I visited with a pastor from a church in Belgium over lunch yesterday. As we talked about the challenges of ministry in Europe, Jerry observed that generally Europeans think they are too intellectual to really need God. Though the country is nominally Catholic and observes Christian holidays, very few show any regard for the Bible or for church teaching. A person who lives with an active faith in God who attempts to integrate that faith into daily life, he said, is regarded as intellectually inferior or weak.
Later in the day, I pulled the most recent issue of US News from my mailbox (5/30/2005) and found it contained an article headlined: European, not Christian. That article confirmed Jerry Foster's analysis. I quote: "An aggressive form of secularism- what the British religion writer Karen Armstrong calls 'secular fundamentalism'- is afoot in Europe. Numerous analysts suggest that the spreading 'Christianophobia' is tied to a Europe-wide spiritual malaise that is pushing the Continent towards broad cultural and economic decline." The article asserts that Christianity failed toward the end of the 19th century as it was reduced from a robust faith that gave guidance to make moral decisions that stood in judgment of the modern world, to become a bland, tepid spirituality without an appeal to Truth. The resulting "humanism lay behind the rise of the worst ideologies of the 20th century, fascism and communism. All were testimony to a failure of moral reason in the very culture that gave the world the very concept of moral reason." The author writes that "there is an inadequacy in tepid, comfortable religiosity."
Christianity robbed of Truth is disgusting, like a cup of lukewarm coffee!
What do I mean -robbed of Truth?
Let's start at the beginning.
If we reject the Bible's opening premise that the world is God's creation, believing instead that the universe sprang out of nothing, we lose any sense of accountability to the Creator. The 'rest of the story' is just myth and legend.
If there is no First Cause, no Intelligent Person giving our lives purpose, then we become gods in charge of our lives as much as anyone else. The meaning of life is not attached to pleasing God through love; rather it becomes to survive, to gain power, to satiate our appetites.
If Jesus is made to be just a teacher of morality, we may well aspire to live nobly in his way, but we will generally fail, because of the broad streak of selfishness that we cannot defeat on our own. Christianity without the Cross is nothing more than a romantic ideal.
If the Holy Spirit is rejected as a Presence that is immediate, available to us now, then we have no sense of God apart from some vague emotional stirring we may feel in fleeting moments when the mood, music, and lighting are right!
The things I have just described is what happened to Christianity at the end of the 19th century especially in Europe. Darwin 'explained' the earth's origins in a way that seemed to dismiss the Creator! Enlightenment argued away divine love as a romantic notion, substituting the ideal of the 'will to power' of Nietzsche who needed no god to find meaning or purpose. The divinity of Christ Jesus was ridiculed as so much superstitious nonsense and the Cross turned into the tragic result of the political mistakes of a itinerant rabbi who offended those in power. The Resurrection was, at best, made into an idea that the 'spirit of Jesus' survived his death, in the hearts of his followers.
The result is starkly clear. 'Christianity' without a powerful God, a Savior. and a Present Holy Spirit is nothing. It is discarded as the worthless cultural relic that it is. We need a robust faith, one that informs us about life, teaches us how to live, and calls us to accountability.
Meditate on this passage today -- asking yourself, "am I drifting from the Truth into a tepid, powerless religion?"
"So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. The message God delivered through angels has always proved true, and the people were punished for every violation of the law and every act of disobedience. What makes us think that we can escape if we are indifferent to this great salvation that was announced by the Lord Jesus himself? It was passed on to us by those who heard him speak, and God verified the message by signs and wonders and various miracles and by giving gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose to do so." (Hebrews 2:1-4, NLT)
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The Love Of God-Lehman, Frederick M.
The love of God is greater far,
Than tongue or pen can ever tell,
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure,
The saints' and angels' song.
When years of time shall pass away
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God's love so sure shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam's race
The saints' and angels' song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev'ry stalk on earth a quill
And ev'ry man a scribe by trade.
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Tho stretched from sky to sky.
© Public Domain CCLI License No. 810055
Jerry D. Scott, Pastor
http://www.washingtonag.net/
908-689-7777
33 Brass Castle Road
Washington, NJ 07882
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