When Civilization Crumbles…where are the Men of God?

I don’t really know “what possessed me,” as they say, (my thesis is that it was the Holy Spirit) but a conversation yesterday with a brother in Christ began and continued most strangely and most gloriously.  It took place at that wonderfully Post-Modern invention known as “Starbucks.”  I’ve taken a long break from caffeine, so I had a passion tea lemonade which I was told had very little caffeine so as not to notice anything.  Well, I slept well that night, so I guess the server knew her Starbucks arsenal well. Bravo! Starbucks has been an amazing place for “intelligent Christian conversation,” as Dr. Mohler would put it.  I find a new desire to use Starbucks for the glory of God a lot more for as long as he wishes to uphold it.

As long as you are smiling now, let me begin to turn that smile into a different facial feature.  I hope that this article breaks your heart.  I hope it also brings you joy in God’s own Son and in the redemption he brings.  He will stand up from that right hand, and he will restore his people to himself.  That is indubious.

Anyway…

It found our conversation’s obtuse beginnings in the subject of the presidential election and the immigration policies of Obama versus those of McCain.  Well, we didn’t discuss the acutal policies very much.  In fact, our conversation didn’t even really continue on ‘politics’ as such.  The conversation did continue and eventually found its mark on the issue of biblical gender roles.

We discussed the recent California supreme court decision to allow same-sex marriage in that state and its remarkable purpose to redefine marriage and thus mark its contribution toward American civilization’s end.  We discussed abortion and its horrifying reality as well as God’s own right to take and give life as he deems fit.  We dicussed feminism and its God-defying and unbiblical agenda.  Lastly, we discussed the cowardess of men and the need for men to start acting like men.

And thus, my point…

In that amazingly God-blessed conversation, a certain statement came out of my mouth, and I was scared to have said it.  Why was I scared? Because I know it is true.  I will share that statement with you at the end of this essay, but first let me show what I mean.

As C.S. Lewis once put it, and I paraphrase:  At one time, we approached God with such fear and trembling as though we were in the dock of judgment before a holy God.  Today, we have placed God in the dock and he is to be judged by the supremacy of the human reason.

Today, I think, our civilization places God in the dock, and he is to be judged by the supremacy of human rights.  Although, and I qualify, both of these ideas have always been true.

Throughout the Bible, men demanded that God stay subject to their reason.  And they also demanded that God grant them rights.

There is nothing new under the sun. “There are no new heresies.  Only constant repackagings,” as John Piper once put it.

In light of this culture, that is, this present evil age, Satan’s trumpetering fluidity of mistruths and halftruths have found their way quickly onto the shelves of our Christian book stores, into the classrooms of our Christian seminaries, and into the pulpits of our Christian churches.

“How then shall we live?” as Schaeffer once questioned.

I propose this:  “Meaning precedes existence.”

Someone has already decided for you, o man, what is truth.  It defines who you are, what you are, what is required of you, and why you even exist.

His name is God and his will and word is that truth.

Dr. David Wells of Gordon-Tidwell Theological Seminary was asked a serious question by Dr. Mohler on the June 5, 2008 episode of the Albert Mohler Program. You can follow the link here if you wish to download the entire conversation.  (I would always highly suggest to my readers that they listen to the Albert Mohler Program and its resources.)  http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2008-06-05

Here was his question for Dr. Wells:

“[Concerning] how evangelical Christians should pray and hope to see evangelical Christianity recover the truth, what would you have the local pastor to do?”

His answer was both encouraging and shockingly relevant to my current personal walk. 

“Well, I think these two steps that I mentioned: taking seriously the truth God’s given us in the Scriptures and taking more seriously the world around us, are really the key.  It’s like breathing out and breathing in.  The point about the truth that we have in Scripture is that it corresponds to what’s in reality.  This is not simply about learning a Bible verse, although that is a good thing to do, but that we’ve got to understand that this is real, that we’re talking about what’s in the character of God and what’s in the character of human beings and what life is about.  Christianity is not simply a technique or a therapy.  This is real stuff.  On the otherhand, we’ve got to understand the world around us, and if I could point to what I think is a prevailing weakness in our churches, it is right here.  It takes a lot of time and thought and work to know how exactly, if you are a pastor, to apply the truth of a biblical passage to our world.  You can get that truth, if you are a biblical preacher, fairly quickly by looking at commontries.  But applying it is another matter, and that is I think a besetting weakness in the evangelical world.  If I were to be asked, would I prefer to hear a topical sermon on ’how to get on with your mother-in-law’ or to hear a sermon on a biblical text which wasn’t applied, of course I’d prefer to hear the text preached, but I’d most of all like to know how that text applies.  And that is where I think our preachers are weakest, and many people who are reading their Bibles, day by day, don’t see the connections.  They therefore come to think of Christianity as a sort of private comfort to them, but they don’t understand that we are in a ‘worldview conflict,’ and the day they step out of their houses, onto the train, into their car, into the workplace, they are in conflict with other worldviews whether they know it or not…we are now reaping the harvest from not having been preaching expository sermons.  So people come into the pews uninstructed but at the same time yearning for some sort of internal comfort because this is a brutal world.  And that combination of…infantile understanding of biblical truth [and] the serious pressures of living and competing in this modern world, that combination has proved lethal to biblical Christianity.”

I encourage you to do something I am unable to do right now.  Pick up Dr. David Wells newest book, “The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and the Emergent.”

Friends, I am at a point in my spiritual walk where I am coming face to face with the doctrine which I espouse, and I am being asked to evaluate and prove it.  Just as Dr. Wells put it, when I walk out that door, I am at war with other worldviews.  It is most definitely sad when I have defend it against other “Christians.”  Now here is the statement I shared with my friend, and I was personally shocked to here myself say it:

“I say all of this because I fear that sooner or later your religious liberty is going to be stripped away in the the name of liberty.  You are going to have to take your wife and your son and your daughter and place them here in this part of your home and then go to the front door and stand blocking the way saying ’No untruth will come into this house.’  I know that it is coming.  The day is coming and it is only going to get worse.  So what are you going to do about it now while there is still time?”

I felt my face turn pale when I said it.  Yup, it is only going to get worse isn’t it?

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.” 2 Timothy 3:1-9

I am awestruck at how 2 Timothy has been such a mighty tool in helping me understand what it means to grow up.  Nevertheless, as discouraging as Paul’s true statements are in these first nine verses, his next verses are a call to stand on one thing.  Note his comparison between those described in the first verses of this chapter and Timothy himself in these:

“You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.  Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” 2 Timothy 3:10-12

Note the “however” that automatically opposes Timothy to those other men. By contrast, Timothy has followed the teaching of his wiser mentor who heeded the teaching of God, the conduct of Paul’s committment to Christ, the aim of Paul’s life to preach the gospel, the faith of Paul in Christ, the patience of Paul with his opponents, the love of Paul for the lost, the steadfastness of Paul to Christ’s steadfastness for him, and the persuction and suffering that attends all who desire to be obedient to Christ.  Yet just the same, Christ delivered him ”from them all.”  That’s what he means in verse 12.  If you want to be godly, you will be hated for it.

You know why so many who read that last sentence will simply agree and go on nonchalantly?  Because they read it, but they have never experienced it.  Are you being godly?  This passage says a good sign is that people will persecute you for it.

Yet just the same, Paul goes on and contrasts men of God with men of the world in verse 13.

“…while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

He continues in verse 14-17 by showing what is the definitive and most remarkable difference between men of God and men of the world.  This is the passage that we use and quote so often, but the context escapes us to the point of misunderstanding its power and urgent call.  What makes Timothy different from those in verses 1-9 and verse 13?

It is an unyielding and immovable devotion to standing firmly on God’s own infallible, inerrant, and totally trustworthy and authoritative word.  Just look at it again:

“But as for you continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Childhood had its devotion to Scripture, now how much more should manhood?  I plead with my brethren, don’t play games with God’s own word.  It will bring judgement on you both in this life and that to come.  If you aim to lead God’s people in the pastorate or as a teacher or preacher, your unyielding devotion to God’s word is all the more paramount.  “for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness…”

I fear for the men who aim to lead God’s people yet have no respect for God’s Word…and yes, you have no respect for it when you say it has error.

I fear for your soul, and I fear for the souls of those you lead.  Turn…and believe.

As for the rest of us, stand and fight, you men of God.

“He did not consider that republic flourishing whose walls stand, but whose morals are in ruins. But the seductions of evil-minded devils had more influence with you than the precautions of prudent men.”

-St. Augustine, City of God

Be prudent men and be bold men, for “If God is for us.  Who can be against us?”  Romans 8:31

Working with you to fight as men on the side of the Most High God,

Vince R.