The church of western culture has by and large traded off the classic Gospel of fallen man, sinful in nature, redeemed by a sovereign God through the atoning sacrifice of His Son on the cross as imputed righteousness. It's not just the mainline churches that are guilty of this but reformed, fundamentalist, liberal, emergent, etc. have largely forsaken Christ's teaching "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34) for a gospel of Utopia.
From the Marxist, Anarchy, or Communist "Christian" to the moralist "Christian" to the "I'm Ok, You're Ok, So Let's Make the World a Love Fest Christian" the core of the message is all the same; that if we follow a particular program we should expect our best life now. Now that "best life" may be defined differently. For some it's monetary wealth, for others it's magically cohesive relationships, for others it's perfectly balanced emotional well-being. But make no mistake, it's just the same message in different packaging.
Regardless of church positions and doctrinal statements the pervasiveness of this self-help gospel is evident everywhere. It is independent Americanism with a Christian label. It is the belief that a person can pull oneself up by his bootstraps to create an enjoyable life in the here and now.
At the center of the problem is the downplay on the total depravity and spiritual deadness of man. (Romans 5:12, Ephesians 2:1-3, Colossians 2:13, Genesis 6:5, Ecclesiastes 9:3, Jeremiah 17:9, John 3:19, Romans 8:7-8, John 8:34, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:9-12, Jeremiah 13:23). In the contemporary gospel there is little room for talk about sin. Repentance is misunderstood as feelings of guilt if repentance is mentioned at all.
Without a true understanding of the condition of man the power of the cross and Jesus' life on earth are messages the church can shape any way they want. Eastern ideologies which only survive in theoretical vacuums because they're built on the idea that human nature is basically good and just needs the right conditions to thrive, like Marxism, classical anarchy, Communism, existentialism, etc. have become trendy in post-modern churches that like to play "dress-up Barbie" with the identity of Jesus, portraying Him as a pacifist or anti-capitalist whose hidden message was to overthrow established government to set up earthly Utopia. On the other hand, Jesus is portrayed in more traditional churches as a "nun-in-the-sky" waiting to slap your hand with the ruler of correction the moment you break a rule or do something socially taboo, trying to bring about Utopia through behavior modification. Then you have "vending-machine-Jesus" that dispenses whatever you want if you're polite and nice enough to everyone, trying to bring about a Kindergarten Utopia.
Secular sociologist, Marsha G. Witten, wrote a book in the late 1990's titled "All is Forgiven: The Secular Message in American Protestantism" that took a cross-section of 47 sermons from various churches with the message of the prodigal son. Her conclusion was that no matter what the denomination the ultimate message was a do-it-yourself guide to personal satisfaction, book-ended with prayer and a few mentions of God or Christ thrown in to mark itself as religious content. She also concluded that a person could just as easily find a multitude of alternative resources that offered and just as often produced similar results. The softened demeanor of God in today's churches she noted held sharp contrast to the "transcendent, majestic, awesome God of Luther and Calvin."
While the God of Paul, Luther, and Calvin called us to rejoice in our trials and sufferings and to persevere so that Christ's glory may be known we have opted for a god who tells us to flee from all that is uncomfortable and only count as blessing the same that any pagan would count as blessing. The behavior and attitude for today's professing Christian looks nearly identical to the non-believer in all situations. Nobody is asking us for the reason of our hope (1 Peter 3:15) because our hope is placed in this world.
1 Corinthians 15:19 "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."
"It is a mistake to suppose that evangelical sermons are a special brand of sermons, having their own peculiar style and conventions; evangelistic sermons are just scriptural sermons, the sort of sermons that a man cannot help preaching if he is preaching the Bible biblically. Proper sermons seek to expound and apply what is in the Bible. But what is in the Bible is just the whole counsel of God for man's salvation; all Scripture bears witness, in one way or another, to Christ, and all biblical themes relate to Him. All sermons, therefore, will of necessity declare Christ in some fashion and so be more or less directly evangelistic." ~J.I. Packer Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You make some good points here--I agree that the "dress up Barbie" approach is pretty much across the board denominationally now in churches in the USA.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who had some hippie experience in the 60's and 70's, I would say that communes in that period were a combination of retreating from the "system" ("evils" of the world) and establishing a utopia. Very few communes lasted long though.