Narcotics for Man's Soul

Tradition can be a dangerous thing when the roots of that tradition are stripped away. The dried-out husk that is secularized Christianity has been the dominant worldview in Western nations for decades. A lyric sung by Johnny Cash some years ago comes to mind: "I stopped outside a church house where the citizens like to sit/They say they want the kingdom but they don't want God in it." Where once the early Christians brought Scriptures to the world, now churches vainly bring the world to Scripture.

The world's paradigms are not God's, yet as Christians we persist in the whole square peg/round hole exercise with embarrassing futility. Popular culture (whether labeled "Christian" or not) must be vetted warily by the word of God. If it is not, we have the tendency, through upbringing or tradition, to find Christian meaning where there isn't any. Christianity is thus reduced to being just another course in the cafeteria of the world's philosophies and religions.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians Chapter 5:

¹⁶ So, I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
¹⁷ For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.

The idols of our modern age may no longer be made of gold or silver as they were for the Israelites of the Old Testament, but they are just as ubiquitous and certainly no less displeasing to God. Mankind trades in earthly securities like money, power, sensuality, possessions, entertainments, artistic indulgences, intellectual rationalizations, and perhaps most deluding of all, external moralism. While fallen man has no thirst for the truly spiritual, it is tragic indeed when nominal Christians attempt to sublimate their idol worship (whatever form it may take) with "Christianese" -- a layer of icing over a very stale cake. The secular humanists can, and do, see right through this charade. Tradition in name only is a very desolate place. Robbed of God's Word, tradition poisons rather than preserves the soul.

God made us for His purpose, not the other way around. It is delusional to be led by one's own sense of "niceness" and "morality," hoping for a pat on the back from some kind of cosmic entity. When we pray to our blessings rather than to the Lord, we are placing our trust and devotion in idols. Ignoring or twisting Scripture to suit the Self is usually not far behind. If a believer's walk with the Lord is weak, that individual will see only what their idols show them -- in effect, they see what they want to see. As a consequence, prayer and their references to prayer ring hollow. For it is as Jesus said: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8) The unsaved are not moved by talk or labels but by the grace of God working through those men and women obedient to His will.

Christians will find sustenance in God's Word, not tradition or experience. Ray Comfort writes that "for the Christian, every day should be Thanksgiving Day," knowing full well that not every day feels like a holiday. The meaning behind the Thanksgiving tradition is certainly worth remembering. The Thanksgiving holiday (word origin: "holy day") in the U.S. is a unique vestige of a once Christian nation. But as Christian beliefs have become more and more marginalized and diluted, Thanksgiving is now thought of as the day that officially precedes the beginning of the "holiday shopping season," the epitome of gross consumerism in a secular society. The holiday may still celebrate the blessings of hearth and home, family and friends, but deprived of its spiritual context, the idols of humanism are once again placed above the source of all that is holy and righteous.

Thanksgiving Day should be a time to cast down idols and worship our Lord. The 18th-century English poet William Cowper once wrote:

The dearest idol I have known,
Whatever that idol may be,
Help me to tear it from its throne,
And worship only thee.

Thanksgiving as a holiday should remind believers that thanksgiving as a form of worship (cf. Psalm 69:30) is really God's gift to us every day of the year. When we abide in His will, we find that the Lord is always watching over us and providing for us, far above and beyond what we deserve. For this, our thanks cannot truly be contained to one day.

Consider Jesus' words from Matthew Chapter 6:

²⁵ Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

The Gloves are Off

Once the smoke began to clear from the November 2nd election in the United States, it wasn't long before media observers noted the effect of "values" and "morality" on the choices that voters made at the polls, from the Presidential contest to state referendums on homosexual marriage. Among the first to make this observation was David Gergen -- once an adviser to former U.S. President Bill Clinton and now a political commentator -- who told CNN on the night of the election: "This was not about a difference of policies but a difference over values."

The mainstream press have been alternately stunned and galvanized by reports that so-called evangelical Christian voters swung the election in President George W. Bush's favor. Bush won the popular election by about four million votes, a number conspicuously similar to the number of these same "evangelical" Christians who didn't vote in 2000 -- an election which Bush lost by about 500 popular votes.

If the sudden surge of old-fashioned values in America appeared to initially alarm the media, the election results ultimately served to confirm their darkest suspicions. The mainstream press's favorite target of derision -- Bible-believing Christians -- turned out to be the culprit. From the New York Times to ABC News, post-election news coverage has focused on these particular Christians who, as described (as if some kind of obscure cult) by Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times (subscription req'd), "see the Bible as the authoritative word of God, emphasize 'born again' religious conversion and are committed to spreading their faith and values."

For better or worse, conservative American Christians are politicized as a voting bloc and will continue to be tied to the Bush administration. The war in Iraq and future wrangling over nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts will give critics in the media more opportunities to subtly and not-so-subtly point fingers at evangelicals. Further polarization over issues of homosexuality and decency in popular culture threatens to make fence-sitting a thing of the past. Jesus spoke of such divisions in Mark Chapter 13:

¹² Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.
¹³ All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

The hue and cry from secular voices grows ever more strident. Robert Reich, the secretary of labor under the Clinton administration, raised many eyebrows (including those in the secular media) months ago when he made a veiled comparison between Bible-believing Christians and Islamic terrorists: "The true battle will be...between those who believe in science, reason and logic, and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face."

One recent high-profile publication, The End of Faith by Sam Harris, is far more direct. In the book, subtitled Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, Harris lumps theistic religions together and predictably blames them for the violence and suffering that plagues humanity. Harris writes:

Religious faith represents so uncompromising a misuse of the power of our minds that it forms a kind of perverse, cultural singularity -- a vanishing point beyond which rational discourse proves impossible....When foisted upon each generation anew, it renders us incapable of realizing just how much of our world has been unnecessarily ceded to a dark and barbarous past.

Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote a comprehensive review of Harris's book, and he also reviewed a similar, but lesser-known title God Willing?: Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the "War on Terror" and the Echoing Press by David Domke.

Anti-Christian rhetoric is pervasive and not merely confined to political contexts. For example, when Judeo-Christian elements intrude upon the secularist's hallowed grounds of consumerism, there is apparently a great deal of friction. In an article for a consumer electronics web log, writer Joel Johnson dismissed an "e-book" version of the Bible for a popular digital music player as "Jewish science fiction" in addition to other snide remarks.

While on the one hand vociferously arguing that religion and faith are not provable, Harris and other secular humanists seek to legitimize and empiricize mysticism. New Age and Buddism, in paricular, generally avoid their harshest criticisms. And not too surprisingly. The findings of a new book The Spiritual Revolution, widely reported in the press, claim that 20 or 30 years from now, "spirituality" will be more prominent than Christianity in the U.K. Carol Midgley of The Times (of London) reported:

Study after study appears to prove that people are increasingly losing faith in the Church and the Bible and turning instead to mysticism in guises ranging from astrology to reiki and holistic healing...Twice as many people believe in a “spirit force” within than they do an Almighty God without, while a recent survey hailed a revival of the Age of Aquarius after finding that two thirds of 18 to 24-year-olds had more belief in their horoscopes than in the Bible.

The Bible warns of a one world religion that will reject the divinity of Christ and propagate the age-old fallacies of "man as god" and subjective spirituality. The great harlot in Revelation is frequently interpreted as an allusion to this kind of last days apostasy/one world church. The Apostle John writes in Revelation Chapter 17:

⁶ I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

More corrosive to the body of Christ than these anti-Christian secular attacks are the institutions and organizations within the Christian Church that aggressively push various brands of Christian humanism. One such institution, the Fuller Seminary in Southern California, has for years insisted on its evangelical mandate while supporting ecumenicalism (such as its "interfaith" program with Islam), promoting the so-called "seeker-sensitive" church growth movement, arguing against Biblical literalism and/or inerrancy (i.e. rationalizing away any "outdated" content), and desperately attempting to cultivate favor with the secular academic world. What will hasten the creation of a one world religion is the Christian Church's tacit acquiescence to the spirit of this Earth (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:12).

The persistent assault on the Biblical worldview should get the attention of believers. Christians everywhere are stumbling and wandering, but there will come a time when that faith is tested and the wheat and tares are separated (cf. Matthew 13). For it is in tempestuous times that God calls His flock. In John Chapter 10 (KJV), Jesus said:

²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
²⁸ And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand.
²⁹ My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand.
³⁰ I and [my] Father are one.

Shamelessness commercialized

Over the last 35 years, the commercialization of sexuality has increased with such gradual intensity, and people as a whole have become so desensitized, that societies (particularly in the Western Hemisphere) now offer little resistance. Traffickers in the pornographic desperately wish to drive us those last few steps to the yawning abyss, a world where shopping for sexually debased material is as commonplace and acceptable as shopping for a loaf of bread.

Writing last month in the Financial Times (subscription req'd), Clare Dowdy described the recent arrival of so-called "adult-oriented" shops to London's main retail districts. These stores are high-class, corporate-driven affairs, more in line with Gap than a seedy, hole-in-the-wall X-rated shop. Indeed, they are expecting to attract more women and couples, and profit from the very pervasiveness of debased sex in mainstream media.

Both [Gordon] Lee and Roger Ede, project director of Hustler Hollywood U.K., say the effect of the television series "Sex and the City" on women's behavior should not be underestimated. Sex has become mainstream, the retailers say, so it is now acceptable on high streets.

Harmony, a British retailer of pornographic goods, opened a store In September on London's famed Oxford Street. In Dowdy's article, Harmony director Danny O'Sullivan said: "A visit to Harmony should be as normal and everyday an experience as going to any other chain store in your lunch hour."

A society without shame is a society that does not recognize human limits and has lost its fear of God. The flippant phrase "sex sells" has proven so axiomatic that there is little thought given to its destructive consequences. But history is always keen to repeat itself. The prophet Isaiah warned of impending judgment on Jerusalem and Judah in Isaiah Chapter 3:

⁸ Their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.
⁹ The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

We tend to keep God out of the decision-making when it comes to sexuality. Yet, the areas in one's life most in need of Him are the ones that are the most personal and locked up in a vault. Jesus Christ is Lord over our entire life, not just the parts of our choosing.

Jesus warned that an act of adultery is committed with an unfaithful and lustful thought (Matthew 5:27-28). The famously wise Solomon, speaking from his own regrettable experiences, had these words of caution for his son in Proverbs Chapter 5:

³ For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
⁴ But in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.

The drumbeat of Herculaneum-like sexual chaos grows ever louder. "Adult" businesses are eyeing a new market: the introduction of pornographic content providers for cell phones is on the horizon.

The Absence of Conviction

For what they're worth, The Barna Group's surveys offer some soul-provoking glimpses into the state of the Christian church today. One of their most widely disseminated studies (December 1, 2003) found that as few as 9% of American men and women describing themselves as born-again Christians have a Biblical worldview. Another study (February 12, 2002) found that, of born-again Christians, less than half (32%) believe in moral absolutes. Even wiithout the benefit of surveys, however, there should be ample evidence to believers everywhere that post-modern relativism and humanism have crippled a Church that more and more exhibits Laodicean laxity than ever before.

Modern society, by and large, conditions people to reject absolutes and to object to moral convictions. Relativism has achieved widespread acceptance to the point that it is now ingrained. The caricatures of the "holy roller" and "fire-and-brimstone preacher" have had popular cachet for years. From the schools to the popular culture and, sadly, to the churches, sincerity is mocked and irony cherished.

The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah Chapter 5:

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

An outrageous example of today's relativism came nearly two years ago when U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D., Wash.) addressed a group of students at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Washington. The local paper, The Columbian, reported her remarks:

Murray concluded the session by challenging the students to consider alternatives to war.

"We've got to ask, why is this man (Osama bin Laden) so popular around the world?," said Murray, who faces re-election in 2004. "Why are people so supportive of him in many countries...that are riddled with poverty?

"He's been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven't done that.

"How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?"

"What is true for one individual may not be true for another" is the gold standard in contemporary philosophy. 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume, among others, popularized these notions of subjective truth which are now accepted whole cloth. The line of despair that 20th-century Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer wrote about so many years ago is clearly evident today.

David Virtue, writing in Touchstone Magazine, explained Schaeffer's argument from his 1968 book The God Who Is There:

In it Schaeffer articulated what he devised and called the “line of despair” (Europe about 1890 and the United States about 1935) in philosophy, art, music, and the general culture, as well as the New Theology. He attempted to show that for modern man, absolutes had died, modernity reigned, and the floodwaters of secular thought had overwhelmed the Church because its leaders did not understand the importance of combating a false set of presuppositions. Young people were being raised on the old sense of what was right and wrong based on absolutes the West had established from a biblical worldview, but on leaving home they were being exposed to “rationalism” and “humanism” that saw man as the center of all things and pushed God to the sidelines or out of the picture altogether.

Proponents of subjective truth and relativism, despite their protestations otherwise, resort to intellectual shorthand and demagoguery to advance their worldview and marginalize believers. Belief in moral absolutes is tied to fascism, fundamentalism, intolerance, hate-mongering, even luddism. Each of these descriptors carry with them a tremendous amount of pejorative baggage. By using these type of buzz words, or talking points if you will, arguments against objective truth can be left unsubstantiated and uncorroborated.

Secular (and theological) polemics against believers, conservatives, and others espousing belief in moral absolutes involves subtle and disingenuous tactics. Though fascism, by the very nature of totalitarian rule, requires the absence of moral absolutes, conservative Christians are often labeled "fascists." Though cursory comparison of Christianity and Islam would reveal serious incompatibility, Christians with a Biblical worldview are labeled "fundamentalists," i.e. suggesting that there is as much to fear from Christian fundamentalists as Islamic fundamentalists. Christians who believe in the inerrant Word of God and display the sincerest forms of faith are mocked and/or patronized; they are by turns portrayed as hypocritical, overly emotional, unctuously spiritual, or worst of all lacking education, intellect, worldliness, and the capacity for rational thought.

The absence of conviction in the inspired and infallible Word of God has dealt a serious blow to today's Church, from which it will not soon recover. The Church, in short, is undergoing a sinner's rebellion. Relativism and subjectivity, for all their high-class pretense, appeal to the natural man. Man resists (futilely) his own mortality, his culpability for that mortality, and most especially his inability to atone for that culpability. The prevailing feeling in churches today is that an individual's sin prevents them from having moral conviction regarding that sin, and sin in toto. The travesty here should be obvious: it represents a complete loss of faith in the transforming power of Jesus Christ. If a Christian cannot believe that Jesus has the power to change their life, then how can they possibly have any conviction whatsoever?

We naturally empathize with other people's troubles -- an ostensibly sympathetic gesture, to be sure. The truth is, as sinners, we empathize in order to make up (or buy favor) for our own shortcomings. Some Christians call this "good works," others call it "karma." But it is not Biblical. Christian action must derive from love of the Lord, not love of the Self (humanity). If there are none to stand up for Godliness and the faith, to declare the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, then humanism will continue its soulless march unimpeded. The tragic consequences should already be evident. As Edmund Burke famously said, "All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."

Jesus warned in Luke Chapter 6:

³⁹ "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?"

At the very highest echelons of the Church today, leaders are under an intense spiritual onslaught, and the worst thing is, they're not prepared for it. Many have failed to put on the armor of God and are defenseless. As a result, the Church has been terribly hurt. Those who've abdicated Biblical conviction for "tolerance" and ecumenicalism do so because they are ruled by personal shortcomings and doubt, rather than the Lord. Christian churches are becoming cults of religiosity where situational ethics and emotion rule the day. When the Church proudly wears the filthy rags of its own righteousness (cf. Isaiah 64:6), there are certainly darker days around the corner.

We've all heard a lot of talk about "faith" of late. Yet, as surely as there can be no conviction without faith, there can be no faith without conviction.

Prayers Answered

In the October 9 entry, the story of Alice Mowatt and the international prayer circle that formed to save her life was highlighted to illustrate Jesus' powerful words from Matthew Chapter 18:

¹⁹ Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
²⁰ For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.

From Redmond, Washington today there comes a similarly compelling news story. Laura Hatch, a teenager who'd been considered missing since October 2nd, was found Sunday in a crumpled car that had sailed into a deep ravine, not far from where searchers looked for her a day earlier. Sha Nohr, the woman who found Hatch, explained she'd had several dreams Saturday night, directing her to a wooded area. Nohr, a friend of the Hatch family and a member of their church, said that her prayers with others (in an online prayer group) precipitated the dreams and finally led her to Laura Hatch, who is now in serious condition at a Seattle hospital.

Please read the full story here. A side note: some news outlets are completely ignoring the prayer/church angle and instead are primarily focusing on the dreams.

Everything is Connected

A few weeks ago, print advertisements were touting a new television program with the following slogan: "Everything is connected." From the fascination with all things Eastern to the digital explosion, it's a phrase that's seeing a lot of currency. Yet acolytes of the New Age and dot-coms ought not to be the only ones co-opting its meaning.

For the Christian, however, there is this major difference: God is in control. In Proverbs Chapter 15 (KJV):

³ The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

The question that often follows is, if God is in control, then why is there evil and suffering in the world? It's because God is in control that we live in a fallen world. When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden (cf. Genesis 3), there were not only physical consequences (death and disease) but spiritual ones, as well (separation from God, i.e. sin). A fundamental Biblical law is that all action and thought have consequences, as Jesus reinforced when He said a man commits the sin of adultery in his heart when he looks at a woman lustfully (Matthew 5:28). The inner mind of man is not hidden from God, and He is a true and just judge.

Clearly, Adam and Eve's actions had consequences for the whole of the human race. Despite modern "me"-oriented philosophy to the contrary, both an individual's private and public actions affect others -- known and unknown, directly and indirectly. There are consequences. "The Butterfly Effect," the popularized notion explaining chaos theory in meteorology was summarized thusly: "Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?" (Edward Lorenz) Setting aside its deterministic (and therefore non-Christian) underpinnings, chaos theory at the very least appreciates causality. In spite of the great complexity of the world and its inhabitants and the limitless variables, God is still in control.

As the Sovereign Creator, God enforces His laws unfalteringly and immutably. Again, everything is connected. Nowhere is this more evident than in prayer. As the Apostle Paul wrote memorably in Romans Chapter 8:

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Lest there be any confusion regarding prayer, the God spoken of here is the Triune God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the God who sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die on the Cross for the sins of those who believe upon Him. Jesus specifically instructed believers to pray to their Father in Heaven (Matthew 6:6) Prayer is not supposed to be any old supplication addressed to "whom it may concern," "Mother Earth," "the gods," or some other entity. When a believer hears someone say that "their prayers are with them," that believer ought to wonder, "prayers to whom?" Even when we're using the right words, God knows when we're praying to Him or to one of our idols (Self, fear, desire, and so on). In other words, prayer must be taken seriously.

Keeping in mind this essential qualification then, the Bible tells us that prayer can have a powerful and righteous effect, especially when more than one believer is involved. Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 18:

¹⁹ Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

Remember King Jehoshaphat leading the nation of Judah in prayer and fasting before the Lord (cf. 2 Chronicles 20)? God spared them from destruction at the hands of their enemies. The devil constantly strives to make man doubt God's promises. There is, however, in the midst of today's negative news, an occasional nugget of inspiration. The following story was in the news again last month, and it not only affirms that everything is connected, but that God is in control.

On September 23, 2002, Alice Mowatt, a 19-year-old British tourist, was struck by an SUV in Los Angeles. Her head injuries were so severe that doctors induced a coma and several times considered taking her off life support. Sgt. Dan Horan, the investigating police officer, prayed for her, and over the next few days asked others, by phone or e-mail, to do the same. In a few short weeks, an international prayer circle had formed. Ten weeks after her accident, Mowatt had recovered enough to return home to England, where she was greeted by hundreds of letters and e-mails. Nearly two years later, Mowatt reunited with Horan, once a complete stranger who simply took the time to care about someone else.

It should be noted that in the articles, there were no direct references to God or Jesus Christ, but then there rarely ever are in the positive "spirituality" stories from the mainstream media. (Had the story been a negative one, say, involving a church scandal, then there almost certainly would have been.) In any case, even the most cynical among us must acknowledge the selfless motives behind Horan's actions and the fact that, among the hundreds of those praying, surely there were believers among them.

Stories like these have additional meaning. "Personal faith" is an oxymoron. "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." (James 2:26) Jesus calls individuals into a personal relationship with Him not only for their own salvation but for the salvation of other people's souls. Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16) The selfless agape love that Christians are to exhibit cannot be man-made; it can only come from the Holy Spirit.

When an individual follows Christ, they are not giving up their individuality but rather the (love of) Self. While believers are indeed commanded to love one another, their greatest responsibility is as an individual before Christ. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "let your light shine before men," but he added that "when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen." (Matthew 6:6) An in-depth article on this subject can be found at Pilgrim's Post. The contrast of these two verses clearly indicates that faith can neither be isolated nor used as a show of personal holiness. A believer's close walk with Christ must eventually, sooner or later, have an affect on others, not through proclamation, but by action. The light of Christ will shine from the believer as a result of true faith and obedience rather than ritual. Jesus also said at the Sermon on the Mount: "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting....But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting..." (Matthew 6:16-18)

Prayer is action but not a substitute for all action. Private and public actions have an effect, whether we are aware of it or not. David wrote in Psalm 139:4, "Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O LORD." But our lives are not predetermined simply because causality and order operate in this world. One cannot be both deterministic and a Christian. In His great mercy, God stays His judgment so that more may come into a saving knowledge of His Son Jesus Christ. If we allow ourselves to become fatalistic, to convince ourselves we know the exact timing of the final hour, we are hardening our hearts and deluding ourselves into a spiritual isolation. Reality will be all the more brutal if we do so -- the quickening downward spiral of the culture today painfully reminds us that we already have.

Trimming the Wick

In Matthew Chapter 25, Jesus tells the parable of the wedding party and the ten virgins, or bridesmaids. When the bridegroom makes his appearance at midnight, five of the ten virgins are unable to join the wedding banquet because they have failed to bring enough oil to light their lamps, a custom at that time. The five wise virgins who came prepared join the bridegroom at the banquet. Some time later, after having gone out to purchase some oil, the five foolish virgins plead to be let in, to which the bridegroom responds, "I tell you the truth, I don't know you." (v. 12)

The parable of the ten virgins is a tale of great importance for believers in any age, from the early Christians to today. No one knows the time of their own final hour nor the time of Christ's return. The chilling words of the bridegroom, "I don't know you," is a warning for Christians to be spiritually ready at all times, to submit their lives to Christ -- that is, to store up oil. This warning is echoed in Matthew Chapter 7 when Jesus said:

²¹ Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
²² Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?"
²³ Then I will tell them plainly, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

But today, the parable of the ten virgins should have eye-opening resonance to believers. When Jesus spoke of the last days, He used the metaphor of the fig tree (Matthew 24:32-33). Just as we know that summer is near when the leaves on the fig tree begin to bloom, so will we know the coming of the end of the age via Scripture's prophetic signs. We live in a time when many brothers and sisters in Christ are being deceived. Jesus warned, "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many." (Matthew 24:4-5) Believers must be careful not to be swayed by the philosophies of religious men, disguised as Christianity.

Steve Lumbley at Apostasy Watch recently wrote an insightful and powerful commentary on the state of Christianity today. Entitled "God Will Build His Temple," he states that the visible, organized church will suppress the revival of God's Word among the true body of Christ, much like the religious leaders of the day opposed Jesus 2,000 years ago.

There are several dangerous threads in the church today that will rob believers of righteousness in Christ (their storehouse of oil). These threads, which are all very close in nature, threaten to entangle believers and suffocate the life right out of them.

Apostasy: As Mr. Lumbley points out in his article, there is a false revival sweeping through churches today. It comes in many guises and with different labels: purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, ecumenical, and so on. These movements have at least one thing in common. They gratify man's desire for self-righteousness and self-tolerance -- most especially self-justification of his sinful nature. The purpose-driven paradigm generally appeals to a more conservative and evangelical base while ecumenicalism has roots in liberal religious humanism. These differences are superficial since neither appeal to God's Word but rather our predisposed natures.

In the last century, there has been an explosion of cults and impostors, as Jesus warned there would be in the last days. It should be no surprise that Christianity has been stretched like a rubber band to appeal to all manner of man's fleshly desires, for it is Christianity that the enemy is so eager to distort. Consequently, is there any doubt why Christianity has been so relentlessly mutated and syncretized and diluted and deliberately misinterpreted for 2,000 years and that its truth has been so recklessly misrepresented and maligned more than any other with claims to divine inspiration?

Worldliness: More than any other time in the earth's history since the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11), the world is reaching a unity in purpose -- one that is in defiance of God's law. We live in a time of worldwide communication and shared popular culture. The values of natural man, the spirit of this world (1 Corinthians 2:12), are pervasive and invasive. Many Christians are ignoring the Biblical principle of separation and are seeking identification (i.e. justification) with the world. They are seeking acceptance in a world that hates their values, and so they gradually abandon those values. The elevation of the flesh (intellect/body) over the spirit is the tragic result. A believer's position with respect to the spirit of the world, or Babylon, is thus referenced in Scripture: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins." (Revelation 18:4)

Materialism: It is not so much the possession of material goods but the love of them that shipwrecks faith. Yet, it is material comfort and possession that causes many to take their eyes off God. In countries where these kinds of blessings are plentiful, people have come to believe that they deserve it (entitlement). Because people feel entitled to these luxuries, they believe material goods are necessary for happiness and fulfillment. While Christians in these countries may be appreciative and "count their blessings," oftentimes they are more appreciative of the gifts than the Giver.

Over at Blogging Truth, there is a very good article on the effects of materialism on the believer. Possessions can definitely weigh down the spirit of believers, particularly when those possessions become an avocation. Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 6:

¹⁹ Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Pragmatism: In essence, pragmatism espouses that "the end justifies the means." It should not be confused with practicalness or realism, though they often converge. Paul Proctor squares off against pragmatism in the church in his excellent article titled "Blessed Subtractions."

While it is in direct conflict with God's Word, pragmatic thinking is nonetheless prevalent among Christians today. The current election year in the United States highlights an example of this. Many American evangelicals are planning to cast their vote for incumbent President George W. Bush this fall. It is a vote for the principles of the man rather than a vote for the platform of his party, which has time and again rebuffed evangelicals in favor of secular moderation. The thinking is, the alternative is much worse; thus their vote is for the lesser of two evils.

To vote for the leader who more closely shares the values of believers does seem righteous, not pragmatic. Yet, in the context of a political machinery (a now mostly indistinguishable two-party system) that is greater than any one man, this kind of vote may only delay the inevitable. For American Christians, there might be alternatives (consider, for example, the platform of the Constitution Party). There is, however, the danger of falling into escapism, the polar extreme of pragmatism. And that hasn't solved anything. Since pragmatism is inherently motivational, it is difficult to detect, and indeed, only the Lord can know an individual's heart (1 Corinthians 4:5).

Hedonism: Craig W. Booth writes about Christian hedonism at The Faithful Word. More often than not, hedonism in the church is not so much a definitive movement as it is simply recidivism. Unfortunately, Paul's words in Philippians 4:8 to think on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable" have been misconstrued and abused to qualify the pursuit of pleasure. Paul defines these terms, not through the distorted lens of man's protean sensibilities, but in the context of righteousness in Christ. The appreciation of arts, sports, learning, sensuality, and so on can quickly develop into idolatry in the absence/ignorance of God's Word. We end up justifying men rather than defending God. Rather, Paul is imploring us to seek out that which glorifies God, not simply that which is part of His creation. Hedonism subverts the subordination of the created to the Creator and wrongly implies that appreciation of the creation is appreciation of the Creator.

The end result of these subversive threads in the church is apathy. It is apathy that leaves the five foolish virgins unprepared. Their faith is dissolute. Instead, brothers and sisters in Christ should be awaiting the return of the Lord -- eagerly, earnestly, and unashamedly.

In 1 Peter Chapter One, the apostle Peter wrote to believers concerning Christ's return:

⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
⁹ For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.