I should read more books, I know it! But most of the time I have for reading goes to social media – mostly blog-posts and online articles. Several of those I read regularly are in the millennial camp. Oh, come on, let’s call them what they are – young whippersnappers! Many of the millennials show encouraging signs – a commitment to biblical truth and a love for reaching younger generations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But many younger (self-described) evangelicals operate with an assumption that Christianity must mold itself to please our culture. If we offend, we must adjust. If our moral standards are offensive, must alter them to fit that which has become popular and accepted in culture. How can we be relevant in the modern day with medieval morality? If our evangelistic methods turn off the good people of young America, then we must by all means seek new methods – those which do not bring offense.
It seems that for many in the progressive evangelical camp (oxymoron, anyone?) the standard is cultural relevance and acceptability more than it is biblical truth. Those in the emergent and progressive camps are all too willing to compromise that which is biblically defined and revealed on the altar of cultural acceptance. In an ironic turn, they heap harsh condemnation and angry words on conservatives for our biblical views on homosexuality and gender issues, but mostly for our anger! I think of one writer who never misses an opportunity to condemn conservatives in the harshest tones for our lack of grace.
The point is that this segment of evangelicalism seems to value cultural relevance and acceptance more than adherence to biblical truth. It assumes that if the church is viewed poorly by the world, we must be doing something wrong. If we are unpopular, we must be un-Christlike. If we are not reaching people we must be erring in our approach.
Here’s the necessary caveat to what I’m about to say. Christian conservatives have, in fact, often been obnoxious and offensive – unnecessarily so. We’ve sometimes acted like our condemnation and derogation will win the world to Christ. Loud, declamatory Facebook proclamations, condemnatory picket signs and such are not effective evangelistic tools.
But what the emergents, the so-called progressive evangelicals and many in the millennial camp forget is the biblical attitude toward the world. Jesus could not have been more clear in his Farewell Discourse. If the world hated him (it did!) it would hate those who followed him. In this world, he promised, we would have hardship, difficulty and persecution. Jesus never said that if we did it right the world would celebrate us. He told us the world would hate us. In fact, he warned us in Luke 6:26 that we should be upset if everyone speaks well of us. The approval of the sinful world ought to be a bigger concern to us than its condemnation.
Woe to the church when we gauge our effectiveness and fidelity by the approval and positive opinion of the world. Jesus made it clear that faithfulness to his kingdom would invoke the ire of the sinful world that is blinded by the lies of the Evil One, enslaved by sin and living in opposition to the ways of God. A defective theology, especially anthropology and cosmology, leads to a defective ecclesiology and an faulty approach to ministry in a sinful world.
I have been teaching through the Old Testament on Wednesday night for most of the 10 years I’ve been in Sioux City. I’m teaching the prophets chronologically and am in Ezekiel. I was floored by what God said to Ezekiel in his call to ministry and I think it is instructive to us. In Ezekiel 3, God assigns his prophetic ministry to Ezekiel. Living in exile in Babylon, between the second exile and the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, he is to deliver a message of God’s judgment on Judah. God warns Ezekiel that the message will not be well received.
But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. Ezekiel 3:7
Israel (Judah) is a sinful people – hardheaded and stubborn. Prophet after prophet has pronounced God’s judgment and called Israel to repent, and time after time Israel has ignored them. I can just hear the Emergent Israelites saying, “Don’t you know that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result?” They would tell Jeremiah and Ezekiel, “The prophets been trying it your way for 250 years and no one is listening. Maybe its time for a new approach, a softer and friendlier approach. Drop the anger and be more accommodating!”
In Jeremiah 11-20, the prophet complains about the hardships of his role and the fact that no one likes him and no one listens to him. Each time he complains, God just gives him another message of judgment to pronounce on the sinful people. The fact that Israel refuses to hear and respond never prompts a change in tactics from God. He just sends Jeremiah back into the fray again and again.
God has a different plan for Ezekiel. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, but Ezekiel was going a different direction. In verses 8 and 9, God describes his intent for Ezekiel’s ministry.
Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”
God just doesn’t get it, evidently. You catch more flies with honey and vinegar. All he had to do was tell Ezekiel to tone it down, be nicer! He should have built some bridges, looked for ways to come across as less harsh and superior. But that’s not what God did. He said to Ezekiel, “My people are hard-headed, I’m going to make you even more hard-headed. They are stubborn, I’ll make you even more stubborn!” And he told them not to be dismayed by the disapproval of the Israelites.
A Watchman for Israel
God made Ezekiel’s “philosophy of ministry” clear and plain in Ezekiel 3:17.
Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
His role was to serve as a watchman, to faithfully deliver the message of God to sinful Israel. It was not his job to convince Israel to repent. It was not his job to induce or seduce Israel. He did not have to close the deal or make the sale. All he had to do was faithfully proclaim God’s truth. God defined three possible outcomes to Ezekiel’s ministry.
- Perhaps Israel would repent as a result of his faithful proclamation and he would receive a blessing for his faithful proclamation. (God made it pretty clear that this outcome was unlikely).
- If he faithfully proclaimed truth and Israel continued in sin, Israel would suffer the consequences of its own wickedness, but Ezekiel would stand guiltless before God as a faithful watchman.
- If Ezekiel failed to faithfully proclaim the truth of God, Israel would die for its sin but Ezekiel would stand guilty before God because of his failure to proclaim the truth.
He was not a showman to impress the people or a salesman to convince them. He was a watchman. His duty was to speak the message of God faithfully. His duty was to God. Whether Israel liked him or not, whether they responded to his message was inconsequential. His duty was to announce God’s word not convince the sinful people. They were hardheaded and rebellious. His duty was simply to make sure that they heard the truth and were left without excuse.
The goal is defined in Ezekiel 2:5.
And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.
The people needed to hear from God. Whether they liked the messenger or not was irrelevant, as long as they heard the message.
Watchmen for a Modern World
All truth is held in balance, and we must be careful of extremes in applying this principle. But the fact is that the church is in danger of being seduced by salesmanship, but the idea that the standard of fidelity is the response of the people. If people like us, if our q rating is high, we must be doing well. If the world hates us, we need to change our views, alter our beliefs and come up with a new strategy.
But perhaps it is not insanity to stick with a very old gospel even if it is not popular in our sinful world. We serve a mighty God and the Spirit is alive and well. The gospel is still the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Our duty is not to make that gospel palatable or to sugarcoat it so that it is less offensive to sinners. Our duty is to proclaim it. Faithfully.
- If they receive it, glory be.
- If they reject it, we grieve but we must remain faithful.
- If we fail to to pronounce the truth, that is the real tragedy!
If we soften the gospel to satisfy the sinful world, then we remove its power to save. If we prefer cultural popularity to gospel fidelity, we have much more than falling numbers to worry about. We have offended God and failed in the task he assigned us.
He told us to go and preach the gospel. He told us to make disciples. Popularity and cultural acceptance were never part of that. No, we need to be belligerent, personally offensive, tactless – there is no benefit in being a gospel jerk. But neither can we seek the applause of man if we hope for the approval of God.
In a sinful and rebellious world, the message of repentance will always offend sinners, but it is still the only message that saves. Anything less than that message offends God and fails to save sinners.
May God make us as hard-headed and stubborn as we need to be to be faithful watchmen in a sinful world!
Dave, about the time I was getting ready to tune out SBC Voices after your Presidential campaign post 🙂 … you come along and write the best piece I’ve seen yet on this site!
Culturally relevant preacher = tell me which way you want to go and I’ll get out in front to lead. We need to have more preachers in the mix whose approach to culture wars is not to develop a ministry that is culturally relevant, but to preach the Truth in love in an attempt to turn the culture back to God. Preacher boys, call sin sin and take your licks for doing so in a society drifting into moral and spiritual decay. Ezekiel did! Speaking of Ezekiel, America could sure use a prophet or two at this juncture. Oh, I forgot, some say that office died out in the first century.
There’s a balance to thus, of course. Cultural relevance isn’t bad as long as it’s not message compromise. our fidelity has to be to Gods kingdom not to “the way things used to be.”
That’s the other side of this.
But when we make acceptance by any culture our goal, we err.
Thanks for the good word.
Yep, balance is the key. Also, we cannot try to jump out ahead of the pack and call it “leading” as someone has already mentioned.
Could it be that the way to “relevance” is not moving forward from where we are to where the culture is, but moving back to the Book of Acts to locate where God is?
I wonder if I sometimes try too hard to make the Bible interesting and “relevant.” I should probably trust God a bit more.
As Dave points out, there is no virtue in seeing how contrary I can make my messages by using “culture” as a whipping boy.
Balance, integrity, genuine love for the lost. These are important to the mix I think.
” … moving back to the Book of Acts to locate where God is …”
Amen, Jack! That’s one sure way to get God back in the house! “Balance, integrity, genuine love for the lost” will get the attention of any culture. Real is always better than relevant.
I agree with Max. Best thing Dave Miller has ever written on this site. Let us bring back the prophetic voices in America. This “trying to fit in” with the culture is NOT working. Our opponents still hate us anyway because of our message (just like Jesus said they would) and our supporters don’t clearly understand that we are still taking a bold stand for God. Let us be as bold in our righteousness as the world is in their sin.
“Let us bring back the prophetic voices in America.”
Amen Rick! I’ve been studying Haggai this week. Eighteen years had passed since the Jews had returned from exile. The temple had not been rebuilt. Spiritual apathy had set in. The people were building their own homes, while God’s house lay in ruin. Neither the appointed governor over them or the appointed priest could persuade them to return to God’s plan. God had withdrawn His blessing. So God anointed Haggai with a “Thus saith the Lord” to get their attention; there was a spiritual awakening and return to God’s will.
The American church is not experiencing genuine revival because we are satisfied to live without it. As in Haggai’s day, we are doing church without God in far too many places … and we don’t even realize it! Praise God for preachers and teachers, but America needs a prophet. It’s come to that!
A friend of a friend who is a missionary in China was telling him the Chinese church is praying for persecution to come to America to weed out the fakers and strengthen the brethren. Makes one think doesn’t it?
The Church has always been its best when it was persecuted. When trial and tribulation come to Christianity Lite in America, the house will clear out fast! The remnant will dismantle the entertainment stages built over the old prayer altars and get back to business.
“Our opponents still hate us anyway because of our message (just like Jesus said they would) and our supporters don’t clearly understand that we are still taking a bold stand for God. Let us be as bold in our righteousness as the world is in their sin.”
Yeah, Rick.
“Let us be as bold in our righteousness as the world (and ungodly leaders are) in their sin” even though those who should support us don’t clearly understand (or don’t really care to understand.)
Don’t know if I think it is the best thing you have written here, but it is great. It is a needed challenge to churches and pastors and me. The greatest encouragement has to come from internals and not externals and the prophets are some of the best instructors. Thank you Dave.
Velly interesting! As the character on the TV program, The Smothers Brothers, use to say. Actually, our problem is two fold, one an effort via the visual media (television) and print media (books, articles in journals, newspapers, etc.) to persuade us that the Bible is a primitive document, half baked at best, and the other is the lack of intellectual training whereby we might begin to discern the depths of Holy Writ. In my years of research and writing papers for the many classes I attended, I credit the Bible with helping me to realize that there is a need for a new scientific method, one among others that the Book presents to us. I can still remember one of my professors presenting a one shot scientific experiment taken from Daniel chapter one. However, it was in dealing with the two-sidedness of the truth concerning ministerial qualification that I came to realize that a scientific method could be devised that is synthetical instead of analytical, that is, the method can take into account two-sided and apparently contradictory truths which are really designed to fit right and left sides of our brains, truths that fit in with the digital nature of today’s civilization, a both/and proposition. In the case of the mind the two sided precept is intended to set up a tension in the believer which will enable him or her, as the case might be, to be flexible instead of rigid. David, you are beginning to get on track, and remember a track has two rails, if we might use the railroad track analogy.
Dave,
This has to be the best post you have ever written. I applaud you. We live in a world of compromise, and I hate it. We can never go wrong sticking with God’s word.
Dave,
I enjoyed this post. Great truth. The same spirit seems to inhabit the fear of witnessing. My understanding is the contrast is proclaiming, not convincing. That is the Holy Spirits job. We proclaim with respect, and out of love for the other, and understand it is the relationship they have with God that is the main focus. It is also the focus of discipleship. So many times we defend what needs no defending for fear of offending. We want to answer questions, without asking if they are even the right questions. We fall prey to those wrong questions generated from a secular narrative that is meant to prevent truthful proclamation.
I attend a church currently that is around 80 percent Millenials, so I agree with those comments as well.
Also enjoyed your piece on 1 cor 7, which is how I found your blog.3-1-12
Thanks again for your efforts
Dave,
Excellent, thank you for reminding us!
wilbur