…Some of the most popular Christian leaders and authors stress the social agenda. Francis Chan, in his wildly popular book Crazy Love, wants Christians to live as simply as possible in order to give more toward the alleviation of “suffering in the world and change the reputation of His bride in America.”[25] I think one of the reasons Chan’s book has been received with such enthusiasm is that he is not telling people anything that our culture is not already saying. When Bill Gates and Warren Buffett pledged much of their vast fortunes toward the same agenda, the world applauded, just as it has for Chan. Chan is concerned about the reputation of the church in America, and not without reason. However, the true church doing the true work of God (calling people to Christ) will never win the world’s approval. Our message is offensive (1 Cor 1:18-25) and once the world catches on to that we are far more likely to be vilified and persecuted than we are to be cheered – as Jesus promised (Matt 5:11-12). We should find it a source of concern, not a reason for rejoicing, when the world likes us, as Christianity Today in its lead article in August 2011 affirmed it did.

A similar voice is David Platt’s and his book Radical. Platt offers better balance than Chan but still propagates a two-tiered gospel composed of the true gospel of redemption and the social gospel. While Platt is careful to elevate the true gospel, the social gospel of feeding the hungry and giving to the poor is the primary focus of the book and accounts for its popularity.[26] He writes, “As we meet needs on earth, we are proclaiming a gospel that transforms lives for eternity.”[27] The author does not advocate the social agenda as opposed to true evangelism, as mentioned above, but he does say that caring for the poor is evidence of salvation. As a matter of fact “rich people who neglect the poor are not the people of God.”[28] However, when we turn to the New Testament, we find that, while Christians are to be loving and generous to all people, they are never told to attempt to remedy the consequences of the sin of unbelieving humanity through social action. Instead, they are instructed to meet the needs of brothers and sisters in Christ, something Platt admits in a footnote (p. 225). In fact, the church is never commissioned to rectify injustices by dealing with the symptoms of sins but to “radically” uproot sin itself through the gospel…

In the full article, which is part 1 in a series, Gilley goes on to examine the view of well-respected evengelical leader Timothy Keller on this topic, pointing out that Keller has to quote N.T. Wright instead of the Bible in order to support his own view. One other source promoting this social gospel is Rick Warren with his PEACE plan: Promote Reconciliation, Equip Servant Leaders, Assist the Poor, Care for the Sick, and Educate the Next Generation.

I encourage you to take a few moments to read the rest (or bookmark it for when you have time later in the week) for an important church history lesson that puts this whole concern in its proper context.

“…we teach men not to die with Christ but to live in the strength of their dying manhood. We boast not in our weakness but in our strength. Values which Christ has declared to be false are brought back into evangelical favor and promoted as the very life and substance of the Christian way. How eagerly do we seek the approval of this or that man of worldly reputation. How shamefully do we exploit the converted celebrity. Anyone will do to take away the reproach of obscurity from our publicity-hungry leaders: famous athletes, congressmen, world travelers, rich industrialists; before such we bow with obsequious smiles and honor them in our public meetings and in the religious press. Thus we glorify men to enhance the standing of the Church of God, and the glory of the Prince of Life is made to hang upon the transient fame of a man who shall die.”
- A.W. Tozer, “God’s Pursuit of Man: The Divine Conquest of the Human Heart“

Consider how tempting it is to seek credibility in this confused and decaying world. Whose approval are we ultimately trying to gain? Does it scare us that a watching world might in fact see us as weak, if we do not have the talents, the image, the academic credentials, the high status equal to the world’s greatest? Personal pride, my Christian friends. This, our downfall.

Tozer, gathering his knowledge from the Scripture, exposes us for boasting “not in our weakness but in our strength,” because a Christian no longer has need of Jesus to save when there is no underlying current of inherent weakness. To hold up an image of personal human strength and triumph, even with God as your business partner, is a distortion of biblical Christianity. The ugly truth of our need is spelled out in the book of Romans:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Romans 3:4-10, ESV)

And again:

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5, ESV)

Consider how alluring it may be to fly the banners over football pro Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos, musician Brian “Head” Welch formerly of Korn, politician Rick Perry, and all of latest news-headline-grabbing individuals. Some of these people are solid examples of genuine Christian leaders; many are far from authentic, yet that is not the point here. Tozer is getting at how we rally around earthly fame and respect, spotlighting our strength, falsely claiming ”Look here! Come join the Christian side! You can still hold on to your good reputation among your friends!” when the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:9, ”…you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake,” speak just the opposite.

Listen to the Apostle Paul’s advice, where the focus is rightly put on Christ instead:

“…far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 6:14, ESV)

Finally, I was reminded of the lyrics in a Stuart Townend song, “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us”

“I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom.”

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Abraham Piper asks this very good question regarding the leaders of our country:

What happened to Islam being a religion of peace?

If what our leaders are saying is true, then the main problem isn’t some idiotic Floridian, it’s a worldwide religion that kills people because of an idiot.

Every religion includes offensive fringe freaks. Only one religion that I’m aware of makes the whole world scared for its safety when it gets insulted by one of these freaks who happens to have made it on the news.

(Read the rest, including Obama’s quote. I found this through TakeYourVitaminZ).

Wow.

I’ve done a little studying on Islam in the past, and the topic of violence in Islam reminds me of a an ex-terrorist I had the privilege of meeting 4 years ago. He was an Islamic Lebanese terrorist growing up, and made his first kill at age 14 (by pushing someone out of a building). By age 17 he was commanding 118 men in his regiment because of how good he became at killing people. For example, when two others could confirm that he made a kill, he earned a point, and in 4 years he had over 220 of these points, many using just a knife. He told a few stories of different kills, one of them being the time he shot another Muslim through his door for waking him up the 3am call to prayer.

I’ll call him Zack even though that’s only an assumed name he used when I talked to him. What changed his life was Jesus Christ. A southern baptist missionary was speaking in his town over in Lebanon one day, and he went over to talk, thinking it was a fight. After the crowd left, Zack spoke to the missionary and asked if the man believed what he was saying about this “Christ.” The missionary said that of course he did, and Zack tried to prove that this Jesus was not God. He left, but later that day Zack became angry with someone at work and went home, getting his gun to go shoot the man. For some reason he didn’t carry through with it though, and instead called the missionary from the card he was provided earlier. They talked, and Zack went to the sea to think some things through. He realized how wrongly he was living life, and started talking to Jesus Christ about it. He threw his gun into the sea, and God immediately started working through his life to change him.

His father heard about him becoming a Christian, so he slapped him, expecting Zack to fight. Zack did not, however. Zack’s mother was the one who became scared when she found out. She was a Muslim who had converted over from Catholicism, so she was afraid the neighbors and friends would think it was her fault that Zack became a Christian. As a precaution, she went around knocking on doors to tell people to stay away from her son, because he had become a Christian. As a result, Zack’s story spread. The conversion is of course a big disgrace to any muslim family name, so Zack’s father hired assassins to kill him. This is very normal in Islam, but with Zack, he had been so dangerous that no one who knew him wanted to take on that task. They had to bring in 3 warriors from another area to do the job, but each failed.

I personally saw a few of his scars from different events in his life: a healed gunshot wound, a shrapnel wound on his stomach, and a large slash down the side of his neck. Regarding the neck wound, he mentioned that he “died” for 7 minutes after that one occurred. He told me that from after the day of his conversion, there were 18 attempts on his life, and he had to move out of his country to keep alive. I asked Zack a question that made me feel stupid, but I just had to ask it: “Some people in the United States are calling Islam the religion of peace. What do you say to that?” He looked at me as if offended, said they were crazy, and added that the Qur’an (Koran) encourages Muslims to kill unbelievers.

Back to the topic of this Koran burning.

Burning books is an immature way of addressing an issue.  Two interesting thoughts I saw on Twitter:

Glad I live where people have the freedom to burn a Qur’an. Wished I live where pastors had the discernment not to.   - @edstetzer (Ed is a pastor himself)

Rather than “burn a Koran day” why don’t we have “buy a Koran and learn to dialogue w/ a Muslim day?” Or is that too much work?     – @vinnieangelo

While completely disagreeing with this guy’s choice to burn books, we should still be asking whether or not the fears of our country’s leaders reflect the truth behind this religion. If this Terry Jones guy and his little church in Florida happen to disrespect this religion and it’s holy book, and worldwide response from Muslims is in fact violence, what does that really tell us?

-  The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis

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This oversimplifies, however. Freedom cannot be defined in strictly negative terms, as the absence of confinement and constraint. In fact, in many cases, confinement and constraint is actually a means to liberation.

If you have musical aptitude, you may give yourself to practice, practice, practice the piano for years. This is a restriction, a limit on your freedom. There are many other things you won’t be able to do with the time you invest in practicing. If you have the talent, however, the discipline and limitation will unleash your ability that would otherwise go untapped. What have you done? You’ve deliberately lost your freedom to engage in somethings in order to release yourself to a richer kind of freedom to accomplish other things.

This does not mean that restriction, discipline, and constraint are intrisically, automatically liberating. For example, a five-foot-four, 125-pound young adult male should not set his heart on becoming an NFL lineman. All the discipline and effort in the world will only frustrate and crush him (literally). He is banging his head against a physical reality–he simply does not have the potential. In our society many people have worked extremely hard to pursue careers that pay well rather than fit their talents and interests. Such careers are straitjackets that in the long run stifle and dehumanize us.

Disciplines and constraints, then, liberate us only when they fit with the reality of our nature and capacities. A fish, because it absorbs oxygen from water rather than air, is only free if it is restricted and limited to water. If we put it out on the grass, its freedom to move and even live is not enhanced, but destroyed. The fish dies if we do not honor the reality of its nature.

In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions. Those that fit with the reality of our nature and the world produce greater power and scope for our abilities and a deeper joy and fulfillment. Experimentation, risk, and making mistakes bring growth only if, over time, they show us our limits as well as our abilities. If we only grow intellectually, vocationally, and physically through judicious constraints–why would it not also be true for spiritual and moral growth? Instead of insisting on freedom to create spiritual reality, shouldn’t we be seeking to discover it and disciplining ourselves to live according to it?

The popular concept–that we should each determine our own morality–is based on the belief that the spiritual realm is nothing at all like the rest of the world. Does anyone really believe that? For many years after each of the morning and evening Sunday services I remained in the auditorium for another hour to field questions. Hundreds of people stayed for the give-and-take discussions. One of the most frequent statements I heard was that “Every person has to define right and wrong for him- or herself.” I always responded to the speakers by asking, “Is there anyone in the world right now doing things you believe they should stop doing no matter what they personally believe about the correctness of their behavior?” They would invariable say, “Yes, of course.” Then I would ask, “Doesn’t that mean that you do believe there is some kind of moral reality that is ‘there’ that is not defined by us, that must be abided by regardless of what a person feels or thinks?” Almost always, the response to that question was silence, either a thoughtful or a grumpy one.”

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- The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller. This quote is found in the chapter “Christianity Is a Straitjacket,” where Keller goes more in depth on this issue. More resources for this book available at www.TheReasonForGod.com

Read the rest of the book to hear Keller’s additional responses to the following commonly-held reservations people have against Biblical Christianity:

1. There can’t be just one religion.
2. How dould a good God allow suffering?
3. The church is responsible for so much injustice.
4. How can a loving God send people to hell?
5. You can’t take the Bible literally.

…along with serious reasons in favor of faith in God.

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“Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” (1 Peter 3:13-16, from the ESV)

I’ve heard it put this way: the true Gospel message is already offensive, so why let your personality add to it? Don’t get in the way of the message itself so that they’re up against what the Bible is saying instead of the way I’m coming across. That’s right on, and who wouldn’t be offended when shown what the Bible says about you and I constantly living in rebellion against a perfectly Holy God who would be justified to kill us off in an instant–but only for his mercy gives us repeated opportunities to return to him through wholehearted faith in Jesus Christ? Note: for those unsure about where the Bible talks about this, start with the book of Romans; focusing on Romans 3:23, 6:23, and 10:9-13. And for a much bigger view of what God’s character is like, read through the Old Testament while keeping in mind that his character has never changed since then, as verses like James 1:17, Numbers 23:19, or Malachi 3:6 say “For I the LORD do not change.”

By the way, here’s a quick side note that was shown to me years ago. For Peter to tell his readers that they should be prepared to give a reason for the hope inside (and hope in the biblical expression here means something you’re completely sure of), the apostle is assuming that people are going to ask his readers why they’re different! If they blended right in with those around them in the lifestyle they chose, there would be no reason for people to ask what they’re living for, because who would bother to notice?

But what I want to do here is go directly to a book called “Tactics” by Gregory Koukl that has seriously impacted my thinking on all of this, and for that I HIGHLY recommend picking up this book. It’s written to help Christians know how to talk about their convictions, knowing that we already have volumes of material written in defense of the actual claims of the Christian faith, leaving people like myself needing help with maneuvering comfortably and kindly through beneficial conversations. The author also reminds his readers that it should give them confidence when they realize how compared with all the worldviews out there, Christianity is the one that best explains who we are and how we got here. The book cover mentions that Koukl has Masters Degrees in philosophy and in apologetics, he’s spoken at 50+ university campuses, he hosted a radio talk show for 18 years, and founded Stand to Reason (www.str.org).

Here’s an excerpt from what Koukl says when addressing just one of the reservations that Christians have when they try to shy away from these issues:

When people say you can’t argue anyone into the kingdom, they usually have an alternative approach in mind. They might be thinking that a genuine expression of love, kindness, and acceptance, coupled with a simple presentation of the gospel, is a more biblical approach.

If you are tempted to think this way, let me say something that may shock you: You cannot love someone into the kingdom. It can’t be done. In fact, the simple gospel itself is not even adequate to do that job.

How do I know? Because many people who were treated with sacrificial love and kindness by Christians never surrendered to the Savior. Many who have heard a clear explanation of God’s gift in Christ never put their trust in him.

In each case something was missing that, when present, always results in conversion. What’s missing is that special work of the Father that Jesus referred do, drawing a lost soul into his arms (John 6:44). Of this work Jesus also said, “Of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39).

According to Jesus, then, two things are true. First, there is a particular work of God that is necessary to bring someone into the kingdom. Second, when present, this work cannot fail to accomplish its goal. Without the work of the Spirit, no argument—no matter how persuasive—will be effective. But neither will any act of love nor any simple presentation of the gospel. Add the Spirit, though, and the equation changes dramatically.

Here’s the key principle: Without God’s work, nothing else works, but with God’s work, many things work. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, love persuades. But the power of God, the gospel transforms. And with Jesus at work, arguments convince. God is happy to use each of these methods. Why do you think God is just as pleased to use a good argument as a warm expression of love? Because both love and reason are consistent with God’s own character. The same God who is the essence of love also gave the invitation, “Come now, and let us reason together.” Therefore, both approaches honor him.

- from “Tactics: A game plan for discussing your Christian convictions” by Greg Koukl, page 36. Foreword by Lee Strobel, endorsed by JP Moreland, Sean McDowell, William Lane Craig, and Norm Geisler.

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www.globalrichlist.com

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty wealthy. The website goes on to say that half of the world lives on less than $2/day, and they suggest donating to help deal with the problem of poverty. I didn’t look into the specific cause they’re giving donations to, but I do know that for most of us it’s not hard to find local charities, churches, or other organizations that rely on our donations to collectively help the poor on a consistent, ongoing basis.

We can have different responses to this, but before we have a chance to point any fingers at the people higher on the list than us, let me say a quick word of caution. Blaming someone else doesn’t get us anywhere. For one thing, it’s usually just our way of excusing our own choices, and secondly, even if we were at the bottom of the list earning less than the two dollars a day that would not be enough to vindicate us, but most of all that thirdly, forcing rules, regulations, and higher taxes on others isn’t going to fix the deeper issue. That’s like putting a band-aid over cancer; you’re only dealing with what’s on the outside–external actions. You aren’t yet stepping back to understand what’s really going on inside of a person’s heart as they happily live out their comfortable life centered around what fulfills their every momentary desire. When speaking on another topic, I think Ravi Zacharias brought up a principle that applies here when he stated, “Legislation can only force compliance. It can never produce the love necessary to change an attitude.” That love he’s speaking of is the kind of love for God that changes us to love others, knowing that they were created in God’s image just as we were (see Genesis 1:27, Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13).

I’m not here to tell you how to deal with this, but I think for any of us who claim to be a Christian, it only makes sense that we (myself included) would more carefully study the central figure of our faith, Jesus Christ, by observing what he chose to focus on throughout the Gospel accounts from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We aren’t going to solve the issue of world poverty just as Jesus didn’t come merely to meet physical needs. If you’re not sure of that, take a look at John 4:1-42 for the account of Jesus giving the Samaritan woman water from the well, and pay close attention to his words to her in verses 13-14: “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again’.” There is a larger issue at stake than just what the poor are lacking here on earth, but we will certainly help them as our love for God flows over into every aspect of our life, creating these acts of compassion that point people to the one who we’re really doing them for.