Who In Hell Do You Know?

Recently I have been reflecting on the reality of evil in the world and how that evil fits into the overall scheme of God’s plan. Couple that reflection with some additional reflection on the challenges parents face when they observe their children neglecting and ignoring the truths of the gospel they have been taught from birth. Add to these reflections, the additional reflection of trust, of grace, of being still and knowing that God is LORD over all and then trying to work through the temptations of fear and anxiety that every Christian parent must face when they see self-destructive behavior in their children. Indeed, that is a lot of reflection.

This led me to the question recently: whom in hell do I know? How many people have I known in my life either intimately, moderately, and even from a distance that have been called out of this life and have done so without Christ? I have lost grandparents. Two of them knew the Lord and the other two I cannot say. I lost my dad and he knew the Lord. I have lost uncles. Some of them knew Christ while others did not. How many people do I know that today, this very minute are living in eternal torment? The descriptions of hell and of the lake of fire are vivid, filling the mind with images of darkness, fire, and unending torment beyond anything this world knows. And there are a number of people that I have known in my life who are very likely right there right now. While I am typing these words, they are in incredible and indescribable anguish. While you are reading these words, their screams ring throughout the hallways of hell without anyone there to help. They are without any hope of ever finding relief for their suffering. Whom in hell do you know?

The doctrine of hell has come under tremendous pressure lately. This pressure even exists in so-called evangelical churches and teachers who really are nothing more than apostates that are nothing more but a shell of genuine Christianity. The arguments are constructed mostly by people employing a modern, pagan philosophical approach to God rather than an exegetical, theological method. In addition, the overwhelming majority of these individuals simply do not like the God of Christianity, even though they like some of His morals. Their goal seems to be to attempt to keep God in place while replacing all those characteristics about Him they find unappealing.

I cannot help but wonder, not if, but how the belief that there is no literal hell impacts the manner in which the gospel is positioned and proclaimed to the unbelievers in our lives. We already have the problem of numbness due to the frequency of the mention of the doctrine of hell. People just don’t give it any thought these days. And this is just as true of us reformed conservative types in some cases. We don’t think about hell that much. And if we do, we surely don’t look at it through the same lens as we see the world in which we live. Hell is some place far away, an abstract concept in the mind of preachers and theologians that none of us have to worry about, at least not today, not this hour, not this very minute, or is it.

The competition for souls is more intense than anything we could ever imagine not from the world of sports as an analogy, but from the world of wars. The competition for land, for power, to prestige, for dominance over the long course of the history of man has been fierce and relentless. I cannot help but wonder if the human race has ever experienced a time since the fall of man where men were not, in some way, in some place, at war with one another. The competitions have waged for thousands of years.

There is nothing that can compare to the war that we must wage for the truth of the gospel and for the souls of men. Hell is as real as the computer you are reading this blog on. And just as you are reading this right now, countless souls are suffering the flames of torment this very moment. What is worse is countless more souls will be lost to the flames of hell with each passing year. The war for souls and for truth is unending and relentless.

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 2 Ti. 2:4-7

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. 1 Ti. 6:12-19

Apologetics According to Scripture - Presuppositional, Humble, Bold, Respectful

One does not have to be a gifted critical thinker to recognize that the field of Christian apologetics has become a crowded field full of all sorts of people doing all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons, all in the name of supposedly defending the Christian worldview these days. Unfortunately, what most Christians are doing when they do apologetics in modern culture amounts to little more than inflating their own ego. From what I read, most Christians are simply interested in winning the argument even at the expense of Christian values.

I am not suggesting that we be less than direct, less than honest or heaven forbid, politically correct when we practice apologetics. So please do not misunderstand me. However, it is clearly outside the pale of Christian virtue to engage in the sort of rude, condescending, snobbery so common these days among so-called Christian apologists. There is no reason for us to assign derogatory adjectives to those with whom we disagree even if they do not return the favor. In addition, Christian apologetics is not about proving that Christianity is the superior philosophy. Such an endeavor is terribly misguided. Apologetics is the opportunity afforded a Christian to provide others with an explanation for why they have the eternal hope in the eternal Christ dwelling within them. It is not a matter of intellectual pugilism. The apologetic encounter is not about winning a debate. What the apologetic encounter is actually about is representing the truth of Christ and the ethic of Christ simultaneously. Christian apologetics endeavors to reflect truth and virtue without sacrificing either to emphasize the other. Unfortunately, far too many young men and far too many Christians are engaging in Christian apologetics without realizing just how baptized in the culture they actually are.

What are we doing when we do apologetics?

The text that deals most directly with the idea of apologetics is 1 Peter 3:14b-16. “And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.”

Our attitude, according to Peter is first and foremost to make Christ LORD of all especially our defense of the Christian faith. This attitude of complete submission is far from the typical show-boating that I see in what passes as “Christian” apologetics in our culture. What we need is not to communicate a air of superior intellect or argumentation, but rather one of humility. After all, what we know, we know by gift not by our own intellectual dexterity.  On the other hand, Christians are not to be timid or afraid of the threats from the world, be they intellectual, emotion, or even physical. This includes the fear that we may be asked a question that we simply cannot answer in the moment. The Christian is to be in a constant state of readiness to put up a defense or give an answer to everyone who asks, but that does not mean we have all the answers or that there even are answers to some of the questions we might be asked.

Needless to say, the inference in Peter’s words clearly implies serious preparation on the part of the believer. That preparation is both spiritual and mental. Christians ought to be ready at all times to engage the unbelieving culture. Even the most cursory read of the NT informs us that the early followers of Jesus Christ were in constant contact with the hostile opposition of the world. Their faith was forever being challenged by threats without and within. If it was not the threat of Judaism and its legalism from within, it was the threat of Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Skepticism from without. The early Christians had to be prepared to deal with numerous threats to the Christian message.

As sad as it may sound, some Christians think all they need to be prepared to do is vacuum our plush carpet, paint our extravagant buildings, mow our manicured lawns, and build our elaborate sets for our Christmas and Easter performances and somehow Jesus is satisfied with that sort of service. I am convinced that the kind of preparation and service the NT writers had in mind was radically different from the typical modern Christian, especially those in the west.

We are not only commanded to always be ready to provide a defense for the faith, we are told that this defense must be done with gentleness and respect. The idea is that courtesy and profound respect must be extended to those making these demands. The whole idea is to protect the integrity and image of the Church and of her Lord, Jesus Christ. Far too many so-called Christian apologists display far too little Christian virtue in their defense of Christian truth. It is the epitome of irony to ignore virtue in defense of truth. It is much easier to listen to a humble fool than it is a rude genius.  

Setting reasonable expectations

It is best, first and foremost, for the apologist to set expectations for himself before he attempts to do so with certain antagonists in certain settings. We read of the great Paul himself before the Greek philosophers at Athens and how his presentation of Christian truth ended in widespread scorn because in included the non-negotiable claim of the resurrection. The apologist must remind himself that he is an instrument through which Christian truth should flow. His target is truth. His aim is to please God by accurate representing the state of affairs as it has obtained. His hope is that God might grant repentance through the power of the gospel contained in his apologetic. His expectation is that unless God should open the eyes of the opponent of Christian truth, there will be no happy agreement in the end. Either there will be a gentlemen’s disagreement or, as is the case in most instances, there will be a passionate and oft times rude and derogatory response and an abrupt end to the exchange. Nevertheless, the apologist must seek out these engagements in an effort to spread the gospel.

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. (1 Cor. 1:21) This text is clear that we do not win men to the faith because they were able to see the truth of Christ within their own intellectual or philosophical acumen. We must evangelize the world until Christ returns. And it is when we evangelize that we will surely find ourselves engaging in the discipline of apologetics.

A view toward Christian knowledge and understanding

In Matthew 16, Jesus asks his disciples who people were saying that He was. As one might imagine, the disciples had a variety of answers. But Jesus then placed the disciples on the spot and asked them who they thought He was. Peter responded with the profound claim that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. In His response to Peter, Jesus informs us how Christians come to the knowledge of His identity. Jesus informed Peter that flesh and blood had not revealed this to Peter, but His Father who is in heaven. Essentially, Jesus was telling Peter that a true knowledge of who Jesus is comes only by divine, supernatural revelation. Peter did not look at the prophets and other bits of information, put the puzzle together using his unaided human reason, and get the answer right. Jesus did look at Peter and say, “You are the brightest of them all Peter, good job.” Instead, Jesus sealed off true knowledge of His identity from natural means. True knowledge of Christ and subsequently of the Christian message only comes by way of supernatural revelation. Without such a revelation, men will never arrive at a true understanding of Christianity and will never be convinced of its truth.

Jesus was no empiricist

There is a remarkable incident recorded in John’s gospel that many apologists neglect, and in my view, to their own detriment. One of Jesus’ disciples, Thomas to be specific, refused to believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead unless he actually saw Jesus with his own eyes. To make a long story short, Jesus appeared to Thomas and Thomas believed that he had been raised from the dead. But Jesus rebuked Thomas for his unbelief and made this profound statement: blessed are they who do not see but still believe. Quite literally, “blessed are the not-seeing believing ones.” The empiricist demands empirical proof. For him, the standard of truth is what can be empirically demonstrated. For many apologists, this is exactly the kind of opponent they will encounter in the world. No amount of evidence offered from history, be it Scripture or secular, will satisfy their objections to the Christian message. But this incident points us up to the fact that Jesus did not hold empiricism in high regard. In fact, he thought very little about that epistemological method and his rebuke of Thomas if proof that Jesus was not an empiricist.

If you are engaging in apologetics because you want to honor God and be obedient to Scripture, then that is the right motivation. You do not require philosophical training to do that. What you do require is an adequate understanding of the Christian gospel. That is enough to get you started. If this is an area of passion for you, then training in apologetics and philosophy can prove indispensable for your ministry. We each have our calling and we should apply ourselves to that calling with all our being.

Apologetics is not about winning debates or arguments or showing that Christianity is superior to the non-Christian worldview. It is not about making others feel or look intellectually deficient. It is about the humble and yet bold articulation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in confronting the unbeliever with their unbelief. Enter the dialogue in love with humility and expect to be insulted and expect to be asked questions, the answers to which, you do not know. Be polite, be respectful, and be honest. When you are forced to say I don’t know, say it with confidence. No one has all the answers. Acknowledge good questions. Be hospitable. Be firm in your message, without wavering. Do not feel as though you have to present Christianity in such a way that unbelievers accept your method or your answers. Stay true to the truth!

A Schizophrenic America

Recently, Mark Cuban set off a firestorm of controversy with his comments about racial prejudice. The networks and social media were apparently exploding like a nuclear weapon had gone off. In a country where judging has been condemned now for decades and where truth is no longer objective and morals are relative, we sure don’t act like we really believe what we say we believe. What I would like to do is be able to make it one day without someone praising the sexual perversion of homosexuality or talking about the deplorable state of racist attitudes. America has become the single greatest symbol of hypocrisy in the history of nations at this point. What’s more, the American Church has been all too eager to follow the lead of the culture. America has become a self-righteous country filled with self-righteous people that have no hesitation about affirming their own self as the source of their own righteousness.

What are the facts concerning prejudice and homosexuality? In a recent poll, 31% of blacks said that their own demographic was more likely to be racist than not. But you never heard anything about this poll on mainstream media. Full disclosure about homosexuality is just as hypocritical in America. The list of diseases found with extraordinary frequency among male homosexual practitioners as a result of anal intercourse is alarming:

Anal Cancer 
Chlamydia trachomatis 
Cryptosporidium 
Giardia lamblia 
Herpes simplex virus 
Human immunodeficiency virus 
Human papilloma virus 
Isospora belli 
Microsporidia 
Gonorrhea 
Viral hepatitis types B & C 
Syphilis²⁵

Sexual transmission of some of these diseases is so rare in the exclusively heterosexual population as to be virtually unknown. The point is that America is no longer interested in the facts. She has no interest in anything other than establishing her own self as god of the globe. She murders her own unborn children as if she were removing a hangnail. In fact, she not only defends such behavior, she brags about it. I have been saying for some time now that the networks are about to explode with same-sex displays of affection. Last night, while trying to watch a movie for a few minutes (I can only sit there for maybe 15 minutes or so), the commercials contained two different clips of men kissing. So we have arrived. I have some hope that real men will begin to react like any real man should react. However, my experience is that the modern domineering woman will demand that her husband get on board with the rest of this godless culture and show more tolerance for such behavior. The sad fact is that we stopped raising real men for the most part a few decades ago.

The true Church in America has come to the place where she is now going to be forced to look at the situation differently. It is no longer a country that tolerates Christianity. Sure, it will tolerate the hypocrites and the liars that claim to be Christian but are not. However, the minute you start talking about what the Bible teaches or what God says, you can plan on being dismissed immediately or worse. Christians in America are entering the conditions that most Christians throughout most of the history of Christianity have had to live in. There have been exceptions here and there, but for the most part, most Christians have lived in cultures that were moderately to extremely hostile to Christian principles. This was certainly the case for those Christians living in the first-century Church and who had the privilege of being recipients of the letters and writings of the NT at its inception. Hence, Christians in those cultures had to think differently about their respective cultures. And so too must we. In fact, sound thinking has move to the forefront of Christian behavior in short order. No longer can the Church afford “check-the-box” behavior for her weekly programs, be it Sunday school, Bible study groups, and especially during Sunday morning worship. Our weekly gathering must be with the intention of equipping for both godly living and godly thinking. Moreover, that we are called to contradict the lies of Satan wherever they appear cannot be over-emphasized. Confrontation, refutation, and correction with the hope of conversion are inherent in the Christian message. Examine the ministry of Christ, of Paul, of Peter, and of John. Only a blind person can miss the constant battle for truth and for sanctification that these men were engage in. Some of us think that we should only concern ourselves with sanctification, with serving one another, with pure living. Others think we should only concern ourselves with evangelism and apologetics. Both groups are wrong. We have to be passionately concerned about both.

Part of our problem in the Church has been a terrible imbalance in training and equipping our people. Attending a Sunday school program where a teacher spends 20 minutes talking while 70% of the class is frankly unengaged is NOT equipping your people. Donuts and coffee and 30 minutes of small talk about nothing mixed in with 10 minutes of how Jesus healed my cat and 10 minutes of Bible study is an embarrassing joke for the Church. Yet we convince ourselves we are doing something when we do these things. We are not doing anything that matters, anything eternal, anything that will last. We are crossing an item off our to-do list, or better yet, our bragging list.

It is time for Churches to put serious rigor into their structure or their people are sure to find themselves in conversations without a clue as to what to say. The sad fact is that most Christians don’t even want to bring up the gospel. They are afraid to do so. Why? Many are ashamed and don’t want to be marginalized. Most of us are simply incompetent. Gospel sharing bottomed-out many years ago and many conservative churches have not bothered with evangelism and apologetics since. Couple that with the fact that there are more objections to the Christian message today than there ever has been in America and Christians don’t talk about it because they don’t want to be embarrassed. In addition, many Christians are just too lazy to bother with such work. They don’t see a need. These people think the gospel amounts to Jesus being able to fix your problems and give your life meaning and purpose. For them, that is the gospel. What it is, is a humanistic, deistic, moralistic version of the gospel and Christianity that is as idolatrous as the ancient god Dagan. Somehow we think that because we tattoo Jesus, Christianity, and love on it that this makes it okay. Moreover, even genuine believers may give it a past under the false thinking that it is not real idolatry because it sort of mimics Christianity.

Another sad attitude on the part of leaders is that they think, for some strange reason, that people can think hard about work, performing their jobs well, spending energy thinking things over, but when it comes to Christian truth, we must remain in a constant state of the simple, and at all cost, avoid the complex. We make almost no effort to challenge our own people with the truths they claim to believe. That is a costly mistake. You can be sure that outsiders are going to be challenging the faith more and more. Why shouldn’t we put as much effort into rightly dividing God’s word and into refuting error as we put into our jobs? Such an attitude is not only confusing, it is spiritually detrimental to the believer.

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding. (Eph. 4:17-18a) Christians are commanded not to think like the godless culture around them. We are not to reason like they do, nor to follow their pattern of living. Gentiles think autonomously. They begin with their own self as the starting point, as the reference point for what is right. America has completely redefined marriage because she thinks she is god. America has called murder abortion and made it a woman’s health issue rather than a solution to unwanted consequences resulting from promiscuous behavior. Do not believe the polls. If you did, you would think that the average woman has had 4 sex partners during her life. College women alone are reporting numbers ranging from 10-12 to around 30 during college alone. No one can watch reality TV, read anything about sexual behavior in college and young people and think that a survey that suggests such a low number has any credibility. We understate sexual activity in heterosexual and homosexual men and women and overstate the number of homosexuals and “committed” homosexual relationships. Why? America is a nation of hypocrisy. It is that simple. She is a God hating idolater. She is a country that has been moving to replace God with herself for decades now.

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5) This is a war of the mind, of knowledge, of thought. Its time Christians take it seriously.

Antichrist and The New America

“καὶ νῦν ἀντίχριστοι πολλοὶ γεγόνασιν.” Even now, many antichrists have arisen. When many Christians or even most Christians hear the word antichrist, they think of an end-times arch-enemy of God that will arise and deceive millions into battling quite literally against the armies of God and of heaven. And there is a literal “Antichrist” who will emerge to do that very thing according to biblical prophecy. But the words of John are far more troublesome and far more relevant to the on-going, daily, Christian living and battle for truth that we all must face day in and day out in the new America.

“In an atmosphere of rising interest in a merging of Christianity with the higher forms of paganism to the detriment of the former, there was, therefore, a pressing need for the presentation of adequate Christian antidotes to combat the danger.”[1] John was writing so that his audience would know that they have eternal life. (1 Jn. 5:13) What is interesting is that so much of John’s letter deals with what is apparently an early form of Gnosticism. It still seems best to conclude that John is combating proto-Gnosticism, an embryonic Docetism or Cerinthianism that has already divided Christians.^[2] Hence, it seems reasonable to conclude that John’s joy and the key to knowing that one’s faith is genuine in John’s letter is a lifestyle that is characterized by the absence of immoral behavior and heretical belief. Pagan thought has been a constant threat to Christian thought since Christ ushered in His system some 2,000 years ago.

John identifies the competing pagan beliefs with the same substance that will define the man of sin that is to come, the future Antichrist. The Antichrist is the embodiment of all that opposes Christ. He is a dangerous and deceitful individual. He represents the pinnacle of rebellion and unbelief in the human situation. It is significant then, that John identifies the pagan heresy with which he is dealing with the Antichrist.

Apparently there was a group of individuals that were part of the visible Christian community that had set out on their own. They did this to show that they were not truly part of the Christian community of John’s address. (1 Jn. 2:18) What is interesting is the use of the passive verb “shown.” This is the Greek word phaneroō and it means to disclose to show. However, the passive voice of the verb indicates that it was not necessarily the purpose of the schismatic group in leaving to show that they were not of the group. This points up to providence. The separation that occurred over the false beliefs and moral code of that group occurred by an act of divine providence. Now, it could have been the reaction of the local body or it could have simply been a splitting off of the group. It is not easy to analyze the exact details.

John’s letter appears to have the aim of reassuring the Christian community that the split was the right thing for the body and that they are the genuine group standing firm in the faith of Christ. In so doing, John seems to imply that the alternative version of the Christian group is led by antichrists. In other words, those who are rejecting the basic beliefs of the Christian group and those who reject the basic moral code of true biblical Christianity are to be identified as antichrists. This is a very sober and serious charge.

John then says something quite fascinating: But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. Textual variant aside, John’s statement is quite interesting. First, the implications are that the genuine Christian knows the truth and because he/she knows the truth, he/she can spot what is not true, namely, error, and especially heresy. Second, this seems to rule out what has grown to be a mostly rationalistic faith in modern western culture in terms of Christian adherents. In other words, Christians do not know the truth on simply naturalistic, rational grounds. The method is more than understanding how to reason properly, even though it certainly includes a right use of reason. Reason does not seem to be enough in this case. John is pointing to something that is transcendent and supernatural. John is pointing to an ontological difference in the Christian. There is something about the being of a Christian that is quite different from that of an unbeliever. The notion of being anointed or having an anointing from the Holy One indicates that John sees the believer as marked off by God for God’s purpose.

John goes on to say that this anointing abides within us and because of this fact we have no need for anyone to teach us. This anointing teaches us all things, that is to say, all things necessary for truth. Two things that this fact impacts: apologetics and Church discipline. You see, modern Christian thought in the west has long abandoned the Biblical faith of the first-century Church. That faith is the basis of true knowledge. Conversely, in modern Christian thought, faith is the end of a rational process by which evidence and arguments are weighed, subjected to human scrutiny, placed under the light of pagan reasoning and at the end, if the criteria is satisfied, wham-o, one decides to become a Christian. But this is far from the thinking revealed by the authors of Scripture.

True knowledge comes through faith in Christ. And this faith comes through the work of the Holy Spirit, the one with Whom all Christians have been anointed. True saving knowledge does not come at the end of some rationalistic process contrary to what so many modern western thinkers assert. God makes Christians. Only God makes Christians. You do not make yourself a Christian. You cannot make yourself “born again.” The power of the gospel is the tool God uses to radically change the human person. This is the anointing that John is talking about. For this reason, Jesus could say things like the elect cannot be deceived, and all that the Father gives to me will come to me. Otherwise, these statements make no sense.

Finally, John’s statement has real implications for a Church that has lost its way. Just because a person says he/she is a Christian, this does not make them one. There have always been pseudo-Christians in the visible Christian community from the beginning. They are what John called antichrists. They do not have the anointing and therefore, they do not know the truth. They entered the community through a rational process of examining their own person needs, looking at arguments, examining evidence, sensing a need to be religious and wham-o, they sign the card. They have no more interest in Jesus than the devil himself does. What they are interested in is their own sense of belonging of being righteous, of being moral, and maybe of community. But their beliefs and conduct betray their profession of faith.

For some time now we have had seeker-sensitive, emergent, and now the restless-reformed coming along and rejecting the many of the basic teachings of Biblical Christianity while at the same time claiming to embrace it. But just as John said they went out from us so that it would be shown that they were not really of us, we can say the same thing about these folks. For example, there are numerous professing Christians that deny the virgin birth, the resurrection, the deity of Christ, that the Bible is the word of God, etc. As an example of the confusion, take Ellen Painter Dollar’s statement, “There is nothing false about believing that the God of all things can be encountered in sacred story, and in mundane human experience, and in the strange visions of the mystics.” Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ellenpainterdollar/2014/05/we-know-god-through-scripture-and-so-much-more/#ixzz32OPJbc7R

God can be found everywhere and in nearly everyone these days (except for political conservatives of course). Modern Christians, mostly of the younger generation, in their early to mid-twenties have figured out that the rest of us are and were for nearly 2,000 years, mistaken about Jesus. Abortion is seen as a blessing. Gay sex is viewed as love. Sports celebrities that pray are mocked while grown men who want to act like women are praised. And these things are moving into the Church because the Church has continued to buy into the modern, naturalistic, rational, decision-making model of regeneration. That model demands that the Church remain connected to the culture, that she remain relevant.

You see, Biblical apologetics demands that we begin with God, that Scripture be our sole authority. Christian doctrine can only be known by those who have been anointed by God. True knowledge is only discovered by those with God’s special grace, His special anointing. But this teaching requires a radically different message than the one the Church has been preaching. Because the Church has adopted a naturalistic approach to conversion, she has also bought into the necessity to be relevant. This approach requires that we make good arguments, that God be a means to an end, that people feel like they are gaining something, and that they feel like it was their choice, remaining in control of course. We have to make sure our music is attractive, that our message is relevant, that Christianity is viewed with respect, academically and otherwise. And this is all based off the notion that being a Christian is making a rational decision and nothing more.

John’s message to his audience was profoundly different from the modern message of modern Christians. God did not accept people just as they were but instead, He radically transformed their entire person before bringing them into communion with Himself and His Church. There was no such thing as believing whatever one wished and conducting oneself however one pleased all the while receiving the blessing of the Church. The days of socially acceptable Christianity are fading into the past. The modern Church, in an attempt to remain relevant has become so much like the world, there is no noticeable different between the two. Look around and tell me what is different about the visible Church and the culture in which she is found? The thinking, beliefs, and practices of the Church mirror those of the world. The same John that warned us about the many antichrists that have gone out into the world also commanded us not to love the world or anything in the world. We cannot love the world and love God both at the same time. Modern Christianity has all but destroyed this basic Christian distinction. Christians need to circle their wagons, lean on each other like never before, and take a bold and loving stand for the truth of the Christian gospel as if lives depend on it because, as John MacArthur says, they do.

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[1] Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction (InterVarsity Press; Downers Grove, Ill. 1990), 866.

^[2] D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament, Second Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 681.