"The Shack" Attack

The recent NYT bestselling book, The Shack, is an outright attack on Christianity. This book was lent to my wife by a friend, with a good recommendation. She read it and pointed out several things along the way to me. My assessment is that it is an attack on Christianity, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

This novel repeatedly, and systematically, undermines the God of the Bible, Jesus, the Trinity, and many other core doctrines of the Church. This is not a mere re-interpretation of the Biblical doctrines from scripture in an entertaining way, the statements and claims in the book directly contradict statements in the Bible. Statements about who God is, how we interact with Him, our own Salvation are re-defined into something new and different. It may sound similar, but after you re-define all the terms and relationships, it undermines the Christian worldview. This is not the Jesus of the Bible, the same as Allah is not the God of the Bible.

I have read one book on New Age and listened to a couple CDs; enough to recognize that this is not a Christian book, but a New Age book with the purpose of replacing Christianity in the cultural mainstream. It is a shame that any Christian bookstore or online seller would sell this as a Christian book. It is a shame that any pastor would recommend this book, or even purchase multiple copies for those in his shepherding.

Anyone who reads the Bible on a regular (nearly daily) basis should be able to see right through this story for they are firmly grounded in the Word of God, "thoroughly equipped for every good work". If you are not regularly reading God's Word, you will be more likely to be deceived by the "fine-sounding arguments" and led astray.

Spread the word, this book is as anti-Christian as they come!

Preach the Gospel always, if necessary use words

After talking with someone recently about apologetics, they commented that their philosophy was captured in the words of St Francis of Assisi, "Preach the Gospel always, if necessary use words." This is an often repeated phrase and philosophy among Christians today, but is it Biblical?

I was a bit uncomfortable about this approach, as I dug in further, I became more cetain that it is not Biblical, nor is it effective.

In my many years, I have had several discussions with several people regarding faith, the Bible, Jesus, God, etc... but out of all those, there is only one that I can knowingly attribute to 'preaching the gospel without words'. That doesn't mean we shouldn't preach the gospel without words, but it does mean we shouldn't use that as our sole approach.

What's the problem?
Part of the problem is our fallen nature, we all sin, and thus do not give a perfect reflection of the gospel. We all give examples, at times, that turn others away from the gospel, rather than towards it. This phrase can be used to challenge us as Christians to seek to live a better life, striving to keep ourselves from being corrupted by the world. Yet, none of us will live up to this.

Another problem is the Biblical example. Look through the New Testament for sharing the gospel message, by and large they are all using words. Consider Peter sharing with the message with the Jews where 3000 were added to their number that day. Consider Paul sharing the gospel, using the 'unknown god' to trigger an explanation of the God who created heaven and earth, and many others.

The biggest problem is the direct command to preach the gospel in many different scripture passages. Consider this passage in Romans that speaks pretty directly to this:

Romans 10:13-14, "for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

Our Culture
Please don't accept this philosophy, the more we do this, the harder it is to distinguish Christian behavior from that of our culture. (yet one more reason it doesn't work)

Despite this approach not having Biblical support, and not being very effective, this is exactly what our culture wants us to hear. They want us to hear, "don't tell us about your religion". This goes right in line with the other phrases which seek to silence Christians, "we must tolerate others' beliefs", "we all worship the same god, we just follow different paths", "it's not a salvation issue", "I don't want to be prosletized".

These are all designed to keep us quiet, so we don't preach the gospel. It makes them uncomfortable. To those living without the gospel, they should be uncomfortable when faced with their sin. They don't like to be reminded, yet we have the only message of hope for them.

Does everyone know what is evil?

My wife asked me this question a while back. I thought about it a little and decided that they must. Some of the big things like murder are very apparent, but what about the rest?

My answer: Yes, absolutely!

My reason: Adam's original sin

We often talk of Adam's 'original sin' being the sin nature that we all inherit from Adam and Eve. But, shouldn't we also consider what else is inherited? Consider the story in Genesis 2-3. God said,

Genesis 2:15-17, "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

then later,

Genesis 3:6-7, " When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves."

Also, consider how all this plays into the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:21-22, "For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."

So, because of Adam's sin, we inherit three things, 1) sin, 2) death, it's consequence, and 3) the knowledge of good and evil. But, that can all be reversed through faith in God's son, Jesus Christ.

Branson: The Promise, the Fifth Commandment

Doug Phillips of Vision Forum presented this topic on "The Promise: The Power and Blessing of the Fifth Commandment".

Doug spoke on the fifth commandment, to

"Honore you father and mother" - which is the first command with a promise. -Ephesians 6:2

To get the full verse from Deuteronomy 5:16 (the two promises are underlined)

Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

The norm in our culture today is disrespect, not honor. The spirit of the age is 1) Individualism, 2) Egalitarianism, and 3) Dishonor.

He shared the truth about authority and jurisdiction: 1) All authority is given by God, 2) All authority has limitations, except for God (i.e. "obey your parents in the Lord"), 3) Authority has burdens as well as privileges, 4) Those with authority will be accountable to God for their use of authority

He also shared the truth about your parents: 1) God made your parents (His gift to you), 2) God calls you to honor them despite their failures, and 3) Your parents were once sons and daughters.

We should adopt a personal committment to honor, as a guiding principal for life. Gossip is diabolical. Worshiping youth is a principal of Humanism or Paganism; seek wisdom and do not pander to youth. He shared many scripture passages relating to honor. These were pretty rapid-fire so I don't think I capture them all, but here's a list he used:

1. John 5:23, honor the Son as you honor the Father
2. Romans 9:21, some are made for honor, some for dishonor
3. John 8:54, honor is bestowed by someone else (not self)
4. Leviticas 19:2, honor older men (your elders)
5. Psalm 71:8, let your mouth proclaim honor
6. 1 Samuel 2:30, honor and blessing are linked
7. Proverbs 15:33, there is no honor with pride
8. Romans 13:7, give honor to whom honor is due (not anyone)
9. Thessalonians 4:4, possess your body in honor (carry and present yourself well)
10. Proverbs 1:7-9
11. Hebrews 12:9-10
12. Proverbs 6:20-30, honor illuminates the mind
13. Proverbs 4:1-4
14. Genesis 18:18
15. Psalm 103:17-18, no more droopy drawers syndrome
16. Acts 2:39
17. Proverbs 22:6
18. 1 Peter 3:7, God and your children are watching

On dishonor:

1. Exodus 21:15, 17, due death for dishonor to father
2. Deuteronomy 27:14-26
3. Proverbs 30:11-17
4. Romans 1:28-31
5. 2 Timothy 3:1-5
6. Proverbs 20:20

Other:

1. Hebrews 13:17
2. 1 Timoth 6:1
3. Romans 12:10
4. 1 Timothy 5:17

Quotes:

Expect hell, fire, and brimstone. Anything you get above this is a bonus.

Branson: What Mean These Stones

This was presented as the closing session by Carl Kerby of Answers in Genesis.

This is in reference to the passage in Joshua (3-4) where the ark and all Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground and setup stones on the other side as a reminder for generations of what God had done.

He told us that there are 400,000 churches in America, there are organizations, and products, and "Christian everything". But, are we getting more or getting less Christian as a nation? The answer, 'less Christian'. Carl shared some statistics to reinforce that conclusion.

He shared the Barna Research survey results indicating between 70-88% of Christian youth leave the church after age 18.

He shared much other information, but this got me to thinking about the math and population genetics approach similar to what I recently read in "Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome" by Dr. John Sanford. Assuming all Christians marry other Christians, and have two kids who grow up to be Christians (to keep pace/replace themselves) and the failure rate of 88%, each Christian family would need to have 15-17 children. Once you factor in all the other issues, such as fertility, population growth rate, marriage age, age of death, etc... you quickly realize that this is an impossible, loosing battle statistically. It's a good thing God doesn't play by 'statistics' or there would be no hope.

Carl also shared that there is a failure rate of 70% within 5 years for those in ministry.

Things may look bleak, but we are reminded by these stones, that

He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God. -Joshua 4:24

He is always faithful.