Sunday Sermons
The World in Which We Live
The Bible tells us “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2), and “Do not love the world” (1 John 2:15), yet one of the challenges for the Christian is to distinguish between what is innocent and what is not so innocent (Hebrews 5:14). In this lesson I want to focus our attention on some very dangerous attitudes and trends that surround us.
Unsystematic Thinking
“Leith Anderson has observed that the new generation tends to think unsystematically. As a result, people often hold ideas that logically contradict each other. Anderson gives the example of a young man who says that he believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, and reincarnation. He doesn’t grasp that Christianity is incompatible with reincarnation. Even when this is pointed out to him, he shows no interest in revising his beliefs. Because he does not think in systematic terms, he does not see how different systems clash. He ‘likes’ the Bible, and he also ‘likes’ the thought of coming back in a different life. Holding mutually contradictory ideas has become characteristic of the contemporary mind-set. Some politicians claim to be politically conservative, but liberal on social issues. Health, fitness, and organic food fanatics sometimes ravage their bodies by taking drugs. Many who personally consider abortion wrong are also pro-choice” (Postmodern Times, Gene Edward Veith, Jr., pp. 175-176). Many people in our culture are not even bothered by being inconsistent, but rather shrug off such contradictions. Christians on the other hand think logically and consistently in harmony with one unified body of truth, called “the faith” or the “doctrine of Christ” (Jude 3; 2 John 9). Everything is tested by this foundation (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22; Acts 17:11), and that which does not fit is rejected as being error or unsound (1 Timothy 6:3). We need to be prepared to deal with people who embrace completely contradictory ideas.
When Conviction is what I “like”
In the Scriptures one hears God’s truth and is convicted, even if such runs against preconceived ideas or personal preferences. Faith is not based upon “I like” or what “I prefer” but rather, “what God says” New Testament Christians came out from all different backgrounds and religions because they were convicted by God’s truth and could not deny it, and they were persuaded by the overwhelming evidence (Romans 10:17; 2 Corinthians 5:11; John 16:8; Acts 2:37). Yet more and more people are viewing faith as believing in something “they like” or what “sounds good to them” (2 Timothy 4:3). “Since their beliefs will tend to have no foundation other than their preferences and personality, they will interpret any criticism of their beliefs as a personal attack. Since ‘everyone has the right to their own opinion’, they do not mind if you do not agree with them, but they will become defensive and sometimes angry if you try to change their opinions” (Veith p. 176). Thus Christians will be surprised when people fly off the handle when their point of view is challenged. “Today religion is not seen as a set of beliefs about what is real and what is not. Rather, religion is seen as a preference, a choice. We believe in what we like. Listen to the way people today discuss religion. “I really like that church’, they will say. Agreeing with that church or believing in its teaching scarcely enters into it. People discuss tenets of faith in the same terms. ‘I really like the Bible passage that says, ‘God is love’. Fair enough and amen. There is much to like in Christianity—God’s love for us, His grace and help. But when we start hearing about what the person does not like. ‘I don’t like the idea of hell’. This is certainly an appropriate response—who could possibly ‘like’ hell? But our natural distaste for this is surely beside the point. The issue is not whether we like it, but whether there is such a place. Reality seldom takes into account our personal preferences” (Veith pp. 193-194). You see people have never liked what the Bible says about hell, and even the Christian does not have to enjoy the fact that eternal destruction is reserved for the wicked. I do not like the idea that I will die, but this does not mean that I will live forever. God does not take anypleasure in seeing people end up lost, but this does not change reality (Ezekiel 18:32; 2 Peter 3:9). People have never liked the idea of hell, but the difference in our generation is that many people are unwilling to believe what they do not enjoy, “as if aesthetic considerations determined questions of fact” (Veith p. 194). This is especially dangerous because Satan lures us by what we selfishly might want to hear or want to believe about ourselves, reality, and others (2 Timothy 4:3; James 1:14). “We dare not make the satisfaction of our desires our prime spiritual authority” (Veith p. 195).
Marketing instead of Evangelism
Today in many churches mass-marketing is replacing persuading an individual by reasoning with them from the Scriptures(Acts 17:2-3). When the world enters the church today a consumer mentality, catering to what people like and want is encouraged. “When truth is no longer a factor, one chooses a religion like any other commodity—do I like it? Does it give me what I want?” (Veith p. 212). Added to this, many people today are impatient with timeless and eternal truths, rather they focus on the here and now. “People have little interest in Heaven; they want health and wealth now” (p. 213). Thus a good number of religious people today are attracted to churches that promise miracles to solve every problem, political clout, fantastic numerical growth, and success after success. Of course marketing Christianity in the first century when Christians were being persecuted would have been quite a challenge (2 Timothy 3:12). It is significant to note how Jesus presented the Christian life compared to how it is marketed today (Matthew 5:3-12; Luke 14:26ff).
Lifestyle Engineering
Various authors have noted that in our American culture we have a new class people who are affluent, liberal both socially and politically, and who tend to value change for the sake of change, social engineering, and moral permissiveness. “Hansfried Kellner describes the concern of the New Class with ‘lifestyle engineering’” (Veith p. 180). On a practical level this means that many people today are far more concerned with “image” than substance. Being good and noble has been replaced by looking good and appearing to present to the world a faddist lifestyle choice. When this type of thinking invades a church, decisions are made on the basis of what is hip rather than on the basis of what is Scriptural. There is far more emphasis on remaining on the cutting-edge rather than being within the doctrine of Christ.
Morality or Desire
As with truth, morality is now a matter of desire. “What I want and what I choose is not only true (for me) but right (for me). Conversely, ‘no one has the right’ to criticize my desires and my choices” (Veith p. 195). A number of people today do reject Biblical morality and yet they can still be very moralistic. They will zealous defend their “rights” to do what they want. “Furthermore, they seem to feel that they have a right not to be criticized for what they are doing. They want not only license but approval” (p. 195). This is not new thinking, we find the same puritanical zeal in defending immorality among the men of Sodom (Genesis 19:9). We have a new ethic in this country, which is the ethic of desire. “For individuals, the ethics of desire means selfishness, promiscuity, and moral abandon. ‘I must have the power to do what I want, and you do not have the power to stop me’. Without a moral framework, society disintegrates into warring factions and isolated depraved individuals. The result is a replay of the violence, perversion, and anarchy described in the book of Judges, ‘everyone did what was right in his own eyes’ (Judges 21:25) (p. 198).
The New Sins
While the Bible condemns such things as lust, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and drunkenness (1 Corinthians 6:9-10),the “sins” in our modern culture are being judgmental, being narrow-minded, thinking that one has the truth, trying to impose one’s values on someone else, and even questioning the doctrine that no absolute truth exists. Yet, what the modern world often condemns, God actually commands us to judge (John 7:24), be narrow minded when the truth is one the line (Matthew 7:13-14), not merely thinking that one has the truth, but believing you have the truth (John 8:32), imposing God’s values (Mark 16:15), and arguing that absolutes do exist (Revelation 21:8).
The Loss of Individual Responsibility
While our culture seems to worship the individual and his or her choices, what at times is really going on is the absorption of the individual. For example, under the next heading, individuals have really lost many of their choices and rights under the “worship of unity”. No longer is the individual responsible, rather if someone becomes a murderer than it is the fault of society, or it might even be the fault of a generation that has not existed for over 100 years. Even though I may never have owned slaves, massacred Indians (or Europeans), or abused women, we are now told that we should feel guilty for what our ancestors did. But notice that someone is blamed and someone is viewed as responsible. C.S. Lewis accurately observed that even people who deny the existence of right and wrong react in ways that belie that belief when someone takes their seat on the bus or treats them unfairly (Veith p. 197).
The Worship of Unity
The unity that the Bible describes is a unity based upon what Jesus and the apostles taught (John 17:20ff; Ephesians 4:4-6). It is a unity that happens when people honestly seek to follow God’s truth (Acts 2:42ff). We live in a world where unity is attempted by obliterating biblical beliefs, where doctrinal soundness is jettisoned in favor of vague sentiments and feelings. This is actually a false unity, because the more this mindset spreads the less individual freedom and liberty you have to think for yourself. Various individuals have noticed that we as a people seem to be losing many rights under the banner of tolerance. You might say that we are moving closer and closer to a “deified ecumenical empire”, where “tolerance” reigns as a god. Yet such unity is dangerous and God dealt with it decisively in the past (Genesis 11:6). The generation alive during the construction of the Tower of Babel refused to carry out God’s fundamental command to fill the earth (Genesis 11:4), in like manner our modern society has drawn a line in the sand and has refused to accept God’s moral standards. Notice that they were united and intent on one purpose, but as Kidner notes in his commentary on Genesis, “It makes it clear that unity and peace are not ultimate goods: better division than collective apostasy” (p. 110). Jesus noted that His teachings would often bring division, even in families (Matthew 10:34). Now He is not saying that His teachings are argumentative or divisive in a sinful sense, but rather that the world has always attempted to create a fantasy of peace, when there really is no true peace. God’s people have always been called upon to disrupt the false sense of security that the world tries to perpetuate.
