Christless Christianity [Chapter 5]

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Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for this time we've had. Lord, we thank you for the many blessings that you've granted us in Christ Jesus.
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We thank you for the opportunity we have today to honor you, to thank you, to live in light of the gracious gift of Jesus Christ.
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Father, to seek to obey your law as best we might, but knowing that your grace is sufficient.
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Father, help us to live our lives today, even as we discuss for the next hour and a half.
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Father, how we ought to think about things, how we fall so woefully short.
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But Lord, we want to honor the Lord Jesus Christ with our lives, even as the men we're talking about, with regard to our wives, for those who aren't married, for future wives.
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Father, we just pray that you'd grant us grace, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, so we didn't actually finish our quiz last time, so we'll start with 24 on that one.
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I probably do. Nope.
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True or false, the law tells those who believe what to do. It's true.
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The law not only drives us to Christ, it tells gospel -created faith what to do.
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So it tells believers what to do. God's law tells us what God approves, what his heart delights in.
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He does not ask us to be spontaneous, creative, or self -willed, but to do the things that he regards as righteous, holy, true, and good.
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Can you imagine God saying, be spontaneous, creative, self -willed?
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Number 25, true or false, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac was an example of true faith.
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Gosh, fell over the pool. It's false.
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Yeah, I don't really like the word example. I mean, for example, you know, for example. See what
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I did there? I sat on an ordination board one time, and somebody said, you know, how would you, somebody asked the candidate, how would you preach the narrative of Caleb?
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And he went on to describe how Caleb was a good man who didn't sin, you know, da -da -da -da. And I just sat there going, but I didn't say anything.
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I let somebody else blast him, and, you know, then I was like, yeah. See, I knew that too, but I'm too gracious to do that thing.
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Because, you know, what's the fault with dare to be a Daniel preaching? Or dare to be a
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Caleb? Can you live like Caleb? There you go. There's the sermon name. Can you live like Caleb?
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There's no getting, yeah, it's just be good. He's not.
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He's not the pinnacle? Oh. Horton says,
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Abraham was in many ways a moral failure. I mean, as soon as you start, yeah, but he had this brief shining moment.
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Sleeping with a servant when God had promised the heir through his wife. Sarah lying to a king by telling him that Sarah was his sister in order to get himself out of a bind and so forth.
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Even his willingness to sacrifice Isaac was not an example for us, but an occasion for God to foreshadow
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Christ as the ram caught in the thicket so that Isaac and the rest of us could go free.
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I hear that. I don't know how it doesn't.
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Hebrews 11. He didn't understand how it was going to be.
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Maybe he's going to bring him back to the dead. He didn't know, but he had faith that he was going to do it. I'm not saying he had no faith.
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I'm saying, you know, are we going to, you know, even here? I mean, if we cataloged
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Abraham as he does, kind of Abraham's many failures prior to this moment. You know, what would we conclude?
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That he had a brief shining moment that, you know, everything before that was moral failure.
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And, you know, maybe or maybe he got saved on the way up the mountain. I mean, you know, we could we could posit a lot of things.
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But I think it's enough to say that if we have moments of faithfulness, is it 100 percent faith?
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The point of the story is to point to Christ, not to show
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Abraham's faith. It definitely has something to do with faith.
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OK, well, I OK, let's get to the root of faith. What is faith?
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OK. And where does that faith come from? So is the point Abraham or is the point God?
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You know, I mean, in other words, I'm just like, let's just think for a minute. Well, here
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I'll put it. I think it's more this. You tell me if I'm wrong. I think
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Abraham and Isaac is more of a portrait of God's patience towards a sinful servant.
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Well, I just think if you want to dredge Abraham up as and this moment as a moment of shining faith, then you're going to wind up preaching moralism.
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OK, OK. But again, Abraham, Hebrews 11, you know, let's look at it.
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You know, and is this are we going to conclude that each of these men and women, you know, are are, you know, the highlight, the point of Hebrews 11 is the faithfulness of these people.
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OK, now I think we're getting somewhere. Mm hmm.
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Well, why didn't why didn't he believe that before? I mean, even read let's go to Hebrews 11 and let me see if I can read the verse number.
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Yeah, it'll be verse number eight. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called out to go to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.
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And he went out not knowing where he was going. OK, so he believed there. And and then and then failed utterly, you know, over and over and over and over and over and over again.
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And by faith, he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise, for he's looking forward to a city that has foundations whose designer and builder is
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God. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive. Even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful, who had promised.
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But famously, Sarah laughed. I mean, there are so many as you go through this chapter, there's so many asterisks you want to throw on things.
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So didn't he or did he just assume that people knew the rest of the story?
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And he's like, well, you know what? They were faithful. Who's he talking to?
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Who knew the Old Testament? So they would be very familiar with these stories. Because because the highlight, you know, as you read through it, the highlight is what?
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If you read through the Genesis narrative, what do you what do you think? You think, oh, man,
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Abraham faithful. What does
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Genesis say? I'm not talking about what Horton wrote now. If you read. Right.
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So if you read. In other words, Old Testament saints, the Hebrews that Paul or whomever is preaching to.
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If they if they reflect back on Genesis, if they reflect back on Abraham, what are they thinking? Are they thinking dude was faithful?
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Yes. But but I but I think, you know, what you said in the second part is more important.
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It was reckoned or counted to him as righteousness. His, you know, his righteousness, not so great.
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So and so I think when the author of Hebrews is preaching that he's he's more highlighting the fact that, you know what?
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We tend to think failure, failure, failure, failure, which is true.
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But let's focus on the moments when they were good. I mean, you can't look at Samson's life and go.
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And he's in here. And I don't disagree with that.
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But so then go back to twenty five. Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac was an example of true faith.
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I still say I still say it's false. So because I'm not going to actually
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I'm actually OK with your statement being false. I'm just OK. Number 26, true or false.
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One thing is clear in Hebrews 11. Sanctification is synergistic. OK, I want to say false.
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He says even the so -called Hall of Heroes in Hebrews 11 is misnamed.
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The writer consistently mentions that they overcame by faith in Christ, not by their works.
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In fact, God overcame their sins to further his redemptive purposes. Working through their folly as well as their faithfulness.
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The whole point is to demonstrate that God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.
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And God's weakness is greater than human strength. Furthermore, the examples selected in that chapter are precisely like David.
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In each case, saint and sinner simultaneously. And I believe, frankly, that sanctification is monergistic.
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And you say, well, how could that be? Don't we do this? And doesn't it say this? OK, but I think if we say that salvation is monergistic, nobody bats an eye.
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Well, why is that? There's a phrase that people use. The only thing that we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary.
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So I would like to propose, for your thoughts here for the moment, the only thing that we contribute to our sanctification is the sin that slows it down.
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Take that for what it's worth. No, he's not saying contribute your sin.
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What's he saying? I mean, does the
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Bible ever encourage us to sin? No. Is this a trick question?
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We need to be regenerated. But after salvation, we are regenerated.
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And we do that sometimes. And we do that to be a case for not being monergistic.
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No, that would be a case for not being dead. Not being dead. But dead, if you're having someone dead to alive.
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OK, so I guess the question is, do you obey by your own spiritual strength?
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Was it? Well, yeah, who's at work in you?
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You know, we already just mentioned, work out your salvation and fear and trembling.
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Which I think ultimately is going to lead us into the next chapter. Well, after reading about this last chapter here, it does seem to me like one of the great causes of American evangelicalism being so prone to wander is because of our sense of individualism.
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And the idea that we don't want creeds, confessions, even church, staid, communal, you know, really ultimately kind of anti -American.
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Americanism is about what? It's about rugged individualism. What's that? Yeah. And so this idea of, you know, conforming to a body of existing belief that was written by a bunch of Europeans, you know, da -da -da -da.
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OK, which is false, but, you know, why shouldn't we be innovative?
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Why shouldn't we solve things for ourselves? Why do we have to be tied to some historical documents?
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So I think it's that kind of idea. But getting back to this. I mean,
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I think we could argue about, you know, monergism. I mean, even my
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Reformation Study Bible says that sanctification is synergistic. I just,
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I'm not there. So let's look at 27.
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True or false? Guilt, grace, gratitude is a pattern often found in the
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Psalms. True. It is no wonder that the Heidelberg Catechism moves through three sections.
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Guilt, grace, and gratitude. This is the first movement that we find in the Psalms and in Paul's letters.
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Those who are forgiven much, love much. Familiar words. Luke 4, 747. 747.
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I didn't even notice that before. There is nothing wrong with being deeply moved emotionally by truth. In fact, good news generates doxology.
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So if we are not affected by the doctrine or motivated by it to love our neighbors, then we have probably misunderstood something.
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In other words, hearing the gospel and having emotion is good.
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Number 28. True or false? Many churches have sound practices even if their theology is off.
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False. The apostles would have considered it inconceivable that a church might have its doctrine right, but be uninterested in missions, evangelism, prayer, and works of service and charity to those in need.
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Or conversely, that a church might be faithful in life apart from sound doctrine.
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Sound doctrine is kind of important according to Horton. Chapter 5. When someone says, quote, this is my belief, what are they implicitly demanding?
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That you honor and respect it. Which, by the way, is the correct use of implicit.
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Sorry, Ben is not here to defend himself. You know, when you infer something, what does it mean to infer something?
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Okay, it's to draw something out of something that's written or said. So I can't infer, the person speaking can't infer anything.
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Just in case you're ever wondering about that. Okay, so. What's that?
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Yes. When we assert, quote, this is my belief, says
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White, we are invoking our right to have our own private conviction, no matter how ridiculous, not only tolerated politically, but respected by others.
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And, you know, when it comes to politics, I hear that all the time. I mean. Yes. But I mean, it's also it.
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I was talking to a gentleman who professes to be a conservative the other day. And he said that he wanted the town to get the seniors, every senior in town, a cell phone.
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And I said, well, who will pay for that? And his response was, I don't care.
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And I'm like, so in other words, you're not a, you know, you're not a, you're a liberal.
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Yeah. I don't care. Okay, here you go, buddy. So this idea says this.
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I've invested a lot of emotional energy in this belief. And in a way, I've staked the credibility of my life on it.
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So if you ridicule it, you can expect a fight. He says, in this kind of culture,
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Yahweh and Baal, my God and yours, stroll arm in arm. As if to do so, we're the model of virtue itself.
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Well, that's the idea, right? All beliefs are equally valid. Therefore, Yahweh and Baal can stroll down the street arm in arm.
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Yes, coexistence, baby. He did.
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Strangely, our freedom to believe has achieved the condition that Nietzsche, which is how you say it, called.
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What's that? I did. Actually, I took German. I had somebody try to convince me in seminar.
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He was my prof that it was, it actually should be pronounced otherwise. And I'm just like, okay, well, no, really,
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I'm quite certain. Anyway, Nietzsche called nihilism.
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But by a route, he never a route, he never imagined. While European nihilism just denied
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God, American nihilism is something different. Our nihilism is our capacity to believe in everything and anything all at once.
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It's all good. That's a phrase I've heard quite a bit in my life.
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It's all good. Say that in the army, say that in the sheriff's department. I don't hear it much at BBC.
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It's all good. But this is
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Americanism, you know, because people like to, I might have mentioned her some time ago, but I remember talking to a woman and listening to her belief system and thinking there were bits of Mormonism in it.
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So I just asked her, I said, you know, what's, where did you come up with this? And she goes, well, you know, she had some relatives who were
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Jewish and some relatives who were Mormon. So she just kind of took bits and pieces of this, that and the other thing and put them together.
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And I'm like, that's this, right? And it, she's like, it works for me.
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And I'm like, how can it work for you? How can you, you know, what book can you use to come up with, you know, and the answer is it's my own book.
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You know, I just kind of, yeah, it's Shilaism. It works for me. Okay, well, it might work now.
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It's not going to work in the future. I hope God is okay with what you've written, you know, made up.
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So, number two, true or false, de Tocqueville, Alexis de Tocqueville, noted the
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American proclivity to, quote, judge the world. True. As far back as the early 18th century, the
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French commentator Alexis de Tocqueville observed the distinctly
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American craving to, quote, escape from imposed systems. This is it.
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It is seek by themselves and in themselves for the only reason for things looking to results without getting entangled in the means toward them.
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So, each man is narrowly shut up in himself and from that basis makes the pretension to, quote, judge the world.
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Americans do not need books or any other external authorities in order to find the truth, having found it in themselves.
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And again, you know, American rugged individualism, the idea that,
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I mean, why do... I think probably the United States has probably invented more religions than anybody else in the history of mankind.
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We're really good at it, or really bad at it, depending on how you look at it.
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Number three, true or false, at its core, I should have capitalized it, sorry, the hymn,
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In the Garden, is a solid reflection of American religion. True.
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Have you ever been to a funeral where this hymn is sung? One of the reasons why we have the hymnals we have is because I was so delighted it did not have
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In the Garden in it. And I'm just like, we have to change hymnals. Why? Because it doesn't have In the
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Garden and I'll never have to listen to that song again, you know. Nobody's going to raise their hand on Sunday evening and say,
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I want to hear In the Garden. This is why
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I don't pack on Sunday nights. You want what?
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Over my dead body. You know. Sniper.
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I mean, listen to the inane lyrics. I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses.
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And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And he walks with me and he talks with me.
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I mean, the music alone is nauseating because it turns into some kind of carousel.
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You know, like we all should be up on ponies. And he walks with me.
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Stop. Just stop. He walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me
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I'm his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever.
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I mean, imagine. It's just me and Jesus just sharing joy, just kind of riding the carousel together.
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You know. Come on. He says. The focus of such piety is on a personal relationship with Jesus that is individualistic, inward and immediate.
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One comes alone and experiences a joy that none other has ever known.
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Then he says, how can any external orthodoxy? In other words, I mean,
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I can almost hear the gray haired old lady saying, Don't you tell me what
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Jesus is like based on your creeds and confessions. I've experienced
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Jesus. Shut your mouth. And since there are no gray haired ladies here to defend themselves,
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I can say that. Well, of course, there's the famous story about.
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Let me think. I could see. Oh, it was Jack Hayford.
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Four square pastor who said, you know, he was shaving and Jesus showed up and.
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Put his arm on. His shoulder, you know, and I remember the way
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MacArthur describes it, because they used to be friends way back in the day. And MacArthur says, and you just kept shaving, you know.
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Jesus shows up and just puts his arm around you, you know, while you're shaving, you know, no nicks or cuts.
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It's just like a nice, smooth, best shave I ever had. OK. How can any external orthodoxy tell me
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I'm wrong? My personal relationship with Jesus is mine. I do not share it with the church, creeds, confessions, pastors and teachers.
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Perhaps not even the Bible can shake my confidence in the unique experiences that I have with Jesus.
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Why does he say not even perhaps not even the Bible? There's nothing to restrain it.
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I actually, you know, this is years ago. This is Kim's, Kim Avon Ross's brother.
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Some gray haired lady was arguing with her with him about when he got saved. And she said, you know, don't you remember?
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You know, you made a profession of faith when you were like nine years old or whatever. And then he says, yeah, but then
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I went on and did drugs and, you know, but, you know, this is my life for like 25 years.
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Yes, but you made that. You know, it was like so it didn't matter what even the person because she had a subjective belief and that trumped everything.
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Right. And it's just like, OK. So even what the scripture would say doesn't matter.
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You know, it doesn't. He made a profession. He walked the aisle mentally, you know, and that's all it took. So, yeah,
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I mean, experience just beats the Bible for many American evangelicals.
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OK, number four. Why is enthusiasm the word an apt substitute for Gnosticism?
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Yeah, something something similar to that. I don't know if I have it down here, but yeah, that's yeah.
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So I think that's probably right.
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So he says, excuse me, if moralism represents a drift toward the
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Pelagian or at least semi Pelagian heresy, enthusiasm is an expression of the heresy known as Gnosticism, a second century movement that seriously threatened the ancient churches.
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Gnosticism tried to blend Greek philosophy and Christianity. I think what we see in most of evangelicalism today is, you know, neo neo
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Gnosticism. The result was an eclectic spirituality that regarded the material world as the prison house of divine spirits and the creation of an evil
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God, Yahweh. Their goal was to return to spiritual, heavenly and divine unity of which their inner self was a spark away from the realm of earthly time, space and bodies.
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And then he says Gnostics would have applauded many of Joel Osteen's emphases, particularly the thesis of faith teachers that we have divine
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DNA. With little interest in questions of history or doctrine, the
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Gnostics sent off on a quest to ascend the ladder of mysticism, or we could say it this way, spirituality, right?
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And they were all in agreement that the institutional church with its ordained ministry, creeds, preaching, sacraments and discipline was alienating.
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Like the body, it was the prison house of the individual soul. How many times do you know,
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I hate church. Church is so kind of stuffy. I'm just more spiritual than that.
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Okay, now number five, what is the glory story?
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Because this really struck me. And he says the most common overarching story we tell about ourselves is what we will call the glory story.
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We came from glory and are bound for glory. Of course in between we seem somehow to have gotten derailed, whether by design or accident, we don't quite know.
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But that is only a temporary inconvenience to be fixed by proper religious effort.
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What we need is to get back on the glory road. The story is told in countless variations.
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Usually the subject of the story is the soul. And the secondary question
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I put there is, what does it remind you of? Because I'll tell you what it reminds me of, and this won't shock you,
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Mormonism. Why? Because Mormonism teaches that yes, you do have an origin, but your origin is a spiritual origin, that you existed way before the world did.
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God had spirit children, and we were there with Jesus, who was also a spirit child.
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We were there with Lucifer, who was also a spirit child. And we come to this earth to be tested, right?
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So we're spirits, we receive a physical body for testing. Translation, the physical body is a hindrance.
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It's a negative. Because only in the physical can we properly be tested and tried.
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And the ultimate thing, of course, is our souls. That's what's eternal, and so that's where we want to get back on track.
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We want to get back on the glory road. That's why Mormonism stresses individual perfection, making yourself ultimately
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God. Do we?
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Right. Okay, but I mean, yeah, the body goes to heaven.
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Well, okay, is that right, though? Well, the glory story, though, suggests, again, to borrow from Mormonism, we started essentially in glory, and we're going back there.
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Is that true? And the answer is no, we didn't start in glory. We started dead in our sins and trespasses.
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That's where we started, right? From the moment we were formed in the womb. Now, getting back to your question, when we have things like, this world is not my home,
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I'm just passing through, is it the glory story? And I don't think it is, because I think it's true, right?
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Once you've been saved, once you've been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
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Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, then, you know, it's true. This world is not our home.
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The trials and tribulations that come upon us are real, but they're not ultimate. In the glory story, therefore, it's attainable.
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You were there once, so you can try to achieve it on your own, whereas Christianity preaches that you're dead in trespass.
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Well, yeah, and if you think about it, it started making me think of Saturday Night Live, and getting back on track, you know, the guy in the van down by the river, you know, let's get back on track, you know, and the whole deal there, because we were good, and we will be good, and right now we're struggling, so let's just get back on track.
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Well, although they would argue that we were holy, and, you know, and we're heading towards holiness, too.
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It's just that... Well, it is very low. I don't disagree with that, but I mean, you know, they have a low view of a lot of things, including a low view of God.
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So, I guess you could make that argument.
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I mean, it's a little different than the ultimate, you know, Gnostic glory story, but it's not, you know, it's a variation.
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Until you get baptized. Because your glory story starts before you are born.
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Oh, and you know, one thing, talking about that, the consciousness thing, you know, John said, and I'm not critiquing
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John, I'm just like, let's just think about this for a minute. Is there a long time between death and the resurrection?
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What's that? Well, but I think it is important, you know, because I...
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I mean, for example, when I talk to people, when I'm...
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When Dave Copper died, okay? Maureen says, you know,
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I miss Dave. Well, obviously you do. Should we feel sorry for Dave?
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Well, no, because he's with Christ. That's another reason why we shouldn't feel sorry for Dave, because he doesn't miss us.
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And it's not just because he's in the presence of the Lord, but he's also to be present with the
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Lord means what? Well, let me put it another way.
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Do you think there's any specific reason why, when we die, we don't instantaneously get resurrected?
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Well, it might be kind of creepy. I mean, especially if they went to your grave and there were no bones in it. But to be absent from the body is to be present with the
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Lord, which means where the Lord is, time is non -existent.
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Go ahead. Our physical bodies are going to be raised.
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But what does it mean? I mean, do we go out of existence? You know, what does the scripture say when it means...
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mean when it says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord? Your soul is there, right?
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And so, you know, here's the question. If we're with the
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Lord and if the Lord is outside of time, do we have any kind of cognitive capacity to understand the passage of time?
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So here's the point. The point is, Dave doesn't miss us because he doesn't know we're not there.
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And when we do show up, it's going to be like, oh, yeah. Well, because there was no, you know, like, in other words, in one respect,
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I'm already in heaven and I'm already having fellowship. So there's something to think about.
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OK, I mean, just contemplate the meaninglessness in some respects of time because we experience it here, but once we're gone, then it's over.
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Time shall be no more. Yes, that is what
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I'm saying. Did it? OK, so we'll exist in time.
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Boy, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know about that.
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I mean, I think what is eternal life? It's not being like God, but it's being with God. And if we're subject to time,
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I think we have a problem. OK, that's just my opinion. Number seven, what is syncretism?
46:30
Oh, did I skip six? What makes the so -called Gnostic Gospels attractive to Americans today?
46:40
Exactly right. Although the so -called Gnostic Gospels were written much later than the canonical
46:45
Gospels of the New Testament, which is important for you to know, by the way, generally speaking, considered to be in the second and later centuries, they are often celebrated as the expression of an alternative
46:57
Christianity, which is false, that was more tolerant and open to paganism than the official church that tried to silence them, which again is false.
47:06
They were just cults. In some of the Gnostic texts, there is a celebration of the goddess who is androgynous and engages in lesbian practices.
47:16
Translation, perfect for today. Number seven, what is syncretism?
47:24
Why are younger Christians vulnerable to it? The buffet of faith.
47:34
Yeah, the buffet of faith, well said. You know, a diverse faith culture, we could say.
47:42
He says, as we participate in an increasingly diverse culture, younger Christians are especially vulnerable to syncretism, that is, blending
47:51
Christian and non -Christian belief practices. They have been less immersed in the scriptures than in the culture's religious pluralism.
48:01
So basically, why are younger Christians vulnerable to it? Because we don't teach them. And the world does teach them.
48:11
Number eight, in what ways is American religion like ancient Gnosticism? He says, in American religion, as in ancient
48:32
Gnosticism, there is almost no sense of God's difference from us. I think this sounds a lot like American evangelicalism.
48:44
In other words, his majesty, sovereignty, self -existence, and holiness. God is my buddy, my inmost experience, or the power source for my living my best life now.
48:55
God is not strange, which is to say holy, and he is certainly not a judge.
49:01
He does not evoke fear, awe, or a sense of terrifying and disorienting beauty.
49:10
In other words, like Isaiah's vision would mean nothing. The whole
49:15
Ten Commandments movie must be really bizarre to them. Behold his mighty hand.
49:22
No. Yeah, he's just...
49:31
Yeah, what if God was one of us? Okay, number nine.
49:38
What is the problem with a God who never really judges? He never forgives, is correct.
49:48
Yeah. Gnosticism exchanges the strange and often troubling God of Israel for an idol that never really judges and therefore never really forgives.
49:59
If you're never really guilty, then he doesn't really have to forgive you. Yeah, I mean these kind of themes just sort of run through this whole chapter here.
50:15
Number ten. On what basis do Americans judge religion?
50:20
It's a good religion if it makes people...
50:42
Okay. It's a good religion if it makes people moral. Of course, what is moral?
50:59
True to oneself. Yeah, I like that. Inner experience. And I think that's the key.
51:06
Experience. How it makes me feel. Here's what Horton says.
51:11
He says, this characteristically American approach to religion in which the direct relationship of the soul to God generates an almost romantic encounter with the sacred.
51:23
I mean, when I read that, I just thought, Jesus Calling. Right? Why is Jesus Calling so popular?
51:31
Why have we sold so many copies of it here at BBC? Okay. Our Jesus Calling calendar.
51:38
Okay. Yeah. There is a calendar.
51:48
All kinds of stuff. She did everything but Jesus Calling the board game, which can't really rule it out.
51:55
I mean, maybe she did. No, I would not.
52:05
This characteristically American approach to religion in which the direct relationship of the soul to God generates an almost romantic encounter with the sacred makes inner experience the measure of spiritual genuineness.
52:20
Instead of, and talking about pastors, instead of being concerned that our spiritual leaders faithfully interpret scripture and are sent by Christ through the official ordination of his church, we are more concerned that they exude vulnerability, authenticity, and the familiar spontaneity that tells us that they have a personal relationship with Jesus.
52:46
He says, when push comes to shove, many Christians today justify their beliefs and practices on the basis of their own experience, regardless of what the church teaches, or perhaps even what is taught in scripture.
52:59
Again, the one assailable authority in the American religion is the self's inner experience.
53:07
You can't deny me what I have experienced, what I felt. And again,
53:12
I think that's, it's perfectly reflected in Mormonism. It doesn't matter what you, you know, what scriptures you bring to bear when you're talking to them, because they've had a burning of the bosom.
53:24
They've had an experience that they can't deny. They know something is true because they feel it.
53:34
That's why I think Mormonism is probably the quintessential American religion. Number 11, how does
53:43
Bloom describe revivalism in America? I did enjoy this one a lot, actually.
53:55
Revivalism in America tends to be the perpetual shock of the individual. In other words, wow, mind -blowing.
54:03
And what blows their mind? Yes, what she and he have always known, which is
54:09
God loves her and him on an absolute, absolutely personal and indeed intimate basis.
54:22
I mean, it's just this whole me, me, me centrism. Each of us is subject and object of the one quest, which must be for the original self a spark or breath in us that we are convinced goes back before the creation.
54:40
We are eternal. I mean, this is Shirley MacLaine. This is the whole, you know, I don't know, limb thing.
54:47
We are divine. We have that spark of divinity in us. We have eternally existed.
54:54
The focus of faith and practice is not so much Christ's objective person and work for us, outside of us.
55:04
It is a personal relationship that is defined chiefly in terms of inner experience.
55:10
In other words, it's subjective, not objective. Watching the
55:33
Shirley MacLaine movie on YouTube and being told it's all garbage, wrong, don't listen to her, and yet being told
55:40
God loves her.
55:45
I kind of wonder why they would show that. I think God loves you personally, but it's in Christ that he does that.
56:00
Well, I mean, that's good that you say that, because here's what's true about every false religion, is that there's a sliver of truth in it, right?
56:11
I mean, it would be like this. I listened to this ad the other day, I've heard it a few times, where the guy, he's a car salesman, and, you know, a woman shows up on the lot.
56:22
How many of you guys have heard this? She shows up on the lot and she wants what she saw advertised. And he goes, oh, you know, we don't have that here.
56:31
That's just kind of what we use to get you here. And he goes, I'm going to sell you something far more expensive and, you know, something that you don't want.
56:39
And I'm like, okay, now we're getting down to it, right?
56:45
So here's my point. You know, would you expect Satan to just show up and say, hey, by the way,
56:52
I'm about to give you a false religious system, and it's going to send you straight to hell.
56:59
You know, where you're going to be tortured forever by the God who really exists. So, you know, be prepared for that.
57:06
Absolutely not. Instead, it's going to be, you know, how good you are, how much God loves you, and about how, you know, everything is going to be glorious for you, of course.
57:16
So, I mean, that's... Yes, yes.
57:27
Broadway to destruction, right? Yeah, truth in advertising doesn't exist when it comes to religion, right?
57:37
Number 12, what do Americans jettison in their search for religious experience?
57:43
I mean, we can come up with quite a list, I think. Yeah, common sense, you know.
57:52
What's that? Well, yeah. Horton says what was missing in all this is, in all this quite private luminosity, in other words, this inner light sort of experience, was simply most of historic
58:12
Christianity. I hasten to add that I am not celebrating... Oh, this is somebody else saying this.
58:18
Who was it? Bloom, still, okay.
58:24
I hasten to add that I am celebrating... So, he doesn't like Christianity. I'm celebrating, not deploring when
58:31
I make that observation. Jesus is not so much an event in history for the American religionist as he is a knower of the secrets of God, who in return can be known by the individual.
58:43
Hidden in this process is a sense that depravity is only a lack of saving knowledge.
58:51
That's sheer Gnosticism there. You know, what is salvation? Illumination.
58:58
You know, learning the secrets. What an
59:04
American knows in his or her heart is more certain than the law of gravity. I like that line too.
59:10
What we've experienced, what we felt, is more important than the law of gravity.
59:16
Religion is formal, ordered, corporate, and visible. Spirituality is informal, spontaneous, individual, and invisible.
59:29
Spirituality, good. Religion, bad. That's why when I hear somebody well -meaning a
59:36
Christian saying, well, you know, Christianity really isn't a religion. It's a relationship. I'm not a big fan of that.
59:48
Why wouldn't I be a big fan of that? Because there's a sliver of truth.
59:55
Right? But it's kind of a sliver of truth with a lot of lettuce and pickles and mayo, you know, and not a lot of beef.
01:00:04
Right? And he walks with me.
01:00:34
And there we are again. We're back on the carousel. The only reason to get off the carousel is maybe for a little cotton candy, and then we get right back on.
01:00:52
There's no line. It's just me and him. Good times.
01:01:01
All right. Number 13. What, if anything, should we think of baptisms administered by random family members?
01:01:10
And you're like, what in the world? Where did that question come from? Have you ever seen those? Yes. You know, like it could be the mom, or it could be the sister or brother, or it could be, you know, mom and dad, or it could be, you know, whatever.
01:01:24
And they'll do dozens of baptisms at the same time because if you're using little mini swimming pools that you've just filled up, you know, and put it in a huge arena, then it's easy to do multiple baptisms at a single time.
01:01:42
Why do people do that? That would be a reason.
01:01:53
But isn't that, I mean, can you imagine, for example, going into a Presbyterian church on some
01:02:00
Sunday morning and watching them baptize, you know, moms and dads and brothers and sisters or whatever, baptizing 20 infants at the same time?
01:02:11
You know, just dipping them in. Why wouldn't they do that? What's that?
01:02:18
Yeah, why wouldn't they do that? Okay, that's part of it.
01:02:32
It belittles the organization, the authority of the church. And isn't that inherently
01:02:39
American? I think that's it too, right?
01:02:51
So they like it too. Yes, yes.
01:02:58
Yep. So he says, although evangelicals typically retain the sacraments like everything else, they are made a vehicle of individual experience, a personal relationship that does not depend on such practices.
01:03:15
In other words, minimize the church, maximize the individual. You know, baptize yourself.
01:03:29
Well, and you know, like, hey, I can have communion at home. Think about that.
01:03:39
What does communion mean? I know. But that's, you know, that's what people do.
01:03:48
Number 14, yeah. Well, it was before COVID too. Number 14, what is the most agreed upon dogma in the
01:03:55
U .S. today? That's not bad.
01:04:05
How about this one? Bloom quotes Mullins Maxim, religion is a personal matter between the soul and God.
01:04:16
This may be the most agreed upon dogma in the
01:04:22
United States today. And before that, he said the individual believer alone with his or her
01:04:29
Bible was all that was necessary for a vital Christian experience. And that's kind of like, again, this
01:04:36
Americanism imposed on Christianity. Number 15, what was likely
01:04:47
Mary Baker Eddy's greatest contribution to the English language? Somebody passing away.
01:04:53
That's exactly right. Other than in the
01:05:01
East, in the esoteric sects of the West, wherever in the United States can an entire religion emerge in the 19th century that denies the reality of the body, illness, and death?
01:05:12
According to Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian science, sin, illness, and death itself had come into the world because of the belief that spirit materialized into a body.
01:05:22
Infinity became finity, or man and the eternal entered the temporal.
01:05:30
Again, this is the whole glory story. Notice that her description of the source of our fall is
01:05:37
Christianity's description of the source of our redemption, namely the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of God the
01:05:43
Son in the flesh. Gnostics are allergic to any talk about the reality of sin and death, substituting the idea of passing away for death.
01:05:54
Baker Eddy made a considerable, and from a Christian point of view, considerably unfortunate contribution to the
01:06:01
English language. Passing away. What's that?
01:06:09
She was in the 19th century, and almost every really horrible American religion came about in the 19th century, including
01:06:17
Seventh -day Adventism, Mormonism, Jehovah Witnesses. I don't know if it was later or earlier.
01:06:28
Number 16, true or false, Bloom liked Machen's Christianity and liberalism. He loved it.
01:06:37
False. He hated it. Yeah. Bloom said,
01:06:43
I have just read my way through this with distaste and discomfort, but with a reluctant and growing admiration for Machen's mind.
01:06:53
I've never seen a stronger case made for the argument that institutional Christianity must regard cultural liberalism as an enemy to faith.
01:07:04
He says, I've never seen a stronger case made for the argument. Oh yeah, that's it. Okay. Number 17, what religion favors experience over doctrine?
01:07:19
Yeah. Gnosticism. Yeah, sure. Or we could say the
01:07:24
American religion. His description of contemporary American spirituality picks up Gnosticism's main characteristics.
01:07:33
A religion that celebrates experience rather than doctrine. And when I say the
01:07:38
American religion, if you just think about how many people, even in church, don't want to talk about what?
01:07:46
Doctrine. And people, a lot of times, will try to drive
01:07:56
Christianity down to red letters. You hear that from time to time. I just focus on the letters written in red, and what are they really trying to say?
01:08:06
That the words of Jesus are somehow better than the words of Jesus. Number 18, true or false?
01:08:18
Americans generally view God as something similar to the force. I think that is just really true.
01:08:29
Like ancient Gnosticism, American spirituality uses God, or the divine, as something akin to an energy source.
01:08:37
I just entitled it the force, but I think basically that's it. Through various formulas, steps, procedures, or techniques, one may access this force on one's own.
01:08:48
Or this source on one's own. Such spiritual technology, I like that when he used that phrase there.
01:08:55
Spiritual technology. Could be employed without any need for the office of preaching, administering baptism of the
01:09:02
Lord's Supper, or membership in a visible church, submitting to its communal admonitions, encouragements, teaching, and practices.
01:09:11
Okay, number 18. Yes. Well, you know.
01:09:17
You can just call on them. Oh, midichlorians. Everlasting.
01:09:24
Number 19. True or false? Keswick Theology was approved by none other than B .B.
01:09:29
Warfield. That is false. How many are familiar with Keswick Theology?
01:09:38
It is the higher life movement. It comes straight out of Miller Beer. No, that's not.
01:09:49
You know, oddly, years ago there was somebody here at BBC who went off to a place in Colorado.
01:10:02
And it was only when I, and it was interesting to me because they found out about this place via the homeschooling movement.
01:10:16
It was only when I really started checking into this place and reading about it that I became,
01:10:22
I started to realize that what it was, was Keswick. And essentially this is what they said.
01:10:29
Because there were all these young people, they were generally speaking between the ages of 18 and 25, who would go there and all of a sudden discover that they weren't saved and get baptized.
01:10:44
You know, which, you know, you could say, well, that's great. Or you could say, well, okay, if somebody is a professing
01:10:50
Christian before they go there, now it could be that they realize that they weren't saved or there could be something else going on.
01:10:57
And that something else would be what? A kind of higher life.
01:11:06
Where people suddenly realize that kind of a sinless perfectionism is possible.
01:11:17
And so, you know, they have these experiences. For example, what would go on there is, let's say someone was, and if I show you some of their videos, you'd go, dude.
01:11:28
Somebody is struggling with a particular thought sin. And so the leaders of this movement would then, you know, they would be praying in a group like this.
01:11:39
And when somebody said, you know, I'm struggling with this particular thought sin. The leaders would, you know, two or three leaders would take that individual out of the room where everybody else was worshiping.
01:11:51
And they would go into a back room where they would do what they called wrestling prayer.
01:11:59
Which is, you know, like intense. Everybody keep praying for this individual. We're going to go take him into the back room.
01:12:05
And, you know, I imagine there are tune -ups and stuff like that, you know, rib shots. But the end result of that would almost inevitably be what?
01:12:16
This person coming out, declaring victory over this thought sin. And then realizing that they'd never been saved in the first place and going and getting baptized.
01:12:30
So, that's Keswick theology in a nutshell. This idea that somehow, you know, it didn't matter that you had faith before.
01:12:38
You've now reached a higher level of faith. And it usually has to do with kind of going someplace where the air is cleaner.
01:12:51
And, you know, doing hard work or whatever. It's generally speaking more of a kind of either a convent or a, you know.
01:13:02
I mean, the idea is get away from everything and just focus on the Lord and spend time. And then you'll achieve this higher level.
01:13:13
The higher Holy Spirit level? Yeah, it's kind of similar. Yeah, you know, it's unlock achieved kind of thing, you know.
01:13:23
Yeah, next level. Like he says, like even the popular
01:13:31
Keswick higher life movement in British and American evangelicalism. Which profoundly shaped evangelical piety in the 19th century.
01:13:39
Was criticized early on by B .B. Warfield and more recently by J .I. Packer. As advancing an almost magical view of faith.
01:13:47
Using God -like electricity for one's own ends and will. Like a mighty river.
01:13:54
Like a river glorious. The spirit can be harnessed by our spiritual technology.
01:14:01
The way many evangelicals today speak of accessing God and connecting with him underscores this point.
01:14:10
Number 20. The ordinary means of grace are a bit of a made -up magical thing.
01:14:25
False. Yet they all give precedence to inner experience and over external norms.
01:14:34
The individual over the communion of the saints. The immaterial over the material. The immediate spontaneous ever new and ever unique personal experiences over the ordinary means of grace.
01:14:45
That God has provided for our maturity together in the body of Christ. We're going to talk more about that in a second.
01:14:56
So I'll leave that there. Number 21. What lyric could warm the heart of any liberal
01:15:04
Protestant and why?
01:15:15
Not that one, but yes. Why should we long for Jesus Christ appearing in the flesh when he already lives in our heart?
01:15:27
As one gospel song put it. You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.
01:15:33
And that's another song. I mean, if I had a sniper rifle, as soon as somebody requests that song,
01:15:43
I would put them down. There's violence inherent in the system.
01:15:55
I don't know what violence is inherent in the system. He says, but this is a sentiment.
01:16:05
You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart. This is a sentiment that could just as easily warm the heart of any liberal
01:16:11
Protestant. Why? Because it makes no difference whether Jesus rose from the dead in the flesh 2000 years ago, as long as he somehow is still with us in our personal experience today.
01:16:23
You ask me how I know he lives? I mean, every Christian should recoil at that lyric.
01:16:30
He lives within my heart. What tripe? What rubbish? What a denial of what scripture says.
01:16:41
Oh, he lives within us. But yeah, but that's no, it's no, you know, is there truth in that?
01:16:50
Point one percent. I mean, you know, in other words, it's 99 .9 percent bilge. And, you know, that one little bilge.
01:16:59
Thank you. I just, that's a unique word for Saturday morning.
01:17:04
Okay. Yeah, because the objective truth of the resurrection is, you know, the central truth of Christianity, what separates us from any other religion.
01:17:19
You know, I could say, you asked me how I know Joseph Smith lives? He lives within my heart. So what?
01:17:25
Right. Did he come back from the grave? No. Did, you know, Muhammad? No, etc, etc, etc.
01:17:31
So, I mean, it just kind of, it's not only subjective, but it also reduces so -called
01:17:39
Christianity to every other religion. It's no different than any other religion. Right.
01:18:09
And so, you know, I would say, and that's why I didn't say it was totally false. Yes. Because there is a subjective element of Christianity, but the objective element is so much more important.
01:18:24
So, all right, number 22. What error do many Christians make when giving their testimony?
01:18:30
And this is something, honestly, I try to squeeze out of people, but I'm not always successful.
01:18:46
Yeah. And he writes, it is significant that for the apostles, offering their testimony meant witnessing to the concrete person and work of Christ in history.
01:18:58
Where for us today, it usually means witnessing to our own personal experience and moral improvement.
01:19:04
Now, those things happen. And, you know, I think a lot of times they're encouraging.
01:19:11
But ultimately, I tell people, if I can't listen to your testimony as an unbeliever and get saved, then guess what?
01:19:20
It's not a testimony. You know, I mean, I could go to a 12 -step meeting and hear about how somebody quit drinking.
01:19:29
That doesn't give me faith, right? And I can't possibly do that. So, number 23.
01:19:36
How is the body of Christ built? Dave wanted to talk about that, so I thought
01:19:44
I'd include it. Number 23. How is the body of Christ built? Horton says this.
01:19:55
He says, It is not in a private inner garden where we walk and talk with Jesus, and he tells us that we are his own, but in a public garden with visible means of grace.
01:20:07
There he forms a people, not just a person, by consecrating ordinary human speech as his word, ordinary water as his baptism, and ordinary bread and wine as his communion.
01:20:22
Now, those things are familiar to us, but how do those help form the church?
01:20:39
If I put it in another way, does Christ use preaching, baptism, communion to build the church?
01:20:59
And we would call those things, I mean, I think we would call them means of grace.
01:21:05
Well, how are they means of grace? How is preaching a means of grace?
01:21:11
How is baptism a means of grace? How is communion a means of grace? Okay, they're all proclaiming
01:21:21
Christ. True, Christ is grace.
01:21:28
I mean, when we hear the word proclaimed, are we edified?
01:21:36
Are we sometimes challenged? Are we confirmed in our faith?
01:21:46
Are we encouraged? Are we refocused on Jesus? I think all those things and probably more we could say, yes, yes, yes, and yes.
01:21:57
Okay, when we see somebody baptized, are we encouraged? Are we edified? Are we, you know, et cetera, et cetera?
01:22:05
You know, does it give us a sense that the Lord is continuing to work and continuing to build and continuing to grow the church?
01:22:13
And the answer is yes. When we have communion, what about that? And I think it's a similar story.
01:22:20
You know, it's this whole idea of he walks with me, he talks with me, he tells me that I am his own, is so insipid, so careless, so doctrineless, and ultimately so, dare
01:22:40
I say, because I do dare, Christless, right?
01:22:47
That it's bereft of anything uniquely Christian. And yet, when we think about the ordinary means of grace, they need to be inherently
01:22:57
Christian. So, you know, if somebody says, and I probably told you guys this before, if somebody says, well, you know, the pastor was faithful to the text, okay?
01:23:11
Did you hear anything of Christ today? No. Did you hear anything of the gospel today?
01:23:17
No. Was he faithful to the text? Somebody might say yes.
01:23:25
And I'd say, well, is this or is this not a Christian church? And if it is a
01:23:32
Christian church, it'd be a very odd thing for me to say, for example, you know, today we're going to be looking at Psalm, pick a
01:23:41
Psalm, you know, between 1 and 150. And by the way, by the time I get done, you'll not have heard about Jesus or about the gospel.
01:23:51
Did I do a good job? I don't think so. I don't think so.
01:23:57
Because if a rabbi could sit in the church and say, you know, that was a great service, I really enjoyed it. In fact,
01:24:05
I might, can I have your notes? I'd like to preach it next Saturday. Well, it's not good unless he just got saved and thought, you know,
01:24:14
I want to present this to my congregation too. I'd like them to get saved. Yes, Wes?
01:24:48
The weeds? Yes. But, you know, here's my point.
01:24:57
I think we could get somewhat into the weeds on Sunday morning. I think it's fine to, you know, even during the message, to get a little esoteric.
01:25:09
Not necessarily super esoteric, you know, dig down into the weeds. But I think it's okay to, like, relate big kind of picture items.
01:25:19
In fact, I was just thinking about my next sermon this morning. Not that I'll be preaching it for a while, but, you know,
01:25:25
I was thinking, I wonder, I wonder if, you know, the
01:25:32
Jewish authorities, would care to persecute most American churches.
01:25:39
And I think the answer is no. Because there'd be no point to it. Because they're not really inherently
01:25:47
Christian. There's nothing offensive about them. So, you know, I think on Sunday mornings, our contra, maybe the purpose -driven church, that kind of thing, you know, our services need to be used to be uniquely
01:26:05
Christian and gospel -focused. Because unbelievers need to hear the gospel, and so do believers.
01:26:15
Okay. Yeah. Nobody's saying that you can't be edified.
01:27:00
Yeah, but I think your premise is false, because you're not adequately examining this private inner garden where we walk and talk with Jesus.
01:27:18
Well, I would say, you know, again, I think I said this in the email too,
01:27:23
I think it's a subjective, theoretical relationship with Jesus versus the objective, historical, you know, basis of the work and person of Jesus, right?
01:27:37
This cannot edify. It can't. The subjective nature of things cannot.
01:27:44
What ought to impress us and drive us to, you know, almost a subjective enthusiasm, if I could, is just the objective truth of things.
01:27:55
The wonder isn't that he walks with me and talks with me and rides the carousel with me. The wonder is that he has anything to do with me, right?
01:28:03
That Jesus would descend and live that, you know, that... Yep. But I don't think that's the contrast he's making.
01:28:22
Yeah, I don't think that's the contrast he's making. Thank you. What is the major difference between Gnosticism and Christianity?
01:28:41
Gnosticism identified God with the inner self. He walks with me. But Christianity has focused all of its resources on God outside of us who creates, rules, judges, and saves us in our complete personal and corporate existence.
01:28:59
So there you go. There's your personal. He's not arguing against the personal. But he's also saying, you know, this is where we live and move and have our being, is in Christ.
01:29:14
Alright, we're over time. And isn't that nice that we're done for the summer? Well, we had to be done for the summer because we had that breakfast next week.
01:29:23
Oh my goodness. Breakfast. I don't like breakfast.
01:29:30
I'm protesting. Okay, it's alright. Yes! Alright, let's pray.
01:29:37
Father, thank you for this morning. You are so good to us. We thank you that while we have compassion and empathy for our friends who are in less than good churches,
01:29:58
Lord, we would pray for the American evangelicalism writ large that you would reintroduce
01:30:09
Christ and the gospel into many churches, especially in New England, when we think of a relatively small number of churches where the truth is proclaimed.
01:30:22
And just pray that you would, by your spirit, invade these pulpits and bring men who would proclaim the truth back into fashion, as it were.
01:30:37
Father, we thank you for the objective truths of scripture. We thank you that you are a
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God who saves in spite of us, in spite of our desires and our sin.
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Father, I pray that you would strengthen each one of us, that you would grant us a great day of serving our families and our wives and,
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Father, serving one another even as we look forward to worshiping you tomorrow. In Jesus' name we pray.