Is Anyone Listening?

This is a season of my life when I feel a heightened need to hear the Lord. I am not only listening for personal direction, but also to discern the times—understanding how our culture is affecting us and our faith.

Jesus said, “My sheep listen [pay attention] to my voice; they follow me” (John 10:27). The writer of Hebrews says, “We must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it” (2:1). Is this not a significant ‘word’ for our times, when society is rejecting Judeo-Christian values, and droves of Christians are drifting from belief in Scripture's inerrancy?

This theological drift is not new. To a rebellious Israel, God says, “Stand by the old paths [the Scriptures], where the good way is, and walk in it… but they said, ‘We will not walk in it’” (Jer. 6:16). And through Isaiah, God laments, “I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen” (66:4). Can’t you almost see God in His throne room, asking the question: “Is anyone listening?”

We may be the Only Bible People ever Read!

Francis Schaeffer, an intelligent defender of the Christian faith in the 20th Century, predicted that self-professing Christians would increasingly reject the Bible as God’s inerrant Word. Of course Schaeffer was aware that already many once-conservative Bible schools and seminaries had rejected its Spirit-breathed truth, leaving them nothing to teach but myths and historical records.

But it isn’t just schools of higher education assailing the Bible; state and municipal governments seem to be on the attack. In 2008, Arizona Courts gave a man jail time for holding Bible studies in his backyard. In 2011, the city of San Juan Capistrano fined a man for holding home Bible studies without a permit. (And there are others.) But perhaps the most significant assault is coming from mainline churches, now rejecting a literal interpretation of Scripture, choosing to soften ‘hard sayings’ to accomodate our culture of tolerance. 

That said, I have no interest in Biblical apologetics. Why? “People who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them; they can't understand it. Only spiritual people can understand what the Spirit means” (1 Cor. 2:14). No, the best way to prove the integrity of the Bible is to live it. The best testimony to Biblical veracity is a changed life (yours and mine).

Is Fresno a Good Compromise?

I read an article today about the lack of compromise in Washington. Democrats want to tax and spend. Republicans want to cut taxes and spend less. The writer gave an illustration of a husband who tells his wife he’d like to move from SF to LA. Even if she agrees to the move, there will be many decisions about which they need to compromise.  But if she says she does not want to move, how will they compromise? Will moving to Fresno (half-way) be a good compromise? Yet that seems to be what the world wants Christians to do. How do you compromise on abortion? In fact, how do you compromise with anyone who rejects the inerrancy and authority of the Bible?

The desire to compromise is a great threat to Christians today. And as the culture becomes increasingly secular, it rejects absolutism as uncompromising. I think the antagonism against Bible-believing Christians who will not compromise will make the current hostilities in Washington seem like toddlers fighting over toys in a sand box. The time will come when those who refuse to compromise will not just be considered ‘old-fashioned’ or ‘quirky’, but subversive and threatening to the progress of civilized society.

“At that time many will turn away from the faith, betray and hate each other, and false prophets will appear and deceive many…but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Mat 24:11-13).

Evolution: the Greatest Paradigm Shift in Human History

Before Darwin introduced his ideas on evolution, there were few atheists. Men would look in to the Universe and see that everything had to have a supernatural origin. How else could you explain how things came into being? And that’s what Darwin did. He explained how man came into being without God. A product of the Age of Reason, he provided an alternative to God that gave people a reason not to believe. It was a paradigm shift unlike any other in human history. Satan had won a great victory. If there was a natural explanation for everything, how could anyone still believe in a supernatural God?

About the same time, Satan was raising up a generation of “enlightened” theologians who began examining the Bible through a “natural” lens.  No longer would rational men accept its supernatural stories.  Jonah swallowd by a whale, or the parting of the Red Sea were just primitive Hebrew stories, not unlike pagan mythologies. This, then, brought into question the reliability of all the historical records of the Old and New Testament. Their conclusion: the Bible was written by mere mortals—not by God-inspired authors. Score another one for the devil.

The Spirit-breathed inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible is no longer accepted in many Christian colleges and seminaries. Those that do are in the minority—and they are viewed as intellectual midgets. Within another generation or two, the remnant of people who still believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible will be so small that evangelicalism as we know it today may no longer exist.

Are You a Fundamentalist?

I just finished a class on the history of fundamentalism. For years, no one has wanted the label 'fundamentalist.’  Up through 1980s, it became a ‘bad’ word, having connotations of back-water hayseed preachers and snake handlers, narrow-mindedness and ignorance.  In the last 30 years, then, the word has fallen out of common use.  No intelligent person would call himself a fundamentalist anymore!   But did you know that fundamentalism was born out of a doctrinal controversy with religious liberals of the 19th century who questioned the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures?

In his book “Battle for the Bible,” published 40 years ago, theologian Harold Lindsell wrote: “A great battle rages today around biblical infallibility. To ignore this battle is perilous. To come to grips with it is necessary… When inerrancy goes, it opens a small hole in the dike, and if that hole is not closed, the levee will collapse and the whole land will be overrun with the waters of unbelief.” Though those words were written almost 40 years ago, they are alarmingly relevant today.

The cultural wars of our generation demand that we defend the authority of the bible. Paul said we should “always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks us to give an account… and to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it” (1 Peter 3:15; Titus 1:9). And those words, written 2,000 years ago, are more relevant today than ever.