As Far as the Curse is Found

We learned two weeks ago to not be conformed to the zeitgeist or the spirit of the age, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds. If our churches are to be in “unknown” tongue to the non-believer as 1 Cor. 14 says, the non-believer should feel like he stepped into another world upon entering the door; the preaching should convict him, but one thing for sure, he should not feel “comfortable.” The more the church reflects the values of values of the current culture, the less historically “Christian” it appears. This is partly why we speak of our era as post-Christian.

We are told that Christian churches must adjust to the times if they are not only going to be relevant but survive, because people will flock to the latest bells and whistles that tickle their ears. The pastor becomes a CEO of a business, the elders become administrators and the church must market the Gospel to get people in and keep their attention.

Michael Horton in his book, In the Face of God, says, “We’ve adopted a marketing mentality. We’re proud to see that our ‘product’—a faith experience—has made it into the marketplace. After all, as long as people are getting close to God, who cares how they get there?” (4)

We in the historic reformed community find this approach patently unscriptural and obviously unhistorical in the words of RC Sproul, the Protestant church has done things the same way for 400 years—why should we be made to think we need to change now to save the McDonald’s generation? The more we compete with the fads of this age, the more we will lose to the god of this age; you can bet, if they do not like the big mac at one church, they will leave for the whopper at another. If we become people pleasers as a church Body and fail to be God pleasers, he will discipline us as a people as he has promised. It is no wonder that Dr. Bill Hybels the founder of the seeker-sensitive church growth movement admitted to Christianity Today magazine that they failed in their mission to make disciples; they made people feel comfortable on Sunday mornings, but few comparably attended discipleship groups at Willow Creek Community Church and few had any grasp on what the Christian faith was really about—but they had 1000’s in attendance on Sunday mornings for the self-help messages, drama and excellent coffee.

In contrast, Christendom or Christian culture emerged in the pagan world as a conquering force; in the words of Isaac Watts, “He’s come to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found.” The West was profoundly changed and transformed as a result of the spread of Christianity. Hence, Christendom emerged as paganism was suppressed. People often accuse the Christian church for having pagan origins—they are partly right. Wherever the Gospel has been proclaimed, paganism has been suppressed. Where there have been pagan holidays and celebrations, which are as CS Lewis said only shadows of the real truth, the Christian church has pre-empted them with Christian meaning and replaced their pagan observance with the victory of the Son of God. Jesus said that he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Example of this are Christmas and All Saints Day.

December 25, the day to commemorate variously the birth of Apollo, the Son god Ba’al or the winter solstice, or whatever. Recognizing the birth of Jesus to be near September, the Christian church chose Dec. 25 to eclipse paganism by the celebration of the birth of the authentic Son of God, Jesus Christ. We anticipate this celebration by adopting the advent candle wheel or wreath in preparation for Christmas. All Saints Day on November 1 coincided with the Celtic harvest holiday Samhain, commemorating the roaming restless dead, but it was suppressed by the spread of Christianity. Hence, All Hallow’s Eve (or “Halloween” on Oct. 31) became a vigil to honor the Christian departed. All Saints remained after the Reformation in the calendar of the Anglican Church, Lutheran churches and the English Presbyterians. Of course, in our time after the Lutheran Reformation of 1517, we Protestants typically refer to October 31 as “Reformation Day.”

As we noted also last week, the Reformers wanted to reform the church not leave it; holding essentially to the idea that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it or don’t throw the baby out with the water. Our own worship liturgy at Rock is based upon the Presbyterian reforms to the Book of Common Prayer in 1689. Presbyterians have always had structured liturgical services in both John Calvin’s Geneva and John Knox’s Scotland, building upon and improving the Mass according to Scripture, retaining what was Biblical and removing what was not, such as the use of the Creeds, Gloria Patri, doxology, kneeling for prayer and replacing the minister’s priestly vestments with the academic gown that identifies the teaching elder.

It was the Puritan reforms of the Church of England that would affect American Presbyterian worship the most, leaving no calendar observances, one holy day—the Sabbath–no Christmas or Easter, no candles in the church or saying the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostles’ Creed—all because the Bible had not commanded it. This left Puritans looking to the Bible for silly things such as a prooftext for when the Session should meet. However, Romans 14 allowed the Church and Christian conscience to observe special days and customs to the Lord; hence, keeping with the principle of worship being guided by Scripture. Puritan worship and those denominations that descended from them represent therefore a departure from the reformed tradition regarding worship.

Why do we sing historic hymns rather than contemporary music? Contemporary worship reflects the values of contemporary experience and is often centered on the self; historic hymnody is God centered and focuses on God’s sovereignty, holiness and glory so often neglected in much of so-called contemporary Christian culture, because contemporary Christian culture is not informed by the reformed faith, but by emotionalism. We may have had strong feelings and emotions, but may never have truly been with God.

 

Do Not be Conformed to the Zeitgeist

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12.2)

Paul tells us not to be conformed to the world; literally “age.” We are not to overtaken with the zeitgeist or the spirit of the age. To alter the worship of God by fads and trends is to fail to worship God aright. Our worship should be as 1 Cor. 14 reminds us, an unknown tongue to non-believers; we should not expect what we do to make sense, nor should we alter the Scriptural worship of God to be sensitive to so-called seekers. We must remember that is God who is seeking worshippers; if he desires to save them, he will. 1 Cor. 14 also tells us that it is in prophesying or preaching that sinners are convicted of their sin and are drawn to Christ; The purpose for our gathering is to adore the Trinity, not to save the lost; this time is not for evangelism— we are sent out every week and commissioned to evangelize those that do not know Christ.

Historic Christian worship can be seen in historic Christian denominations; is it any wonder that non-denominational churches do not resemble anything that looks like a church, much less what they do resemble historic Christian worship and why their numbers rise and fall with the tides of trendiness and fads? The more we compete with the fads of this age, the more we will lose to the god of this age; you can bet, if they do not like the big mac at one church, they will leave for the whopper at another. If we become people pleasers as a church Body and fail to be God pleasers, he will discipline us as a people as he has promised.

Ironically, when we Protestants have all but disappeared due to our worship wars and all else that divides us, we will have lost our children to fads and trends. Deut. 6 and Ps. 78 command us to pass our faith to our children and grandchildren. Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox will be worshipping the same way when we are dead and gone. While we Protestants may have real disagreements with them, they more than we seek to do right because it is right regardless of public opinion or a person’s felt needs.

Rome has found a secret we too often forget that God wants grandchildren and great grandchildren, indeed as Moses writes that he is faithful to the 1000th generation; an old Jesuit saying is Give us your children for ten years and they will be catholic for the rest of their lives. Where and what are our children doing and becoming? Is their fire insurance all that is important? What about the other elements to our faith?? What about our grandchildren?

We come here to renew our covenant with God; this is precisely why the Lord’s Supper, which corresponds to the peace offering of the Temple, happens at the end of the service—we meet God there, where he has ordained us to meet him; non-believers or wayward Christians are warned to not participate lest they meet God’s justice. The Table naturally divides sheep and goats regardless of how we feel about it. It is often God’s means of blessing or disciplining us. He knows whether we have real peace with him or whether we are putting on a show for others and our meal with him is a lie. The Table forces us to deal with our sin and rebellion; evangelicals can hide in altar calls of 100 or 10000 people but this is not an altar; this is the sacrament of His Table, where God is really present; he did not ordain altar calls, where he is really absent, but he did command the right use of the sacrament, where he promised to meet us either in peace or in discipline, as he said, “whenever we are gathered together.” The living Word is as Augustine said, invisible in preaching, but quite visible in the sacrament of his body and blood.

Where does all this lead us as a worshiping community? In our weekly assembling for worship on the Lord’s Day, receiving from Him by faith grace upon grace, we should be growing in grace as our outlook changes from doubt to trust; from fear to faith and timidity to boldly living out our faith in a fallen world.

When we come to worship, we are called by God, healed and forgiven by God, consecrated and instructed by God in the preaching of the Word, we offer in response our tithes and offerings, we confess our faith anew in the Creed, gather at his table to receive spiritual nourishment and are sent out– but we are sent to serve and gather lost sheep

Our primary place to serve is the church to which he has called us and secondarily to the world in which we live. The Body, gathered by Christ the Lord at Rock Presbyterian Church needs each other and the gifts that God has blessed us with, to be built up and encouraged in our own spiritual formation and development as the Body of Christ.

While you can go to heaven without local church membership, your baptismal vows require it. You were baptized into the Body of Christ—there are no lone ranger Christians.

As we come to understand what God expects of us on the Sabbath; as we come to understand how he wants to be worshipped according to Scripture, not our felt needs or preferences like hitting lunch time at the restaurant, we can grow together as a covenant community, not sitting idly by as spectators—checking the box on Sunday; coming to be entertained by either the music or the pastor, but seeking to please God from obedient hearts, we will experience an outpouring of God’s favor and providential blessing never known before.

Again, Calvin writes in his Commentary on Romans, “ . . . until men really apprehend how much they owe to the mercy of God, they will never with a right feeling worship him, nor be effectually stimulated to fear and obey him.”

 

Hypocrisy Amuck

Well, I can’t let this one slide. After castigating the co-called Federal Vision bunch for legalism and Romanism and all sorts of isms that center around NT Wright’s and wrongs and the so-called New Perspective on Paul, Westminster comes out in praise of a book by Jason Meyers that is even in favor of tossing out categories like COVENANT OF GRACE so that we can better understand Paul. He speaks favorably of people like EP Sanders, James Dunn and even Evangelical Walt Kaiser who dispenses with the whole covenant of works category and favors (like Norm Shepherd) for one covenant of grace graciously administered. I for one find this vile stench from the keepers of the gates of orthodoxy to be steeped in hypocrisy. So what is it exactly about Doug Wilson that Scott Clarke or Cornelius Venema didn’t like? It had to be more than the FV thing, otherwise they would have to dismiss the whole WTS as hopelessly liberal and bow down and cry holy toward Greenville, SC, the last bastion of Puritanism on the planet . . .

 

Excellent Book on Baptism

In the culture and theological wars in the reformed world, Peter Leithart has written a simple volume exhibiting a Biblical and covenantal theology of baptism. Part of the strength of the book is letting the Bible speak for itself, even without the “lens of the Confession” (read “PCA hermeneutic”). Despite the fact that Peter’s theology lines up with the Confession and the catechisms, I’m sure some of his conclusions will shake your foundations. It was an excellent read that I am still processing.

 

Well Said and Not Well-taken

“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receiveswithout working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for. That my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

Adrian Rogers, 1931