"Zeitgeist"
Visitor: One of my peers recently told me about this movie on the internet about "Zeitgeist." Here is the link: http://zeitgeistmovie.com/main.htm. I searched your website hoping to find an article on it but nothing came up. It seems to me like just another ridiculous occult trend, like the Da Vinci Code, that's going to spark a lot of initial interest but then fade. But it bothered me that my peer said that this movie would be powerful enough to make me an atheist. I would really like to see a refutal of this by someone a lot more educated than myself. One day I'd like to be on your end, though, getting e-mails from people asking me to help them refute the next up and coming occult fad.
Response: The movie is right to point out that atrocities have been commiitted in the name of religion. It is interesting to see that if we are merely swamp gas, as an atheist would acknowledge, that the person who believes this would want to promote it with such missionary zeal to others. Why they would care what other swamp gas believed is a mystery. The movie at one point says nothing is "Bad or Good per se" ... then I suppose that theism is also not bad or good so why should he care whether we are in the "now" or not? If they think there is not "bad or good" then is not their rant against religion itself meaningless?. On the one hand they say there is no bad or good, but then they make a movie to tell us how bad religion is for the world. Confused? You should be because there is not a shred of consistency about it. It seems the producer does, after all, believe in a dogma. The danger of this movie's position is that they erroneously think of their own position as not a position.. is not a belief, is not a dogma is not itself a religion. It like when Oprah demanded that her audience accept that Jesus could not possibly be the only way and rather, she said, all ways are acceptable. Is that not also a dogmatic statement? A firm belief that beliving in one way is bad and that we MUST accept that all ways are equal? This is the height of self-deception. Dogma cannot be avoided and the producers of this film also have presuppositions or strong beliefs as to what is good and bad, or they would not bother making the film to try to convince others. Any hope they have of changing someones mind to think like them is actually a belief in morality, in something outside themselves - that there is a way to live that is better. If they say slavery is wrong, violence is wrong, torture is wrong, racism is wrong, how do they know this if they are merely swap gas, and more importantly, why should they care? They show all these frightening images as if their position is not just as religious and dogmatic and that they are exempt from such atrocities. The greatest danger lies when a group convinces itself it is the only one out there who isn't promoting a view. We all should know by now that this is the height of absurdity.
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Why Reformed?
Lately, there seems to be growing interest in the resurgence of Calvinism and Reformed Theology among the younger generation of Evangelicals. Persons from within Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism, as well as outsiders, are taking note, and wondering what could be fueling the phenomenon. I was recently approached by someone asking for possible reasons or motivations underlying this resurgence among younger evangelicals, and after a little deliberation I came up with five motivations that I see at work, as listed below. I am sure there are others, but these seem highly instrumental to me. What do the rest of you think?
Same Sex Romantic Love Not a Sin?
A man who claims to be a Christian from the UK has written to claim that same sex romantic love is not listed listed as a sin somewhere in the Bible. He claims to have already been converted... Already a Christian, already read the
Bible cover to cover and can't find a word against same sex romantic love, and, he says "since you can't either, its only logical and fair to put blame on people like you who want a sin to be a sin, even if it aint listed in the Bible. But I don't blame you for it as we Christians do it all the time. We all like to add our own sins, look at the mid 60s when we wanted to condemn black people, we had no Bible text to do it but did it anyway. We condemned women and drowned loads of em in the 1500s with no Bibical evidence, and today we do it to homosexuals with no Biblical texts. Is that a good thing?... I see you want to hold on to a kind of homophobic lifestyle without any Biblical evidence that you can.
My response:
Hi _________
While a clear and unambiguos biblical case can be made against homosexuality, it is also true that many people really do just hate homosexuals and construct their arguments against homosexual practice in order to provide a rationale for their angry feelings against them. And it is, no doubt,true that Christians frequently misuse doctrines that are true in order to achieve improper ends. And I would agree that homosexual practice is not necessarily more heinous than a lot of sins out there which are also called detestible to God .. some of which I have personally committed prior to knowing Christ. But sin is sin, and all sin is rebellion worthy of death. But you and I both are all born into a condition - the bondage to a corruption of nature which manifests itself in many sins here on earth than none of us can escape from naturally unless Christ sets us free. Being born into a condition is not testimony that this is what God desires or intends us to do, but is part of our condition in the fall. Due to our corrupt natures, I have committed this sin, and you are addicted to some other form of idolatry but both of are slaves to our fallen condition and are hopeless apart from Christ. Being natural is not not an argument for, but against something being of God because depravity keeps us from being able to save ourselves and extract ourselves from our willful sinful predicament. Fact is, we don't want to.
Two Recent Stories from the United Kingdom
Two recent stories from the United Kingdom are cause for real concern, showing the current thought in much of the professing church and culture - found here and here.
"I do believe we will need to start to view our brothers seeking to proclaim the gospel in the United Kingdom as foreign missionaries in their own homeland, given the speed with which the British culture is collapsing into utter irrationality and loathing of God and His laws." - Dr. James White
Let us pray for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached boldly and received widely in our time.
Steve Brown Etc.,
Dr. Steve Brown, professor of practical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, has a new talk show, Steve Brown Etc., featuring discussions, debates, interviews, comedy and commentary dealing with religious, political and social issues. You can hear podcasts and view episodes of the show and more at stevebrownetc.com.
Love, Unity, and Doctrinal Precision
It is currently in vogue within American evangelicalism to play against each other the complementary realities of Christian love and unity, on the one hand; and on the other hand, the necessity for a strenuous biblical precision in formulating and contending for those points of doctrine which are secondary in importance – that is, those doctrines which, to believe one way or the other, would not per se corrupt the essential purity of the gospel. A concrete example of such secondary matters would be one's beliefs in the debate between cessationism or continuationism of the so-called "sign gifts"; or else one's understanding of the nature of the millennial reign of Christ, or one's position on the mode of baptism.
Search my heart O God
"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind..." Jer 17:9-10
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me." Ps 51:10
Tim Challies' article here on the Ted Haggard scandal shook me to the core as I read it today. It literally drove me to my knees. Please read it prayerfully. - Pastor John Samson
John Piper on How We Might Respond to Muslim Anger over the Pope's Comments
John Piper suggesting How Christians Might Respond to Muslim Outrage at the Pope's Regensburg Message About Violence and Reason.
Here is an outline of his ten points:
1. Admit that the Christian church has often been too entangled with civil governments, with the result that violence has been endorsed by the church as a way of accomplishing religious, and not just civil, goals.
2. Make clear that the use of God-sanctioned violence between Israel and the nations in the Old Testament is no longer God’s will for his people.
3. Admit that there are many Muslims today who do not approve of violence in the spread of Islam.
4. Point out how Islam, in its most sacred writings and authoritative teachings, belittles Jesus Christ, not just occasionally in the news, but constantly by its dominant claims.
5. Point out that, in response to this constant defamation of Jesus Christ, there are no public threats or demands for apologies.
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Philosophical & Religious Pluralism
About every other week, I confront popular pluralist notions that have become a large part of the way Americans think. For example, pluralists contend that no one religion can know the fullness of spiritual truth, therefore all religions are valid. But while it is good to acknowledge our limitations, this statement is itself a strong assertion about the nature of spiritual truth. A common analogy is often cited to get the point across which I am sure you have heard — several blind men trying to describe an elephant. One feels the tail and reports that an elephant is thin like a snake. Another feels a leg and claims it is thick like a tree. Another touches its side and reports the elephant is a wall. This is supposed to represent how the various religions only understand part of God, while no one can truly see the whole picture. To claim full knowledge of God, pluralists contend, is arrogance. When I occasionally describe this parable, and I can almost see the people nodding their heads in agreement.
The Sea in the Ship is all Wrong by Pastor John Samson
"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable and perfect." - Romans 12:2
There's an old saying: "The ship in the sea is alright. The sea in the ship is all wrong. The Church in the world is alright. The world in the church is all wrong."
Everything you and I believe as Christians flies in the face of our post-modern culture. We believe in a God who has made His existence known to everyone (Romans 1:18-22) despite the strong denials of man. We believe in a God who has communicated to us in clear terms in a book called the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). We believe in absolutes, for we believe in a God who is Truth Himself, and who tells us what is right and what is wrong. We believe in the one true Gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16, 17) who said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me." John 14:6. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the way to God and the only way to God, and we deny that He is merely a way, a truth and a life, and one of the ways to God. Understand that we do not say this because we believe our opinion is greater than someone else's, but because Christ Himself said this about Himself, and we believe His claims are valid, trustworthy and true... We believe too that if Christ is not THE way to God, then He is a liar, and not even one of the ways to God. Jesus Christ is either who He claimed to be, or else He is a fraud, or perhaps a lunatic. But what He could never be is merely one of the ways to God. If we take His words with any seriousness at all, then we have to admit that His own claims deny this very possibility.
The claim of exclusivity is repulsive to the modern world. However, every religion claims exclusivity - even the ones who claim that all religions lead to God. Why? Because even this claim is a claim to be exclusively and absolutely true. The claim is a fundamental denial that there is only one way to God. That is the very definition of exclusivity. It certainly denies the possibility that the exclusive claims of Christ are true.
The claim "there are no absolutes" is also a ridiculous non-sensical statement, for it is an absolute statement in and of itself. It claims that there are absolutely no absolutes but in doing so affirms that there is at least one absolute, namely that there are no absolutes!
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When Your Values Are Threatened
I read an article on the BBC's website this morning about the recent Vatican document prohibiting active homosexuals from entering seminary or the priesthood. There was a page for reader comments, and the list of [primarily hostile] remarks grew extraordinarily quickly.
The prevailing sentiments were that the Catholic Church is "medieval," "outdated," "narrow minded" in publishing such an "utterly dishonest and morally outrageous" document. Every thinking man and his grandmother commented on how the Catholic Church ought not to believe and practice the things she believes and practices.
It's interesting that so many people who are uneducated in Catholic tradition and teaching are so quick to pronounce what the Church ought to do in any circumstance. It seems that those who feel their values condemned by God-through-the-Church would, in their search to justify themselves, rush to condemn God-through-the-Church, rather than simpy ignoring an authority they try not to acknowledge anyway (which is what you might expect in today's Western society).