Jesus
Your Personal Conflict with the Great Commission
**Simply fulfilling my promise to write about Radical all week. And don’t miss tomorrow’s post. Got a little surprise.**
Suspend your belief for a moment.
I want to change your view of history.
In January 1703, shortly after graduating and failing an audition for an organist’s post at Sangerhausen in January 1703, Johann Sebastian Bach didn’t take up his post as a court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar…
But instead, while riding away from Sangerhausen, Bach felt a severe call on his life to travel to Tunisia to minster the gospel to the Arabs…
Summarily giving up his ambition to be a composer.
Revision of Van Gogh’s Little Life
Almost two hundred years later, Vincent Van Gogh succeeded in his early vocational aspiration to become a pastor and preached the gospel from 1879 until his death to a small mining town in Belgium…
Neglecting his elegant [but tortured] artistic output that resulted in intoxicating paintings like The Starry Night and Still Life: Vase with Sunflowers?
Naturally, even to conceive of such events means we have to revise history and do some heavy-duty speculating.
But here’s my point–what if every great Christian artist, writer, dramatist, composer or scholar simply shed their vocational ambitions to work strictly as a missionary, preacher, teacher or evangelist?
Would our culture be any less than it is without Bach’s sacred St. John Passion or the sublime chaos of van Gogh’s Irises?
The answer, or course, is “no.”
For one thing, conceiving of history without Bach the composer and his rich legacy of liturgical works or Van Gogh and his dreamy, sad impressionistic paintings is pure fiction.
It’s the stuff of revisionist history best left in the hands of novelists who like to entertain. Here’s what I’m getting at.
The Tension the Great Commission Creates
I get a strong impression after reading David Platt’s Radical that he’d like to see us all abandon our political, social, academic or artistic pursuits and share the gospel.
That, my friends, is radical.
It’s an over-reading of his point, of course, even though he is a pastor and [I think] would be quiet happy if every one in his church–and all the readers of his book–would become evangelists or missionaries.
In fact, after you read the book there’s a small part of you wanders if you should liquidate your 401k and send it to World Vision…
Or sell your suburban home and move your family of four to a grass hut in Bangladesh…
Or scrap your dream of being a veterinarian and take the first flight to Ethiopia to save ten-year-old girls from sexual slavery.
David Platt and his book just might ruin your life in that way.
Extreme, perhaps. But Jesus and his great commission was anything but superficial.
Which brings us to the tension with our cultural mandate: God’s decree that we subdue the earth by building schools, running governments and crafting art.
Questions the Book Will Stir Up
No question: There are those who will read the book and go to the extreme. Who will give it all up and make radical changes to their lifestyle to fulfill the gospel.
David Platt’s got the testimonies to prove it. For the rest of us, we at least re-think how we spend our money.
In reality, all Platt asks you to do is bear your heart before God and ask: What can I do? How can I give it all?
And what does that mean?
Does that mean I remain here in the suburban U. S. and churn out blog posts or novels or paintings or musical scores–for your glory?
Or do you have something more radical for me? Read Platt’s book and, in truth, you will ask yourself those questions. What do you say?
One Final Thought
Sometimes I wonder what Calvin would’ve written if he’d not had his conversion, but instead pursued his ambition to live a leisurely literary life.
I gamble he might have been a French Goethe. To this literary nut job, that sounds appealing.
Don’t get me wrong: I wouldn’t trade that history if it meant we gave up the Institutes. I’m just saying: Maybe it’s not so bad to let your imagination wander on occasion.
Who knows: You might stumble upon a brilliant idea. An idea you can offer up to the glory of God.
But maybe that’s enough? We’ll never know, will we?
David Platt v. the American Dream [Book Review]
David Platt is taking a swing at our long-established national ethos…
The one that says citizens of every rank can achieve a “better, richer and happier life.”
The one that says with hard work and a can-do attitude you can buy the perfect home with a picket fence…two cars in the garage…and a monster flat screen television pinned to the living room wall.
Unfortunately, it’s an ethos at odds with Jesus Christ.
Nasty Side Effect of the American Dream
Originally quoted by James Truslow Adams back in 1931, “The American Dream” is rooted in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence:
“all men are created equal…endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It’s an idea that motivated immigrants of all stripes. That drives our bulldog entrepreneurial spirit. And feeds Olympic-sized dreams.
But it’s got a nasty side effect: conspicuous consumerism.
In other words, it breeds the sense that we are not people until we have the large house in an exclusive subdivision with a 28-foot boat parked at the marina.
In this version of the American dream, material goods and worldly success rule because it provide us with a sense of safety, satisfaction and security.
And unfortunately, Dr. Platt argues in his forthcoming book Radical: Taking Back Our Faith from the American Dream, it’s hijacked the American church.
The Tension Between Building and Mission Budgets
The American church is obsessed with budgets. Building campaigns. Entertainment value. Head count. Comfort level. Presidential hat tips.
A systemic problem considering the church wasn’t built to pamper us. It was built for something completely different.
Platt points out the tension between the American church and its original purpose with two headlines he saw recently in a local newspaper: One headline declared a church spent 1.5 million dollars to build a new sanctuary. On the same page that same church gave $5,000 to missions in the same year.
There’s something very disturbing about that picture. And it says something about us, too: Our American view of the gospel makes much of us.
Jesus’ gospel, on the other hand, makes much of God and his mandate to reach the lost and the poor.
It’s an obsession with missions.
Now, before you think Dr. Platt is a small-town pastor frustrated with larger churches and their enormous budgets and congregations that rival small cities–think again.
Platt is the pastor of Birmingham, Alabama’s 4,000 strong The Church. That means he’s coping with the same ills as most megachurch pastors.
And he’s finding it hard to live with this model, a model that is on a collision course with Jesus.
The Original Purpose of the Church
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus commanded his disciples to go and make disciples of all the nations.
One thing is clear: No one is exempt from this commandment. We are all responsible for spreading the gospel and training believers.
Look around a contemporary American church and what do you see? Not much training. Discipline. Or hardship.
Look at churches overseas, though, and you get quite a different picture. Here’s how Platt described one underground church he visited:
A woman who lived in the city and knew some English shared, “I have a television, and every once in a while I am able to get stations from the United States,” she said. “Some of these stations have church services on them. I see the preachers, and they are dressed in very nice clothes, and they are preaching in very nice buildings. Some of them even tell me that if I have faith, I too can have nice things.”
She paused before continuing. “When I come to our church meetings, I look around, and most of us are very poor, and we are meeting here at great risk to our lives.” The she looked at me and asked, “Does this mean we do not have enough faith?”
Sharp contrast wouldn’t you say? He paints another humbling picture of this contrast when he compares the American church with the history of the SS United States.
Short History of a Luxury Liner
The SS United States was originally designed to carry over 15,000 troops anywhere in the world at speeds of 40 miles per hour or faster.
It was the biggest and fastest combat ship of its kind. However, it never went into combat.
Instead, the Navy used it to carry presidents, heads of state and celebrities to enjoy 695 staterooms, 4 dining rooms, 3 bars, 2 theaters, 5 acres of open deck and heated pool while they sauntered across the Atlantic Ocean.
Platt writes:
“Instead of a vessel used for battle during wartime, the SS United States became a means of indulgence for wealthy patrons who desired to coast peacefully across the Atlantic.”
Replace SS United States with the America church and you have a startlingly real picture of what we’ve become.
This is hot tub religion. Not what Jesus intended.
Jesus Versus the American Dream
Jesus intended the church to prepare Christians for battle. And to actually send them into battle. It’s purpose is to mobilize a people to accomplish a mission.
However, we seem to have turned away from a sense of mission to share the gospel with pagans and alleviate suffering and adopted the gospel of American consumerism dominated by “self-advancement, self-esteem and self-sufficiency.”
It’s our bliss versus their pain.
But the church never should’ve gotten to this point. Long ago Jesus said “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
In essence, Jesus Christ and the American Dream are NOT compatible.
What Platt Isn’t Saying
Understand: This is not a call to abandon abundance. No–it’s a call to rethink how we use it. Scripture clearly teaches that God intends our plenty to supply the needs of others.
And it’s not a question of “What can we spare?” No. It’s a question of “What will it take?”
Over a billion people are headed to a Christless eternity. Over 28,000 children will die of starvation before the day ends.
The implications are huge: We don’t have time to waste our lives on the American Dream. Not if we all have been commanded to take this gospel to them.
In the end, Jesus said we will be betrayed. Tortured. Killed. This is the undeniable truth behind being a follower of Christ.
So if we want a safe, untroubled, comfortable life free from danger, then we should stay away from the biblical Jesus and continue to cling to the American Dream.
The Millennium: Can We Safely Neglect this Doctrine?
I have to admit: Before I cracked open the books, I didn’t give the doctrine of Jesus’ thousand year reign a second thought.
Shoot–I hadn’t even given it a first thought.
But am I any less of a Christian?
And could I continue as a healthy, functioning Christian without this doctrine?
In other words, can Christians safely neglect the doctrine of the millennium?
Before we answer that question, let’s explore three different positions on this particular doctrine: amillennialism, postmillennialism and premillennialism.
Amillennialism
According to this position, we are in the millennium. At Christ’s death, God reduced Satan’s power so the gospel could be effectively preached in this age.
This position declares that Christ’s one thousand year reign [a figurative number by the way] is a heavenly–and not an earthly–kingdom.
That means Revelation 20 is being fulfilled as we speak. It also means that there WILL NOT be a future kingdom.
This is it.
This reign will continue until Christ’s return when unbelievers will be raised to judgment and believers to eternal bliss.
Postmillennialism
This view holds that Christ’s return will occur AFTER the millennium.
In the meantime, this view sees the power of the gospel gradually growing over a very long time [the millennium, again, is a figurative thousand years] so that the world becomes more and more Christ-like…culminating in his second return.
As you can guess, this doctrine becomes very popular during times of pervasive peace and prosperity when we see strong influences of Christianity dominating our society.
Premillennialism
This view sees Christ’s return BEFORE the millennium–but AFTER the tribulation. In other words, Christ’s return inaugurates his thousand year earthly reign.
At the beginning of this time Christ will cast Satan into the bottomless pit and believers will be raised from the dead.
At the end of this period Christ will release Satan from his prison who then attempts one last time to defeat Christ but is in turn summarily defeated.
Once Satan is defeated, final judgment will ensue–unbelievers to hell, believers to heaven.
Warning: Be Careful with This Doctrine
Listen: As with any prophetic, future doctrine interpreting the exact meaning of the millennium is both complex and difficult.
Our conclusions will be less certain than with other doctrines…
And although I think a strong case can be made for one position over the others [I'll explain in a minute what that is], I also think it is VERY IMPORTANT to extend a large measure of grace when discussing this topic.
Putting aside questions of positions for a minute, what are we supposed to do with this doctrine? What’s at stake if we neglect it? Can we achieve personal applications from it?
To help us think through this I’ve adapted a few questions from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. When you get a minute, answer these questions in the comments section. My answers are indented.
Questions to Ask Yourself about the Millennium
Do you have any conviction about Christ’s return: Whether it is amillennial, postmillennial or premillennial?
Yes. I affirm it is premillennial. I believe the stronger scriptural case lies with premillennialism. Furthermore, I believe the other positions create problems they can’t solve like amillennialisms slip into two returns for Christ .
How does your present view of the millennium affect your Christian life?
This is hard. Because it is in the distant future. But I would have to say it compels me to make my salvation sure, stimulate the faith of other believers and evangelize unbelievers despite my fears.
What do you think it will be like to live in a glorified body with Christ as King over the world? What sort of emotions and attitudes might you experience?
To the first question, weird. I don’t think I could confidently talk about such a state. I have zero reference point–expect for Christ’s resurrected body. So it may be the same, except without sin, disease or death. As far as emotions, I can only say it will probably be a deep sense of gratitude.
Lastly, do you really look forward to such a kingdom?
I confess: Not until I brushed up on the topic. I do now, though. In fact, I have a growing desire to learn more, because if you think about it contemplating such a kingdom and our place in it can only cause a far-reaching hope that sinks into every corner of our lives–changing us in ways Christ intended.
What about you? How would you answer these questions? Leave your answers in the comments.
And naturally your answers will depend on what position you hold, but don’t be afraid to share if we don’t agree. I’d still love to hear from you. I want to grow together.
From Believer to Unbeliever: The Lie We All Fall For
Imagine this: A good friend from your past calls you out of the blue and tells you he is no longer a Christian…
How do you respond? Shock. Confusion. Worry. Fear.
Then perhaps you begin to think about your own salvation…
Is it at risk? Could that happen to you? Is what he says true?
Natural questions to ask, but what are the answers?
Well, frankly, yes, your salvation is at risk…
Yes, it could happen to you…
And yes, what they say–”I could not believe in God”–is true.
Concerned yet? Don’t be. Let me show you.
Can a Person Abandon Their Faith?
Anybody whose been around Fallen and Flawed for awhile has heard this statement during our 10 questions with an atheist series at some point:
“On such and such date I admitted to myself I could not believe in God.”
In a nutshell, it’s a Christian’s confession he is no longer a Christian.
Or is it?
In other words, can a person abandon genuine faith? The Bible–without equivocation–replies, NO, a genuine Christian can not fall away.
A false convert, on the other hand, can. This is what the Bible has to say:
They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. 1 John 2:19
John goes on to call such people “antichrists.”
And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 1 John 4:3
Finally, those who fall away from the faith–the false convert–try to deceive the faithful:
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. 1 Timothy 4:1
What is their fate? Sadly, it does not look good for them.
God gives them over to the consequences of their sin. And because of their rebellion and stubborn heart, “God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.”
Sobering words. But there’s hope.
A Tip to Help You Understand De-Conversion
To help you understand what’s at work here–the falling away of a so-called saint–let’s talk about the visible and the invisible church.
In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was the visible church.
In the New Testament, the visible church contains the warm bodies that inhabit the pews, drink the communion cup and eat the fried chicken in the basement socials.
But in the invisible church you have the redeemed souls of the saints. A church only God can see.
We only see the visible church, so that’s why an unbeliever can inhabit this church under our watchful eye, persuade us that he is a believer by his attendance and then bail on it at some point in his life.
In other words, time will tell.
The Parable of the Sower bears this out: Those not planted on the good soil eventually prove to be non-believers by falling away.
Why? There was no true conversion to begin with.
But what about those of us who experience a true conversion? Should we fear we may one day fall away? The answer is no.
God is in control of our salvation–from the beginning to the end. And it’s the ending that I want to camp on.
You Knew This Was Coming, Didn’t You?
Careful readers know where I’m going. It’s the final letter of the so-called TULIP acronym–Perseverance of the Saints.
Or as some state it, “Preservation of the Saints.”
Now, for the moment, lay aside your hostility to TULIP, because with or without TULIP, the Bible teaches the concept of the preservation of the saints.
The Bible teaches that God constantly watches and cares for his redeemed. In the present and far into the future.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6
Want more examples? View 2 Timothy 2:12. Romans 8:29-30. John 5:24. 1 Corinthians 15:58.
And the most compelling case, Romans 8:35-39.
Perseverance: The Logical Lowdown
Now, if you DO buy into the first four letters of TULIP, then preservation of the saints is a natural conclusion for you.
Take a look:
If man cannot contribute to his salvation (Total Depravity)...
If God chooses his redeemed unconditionally (Unconditional Election)...
If Jesus died for the redeemed (Limited Atonement)...
And if God’s saving grace is flawlessly effective (Irresistible Grace)...
Then preservation of the saints must follow.
In other words, if we are not the captain of our salvation, neither are we responsible for it’s duration. Which is a good thing.
Objection: The Bible Encourages Us to Endure
The mark of a true Christian–as opposed to a false one–is endurance. True.
And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Mark 13:13
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Hebrews 3:14
But remember, we find this strength to endure in God:
…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Phil 2:12-13
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13
So, the irresistible grace of God both begins and completes our salvation, and while, yes, the Bible encourages us to endure, it is God who’s doing the heavy lifting for us.
The Debate Was Over When…
Really, to argue in defense of the concept of perseverance, you don’t have to go any further than Jesus in John 10:27-29:
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
He said “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Can there be anything clearer than that? God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit gives eternal life–and he sustains that promise. God is the comptroller for the entire enterprise known as salvation.
Would You Want It Any Other Way?
No.
You don’t want your salvation or it’s preservation to rest in your hands.
So take heart, believer. No one can undo what Christ accomplished for the redeemed–for you.
No genuine believer can fall out of his faith. No persuasion will pull him off his perch. No argument will yank his anchor out of the rock of Jesus Christ. And no man can pluck a saint out of the Father’s hand.
And as far as that so-called ex-Christian? Pray for their salvation. Pray for a true conversion. Pray that they would, in the end, commit their entire life–body, spirit and soul–to Jesus Christ.
In the meantime, cheer up, live in peace and serve Jesus with undying adoration as an instrument of his will.
How to Deal with Religious Conflict
There’s no getting around it: Everybody has an exclusive set of beliefs.
Moralists look down their noses at unbelievers as filthy, undisciplined misfits.
Secularists snub religious people as psychopathic nut jobs.
And pragmatists demand we shed our religious beliefs when we debate matters of life.
All privileged–but partial–views we hold over others.
What are we to do?
What we need to do [and what really matters in the long run] is to discover which set of beliefs create peaceful, inclusive and loving behavior…
…will radically change you into agents of reconciliation for the world…
…and deal with the discord of religion.
I know this sounds counter intuitive, but the set of beliefs that will do that are found in Christianity–and the uniqueness of the Christian gospel.
Here are three major ways Christianity is unique to other religious views.
1. Origin of Salvation The founder of Christianity is not a human–he is God. God who came in the flesh. All other religious founders are human.
2. Purpose of Salvation That God came in the flesh is important. Most Eastern religions tend to teach liberation from the flesh. And most Western religions tend to condemn the flesh.
However, through the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christianity teaches that the flesh will be redeemed and renewed.
3. Method of Salvation All other religions teach you to perform the truth to be saved. They put salvation in the hands of humans. Christianity, in contrast, puts salvation squarely in the hands of God:
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10
Jesus lived the life that we should have lived and died the death we deserved. He suffered for people who didn’t love him. And this is the highest act of love.
Is there one true religion? I believe so.
How can I say that in a flat, pluralistic world where every religious flower can bloom? And how does that deal with religious conflict?
In the next post I’ll explain how holding these unique truths of Christianity seals people off from religious superiority, transforms them into agents of peace and produces humble, patient and compassionate behavior…behavior that ultimately shuts down religious animosity.
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