of forsaking oneself for another, even if the other happens to be one who forsook the portals of glory to don a mortal robe for our salvation?
It is only those who are wiling to take up the cross and deny themselves who can be Christ's disciples. Such a stringent demand makes discipleship an implausible proposition to the self-obsessed. Therefore, many contemporary pews and pulpits are populated by those who argue for the church's lowering of Christ's demands. By doing so, these compromisers of the cross erroneously believe that they are lowering for the egomaniac the hurdles he must hop in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. What they are really doing, however, is peddling a soft-soap gospel incapable of washing away anyone's sins.
When the rich young ruler refused to meet Christ's demands, Christ stood by silently while he walked away (Mark 10:17-27). Christ was unwilling to lower His standards or to add a wealthy tither to His disciples by making him a special deal. Christ's silence on this occasion may be one of the most powerful messages He ever preached.
Unlike Christ, many within the contemporary church refuse to remain silent when a cross-spurning narcissist turns up his nose at the demands of discipleship. Instead, they run after him shouting, "Let's make a deal!" It is as though they see themselves as some kind of spiritual "Monty Hall" and believe that disciples can be made at bargain prices. Though it is true that cheap disciples of ourselves can be made at little or no cost to themselves, true disciples of Christ must count and pay the full demanded cost, lest they eventually prove themselves unwilling to finish what they superficially started (Luke 14:26-33).
I've always found it intriguing that the Apostle Paul begins his description of the "perilous times" of the "last days" with the fact that "men shall be lovers of their own selves" (2 Timothy 3:1-2). Has self-love not been our problem ever since the Fall? Oh, I know today's psychologist says our problem is we don't love ourselves enough, but the Bible plainly teaches that our problem is the exact opposite—we love ourselves too much. Still, why would Paul single out this perennial problem and place it at the top of the list of end time perils?
When compared with yesterday, what is different about man's infatuation with himself today? Could it be that self-love is now being peddled as the cure-all for all human ills? Rather than seen as the problem, today it is prescribed as the solution. How perilous will the times become when the poison is being swilled down as the antidote by the world's deceived masses?
The cross alone stands against the tide of this end time delusion. It serves in these "last days" as a stake through the hearts of all lovers of themselves. It is therefore unavoidably offensive and utterly intolerable to all who adore themselves supremely and bow in self-adulation at their own clay feet.
Part 7
A final reason why the cross is unavoidably offensive to our world is its thunderous declaration of the exclusivity
of Heaven. As the old hymn, The Way of the Cross Leads Home, clearly declares:
I must needs go home by the way of the cross,
There’s no other way but this;
I shall ne’er get sight of the gates of light,
If the way of the cross I miss.
I must needs go on in the blood sprinkled way,
The path that the Savior trod,
If I ever climb to the heights sublime,
Where the soul is at home with God.
Then I bid farewell to the way of the world,
To walk in it never more;
For the Lord says, “Come,” and I seek my home,
Where He waits at the open door.
The way of the cross leads home,
The way of the cross leads home,
It is sweet to know as I onward go,
The way of the cross leads home.
This unmistakable message of the cross is horribly offensive to the adherents of all other religions, as well as to the incredibly growing number of "make-believers"; that is, those who make up their own faith and insist upon reconciliation with God on their own personal terms. The cross plainly and unapologetically states that all other faiths, whether they are traditional or personally tailored, are false. Furthermore, all who adhere to them are spiritually deceived and on the road to destruction.
God's only provision for our salvation and path of reconciliation to Him is faith in the sufficiency of the atoning work of His sacrificed Son. It is the crucified Christ alone who stands as the hope and Savior of the world!
- "I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour." (Isaiah 43:11)
- "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:17-18)
- "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." (John 10:9)
- "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
- "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
- "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5:12)
- "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." (2 John 9)
The Bible doesn't mince words when it comes to the "certain judgment" and "fiery indignation" of God that awaits all who spurn the gift of His love (Hebrews 10:27). According to the Bible, all who reject God's Son, Jesus Christ, have "trodden" His sacred blood—"the blood of the covenant" shed by Him on the cross of Calvary—"under their feet" as though it was "an unholy thing" (Hebrews 10:29). Furthermore, they have "done despite unto the Spirit of grace." Therefore, all unbelievers have no prospect for eternity apart from a "fearful" one; namely, "falling into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:30).
Most people today fail to understand that unbelief is the supreme sin. Indeed, it is the sin from which all other sins spring, as the Bible says, "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). All sin boils down to man's failure to believe God. Far from being benign, as the vast majority of today's world believes, man's refusal to believe in Christ is most malignant. It is the cause of our fallen world's terminal condition and the one incurable infirmity of men's immortal souls.
As the Bible clearly teaches, failure to believe in Christ is an unpardonable offense against God. It is the trampling of Christ's sacred blood under your feet as though it was unnecessarily shed on the cross of Calvary for your salvation. It is you saying to Christ: "You shouldn't have done it, because I don't need it. I don't need a Savior; I can take care of myself." In addition, it is you turning your nose up at the Holy Spirit's offer of God's grace. It is you arrogantly insisting upon the sufficiency of your own goodness and the needlessness of God's grace, not to mention the untruthfulness of God's Word (1 John 5:10). Is there any wonder that the Scripture guarantees divine and unmerciful indignation to all who are guilty of such unbelief-spawning human hubris?
In one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Romans 9:13). Many misinterpret this verse as some kind of divine discrimination between the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. This verse is not speaking about a personal hatred of Esau nor anything that was necessarily lovable about his swindler of a brother. What it is speaking about is Esau's despising of his birthright—he swapped it for a bowl of beans—and Jacob's determinedness to obtain it (Genesis 25:29-34).
The birthright put one in the ancestry of the coming promised Messiah. As far as Esau was concerned, he couldn't care less whether the Messiah came or not, seeing no personal need for a Savior. Jacob, on the other hand, knew that the Messiah's coming was his only hope of salvation. He may have been a deplorable character, but he had this one redeeming virtue, he knew that a sinner like him was in desperate need of a Savior, having no hope of ever saving himself. It is this that God loves, and this alone that leads the Jacobs (believers) of our world home! All else is hated by God, and assures the Esaus (unbelievers) of our world of the certain, fiery and unmerciful indignation of God!
Part 8
So far in this series of articles we've learned the following.
❶ The lostness of our world cannot be easily explained away by the poor marketing and unpolished sales-pitches of an unsophisticated church bereft of public relations skills.
❷ The spirit of our age—the hostility of today's profane culture toward all things Christian—cannot sweep us out the door of the local church and into spiritual "Reawakening," as pollster George Barna contends.
❸ The preaching of the cross is unavoidably offensive to a world populated by men who believe in their own innate goodness.
In light of these lessons learned, it appears to me that we should be able to dispense once and for all with the novel notion of spoon-feeding a palatable gospel to a truth regurgitating world.
There's simply no way for the church to carry out the ministry of reconciliation, a ministry entrusted to it by Christ, in a way that will accommodate our modern-day reprobate world. Today's reprobates insist upon their personal beliefs not being questioned, their consciences not being pricked, and their sinful lifestyles being confirmed. If the church fails to acclimate itself to these universal demands of today's politically correct culture it will definitely be vilified and marginalized in the eyes of this planet's profane populace.
Make no mistake about it; the uncompromising church is and will continue to be universally and unquestionably condemned as the lone perpetrator of the sole unpardonable sin of our time. What is this single intolerable transgression? It is simply the belief in absolute truth!
In our current relativistic age, all "truths" are acceptable as long as they are seen as comparable and compatible with all others. In other words, everyone's beliefs must be seen as equally valid and no one's belief as superior or inferior to another. You're free to believe whatever you like, just as long as you don't really believe it. It doesn't matter if it is absolutely false or absurdly foolish, all that matters is that you're not ardent about it.
The only forbidden belief today is true belief in what is absolutely true, which automatically relegates all other beliefs to the realm of untruth, even sweeping some into the dustbin of sheer lunacy. To bravely cross this line of fervently held personal convictions in today's politically correct culture is to be instantly branded and banished, branded as intolerant and therefore banished from public discourse.
For us to tell the Muslim of his need of Christ, as Christ's commissioned us to do, is for us to be condemned as Islamophobes. For us to tell the homosexual of his need of repentance, as Christ's commissioned us to do, is for us to be condemned as homophobes. For us to confront the cultist's beliefs, as Christ's commissioned us to do, is for us to be condemned as intolerant of the beliefs of others. And for us to preach an unadulterated gospel, which is now roundly condemned as hate speech, is for us to be condemned as hatemongers.
There's simply no way around it; we either fulfill Christ's Great Commission or conform ourselves to a reprobate world. We either concern ourselves with preaching or polls, with people's feelings or souls. We can't do both. The choice is ours.
Part 9
Though many modern-day evangelicals are either blind to it or intentionally shutting their eyes to it, the harsh reality of our times is that the church is being painted into an inescapable corner by the unseen hand of divine providence. Yes, I said "divine providence." As the Almighty puts the finishing touches on this fallen world's biblically predicted end-time scenario, He is forcing His church to decide whether to cave in and compromise or courageously stand for Christ in spite of cost and consequence. Unfortunately, it currently appears that Christendom is overwhelmingly opting for the former rather than the latter, which may be seen as the rising specter of the Scripture's predicted end-time apostate church.
Many will vehemently protest and readily dismiss everything I'm saying as the mere musings of an incorrigible defeatist. Shrugging me off as an incurable cynic, they will continue to believe that the ends justify the means and that results are the true standard by which spiritual success is to be gauged. To them it all boils down to church growth, not church purity. It's a simple matter of nickels and noses, of budgets, buildings and baptisms. The bottom line is filling pews and offering plates. Little do they realize that such a philosophy is prostituting the contemporary church to the world and turning it into the biblically predicted mother of all harlots.
Spiritual success is not, nor has it ever been, determined by worldly results. The results are out of our hands; they are totally up to God. As the Scripture teaches, God adds to the church those who "should be saved" (Acts 2:47). All we can do is be faithful to God in hopes of being used by Him to bring those predestined for salvation to the Savior.
Faithfulness alone serves as the true standard by which spiritual success is to be gauged. We are not answerable to God for the results. God will personally see to it that His plans and purposes are unfailingly fulfilled. Thus, we need not worry about the results. Our only responsibility is to be faithful to God so that He might use us in bringing to pass within this world His predetermined ends.
Throughout the Scripture we are taught that the distinguishing mark of "the just" is their "faith" (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). It is not worldly success. In fact, very few of the faithful have ever enjoyed much of it, including our Lord, who was crucified rather than crowned. The sole criteria by which our spiritual success is to be determined is our faith in God and faithfulness to Him.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to be spiritually successful in a church with
few parishioners in its pews and a paltry sum in its coffers. One might even conclude, in light of our world's growing hostility toward Christ, that it will become increasingly unlikely in the days ahead to find the spiritually successful (faithful) in any other kind of church. Since big crowds and bulging coffers are becoming more and more contingent upon compromise, packed pews and padded offering plates may become more emblematic in the future of churches who are selling out rather than standing firm.
Part 10
One cannot help but wonder where today's evangelicals are getting their rosy view of things to come. Where on the pages of sacred Scripture do they find an earth-shaking church bringing the world's masses to their knees before the Master? I don't know about you, but my Bible speaks of a spiritually deceived, unrepentant, and blasphemous end-time world that worships "the beast," hates the truth, and rejoices over the demise of the church, Christ's witnesses in the world (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12; Revelation 16:9, 11; 13:3-4; 11:10). Even our Lord asked if He would "find faith on the earth" when He returns (Luke 18:8).
Though few will acknowledge it and most will hear nothing of it, we are living in dark times. Furthermore, the times are growing ever darker. The church's potential for impacting this world for Christ is waning, as Christ's Himself predicted it would (John 9:4). Still, this doesn't provide us with an excuse for compromise or unfaithfulness.
As Paul taught in Romans 11:4-5, God always has a faithful remnant. Contrary to popular opinion, "We the people" have always been opposed to God. It is never the majority but always a very small minority in any given age that decides: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).
As part of God's present-day faithful remnant it is contingent upon us to ever be true. Victory is not found in our winning over this Christ-rejecting world, which the Bible decidedly declares we'll never do, but in us remaining faithful witnesses of Christ within it.
If we prove ourselves faithful to the end, then Christ has a victor's crown laid up for us (2 Timothy 4:8). If not, we must content ourselves with the temporal laurels of a reprobate world, something the contemporary church appears to be gratified by and determined to pursue.
Part 11
Unfortunately, we’re living in a day when words no longer convey clear meanings. Thanks to relativism, deconstructionism, and a host of other “isms,” words have become pliable, pliable enough to be molded into different meanings to suit the personal preferences of different people. A single word may be interpreted in various ways by various people, with the unfortunate result of its intended use being misunderstood for something entirely different.
The church is not immune to this modern-day breakdown in communication. And when we add to the vagueness of our present-day vernacular the biblical illiteracy and doctrinal ignorance so prevalent in contemporary congregations, it’s becoming more and more of a challenge to clearly communicate scriptural truths to today’s congregants.
The doctrine of election is one of the great doctrines (teachings) of the Bible that is often misunderstood today. The minute it is mentioned some people conjure up images of God rubbing His hands together as He assigns men’s immortal souls to heaven and hell. How far from such a fanciful and faulty image is the real truth of this incredible teaching of God’s holy Word.
The Bible plainly teaches us that we do not choose God, but God chooses (elects) us. In John 15:16, Jesus said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…” According to the Bible, we were chosen by God before we were conceived or born (Jeremiah 1:5). Furthermore, as the Apostle Paul declares in Ephesians 1:4-5, we were chosen by God in Christ before the creation of the world.
Why did God choose us to be His children? Paul says it was simply because God wanted to and was pleased to do so! It had nothing to do with God’s foreknowledge of the lives we would live or the things we would do. If it did, then, our conduct, not God’s choosing would be the determinative factor in our salvation. Our salvation would be a matter of God’s foreknowledge rather than His favor.
The Scripture makes it unmistakably clear that we are saved by God’s grace (favor) not by any works of our own (Ephesians 2:8-9). In fact, it goes on to teach that our “good works” are preordained by God for us to perform (Ephesians 2:10). They are not just divinely foreknown, but also divinely foreordained.
Despite the clear teachings of Scripture, some still argue that God’s election is based upon His foreknowledge of our choosing of Christ. In other words, God chooses us because He knows we’re going to choose Christ. However, this can’t be the case, since this would predicate His choice of us on our choice of Christ, rendering the words of Jesus in John 15:16 untrue. The truth of the Scripture is actually the opposite of this fallacious argument. God’s choice of us is not predicated by God’s foreknowledge of our future choice of Christ; instead, our choice of Christ is predicated by God’s favor and prior choice of us!
I believe erroneously attributing God's election of us to His foreknowledge of our reception of Christ is the primary reason for the shallow conception of salvation so prevalent in the contemporary church. We have reduced salvation to a matter of our choice rather than God’s. By doing so we have made ourselves “Almighty” in the process, as though our personal salvation is totally up to us. It’s nothing more than a mere matter of our choosing.
Tragically, the prevalent belief and teaching in today’s church is that salvation can be had whenever we choose. Rather than being a matter of God’s will and His good pleasure, as the Bible plainly teaches (John 1:13; Ephesians 1:5), we teach that anyone can be saved whenever they take the notion. It’s as though we believe the Savior is standing by ever ready to save the sinner at the sinner’s good pleasure.
Far from teaching that we can be saved anytime we say so, the Bible teaches that we can only be saved when God says so. This explains why the Bible warns us, “Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:8, 15; 4:7). You can only come to Christ when the Spirit calls. It is imperative therefore that you come whenever you hear the still, small voice of the Spirit, lest your heart become calloused and you never again hear the Spirit's call.
Part 12
According to the doctrine of election, only God’s elect will be saved. Neither the eloquence of a preacher, the efficiency of a church outreach program, the ingenious composition of a gospel tract, or a Madison Avenue marketing technic will result in the salvation of a single soul whom God has not chosen. Although all of these things may result in the non-elect coming to our churches, none of them will result in the non-elect coming to Christ. We may use these things to add to our church, but only “the Lord” can add to His church “such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47).
As proof of this point, consider Abraham’s response to the rich man’s belief that his brothers would certainly repent if Lazarus rose from the dead to warn them (Luke 16:27-31). Abraham maintained that if the rich man’s brothers would not hear “Moses and the prophets, neither [would] they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Think about it; Jesus rose from the dead, but the vast majority of our world’s population is still unbelieving, unrepentant, and spiritually dead to God in trespasses and sins.
Contrary to popular opinion, the gospel is not a mere matter of human persuasion. It is not us persuading men to pray the “sinner’s prayer.” Many a person has been talked into reciting a prayer who never repented of their sin and became a follower of Christ.
The failure of the prodigious preponderance of present-day converts to be assimilated into the church speaks volumes about contemporary Christianity’s utter inability to make disciples of Christ. Most of those who make a decision for Christ in today’s church have dropped out of church within six to eight weeks. While we may brag about the number of people we are persuading to make “decisions” for Christ, most of those we persuade soon become dropouts rather than lifelong disciples.
According to the Apostle Paul, “the gospel of Christ…is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). As Paul declared to the Corinthians, “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). The gospel is not a mere matter of us persuading men with our words, but of God miraculously saving them from their sins by His power. Salvation is a miracle of God, not a mere matter of one human persuading and coercing another to make a personal choice or decision.
John Peterson certainly understood this, as proven by his penning of the following:
It took a miracle to put the stars in place,
It took a miracle to hang the world in space;
But when He saved my soul,
Cleansed and made me whole,
It took a miracle of love and grace.”
Part 13
As we pointed out in our previous article, only God's elect will be saved. Our sovereign God will see to it that all of His elect are saved, but no one apart from God's elect will be saved.
Unfortunately, many misinterpret this clear teaching of Scripture to mean that God predestines some men to go to heaven and others to go to hell. While it is true that no one will end up in heaven because of their choice, but only because of God's choice, it is equally true that no one will end up in hell because of God's choice, but only because of their own choice.
Men go to hell because they choose sin over the Savior for themselves. They are in need of no divine intervention to do so. The choice comes quite naturally to them, since they're already sinners by birth and by nature.
All men ultimately come to the age where they "know to do good," but choose of their own free will to "do it not" (James 4:17). Such a choice is inevitable, since all of fallen humanity are sinners by birth (Psalm 51:5) and by nature (Romans 7:5). Once willfully made, this inevitable choice, proven to be inevitable by Romans 3:23, makes us not only accountable to God for our sin, but also leaves us in desperate need of a Savior.
Unlike our willful choice to sin, our choice of Christ involves the surrendering of our will to His. Far from natural, this is quite unnatural and necessitates the supernatural intervention of God. Only divine intervention can enable a willful sinner to surrender both his sin and will to the Savior. It is within this miracle of regeneration, a miracle the contemporary church is either ignorant of or ignoring, that the precious doctrine of election is played out.
Salvation is of God. It is totally divine; a work of God's hand devoid of any human fingerprints. It is not, as is often said, "So simple that a little child can understand it." Instead, it is so stupendous that only a miracle working God can perform it. All who carefully consider what the Scripture says about salvation will be forced to conclude that it is without question God's most stupendous miracle. For instance, consider the following.
- We cannot choose Christ unless He has chosen us (John 15:16; Jeremiah 1:5; Ephesians 1:4-5).
- We cannot come to Christ unless we are divinely drawn (John 6:44; 12:32).
- We cannot confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, unless He is divinely revealed to us (Matthew 16:15-17; Galatians 1:11-12).
- We cannot confess Jesus as Lord unless enabled to do so by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3).
- We cannot believe in Christ unless God gives us the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8).
- We will not receive the gift of faith until we hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit speak the written Word of God directly and personally to our hearts (Romans 10:17).
- We cannot repent of our sins unless God grants us repentance (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25-26).
- We will not be granted repentance until God breaks our hearts over our sin with a godly sorrow that leads to a repentance never to be repented of (2 Corinthians 7:8-11).
Once one begins to grasp God's purpose of grace; namely, that election is the gracious purpose of God by which He miraculously regenerates, saves, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners, one is forced to relinquish the foolish notion commonly found in the contemporary church that the only obstacles to the salvation of sinners are their prickly feelings and poor opinions of Christians. To believe that the sinner's salvation is only a better and more sensitive sales pitch away is to reduce salvation from the divine to the profane. It is to take it out of God's omnipotent hands and to put it into the impotent hands of men, which, as Jesus taught in Mark 10:27, makes the miracle of salvation into an impossibility.
Part 14
When it comes to the playing out of God’s purpose of grace, in particularly when it comes to the miracles of regeneration and salvation, miracles only made possible by divine intervention, men are ever prone to distort the doctrine of election into some kind of divine discrimination by which deity desires to doom some souls to hell while destining others to heaven. To counter this predictable distortion of the doctrine of election, the Apostle Peter took his divinely inspired pen in hand. In 2 Peter 3:9, he wrote, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
The Greek word Peter uses for “willing” in this verse should be understood as God’s desired will not His decreed will. In other words, though God has not decreed that “none should perish” and “that all should come to repentance,” as the ever-growing number of “scoffers” in the world proves (see 2 Peter 3:3-4), no one should misinterpret this as God’s desire for some men to “perish” due to their own willful refusal to “come to repentance.”
God neither desires nor decrees the forfeiture of the immortal souls of the unrepentant. Man’s refusal to repent of his sin is spawned by his own desire and willful defiance of God. He needs neither divine decree nor divine intervention to deny his need of Christ. He is completely capable of doing so on his own, totally independent of God. Indeed, it is only possible apart from God, since it is, as Peter declares, foreign to God’s desired will for all men.
Have you ever met an unrepentant sinner who complained that God was not overriding his free will and forcing him to repent of his sins? Of course you haven’t; in fact, all unrepentant sinners would be resistant to and infuriated by the mere suggestion of them being forced by divine providence to do anything counter to their personal preference. It is this deifying of one’s self and defiance of the Almighty that epitomizes sin. It is the sinner shaking his fist in the face of divine sovereignty and installing himself as sovereign in his own life by obstinately insisting upon his will over God’s will.
It is true that one occasionally encounters a sinner caught in the throes of sin’s consequences who blames God for his present deployable situation. He protests that God could have prevented him from coming to so ignoble and horrible an end if only divine providence would have put its foot down. If only God would have forced him to desist from his debauchery he would not have ended up downtrodden, down-and-out, diseased, and dying. Still, this protest is prompted by an undesired end and is never made prior to reaping the consequences of one’s sinful desires. It is a complaint over God’s failure to relieve the sinner from sin’s consequences, not over the sinner’s own failure to have repented of his sin.
Contrary to popular opinion, the doctrine of election does not teach that the sinner is forced into hell by the hand of divine providence. Instead, sinners go to hell as a result of their own obstinance. Likewise, no saint is strong-armed into heaven. Instead, all saints must both receive Christ and believe in Christ for themselves (John 1:12; 3:16). Yet, it does take divine intervention in the lives of the saints to enable them to receive and believe.
It is this divine enabling that distinguishes God’s elect, results in the miracle of our salvation, and leaves us with nothing to boast about apart from the cross of Christ. As Paul teaches in Romans 3:27, there will be no strutting on heaven’s golden streets. None of us can take any credit for our salvation. All we can do is give God all of the glory!
The only way for you to deny the biblical doctrine of election and to interpret 2 Peter 3:9 as a declaration of God’s decreed will rather than His desired will is for you to preposterously propose that God is a failure. Think about it; if God has purposed, planned and decreed for all men to be saved, then, the fact that most men are perishing and only a relative few are coming to repentance proves that God’s predetermined plan is failing for the most part. In fact, denying the doctrine of election forces you to conclude that in the battle for men’s souls Satan wins out more often than God and God’s will is being constantly thwarted by fallen men and angels.
Believing the above to be balderdash rather than biblical, I’m a firm believer in the doctrine of election. All of God’s elect will be saved. I know this for sure and certain because my God cannot fail. No power in heaven, on earth, or underneath the earth can thwart His plans and purposes. God will unfailingly deliver on all He has decreed and bring to pass His immutable plans and purposes!
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Contemporary thought dictates to today’s church the unscriptural supposition that successful evangelism is totally dependent upon a persuasive presentation of the Gospel. There is, according to today’s church growth gurus, little difference, if any, in persuading someone to come into the Kingdom of God than there is in persuading them to buy a ShamWow or SlapChop. For instance, H. B. London, the cousin of James Dobson and founder of the Pastoral Ministries department of Focus on the Family, has said, “Nearly every pastor is a salesman or a marketer of one kind or another…The best marketers and best salesmen will have more converts, will have more people, will take in more money.”
George Barna fans will undoubtedly protest my previous column by pointing out that Barna has moved on from the seeker sensitive model of church growth he helped to market. Indeed, he has! He is now championing what he has dubbed the “Revolution” or “Reawakening.” Unlike the Great Awakening, a movement that brought people into the local church, Barna’s “Reawakening” is a mass exodus out of the local church. Whereas previous generations of believers would have viewed such a thing as spiritually cataclysmic, Barna applauds it as the beginning of a “spiritual revolution that is reshaping Christianity, personal faith, corporate religious practice, and the moral contours of the nation.”