Soli Deo Gloria

by Dr. Russell Moore reprinted here by permission

A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the evangelicals cheering that they’ve heard the gospel, right there in the nation’s capital.

The news media pronounces him the new leader of America’s Christian conservative movement, and a flock of America’s Christian conservatives have no problem with that.

If you’d told me that ten years ago, I would have assumed it was from the pages of an evangelical apocalyptic novel about the end-times. But it’s not. It’s from this week’s headlines. And it is a scandal.

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, of course, is that Mormon at the center of all this. Beck isn’t the problem. He’s an entrepreneur, he’s brilliant, and, hats off to him, he knows his market. Latter-day Saints have every right to speak, with full religious liberty, in the public square. I’m quite willing to work with Mormons on various issues, as citizens working for the common good. What concerns me here is not what this says about Beck or the “Tea Party” or any other entertainment or political figure. What concerns me is about what this says about the Christian churches in the United States.

It’s taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure years of vacuous talk about undefined “revival” and “turning America back to God” that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political movement.

Rather than cultivating a Christian vision of justice and the common good (which would have, by necessity, been nuanced enough to put us sometimes at odds with our political allies), we’ve relied on populist God-and-country sloganeering and outrage-generating talking heads. We’ve tolerated heresy and buffoonery in our leadership as long as with it there is sufficient political “conservatism” and a sufficient commercial venue to sell our books and products.

Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah.

Leaders will always be tempted to bypass the problem behind the problems: captivity to sin, bondage to the accusations of the demonic powers, the sentence of death. That’s why so many of our Christian superstars smile at crowds of thousands, reassuring them that they don’t like to talk about sin. That’s why other Christian celebrities are seen to be courageous for fighting their culture wars, while they carefully leave out the sins most likely to be endemic to the people paying the bills in their movements.

Where there is no gospel, something else will fill the void: therapy, consumerism, racial or class resentment, utopian politics, crazy conspiracy theories of the left, crazy conspiracy theories of the right; anything will do. The prophet Isaiah warned us of such conspiracies replacing the Word of God centuries ago (Is. 8:12–20). As long as the Serpent’s voice is heard, “You shall not surely die,” the powers are comfortable.

This is, of course, not new. Our Lord Jesus faced this test when Satan took him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth, and their glory. Satan did not mind surrendering his authority to Jesus. He didn’t mind a universe without pornography or Islam or abortion or nuclear weaponry. Satan did not mind Judeo-Christian values. He wasn’t worried about “revival” or “getting back to God.” What he opposes was the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected for the sins of the world.

We used to sing that old gospel song, “I will cling to an old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.”  The scandalous scene at the Lincoln Memorial indicates that many of us want to exchange it in too soon. To Jesus, Satan offered power and glory. To us, all he needs offer is celebrity and attention.

Mormonism and Mammonism are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They offer another Lord Jesus than the One offered in the Scriptures and Christian tradition, and another way to approach him. An embrace of these tragic new vehicles for the old Gnostic heresy is unloving to our Mormon friends and secularist neighbors, and to the rest of the watching world. Any “revival” that is possible without the Lord Jesus Christ is a “revival” of a different kind of spirit than the Spirit of Christ (1 Jn. 4:1-3).

The answer to this scandal isn’t a retreat, as some would have it, to an allegedly apolitical isolation. Such attempts lead us right back here, in spades, to a hyper-political wasteland. If the churches are not forming consciences, consciences will be formed by the status quo, including whatever demagogues can yell the loudest or cry the hardest. The answer isn’t a narrowing sectarianism, retreating further and further into our enclaves. The answer includes local churches that preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and disciple their congregations to know the difference between the kingdom of God and the latest political whim.

It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m not pessimistic. Jesus will build his church, and he will build it on the gospel. He doesn’t need American Christianity to do it. Vibrant, loving, orthodox Christianity will flourish, perhaps among the poor of Haiti or the persecuted of Sudan or the outlawed of China, but it will flourish.

And there will be a new generation, in America and elsewhere, who will be ready for a gospel that is more than just Fox News at prayer.

by Dr. Russell Moore reprinted here by permission

“We are not the ministers of Christ if we preach in such a way that unconverted men do not know they are unconverted. Unless preachers preach so as to make the consciences of their hearers feel in what spiritual condition they are truly in, then they may be ministers of Satan, but they are not ministers of Christ.” – William Fenner (1600-1640)

“Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”  2 Peter 2:2-3

One thing that should never surprise a believer is the fact that true Christians are truly a minority. Our Lord taught over and over that many would follow the broad way to destruction and few would follow the narrow path that leads to eternal life. (Matthew 7:13) So it should not surprise us that Peter tells us that many, not few, will follow after the false teachers. As Paul wrote Timothy, people will simply want to have their ears tickled and to hear not the gospel of Jesus Christ but things that their carnal minds and hearts want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3)

These false teachers will be popular among the crowds of the world and because their carnal minds are corrupt they will also fall for the sensuality of the false teachers. The Bible puts much emphasis on the fruit of false teachers. In the same way that Peter has taught in the first chapter that true salvation produces a life of godliness here we see the contrast of the false teachers exemplifying a life of sensuality and carnal appetite. This is what the world revels in so naturally the world will follow after teachers who cater to that worldly mindset and heart. Through their wickedness and carnality they will maligned. The Greek word used here is actually blasphemy. So in their wickedness and false teachings they will actually be slandering the truth! It is precisely why Paul urges Timothy to quiet such false teachers in the church so that they will not introduce their destructive heresies. (Titus 1:11) Pastors and leaders in the church are called to protect their flock from false teachers and their heresies, not to simply ignore them as most do today.

These false teachers are greedy and through their false teachings will seek to exploit their followers from all that they own. One need only turn on the television to most “Christian” television stations to see that the majority of those on the airwaves are non other than what Peter is describing here. Their god is money and they will stop at nothing to rob people of money.

I agree with Paul Washer that God has allowed and may even setup false teachers within the church as a form of judicial punishment on people whose god is their belly and money. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3) The statement Peter makes about the judgment of the false teachers being from long ago also supports this idea.

May we constantly be renewing our minds in the living Word of God so we can properly discern truth from error and be a people of God who not only shields our own hearts and mind from false teachings but actively encourages and exhorts others in the household of faith to stand firm in the Biblical tenants of the Christian faith.

Let us marvel at the absolute and wonderful sovereignty of God in all things – even false teachers. May He forever be praised for His unsearchable greatness and wisdom and all glory, laud and honor to Him for His mighty sovereign grace in the lives of His elect!

Soli Deo Gloria

“For the cross saves completely, or not at all. Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgement that the cross alone saves, and it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross nor to its healing virtue. It owns the fullness and the sufficiency and the suitableness of the work done there and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see the glorious spectacle of all things done and to accept this completion without misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the “It is finished” of the sin-bearer and says “Amen!” Where faith begins, there labour ends–labour, I mean, for life and for pardon. Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up of all the former weary efforts.”

- Horatius Bonar from The Everlasting Righteousness

Mike Ratliff over at Possessing the Treasure has written an excellent article that gets to the heart of the true Biblical gospel and why the many false gospels today (such as the Purpose Driven drivel) simply have people flocking to churches as unregenerate nominal Christians.

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8 ESV)

Relativism is the fatal disease of the unregenerate heart. Of course, it is a self-focused relativism. Everyone is unique, of course, but we have this built-in sense of ‘fairness’ that is antithetical to God’s Sovereignty. I have been a “mostly” silent observer in much of the Ergun Caner debacle. I listened to several of Dr. James White’s Radio shows in which he took on callers who wanted to discuss his stance on Dr. Caner’s obvious misrepresenting of himself as a Muslim Jihadist converted to Christianity when, in fact, he was just a normal teenager in Ohio during that time. Some of the callers though just astounded me with their attacks on Dr. White in his stance that Dr. Caner should come clean about all this. It sorta’ reminded me of an article I read several weeks ago attacking my friend Ken Silva. The article was a satirical portrayal of Ken killing a beast on the beach called an EvanJellyFish even though every now and then the beast said something that might be considered edifying. Ah, now we are back in that comfortable realm of relativism. It goes something like this, “Hey man, why are you attacking this brother in Christ? Look, he may practice Yoga and Contemplative Prayer and lead his congregation to pray to Mother God, but hey, look at all the edifying and nice thing he says in this book he just wrote!” That my brothers and sisters in Christ are the words of someone who thinks that the truth is truth because they think it is, but they do not know the words of God, the truth, because they do not hear them (John 8:46).

Continue reading …

“The New Testament quite clearly refuses to endorse a carnal Christian experience as a legitimate status quo. It envisions the Christian life as simultaneously one of dying and one of living – of dying more and more unto sin and of living more and more unto righteousness.”

- Dr. Robert Reymond (From his New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith)

With the multitudes of easy believism sermons that are rampant in the church today and the watered down gospel presentations that are deluding people with false hope, Pastor Conway delivers a wonderful, Biblical sermon that rightly proclaims the true gospel of Jesus Christ.