Hurray for Pentecost

I like that title above but I am confused.   Why don't I hear more people giving their "hur - ray-s" for Pentecost?   It is the fulfillment of Christmas, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.   Without Pentecost we would be remembering a historical Christ who said good things, died, rose and went to heaven.  At His Ascension Jesus bodily said "Goodbye" to the world.  But at Pentecost God returned to our world in a way that fulfilled all prophecies.   Because of Pentecost not only do we have God with us but now God in us.

There is a great connection between Ezekiel 37 and Acts 2 and it all has to do with dry bones.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit took our dead, dry bones and filled them with the life of Christ and sent us out to make disciples of all nations.  Read these two scriptures and put them together and see what happens.

Why isn't Pentecost celebrated more?  It's because we are scared about what Pentecost means, after all the Holy Spirit descended to put the disciples to work.  And it was hard, dangerous work.  They were to go out into those same streets where Jesus carried His cross and openly proclaim that Jesus is Lord and that without Him they will perish.   This is the same message we are sent out with and one which intimidates us greatly.  We deny the gifts, abhor the power and let people go on thinking they are OK with God without Christ.  

What we forget is that we never go alone or in our own power.  It's not our Gospel, it is God's Gospel.  It is not our power it is the Holy Spirit in us.   WE go not on our timing but on God's timing.  We go because we care about our fellow humans that they believe the message of Peter's first sermon on Pentecost "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

I want to end with a little of Ezekiel's prophecy which I believe were fulfilled by Pentecost   "Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

What about the Apocrypha?

       Our church's Sunday school is studying the Westminster Confession.  In the first chapter it tells what is in the Bible and what is not.  Here is what it says about these extra biblical books which Catholics and some Anglicans accept as part of the Bible.   "The books usually called the Apocrypha are not divinely inspired and are not part of the canon of Scripture.  They therefore have no authority in the church of God and are not to be valued or used as anything other than human writings."

          Having went 12 years to Catholic school I was exposed to the Apocrypha at an early age.  But not very much for even the Catholics do not use it much.  But when it comes to fighting they will defend these books tooth and nail.

          So what do we as believers in God's word do with this situation?  The answer is to defend the Canon of Scripture.  I explain the word "canon" (which is the ancient way of discerning what is God's Word and not God's Word) like this.   The literal word "Canon" means "measuring rod". Many people around here have oil furnaces.  To measure how much oil is in the tank you take a rod (canon) and stick it in the tank and when you pull it out it tells you what oil is in there.  The Jews in ancient times discerned the "canon" of the Old Testament which did not include these books.

        In my research here it what it says for the New Testament.  The process of the recognition and collection began in the first centuries of the Christian church.  The councils followed something similar to the following principles to determine whether a New Testament book was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit: 1) Was the author an apostle or have a close connection with an apostle? 2) Is the book being accepted by the body of Christ at large? 3) Did the book contain consistency of doctrine and orthodox teaching? 4) Did the book bear evidence of high moral and spiritual values that would reflect a work of the Holy Spirit? 

     It is crucial to remember that the church did not determine the canon. No early church council decided on the canon. It was God, and God alone, who determined which books belonged in the Bible. It was simply a matter of God’s imparting to His followers what He had already decided. The human process of collecting the books of the Bible was flawed, but God, in His sovereignty, and despite our ignorance and stubbornness, brought the early church to the recognition of the books He had inspired.

          Now that you understand the canon let us see why the Apocrypha does not fit it.

1.  It was rejected by Jesus and the apostles.  Nowhere do we see quotes of any of these books used by Jesus or the apostles.  

2.  Jesus rejected the Apocrypha when He referred to the bible as from the blood of Able (Gen. 4)  to the blood of  Zechariah (2 Chron.)  in Matthew 23:35.  This is a description of the Jewish canon which spoke of the blood of the first martyr to the last.  Jewish scriptures end by putting 2nd Chron. as the last book of the Old Testament with the other Biblical books before it.  

3.  The Apocrypha was not a part of Jewish scripture. The Jewish community rejected it.  Look at Romans 3:2 and see why we accept the Jewish canon.

4.  The Dead Sea scrolls have no apocrypha commentaries because it was not accepted as scripture.

5.  Many ancient Jewish authorities openly rejected the Apocrypha.  Josephus and Philo said that scriptures ceased before the Apocrypha was written.

6.  The Roman Catholic church did not accept the Apocrypha until the Council of Trent and it was in reaction to the Protestant Reformation.  It did not accept it before that.

7.  The early Church fathers did not accept it.  Jerome who translated the Bible into what is known as the Vulgate (the Catholic bible)  did not put it in.

8.  The Apocrypha was placed in the Catholic bible during and after Trent but in a separate section known as Deuterocanonical book so they even admit it was not a part of the original canon.

Now we come to the crux - what does it matter if they are in or out of the bible?   A Great Big Deal! From these books comes what separates Catholics from Protestants.

 These false canonical books support some of the things that the Roman Catholic Church believes and practices which are not in agreement with the Bible. Examples are praying for the dead, petitioning “saints” in Heaven for their prayers, worshipping angels, and “alms giving” atoning for sins. Some of what the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonicals say is true and correct. However, due to the historical and theological errors, the books must be viewed as fallible historical and religious documents, not as the inspired, authoritative Word of God.

As a growing up Catholic, being an altar boy, in religion class every day, these books scared me.  I was taught that the bible was a dangerous book.  The Apocrypha, it was inferred, were extremely dangerous books.   I now know that it is because they were not God breathed and unlike the Bible were the writings of men.

So if you ever give me a bible make sure that no Apocrypha is in there.  

Why churches fail

           Have you ever been to a church that just has written all over it "forlorn"?   Maybe the place is showing signs of decay.  Words like, outdated, dusty, not cared for, unfriendly, cold or liberal come to my mind.  You look around and see lots of empty pews, no children or young people, frowns, and gossip.
           I once guest preached in a church in Nebraska.  It was just down the road from a big camp.  The building was brand new.  The moment I entered that church I thought "God's Holy Spirit is not here".  I arrived early so I could go to Sunday school.  I don't remember anyone inviting me to a class.  In fact I don't remember anyone even warmly greeting me.  In fact I don't even remember anyone noticing me.  An elder came up and said, there's the pulpit, here's a bulletin and that's about all.  I remember sitting alone in a pew waiting.   When the service began people filtered in.  None of them were very happy.   I tried to lighten things up by saying "We are here to worship God, no frowns here, where's the smiles?"  It went over like a led balloon.  After worship I stood at the door and greeted people.  And what did I get-- "Fish eyes" - those kind of eyes you get from a dead fish laying on a counter ready to be filleted.  The handshakes were not that warm and friendly either.  And from the sanctuary I heard a couple of people fighting over whose job it was to change the light bulbs in the chandelier.   There was so much potential for that church and yet it was dead.  I never fully figured it out.  I knew their former pastor didn't believe the Bible was God's Word or that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved.  I wondered what he preached.  I knew that they chewed up and spit out their next pastor because of being involved in the Pro-life cause.  I know that Christ can raise up any old dead body but if He hasn't, that church may still exist but it is dead.
         What makes a living church?  First, God must be present and working through the people.  Without Christ filled people you have a building but not a Church.  God forms His Church when we allow Him to lead us and we follow.  That is extremely important because many churches today are like lost sheep who have gone astray.
           Another thing that makes a living Church is where people build up their faith to be a blessing to others.  A Church is procreative - it exists not only for the people who come but for those who don't.  A Church must never differentiate itself from its community because the Church exists for the community.  We must be ready for Christ to lead us to invite people to worship, education and service.  To do this Church people must pray, know God's Word, be open to discuss it and look for opportunities to share it.  Rather than fighting over whose job it is to change the light bulbs we should be arguing over the best ways to reach the world for Christ.  This goes for a huge mega church and a teeny, tiny country church.
            A Church must be willing to struggle - not resting on our laurels of the past but struggling for God's vision for our future.  We must never give up or forget who are our friends and who are our enemies.  Too many churches today are like cannibals - we eat alive our own.  We are too fast to blame and to cut down and to deny opportunities for its members to use their spiritual gifts.  And then they wonder why they are not growing.  You have a few people who have done everything forever and when they are gone no one is there to take their place.  A Church trains up its replacements many-fold and provides opportunities to grow.  I have seen in later years that fewer people are doing more and more in the Church.  This offers little hope for the future or it means our replacements are going to have to jump in unprepared.
            A Church loves its community.  This is very hard to do when we are not a part of the community.  Over time many Christians form cliques that they feel comfortable with.  This makes it very hard for new people to break in with new friendships.  We live in a "keep it to yourself" world when Christ still sends us out to make disciples and teach.  How can we "teach all that Christ commands" when we keep it to ourselves because we are embarrassed we don't pray enough, don't know the Word well, and live our lives with little difference from the pagans down the street?   God will open doors to any Church who takes seriously His Word and Will.
           Finally a Church has a vision to what God has planned for the future.  If we are faithful to His Word we will find it living in our midst and very attractive to meet the needs of the world.  People come to Church because they have needs.  They are lonely and lost, sick of sin, and feeling hopeless.  And yet many churches go to great lengths to keep these people away from us because they make us feel uncomfortable.  They may want or need something from us that we are supposed to have and don't, or at least don't want to share.
          Can you see what I am saying here?  There is great hope for the Church but little hope for churches who have forgotten how to be the Church.   May the Lord send us revival to melt the ice, blow away the dust and send us out equipped to be what we need to be.   AMEN


PS:  Hey, did I just preach a sermon???

The Original Christmas Gift

A blessed Christmas to each of you and a blessed 2013 as well,

      Most of you will receive gifts of clothing, electronics, toys, candy or other things this year. Most people think that is what Christmas is about - spending and giving, getting and using.  For the marketplace this is what makes the Holiday bright.

      The original Christmas gift is much more needed.  It is summed up in John 3:16 "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that those who believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." Note the words "those who believe in Him"!   A gift is only good when it is received and to receive Christmas you must "believe in Him" - Christ the Lord.

      This is the first Christmas Mountville Church and I will be in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  We left the Presbyterian Church, USA because we were convinced the PCUSA has gone spiritually insane.  Instead of "believing in Him" the PCUSA has turned to flinging itself headfirst away from Christ into abortion support, gay rights, feminism and a host of other unbiblical things.

     But enough of that - we have escaped Sodom and are now in a church that holds to the Bible.  Most all say they believe in the bible in some way but the EPC qualifies this by mandating faith in the Westminster standards.

   Here is how Wikpedia defines it:  "In 1643, the English Parliament called upon "learned, godly and judicious Divines", to meet atWestminster Abbey in order to provide advice on issues of worship, doctrine, government and discipline of the Church of England. Their meetings, over a period of five years, produced the confession of faith, as well as a Larger Catechism and a Shorter Catechism. For more than three centuries, various churches around the world have adopted the confession and the catechisms as their standards of doctrine, subordinate to the Bible."

   The English Parliament was Presbyterian at that time.  It was a hard time in England.  King Henry VIII had torn the English church away from Rome.  In following years Catholics and Protestants fought for power and killed and tortured each other depending upon who was in power at the time.  The abuses of the Kings and Queens were so bad Oliver Cromwell instituted a Commonwealth in England run by the Parliament and the libertines were cast out of government (wish that could happen today!)

     Now England needed to know what she believed and Parliament asked the divines (including Presbyterian pastors) to summarize what the Bible teaches.  They came up with the Westminster Confession which deals with just about every topic you want to know, and many you would rather forget.  It was so biblically acute and accurate it has stood the test of 400 years +.  It became the test of whether a person could be a member of the church and clergy were mandated to receive it as the system of faith and doctrine the scriptures teach.

    We have gone through a period of history that belief in the Bible has been scrutinized with the German Liberals (and you wonder why they lost two world wars?) and American intellectuals (who bow before them). 

    As we enter 2013 it is wonderful to be a part of a denomination that holds to these Westminster standards.  We would not be forced to bow to the present day false secular gods and we never will.  We would rather fight than switch.  And God will honor our faithfulness.  The Evangelical Presbyterian Church knows what it stands for and is a younger growing church.  This is the denomination that will change the world while the PCUSA will fade as all who stray away from truth fade away.

    As we celebrate Christmas and enter a new year it is an honor to be finally free from the heresies that have troubled us in the past.  May Christ lead us all into a great new year.
                                   Pastor Don Hurray

The Blessings and Travails of Vacation

                When God created man and woman He placed them in a garden and told them to tend it.   But in the creation God rested on the 7^th day so I am sure He instructed Adam and Eve to take a time away for special rest away from the fruits and vegetables and snakes.  When God rescued the Children of Abraham from Egyptian slavery and guided Moses as he led them through the desert, He called Moses up on Mt. Sinai and gave him commandments for His people.  The fourth commandment was to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”.   There has been a lot of discussion ever since about what God intended in that commandment.  It has been applied to many things including vacations.

                To be honest I have mixed feelings about vacations.  It is a lot of work trying to figure out dates to be away, getting all your work done before you leave and then to come back and try to catch up on all you have missed.  And then there is the problem of figuring out where to go and what to do.  So in some way I long for vacations and in other ways I dread vacations.  Not only dread, but feel guilty about leaving things untended.

                This year Lauren and I have traveled rather far and experienced a great vacation.  Not that it was a rest, per SE.  We still got up before 7 am most mornings and many nights were not in bed till after 11 pm.  But the things that delighted us with rest were to visit other churches and to meet other Christians.  This month we spent some days in Washington DC with our son and another some days traveling to Boston, Cape Cod and Salem, Mass.

                Driving to Washington, DC is tiring.  Driving in Washington, DC is a disaster.  Our son arranged us to have a guest room in the development he lives in, in the Cleveland Park section, near Georgetown.  I am glad we have a GPS because it was no fun trying to figure out where to travel.  From going 65 mph on the Beltway to going 5 mph or less on the streets of Washington took adjustment.  I heard a lot of beeps from behind me if I wasn't going fast enough or tried to get into another lane.  But once there Stefan gave us a pass to park on the street by his place.  In fact, we parked right in front of the Kuwaiti Embassy all week.  I hoped that no one would plant a bomb in the car and they didn't.  We planned to take the Subway everywhere.  But we didn't.  We decided to walk to Marjorie Post’s house for a tour which Stefan said was only a mile away.  Because of a lack of signs Lauren and I kept walking and walking until we were in such a strange neighborhood we got scared and lost.  We finally turned around and found our way to this mansion filled with Russian Orthodox robes and Icons and other treasures she saved when she lived with her husband, the American Ambassador to Russia in the 1930s.  Looking at the beautiful gold chalices and beautiful robes we heard that the Communists piled all the stuff in a warehouse after killing the priests and blowing up many historical churches and they were going to melt it all down and get rid of it.  But the USSR needed cash and so offered foreign diplomats to buy the stuff at scrap cost.  Marjorie Post bought everything she could and brought it back to the USA.  There was one beautiful communion cup from St. Peter’s Church in St. Petersburg that was encrusted with diamonds and rubies and other precious jewels that sparkled all over.  It took 3 hours to see her house and all her knickknacks and the beautiful gardens that surrounded her mansion.  The next day we went to Alexandria, VA and Stefan said it only took 15 minutes to drive and over an hour on the Subway.  Well we drove and got stuck in a traffic jam in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial for what seemed like hours.  I never realized how big that monument was until I saw people at the base and they looked like ants in comparison to the size of that statue.  And the flag the soldiers held must have been very huge.  We didn’t spend much time in Alexandria because we kept worrying our meter would expire and they would tow our car away.  We are definitely not city folk, we like the country where you can park your car wherever you want to.  Eating out was not fun for me.  In fact I dread eating out, I even hate eating out.  That is because they always put that nice big basket of bread and butter in front of you and I can’t eat it.  Although I was so hungry that at a German restaurant in Georgetown I ate 3 pieces and hoped the Germans didn’t use Gluten in their flour.  I didn’t get sick as expected but I felt like a guilty sinner and Lauren didn’t give me absolution.  We had a wonderful time being away especially seeing all the beautiful churches.  I had a conversation with the girl at the front desk of the place we stayed.  She was from Eritrea which is next to Somalia and Ethiopia.  She was a Christian and told me stories about how the Christians there are suffering under Moslem domination.  Churches are being burned down and Christians are being killed for not denying Jesus.  It was a refreshing time away, a sort of Sabbath away from usual work and it was nice.  Even the ride home, which I hate driving, was beautiful with the changing leaves.

            The second week we went with another pastor and his wife to Boston, Cape Cod and Salem.  I didn’t have to drive at all, just enjoy the long, long, loooonnnng ride.  We went through many churches in Boston on the Freedom trail and saw Paul Revere’s grave as well as President Adams grave and in Salem the grave of a Richard Moore who was on the Mayflower (probably one of Tom’s relatives).  We walked around in the Old North Church where Paul Revere hung his lanterns and we had a great tour of the USS Constitution.   Cape Cod was gorgeous and although the beaches were beautiful the water was 58degrees cold.  I still walked in the wonderful green sea until my feet turned blue.  I could have stayed on that Beech for days and walked on the many sand dunes everywhere but the others were hungry to get their Gluten.  We ate at this restaurant in Province where lunch starts at about $30.  I had the smallest lobster for that price and I was surprised it was gone in about three bites. The only thing it came with was a tiny potato and a bowl of salad.  But they put this beautiful basket of homemade breads there.  I just had to have a bite, then a piece before the others took the basket away from me.  The looks I got!  But I’m back on the wagon again so don’t offer me any bread.  It took forever to drive from our hotel to Salem and we wondered who wanted to go there in the first place.  It prides itself on being witch city.  And we saw a lot of strange people there, witches, psychics, tarot card readers, and a lot of teens out for a carnival.  The only nice thing we saw was the old graveyard with Mayflower people and the House of Seven Gables.  I asked my friend what he liked about Salem and he replied “The view of it in my rear view mirror as we left.”  We left just in time for that hurricane to make its presence felt and drove home in the rain. 

            Now why did I tell you all this?  It’s about the Sabbath.  I think we all need a break sometimes from the daily grind and get away and see the beauty of the Lord wherever we go.  I enjoyed going to church at other places and meet other people and see how they worship God.  I can see that in that we found rest in the Lord as He put our lives in perspective and gave us rest.

            Hope that you had or will have a great vacation in 2012.

                        

Breathless - evil in action

Movie Breathless – a study in attractive evil

 

My son was home for the weekend and brought 2 Netflex movies.  We don’t get to see many movies so we sat down to the a 1960 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and Godard's first feature film. It was one of the first and most influential films of the French New Wave. At the time, the film attracted much attention for its bold visual style and the innovative use of jump cuts.

                My wife watched the movie for 5 minutes and got up and left.  She had good discernment that this was not a movie she would like.  Yet it was an attractive and beautiful movie.   It began with a young man named Michel driving a 1955 Buick through the beautiful French countryside headed for Italy.  He is screaming and making comments about the cheap, inferior French cars that he passed on the road.  Passing one car he attracts the attention of 2 French motorcycle policemen who pursue him.  He pulls onto a side road, stops and when one of the cops approaches him pulls his gun and shots him dead.  Then he flees to Paris to get more money so he can go to his dreamland of Italy where his criminal behavior will be hidden.  He is a real criminal as we see more and more.  His idol is Humpry Bogart.  He is strong, handsome and very talented at stealing, hurting people and murder.  He has many female admirers.  That is one of the themes this movie examines, why beautiful women are attracted to evil men who use them  and cast them off.  He first goes to an apartment of a beautiful woman who he criticizes for her looks then steals her money.  Then he goes to a beautiful American student who he also uses.  This woman he has made pregnant and she seems to know the angle – she insinuates "Show me you love me and marry me and make this right".   He merely tells her that she goofed up and she would have to handle it herself.  Then her two emotions come together – love and hate which rescues him many times in the film from the pursuing police but in the end she is the Judas who betrays him to the police who shoot him in the back.  As he lies dying  on a Paris street she stands over him waiting for his last words to be of how he loved her.  He merely says “You make me puke” and dies.

          What was so disturbing in the film is how a part of us is attracted by evil and a desire to believe that evil has a beautiful side that will make an exception for us and provide us with love.  The man brags to this woman about how many women he has had and openly admits he is using her and she accepts it because she has the hots for him.  He is honest, “you need me but  I don’t need you.”  But somewhat like Eve looking at the fruit she wants to believe “This man will love me, marry me and fulfill me.”  Oh, well, fooled again!  Throughout the movie she says she is confused.  Not at all, she simply doesn't want to accept reality.   

                The film shows the French love of American cars, actors and a desire to live out the Hollywood image of strong men who do evil but like “Bogy” have a good inner spot.  It is evident to everyone but the women he attracts and uses that this guy has no good inner spot.  He uses people and abuses them.  He makes his living knocking people out, stealing their wallets and their cars.  But evidently he is attractive and desirable.  The American girl he used admired his contacts with the French crime underground who attempt to help him.  She likes driving around Paris in the stolen cars.  She seems to enjoy lying to the police and in the end enjoys turning her lover in to them.  She has learned well from him.  She also learned well from her liberal artistic teachers and mentions many liberal authors from the early 1960s.  She interviews one and asks what is the difference between love and eroticism.  He answers "Nothing".

                The film gives one brief remark about the beginning of his evilness.  As they run from the police through an old building Michel says that this used to be the old Gestopo building and he knew it well.  It seems even as a child he was taught evil by professionals.  When his girlfriend tells him he has turned him in and the police are coming  he has a moment of hope.  Prison isn’t so bad and maybe I can find some peace there.  But at the last moment he makes a run and is shot down.

                Where was God in the movie?  Was it in the police?  No the police were impersonal  blood hound dogs out to find their victim.   Was it in the good Parisians around them?  No, they looked like paper cutouts or a filmed background.  Was God in the justice he received at the end?  Maybe – at the end Michel was tired of his evil, it bored him as much as the women he used.  He was satisfied that his girlfriend turned him in becasue he was tired of running and hiding.  The question we are left with as we hear his last words “You make me puke!” is what now??   What will God do with Michel?  Will he burn in hell forever?  Will he charm God as he did people around him in life?  Can he manipulate the gates of hell and find a way of escape?  Of course the movie does’t answer those questions.  We are left with a disappointed pregnant girl looking over a man who died saying she made him puke and wonder “what’s she going to do with his baby?”

         What can be learned from the movie?  I saw that evil is impersonal and blind to love althought it gives the impression that underneath is something beautiful and good (BUT ISN”T).  It’s about humans attracted to the fast, easy life that leads to death.  And its about beautiful women who throw it all away in the quest of naughtyness and rebellion (shades of EVE in the garden).   I am also quite sure that many people looking at this movie will be excited about this exciting man and not see the things I saw in him.  Oh, well the cuteness of evil goes on.  My son asked me about the movie and I said “that man was evil”.  He said “Isn’t evil a harsh word?”   Uh hunh – the deception goes on!!

HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE?

    

Each summer our church gives our adult Sunday School teachers a break. Instead of a classroom experience we view Christian videos and discuss them.

This past summer we used Francis Schaeffer's course on "How should we then live?" I know what you are thinking "Francis Schaeffer"? Hasn't he been dead for many years? I remember him from back in the 1970s. True, true, true! But what he wrote back in the 1970s has come to roost in our time and place.

Schaeffer predicted the social breakdown and violence which we are continuing to experience in our nation all these years later. He further predicts violence leading to an authoritarian leader who will steal away our freedoms. Schaeffer said we are not helpless to stop this from happening if we recapture God's Word and plan for humanity. To forget this will result in committing the same horrible tragedies mankind has lived through time and time again.

          Western civilization has its roots in the Roman Empire which took many of its ideas from Ancient Greece. Look at most public buildings and you will see even in architecture these roots of ancient time.

Both Rome and Greece gave us gods made in human images and looked at society, the POLIS as giving meaning to life. They used man made gods and myth to give meaning to life and values for their society. Being manmade, there was no infinite reference point.  Ultimately it became self serving, lazy and non committal. This resulted in the collapse of civic ideals. This resulted in Julius Caesar taking absolute power, even declaring that the Roman Emperors were gods. This authoritarism introduced by Augustus Caesar claimed to give peace and civilization with a republican facade. The Romans, on their part, gave up their freedoms in return for peace and prosperity.  They were willing to offer a pinch in incense claiming "Caesar is God" in return for bread and circuses.

The problem came when this false religion confronted the true religion in Judea. The Romans found in the Jews a people who would not exchange God for a lie even for peace and prosperity. Rome exercised might, destroying Jerusalem and expelling the Jews they thought they were victorious. However Christianity and Judaism were just thrown to the wind taking up residence all through the Roman Empire where their infinite reference point to the true God and His revelation in the Bible confronted the false manmade culture of the Romans.

          What Rome eventually stood for was a taste for cruelty (coliseums), decadent sexuality and a lust for violence, tribute and free bread and circuses.  The decline of Rome was seen in the decline in artistic creativity, economic decline, more expensive government and tighter centralization of power.  The stronger Rome looked the weaker they were on the inside.   Confronted by the true God of love and power more and more Romans became Christians even as the barbarians conquered more and more and the Roman Empire was no more.  Then Christianity exposed the false religion of the barbarians and paganism fell to Christianity.

            The Middle Ages were a time of social, political and intellectual uncertainty.  When Christianity could not be conquered it was instead distorted and absorbed by pagan society.  Under such attack the church turned inward with an emphasis on monastic systems.

            Then came the Renaissance which rediscovered the beauty of Roman culture and reinterpreted it in a Christian light.  Christian and classical elements were confused and the church began defending some pagan ideas such as the earth was the center of the universe and the sun revolved around it.  There was a drift toward a total humanism and mankind tried to make himself independent of God.  However the same weakness of humanism found in Rome and Greece and the same selfishness and greed reoccurred.  The problem was a fogging of right and wrong and nothing for humanism to relate to (such as an infinite God active in the world in Christ).  The church became corrupt and materialistic.  The thirst for Bible knowledge was squelched by a power hungry clergy.

            Then came the Reformation with Hus, Luther, Zwingli, Cromwell and Calvin challenging the hollowness and error of the church.  The great emphasis was on educating the POLIS on the great Solos, solo fide, solo scriptura, sola gratia, etc.  The result was a rejection of Medieval superstition and Renaissance making its authority equal to the Word of God and the finished work of Christ.  There was a move to separate everything pagan from Biblical thought.  The result was a great increase in freedom, productivity and God centeredness.

            Out of the Reformation came the center of the Bible as the absolute base for law and government by law instead of arbitrary government by aristocrats.  The Revolutionary age had humanist and reformation ideas together challenging the corrupt politics of its time.  The American Revolution had its base in scripture, the French Revolution had its base in the Enlightenment and resulted in great bloodshed, violence and authoritarianism. This was seen in the Russian revolution as well as Marxist-Leninism promoting dictatorship, suppression of freedoms and coercion of allies. Since humanism has no absolute way of determining values it always ends in authoritarian rule of might over right.   This was seen in the Industrial Age which exploited people in the quest for expansion and cash.  Christianity again confronted the hollowness of labor exploitation and led movements to free slaves, reform prisons and more humane treatment of employees.

            The Scientific Age began with a quest to know God better through His creation.  It ended with a humanistic view of knowledge being man centered instead of God centered.   The great conflict ensued over creationism vs. evolution.   It also ended with a shift to a new authoritarianism distorting morality and significance.  It ended with such things as natural selection and Nazi ideology.

            Following this came the age of Non-Reason.  Reality and true knowledge was not God centered or even nature centered but man centered.  The result was existentialism and non reason.  Truth was not eternal and unchangeable but experienced differently by different people.  There was no right or wrong, good or evil, just experiences.  This movement led to separation of reason and will and resulted in pessimism and non reason.  Many turned to drugs to find purpose and reason and war against absolutes.  There was a rejection of western ideals and a turning to eastern ideals and a deadness of “god”.  There was a reinterpretation of words and reimaging and manipulating of  society.

            Where are we in all of this?  We are in the era of fragmentation.  The truths of Christianity still stand thousands of years after Rome fell but are continually challenged by the same forces that result in meaninglessness, violence and authoritarianism.  Without a Christian base society will not stand.  Personal Peace and Affluence when achieved are disappointing as they always were.  It is a rejection of society and our interrelatedness and the same selfishness of paganism. 

            What is amazing is that long after Schaeffer’s death we are experiencing this struggle that time has always shown us results in the revival of true religion and prosperity or the revival of paganism which results in violence and authoritarianism.  We are still in process of seeing which our world chooses.