The Post-Modern Pied Piper
The tune plays on, and on we whip and whirl down a road that leads to a place both "strange and new." On and on we go till we're hidden away like the rest behind the door of irrelevancy. Some laud it, some cheer it, others quietly accept it and others couldn't be bothered to notice it.
We should - Christians should.
I like a quote I heard once from ( I believe) a Dr. Thomas R. Schriener, though I confess the specific source escapes me at the moment. While probably misquoting him (which I hate doing) the general message was: One cannot be postmodern and be Christian, you may very well be "postmodern" and hold to some confession of belief, but it cannot be a Christian confession. And he's absolutely right. But convince the average mid-size (or larger) contemporary church of that. When I was doing my undergrad - Christian Ministry - we were encouraged to look to the culture to determine how best to form our approach to scripture, how to determine relevant truth, and base our scriptural conclusions on how the culture we're in is viewing things at the time.
Now, before you agree... Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Instead of starting with the Bible, instead of starting at the sound doctrine of 2000 years of the objective view of truth and scripture - I should look to culture FIRST when determining "what is relevant truth" to a people! Now I'm not referring to exporting our American version of Christianity, I'm talking about what helps someone determine what is truth - and there are apparently many "scholarly" people out there bent on redefining what the ultimate source of truth is.
That teaching is, and those that prescribe it are 'anaqema' - for those lest Greek inclined, it's accursed, damned, submitted to God for judgment. Anathema.
Ouch! How can you say that Bob? We're not supposed to judge!
" I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;
which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! " -Galatians 1:6-9
Want Islam and Christianity to worship the same god? Sure! Want God to be no more knowledgeable, no more able than you? Okay! Want Salvation to be 50% willpower and 50% grace? Sure *cough - Pelagian - cough*
Okay, enough dramatics.
Church, ecclesia - You who have been called from darkness and transferred into light - you know well who you are. If you live in North America, this fight is certainly before you. The time for falling back on anecdotes and "nice and churchy" colloquialisms is over. I am ashamed there ever was a time that they were tolerated.
I'm not a defeatist, and I am certainly no optimist either. I don't think we've got a mandate biblically to be either. What I do know - is that there are churches and seminaries, bible schools and bible studies, purpose books and prosperity preachers all more interested in topical, milky, exhortation light messages intent on having you continue to trot to the tune of the postmodern pied piper. "Don't confront! Don't upset! Don't rebuke and Don't you fret! Teach away your happy tales and leave alone the Word that impales!"
The Gospel - the real one - is sharp. It rends, and cuts, and cleaves the people of God from the rest of the world. It is divisive, it is afflicting, and it's not meant to merely make us comfortable. The fact that the "church" largely seeks to find what is relevant from culture is a testament to the grim reality that indeed the tickling of the ear is more important that the piercing of the heart to many.
So where is this going? I cannot really tell you, except that I pray earnestly that your heart is burdened for the Bride of Christ. We dine so often in this culture on a perceived "spiritual buffet." Some have actually spun that like it was good - a precarious tune to hear indeed. There's another word for it, if you ask me.
Idolatry.
May You cause our hearts to dwell richly in Your word. May You make us stay, and fight, and fight to be renewed by it!. Christ rend our hearts and expose the soft and painful parts. Pierce our minds and cleave away our thought that anything else than you can satisfy. Make us walk in a might that does not wait to be asked but that attacks things we know to be deception and vice. Align us to Your will, and as always make the Glory of Your Name be the obsession that moves us to really live! Give us fists to fight, and make us love Your word so that we've weapons forged for that very purpose.
-For Your Glory, May it be so.
We should - Christians should.
I like a quote I heard once from ( I believe) a Dr. Thomas R. Schriener, though I confess the specific source escapes me at the moment. While probably misquoting him (which I hate doing) the general message was: One cannot be postmodern and be Christian, you may very well be "postmodern" and hold to some confession of belief, but it cannot be a Christian confession. And he's absolutely right. But convince the average mid-size (or larger) contemporary church of that. When I was doing my undergrad - Christian Ministry - we were encouraged to look to the culture to determine how best to form our approach to scripture, how to determine relevant truth, and base our scriptural conclusions on how the culture we're in is viewing things at the time.
Now, before you agree... Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Instead of starting with the Bible, instead of starting at the sound doctrine of 2000 years of the objective view of truth and scripture - I should look to culture FIRST when determining "what is relevant truth" to a people! Now I'm not referring to exporting our American version of Christianity, I'm talking about what helps someone determine what is truth - and there are apparently many "scholarly" people out there bent on redefining what the ultimate source of truth is.
That teaching is, and those that prescribe it are 'anaqema' - for those lest Greek inclined, it's accursed, damned, submitted to God for judgment. Anathema.
Ouch! How can you say that Bob? We're not supposed to judge!
" I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;
which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! " -Galatians 1:6-9
Want Islam and Christianity to worship the same god? Sure! Want God to be no more knowledgeable, no more able than you? Okay! Want Salvation to be 50% willpower and 50% grace? Sure *cough - Pelagian - cough*
Okay, enough dramatics.
Church, ecclesia - You who have been called from darkness and transferred into light - you know well who you are. If you live in North America, this fight is certainly before you. The time for falling back on anecdotes and "nice and churchy" colloquialisms is over. I am ashamed there ever was a time that they were tolerated.
I'm not a defeatist, and I am certainly no optimist either. I don't think we've got a mandate biblically to be either. What I do know - is that there are churches and seminaries, bible schools and bible studies, purpose books and prosperity preachers all more interested in topical, milky, exhortation light messages intent on having you continue to trot to the tune of the postmodern pied piper. "Don't confront! Don't upset! Don't rebuke and Don't you fret! Teach away your happy tales and leave alone the Word that impales!"
The Gospel - the real one - is sharp. It rends, and cuts, and cleaves the people of God from the rest of the world. It is divisive, it is afflicting, and it's not meant to merely make us comfortable. The fact that the "church" largely seeks to find what is relevant from culture is a testament to the grim reality that indeed the tickling of the ear is more important that the piercing of the heart to many.
So where is this going? I cannot really tell you, except that I pray earnestly that your heart is burdened for the Bride of Christ. We dine so often in this culture on a perceived "spiritual buffet." Some have actually spun that like it was good - a precarious tune to hear indeed. There's another word for it, if you ask me.
Idolatry.
May You cause our hearts to dwell richly in Your word. May You make us stay, and fight, and fight to be renewed by it!. Christ rend our hearts and expose the soft and painful parts. Pierce our minds and cleave away our thought that anything else than you can satisfy. Make us walk in a might that does not wait to be asked but that attacks things we know to be deception and vice. Align us to Your will, and as always make the Glory of Your Name be the obsession that moves us to really live! Give us fists to fight, and make us love Your word so that we've weapons forged for that very purpose.
-For Your Glory, May it be so.
posted by Robert at 12:57 AM
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