Imagine, if you would, there was a small group of men caught up in a bizarre and hungry ideology. Imagine they were committed to doing whatever it takes to enjoy the blessings of power and influence. Their stratagems ranged from sophisticated propaganda to political machinations to raw violence to quell those who stood in their way. Imagine that they had infiltrated the schools of the nation, and were about the business of indoctrinating the children in their ideology. Finally, imagine that this fringe group was so consumed with hatred toward the religious people of their land who once had wielded influence that they wanted them silenced or destroyed. What should, in this context the church do?
Before we answer we have to confess that the ideology is not a direct assault on any of our most ancient creeds. Our Lord never spoke specifically against the peculiar sin that animated this small group. There may be a few obscure texts in the Bible that, indirectly it would seem, touch on the sin. But truth be told, one could preach through the whole Bible without ever having to actually name the twisted doctrine of this group.
Some would argue that if we don’t preach where the battle is, we are not preaching at all. The late Francis Schaeffer, in his book, The Great Evangelical Disaster, quotes Martin Luther as saying-
“If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.”
Others, however, insist that the church should never be held hostage by the issues of the day, that our message transcends petty political squabbles. We are, after all, called to preach the Word, to make disciples of the nations. When we take sides on political issues we lose our audience and damage our witness. Isn’t it better that we should seek to win the ideologically confused by our love for them? Wasn’t Jesus despised precisely because of His willingness to invest in the sinners of His day? Should we not do the same?
Would it make a difference, which perspective we ought to take, if we were talking not about homosexuality as that ideology, but were instead talking of the Nazis? My description above fits both movements well. When Hitler came to power in Germany the church there faced the same challenge we are just beginning to face. The vast majority of churches in Germany rolled over, determined to keep their mouths shut on the Nazis, that they might maintain their position and their influence. All they salvaged, of course was their shame. A very few, the Confessing Church, took the better position. Many of them, including the courageous Dietrich Bonhoeffer were rewarded for their fidelity with the honor of martyrdom. The church at large, however, when the cries of souls crammed into cattle cars on their way to death camps disturbed their worship, simply chose to sing louder, to drown out those cries.
Some would argue that the comparison is unfair. I might have so argued not long ago. When, however, private citizens can be jailed for the crime of not embracing gay “marriage,” for preaching marriage is one man and one woman, we ought to at least begin to see the handwriting on the wall. “Homo-fascism” isn’t incendiary rhetoric. “You will be forced to care” isn’t a humorous exaggeration. These are instead the beginning of a new world and a new challenge. The question is, will the church preach the gospel at the point of attack, or will we merely sing louder?
Listen in as we celebrate our redemption to the uttermost, the fullness of His promises, new and imperishable bodies inhabiting a new heavens and a new earth. GLORY!
Thesis 75- We Must Wash Our Wives in the Word
How easy it is to be shocked at the wrong thing. Ephesians chapter 5 brings us a frightening analogy. Paul tells us that the relationship between a husband and wife is akin to the relationship between Jesus and the church. I know it’s frightening that in this text wives are called to submit to their own husbands. What is more frightening, however, is the call on the husbands. We are commanded to love our wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. (Ephesians 5:25)
We’re supposed to die for our wives, to lay down our lives for them as Christ did for us. That, however, as shocking as it may be, is still not the most shocking thing in this chapter. Paul goes on to describe something even more scary about this relationship-
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; (26-28).
Jesus is about the business of washing His bride. We husbands are supposed to be doing the same. Our tool is the Word of God. We, like the prophets of old, bring God’s Word to bear. How do we do so? We start with ourselves. When we are unwashed our attempts to cleanse just make things worse. We need to bathe in God’s Word, to continuously scrub away, by His Spirit, every blot and blemish. We lead by example, acknowledging our dependence on His grace. There are precious things more powerful in leading anyone under our care into greater obedience than for us to grow into greater obedience and for us to repent for our failures.
Which makes it all the more scary. We ought to know just how far we have to go. We don’t feel qualified, equipped. We instead feel terrified and overwhelmed. We feel failure breathing down our neck, our conscience and the devil together reminding us of just how far we have to go. All of which is destined to wash from our selves the stain of self-reliance. The most important thing we can do in taking up this God-given call, is to pray for strength, wisdom, perseverance, insight, faith. We husbands are to go the church’s Husband and ask Him to wash from us our fear and our failure.
We are, in short, to repent and believe the gospel. We are to turn from our sin, affirm our dependence on His grace, and believe in the sufficiency of His provision. The solution to our failures as husbands is the success of the church’s Husband. Reformation comes as the bride of Christ submits to the ongoing work of her Husband. Part of that is husbands following in His path. More of that is husbands looking to His cross and leading our joint heirs of His grace there.
Certain people have created some level of controversy over this question. Some seem to believe that when we bring our petitions before the Lord we are exhibiting a lack of faith if we acknowledge our desire that His will be done rather than ours. This purportedly a. casts a shadow on God’s character, for of course He lives for nothing other than doing our will and b. binds God’s hands such that He cannot bless us, because of our lack of faith. We are, according to this perspective, to pray believing that what we think is best is best. They also expect us to believe God has already given us what we are about to ask for.
Poor Jesus
If only Jesus had been blessed with the eyes of faith. There are multiple reasons why this perspective is out of whack. None is more potent, however, than the obvious example of our Lord and Savior, the spotless Lamb of God, praying in just this way. On the night in which He was betrayed, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that the cup He was facing would pass. That cup, the wrath of the Father, was about to be poured out on Him. Jesus, understandably, asked if there were any other way possible for His bride to be redeemed. Was there some plan b available, and if so, could He please take it?
Plan B
“Nevertheless,” He prayed, “not My will but Thine be done.” Did Jesus lack faith in His Father? Was His Father just about to say, “Yes, there is a plan b. Much less painful for You, and just as redeeming for them. Let me tell… What? Did You just say, ‘Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done?’ Oh Ye of little faith. Now I have no choice but to follow plan A. Such a pity.” How preposterous.
Following Jesus
If Jesus prayed this way, and He did, how much more should I? Have you ever prayed something foolish? Have you ever asked Him for something that would harm you or others? Do you really think that He, as our loving Father, would give us gifts that harm us, if we ask for them?
Resting
This error carries with it the aggravating circumstance of spiritual pride. It argues that refusing to pray, “Nevertheless not my will but Thine be done” is a deeper exhibition of faith, that praying such exhibits a woeful lack of faith. Which position, however, requires the greater faith? That depends a great deal on what we mean by faith. In one sense it takes a great deal of faith to believe that our desires not only can but should trump God’s will. It takes a faith on par with believing up is down, in is out and the moon is made of green cheese. That prayer, however, that requires more trust, a deeper belief in, resting in, God’s goodness and power, is the prayer of Jesus- Father, You know best. I trust You. Do as You wilt. As we pray such with Jesus we say with Him, “Father, into Your hand we commit our spirits.
It would be our expectation that a given culture would follow the pattern of the riddle of the Sphinx. Oedipus was asked- what begins on four legs, moves to two, and ends with three? Oedipus was allowed to pass on his way because he recognized this as man. We begin as babies, crawling on all fours. As we mature we move to walking. But as age comes, we require the aid of a cane to get around. Cultures do begin young, and then they mature. But I’m not sure that the end looks like an old man with a cane. I’m afraid that we may go out less with a whimper than a whine. We will be wearing pampers, not Depends, and drinking formula rather than prune juice. We will not die, culturally speaking, of too little energy, but too little maturity. We’re going to baby ourselves to death.
When the future comes to dig among our ruins, what will they find? Not long ago it became something of a fashion craze for adults to wear pacifiers around their necks. They’ll find us buried in underwear by SpongeBob Squarepants. They’ll find that we fashion our movies out of comic books and our favorite streaming shows from when we were kids. And then they’ll find us curled around our idols, cups from Starbucks, our bottles of choice.
Cultural decline is recognized less by gross moral failure, and more by movement away from the vestiges of the image of God in us. We are moving away from ourselves, for instance, when we move away from our calling. The dominion mandate not only abides for believers after the fall, but is essential to what all men are. But we, because we are children, no longer build. Instead we consume. This is true not only in terms of “work” as such, but in terms of culture as well. We are mining our pasts, consuming our parents. Our architecture copies older forms, at random, not to honor them, but to save the trouble of making any progress. Our visual art looks more like a child’s temper tantrum, than an adult seeking to see the world through God’s eyes.
Economically speaking, it is the same. Children, by and large, consume more than they produce. Which is exactly what we do. I spent years bemoaning the evil of government debt, only to discover that it is dwarfed by consumer debt in this country. It doesn’t take a government bureaucrat to be a fool. Ordinary citizens do just fine. An adult labors to leave a heritage to his descendants. A child simply consumes. An adult is someone who delays gratification now, for the sake of the future. A child lives for today. We have an economy of Mcjobs because we have a workforce of Mcchildren.
We have our meals cooked for us at the supermarket, and our entertainment provided through 5G. Even the “engine of growth” that is the internet is dominated by sites providing tools for shameful, juvenile behavior. Our heroes are adults who play children’s games. Hollywood is a shrine to the fun of playing dress up. And every city of size has its skyline dotted with temples dedicated to men playing little league for pay.
We finish school now in our mid-twenties, if all goes well. We marry even later than that. We begin, if we manage to do so at all, to save money in our thirties, after we have paid off the debt we accumulated along the way. And then, being the mature people that we are, we start plotting out early retirement, so we can play more sooner. Once we hit that age, we start clamoring to our Uncle Sam to take better care of us. From cradle to grave we long for the cradle, and march inexorably to the grave. And all along the way we rush off to the gym, or the cosmetics counter, or the hairdresser, or the plastic surgeon, all so we can hide what the Bible says we should be pleased with, that we are growing older.
Worse than all this folly that so infects the broader culture is that we in the church have drunk so deep of it. Our Book commands that we honor our fathers and mothers, but we treat them just like our neighbors treat their mothers and fathers, as burdens to be managed, rather than resources to learn from. Our Book tells us to honor the hoary head, but we cover it over with hair coloring. Our Book instructs us that we should seek out wisdom, that we should aspire to become patriarchs and matriarchs, and we at best joke about and at worst lie about our age.
This is an opportunity, a chance to be a city shining on a hill. If we would jettison the foolishness of our age, and begin to honor age, we would not only stand out, but we would be blessed as well. Remember that our Father not only calls us to honor our fathers and mothers, but promises that if we will, it will go well for us in the land. If we would honor age, we would be blessed with wisdom from on high. If we would speak well of our fathers, if we would rise up and call them blessed, then our Father in heaven would speak well of us, He would rise up and call us blessed. The call here isn’t to turn our back on the exciting, flashy and new to embrace the drab and dusty. Instead it is to enter into riches, to a wealth that is immune to rust and moth. When we honor those who have entered their golden years, when we long ourselves to enter into our golden years, then we will have a harvest of gold. Then we will have gold to pass on to our children, who will in turn cause us to stand in the gates.
How easy it is for us to find comfort in the distance between us and hardship. We know famines happen, but not here. We know political dissent is repressed, but not here. We know Christians are persecuted. But not here. The first century church was known for its capacity to identify with brethren in differing nations, experiencing different hardships. We, on the other hand, can be counted on to support famine relief and say a prayer for the persecuted. And then we can be counted on to forget.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Our Lord, however, is bringing the blessing of persecution closer to home. In the past month two ministers of the gospel, one in Canada and the other in England, surely the two nations on the planet most like our own, have been dragged off to jail for the crime of publicly preaching and proclaiming the Word of God. Another congregation, also in Canada, has had its building seized by the state for the same offense. Two offended the ruling elite by not buying into the bio-terror and meeting to worship the One whom they fear. The other offended the ruling elite by reading what they Bible has to say about marriage being between one man and one woman.
Removing the Offense?
The temptation we face, knowing this is coming near, is to look for ways to avoid trouble. How can we keep from stepping on the landmine, from walking into the crosshairs of the state? How can we not offend, while not removing the offense of the gospel? While it is certainly possible to offend without the offense of the gospel, there is no way to remove the offense of the gospel and keep the gospel. What we fail to realize is that we are hated because of our very reason for being. The offense is not a bug, but a feature. We are hated for acknowledging that we are sinners. We are hated for affirming our dependence on His grace. We are hated for believing we are forgiven and beloved of the Father.
No King But Christ
The greatest offense of the gospel to the world, however, is right here- Jesus reigns. They, in the end, just as it was in the first century, can abide no ruler above them, nor anyone who acknowledges such. The Roman government didn’t give a hoot what any of its citizens thought about sin and substitutionary atonement or resurrection or repentance or forgiveness. They were perfectly content to let Christians believe in these things and proclaim them to the world. As long as the Christians were willing to confess the one sacred truth of Rome, Kaiser ho Kurios– Caesar is Lord.
The Blood of the Saints
Christians were dipped in pitch, tied to stakes and lit on fire to bring light to Nero’s garden parties. They were crucified, one beside the other for mile after mile on the Appian Way. They were used for entertainment as wild beasts tore them to pieces in the Coliseum. Not because of any theological dispute. Not because of a philosophical dispute. But because of one dispute- who is Lord. The very first creed of the church was this, Christos ho Kurios– Christ is Lord.
No Neutral Ground
We will be able to live in peace with our neighbors. We will not have to face the loss of our church buildings, jail time for preachers, social ostracism nor death, so long as we are willing to deny the Lordship of Christ. Gather or not. Mask or not. Vaccinate or not. Approve perversion or not. It’s all just distraction and misdirection. No strategy will save us. We’re going to have to serve somebody.
