Evangelicalism

As I finished up the blog entry immediately below, I checked my email and found a piece of spam with this subject line:

Do you need Jesus footage for your worship service or Easter program?

Softened up by Gibson's movie (which I have not seen), I allowed myself a peek and here's the actual text I found:

Last night I looked over Jesus People USA's (JPUSA) annual brochure promoting Cornerstone, the closest thing the evangelical world has to Woodstock. I noted with sadness that evangelicals' cultural enslavement proceeds apace. It's time to write and ask to be taken off JPUSA's mailing list, ending a close-to-thirty-year friendship with these old freaks.

JPUSA's brochure announces that a whole phalanx of evangelical feminists will be available to indoctrinate the youngsters, oldsters, and hipsters who show up to camp out and listen to Glenn Kaiser, his Rez Band, and friends. Christians for Biblical Equality is being provided big-top exposure.

Years ago, I rejoiced in JPUSA's counter-cultural witness in my home town, Chicago, and I encouraged church members to visit their inner-city intentional community, working and worshipping with them and catching their vision for ministries of compassion. But as the decades passed...

Commenting on my entry, "JPUSA: She's the boss...," a reader wrote, "(I) would be interested to hear your comments on the TNIV and this disturbing gender-neutral trend." To which I respond:

The TNIV is an emendation of the actual Hebrew and Greek text of God's Word, and therefore rebellion against the Holy Spirit Who is the author of that Word. (Similarly, the NRSV, the NIVI, the NLT, etc.) The men marketing these versions have changed thousands of Scripture's words to the end that the patriarchal nature of the Greek and Hebrew text the Holy Spirit inspired will be obscured or removed.

For instance, the Hebrew word 'adam' is used throughout the Old Testament to refer to the whole human race, and by this usage we are reminded ...that Eve's husband, Adam, was our federal head, and that through him all who have ever lived are "conceived in sin," as David put it, and subject to death and hell. As the New England Primer reads, "In Adam's fall, we sinned all."

Changed to reflect the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Primer's statement would read, "In Adam's fall, adam sinned all." Changed to fit the mold of these gender-neutered Bible products, it would read, "In Adam's and Eve's fall, people sinned all."

Multiply such changes thousands of times across the Old and New Testaments and the radical agenda becomes clear: 'man' becomes 'person,' 'men' becomes 'people,' 'brothers' becomes 'siblings,' and so on.

Those who make these changes deny the changes are ideologically motivated, claiming that they're simply implementing the latest linguistic scholarship used by translators across the world, and that those who oppose these changes are ignorant...

Phil Yancey is Christianity Today's house columnist. He's also the bounder sage of the atheological, non-confessional, nondenominational, pragmatic but angst-ridden evangelical subculture. If you're interested in this sort of thing, he serves as a good periscope into the minds of the brighter members of Willow Creek and her clones.

Recently, the post-evangelical, post-Marxist journal, Solourners, interviewed Yancey. Here are a couple excerpts:

Sex, lies, and life on the evangelical edge

An interview with Philip Yancey, the best-selling Christian author who is surprised at how much he gets away with.

Philip Yancey's books have sold more than 5 million copies internationally. He is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine. His books include Rumors of Another World (2003), Soul Survivor (2003), Reaching for the Invisible God (2000), The Bible Jesus Read (1999), What's So Amazing About Grace? (1998), and many others. Philip Yancey was interviewed in November by Sojourners editor-in-chief Jim Wallis in Washington, D.C.

Sojourners: Your books have been very successful in the evangelical world. You're able to ask questions that challenge evangelical orthodoxies. How do you do that?

Philip Yancey: I myself have been surprised at what I can get away with. When I sent off the manuscript of What's So Amazing About Grace? I said to my wife, Janet, "That's probably the last book I'm going to write for the evangelical market." It's got a whole chapter on Mel White, who's now a gay activist, and it's got a whole chapter on Bill Clinton, who's not the most favored president of evangelicals.

The Yancey/Smedes/Campolo hep crowd have long represented the soft underbelly of the evangelical position on sodomy.

Years back I wrote a piece reminding us that children are a blessing from the Lord, that happy is the man whose quiver is full, and that believers' use of birth control was almost always indicative of a lack of faith in the truth of God's Word concerning the meaning and purpose of sexuality and the place of procreation in marriage. Submitting the piece to Christianity Today for publication, I was mildly surprised to receive a response directly from CT's publisher, Harold Myra, arguing against my thesis. He said the piece was good and he'd circulate it among the editors to see if they wanted to publish it, but he felt my arguments were wrong-headed. Specifically, he used Phil Yancey as an example of a man whose gifts were put to much better use because Yancey and his wife were childless...

Reading the book reviews in the latest (June 2004) issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, I came across a review of a recent issue by InterVarsity Press titled, Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, by Stassen and Gushee. Here is a quote from the work:

...limiting family size not to what the family can afford but to what the world can afford is a clear moral duty.... Ethically appropriate birth control and practices of sexual responsibility are needed ecological practices in our age.

To speak of the use of birth control as "ethically appropriate" is to claim it to be a spiritual duty, and this is wicked, setting on its head the command of God to "be fruitful and multiply," as well as His command to His Church to "propagage a godly seed."

But much less, does anyone at IVP know or care how boring they are, now that they hawk stuff that was on the op-ed pages of the New York Times years ago--stuff that the Times has long since left behind now producing pieces on the dire straits the world is in due to the birth-shortage that prevails across the western world and is quickly overtaking the southern hemisphere, also?

I mean, you'd think that a 500 page volume on evangelical ethics could at least have checked with the secular demographers before writing such nonsense, not to mention checking with the Word of God and the Author of that Word, the Holy Spirit.

Here's a suggestion that I've been following for years, although not absolutely consistently: Only buy from publishers that honor God and His Word, unless you're buying the books used or remaindered.

Yes, IVP has a good back list and occasionally issues a good new work, but God-fearing Christians ought not to patronize them given their worldliness. I have no problem patronizing Marriott properties owned by Mormons, but I will not make common cause with men who claim to be under the authority of God's Word, yet call evil good and good evil.

(I might mention that my dad, Joe Bayly, was director of IVP from 1951 to 1960, so I take IVP's unfaithfulness to Scripture quite personally, viewing it as an attack upon my patrimony--not to mention our Patrimony.)

No time like the present to send out another of Kierkegaard's gems:

Imagine a fortress, absolutely impregnable, provisioned for an eternity. There comes a new commandant. He conceives that it might be a good idea to build bridges over the moats--so as to be able to attack the besiegers. Charmant! He transforms the fortress into a countryseat, and naturally the enemy takes it.

So it is with Christianity. They changed the method--and naturally the world conquered.

-Soren Kierkegaard, Attack Upon "Christendom," (Princeton University Press, 1944), p. 138.

(Note from Tim Bayly: Here's a piece written by Dr. Andrew Dionne, a former member of our congregation who now serves as assistant pastor to my brother, David, at Christ the Word in Toledo, Ohio. Andrew has followed the battle over gender-neutral Bible translations for years and edits a web site that is a ministry of Church of the Good Shepherd called keptthefaith.org. You'll find the site a rich source of information on this matter. Check it out and make a contribution.)

It has long been my hunch that the International Bible Society and her Committee on Bible Translation (the organizations responsible for the translation of the popular New International Version) had plans to produce a neutered version of Scripture from the very beginning of the NIV. This enterprise was revealed when the IBS and CBT (along with their bed-fellow Zondervan) published the New International Version Inclusive Language Edition in early 1997. Evangelical leaders were encouraged shortly thereafter when IBS repented and, in a May 27, 1997 press release, promised to "forego all plans to develop a revised edition of the NIV."

More from Kierkegaard:

Beware therefore of them that like to walk in long robes! According to Christ (Who surely must know best about the way, since he is the Way) the gate is straight, the way is narrow--and few there be that find it. And what perhaps most of all has brought it about that the number of these few is so small, smaller proportionately with every century, is the monstrous illusion which official Christianity has conjured up. Persecution, maltreatment, bloodshedding, has by no means done such injury, no, it has been inestimably beneficial in comparison with the radical damage done by official Christianity, which is designed to serve human indolence, mediocrity, by making men believe that indolence, mediocrity and enjoyment of life is Christianity.

Do away with official Christianity, let persecution come--that very instant Christianity again exists.

-Soren Kierkegaard in Attack Upon "Christendom" 1854-1855, translated with an introduction by Walter Lowrie, The Beacon Press, Boston, 1956.

Sherwood Oaks Christian Church has admitted their ad in the Indiana Daily Student using the hook line, "God is pro-choice," was not appropriate:

Ultimately, through much dialogue with sincere Christian brothers and sisters, we have come to the conclusion that the implementation of the hook-line was not comprehensively thought out.

This apology was what I expected from the beginning.

But let's go further and acknowledge there's a reason reformed churches and pastors so often are content to avoid the work of evangelism. After all, evangelism is risky--think of the risk Jesus took when he sat with the Samaritan woman, alone at the well speaking heart to heart. It was scandalous.

Loving the lost continues to be so today.

So here was an evangelistic ad that tried to bridge the gap between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and cynical postmoderns who are convinced evangelical Christianity is just a cover for Republical political ambitions and the civil religion of America's middle class. While the end doesn't justify the means in methods of evangelism any more than any other area of Christian life, it's certainly commendable to make an error in the same direction as our Lord Who had this to say about the work His Father gave Him (and by extension, us):

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)

Has America's "special relationship" with Great Britain reached its end? In longing, perhaps not. But in reality, it looks increasingly like a case of unrequited love.

Britain loathes America, especially the America that voted George Bush a second term. More than anything else, pagan Britain loathes American Christianity.

Today's issue of Britain's newspaper of record, the Manchester Guardian, has a series of essays responding to the reelection of President Bush. Almost every essay identifies America's evangelical Christianity as inimical to Britain's modern character and future.

Below, snippets from the essays with links to the original. It's worth noting not only what is hated--American Evangelical Christianity--but the intensity with which it's hated. In several essays, it appears war (civil or international) would be preferable to the current religious climate in America.

A moral dilemma by Sidney Blumenthal

Sidney Blumenthal, former Clinton aide and defender (and another American writing for the Guardian), rages against the evangelical church. The church is inspired by fear and Bush played to those fears--of women, of other nations, of other races. Read this carefully to smell the hatred. What would Blumenthal be screaming if an evangelical Christian wrote this way of Jews?

The evangelical churches became instruments of political organisation. Ideology was enforced as theology, turning nonconformity into sin, and the faithful, following voter guides with biblical literalism, were shepherded to the polls as though to the rapture. White Protestants, especially in the south, especially married men, gave their souls and votes for flag and cross. The campaign was one long revival. Abortion and stem cell research became a lever for prying loose white Catholics. To help in Florida, a referendum was put on the ballot to deny young women the right to abortion without parental approval and it galvanised evangelicals and conservative Catholics alike.

While Kerry ran on mainstream traditions of international cooperation and domestic investments, and transparency and rationality as essential to democratic government, Bush campaigned directly against these very ideas. At his rallies, Bush was introduced as standing for "the right God". During the closing weeks, Bush and Cheney ridiculed internationalism, falsifying Kerry's statement about a "global test". They disdained Kerry's internationalism as effeminate, unpatriotic, a character flaw, and elitist. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," Cheney derided in every speech. They grafted imperial unilateralism on to provincial isolationism. Fear of the rest of the world was to be mastered with contempt for it.

This was linked to what is euphemistically called "moral values", which is social and sexual panic over the rights of women and gender roles. Only imposing manly authority against "girly men" and girls and lurking terrorists can save the nation. Above all, the exit polls showed that "strong leader" was the primary reason Bush was supported.

A four-year nightmare by Mike Marqusee

In this radical screed of self-loathing, the American author not only identifies with those who despise the U.S. around the globe, but urges a "militant" rejection of the president's policies by members of the American military. In essence, he's hoping for civil war. Apparently Mr. Marqusee has no idea of the attitude toward President Bush within the military.

Anti-Americanism has become a catch-all charge levied against anyone who engages in a radical critique of America's global power, its sway over the lives of billions who had no vote in Tuesday's election. People rebel against US hegemony for the same reasons they rebelled against the dominance of earlier imperial powers, not out of a distaste for the culture of the rulers but out of an objection to undemocratic, unaccountable, self-serving rule by remote elites of whatever culture.

So what's it like for a seeker to go to church at a Willow Creek clone? Here's one account published recently in the Twin Cities' alternative newspaper, Pulse.

'bowdlerize': syn. abbreviate, abridge, bleach, blot out, blue-pencil, cancel, censor, clean, clean out, clean up, cleanse, clear out, cross out, cut, delete, delouse, depurate, deterge, dry-clean, dust, dust off, edit, edit out, erase, expunge, expurgate, freshen, kill, lustrate, omit, purge, purify, reform, rescind, rub out, scavenge, spruce, steam-clean, strike, strike off, strike out, sweep out, sweeten, tidy, void, whiten, wipe, wipe off, wipe out, and wipe up.

In our local paper, The Herald-Times, a young woman named Arlyn Keith is a Community Columnist. From her picture Ms. Keith seems to be in her mid-twenties and her piece appearing on yesterday's op-ed page is titled, "Rock'n'roll rejects the Bible."

Keith is responding to what she considers the non-news that Jan Wenner's Rolling Stone magazine has refused to run an ad for Today's New International Version, the new Bible put together under the patronage of Rupert Murdoch's News Corps' subsidiary, Zondervan Publishing Company.

Keith yawns as she wonders why Zondervan ever thought readers of Rolling Stone would be their market segment? Acknowledging that this chic Bible has compromised the original text, the better to reach her generation, Keith writes:

I knew that Christian leaders were concerned about the disinterest my generation and those younger than us seem to have with religion, but I just did not ever expect the mountain to come to Mohammed and plead for attention. This latest edition of the Bible aptly named Today's New International Version even features, according to USA Today, a method of translation which is meant to appeal to the 18-34 age group wherein gender terminology in reference to humans is neutral. The "truth" has been made user-friendly and packaged in a politically-correct manner. I am not an avid church-goer myself and am still struggling with my views, but it does seem that some values have been compromised in the process.

Out of the mouths of babes...

After years of hard work trying to convince my family members (owners of Tyndale House Publishers and its own gender-neutered Bible, The New Living Translation), Zondervan's executives (who are presently issuing this latest gender-neutered version called Today's New International Version), and the corporate leaders of the International Bible Society (holder of the copyright on all versions of The New International Version including Today's New International Version) of the false doctrine that is the heart of this work, I despair over their intransigence. And yes, one does begin to wonder what the application of "the love of money (being) the root of all evil" is to this Bible-selling business; or, for that matter, to Wycliffe Bible Translators, mega-churches, missions agencies, seminaries, and my own church's building program?

How lightly we consider our own motives in the light of Scripture's warning, "All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the LORD weighs the motives" (Proverbs 16:2 NASB95).

No matter how often we explain to them that the secular feminists are correct in their judgment that the Bible is "hopelessly patriarchal," hope springs eternal and these false prophets try once again to clean up God's Word so a modicum of its offense is removed and evangelism moves apace into the twenty-first century.

Over the past couple of years, Christ the Word's Rev. Dr. Andrew Dionne has created a web site called KepttheFaith exposing the assault upon God and His Word these men are carrying out. Church of the Good Shepherd has funded the site and my brother, David, and I have fought this battle arm-in-arm. Go to the site and read and pray. Secularists and seekers such as Keith can treat this matter lightly, easily seeing the charade. But Tyndale House, Zondervan, the International Bible Society, and all the reverend doctors paid to do the bowdlerizing take this matter very seriously seeing their reputations are on the line.

They're right. Were one of them a member of Church of the Good Shepherd, the elders would declare him to be in violation of his membership vow to honor and obey the inerrant Word of God, and call him to repent.

Chesterton nailed it almost a century ago:

It is remarked, "We need a restatement of religion"; and though it has been said thirty-thousand times, it is quite true.

It is also true that those who say it often mean the very opposite of what they say. As I have remarked elsewhere, they very often intend not to restate anything, but to state something else, introducing as many of the old words as possible.

(G. K. Chesterton, The Thing, p. 190, "Some of Our Errors".)

I had never heard of Brian McLaren when a Google search on an entirely different topic pulled up Time Magazine's January 2005 cover story on the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. But there he was, pastor of the several-hundred member Cedar Ridge Church near Baltimore, author of a book promoting A New Kind of [postmodern, nicer and more friendly] Christian, right in the bosom of the evangelical high priesthood along with Richard Land, Chuck Colson, Billy Graham, Rick Warren, et al.

In the blurb accompanying his picture McLaren was asked his view on homosexual marriage. He answered, "You know what, the thing that breaks my heart is that there's no way I can answer it without hurting someone on either side."

He thinks He's Christ weeping over Jerusalem, Jeremiah weeping over the fall of Judah. What a soft-hearted prince of a fellow. Except that he's suffering from delusions of grandeur because the tears of Christ and Jeremiah went only in one direction. Their tears foresaw destruction and followed dire warning.

Stop crying for others Mr. McLaren. You have more pressing concerns.

Someone posted a comment demanding David and I "move on" from Terri Schiavo. We will not.

Those who demand her case be closed have bad consciences and want to think happy thoughts, but our time is not a time for happy thoughts about the present or future of these United States of America. Chief among our sins calling out for God's judgement is the shedding of the blood of innocents. The unborn, the defective newborn, the handicapped, those in a persistent non-communicative state, the feeble, and the elderly--their blood runs deeper by the hour.

Now comes the newest beachhead in our house of slaughter--Terri Schiavo.

So Terri will live on, just as slavery and the Holocaust and the Dreyfus Affair and Baby Doe live on. Those involved in this murder-by-judicial-execution must publicly repent of this bloodshed, but all of us must also repent of our own complicity in the pervasive bloodshed polluting the streets of our fair land.

And what is the Word of the Lord to the Church following Terri's death?

Arguably, the most noteworthy aspect of the national witness of evangelicals in the past few years has been the blockbuster Tyndale House Publishers Left Behind series authored by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. For the first time we were greeted by "our books" as we entered mainstream bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble. The release of each volume was heralded by stacks and stacks of the book standing just inside these bookstores' front doors. And the Christian Marketing Association reports sales of the Left Behind series and products have now exceeded $1,000,000,000.

But of course, the series is nothing more than pure escapism centered on the theme of the certain safety of Christians as the Day of the Lord arrives. Our Lord constantly warned His disciples of the dangers of the Day of His return, but there is little fear left in evangelical theology...

This from the April 6, 2005 electronic publication, Presbyterians-Week..

Robinson Denies Suggesting that Jesus Was a Homosexual

Gene Robinson, the openly homosexual Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, has denied reports that he recently implied that Jesus Christ was a homosexual in comments made at Christ Episcopal Church of Hamilton and Wenham in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. While speaking at the Network parish, Robinson answering a question posed in a discussion forum, pointed out various facets about the life of Christ -- that he mainly hung around men, had a disciple that he loved, but stopped short of actually stating that Jesus was a homosexual. A number of people who have listened to audio of his remarks believe that he was implying that was the case. Readers can
judge for themselves as the audio can be downloaded at: [Note from Tim Bayly: the promised link was missing.]

+ Rev. Mr. Charles A. Collins, Jr., 289 Hastings Dr., Goose Creek, SC 29445

Could anyone seriously be surprised at Robinson's innuendo? A thief thinks everyone steals.

Christ Church is in South Hamilton, MA, where my brothers, David and Nathan, and I attended seminary. Among the many who made Christ Church their church home at that time were Lars and Elisabeth (Elliot) Gren and Richard Lovelace (of Dynamics of Spiritual Life fame).

Prior to his conversion to Roman Catholicism, Christ Church was also the church home of Elisabeth Elliot's brother, Tom Howard (of Christ the Tiger fame). One happy day soon after Tom converted to Roman Catholicism, I was delighted to purchase a mint condition copy of J. C. Ryle's classic, Holiness. I found it in Christ Church's resale shop with Tom Howard's name carefully inscribed inside the front cover.

Please fasten your safety belts.

Earlier this week I received a letter from a Mr. Lauren Libby who identified himself as "Senior Vice President" of the Navigators, a parachurch group that Mr. Libby says has grown "from a fledgling effort to what it is today: a worldwide ministry in 112 countries with 4,014 staff of 61 nationalities."

The reason for Mr. Libby's letter? He closes the letter as follows:

I'm writing today to ask you to help us to tell others about the work of The Navigators.

That's why I'm delighted to send you these special notecards as a reminder that we are to share Christ's light with the rest of the world. I pray that you won't set these cards aside, but will use them as a tool to encourage others.

I've enclosed a reply form to allow you to order more of these beautiful cards. Each package of 15 cards and matching envelopes is available for a suggested donation of $12 or more. If you need additional packs, we'll send you two for a gift of $24. With each order you enable The Navigators to reach even more people with God's love and saving grace.

May the Lord richly bless you as you walk in His light.

Mr. Libby is the chief operating officer of The Navigators which, in 1999, was the one hundred and fifty-ninth largest charity in the world. At that time, Mr. Libby was pleased with his organization's receipts. In the November 4, 1999 issue of the The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Libby was guoted saying:

With the creation of capital for so many Americans, the last three or four years have been the best time for non-profit fund raising in over 25 years--for as long as I've been in the field.

So what exactly are "these beautiful cards" Mr. Libby enclosed with his letter?

Well, they're small notecards with one of the paintings of Thomas Kinkade on the front.

And who is Thomas Kinkade?

Because we have opposed so strongly the emphasis on works in the Roman Catholic view of justification, we must be honest in admitting Protestantism's often-greater failure in this same regard.

One of the young deacons in my church writes today in an email to his fellow deacons:

Galatians 1:6-9 "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- [7] not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. [8] But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. [9] As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed."

Can anyone honestly say that Rome teaches the gospel that Paul taught? No, they have added to it, therefore it is different. It is distorted because Christ's blood is not viewed as the sole means of reconciliation between sinners and God. It is contrary to the true gospel message which teaches that Hell awaits those who are unrepentant. I could go on but I won't....

I suggest that some stalwart Protestants reason with the Catholics on Sunday after church, perhaps greet them in their parking lot as they are ready to leave and share lovingly the gospel they lack. What do you think? Too much?

John, The Part Time Zealot (using fictitious names)

To which a fellow deacon responds:

John:

Just wondering: do Arminians teach what Paul taught? Why not go to (a variety of tree) Creek while we're at it?

-Bart

If we are honest, we must admit as Protestants that what the Reformers viewed, to a man, as the baseline defective principle of Roman Catholicism is so entrenched within Protestantism we are blind to it. Typical Protestant and Evangelical theology is little better than Roman Catholic. Theology which makes the human will sovereign in salvation is Roman, no matter where it is taught.

The reason so many Protestants have so easily and happily made the transition to Rome in recent years is that Protestant soteriology has devolved, in many cases, to Roman soteriology. We have thrown in the towel on the bondage of the will, on depravity, on the sovereign grace of God.

I wrote several weeks ago, "The difference between Willow Creek and St. Joe's RCC isn't that great once you get past the liturgy--and liturgically St. Joe's has it all over Willow Creek."

But there is another advantage to the Roman Church: St. Joe's RCC often speaks more clearly about sin and guilt than the average Evangelical church. St. Joe's may lack the answer, but at least it diagnoses the problem with an honesty you will rarely find at the local Willow Creek clone--or many other Protestant churches for that matter.

Sturdily submitting to his fifteen minutes of fame this past week in the alleged kidnapping of Georgia bride-to-be Jennifer Wilbanks was Alan Jones, assistant pastor of Peachtree Corners Baptist Church in Duluth, GA.

Mark Noll, interviewed in Christianity Today about a new book he's authored, "The Rise of Evangelicalism," says of Evangelicalism:

Almost universally, what evangelicalism has been great at doing is bringing life back to cold religious form. But, evangelicalism is a parasitic movement. The great evangelical leaders are not theoreticians of institutions. Some of them are very good theologians on questions of personal salvation. They're not theologians of culture, they're not theologians of society. There are problems with the Christian outreach that is just the theology of society, but there are also problems when the individual attention is so strong that culture and society is lost sight of.

Why people continue to pay Dr. Noll to describe Evangelicalism remains a mystery. He's long cast himself in the role of Evanglicalism's arbiter elegantium. But as he so frequently reminds us, there's little of elegance about Evangelicalism. We're simple people, easily led. And for the masses there is the indefatigable Ron Sider who has faithfully plucked our consciences since before Dr. Noll received his PhD. What more can Dr. Noll provide?

Attending church while on vacation is hard. It's harder still when churches don't publish accurate service times. Twice in the past year we found churches via the internet only to learn that service times listed on their web pages were wrong. Inexcusable. A Southern Baptist church in Colorado three weeks ago not only had an inaccurate time on its web page, its yellow-page listing was also incorrect. Last fall a PCA church in Virginia also listed thirty-minute-late service times.

No visitor wants to enter a church half-way through the service. If a church can't bother to keep such details accurate on the internet, it should take down its web site.

Three weeks ago I told Cheryl--who still wanted to attend the Southern Baptist church despite the service having started thirty minutes previously--that she and the kids could go there but I would either not go to church that morning or find a church I could enter on time.

I dropped them off at the front door and started driving out the parking lot, but my conscience got the better of me.... I parked in the back and began walking to the front door. (It helped that two more full cars pulled in just after us, evidently equally misled as to service times.)

I hadn't gone a hundred yards when Cheryl and the kids came walking back. They'd found available seats in the sanctuary few and scattered. No greeter had greeted them. No usher had sought to find space for them. None of those in attendance who saw them looking for space offered seats to them. So, reluctantly, they left.

We had almost precisely the same experience in a PCA church (save our squeezing into two adjacent pews and staying for the service) in Virginia last fall.

Churches must care for those who are new to them. It's inexcusable for visitors to feel they're tolerated rather than embraced--almost an offense against the Gospel. To publish inaccurate service times is bad enough, but then to fail to greet late-arriving families or to arrange seating for them verges on arrogance. It says that this is a church which doesn't need or care to receive visitors.

God preserve Christ the Word from ever becoming so self-satisfied or ingrown that we would fail to give up our seats to latecoming visitors.

I read a post the other day which suggested that the high priesthood of Evangelicalism is switching from the counseling profession to the philosophers, led by men such as Alvin Plantinga, Norm Geisler and Doug Groothuis.

I think the author is right in his description of a changing of the guard in Evangelicalism. Philosophy is overtaking psychology as the discipline of choice for those wishing to cast a religious bridle over humanism. But the effects of this change are proving even less salubrious than Evangelicalism's decades-long infatuation with pscyhology and counseling.

I have seen more blasphemy in the name of philosophy over the last several years than I ever saw as a result of counseling. Counseling diminishes the Word, enshrining psychological theory and self-esteem in the place of sin. But philosophy too often makes the human mind the judge of Scripture, thereby placing human reason over God.

I'll never forget the time several years ago when, during a Calvin's Institutes study session, a young PhD philosophy student told us that: a) All logic proceeds from God; b) God is therefore essentially logical; c) God cannot use illogic; d) mystery is illogical; e) any accounting for evil that posits mystery is thus false, and; f) therefore, God commits evil because God is sovereign.

This man, I learned, was the graduate of a reputedly Christian undergraduate school where the chairman of the philosophy department has for years taken in students who appear to live by faith and love the Lord and sent out proud deists who worship a god of logic in their stead.

The wise Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaks of the value of philosophy in his little classic, What Is an Evangelical?:

Then I come to another characteristic [of true Evangelicalism]. This may very well be a highly controversial one, but in my estimate it is extremely important. It is, and I put it dogmatically and bluntly, that the evangelical distrusts reason and particularly reason in the form of philosophy....

I suggest to you that nothing is more important in our present situation than just this one particular point. Philosophy has always been the cause of the church going astray, for philosophy means, ultimately, a trusting to human reason and human understanding. The philosopher wants to encompass all truth; he wants to categorize and explain everything, and that is why there are no more important passages in the Scripture for us at the present time than the First Epistle to the Corinthians, starting in chapter I, at verse 17, and going right the way through to the end of chapter 4, with especial reference to chapter 2. The apostle's whole contention in those chapters is that things were going wrong in Corinth because they were beginning to bring back faith in human wisdom, philosophy; and his point is to show that this is diametrically opposed to the preaching of the gospel. He says he has become a fool for Christ's sake: `If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise' (I Cor. 3:18). Here `a fool' means that you do not trust to philosophy and to human wisdom. This is really a most important matter.

Martin Luther used to refer to `that old witch, Lady Reason', and those of you who are familiar with his writings know how he constantly emphasized this point, that reason is an old witch. He was concerned about this, of course, because it was of the essence of his argument against Rome. It is true still that the trouble with Roman Catholicism is that they say that they believe the Bible. Let us grant that they do, and that they are quite sincere in saying that, but what, then, is the trouble? The trouble is that they have added Aristotelian philosophy on to their belief in the Bible, and that ultimately they are interpreting the Bible in terms of Aristotelian philosophy. That is the great characteristic of the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, and it was as the result of this that the evangel, the true gospel, had become entirely hidden. So it is not surprising that Luther should have contended so strongly against this very matter, and this is not, by any means, confined to Luther either.

Click the "Continue reading" link below to follow Martyn Lloyd-Jones' thoughts on "The Place of Reason" in his IFES address published as What Is An Evangelical? by Banner of Truth Trust.

Lloyd-Jones goes on from criticizing those who place reason before the Word to describing the proper place of reason in the Christian life. This may or may not help those who viewed the quotation from Lloyd-Jones in my previous post as unnecessarily--or dangerously--anti-intellectual. At any rate, I offer it here as further explanation of my own views. I align precisely with Lloyd-Jones in this.

It's been extremely hot this past week. When we first exited O'Hare a week ago, the heat was a welcome relief from the cool weather we'd had in Africa and England. But within a few minutes it became oppressive and it hasn't let up since.

The other day when I got in the car the heat brought to mind our Lord's account of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the afterlife, and how the Rich Man in Hell cried out for water, but could have none. For a few minutes I meditated on what an awful place hell is--a place where the heat is unbearable and the thirst can never be quenched.

Reputable evangelicals such as John Stott deny the eternity of hell torments and that is understandable. It's one of the most difficult doctrines to submit to in all of Scripture. But as Harry Blamires wrote in his classic, The Christian Mind, if we're going to start tearing difficult passages out of Scripture, shouldn't we start with the one that's always been more offensive than any other:

(Jesus) was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?" (Luke 9:23-25).

For men tempted to take Stott's shortcut and play with universalism and annihilationism, I highly recommend Jonathan Edward's sermon, "The Eternity of Hell Torments." Commenting on the Biblical account of the Rich Man and Lazarus found in Luke 16:19ff., Edwards exclaims over men like Stott:

It is strange how men will go directly against so plain and full revelations of Scripture, as to suppose notwithstanding all these things, that the eternal punishment threatened against the wicked signifies no more than annihilation.

Incidentally, for several reasons (including that, contrary to His habit in telling parables, our Lord actually names the central character in this account, 'Lazarus') John Calvin believed that this account was not a parable, but real history that Jesus knew from Heaven.

Today, my daughter Hannah and I were driving out in the country and we stopped at a farm stand. The stand's attendant was in her sixties and we waited while she finished her conversation with a customer of a similar age. Of course, the topic was the weather--specifically,the unbearable heat. The customer commented, "Preachers oughta tell their congregations tomorrow that this heat gives you an idea what hell's like."

Prayer: O Father, Creator of both Heaven and Hell, give us a living faith in the blood and righteousness of Your Son, Jesus Christ, that we might escape the fires of hell and be brought safely, along with all who love you with an undying love, into your presence where there is fulness of joy forevermore. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

One of the great deceptions perpetrated by the parachurch movement upon God's people over the past century has been the parachurch's focus on individual relationships to God at the expense of the foundational corporate relationship to God that inaugurates and sustains the Christian life.

The parachurch can never claim for itself the mantle of "Bride of Christ." That beloved relationship to God belongs only to the Church. So it has responded by focusing on individuals: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life...

The problem is that God does not have a wonderful plan for individual human lives. He has a wonderful plan for Zion, for the Bride of Christ, for the Church, and individual lives come into that wonderful plan by incorporation into the Bride, not as individual, atomistic Christians.

God speaks of His love for Zion:

Zech. 8:1-4 I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am zealous for her... I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the Holy Mountain... Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age and the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.

The Christian's privilege is to live in Zion. Because we live in the city God loves and continually returns His affections to, our boys and girls will play joyfully in Zion's streets and our old men and women will sit in peace.

Our privilege, as children of God, is to be numbered among the citizens of Zion. God continually reminds us of His love for Zion in His Word:

Psalm 87 On the holy mount stands the city he founded; the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Selah Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush-- "This one was born there," they say. And of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in her"; for the Most High himself will establish her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples, "This one was born there." Selah Singers and dancers alike say, "All my springs are in you.

At the end of time, God will part His people from the rest of mankind by declaring of those He loves, "Born in Zion."

"This one was born there," He will say as He registers the people. He won't say, "This one has an individual, personal relationship to me involving my having a wonderful plan for his life and so I take him as mine." He says, "Born in Zion. Citizen of Jerusalem. Part of the body of Christ, the Bride He purchased."

In the last days, Scripture tells us, the mountain of the House of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations will stream to it.

Until we understand the love of God for Zion, we are in danger of the parachurch idolatry of making self the center of God's will and love. Yes God loves men. Yes He has a wonderful plan for our lives--if, and only if, we are first part of Zion.