Posted on 09/22/2001 10:00:05 AM PDT by BibChr
Christians are unpopular folks today. I mean by that, anyone who takes seriously biblical truth and biblical principles will find himself on the sharp end of angry stares if we dare speak the truth in the midst of today’s national crisis. To what do I refer? America has all of a sudden gotten very religious. There are vigils and candlelight prayer services on every corner. People who hadn’t said “God” except in profanity for years are all of a sudden very pious and reflective. Radio personalities who were focused upon tax cuts or some other political issue on Monday, September 10th are now mulling over the role of “evil” in our world. The past week has turned the landscape upside down in many ways, to be sure. Lest anyone think this new religiosity is a reason for rejoicing for Christians, it most surely is not. Oh yes, we are hearing old Christian hymns being sung. Ostensibly Christian churches were full this past Lord’s day. But there is no such thing as “partial Christianity,” nor is there any such thing as a Christianity that stands side by side with Islam, or Judaism, or Buddhism, and says, “We worship one God under many names.” And surely, there is no Christianity that does not speak of repentance from sin. The new religiosity of America has two basic foundational pillars: there is one God, unknown, but addressable under any variety of religious epithets, who has revealed absolutely nothing of objective value regarding His will regarding worship or human behavior; and second, this God has no wrath; knows nothing of sin or judgment; and hence, any person who dares to say that God would punish a person, or a nation, is a glowing heretic to the new American religiosity. The problem is easily seen: Christians believe, fundamentally, of necessity, that there is one true God. This true God is not Allah. This true God is not Krishna. This true God is not the god of Joseph Smith or Buddha or the Sikhs or the Bahais. Our God went to great lengths to differentiate Himself from all the gods of the peoples and religions that surrounded His ancient people, and that for a purpose He Himself proclaimed: He seeks true worship, worship based upon a knowledge of who He is in reality, based upon His revelation to man. He does not grant to man the freedom to make images of Him, to worship Him in a manner that pleases the creature rather than the Creator. God is particular about His worship. His worship is intimately, vitally connected to truth. Without truth, there is no worship of the Christian God. And the truth revealed by the Christian God in the Scriptures is without question when it comes to the matter of His law, sin, rebellion, punishment, wrath, and judgment. One of the most amazing things to observe is the willingness shown by “evangelicals” to jump right onto the “we shall never utter a word about wrath or sin or punishment” bandwagon. Is the remnant so small that almost no voices will be raised to cry out against this foolishness? To withhold the truth about sin and judgment out of fear of man’s opinions and feelings is to make the cross of Jesus Christ a travesty! There is no cross, there is no sacrifice, where there is no sin, no offense that demands forgiveness be wrought through His perfect sacrifice! The person who refrains from speaking of sin and judgment to “win” a person over is doing so through unfaithfulness to the very gospel itself! And to what has such a person been won over? Where is the gospel when there is no sin to be forgiven at Calvary? But it is right here that the new American religiosity clamps its hands over its ears and refuses to hear. America wants God’s blessing. America wants God to protect us from more horrific visions of airliners flying purposefully, relentlessly into our national monuments. We want God to be near us as we board our aircraft. We want Him to protect us from the horror of thinking about what it was like when the towers collapsed. We want Him to guide our military and allow us to flex our muscle and launch our missiles with impunity. We want a blessing God, a caring God, who simply panders to our wants and whims. This is the “God” of the new American religiosity. But what America does not want is a God who is holy, who is just, and who has revealed His will concerning how we, His creatures, are to live. America is a land soaked in blood. We glory in violence. We are so selfish, so bound in our avarice, fornication, and sexual lust, that we murder our own offspring in the womb (or at birth as in partial-birth infanticide). Our hands are covered in blood, and yet we think lighting a candle and lifting them up while mumbling “God Bless America” is going to bring God’s favor? Listen to the words of God to another nation that likewise was “religious” but refused to hear the word of repentance: “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.” (Isaiah 1:15). Is America so arrogant, so utterly self-absorbed, so diseased by religious liberalism and philosophical subjectivism, that she thinks she can ignore all of history itself and demand from God blessings when she refuses to repent of her evils? Do we really need to be reminded that Planned Parenthood has killed more little children in our land in the week since the attacks than died in the attacks themselves? Are we so blind? Surely the scourge of abortion would be enough to warrant the unleashing of the wrath of God, but there is so much more! We are a nation on a crusade—a crusade to wipe from our history books every vestige of our former religious past. The religion of scientism, with its chief idol in the person of Darwin, has become enshrined in our very governmental policies. There is no creator, we are told, to express His law for us in the first place. We want to banish God and His law from our courtrooms, our schools, our every public institution. If God says it is wrong, we celebrate it. Every form of sexual debauchery is found in the land. The airwaves are filled with programs that exalt fornication and adultery. Major film stars are lauded for the most sinful lifestyles. Homosexuality is not only turned into an acceptable “lifestyle,” it is made a political right, a political force, a test-case for being properly “tolerant.” The list goes on and on and on. The widow and orphan is oppressed, while the nation indulges in every creature comfort, sits back in its luxury, looks about upon the bounty of the land, and says, “Ah, what the labor of my own hands, my own intelligence, my own insight, has accomplished.” Religious liberals may mock our “literalistic” reading of the Bible at this point, preferring to simply label us “fundamentalists” and ignorant, but the fact of the matter is, they know they could never win a scholarly debate on whether the Bible actually teaches that these things are sins which must, inevitably, bring God’s judgment upon a people. They know that is exactly what the Bible teaches. They are just embarrassed by it, and hence seek to suppress that truth. As I said, Christians who believe the Bible are an unpopular lot today. If they speak in accordance with the Word they may well find themselves being called "unpatriotic" and "judgmental.". In fact, given that the new orthodoxy demands of us the confession “Everyone is God’s child” over against such clear biblical teaching as John 1:12 (remember how Christians refused to say “Caesar is lord” and died as a result?), we must be ready to “count the cost” in engaging in formal, cultural “heresy” by speaking the truth. We need to realize: this new American religiosity can take on the same kind of fanatic zeal that kept the hi-jackers’ hands steady all the way to their end. May God grant His people the strength to proclaim loudly God’s demands upon a wicked nation, and may He be pleased to bring repentance and revival in a land where darkness reigns.
Dan
Dan,
There is nothing new about that.
Hey, hey, HEY! What are you doing -- trying to inject LOGIC into a recitation of modern kneejerkisms about religiou?
What were you THINKING, man?
Dan
Dan
Fot too long the church has been treating God as though He is our "Good ole boy."
The early Christians, as have all Christians, affirmed the elements of the doctrine of the Trinity.
But as a Christian, I frankly don't care overmuch what they thought. I care what the Bible teaches. And it is a LONG-settled issue that the Bible, as a whole, affirms what we mean by saying that God is eternally one in essence, three in persons. To break it down:
But I think you've already been told that. Now, you've been told again.
Dan
If you think of it, please ping me when you post your essay.
Thanks,
-ksen
Is it logic to assume that your view is correct and all others are wrong?
"Non-Trinitarian Christian" is an oxymoron. There ain't no such animal.
But, yes, there are plenty of "professing Christians" who are non-Trinitarian. Ironically, you can find lots of them on the "Trinity Broadcasting Network" (TBN).
In fact, you will probably find them on the "Christian Broadcasting Network" (CBN), also.
The Scriptural "Christian" religion is comprised of certain CORE (cardinal/essential) doctrines. The FIRST of those doctrines is the Scriptural description of the Godhead, which is "One What and Three Whos"; "ONE GOD in THREE PERSONS". Any other definition of the Godhead is NOT a doctrine of the historical, Scriptural Christian religion.
. . . On our 911 day, creation groaned as thousands died because of sin: not their personal sin, we must hasten to say. Jesus once was asked about a news story concerning a collapsing tower: "Those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?" He answered, "I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."
Unless we repent, we will perish at the hands of an all-powerful God who is also all-good, which means He is holy and hates sin. We need to pray for God's mercy but also that we will think more of God's holiness.
If we did we would, through God's grace, turn away from our obsession with what Francis Schaeffer called "personal peace and affluence." We would do what is right, even when it hurts. We would protect human life, no matter how small.
Instead of comforting ourselves with thoughts of a Social Security lockbox, we would realize that the only true security lies in God's mercy. Instead of pampering ourselves, we would show love for poorer and weaker neighbors.
We should also pay attention to one key difference between the collapse of the Tower of Siloam 2,000 years ago and the collapse of the Twin Towers. The 911 attack was an act of international war-and in chapter nine of Genesis God states, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."
We are not dealing with cowards. It takes a kind of bravery to take over airplanes and commit suicide with them. It will take bravery on our part to keep the 911 murderers from murdering again.
They want to murder Americans and Israelis. They want to murder fellow Muslims who do not agree with their twisting of the Koran. They murdered Barbara Olson and thousands more. They hope to murder millions. We must stop them.
Let me know when your essay hits FR, Dan.
(Warnings to Israel, like those presented by Amos, are ultimately warnings to the professing Church, not merely warnings to the United States! And the very religiosity which White mentions is part of the PROBLEM.)
Anyway, a big BUMP for James White's article.
As I pondered this, I was reminded of the verse that says, "They draw nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." It took a couple of days before that verse cut me to the quick as I applied to myself as well. Simply put, I believe Jesus is calling His church to deeper repentance than they have ever experienced. I don't mean self-flaggelation or any outward show; nor do I mean that we should not continue to contend for the faith at the appropriate times, but now is the season of repentance! I am struck by this one thought, how will sinners know how to repent unless we model it?
I've known Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour for 45 years, and I have served Him most of that time. I've surrendered my life to Him a long time ago and allowed Him to change me from the inside out, but one thing I know I still have is an overwhelming pride. It's gotta go! I don't know any other believer's sins, but I know He is now calling each of us to repentance. For the sake of this heaven blessed nation, I pray that we will all listen and heed.
Howdy Dave S.
John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
As you can see,it is the bible that states "no man...but by Me" it is not something we assume.
May God bless you Dave S
May God bless America
If you remember,I certainly would appreciate a flag to your article.
Grace and peace to you
God bless
BUMP
You are welcome gumbo, and the only thing I would add is this. A Christian can only be a Trinitarian, because of this basic fact, a Christian believes that Jesus is the Son and co-equal of His Father. A person who is monotheistic denies Christ's divinity and therefore cannot be a Christian.
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