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

 

23 January, 2008 - by Chad   comments: (0) Changed Message   Innovating Doctrine: The Pop-Incarnate Christ There's a video clip that Jim has put online which speaks of the church today having "boundless credulity", in other words - they'll believe virtually anything, anything but the truth. Right before our eyes we see the fulfillment of 2 Tim 4:3 for they will not endure sound doctrine. This is borne out in the fact that a broad cross section of many of today's innovative church leaders are lining up to get their hands on a soon to be released book that is already known to have false teaching in it. The author himself has been using his blog to post the names and remarks of the pastors who have been given an advance copy of the book, and are quick to report-in with glowing reviews. Boundless credulity, yes, that seems to describe shepherds who have been biblically tasked to maintain sound doctrine, and yet exhibit little concern with an author who has been influenced by dubious Roman Catholic missiology. Namely, a concept called inculturation which the last pope described as the incarnation of the Gospel in native cultures. As if that definition was not it's own can of worms, the author in this case seems to be taking that teaching to another level, that of Christ Himself being incarnate in the popular culture of our day. We are told that we simply need to look for Him there - and we will be changed from the inside out. Tim Stevens has been promoting the concept of finding God in pop culture for some time now. The error of this teaching is fairly easy to see. As Christians we understand that we are saved to a life of holiness and obedience to God's law and that we are to be separate from the world. Anyone who has experienced the saving power of the Gospel knows that he did not hear the Gospel from the world or the culture but heard it from the Word of God. Spotting the lie is easy. But understanding the implications of the lie is a bit trickier. Even if one reads through Tim Stevens' blog regularly, it might not be easy to get a good grasp on exactly what it is he is trying to teach. Most have basically thought that we are being told to use elements of pop culture in order to find a common frame of reference so that we can share more easily the Gospel. For example, we might see something in a television show and relate that to what the bible says about salvation and that way put the Gospel in a form to which people can relate. But Tim Stevens seems to be saying something more than that. In order to see what's really being said we have to look further back and see how he has developed this idea. Tim Stevens hasn't discovered some new thing but has simply adopted a concept, at least in part, from Roman Catholic missiology and then made a new and perhaps more devious application for it. I know that devious might seem a bit strong but let's examine the facts and see where this leads. Update 1/22/08: Tim Stevens responded with a link to this page saying: "[Old Truth] think my book is based on Roman Catholic missiology" but you'll notice that we in no-way imply that his whole book is based on it. In fact, our exact words (above) are that Tim has: "adopted a concept, at least in part, from Roman Catholic missiology". We have in fact, been expressing other concerns about Tim's book all along, and this is the first of our posts reviewing the author's Roman Catholic influences. We are told that this page only focuses on a 40-word Catholic quote, but how many words are needed to articulate a biblical error? (see Pastor Jody's rat poison analogy in the comments below) You will have to judge for yourself whether the book is promoting a false teaching of Christ being incarnate in pop-culture. Also contrary to Tim Stevens' response, this post was never intended to be a "book review", but rather, a review of Tim's legwork for the book, which he has been releasing for weeks. Tim Stevens admits to being influenced by a Loyola Press book, authored by a Jesuit priest named Richard Leonard. Stevens actually provides the quote on his blog by Leonard that helped him to solidify this concept. You may have seen this quote on Old Truth before but let's look at it again in an attempt to really understand what it says. There's more here than what appears on the surface. Leonard says: "We cannot speak to a culture we do not know or one we despise --- we have to learn its language and discover how Christ has already gone ahead of us, inculturated in some of media's values, stories and style." Tim Stevens follows this by saying; "He is suggesting that if we are paying attention, we can see where Christ is already at work in the culture. Looking at new shows introduced this fall is evidence to me that Mr. Leonard is right." (emphasis Stevens). [continue reading on his post entitled Finding God on TV]. To properly understand what Tim Stevens is agreeing is right about Leonard's views, we must take a look at the definition of the word, "inculturated" which to most of you is a new word and carries a much weightier definition than you may realize. In fact you may think it means something that it doesn't and if you don't understand what inculturated means you'll miss the whole point. "Inculturation" is an obscure term unknown to many Protestants but widely used in Roman Catholic missiology (remember Leonard is a Jesuit priest) and is defined by Pope John Paul II as the incarnation of the Gospel in native cultures and also the introduction of these cultures into the life of the Church. That word "incarnation" is also extremely important. Incarnation means a person who embodies in the flesh a deity, spirit or abstract quality. Christians think of incarnation as Christ being God manifest in the flesh as a real man. Think of what this means for the Gospel to be incarnate in a "native culture". Richard Leonard has gone a step further and actually said that Christ himself is inculturated. Tim Stevens can only seem to agree, saying that the Jesuit is right. It's bad enough that inculturation means that the Gospel is incarnate in a particular culture but to say that Christ himself is "inculturated" is to go a step further and say that Christ is incarnate in the culture, or at least portions of it, and in Tim Stevens' way of thinking; pop culture. As far as introducing the culture into the life of the church, well the Church Growth Movement has been doing that for years already. And Roman Catholics will take a patron goddess of a culture and make her "Our Lady of Guadalupe". Granger Community Church had its Beatles themed Christmas this year. The CGM has been very fond of basing sermon series on television shows and pop music for years, hence introducing the culture into the life of the church. So since the CGM has for years been very active in introducing pop culture into the life of the church, you can see it being a natural progression into this concept that Christ is actually incarnate in the culture. It's why we see some of these leaders anxiously awaiting Tim Stevens' soon to be released book, "Pop Goes the Church." Even though the book has not been published yet we are given glimpses of it on Tim Stevens' blog and we see how he is promoting this concept of inculturation. Here is Tim Stevens' paraphrase of the first two verses of Romans 12. One can only assume that he considers this to be an accurate depiction of how he understands this portion of scripture. Stevens even announced that he "re-wrote part of the bible", admittedly in an approximate way. This paraphrase is to be included in a chapter of his book which is about, as Stevens puts it, "leveraging the pop culture." "Take your everyday, ordinary life--going to the movies, watching TV, listening to your XM radio, flipping through the pages of People Magazine--and place it before God as an offering. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, always be looking for God in the culture. You'll be changed from the inside out. While sitting on the couch surfing channels or listening to the Top 20 on the radio, always be looking for what God wants you to do, who He wants you to be, and quickly respond to it. Don't let the culture drag you down to its level, but maintain an awareness of God in the culture and keep watching for the next step you can take toward Christ." - Romans 12:1-2 [continue reading on his post "I re-wrote part of the bible"] Now, we are plainly told that by looking for God in the culture we shall be "changed from the inside out". I have no doubt of this but the change will be only further blindness towards the glory of the true God. For friendship with the world is enmity with God and whoever makes himself a friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God. (James 4:4). Stevens shows us that he truly seems to be propagating the notion that Christ is incarnate in the culture. He's not simply saying to look for aspects of the Gospel in the culture so that we can have common frame of reference with those we witness to. He is telling us to "maintain an awareness of God in the culture" and to keep "watching for that next step we can take towards Christ." He is saying that God himself is in the culture and that we must look for him there and look for ways to draw closer to him through the culture. In the light of scripture Tim Stevens' is promulgating a blatant lie, the serious ramifications of what this concept has on the doctrine of Christ's incarnation aside. The bible tells us "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world." (1 John 2:15-16) The bible also tells us that Satan is the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4). Tim Stevens would have us believe that Christ is in the culture and we just need to find him there. The scriptures tell us to seek Christ in the word of God and therein is the place where He may be found. Tim Stevens would do well to read the 119th psalm. There he would discover that the word of God is where Christians may find their hope for it is the scriptures that teach us of Christ, not the culture, nor is Christ in any way shape or form incarnate in the culture. Besides this, God has promised to dwell with those who separate themselves from the world, not those who seek Him within it. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 tells us; Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.859   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism