The Reformation of Morals in Society?

World Views I is my favorite class. This is the one with Dr. Wellum, whom you will get to meet in October. For this class we have had to read a book by Francis Schaeffer called How Should We Then Live? Essentially, it is a book that traces the history of western thought for the purpose of better understanding our modern society. The book raises an interesting question: Should Christians fight for social reform? 

Schaeffer would say yes. He is (or was) looking to bring about a sort of “Christian consensus” in society that would provide a basis for government, economy, art, etc. to function. Without a Christian worldview, he argued (I think correctly here), society will crumble. He was not necessarily looking for a truly Christian society, only one that had a Christianized world view. 

First we need to ask the question: Is a society with a “Christian” world view but not many real Christians any better than a society with a pagan world view? I don’t think so. Even though the society may function better on a surface level, the core is still as sinful as ever. Is God any more pleased with a nation that functions better based on a Christian consensus? Again, I don’t think so. God looks at the heart. So should we fight for this in our society? My inclination is to say that since we can never change the heart of a nation, we should spend our energy as missionaries instead! It is also interesting to note that the New Testament apostles did not seem to care much about social reform. Usually they seem to say, “Tape it up and live life.”

But let me qualify that a little. We can establish a few things conclusively. God hates oppression and injustice. He hates it on a national level. And He calls for and even sends people to call for a change at times. Think back to the Old Testament; Jeremiah and Israel and Jonah and Nineveh. I believe that Christian ought to fight against injustice in our society. But here is the key–we are not fighting for the outward reformation of our society in order for it to function better, we are fighting against oppression for the sake of the poor, the widow, orphans, and unborn children. There is a big difference. We are not changing the heart of the nation, we are helping the oppressed. We should do this individually in every day life, and sometimes nationally.

Also, do not think I am advocating a complete indifference to the state of our nation and government. I believe that, because we have to submit to governing authorities, we might as well take what opportunities we have and make that as easy as possible. I certainly don’t mind a society with a Christian world view. So go vote!

Church

Looking for a church here in Louisville has been a different experience for me. Since my early childhood, my family has been on the front end of churches. In other words, my dad started them! So I have never had to look for church in this way before.

In a certain sense, I feel like I’m shopping for a new car. I go to a church, watch it in action (from an objective perspective), and then I ask, “So what kind of deal can you give me?” They then give their sales pitch. That doesn’t feel right. It is a phenomenon foreign to the early church. At that time, there was one church per city. If lived in Corinth, you were a part of the Corinthian Church. It would have been much like Christ Fellowship (remember that cities were not as big back then) with home congregations, etc. But now we have a new problem–many different churches in one area (some just down the street from one another!).

I have come to realize even more how far we have come from the early church model. The pulpit, the pew, the staff, the worship team, the communion table that says, “This do in remembrance of Me,” and even the modern definition of preaching are quite a way off. Really, the model is half Catholic. The reformers were great. They saw a lot of the extraneous formality and deadening institutionalization of the Catholics. But they didn’t quite go far enough in their reformation. The got only half-way. I am increasingly convinced that this country needs a revolution in church life. This is not to say that many great things don’t happen within this kind of church, it just that the model itself is not very conducive to vitality and fellowship.

One example of of the feeling I get can be viewed in the terminology I hear. People say, “I go to this church.” The church is understood subconsciously to be an entity by itself. You go to it. It is an institution. But, biblically, the wording should be something like this: “I am this church. I am a part of this body.” I really had a feeling of being part of the body at CF. I hope I can find that here. 

Having said all of that, I do think I will find a good church. And when I do, I will join it and participate with enthusiasm! It is really not all bad. In fact, I visited a church last Sunday that I enjoyed very much.

I am tired of pulpits, though!

Keep praying.

Classes

I have now officially through the first week of all my classes this semester. Every one of them promises to be really enjoyable. Interestingly, there seems to be an emphasis in almost all of them of a whole-Bible sort of hermeneutic–understanding a text and even our role in the world in light of salvation history. This is something I have been seeing lately in my own study (and if you were in Bible study, it came out there) so it is exciting to study it more deeply.

In case you don’t know, the classes I am taking are Hermeneutics, English Composition II, New Testament Survey I, Old Testament Survey I, and World Views I. If you’re a CF member, you will get to meet our (Laura’s and my) World Views Professor in October. He is preaching at a Heartland meeting.

Pray that I can find a good church here.

College

I’m getting pretty well settled in. Having Benjamin as a room-mate makes things much more comfortable. I mean, I know what he sounds like when he eats cereal, what he smells like after running, and what he’s going to say before he says it 25 percent of the time. He could say the same about me. So there is not the tension of living with some one you don’t know.

I’ve been meeting a lot of new people, some of which could be good friends. Pray that I will make a lot of good friends here.

Emmanuel Baptist (Benjamin and Kayla’s church) is what I visited this morning. I really enjoyed their singing and I was able to worship well. I plan on visiting a few more, but I think I’ll probably end up there.

My first class is tomorrow at 8:30!

CF Bible Study: Major Concepts, Part 1

The goal in the next two weeks is to revisit some of the most memorable and most impactful ideas that have come out of this Bible study over several years. One large reason for doing this is to make them even more memorable and more impactful. In construction, there is a tool that is used to drive a nail in farther into the wood than is possible with the hammer head alone. It is as if these major ideas we have discovered have been driven in to the level of the wood, but no farther. Tonight and next week are the tool we will be using to drive them in farther.

Major Concept #1: The Importance of the Bible

 I don’t remember much from the early days in Colossians and 1 Peter (other than “be weird” and “don’t marry a jerk”) so we will not spend any time there. It all started happening in 2 Peter. Somewhere in the first chapter the intensity level spiked. If you were there, you remember.

2 Peter is a letter about false teachers and teachings. One, principally–false teaching about the second coming of Christ. You can nearly take captive all of what Peter is pushing by looking at chapter 3 verse 18: “You therefore, beloved, knowing this [the existance of false teaching] beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unpricipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Stay away from false teaching and grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. How? For one, false teaching looks like it’s right. How can you guard against it? And growing in grace and knowledge is not as easy as making a decision to do so. How can you gain what is commanded?

Look at the first 2 verses of chapter 3. Here we have the first really major concept from this Bible study. It is not new or complicated. It’s just extremely true.

“This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder [So read carefully. He is giving the whole purpose of his letter here.], that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.”

Think about what that means in our context. How do we remember the words of the prophets (like Isaiah, or Moses, or David)? And how do remember the commandment of Christ through his apostles (like Matthew, or Paul, or John, or Peter)? Quite simply: through the Bible. This is Peter’s object in his letter. Guard against false teaching and grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ by remembering the words of the prophets and the apostles. In other words, for our purposes today, get into the Bible! This was such a good platform to have early on. Thank God for it!     

Major Concept #2: Hastening the Day of the Lord

The second major idea has been, I think, more shaping and more impactful than the first. It comes out of a large chunk of 2 Peter 3.

In verse 12, Peter talks about “looking for and hastening the day of the Lord.” The question is: How do you hasten the day of the Lord? First off, the day of the Lord is predestined? How could you make it come faster?

Remember an illustration I gave about Laura calling me to come downstairs because it was time to go and me saying that I wouldn’t because God had ordained when I would arrive at my destination? We learned here about how God ordains things in ways that include our actions. So, in a way, Peter is saying that we should try to make the day of the Lord to have been ordained sooner!

But how can we do that? Through verses 3-7, Peter predicts the coming of false teacher who will mock the coming of the day of the Lord. Their reasoning will be, “Nothing has happened yet, so nothing will happen in the future.” Peter explains that they underestimate the power of the word of God. He both created and destroyed (by water) the world with his word at the beginning. And by the same word He is reserving the world for a second, more complete, destruction. And this time it won’t be water.

But in a sense, the “mockers” are right. Nothing really has happened for thousands of years. Why hasn’t the day of the Lord come? Peter answers in verse 9: “The Lord is not slow about His promise [His word], as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” The Lord is not slow. What is He? He is patient–waiting for all to come to repentance. I think the “all” here has to mean the elect because Peter says that God is patient toward “you” or “us.”

So why hasn’t the day of the Lord come? Because God is waiting for all the elect to repent. When will the day of the Lord come? When all of the elect come to repentance. And how will they come? Through our proclamation of the gospel.

Here is the way we can hasten the day of the lord–by bringing the elect to repentance! Here is a huge impetus for missions and evangelism!

Major Idea #3: The Glory of God

After 2 Peter, we thought, “Why don’t we take on something a little bigger, like Hebrews or Romans or something?” Good idea. We had no idea what we were getting in to!

From the first three chapters of Romans emerged one of the most foundational concepts God has shown us. We began to set up a paradigm through which we should view the world. It was so good of God to give us this at this time.

All through Romans 1-3, Paul talks about sin a judgment in a very interesting way. Verses 24 and 25 are a good representative example:

“Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

This is a reason for the wrath of God that goes beyond, “They did something wrong and are getting punished for it.” Rather, Paul is defining right and wrong and punishment in terms of the honor of God and the worship He gets. This is all over the section of Scripture. 

God is the most honorable being in existence and God is absolutely gripped by His honor. He is enthralled with Himself. Rightly! He is gripped by what is most gripping. If He were not, things would be all messed up because He would then be an idolater. And then you have big problems because a god who is an idolater is not God at all. So God is prideful and jealous. Or, to say it in kind of a disrespectful way that you will remember, he is “stuck up” and it is so good that He is!

So, Paul is assuming, when people go against the glory of God (in idolatry, or lifestyle that does not honor God), they get punished. They should. It is part of God’s righteous adherence to Himself.

I think this is where we really began to understand that “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” This is our universe-paradigm–the glory of God. The undercurrent of this realization has been present throughout everything else we have studied.

Major Concept #4: The Character of Authentic Faith

We discovered the fourth major idea in Romans 4. It taught us much about true faith. It taught us that faith is a combination of utter weakness and decisive trust. Verses 19-21 bring this forward clearly. Paul is discussing Abraham’s faith in God’s promise of a child.

“Without becoming weak in faith, [Abraham] contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God . . .”

On one hand, it is apparent that authentic faith has an element of recognized weakness. Abraham looked the impossibility of conception squarely in the face. A part of true faith is just looking at yourself and crying out to God. Think of the story of the tax-collector in Luke. He simply cried, “God have mercy on me a sinner” (not even “I believe in you!”) and Jesus said that he went down to his house justified. Faith is desperate.

True faith also is about decisive trust. With respect to God’s promise, Abraham “was fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform” (v. 21). This was real trust, proven by action. To put it bluntly, you have to have sex to have a child and you don’t often have sex at that age. But they did. Their trust was decisive and authentic. That is the way true faith is. It is like desperately jumping off a cliff because to stay on top would mean death and because you trust God as your only hope of safety at the bottom.

We will stop here and continue through the rest of Romans next week!

Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com