CRN.Info and Analysis

Friends,

Finished reading Just Couragethis morning. This is a fascinating and insightful book by Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission. (I have written about IJM at Advance Signs). Anyhow, here’s a quote from his book:

Jesus is relentlessly issuing the invitation and forcing a choice to action. What are we going to do? I am much more interested in telling Jesus and others what I believe, but Jesus (and the watching world) knows that what I truly believe will be manifested in what I choose to do. (Just Courage, 125)

Always for God’s Glory!

One common marketing ploy is the “Bait and Switch.” The strategy is simple. Bait the consumer with an attractive deal then switch them to a higher priced, more profitable item. For example, an appliance store may offer a sale on a certain model but only have a couple in their store. When the consumer comes through the door looking for the bait, they are informed it is sold-out, but an alternative (switch) is offered. This tactic is not limited to sleazy retailers.

CRN has posted an article titled Christian Extremism. It is a repost of another blog – a blog with which I am unfamiliar. Anyway, the post(s) baits with a decades old quote from J. Vernon McGee in which he predicts that true believers in America will eventually have to go underground. Furthermore, McGee “predicted” that part of the reason for this would be attacks on true believers from mainstream denominational churches. This expectation is not surprising given the context in which McGee lived and ministered. It’s also no surprise that ODM sites see this “prophecy” being fulfilled in their blog-time. Funny though – the article then goes on to point out the same old list of names (i.e. - Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Ken Blanchard, Richard Foster, Tony Jones, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, Erwin McManus, Leonard Sweet, Robert Schuller and Brian McLaren) and the same old list of objections.

Bait: a predictive quote from a saintly radio preacher and author from the recent past… a quote which seems to have come to fulfillment.

Switch: change “mainline denominations” to “evangelical ‘leaders’” and change “attack true believers” to “advance methods we don’t like.”

Bait and Switch.

Here is the list of “attacks” (since this was the verb used by McGee, I will use it too, to show the self-evident silliness of this B&S). [Given the over-sensitivity of some ODM’s, I will add that B&S is shorthand for "Bait and Switch."]

They seek to establish Christ’s kingdom on earth.
They speak of a “return to Eden”.
They espouse a man-centered gospel message.
They often speak of “new frontiers”, “changing times”, “new spirituality”.
They often recommend mystical, occultic practices such as lecto divinia, prayer centering, breath prayers, the labyrinth, meditation, and yoga.

RE: Christ’s Kingdom - short of trying to legislate a theodicy – isn’t this the role of the church… to strive to fulfill the very model prayer of Christ?

RE: Return to Eden – since no context was given, how can you address this accusation other than to say – sounds like Revelation 21 and 22. So it’s easily a biblical allusion.

RE: Man-centered Gospel - is there a more oft-used cliché by the ODM’s? From Christ’s POV the Gospel is man-centered… and so is anything they don’t like.

This list of “attacks” is followed by a list of quotes from the new “Mainstream Denominational Churches.” You can follow the link if you like. Some of the quotes are from people I am familiar with, some are unfamiliar. I concur some have gone too far, others are advocating a practice that is perfectly biblical.

What is constant is the fact that this article, as do most of the ODM type, must rip the quotes out of context and pour into them meanings that the author never intended. This latter fact is comical given the ODM mantra that post-moderns are guilty of making things mean whatever they want… shades of a conversation between the pot and the kettle.

So – bottom line: CRN and their source blog once again take stick in hand to beat one of their favorite dead horses. They may have had some valid points to make if their tactics were more honest and their ability to discern more refined. As it is they once again lump a bunch of people together, label them, and then attack. What makes this attempt more egregious is the use of J. Vernon McGee… it’s not often I am offended on behalf of the bait.

Friends,

Since no one else is posting today, I thought perhaps I would share a quote with you that is most interesting. Jacques Ellul’s book The Subversion of Christianity is making a strong case for how the church has not properly engaged culture but has, rather, baptized pagan practices, called them Sacred, and continued on without nary another word. In other words, the church has really failed to engage the real heart of the matter which is spiritual. This quote is from his chapter titled Moralism. In this chapter he is arguing that Christians have substituted a bland moralism for the Gospel revelation of Christ (”The perversion, then, was that of making the gospel into law in order to respond to the challenge offered to revelation by the successive outbursts of immorality and ethical disorder.”, 89) I cannot tell you how important this chapter is, and I wish I could type the entire chapter in for you to read. I can’t say I’m on board with all he says, but I am on board with this quote. Here he is, using the example of ‘anti-feminism’ in the church, to make his case that the church has used poor substitutes in its syncretism of the culture. Consider:

I do not deny that government must make laws or that we need police and the courts. I am simply saying that this is a makeshift that enables us to dam up the evil but that never solves anything. What happened was that Christians and the church adopted this attitude and took this course. All evangelical teaching is against it. What one might have expected of Christians and the church is that they would have replaced false love with the true love that comes from God, that they would have substituted the agape that serves for the eros of the Greeks, that they would have put the spirit of service in place of the spirit of domination, that they would have rejected punctilious legalism in favor of an open and supple human relationship, that they would have boosted the personal in place of the social, that they would have exalted personal appreciation in place of valid rules, that they would have looked on the heart rather than external conduct, that they would have checked sexual disorder by the triumph of true love between men and women, that they would have maintained everywhere a living flexibility in place of the rigidity of order; in short, that even at the cost of unavoidable sacrifices and sufferings they would have embodied and maintained feminine values in the bosom of this kind of society…In itself the gospel is good news; it is grace, joy, freedom, and love; in human relationships it means flexibility, finesse, concern for the little, the protection of the weak, and openness. Its transformation into a morality of duty and judgment, provoked by the immorality of surrounding society, and regarded as the only possible result and response–this is what led to the exclusion of women from their place and vocation, their rejection from circles of responsibility. Men were the ones who carried out this operation, who tried to protect the group in this way, as though they were threatened by violent military aggression.” (92-93)

There’s more to it than meets the eye and, to be sure, some terminology should be better defined. Still, at face value I think we can see that from Ellul’s point of view, we have made a poor substitution. So I ask you this question: Is he right? Should more, as in better, have been expected of the church? How have we failed? How can this problem be fixed? Are we the ones to do it?

Soli Deo Gloria!

Friends,

I am the new guy around here and as you can see I had a lot to say this week. That’s not really all I have to say, but I realize that perhaps brevity is the salt of wit and absence makes the heart grow fonder so from here on out I will not be posting as much as I did this week; I’ll try to say more with less.

Before I engage my short parable, I’d like to say a couple of things.

First, I had a lot of fun this week posting here at CRN.info. I am truly honored to be among those who have decided to honor the Lord Jesus Christ by preaching the Gospel of grace and dining with sinners as Jesus himself did so often. I also learned a lot about people this week. The most surprising thing I learned was that I am not someones friend. I am sincerely disappointed by this and I will work to change it. Second, I will be on vacation next week and not around as much. I ask for you to continue praying for my brother (in law) Bobby (30). He has a brain tumor that is not getting smaller. We will be giving a couple of our vacation days to stay with the family and help them take care of Bob.

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Now, for a parable.

Wednesday evening two of my three sons, along with a friend of theirs, were outside enjoying the cool evening air. The moon was bright and it was somewhat late (after 9:30 PM). I don’t normally have to pay too much attention to them when they are outside because they are trustworthy and the neighborhood is relatively safe.

We live next door to the church building.

In the front of the church building is a nice brick, lighted marquee which we use to advertise service times, on one side, and for witty, thought provoking quotes on the other. When I finally called my sons, and their friend who was staying the night, in, I noticed they were playing in front of the church building by the lighted marquee. I naively thought not too much about it.

Thursday afternoon I was in my study, poring over books in an effort to understand how the prophet Isaiah used the word ‘justice’ in his preaching (turns out it’s a little more complex than I thought). All of a sudden, my Verizon Blackberry starts to buzz and chirp. I grab it and read the message which was from the man who took over as Cubmaster of my Cub Scout Pack when I retired earlier this year. He informed me that as he was driving home from a Cub Scout bowling event the previous evening he caught sight of a rather startling thing: Three bare, white butts illuminated by the bright, flourescent light of the church marquee were ’staring’ at him as he drove by. 

I had some fun with the boys at the dinner table later that evening saying, “Hey Renee, guess who was driving by the church building last evening when the boys were out mooning cars in front of the church building?” The embarassed, flushed look on my eldest son’s face was payment enough. We had a good laugh and finished our dinner.

Now, imagine just for a moment, that the New Cubmaster had never written that e-mail on Thursday afternoon.

_______________________________

Dependence upon God produces humility in man. Pride and boasting are traits of natural man, and spring from man’s dependence upon self and self-sufficiency. Whatever success comes to man tends to feed and nourish his pride. These traits, though not always obvious, are very persistent and are also evident in the lives of those who are saved. There is a deep rooted desire to be something. If not openly, yet in the heart persists a feeling of self-importance. This feeling of pride is out of harmony with God’s program of grace, for grace emphasizes the fact that everything is of God. ‘For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what has thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Cor 4:7). “And the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor 1:28, 29). (J F Strombeck, The Discipline of Grace, 61)

Have a nice weekend!

Soli Deo Gloria!