jeffreymark

POSTMODERNISM AND THE CHURCH

Like most of my contemporaries my secular education consisted of enlightenment laced curriculum neatly packaged in a diploma which reads Texas Tech University. Yet, a funny thing happened on the way down from the ivory tower-enlightment died years ago and postmodernism took its place. Postmodernism, supported by major cultural influencers today, is both skeptical of and open to all philosophies, faith included. The emergent church gets this and has jumped on this openness to faith as a door into redemptive ministries. I plan to spend more time learning how one can share their faith within this context.

CHANGING CULTURE CHANGING WORLDVIEW II

This morning I awoke to the same old domestic political same old. The Obama administration seeks a European style VAT to help pay for his Santa Clause economics. Unwanted government health care reform remains a hot button item. These things I can tolerate-barely. But, one particular matter continues to perplex me. President Obama, in good old 60's hippie-dippie fashion, continues to pay obeisance to our enemies while in spirit and in a bit of rhetoric, seeks to throw Israel under the bus. Of course he's well groomed for the part given his brief enigmatic history.  

I think Obama must shape his opinions about our enemies according to the prototypical liberal model. Enmity exists because of what we do to others and not as some objective living transcendent personality that seeks to destroy all humans. Our Enlightenment inspired forefathers who never fully embraced Christianity, believed in a fundamentally flawed human nature. That's why they created this marvelous system of checks and balances. They instinctively believed that no cure existed for this tragic human disease we Christians call sin. Therefore, they elected to both live with and control evil as much as possible. Yet, they never acquiesced to evil as though that might turn "socially mal-adjusted victims" into model citizens. Those who inherently practice evil eventually incarnate the phenomenon. Once that happens making nice only invites oppression. Evil by its nature, seeks to obliterate our God given image. Only naivete suggests when we cry "Uncle" the bad guys will get off of us and let us up. Sometimes the only way to defeat evil is to identify it and eradicate those who allow evil to destroy innocents. Americans naturally lived by this rule until recently. Seventy years ago American elites would have hailed Ronald Reagan as a hero when he declared the Soviet Union an evil empire. Recently, the liberal culture had a filed day over President Bush identifying terrorists harboring nations as an "axis of evil."  

And, I fear that even Christians, who ought to know better, get so inundated with radical ideas in the University, they too, buy into this naive optimism. Last year I posted a piece that emerged from this very conviction. Today I repost it here because of its timely concern:

Many years ago one might assume (notice I gathered no empirical data) most Americans held a Christian worldview. That's because our heritage strongly influenced it. Christian pollster George Barna, provides numbers that paint an entirely different picture today. In a recent survey he defines Christian worldview:

For the purposes of the survey, a “biblical worldview” was defined as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview.

He continues explaining that overall 9% of Americans possess a Christian worldview. One apparent inconsistency emerged from Barna's poll. He discovered half of all adults believe the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches.  Yet, only 27% believe in an evil personality known as Satan. The Bible assumes and affirms his existence.  Go figure. Barna continues by offering a multitude of inferences gleaned from the report:

 Barna’s research has discovered that there are unusually large differences in behavior related to matters such as media use, profanity, gambling, alcohol use, honesty, civility, and sexual choices.
The firm’s studies have also pointed out that a person’s worldview is primarily shaped and is firmly in place by the time someone reaches the age of 13; it is refined through experience during the teen and early adult years; and then it is passed on to others during their adult life. Such studies underscore the necessity of parents and other influencers being intentional in how they help develop the worldview of children.
George Barna, who has directed this tracking research since the early Nineties, pointed out, “There are a several troubling patterns to take notice. First, although most Americans consider themselves to be Christian and say they know the content of the Bible, less than one out of ten Americans demonstrate such knowledge through their actions. Second, the generational pattern suggests that parents are not focused on guiding their children to have a biblical worldview. One of the challenges for parents, though, is that you cannot give what you do not have, and most parents do not possess such a perspective on life. That raises a third challenge, which relates to the job that Christian churches, schools and parachurch ministries are doing in Christian education. Finally, even though a central element of being a Christian is to embrace basic biblical principles and incorporate them into one’s worldview, there has been no change in the percentage of adults or even born again adults in the past 13 years regarding the possession of a biblical worldview.” 

Recently I discovered an institution whose vision seeks to combat this growing secular concern. They are called Code Blue conferences sponsored by theWorldview Network. Here is a description of the Code Blue Conferences:

Worldview Weekend's Code Blue Rally is for adults and students age 9 to 109 because the church in America is in critical condition. Christian adults and young people alike embody worldviews that are no different from those outside the church. Jesus’ warning in Revelation 3:16 should be ringing in our collective ears: “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth” (HCSB). Separation from Christ means spiritual death follows quickly. For that reason, Worldview Weekend has declared CODE BLUE for America’s church. Urgent action is vital, or the vibrant Christian faith we all should be sharing will soon be dead. 
Worldview Weekend is committed to a four prong strategy for its Code Blue Campaign: 1). Teach Christians to contend for the faith through apologetics training. 2). Teach Christian to think like Biblically minded Christians through worldview training. 3). Teach Christians to evangelize like Jesus did using the Moral Law 4). Challenge Christians to make sure they are true converts by examining their lives in light of the Biblical hallmarks of a Christian. These hallmarks can be found in the book of I John. 

Go here to find out more.

CHANGING CULTURE CHANGING WORLDVIEW

Many years ago one might assume (notice I gathered no empirical data) most Americans held a Christian worldview. That's because our heritage strongly influenced it. Christian pollster George Barna, provides numbers that paint an entirely different picture today. In a recent survey he defines Christian worldview:

For the purposes of the survey, a “biblical worldview” was defined as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview.

He continues explaining that overall 9% of Americans possess a Christian worldview. One apparent inconsistency enraged from Barna's poll. He discovered half of all adults believe the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches.  Yet, only 27% believe in an evil personality known as Satan. The Bible assumes and affirms his existence.  Go figure. Barna continues by offering a multitude of inferences gleaned from the report:

 Barna’s research has discovered that there are unusually large differences in behavior related to matters such as media use, profanity, gambling, alcohol use, honesty, civility, and sexual choices.
The firm’s studies have also pointed out that a person’s worldview is primarily shaped and is firmly in place by the time someone reaches the age of 13; it is refined through experience during the teen and early adult years; and then it is passed on to others during their adult life. Such studies underscore the necessity of parents and other influencers being intentional in how they help develop the worldview of children.
George Barna, who has directed this tracking research since the early Nineties, pointed out, “There are a several troubling patterns to take notice. First, although most Americans consider themselves to be Christian and say they know the content of the Bible, less than one out of ten Americans demonstrate such knowledge through their actions. Second, the generational pattern suggests that parents are not focused on guiding their children to have a biblical worldview. One of the challenges for parents, though, is that you cannot give what you do not have, and most parents do not possess such a perspective on life. That raises a third challenge, which relates to the job that Christian churches, schools and parachurch ministries are doing in Christian education. Finally, even though a central element of being a Christian is to embrace basic biblical principles and incorporate them into one’s worldview, there has been no change in the percentage of adults or even born again adults in the past 13 years regarding the possession of a biblical worldview.” 

Recently I discovered an institution whose vision seeks to combat this growing secular concern. They are called Code Blue conferences sponsored by the Worldview Network. Here is a description of the Code Blue Conferences:

Worldview Weekend's Code Blue Rally is for adults and students age 9 to 109 because the church in America is in critical condition. Christian adults and young people alike embody worldviews that are no different from those outside the church. Jesus’ warning in Revelation 3:16 should be ringing in our collective ears: “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth” (HCSB). Separation from Christ means spiritual death follows quickly. For that reason, Worldview Weekend has declared CODE BLUE for America’s church. Urgent action is vital, or the vibrant Christian faith we all should be sharing will soon be dead. 
Worldview Weekend is committed to a four prong strategy for its Code Blue Campaign: 1). Teach Christians to contend for the faith through apologetics training. 2). Teach Christian to think like Biblically minded Christians through worldview training. 3). Teach Christians to evangelize like Jesus did using the Moral Law 4). Challenge Christians to make sure they are true converts by examining their lives in light of the Biblical hallmarks of a Christian. These hallmarks can be found in the book of I John. 

Go here to find out more.

THE HUMAN PROBLEM

Genesis chapter 3, for the Christian and Jew alike, provides a narrative and theology of sin. At its essenc one defines the ancient word as seating self in place of God on the personal throne of life. A new apparent thought provoking book entitled Generation Me may provide a contemporary look at definitive, but archaic language used to express a universal truth. Here's a synopsis from the publishers:

In their 2000 book, Millennials Rising, Neil Howe and William Straus argued that children born after 1982 will grow up to become America's next Greatest Generation—filled with a sense of optimism and civic duty—but according to San Diego State psychology professor Twenge, such predictions are wishful thinking. Lumping together Gen-X and Y under the moniker "GenMe," Twenge argues that those born after 1970 are more self-centered, more disrespectful of authority and more depressed than ever before. When the United States started the war in Iraq, she points out, military enlistments went down, not up. (Born in 1971, Twenge herself is at the edge of the Me Generation.) Her book is livened with analysis of films, magazines and TV shows, and with anecdotal stories from her life and others'. The real basis of her argument, however, lies in her 14 years of research comparing the results of personality tests given to boomers when they were under 30 and those given to GenMe-ers today. Though Twenge's opinionated asides may occasionally set Gen-X and -Yers' teeth on edge, many of her findings are fascinating. And her call to "ditch the self-esteem movement" in favor of education programs that encourage empathy and real accomplishment could spare some Me-ers from the depression that often occurs when they hit the realities of today's increasingly competitive workplace.

A new book tackles the 18-to-35-year-old generation's problems--those they face and those they create.Twenge's book is comprehensive and scholarly, filled with statistics and thoughtful observations about the group she's dubbed Generation Me. These young people were raised with the idea of self-esteem being more important than achievement, which has caused them to place the self above all else. Such beliefs also have created a generation of young people who believe every dream is attainable but who aren't prepared to deal with discovering it isn't so. Twenge notes that today's young parents are especially lenient with their children and reluctant to discipline them, suggesting that perhaps the next generation will be even worse off. Twenge believes Generation Me would benefit from a heavy dose of realism. Accessible and a must-read for the generation they address.

See the author's website here.

A CASE AGAINST PREDETERMINISM

Most pop culture Christian punditry today looks like a hodgepodge of goose bumps, goody two shoers, and determinism designed to inspire certain behaviors, but insure comfort when those behaviors fail to produce the desired outcomes. Ben Witherington, professor of New Testament studies at Asbury Theological Seminary, presents a compelling case for free will as opposed to predestination. Commenting on free will within the parameters of God's sovereignty Witherington suggests:

Thirdly, we may compare the immediately following say in Mt. 18.19-- which tells us that if believers on earth come together and 2-3 agree on something (which assumes that Christ is there with them, and they are thinking within the parameters of God's revealed will) then "it will be done for you by my Father in heaven". God is said to respond to the human decision making process.

Of course there are numerous Biblical texts where God takes the initiative and humans respond. I am not for a minute disputing that. But a view of God's sovereignty that does not take into account viable human choice, and the fact that those choices can have heavenly and indeed eternal consequences, has not reckoned with the full scope of what the Bible says about the relationship between God's power and will, and the human response to the same.

Whilst, God could have done otherwise, he has chosen to allow us to be viable partners with God in ministry and the working out of his will and Kingdom on earth, beings capable of making un-predetermined choices that have incredible consequences. The issue is not the sovereignty of God-- the issue is how God has chosen to exercise his power and will. And what the Bible says about this is that he has not pre-determined all things from before the foundations of the world.

Of course the story of Joseph in the Old Testament reminds us that God can use bad decisions and evil human behavior for his own redemptive purposes. Read Joseph's story in Genesis chapter 37ff. And continue reading Ben Witherington here.