Not So Senseless Killings

There was another “senseless” mass killing this week. This one was in Colorado. I’m hesitant to talk about it because I may sound simplistic and repetitive. I don’t think the killings were senseless at all. Something is not senseless when there’s a predictable pattern. Here was another disillusioned and bitter ‘backslider” (a false convert), who no doubt gave his heart to Jesus because of a promise of a wonderful new life in Christ, and when the promises didn’t deliver the goods, he was angry enough to kill. He targeted four Christians, and murdered them before being shot by an armed (a sign of the times) church security guard. My own pastor recently held up a Bible and a copy of a very popular book by “America’s pastor.” The publication promised God’s best for you right here and now. It was another things go better with Jesus book, or what I call “the modern gospel.” My pastor said that both books were left by the church dumpster with what amounted to a suicide note scribbled in the Bible, saying that the promises of the Bible didn’t match the promises of the book. How unspeakably tragic. The world may speak well of smiley preachers who refuse to open up the Law so that sinners can see their terrible danger, but they are in truth betrayers of the ultimate trust. May you and I never sleep on our watch. Most armies in history have rewarded such treachery with a firing squad.

A Man Shaped Hole in God’s Heart?

Todd Friel, Way of the Master Radio Host and Worldview Weekend, Code Blue Rally Speaker

A quick listen to most contemporary Christian preaching, writing or singing would lead you to believe that God is gaga about humans and just longs to spend time with us. The latest dreck from Oneness Pentecostals (i.e., they believe in a heretical Jesus) Phillips, Craig and Dean, is a typical example.

No Matter How Long
I watched you as you stumbled out of bed,
Rushed out the door, your coffee in your hand.
And you looked so lost and lonely,
I knew I had to find a way
To make you understand, I wanna be your friend.
So I painted a sunrise in the sky
And I caused the birds to sing you lullabies,
And I whispered sweet "I love you's".
No matter how long it takes, somehow I'll find a way
Somehow My love will find a way,
No matter how long it takes.
I watched you as you fell asleep last night,
And I trembled as I watched the tears you cried.
So I splashed your face with moonlight, and I longed for your embrace.

A Brief History Lesson

Before we dissect that song, it is crucial we remember that evangelicalism blossomed out of the dead, liberal Protestantism of the middle 20^th century. From the early 1900’s, Biblical Christians watched as liberal Protestantism produced false converts who pretended to worship God on Sunday, but were completely detached from Him on Monday.

Evangelicalism roared to life with the correct mantra, “You need to have a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” To that I say, “Amen.” But as is the case with every movement that arises in response to a singular problem, it is not long before it falls into an opposite and equally damning ditch. In this case, evangelicalism appears to have fallen into the pit of Godly romanticism.

Evangelicals now present God as a love sick puppy who yearns to spend time with us. We have exchanged His loving-kindness for a gooey, romantic love.

What is wrong with this song?

While I suspect the author is alluding to Psalm 19 and II Peter 3, his repositioning of theology is staggering. My comments are in parenthesis.

I watched you as you stumbled out of bed
Rushed out the door, your coffee in your hand
And you looked so lost and lonely (God does not desire to save us from loneliness, but from our sins)
I knew I had to find a way (This makes God sound less than omniscient)
To make you understand, I wanna be your friend (While the Bible says we can be friends with God, it means reconciled, not bosom buddies)
So I painted a sunrise in the sky
And I caused the birds to sing you lullabies (God gives us creation to appreciate Him, not lull us to sleep)
And I whispered sweet "I love you's" (Is God our boyfriend or the Sovereign Creator of the universe?)
No matter how long it takes, somehow I'll find a way. (God is not thwarted by anything, let alone us)
Somehow My love will find a way, (Poor, pitiful God)
No matter how long it takes. (“It is appointed unto man once to die, then judgment”)
I watched you as you fell asleep last night
And I trembled as I watched the tears you cried. (God trembles?)
So I splashed your face with moonlight, and I longed for your embrace. (This sounds more like a Harlequin novel than Scripture)

Redefining the Atonement

Not a single Bible verse can be found to support the idea that we are so loveable that God yearns for us. Instead, God desires to restore children of wrath to a right relationship with Himself so that His loving-kindness can be displayed (Eph.2).

God does not pursue us because he finds us so adorable that His heart will just break if He can’t find a way for us to fall in love with Him. He desires to save the unlovable so that His mercy can be magnified. The salvation that God offers is for His namesake, for His glory.

Why have we so altered the doctrine of reconciliation? I am convinced it is because we have abandoned expository preaching and the preaching of God’s Law. The result? We have relegated God’s sense of anger, wrath and justice to the Old Testament as if He were a different God than that “nice New Testament God”.

While we do not want to end up in the “God is only angry” ditch, we have to find our way out of our present moat. My suggestion: we need to preach verse by verse to have a complete knowledge of the character and nature of God. We need to preach the Law to understand that we are not loveable, but loved despite what we are.

That is my take. What’s yours?

Isn't Christianity the Good Life? (John Piper)

Maybe Jesus Just Wants to Give You a Hug?

Over thirty years ago, the great philosopher Paul McCartney asked, “What’s wrong with silly love songs?” Having given this over three decades of serious consideration (OK, at least several months), I have Sir McCartney’s answer.

It depends.

If you want to fill the world with silly love songs, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to fill the church with them, I say, “Stop it!”

Tune into your “get you through your day” Christian music station and you will hear grown men, whining like love sick puppies, “Nothing else can take your place, or feel the warmth of your embrace.” Who are they singing to? The One who holds the universe together by the power of His word, or a chick?

Take the Quiz

Here are six phrases from six contemporary songs. Can you pick which phrases belong to secular songs and which to the sacred?

1. All I need to do is just be me, being in love with you.

 2. My world stops spinning round, without you.

 3. I never want to leave; I want to stay in your warm embrace.

 4. I’m lost in love.

 5. Now and forever, together and all that I feel, here's my love for you.

 6. You say you love me just as I am.

The first three are from a popular Christian band called Big Daddy Weave, the second half are from Air Supply.  

More and more of our Christian music is sounding one note: Jesus loves you soooooo much. Do I doubt for a second that Jesus loves His children? Nope, but it depends on what your definition of “love” is.

God “agape” loves His children. Agape love is not an emotions based, warm and fuzzy kind of love. Agape love is a self sacrificing, “I will help you despite how I feel” love.

William Tyndale was the first translator to use the word “love” for agape. Prior to the 16^th century, the word “charity” best described agape. Leaving that debate aside, since Tyndale’s time, the English definition for love has expanded. Our modern day use of love ranges from a love for an object to physical love/sex (eros love). I love that new car. I love that girl. I love that God. That God loves me.

Not only do we use “love” in romantic ways to sing about God, we have added other romantic phrases to our Christian music repertoire: hold me, embrace me, feel you, need you. This criticism is not new, in fact, it has existed since Godly men began endeavoring to sing anything but the Psalms.

John Wesley considered an “amatory phrase” to be language that was more feelings based love than self-sacrificing agape love. John deleted “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” from one of his brother Charles’ collections because it was too romantic sounding.

Amatory Phrasing

Not only are musicians guilty of writing amatory phrases, but they are singing with amatory phrasing. Christian men sing with such romantic longing and neediness it makes me want to scream, “Man up!”

Christian women are singing with such throaty breathiness you would think they had just run from their home to the studio. To whom exactly are they singing? Brad Pitt or the Savior?

There are two consequences to this “Jesus is my boyfriend/girlfriend” music. Needy, emotional women continue to need more counseling, self help books and conferences where they can spread their wings and soar. Men simply are not showing up for church. It is my belief they simply can’t stand the mood manipulating worship times designed to help them “feel the Lord’s embrace.”

Musical Mermaids

Without theology in music, we are offering fluff that will not comfort when bridges collapse and test reports are negative. Songwriters could provide true hope if they would write about the sovereignty of God rather than crying about “how safe I feel when Jesus is holding me.”

Charles Spurgeon had the same criticism of “Hymns for Heart and Voice” published in 1855. He condemned the hymns as being “little better than mermaids, nice to look at but dangerous because they cannot deliver what they promise.”

Is there anything wrong with being reminded that our God is our help from ages past? Of course not, the Psalms are loaded with promises of God’s comfort. But unlike the Psalms (and theology based hymns), contemporary music is void of the reason why we should not worry. We do not worry because someone purrs that we shouldn’t fret, but because God is our shelter in the stormy blast and our eternal home. Our comfort comes from knowledge, not caterwauling.

If you enjoy a silly love song now and then, knock yourself out. But leave them where they belong, in the world or in the bedroom, not in the church.

Merry Tossmas

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