The Truth War (25 page)

To cite one rather serious and significant doctrinal example, the principle of substitutionary atonement (always a favorite target of modernists) has recently been under heavy assault again at the hands of those who insist that evangelicals need to adapt their message to accommodate
post
modern sensibilities. Scripture is clear: Christ suffered on the cross as a substitute for sinners (Isaiah 53:4–10), taking the full brunt of the punishment we deserved (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9:27–28; 1 Peter 3:18). His death was a
propitiation
, or a satisfaction of divine wrath against sin on believers' behalf (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). But that view has been forcefully attacked in recent years by people who insist it makes God seem harsh and barbaric. They are in effect advocating the elimination of the offense of the cross because it is too uncouth for their tastes. One influential author referred to the principle of substitutionary atonement as “twisted,” “morally dubious,” and “a form of cosmic child abuse.”
¹
Others in the Emerging Church movement have said similar things. Brian McLaren, for example, has repeatedly voiced misgivings about whether it is appropriate for Christians to describe the atonement as a penal substitution. At one point, the hero in one of McLaren's quasi-fictional books says the notion of Christ being punished for others' sins “just sounds like one more injustice in the cosmic equation. It sounds like divine child abuse. You know?”
²

Various Emerging Church books and weblogs have repeatedly advocated the dismantling and wholesale reimagining of some of the very same doctrines earlier evangelicals have fiercely defended for generations against modernists and theological liberals—including the inerrancy and authority of Scripture, the doctrine of original sin, and the exclusivity of Christ. Almost any biblical doctrine and evangelical distinctive you can name has at one point or another been maligned by this or that celebrity in the Emerging Church movement.

What lesson does history teach us about movements like this? I was surprised to find the unambiguous answer to that question spelled out recently in an op-ed piece in the
Los Angeles Times
:

Embraced by the leadership of all the mainline Protestant denominations, as well as large segments of American Catholicism, liberal Christianity has been hailed by its boosters for 40 years as the future of the Christian church.

Instead, as all but a few diehards now admit, all the mainline churches and movements within churches that have blurred doctrine and softened moral precepts are demographically declining and, in the case of the Episcopal Church, disintegrating.
³

The article recounted how during denominational meetings in the summer of 2006, Episcopalians refused to heed a plea from the worldwide Anglican communion that they repent of their decision to appoint an admitted, practicing homosexual as bishop. Refusing to reconsider that decision, the Episcopalians further elected as their presiding bishop a woman who has openly blessed same-sex unions, embraced the most radically feminist theological agenda, and led public prayers in which she referred to Christ as “our Mother Jesus.”
⁴

I AM CONVINCED THAT
THE GREATEST DANGER
FACING CHRISTIANS
TODAY HAS INFILTRATED
THE CHURCH ALREADY.
COUNTLESS FALSE
TEACHERS ALREADY
HAVE PROMINENT
PLATFORMS IN THE
EVANGELICAL MOVEMENT;
EVANGELICALS THEMSELVES
ARE LOATH TO PRACTICE
DISCERNMENT OR
QUESTION OR CHALLENGE
ANYTHING TAUGHT
WITHIN THEIR MOVEMENT;
AND MANY LEADING
EVANGELICALS HAVE
CONCLUDED NO
DOCTRINE OR POINT
OF THEOLOGY IS
WORTH EARNESTLY
CONTENDING FOR.

Practically the same week, the Presbyterian Church (USA) approved alternative designations for the persons of the Trinity—setting aside Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in favor of “Mother, Child, and Womb” or “Rock, Redeemer, and Friend.”
⁵

Those denominations—and all others who ever embraced modernism (or theological liberalism)—are declining to the point of utter irrelevance. Today there are about half as many Episcopalians in America as there were less than fifty years ago. In 1965, there were 3.4 Episcopalians; now, there are 2.3 million.
⁶
That denomination is on a trajectory to lose its entire constituency and (fittingly) declare bankruptcy before the end of the decade. It could not happen soon enough. And just a week before voting to rename the Trinity, the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) announced layoffs for seventy-five of their employees and budget cuts totaling more than nine million dollars.
⁷
To one degree or another, every denomination that welcomed modernists has seen precisely the same effect. Modernism has failed demonstrably—in spectacular ways.

But the war against truth has not abated one bit. Just when evangelicals ought to be celebrating the triumph of the biblical doctrines and evangelical principles they have long fought for against modernist influences, large segments of evangelicalism are instead adopting the rubric of
post
modernism—and thus unwittingly resurrecting the very same dangerous kinds of doctrinal compromise our spiritual ancestors stood against when they opposed modernism.

I wrote at length about the close parallels between early modernism and the “seeker-sensitive” philosophy of ministry in 1993.
⁸
I compared the slippery slope of evangelical pragmatism to the infamous “Down Grade” of late nineteenth-century modernism. I recounted how the early warnings of Charles Spurgeon went largely unheeded by the evangelicals of his day, to the detriment of the church's testimony and influence. Fourteen years after my book on that subject was published, I wouldn't change a word of what I wrote then. There is still an eery similarity between the course taken by the mainstream denominational churches of my great grandfather's era and the rapid downhill shortcut the evangelical movement is blindly pursuing today. If anything, the situation today looks worse by several degrees of magnitude than it was just a scant decade and a half ago, because indifference over doctrinal decline is now much more widespread and much more deeply engrained.

I am convinced that the greatest danger facing Christians today has infiltrated the church already. Countless false teachers already have prominent platforms in the evangelical movement; evangelicals themselves are loath to practice discernment or question or challenge anything taught within their movement; and many leading evangelicals have concluded no doctrine or point of theology is worth earnestly contending for. The evangelicalism
movement
as we speak of it today is already doomed. It stands roughly where the mainstream denominations were in the early part of the twentieth century when those denominations began formally excommunicating conservative voices of dissent from their midst—and sounder evangelicals began actively separating from those denominations en masse.

Unfortunately, the evangelical movement is amorphous, and that is one of the key factors that has allowed it to become such a monstrosity. There is no “membership,” no mechanism for excommunication, no clear process for dealing with false teachers. Anyone can declare himself “evangelical” and make himself a teacher—and who's to say otherwise? Churches today are often planted by individuals who are neither doctrinally nor personally qualified for church leadership. This is frequently done with no oversight by any group of elders and no accountability to a senior body. Megachurches have been built by men with strong entrepreneurial skills and weak exegetical skills. As they have reproduced themselves, the evangelical movement has been flooded with ministers who are grossly unprepared for ministry and deliberately undiscerning when it comes to doctrine. Evangelicalism is now dominated by leaders who regard big numbers as proof of success and divine blessing and who are convinced that careful doctrinal teaching is actually the enemy of church growth. No wonder theological chaos now reigns in the evangelical movement.

When the movement as a whole remained committed to core biblical distinctives, it was not easy for false teachers to usurp that kind of influence. But the very doctrines that once defined the evangelical position are currently being challenged by people within the movement. The evangelical consensus is gradually being dismantled, all boundaries are being systematically erased, and everything is suddenly up for grabs.

It is time for the faithful remnant to redraw clear lines and step up our energies in the Truth War—contending
earnestly
for the faith. In light of all the biblical commands to fight a good warfare, it is both naive and disobedient for Christians in this postmodern generation to shirk that duty.

I see a close analogy in the political situation that dominates the secular Western world today. The West loves openness, tolerance, freedom, and acceptance. That is understandable on a certain level, of course. There is a true sense in which all those values have an important place in every civilized society.

But abandon
moral
values, throw a few lawless terrorists into the mix, and the situation changes. Terrorists don't yield to any law. They hide by simply mixing into a free society, pretending to be other than they really are, taking advantage of society's openness in order to gain access to places where they can attack the very foundations of the society that grants them such freedom.

Western society, by and large, does not have the will or the inclination to construct boundaries for its own self-defense. Years after the terror war supposedly got serious, America's borders are still basically open to all comers. Much of European society still opposes the idea of any military response to the terrorist threat. Postmodern values and political correctness rule out profiling, monitoring the conversations of suspicious people, targeting illegal residents, and other means that would help identify who the terrorists are. Analysts in the media perform all sorts of intellectual gymnastics to avoid saying that the roots of terrorism have anything to do with a particular culture or religion. “Who are we to sit in judgment on another culture or say that their values or way of life need to change?”

The evangelical movement has been similarly naive. Spiritual terrorists are plotting the destruction of the church. Scripture expressly warns us about this. Yet evangelicals in recent decades have done very little to restrain apostates or expose them. False teachers are not stopped at the border anymore. The rankest apostates now have almost complete freedom in the evangelical movement. Unhindered, they have infiltrated evangelical churches, denominations, and Christian colleges and seminaries. They write weblogs, they give interviews on Christian radio stations, and they write books explicitly targeting evangelical readers.

Scripture expressly warns believers not to be so blithe about the threat of spiritual terrorism. Christians are not supposed to be gullible. We are not to turn a blind eye to the danger. We are not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11). We simply cannot be all-embracing without allowing false teachers to infiltrate and be destructive. And that danger is both real and imminent. Jude has given us a wake-up call and a summons to battle.

What should be our response? What should be our reaction? Jude himself tells us:

But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. (Jude 17–23)

REMEMBER

Notice, first of all, that Jude urges his readers to
remember what
was prophesied.
After all, the apostles said false teachers would come. Jude's words are virtually an exact quotation from 2 Peter 3:3. That, clearly, is the prophecy he was referring to.

Here's the point: once again Jude is stressing that God is sovereign and has not lost control. He's reminding his readers once more that the influx of false teachers into the church doesn't mean the plan of God has gone awry. God is not surprised by this development; it is what His Word prophesied. Even in the worst of times, we can be certain that nothing is happening that wasn't already foreknown by God. He even
told
us we should expect an influx of apostasy. We were warned about it, and here it is.

Our duty, then, is to respond rightly. Not only should we not be surprised when false teachers appear in the church; we ought to have anticipated and prepared for the reality of it. It is a wake-up call. When an absolutely reliable source tells us terrorists are coming, it then behooves us to find out who they are and expose them before they do their damage.

Today's evangelicals have no excuse for not being vigilant. We have been warned—repeatedly. Jesus commanded us to be on guard against false christs and false prophets. The apostolic era was filled with examples of wolves in sheep's clothing. Church history is strewn with more examples, one after another. Only sinful and willful unbelief can account for the refusal of so many in the church today to heed those warnings.

REMAIN

A second way we ought to respond to apostasy is by remaining faithful. We need to build one another up in the faith and maintain our spiritual stability. Above all, stay committed to the truth. Don't waver.

Jude includes four aspects of this principle. First, he says we must seek to remain faithful by “building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” He is urging us to edify one another by the Word of God. The phrase “your most holy faith” is a reference to sound doctrine—a right understanding of the truth as it is revealed in Scripture. Build yourself up on that, Jude says. Here's how Peter says it in the parallel passage: “You therefore, beloved, since you knowthis beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17–18). Be strengthened. Become mature. This is a call to the spiritual discipline of studying the Word.