Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

8 September, 2006   comments: (0) Today's Worldliness   Iain Murray: Churches Converting To The World According to church historian and author Iain Murray, apostasy generally arises in the church because the danger of worldliness ceases to be observed. The consequence is that spiritual warfare gives way to spiritual pacifism, and, in the same spirit, the church devises ways to present the gospel which will neutralize any offense. Excerpts from Iain Murray's book "Evangelicalism Divided: The antithesis between regenerate and unregenerate is passed over and it is supposed that the interests and ambitions of the unconverted can somehow be harnessed to win their approval for Christ. Then when this approach achieves 'results' - as it will - no more justification is thought to be needed. The rule of Scripture has given place to pragmatism. The apostolic statement, 'For if I still pleased men, I would not be the servant of Christ' (Galatians 1:10), has lost its meaning. No Christian deliberately gives way to the spirit of the world but we all may do so unwittingly and unconsciously. That this has happened on a large scale in the later-twentieth century is to be seen in the way in which the interests and priorities of contemporary culture have come to be mirrored in the churches. The antipathy to authority and to discipline; the cry for entertainment by the visual image rather than by the words of Scripture; the appeal of the spectacular; the rise of feminism; the readiness to identify power with numbers; the unwillingness to make 'beliefs' a matter of controversy - all these features, so evident in the world's agenda, are now also to be found in the Christian scene. Instead of the churches revolutionizing the culture, the reverse has happened. Churches have been converted to the world. David Wells has written: 'The stream of historic orthodoxy that once watered the evangelical soul is now dammed by a worldliness that many fail to recognize as worldliness because of the cultural innocence with which it presents itself. ... It may be that Christian faith, which has made many easy alliances with modern culture in the past few decades, is also living in a fool's paradise, comforting itself about all the things God is doing ... while it is losing its character, if not its soul' (No place for truth, pp. 11, 68). This same worldliness has come to affect the way in which the gospel is often presented to the unconverted. Leonard Sweet has pointed out that Evangelicals and liberals are often similar in the inducements which they propose to their hearers why they should become Christians. Both offer such things as more success in life, a happier marriage, an integrated personality, more meaning to existence, and so on. In other words, the reasons for becoming a Christian are pragmatic and they are presented with stories of how it has worked for others. . . . Wrong belief is as dangerous as unbelief. To deny the deity and the work of Christ will shut men out of heaven as certainly as will the sin of murder (John 8:24; 1 John 2:22-23). To preach 'another gospel' is to be 'accursed' (Galatians 1:6-9).Those who support heresies 'will not inherit the kingdom of God' (Galatians 5:20-21). This means that a large part of the preservation and defense of the church lies in resolute resistance to falsehood and in forthright teaching of the truth. Such warnings as 'beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees' (Matthew 16:12), for they 'shut up the kingdom of God against men' (Matthew 23:13), run right through the New Testament. The apostles, filled with the Spirit of Christ, suffered no toleration of error. They opposed it wherever it arose and required the same spirit of all Christians. Eusebius, the early church historian, wrote of their outlook: 'Such caution did the apostles and their disciples use, so as not even to have any communion, even in word, with any of those that thus mutilated the truth, according to the declaration of Paul: "An heretical man after the first and second admonition avoid, knowing that such a one is perverse, and that he sins, bringing condemnation on himself".' Yet today this kind of witness against heresy and error, if not altogether silenced, has become muted to an extraordinary degree. 'Even the mildest assertion of Christian truth today sounds like a thunderclap because the well-polished civility of our religious talk has kept us from hearing much of this kind of thing' (Wells, No place for truth, p.10). The explanation often given by Evangelicals for the lack of confrontation with error is that a harsh militancy has done more harm than good. As Christians, it is said, we do not want to be party to the kind of strident controversy which has too often marred the faith. Dr Billy Graham has often blamed 'fundamentalists' for this fault. But the fact that what the New Testament says on love has been ignored, is no reason why its injunctions against error should not be obeyed. That some have followed these injunctions in a contentious spirit is no excuse for others not to follow them at all. A biblical contending against error is fully consistent with love; indeed it is love for the souls of men which requires it. The command to contend for the faith is not abrogated because some have failed to speak the truth in love. Iain Murray summarizes worldliness as follows: Worldliness is departing from God. It is a man-centered way of thinking; it proposes objectives which demand no radical breach with man's fallen nature; it judges the importance of things by the present and material results; it weighs success by numbers; it covets human esteem and wants no unpopularity; it knows no truth for which it is worth suffering; it declines to be a 'fool for Christ's sake'. Worldliness is the mind-set of the unregenerate. It adopts idols and is at war with God. Because 'the flesh' still dwells in the Christian he is far from immune from being influenced by this dynamic. It is of believers that it is said, 'the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary one to another' (Galatians 5:17). It is professing Christians who are asked, 'Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?' (James 4:4) and are commanded, 'Do not love the world', and 'keep yourselves from idols' (1 John 2:15, 5:21). More Resources on Worldliness: Read Phil Johnson's "What is Worldliness and When is it Sinful?" See Monergism's list of links to articles on worldliness. Buy Iain Murray's book Evangelicalism Divided. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.144   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism