It seems that Christophobia is rampant these days. Nothing causes such a stir as two simple words: “Jesus Christ.” Have you ever noticed that if a chaplain closes a prayer “in Jesus’ name,” it makes headlines, but if a religious leader prays to Allah, Benevolent Spirit, Jehovah, etc. no one bats an eye? Why is it that when people hit their thumb with a hammer they yell “JESUS CHRIST!” They don’t yell “BUDDHA” or “ALLAH!” It just doesn’t happen very often. It makes one wonder….

The folks who seem to fear the most when the politically incorrect name of Jesus is invoked are Christians. That’s the ironic part. I know lots of Christians who almost cringe at the mention of Jesus’ name in so-called “secular” realms.

And we seem to excuse this behavior. We seem to empathize when people hide their affiliation with Christ for job security, or to maintain a “normal” social image. Aside from DC Talk, no one wants to be labeled a “Jesus freak.”

[Jesus said,] “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).

I sometimes wonder if those who fear the name of Jesus really understand the profoundness of the Gospel. I wonder if they really know the depths of His love.

Sometimes they are unable to know the depths of His love because they do not know the depths of their sin. If your sin is small, then your Savior will also be small. But when we recognize how depraved we really are, we can only exclaim with St. Paul,

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

“Everyone” includes you and me. Everyone includes your coworkers, the media, your students, your teachers, your boss, your family, your friends, and your neighbors. How can we pray for the Gospel to be spread when we are ashamed of it? Political correctness is part of our (fallen) culture. We are called to remain “aliens and strangers in the world” (1 Peter 2:11), to be in the world but not of it (John 17:13-18). At times this will involve breaking cultural taboos. Even if it costs us our jobs or our very lives.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35).

But take heart, we have a great and loving God. Be thankful.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” (1 Timothy 1:7-14).

In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” But how often we leave Christ out of the picture. Or we introduce a false Christ who simply wants to better society and love people. We forget that He had to die for us, and that we must also die in order to become a part of His family. All sinners must die, for the wages of sin is death. They can either die eternally, or they can die baptismally. I saw this picture at Veith’s blog and thought it exemplified Jesus’ words in John 14:6 pretty well:

Is this picture accurate? Could it be improved? What thoughts does it elicit?

I saw this video from Matt Redman over at Kevin DeYoung’s blog. P.S. the expression “blokey bloke” is akin to our expression “manly man”:

Redman talks about how worship music has become romanticized and largely unscriptural. He says that “the church has been under-fathered and over-mothered.” Most of us are familiar with the “Jesus is my boyfriend” brand of popular worship music, but Redman also talks about how the cross no longer seems to be the focal point of worship music. The same seems to be happening in the pulpits, perhaps there’s a link here….

Attracting true followers isn’t so easy.

I saw this over at iMonk.

Happy Bunny Day! My brother attends a church that does not celebrate Easter, so my wife and I were discussing the origins of the holiday with him yesterday at Cracker Barrel. Then we got home and lo and behold, Daniel and Heather posted a great article about this very issue. You have to see the picture, it’s priceless. Anyways, I began writing a comment and decided to turn it into a post.

Getting into the historical origins of Easter would be tedious, and anyone with a little motivation can do this him or herself. Suffice it to say that for quite some time in history Christians were competing with pagans over the Spring Equinox, with the former celebrating Christ’s resurrection and the latter awaiting the annual rebirth of Attis (one of many names used for Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, etc.).

From a cultural standpoint, Christians won. But the origin of the holiday was for the most part pagan.

Easter falls close to Passover (which falls on the Christian holiday ‘Maundy Thursday’ this year), so the Judeo-Christian connection is seen more clearly – but in many cases the connection is blurred. Of course historically the Church has understood that the Last Supper was a Passover (Seder) meal, and thus Christ would have been crucified the following day and rose again three days later. Whether this was a Sunday is irrelevant and could be argued in several directions for hours.

Christmas and Easter remain the two most celebrated Christian holidays, yet it is clear that they are really just cultural fads. Slavoj Zizek in his book The Puppet and the Dwarf points out:

When it comes to religion … we no longer “really believe” today, we just follow (some) religious rituals and mores as part of respect for the “lifestyle” of the community to which we belong (nonbelieving Jews obeying kosher rules “out of respect for tradition,” etc.). “I don’t really believe in it, it’s just part of my culture” effectively seems to be the most predominant mode of the disavowed/displaced belief characteristic of our times. What is a cultural lifestyle, if not the fact that, although we don’t believe in Santa Claus, there is a Christmas tree in every house, and even in public places, every December? Perhaps, then, the “nonfundamentalist” notion of “culture” as distinguished from “real” religion, art, and so on, is in its very core the name for the field of disowned/impersonal beliefs – “culture” is the name for all those things we practice without really believing in them, without “taking them seriously.”

This holds true for a majority of Americans’ spirituality. They don’t really believe all of this Jesus stuff, they just go to church two days out of the year because it is a part of their culture. True beliefs alter our worldview, and worldview change results in new thinking patterns and behavioral modification. None of this occurs in most of the folks who attend a church service on Christmas and/or Easter.

Granted, some do genuinely celebrate Christ’s birth and resurrection on these days – but shouldn’t we thank God for His incarnation and resurrection daily? It seems to me that people are clinging to vain traditions of men and stubbornly attaching an ideal belief system to it. WAKE UP! This is a post-Christian culture and few really live out the reason for the seasons the other 363 days of the year!

My wife and I like Easter because it is fun watching kids get eggs, because we recognize that the pagan notions have been divorced from the cultural practices. We celebrate Christmas because it is a great time with family, and we try to avoid the true reasons for the season: materialism and greed. But to say we focus on the idealistic neo-Christian foci on these days would be lying. Maybe I’m a weak Christian, but it seems to me that this is a no-brainer: these holidays have hardly anything to do with Jesus Christ – just like they have hardly anything to do with fertility and pagan goddess worship. If you agree with the latter I cannot conceive how you can deny the former. Either way you celebrate it, you must divorce it from one of its main cultural contexts. It’s like drinking a strawberry-banana milkshake, but saying you are only focusing on the bananas so that’s all that you ingest. Of course you get both because they are blended, but naive folks for years have been trying to “have their cake and eat it too” when it comes to Easter and our post-Christian culture.

I have no problem celebrating it, but I do so for cultural reasons (and so do you if you’re honest). My wife and I won’t be trying to figure out how to reconcile bunnies with the cross – we can’t. We understand that the holiday is instituted by man and we enjoy it in the freedom we have in Christ. Of course we also celebrate Christ’s resurrection, but only because we try to do this EVERY day! So in conclusion, have a happy bunny day – and remember Christ’s miraculous incarnation and resurrection EVERY day of the year. And then, LIVE IN THOSE TRUTHS.

This picture is funny. When you consider how the early church was persecuted, particularly under the reign of Nero (who fed Christians to the lions in the Coliseum), how must have early followers preached to attract so many new followers to the faith in such a difficult time? Why would anyone come to faith in Christ when it meant almost certain death? Perhaps they knew of a hope that we only hint at these days. One thing is for sure, they didn’t preach the American Gospel which is so eloquently summed up in the words on the bottom of this picture!

So what is the Gospel? Let’s allow the apostle Paul to answer that question (from 1 Corinthians 15):

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

The Gospel is not a set of belief statements. It is not a magic formula nor a rite. It is not a sales pitch or presentation. It’s not a new standard of moral conduct. It’s not even a paradigm shift. The Gospel is a person. Gospel means “good news,” and the news is the person and work of Jesus Christ. As John Piper has profoundly pointed out, God is the Gospel!

If you would like to know more about the Gospel, be sure to visit my page on the subject. This page is always available as a link from the very top of any page on this blog.

I saw this photo at JollyBlogger.

It’s no big secret that the gospel of American Christianity is really no Gospel at all — see my recent post entitled American Jesus: A Manifesto for more on that. But this is much more significant than just the presentation of “Decision Theology” and other Pelagian ideals, it involves a complete removal of Christ from the message, a Christless Christianity. I recently read some excerpts from Michael Horton’s book Christless Christianity at Truth Matters. It says:

“Where everything is measured by our happiness rather than by God’s holiness, the sense of our being sinners becomes secondary, if not offensive. If we are good people who have lost our way but with the proper instructions and motivation can become a better person, we need only a life coach, not a redeemer. We can still give our assent to a high view of Christ and the centrality of his person and work, but in actual practice we are being distracted from “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). A lot of the things that distract us from Christ these days are even good things. In order to push us off point, all that Satan has to do is throw several spiritual fads, moral and political crusades, and other “relevance” operations into our field of vision. Focusing the conversation on us—our desires, needs, feelings, experience, activity, and aspirations— energizes us. At last, now we’re talking about something practical and relevant.” (pg 15-16)

“…I am not arguing in this book that we have arrived at Christless Christianity but that we are well on our way. There need not be explicit abandonment of any key Christian teaching, just a series of subtle distortions and not-so-subtle distractions. Even good things can cause us to look away from Christ and to take the gospel for granted as something we needed for conversion but which now can be safely assumed and put in the background. Center stage, however, is someone or something else…So much of what I am calling “Christless Christianity” is not profound enough to constitute heresy. Like the easy-listening Muzak that plays ubiquitously in the background in other shopping venues, the message of American Christianity has simply become trivial, sentimental, affirming, and irrelevant.” (pg 20)

“If the message the church proclaims makes sense without conversion, if it does not offend even lifelong believers from time to time so that they too need to die more to themselves and live more to Christ, then it is not the gospel. When Christ is talked about, a lot of things can happen, none of which necessarily have any lasting impact. When Christ is proclaimed in his saving office, the church becomes a theater of death and resurrection.” (pg 141)

These are some great thoughts! As I’ve said before, when we remove the offense of the Gospel, we have no gospel at all. If sin is a generic condition everyone has, and we never internalize it and begin to examine specific sins we commit, then perhaps we don’t have a real savior. No real sin, no real savior! Horton says it well.

Paul McCain, author of the Cyberbrethren blog, wrote a post today entitled the same thing. In it he writes:

The crisis in Christianity is not liberal v. conservative, not whether the Bible is, or is not, inspired, and is not who is “missional” and who is not. The crisis in Christianity is constant and a long-standing one. It is the crisis over the question of the supremacy and centrality of the proclamation of the message of Christ: the righteous, innocent Savior of all mankind.

The great crisis in Christianity is that in many quarters and places, pulpits and homes, the Gospel is an afterthought, an aside, something for conversion, a cliche, a Shibboleth, quickly mouthed in order to permit something other to be said, proclaimed, advanced and promoted, and usually that “something” is nothing but law, driving the sinner not to Christ, but to his feelings, emotions, personal opinions—turning a person right back into himself. . . .

. . . Over the years I’ve come to realize that is is precisely a Christ-less Christianity and a No-Good-News Gospel that is truly at the heart of every crisis, challenge and problem facing the Christian Church. We are at war against sin, death and the devil, and without the actual good news of Jesus Christ, we may as well be using sticks and stones against the principalities and powers of this age, whose only goal is to crush and destroy our faith, and the Christian Church. We forget that with “might of ours” we can not prevail and soon will be undone. . . .

. . . Bloodless Christianity is the crisis. When the blood of Christ is not splashed about, all over people, when our pastors preach and when our teachers teach and when our parents parent: there is where to look for the source of the crisis in modern Christianity. [emphasis mine]

Well said. Will the church of 2009 take strides towards re-focusing on Jesus, or will it give us “more of the same?” Only time will tell. . . .

For an in depth treatment of America’s “Christless Christianity,” be sure to see my post American Jesus: A Manifesto.

Psalm 2 really strikes me as a relevant passage for the day:

Psalm 2

 1 Why do the nations conspire
       and the peoples plot in vain?

 2 The kings of the earth take their stand
       and the rulers gather together
       against the LORD
       and against his Anointed One.

 3 “Let us break their chains,” they say,
       “and throw off their fetters.”

 4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
       the Lord scoffs at them.

 5 Then he rebukes them in his anger
       and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,

 6 “I have installed my King
       on Zion, my holy hill.”

 7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD :
       He said to me, “You are my Son;
       today I have become your Father.

 8 Ask of me,
       and I will make the nations your inheritance,
       the ends of the earth your possession.

 9 You will rule them with an iron scepter;
       you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

 10 Therefore, you kings, be wise;
       be warned, you rulers of the earth.

 11 Serve the LORD with fear
       and rejoice with trembling.

 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
       and you be destroyed in your way,
       for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
       Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

I’ll spare you from an in-depth analysis of the text, but be sure to read through it a few times and dwell on it. What this says to me is that God is in control. Remember that God has already “rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Colossians 1:13).

I know many look for an earthly kingdom to be set up with Jesus on its throne, but I believe the Scriptures are abundantly clear that Jesus is already reigning on His throne in His kingdom — and His kingdom is here. I talk about this in my post entitled The End is Near! Matthew 11:12 says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” The book of Matthew is FULL of Jesus teaching in parables concerning the kingdom of heaven. He continually demonstrated that people need to act now – and not look for another kingdom to come, such as the man who buried his talent, awaiting the master’s return. Remember, that passage had nothing to do with money or talents, but with the kingdom of heaven!

I believe that the Bible teaches that when Christ came to earth He ushered us into the kingdom of heaven and through faith in Him we are brought into that same kingdom today. The Colossians passage I quoted above supports that pretty well. Revelation 12:9-11 says:

“The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

I believe that this authority and power is already here, since Satan was hurled down when Christ defeated him along with sin and death on the cross. Jesus said,

“If I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:27-28).

If you truly believe that Jesus drove out demons by the Spirit of God (which is the clear implication of this text), then you must also believe that the kingdom of God is already upon us!

However, one of the clearest Scriptures regarding the kingdom of God is found in Luke 17:20-21:

“Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.’”

The kingdom of God is within us! In the Greek, this literally translates to “in our midst.” It’s already here!

Do not put your trust in princes,
     in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
     on that very day their plans come to nothing
(Psalm 146:3).

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms
(Ephesians 6:12).

This election day, remember that our true struggle is against Satan and his evil schemes. God is in control, and the nations plot in vain. I don’t foresee things getting better, in fact I believe times are coming when true Christians will face intense persecution under new “thought crime” and “hate crime” legislation. But I also believe that’s part of God’s plan, and we are simply getting closer to His final coming.

Christianity 2.0 is far less interested in legislating our faith as it is in living it.

On this election day, remember that Jesus is still reigning on His throne, and His Kingdom is forcefully advancing. So vote, but understand that no matter who wins, God is sovereign — and He knows what He is doing.

I normally write more thought-provoking, lengthy articles and such. But pardon me while I rant a moment about this. From the Christian Post:

An eighth grader at a New Jersey middle school was sent home Friday after he dressed up as Jesus Christ for Halloween.

Alex Woinski, 13, wore a white robe, red sash, sandals, fake beard, and crown of thorns on his head after receiving encouragement from his friends, who said he looked like Jesus with his shoulder-length hair.

When Alex arrived at West Brook Middle School in Paramus, however, officials told him he could only keep the costume on if he removed the beard and the crown of thorns.

School officials said the costume was a disruption and denied its religious nature had anything to do with it.

“Children were [asking], where is the boy who is Jesus Christ?” Principal Joan Broe told a local CBS affiliate. “It was disrupting the education process.”

Alex, however, refused to heed the school’s orders and was sent home.

When asked what school officials told him the reason for being sent home was, Alex recalled to the local news station, “It was offensive to some students.”

Alex, whose mother is Catholic and father is Jewish, recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah and says he has developed an interest in religion. He is reportedly studying the Bible.

Despite the reception he received at school, Alex was not discouraged from donning the costume to go trick-or-treating Friday night.

Yet it’s perfectly OK for people to dress as little devils, or for girls to dress as naughty nurses or devilish whores. . . . Pardon the harshness, but c’mon. This is ridiculous. It’s the same thing as using the Lord’s name in vain. Everyone says “Jesus Christ.” NO ONE says “Buddha.” It just doesn’t happen. Hmm…