It’s not peculiarly new, this objection to the Christian faith. People have used it for some time when confronted with the plain teaching of the Bible. Those outside the church seek to wiggle out from under the commands of God by, oddly, pointing to the commands of God. When we say “The Bible forbids x” they don’t reply, “It does not.” Instead they reply, “The Bible also says you can’t wear a shirt with both cotton and wool. The Bible also says you can sell your daughter. The Bible also says you can stone your son if he gets out of line.” And too many Christians slink away.
The argument assumes the existence of a universal moral law that all humans recognize, but then suggests that the Bible itself not only falls short of that moral law but clearly and immediately opposes that universal moral law. The argument suggests, “Given that the Bible’s sense of morality says this, why should we listen to what it has to say about that?”
What though, ought we to do with laws that challenge our sensibilities? The first thing we need to do is to understand the nature, meaning and scope of the laws. Consider, for instance, God’s command to Old Testament Israel that they not wear clothing of mixed materials. This law falls under what we call the ceremonial laws. These laws were not given because eternal moral standards require them. They were given instead for a more narrow, specific purpose- to set Israel apart from her neighbors. The same would apply to prohibitions against eating pork or shellfish. These laws were given for a people, for a time. They were not evil laws then, but they are not binding laws now. Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law, which means we now can eat a BLT, and better still, don’t have to be circumcised.
Some of the “offending” laws, however, were not ceremonial as such, but were civil. The Old Testament civil law, for instance, allowed for recalcitrant, disobedient children to be stoned to death. This did not mean, of course, that failure to pick up one’s toys was a capital offense. The law instead dealt with older, teenaged children who defied, who dishonored, who maligned their parents continually. Still find it offensive?
Then you need to repent. The God of heaven and earth determined that the nation of Israel, that He formed, that He governed, should have such a law. No doubt recalcitrant children didn’t like it. No doubt their heathen neighbors didn’t like it. But we who are supposed to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit are commanded to disciple the nations, commanding them to obey all that Jesus commanded. And Jesus, remember, came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.
The heathen find this retort effective not because God’s law is shameful, but because we are shamefully ashamed of it. We are already compromised, having our sense of justice informed by the world, rather than the Word. Our calling is not to squirm, not to apologize, not to try to cover for God. No, our calling is to stand on His Word, to have our consciences held captive to it, to adjust our moral sensibilities so they match God’s, rather than the world’s. Our calling is to be ashamed of ourselves, rather than the One who rescued us from our sins.
Cheaters gonna cheat. It’s what we do. Over the past few years gambling has grown to be virtually synonymous with the game. The Oakland Raiders now call Las Vegas home. The NFL has its own official gambling app. Time was that any connection to gambling was strictly forbidden in professional sports. The great Willie Mays, years after he retired, found himself in hot water with Major League Baseball when he took a job as a greeter at a casino. He’d done nothing wrong. It just “looked bad” in those more innocent times. The Houston Astros took the joy of winning the World Series and dropped it in the trash. Not long ago the NBA had to come clean and admit that one of its officials was manipulating games for gamblers. Fake vaccine cards, performance enhancing drugs, deflated footballs and stolen signals. It’s everywhere.
The problem here isn’t, in the end, gambling. The problem isn’t that sports have somehow become entirely too competitive. The problem isn’t endemic only to professional sports. Once more, instead, we find professional sports to be a microcosm of the broader world. It was philosophers, not football players, who first suggested that right and wrong are culturally conditioned. It was artists, not football players, who first “challenged our paradigms” by mocking honor. It was professors, not football players, who first taught us that all texts are shrouded power grabs, and so have no power to compel.
We have created a culture where we cannot be condemned for our sexual shenanigans, and then are shocked that we are surrounded by competitive shenanigans. As my friend and for Major League baseball player Mark Dewey once wrote in Every Thought Captive, we know that Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds were unfaithful to their marital vows. Why should we expect them to be faithful to their competitive vows? Which, in the end, is the more sacred vow?
Relativism in the end isn’t merely stupid. It isn’t merely permissive. It is instead the death of everything good, true and beautiful. Because we are sinners we construct a world where sin is not possible. Because we are human, we hate the world we have created. Or, to quote a most quotable man, “And all the time—such is the tragic-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible…In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings to be fruitful” (The Abolition of Man, by C.S. Lewis.)
They will scream at us that we are narrow, bigoted, and judgmental. And all the while they will long, as long as we are not like them, for the goodness, truth and beauty that inhabits the walls of the city of God. They will praise our works before God.
Dunamis Fellowship and Sovereign Grace Fellowship continue tonight our weekly Bible study at 7 eastern. Tonight we begin, Meeting Jesus. All are welcome to attend at our home. You can even come early (6:15) and we’ll feed you a meal. You can also watch on Facebook Live, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you join us as we consider together who Jesus is.
Far more fragile than the human immune system is the human liberty system. That is, of all the frightening things that have come our way through the pandemic years, none frightens me more than to witness great swaths not just of the government but of the citizenry embracing the idea that the government ought to be free to tell us all what to do. The first day I ever heard of COVID I was stunned to hear the President announce on national television that he would forbid travel to and from certain countries. More recently I’ve heard a different President go on national television to a. announce which employees of which sized companies must receive an experimental injection and b. that he was losing his patience with trying to persuade people to get the jab and was looking into more persuasive means. I’ve seen the idea floated as serious public policy proposals that the unvaccinated at best be treated by army field hospitals, at worst that they be not treated at all. One need not buy into any conspiracy theory at all to recognize that we’re not in the land of the free anymore.
It was Ben Franklin who quipped, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” We’re prone to think that our ideological commitments are safe when confronted with mild dangers, endangered when faced with extreme challenges. I suspect the opposite is the case. Were the Chinese communists to invade this land I have little doubt that we’d find a nation of heroes here. When a virus invades, on the other hand, we sell out at the first opportunity.
The same is true with respect to our faith. Part of the craftiness of the devil is his astonishing capacity to make us miss what is at stake. Put a gun to the average evangelical’s head and offer this choice, “Renounce Christ or die” and I suspect the vast majority would die. If, on the other hand, we are given this choice, “Embrace the spirit of the age or be embarrassed in front of your neighbors” we more often than not choose poorly.
Our calling is to strengthen the things that remain. We need to cultivate an immunity to social embarrassment. We need to move into the home of the brave if we wish to live in the land of the free. We don’t sell our liberty for security for two reasons. First because liberty is far too precious to be bought with the copper coins and dross of security. Second because those selling security are always out of stock.
I’m once again not taking a stand on vaccines, masks or social distancing. Everyone is free, so far, to do as they wish on those matters. The cultural push, and the cultural putsch that drives it, however, is toward tyranny. Trust not in princes. Find peace in the reign of the Prince of Peace.
One would need to be a Scrooge indeed to begrudge those who deny Jesus the happiness they enjoy on the occasion of the celebration of His birth. Jesus is for those who rest in Him, but He has indeed blessed the whole world. That said, there comes a time in everyone’s life for the airing of grievances and I have a whopper of a grievance with the world. It is simply this- what business do you, who believe you came from the primordial ooze by accident, who believe you will go to the dust and no longer even exist, who believe the entirety of the universe is just a thing with no meaning, have celebrating anything?
If all there is in the universe is matter and energy there is no reason whatsoever to value one day over another, one person over another, one choice over another. There is no room for making decisions of any kind because we seek always to choose the better. If there is no good there can be no better. Our choices are both random and meaningless. This holiday season I’ve seen your sentimental bromides about hope and kindness. Trouble is, you have no hope of any kind. You have no reason to suggest that hope is better than despair, nor kindness better than cruelty.
The story is told of the scientist who boasted to God that he was His equal, and could also create a man. God accepted the challenge and the scientist began scooping together bits of ground until God said, “Whoa, wait a minute. Get your own dirt.” In like manner you cannot dunk on Christian holidays grounded in God’s goodness and then build your own out of… what? It even fails inside out. That is, if central to “Festivus,” that holiday the writers of Seinfeld created for the hip heathen, is the “airing of grievances” I’m left to ask “On what basis could anyone ever have a grievance?” If I stole your marble rye, or lost your immigration papers or laughter while you were being mugged you have no ground to complain if there is no transcendent moral standard. Karma is perpetually lost when there is no roadmap.
I get the distaste unbelievers have toward believers. Their grievances against us have no standing from where they are coming from, but often do from where we’re standing. That is, we fall short of God’s standard, which standard they deny exists. To reject Him because we fail to measure up is to reject the very concept of measurement and therefore of failure.
My goal, however, is not to simply scold unbelievers for their unauthorized borrowing of our blessings but to invite them to actually own them. He gives freely to all who seek Him. Knock and the door will be opened. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You will have something to celebrate and Someone to thank. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, of which I am chief. By His perfect life, atoning death and vindicating resurrection I am redeemed and loved. Come and join the family.
