Evangelicalism

The Re-Release of “Ashamed of the Gospel” by John MacArthur

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

I received this book free from Grace to You about a month ago.  I always love to receive free things but I was swamped with work so I was unable to start reading right away.  I just finished the book yesterday and here are some initial thoughts:

The book is a revision but it is still extremely relevant for our evangelical Christians today.  Its message hits on the greatest dangers facing the church currently.  The undermining of accurate, authoritative truth statements has been going on for some time but now it has gained traction in the church.  The truth is that it isn’t alive and well only in the Emerging Church conversation.  It is alive and well in conservative Bible believing churches around the U.S.  Children up through adults have been effected through media of all forms.  Evangelicals have been influenced to believe that it is not intellectually credible to believe authentic, authoritative, inerrant truth.  They have been made to believe that no such thing exists.  This is a major issue when it comes to the Word of God.  The Word of God presents itself as such, so evangelicals are scrambling to redefine what the Bible means when it makes such statements.

What MacArthur has done in this book reminds me of what Spurgeon did to stand against the Down-Grade Controversy.  MacArthur has spoken out against the fluffy version of love that has infected Christianity, which never stands on truth against error.  The theology of tolerance and acceptance of everything has infected the church.  It is a sickness and the solution is repentance and a return to the Word of God.

I think that MacArthur has provided a very timely message in this book.  God used it to bring a great deal of conviction in my own life and thinking.  I suggest that you read the book.  I believe you will find the circumstances facing the church in England toward the end of Spurgeon’s life eerily similar to the conditions of the church in the U.S. during our time.  Read the book.

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Moralism or Evangelism?

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

The New Testament church provides us with a picture of what born again Christians are to strive to emulate.  Our American culture makes this a difficult endeavor.  There is such a thing as personal repentance and faith without which regeneration does not occur.  Yet, the body element of Christianity is difficult in our current culture of rugged individualism. American Christians have difficulty understanding the group-life depicted in the New Testament – church discipline (Matt. 18:15-20); common property (Acts 4:32-35); and family care-giving (1 Tim. 5:3-16).  These accounts (along with others) are difficult for us to wrap our minds around because individual fulfillment and welfare have always been at the forefront of our thinking.  The irony of the matter is that this makes New Testament Christianity difficult to accept and practice.  This has resulted in needing to reinterpret Christianity to make it fit out individualistic worldview.  Christ has been recast as the friend who fulfills all our dreams and desires.  He has been remodeled so that He is not Lord of the universe but instead a cosmic life-coach who exists for the purpose of fulfilling us.  This is not New Testament Christianity.

So, what is the answer?  In the past, the solution of American evangelicals was to create the Moral Majority, which was based upon the attempt to moralize unregenerate people, not evangelize them.  Apparently, we believed that God’s method of transforming the lives of lost people (evangelism) was no longer effective.  Since evangelism was no longer effective, we needed to keep the morality of lost people in check.  Therefore, the only effective means of doing so was through politics, petitions, picketing, and legislation.  We could not possibly expect God’s means of transforming the lost to work, so we have sought to the help of politicians to fix the morality of the lost through secular laws, rather than through sharing the gospel so God may divinely transform the lives of lost people.  It is certainly a good thing that we figured out that God’s way of evangelism was not working because looking to the Republican Party to save us is working out great.  I looked for that verse in the New Testament and the only Savior I found mentioned was Jesus Christ.  I also found that His means of changing lives is Christians evangelizing and praying for the lost, while God saves souls.  Scripture never instructs Christians to look to secular government to moralize the lost or as a solution for the spiritual condition of the lost, especially since many of those in authority are lost.

Maybe there would be more opportunities to proclaim the gospel if we were not spending so much time proclaiming the platform of the Republican Party.  Why are we more passionate about moralism through politics than about the salvation of the lost through the gospel?  Do we realize why people around us are so immoral?  It is because they are spiritually dead, as a result of rejecting the gospel.  They are on their way to hell because they have rejected the finished work of Christ on the cross.

When evangelical Christians hear that people want abortion on the demand and homosexual marriage, we become distraught and write our congressman to protest.  Really?  Why aren’t we distraught that these people are lost and bound for hell?  Instead, why don’t we preach the gospel and pray that God will save their souls?  Which response is more inline with the New Testament Scriptures?  Political protest or preaching the gospel and prayer?

Is the gospel so powerless to change the lives of sinners that we must turn to politics and protest?  Should we continue to abandon evangelism for moralizing the lost through legislation?  Moralizing the lost through political legislation is relying upon the efforts of man to change the human heart, which will only result in moral people who are lost for eternity.  Evangelizing the lost through the gospel and prayer is relying upon God to change the human heart.  Which one does God say to trust?  Republicans or God?  Is God up in heaven wringing His hands hoping that the Republicans come up with a more compelling political platform?  I doubt it.  God does not put His trust in humans and neither should evangelical Christians.  Drop the politics.  Preach the gospel.

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John MacArthur’s Contribution to Evangelical Christianity

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

I was thinking about this whole subject the other day and some very important thoughts came to my mind.  MacArthur gains his share of criticism from others in the Evangelical community and outside, but what prominent figure in any arena of life doesn’t get criticism.  There are a couple of immensely important contributions that MacArthur makes through his teaching ministry and ministry model.  I mentioned the following things to my wife:

  • MacArthur has modeled and promoted expository preaching The other day I heard him described by someone as the “prince of expository preaching.”  I believe that Spurgeon was the so-called “prince of preachers.”  One thing anyone knows who has read over the sermons of Spurgeon, though a bold proclaimer of biblical truth, his sermons are far from expository.  MacArthur on the other hand has trumpeted the necessity of expository preaching and it comes a very crucial time in evangelicalism.  Much of preaching in popular evangelicalism amounts to nothing more than a Psychological self-help session with a few Bible verses thrown in for good measure.  I am thankful for MacArthur using his public presence in evangelical Christianity for the purpose of modeling and lauding the necessity of expository preaching.  It has set a worthy example for those men, who are soon to be and already are involved, in ministry.
  • MacArthur has provided a biblical model of church governance – This statement will cause some who read this some consternation, especially congregationalists.  When one takes an honest look at the N.T. teaching on how churches are to function with a plurality of elders functioning in leadership over the congregation, spending their time in the study, preaching, and teaching of Scripture, and equipping the body for ministry, MacArthur’s church appears to have done a fine job of following the biblical pattern.  This is why so many men are leaving “fellowships” like the GARBC.  The churches in many of these fundamentalist camps do not promote or function with this biblical model.  Many of these fundamentalist movements began with admirable motivations but now function with the identity of being “separate from everything.”  This has resulted in these movements having churches full of disagreeable people who want to vote on everything.  This is why I am thankful for men like John MacArthur for modeling this in his church and teaching it through his ministry.

One final thought that I would like to share is that there are some younger men who are attempting to practice the same model of ministry which MacArthur has practiced.  One man who comes to my mind is James MacDonald.  I would like to thank the Lord for men like this who have provided a worthy example of biblical preaching, church governance model, biblical church ministry, and love for the God of the Bible.

Update:

Obviously the list is not exhaustive, nor is it meant to be a blanket approval of everything John MacArthur does or says.

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The Theological Foundations are Crumbling in Evangelical Churches

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

It seems that among evangelical Christians Theology is out of style.  It is too irrelevant and boring.  The self-centered question of the century is raised, “what does it have to do with me?”  This arrogant and erroneous thought has led to the existential interpretation of Scripture.  Every promise in the book is not mine!  Nor are they all yours!

Never have evangelical Christians had so many resources for studying the Word of God and yet neglected them so.  Christians for the first time are crossing denominational lines for more entertaining services and youth groups which are more activity-centered.  Theological beliefs do not enter the thought process of the consumer-minded evangelical Christian.  The only thing on the Christian’s mind is:  what does this church do to meet my needs?  This is a sad state of affairs.  Read through the pages of the N.T. to find any instance where Scripture instructs believers to make decisions based on such self-centered carnal reasoning.  The reason that Theology is not considered is that to the average Christian the study of God really is not important!  What did you say?  Theology is the study of God and to the average evangelical Christian it is irrelevant.  They are much more concerned about learning and studying themselves, not God!  This is why the Theological foundations are crumbling in evangelical churches.  The Word of God is used as a proof-texting, self-help manual.  May God have mercy on us.

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Doctrinal and Theological Vagueness

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

Doctrinal and Theological Vagueness

There is something of note that I have discovered lately in perusing the websites of various churches. It seems as though there are many churches that have not bothered to included a doctrinal statement on their website. One would wonder what the motivation behind such an omission would be? Contrary to what many would declare, the Bible clearly proclaims that doctrine is important (Jude 3; Rev. 22:18-19; 2 Pet. 3:14-18). Is the motivation not to offend those who have varying doctrinal stances? There are many things that have been practiced by churches since the day of Pentecost that are merely preferences rather than commands. Yet, there are many biblical issues that one must study to determine what he believes.

There were some doctrinal statements that were more like lyrics to a contemporary Christian song, than a fully developed statement of biblical beliefs. This has led me to believe that there is widespread Theological ignorance at the highest levels of many local churches. I recently read of the contemporary disdain for history. Mankind has concluded that they know more than any generation before and therefore have no need to learn from our ancestors. This reminds me of a plaque that was hung in the classroom of my high school history teacher. It read as follows, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This chronological snobbery has invaded the church. Evangelical Christians believe they are “rootless” and are out to discover what is best for the church. The truth is that the Bible contains a great deal of historical information from which we must learn, so that we may be able to live a life that truly glorifies God (Rom. 15:4; 4:23-25; 1 Cor. 10:6-13). A large number of evangelical Christians are not only ignorant of the Old Testament, which gives us a proper foundation for and understanding of the New Testament, but we are ignorant of Church history. Church history is littered with examples of good and bad Theology. It contains pictures of how the Church was affected by its culture during history. It is to our detriment that we are unaware of these valuable lessons.

Maybe this current climate of Theological vagueness, which is also evidenced in so much of contemporary Christian music, is a symptom of a greater problem. It seems as though we are spending more time trying to “figure out” how to “grow” local churches, than we are spending time growing in our knowledge of and intimacy with the God of the Bible. God seems to be more of an accessory in our local churches, rather than the centerpiece. Maybe this is why we are Theologically vague. We are unsure of the importance of biblical doctrine. We are unsure of the value of Theology. We have come to believe that the “study of God” is not very exciting and not very relevant. We seem to have made ourselves the centerpiece of local churches. Why study God’s Word to know God when our concerns and lives are more important? There are a large number who come to local churches for the purpose of learning more about their potential and their circumstances. If a local church is to focus on God and the proclamation of His Word, may view that local church as irrelevant.

If one seeks answers from Scripture, it would seem that Theological vagueness has resulted from professing Christians worshiping self, rather than the Triune God.

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