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By John MacArthur
Entering a new
decade started me thinking about
all that has happened in the
church over the past twenty
years. The 1970s were an
exciting time. We saw an
unprecedented rise in
conservative evangelicalism, the
explosion of Christian
broadcasting and publishing, a
number of excellent new Bible
translations and study aids, the
proliferation of small-group
Bible studies, and tremendous
growth in Bible-believing
congregations.
In the midst
of it all, one sensed a sincere
desire to exalt the Lord, a love
for God's Word, a hunger to
understand it, and--within the
church, at least--a renewed
interest in holiness, combatting
the steady moral decay that had
gained such a foothold in the
'60s.
Those
phenomena could have been
harbingers of genuine spiritual
revival.
But the '80s
were a decade of decline. Not
numerical decline in most of our
churches (though I'm concerned
that this may happen yet), but a
spiritual decline. The church
has actually turned away from
true revival and pursued instead
the popularization of
Christianity.
The pop church
is everywhere. It is perhaps
most evident on religious
television, where the diet of
celebrity variety shows and
other forms of entertainment has
decreased the taste for worship.
It is quickly gaining a foothold
in Christian radio, where
phone-in talk shows and live
psychotherapy are replacing
Bible teaching as the staple. It
has ravaged local churches,
turning them into little more
than social clubs and community
centers where the focus is on
the individual's felt needs, not
on the church's function as the
Body of Christ in the world.
The trends of
pop Christianity pose dangers
more subtle than the liberalism
that threatened the church in
the first half of the century.
Instead of attacking orthodoxy
head on, the pop church gives
lip service to the truth while
quietly undermining the
foundations of doctrine. Instead
of exalting God it denigrates
the things that are precious to
Him.
The pop church
is not a single movement or
visible organization. Tendencies
toward popular religion can be
found even in some of the finest
churches and Christian
organizations in evangelicalism.
Tragically,
the church appears to be
actually moving the opposite
direction from true revival. As
we enter the '90s, the trends
become more and more evident.
First, there
is in vogue today a tendency
to make the basis of faith
something other than God's Word.
Experience, emotion, fashion,
and popular opinion are often in
reality more authoritative than
the Bible in determining what
many Christians believe.
The
charismatic movement, of course,
has led the way in this failure
by claiming private, individual
revelation is a valid and normal
way God manifests Himself. Why
should we carefully study the
Bible when we can get personal
messages and fresh prophecy from
some charismatic experience?
But
non-charismatics have not been
exempt from teachings that
undermine biblical authority.
Secular psychology, for
instance, has virtually
superseded God's Word at the
core of curriculum in some of
our conservative seminaries.
Christian counseling reflects
this drift, frequently offering
no more than experimental and
unscriptural self-help therapy
instead of solid answers from
the Bible.
Christian
missionary work is often riddled
with pragmatism and compromise,
because too many in missions
have evidently concluded that
what gets results is more
important than what God says.
That's true
among local churches as well. It
has become quite fashionable to
forego the proclamation and
teaching of God's Word in
worship services. Instead,
churches serve up a smorgasbord
of drama, music, and other forms
of entertainment.
All of this
dethrones Scripture from its
rightful place as the basis for
our faith.
Second, pop
Christianity has a tendency
to move the focus of faith away
from God's Son. You've seen
that repeatedly if you watch
much religious television.
Center stage belongs to the
celebrity evangelist, the
fund-raising campaign, or the
miracles and healings--anything
but the Lord Jesus.
Furthermore,
the faith those programs
ordinarily exemplify is
surrealistic. The people we see
are nearly always bubbly,
giggly, and giddy. Instead of
biblical faith, which rejoices
in the midst of trials, what we
usually see is a thin, and
fragile emotionalism that talks
of deliverance but seems merely
to be a form of escapism.
The
health-wealth-and-prosperity
gospel advocated by so many
televangelists is the ultimate
example of this kind of
fantasy-faith. Appealing
unabashedly to the flesh, this
false gospel corrupts all the
promises of Scripture and
encourages greed. It makes
material blessing, not Jesus
Christ, the object of the
Christian's desires.
Easy-believism
handles the message differently,
but the effect is the same. Here
is the perfect message for pop
Christianity. It is the promise
of forgiveness minus the
gospel's hard demands. It has
done much to popularize
"believing" but little to
provoke sincere faith.
Christ is no
longer the focus of the message.
We may hear His name mentioned
from time to time, but the real
focus seems is inward, not
upward. People are urged to look
within; to try to understand
themselves; to come to grips
with their problems,
their hurts, their
disappointments; to have
their needs met, their
desires granted, their
wants fulfilled. Nearly all the
popular versions of the message
encourage and legitimize a
self-centered perspective.
Such an
emphasis cannot help but shift
the focus away from Christ.
Third, today's
pop Christianity is infected
with a tendency to view the
result of faith as something
less than God's standard of holy
living. I thought of this
recently as one of the fallen
televangelists was again in the
news. Several of his loyalists
were demonstrating against his
conviction and imprisonment by
carrying signs with the word
"FORGIVEN!" in large red
letters.
We must be
forgiving, but forgiveness is
not the end and the aim of the
Christian faith; holiness unto
the Lord is (2 Cor. 7:1; Eph.
1:4; 5:25-27).
By downplaying
the importance of holy
living--both by precept and by
example--the pop church has
undermined the biblical doctrine
of conversion. A celebrity
show-business personality
professes faith in Christ but
continues in an ungodly
lifestyle. No one thinks
anything of it--or worse, the
pop church continues to herald
that person as an example of a
true believer.
That eats at
the heart of the Christian
faith. Think about it: What
could Satan do to try to destroy
the church that would be more
effective than undermining God's
Word, shifting the focus off
Christ, and minimizing holy
living? All those things are
happening slowly, steadily
within the church right now.
Tragically, most Christians seem
oblivious to the problems,
satisfied with a Christianity
that is fashionable and highly
visible.
The true
church must not ignore these
threats. If we fight to keep the
church pure, we can conquer
external attacks easily. But if
we let error into the church, we
will not be able to regain the
purity without waging civil war.
I fear that
may be happening even now. The
church of the past decade has
become so broad and inclusive
that many otherwise sound
Christians avoid speaking the
truth for fear of being
divisive. Recently, for example,
a major Christian radio network
wrote to ask me not to teach
again on a certain passage of
Scripture. "We agree with what
you say," the network executive
told me, "but many of our
constituents do not, and we're
committed to peace."
We cannot have
peace if it means we must avoid
whole passages of Scripture! The
unity Jesus prayed for is a
unity based on common commitment
to truth. It is a oneness made
possible because we are
sanctified in the truth (John
17:19-21), not a false unity
borne of compromise.
May the church of the '90s
reverse these trends and pray
instead for a fresh infusion of
the Holy Spirit's power.
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