Jesus Doesn’t Want You To Be Like Him?

By Brent on Theology

There’s quite a conundrum happening in modern pop evangelicalism. The airwaves are inundated and “Christian” bookstore shelves are filled with men and women whose basic message is that Jesus doesn’t want you to be like Him. Of course, they would never phrase it in that way, because nearly everyone can see how ridiculous it sounds when worded this way. But, when we’re honest, this is exactly what these people are teaching. Some, of course, are more blatant about it than others. For example, consider what has become known as the “health and wealth” or the “prosperity gospel” (which, by the way, is no gospel at all). The basic message is that God wants you to have health and wealth (prosperity). If you’re poor, it’s because you lack enough faith to trust God for His promises. If you’re sick, it’s because you lack enough faith to trust God. Most of all, if you just give a little bit of money to God (preferably through His preferred ministry of the one in question), He is somehow obligated to bless you tenfold (at least). What’s perhaps more dangerous, though is the more subtle version of this same message. Not quite as brash as it’s more outgoing relative, the point is the same. Consider these quotes from Joel Osteen’s best-selling book Your Best Life Now: “God wants to give you your own house. God has a big dream for your life” (35). “Perhaps you’re searching for a parking spot in a crowded lot, say, ‘Father, I thank you for leading and guiding me. Your favor will cause me to get a good spot ” (41). “I’ve come to expect to be treated differently. I’ve learned to expect people to want to help me. My attitude is: I’m a child of the Most High God. My Father created the whole universe. He has crowned me with favor, therefore, I can expect preferential treatment” (39). “God wants you to be a winner, not a whiner” (191). Who wouldn’t want to hear this? God wants me to have great parking places, preferential treatment and most of all, He wants me to have my best life now?! Of course this is appealing. Yet there is just one problem: one B I G problem: it goes against what Jesus Himself was and said His followers should expect. For example, in 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul says that Jesus, “though He was rich, became poor.” In Matthew 8:20, Jesus Himself said that, even though “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,” “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” As if that weren’t enough, Jesus promised His followers persecution (John 15:20) and said that we must take up our crosses in order to follow Him (Matthew 16:24). We are, at heart, an idolatrous people, quick to make idols out of anything, particularly ourselves. Worse yet, we are prone to wrap these idols in Scriptural garb “baptize” them as though they were somehow godly. We must not think it an overstatement that there will be wolves in our midst (Matthew 7:15). This so-called Gospel is no good news at all and it is not what Jesus was while on earth or said that His followers should expect. Yet millions of people don’t realize that their ears are being tickled (2 Timothy 4:3), and their following smiling pied pipers on the feel-good path to destruction. What else can be the result when the Word of God is not taken seriously and man is viewed as the ultimate? While we should not necessarily seek out troubles and tribulation, we should not be surprised when they come. Nor should we blame them on a lack of faith on our part. In fact, we should remember Paul’s words to the Philippians that “it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:29). Ours is a God who sifts the wheat (Luke 3:17) and refines His people (Isaiah 48:10). We must humbly but boldly say to these people and their followers, that, truly, they have their reward in full (Matthew 6:2). If we truly want to be like Jesus, we must, as the writer to the Hebrews says: “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). ReadChristless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church by Michael Horton ReadJesus, Made In America: A Cultural History by Stephen J. Nichols

Doctrinal Bungee Jumping

from The Thirsty Theologian

David Wells on the shrinking of doctrine as a cause of death in the evangelical movement:

To become a cohesive movement, evangelicalism had to agree on essentials and agree to allow differences on nonessentials, doctrinally speaking. That is what happened. The essentials were the authority of inspired Scripture and the centrality and necessity of Christ’s substitutionary work on the cross.
   Through the 1950s, 1960s, and even 1970s, much else besides the two core principles was part and parcel of evangelical belief and practice. There was, however, a tacit agreement that liberty would be allowed in all these other matters provided that the core principles were honored. As long as the center held, as long as the grounds of unity were strong, the diversity of beliefs in church government, glossalalia, baptism, and the millennium could be sustained. At the time, this seemed quite safe, because the core at the center was strong and because evangelicals took seriously all the surrounding beliefs, too.
   What happened was, though, was that this doctrinal vision began to contract. The goal that diversity in secondary matters would be welcomed quite soon passed over into an attitude that evangelicalism could in fact be reduced simply to its core principles of Scripture and Christ. In hindsight, it is now rather clear that the toleration of diversity slowly became an indifference toward much of the fabric of belief that makes up Christian faith. . . .

   The unraveling of evengelical truth was signaled initially in a series of definitional tags that became evident in the 1980s and 1990s. that was when a whole series of hybrids emerged: feminist evangelicals, liberal evangelicals, liberals who were evangelical, charismatic evangelicals, Catholic evangelicals, evangelicals who were Catholic, and so it went. The additional — be it feminist, Catolic, or charismatic — signaled that the additional interest was at least as important as the core principles that defined who an evangelical was. Indeed, the additional interest usually said far more about the person’s interests than anything else. The core principles, in fact, wer losing tere power to shape people, define the movement, prescribe who was and who was not an evangelical. . . .

   The last time I walked over the bridge that links Zambia to Zimbabwe, just below the Victoria Falls, I watched a bungee jumper launch himself into space from the center of the bridge. The waters beneath are some four hundred feet down, full of froth and crocodiles. This is Africa. Equipment of the kind he was using may not be tested regularly and replaced on schedule. In fact, what I saw were cords that appeared already to have been overused. They were very frayed, and I wondered how long it would be before an intrepid bungee jumper did not make the return journey to the bridge’s edge and simply continued into the churning waters in the gorge far, far below.
   Something like this happened in the evangelical world. The cords plaited together out of the formal and material principles became frayed and then, for an increasing number, snapped. They are no longer able to return the jumpers to the fellowship.

—David F. Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth Lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World (Eerdmans, 2008), 7–9.

That Legacy Thing

from Dan Edelen:

I wish I could give us Americans some credit for possessing more than a rudimentary memory that extends beyond six months, but, in case we all forget, I want to mention a word. Eight years ago, that word was legacy. Bill Clinton seemed to be highly concerned about his legacy and so were all his sycophants. “The legacy thing” was front page news, and darnit, hosts of people worried along with the chief executive.

**flash forward to today**

I can’t get “An Evangelical Manifesto” out of my head. In some ways, that document highlights the problems with “the legacy thing” for modern American Christians of the born-again variety. It not only swims in angst and contrition, but also seethes with that worry our previous president expressed. Much the same way Bill Clinton couldn’t leave office without ensuring that people considered him the bee’s knees, so Evangelicals go all out in “An Evangelical Manifesto” to win the love of the average Joe and Jane Doe, despite the fact that the Lord said they’d be hated on His account.

And why this plea to be liked? Don’t Evangelicals rule the world? Three years ago, they proclaimed as much in the pages of Time magazine, including a cover declaring Evangelicals the next hip thing. Heck, Evangelicals put their anointed man into the White House. Evangelicals crowed about nailing Saddam. They showed off their new-found affluence and built McMansions all over the place. They got Veggie Tales on Saturday network cartoons. They roamed the halls of power from boardrooms to think tanks. They fought this cultural battle and that. They built massive churches and anchored them with a Starbucks-or some Christianized clone of Starbucks. They ruled the radio airwaves with at least a half-dozen, family-friendly, kid-safe Christian radio stations in every major market. Suddenly, it was cool to be Christian. And Evangelicals, caught up in the moment, flaunted their Time cover story image anywhere they could.

And just look at the payoff! Well, are you looking? On second thought, perhaps it’s better not to look.

Let’s do a quick check…

• Violent crime is on the rise.
• Abortion is on the rise.
• Illegal drug use is on the rise.
• Life expectancy in our country has actually dropped.
• The economies of several of the largest states in the country (California, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida) are imploding.
• This president, the one who was anointed “Our Man,” the one who supplanted the guy worried about his legacy, may go down in history as one of the least effective we’ve ever had-if his approval rating is any indication. Same for Congress.
• We’ve seen any respect the rest of the world had for our country go down the tubes.
• Bankers would rather hold Euros.
• People point fingers at the Chinese response in the wake of their big earthquake, yet can’t remember what happened in New Orleans less than three years ago.
• More Americans take doctor-prescribed psychoactive drugs than ever before.
• Just seven years after 9/11, they can’t build skyscrapers fast enough in majority-Muslim countries and emirates like Malaysia and Dubai, while thousands of Americans here can no longer afford to live in the homes they purchased just a few years ago.
• Our government claims consumer prices have barely nudged upward, though no one would think less of a man today if he burst out crying after seeing his bill at the grocery store. (Yeah, it may well be true that a container of ice cream is still $3.50 today as it was three years ago. Only then you got a half gallon instead of 1.4 quarts. Thank you, government, for telling me the price of ice cream remained steady!)
• The kids coming out of our public schools are, for the most part, about as sharp as a sack of wet mice.
• Our cultural cachet is either loud and stupid (name a Will Farrell movie) or obscene (satellite and cable TV providers can’t seem to add porn channels fast enough). Meanwhile, book readership continues to drop precipitously.
• More households in this country are now dual income than ever before and not simply as a way to garner “mad money,” but largely because they can’t otherwise survive financially.
• The vast majority of people in America believe that we, as a country, are on the wrong track.
• And we may very well elect as our next president a guy whose political experience couldn’t get him elected dog catcher in most small towns, a guy as antithetical to Christian views as could be possible and still sport the label “Christian.”

Does it bother anyone but me that all the above happened while Evangelicals were crowing about their power? It’s like a chihuahua acting like a wolf by baying at the moon. It’s like the neighborhood kid on the football team who throws a tantrum because no one will hand him the ball, until that fated day when someone does, and he fumbles it…right into an inconveniently placed vat of nitric acid.

Worse, if the social impact shows no sign of Evangelical influence, what’s the state of life in that Evangelical stronghold of the spiritual?

• As a percentage of the population, fewer people attend church today than just ten years ago.
• Men are dropping out of church life right and left.
• No one talks about evangelism anymore.
• Evangelicals don’t want internal reform groups to rain on their parade, choosing rather to point out the glaring problems within the reform groups than deal with the valid issues the reform groups raise.
• Pollster George Barna continues to show that basic tenets of Christianity are poorly understoood, not by unbelievers, but by Evangelicals themselves-and getting worse.
• The large majority of Christian youth who attend college abandon their faith by the time they graduate.
• The average Christian man will read not read a single book-outside of the Bible-after graduating from college.
• Our prayer meetings are filled…with the same handful of grandmothers (because no one under 65 darkens their doorways).
• And the underground Chinese Church is praying fervently that genuine persecution (not “Hey, those liberal punks at Harvard discriminated against my Christian son and wouldn’t admit him!”) will come to the fat American Church.

That’s one major legacy issue.

Seriously, if Evangelicals were to start walking the talk, start offering up Holy-Spirit-infused solutions to intractable world problems, and start seriously devoting time and energy to evangelism and discipleship, perhaps their legacy will be a changed world. Perhaps there would be several million more Christians-and deeper ones at that. At least that’s the intent of the Lord.

Someone please pass along that message to the Evangelicals; I still don’t think they get it.

The Legacy of Evangelicalism

from Cerulean Sanctum

A scathing, but too accurate review of the impact of evangelicalism.

I wish I could give us Americans some credit for possessing more than a rudimentary memory that extends beyond six months, but, in case we all forget, I want to mention a word. Eight years ago, that word was legacy. Bill Clinton seemed to be highly concerned about his legacy and so were all his sycophants. “The legacy thing” was front page news, and darnit, hosts of people worried along with the chief executive.

**flash forward to today**

I can’t get “An Evangelical Manifesto” out of my head. In some ways, that document highlights the problems with “the legacy thing” for modern American Christians of the born-again variety. It not only swims in angst and contrition, but also seethes with that worry our previous president expressed. Much the same way Bill Clinton couldn’t leave office without ensuring that people considered him the bee’s knees, so Evangelicals go all out in “An Evangelical Manifesto” to win the love of the average Joe and Jane Doe, despite the fact that the Lord said they’d be hated on His account.

And why this plea to be liked? Don’t Evangelicals rule the world? Three years ago, they proclaimed as much in the pages of Time magazine, including a cover declaring Evangelicals the next hip thing. Heck, Evangelicals put their anointed man into the White House. Evangelicals crowed about nailing Saddam. They showed off their new-found affluence and built McMansions all over the place. They got Veggie Tales on Saturday network cartoons. They roamed the halls of power from boardrooms to think tanks. They fought this cultural battle and that. They built massive churches and anchored them with a Starbucks-or some Christianized clone of Starbucks. They ruled the radio airwaves with at least a half-dozen, family-friendly, kid-safe Christian radio stations in every major market. Suddenly, it was cool to be Christian. And Evangelicals, caught up in the moment, flaunted their Time cover story image anywhere they could.

And just look at the payoff! Well, are you looking? On second thought, perhaps it’s better not to look.

Let’s do a quick check…

• Violent crime is on the rise.
• Abortion is on the rise.
• Illegal drug use is on the rise.
• Life expectancy in our country has actually dropped.
• The economies of several of the largest states in the country (California, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida) are imploding.
• This president, the one who was anointed “Our Man,” the one who supplanted the guy worried about his legacy, may go down in history as one of the least effective we’ve ever had-if his approval rating is any indication. Same for Congress.
• We’ve seen any respect the rest of the world had for our country go down the tubes.
• Bankers would rather hold Euros.
• People point fingers at the Chinese response in the wake of their big earthquake, yet can’t remember what happened in New Orleans less than three years ago.
• More Americans take doctor-prescribed psychoactive drugs than ever before.
• Just seven years after 9/11, they can’t build skyscrapers fast enough in majority-Muslim countries and emirates like Malaysia and Dubai, while thousands of Americans here can no longer afford to live in the homes they purchased just a few years ago.
• Our government claims consumer prices have barely nudged upward, though no one would think less of a man today if he burst out crying after seeing his bill at the grocery store. (Yeah, it may well be true that a container of ice cream is still $3.50 today as it was three years ago. Only then you got a half gallon instead of 1.4 quarts. Thank you, government, for telling me the price of ice cream remained steady!)
• The kids coming out of our public schools are, for the most part, about as sharp as a sack of wet mice.
• Our cultural cachet is either loud and stupid (name a Will Farrell movie) or obscene (satellite and cable TV providers can’t seem to add porn channels fast enough). Meanwhile, book readership continues to drop precipitously.
• More households in this country are now dual income than ever before and not simply as a way to garner “mad money,” but largely because they can’t otherwise survive financially.
• The vast majority of people in America believe that we, as a country, are on the wrong track.
• And we may very well elect as our next president a guy whose political experience couldn’t get him elected dog catcher in most small towns, a guy as antithetical to Christian views as could be possible and still sport the label “Christian.”

Does it bother anyone but me that all the above happened while Evangelicals were crowing about their power? It’s like a chihuahua acting like a wolf by baying at the moon. It’s like the neighborhood kid on the football team who throws a tantrum because no one will hand him the ball, until that fated day when someone does, and he fumbles it…right into an inconveniently placed vat of nitric acid.

Worse, if the social impact shows no sign of Evangelical influence, what’s the state of life in that Evangelical stronghold of the spiritual?

• As a percentage of the population, fewer people attend church today than just ten years ago.
• Men are dropping out of church life right and left.
• No one talks about evangelism anymore.
• Evangelicals don’t want internal reform groups to rain on their parade, choosing rather to point out the glaring problems within the reform groups than deal with the valid issues the reform groups raise.
• Pollster George Barna continues to show that basic tenets of Christianity are poorly understoood, not by unbelievers, but by Evangelicals themselves-and getting worse.
• The large majority of Christian youth who attend college abandon their faith by the time they graduate.
• The average Christian man will read not read a single book-outside of the Bible-after graduating from college.
• Our prayer meetings are filled…with the same handful of grandmothers (because no one under 65 darkens their doorways).
• And the underground Chinese Church is praying fervently that genuine persecution (not “Hey, those liberal punks at Harvard  discriminated against my Christian son and wouldn’t admit him!”) will come to the fat American Church.

That’s one major legacy issue.

Seriously, if Evangelicals were to start walking the talk, start offering up Holy-Spirit-infused solutions to intractable world problems, and start seriously devoting time and energy to  evangelism and discipleship, perhaps their legacy will be a changed world. Perhaps there would be several million more Christians-and deeper ones at that. At least that’s the intent of the Lord.

Someone please pass along that message to the Evangelicals; I still don’t think they get it.