They Were Warned, but They Did Not Listen

The Problem of Compromising to Reach Culture

Dear Oprah, you have inspired an entire generation, informed us, exposed us, and challenged us.

Today we are so honored to have a world changer, a history maker, one of the great voices of our generation, Ms. Oprah Winfrey is right here on the podium with us.

Compromising is not going to save anyone.

How should Christians interact and engage with the culture? To what extent should we become part of the culture? And to what extent should we remain separate from the culture?

I want us to think about the question of culture and how we interact with and impact culture. There's much talk today about how we do that, how we interact with culture, how we impact culture, what the most effective way is for us to impact culture.

Many argue that in order for Christians to reach people with the gospel, Christians needed to become immersed in the culture, so that they could communicate effectively with lost people within the culture.

And there's been a pendulum swing, and right now there is this sense in which we believe that if we're going to impact culture, the way we do that is by becoming more like the culture, by becoming more palatable to the culture.

We have to learn the culture's language, the culture's music. We have to learn the culture's styles. And not just learn them, but we have to adopt them. And not just adopt them, but we have to master them and mirror them, so that we actually become what the culture is.

Because it's only to the degree that we become what the culture is, that we are able to impact the culture and transform the culture.

We see examples of this ideology in the emerging church movement, which Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church were related to, as well as in many megachurches such as Hillsong Church and Elevation Church.

Do you believe that only Christians can be in relationship with God?

No. There are also pastors who dilute Christianity to be accepted by the most influential people in the culture.

Why Cultural Influence Is Not the Same as Faithfulness

When you touch the core and you get down to the seed, you have then gotten to the place where you can find its fullest and best potential. There's also a sense in which we believe that what we have to do to impact culture is not just become like the culture, but that we have to go into the most influential areas in the culture, master those most influential areas in the culture, be received and accepted in those most influential areas in the culture, so that then we can transform the culture.

We see this in megachurch pastors like Joel Osteen and T .D. Jakes, who are accepted and endorsed by Oprah, arguably the most influential person in our culture today. I am beautiful.

I am excited about my future. I'm excited.

I'm victorious. However, to reach this point, these pastors have compromised on, distorted, and diluted what the Bible clearly teaches. Gandhi's in hell. He is. And someone knows this for sure. We also see examples of this kind of compromise in Christian music artists who allow their Christianity to take a back seat in order to become more famous and supposedly reach more people with the gospel.

Do you feel that homosexuality is a sin? You know, I can't honestly answer on that. I have too many people that I love that they are homosexual.

The classic example of this is the Christian musician who wants to go and do music so that through becoming the most popular music star of our day, he or she can then have a platform for the gospel. It's a classic bait and switch.

I will be all that the world desires so that I can become incredibly popular in the world. And then once I am enthroned and the world is worshiping me, I will flip the script and tell them about Jesus.

And of course, then the world will be saved. My thing is like this.

I don't like my brother's gay. You know what I'm saying? And so like, I don't I don't condemn him. I don't look down on him for him being attracted to the opposite sex. You know what I'm saying? That's that's something.

Yeah. Or the same sex. Excuse me. I don't condemn him. You know what I'm saying? Like, if anything, we will dialogue so that I can have a better understanding because I don't profess to be like, I got this all figured out and I know the way this should be.

Paul’s Model for Engaging an Idolatrous Culture

However, this ideology of compromising on and diluting the gospel to be accepted by the culture to reach more people is contrary to what Scripture teaches.

Is that what we see in the New Testament? Is that what we see from the Apostle Paul?

I would argue that it is not. Instead of accepting and becoming part of the culture to reach the culture, Scripture describes the Apostle Paul as being sickened by the sin in the culture and is having an intense desire to boldly speak the unpopular truth to the culture.

What he senses is an overwhelming mandate to proclaim the gospel to these who simply do not know and have not heard and are worshiping idols because they do not know and have not heard. And unfortunately, this is often the first departure between us and the Apostle in this missionary endeavor, because many of us, when we look at the culture's idols, we don't say, it sickens me.

We say, how can I be one of those? How can I get that kind of attention? How can I get that kind of worship? How can I have that kind of juice? It doesn't bother us. We will often embrace these very idols as opposed to coming to a place where we simply cannot stand it and feel as though we have to do and say something.

In contrast to Paul, many Christians today don't have an attitude of wanting to confront the culture with the truth about its sin, but rather they start by hiding their Christianity to first be accepted by the people within an idolatrous culture.

Some go to this place and argue that what we need to do is, when we're in the culture, don't be too overtly Christian, because after all, you don't want to turn off the culture. After all, if you are an artist or a writer or a musician or whatever, you don't want to go out and offend the culture immediately.

So you got to sort of have a different kind of strategy. You got to be on the down low with your Christianity until you get to the right place. Hey, this is Michael.

Yeah, the real Michael. If you like these videos, would you consider subscribing? It helps YouTube spread this message to more people. I'm giving away a beautiful handcrafted leather Bible every week, and I'm trying to pass Kenneth Copeland in subscribers to show that truth wins over false teaching.

Thank you so much for your eyeballs and support.

But when Paul was given a chance to be accepted by the culture, Paul chose to unashamedly preach the offensive truth of the gospel, which resulted in many in the culture mocking and making fun of him.

They did not think Paul was cool.

He is about to go on his day's Oprah Winfrey show, and it is not because he hid his Christianity and talked, looked, acted and smelled like the culture. It is in spite of the fact that he refused to. He is about to go on the biggest stage of his day, and it is not because he compromised.

It is not because he won people over by becoming like them. They call him an idle babbler. Others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

Some argue that Paul actually did become part of the culture by quoting from their very own philosophers.

Because here's the argument that people make from 1 Corinthians chapter, from Acts chapter 17. They run to his message there at the Areopagus or the summary of his message at the Areopagus there on Mars Hill.

And they say, see, basically what he did was he reached into their philosophy. He reached into their world. He quoted their philosophers, and he did all of those things. But he didn't really go with all of the Christianese.

However, the reality is that even when Paul quoted from their philosophers, he was confronting the culture with truth that would have offended those listening to him. This is why many mocked Paul for what he said.

But the fact of the matter is he's preaching the resurrection in the marketplace. It's not truncating the gospel in order to win popularity. He is preaching Christ, him crucified and him resurrected in the marketplace.

He is doing nothing to impress. He is doing nothing to embrace, nothing whatsoever.

Paul was able to present the truth of the gospel to the culture without compromising on or diluting the gospel at all. There's his big break.

Note that he did not get his big break because he looked like the world, acted like the world, smelled like the world, tasted like the world. He got his big break in spite of the fact that he did not.

It is entirely possible to respect people within the culture without compromising on what the Bible teaches in order to be liked by these people within the culture. The truth of the gospel is offensive enough by itself.

We don't need to make it any more offensive than it already is. Now, let me hurry to say,.

Paul is not intentionally being offensive to those around him, nor am I arguing that that is what we are supposed to do. I stand here in front of you, for example, in a suit and a tie. Why? Because I love wearing suits and ties.

Actually, yes, I do. Well, but no. My point is I'm here because like this, because of the respect that I have for this place and this culture here. But can I just give you a newsflash? None of you students wearing suits and ties.

I didn't come and try to dress like you. Is it because I don't like you? No. But it's because I don't believe that the message that I have come to bring requires for you to think or feel any certain way about me.

But I do want you to know that I have respect for the place that I am, the opportunity and the responsibility that has been given to me. That's why I dress like this. It's not about being offensive to people.

Repentance, Not Cultural Appeasement

When pastors like Joel Osteen and T .D. Jakes go on the Oprah Winfrey Show, they basically tell her what she wants to hear. However, it's more important for Christians to uncompromisingly speak the truth than for them to be liked by Oprah.

So what happens when he gets on the Oprah Show? He's got his big break. Oprah's going to hold up his book. By the way, anybody who's ever written a book and any Christian author who tells you, man, I would never want Oprah to hold up my book.

They're not telling you the truth. I would go on Oprah's show and let her spit in my face if she'll hold up one of my books so that people will go and read what's in there because prayerfully they will encounter the gospel.

It's a sign of disbelief to compromise on, distort and dilute the gospel to be accepted by the elites of the culture, even if the supposed goal is to ultimately reach more people with the gospel.

How sad would it be, though, for a born-again, blood-washed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ to hold in and hide the message of the gospel intentionally with a view toward getting to that place and getting to that opportunity so that they could achieve some kind of status and then later, having achieved that kind of status, try to spring on people this message that they've been hiding all along.

First and foremost, that's dishonest. Secondly, it's faithless.

There's a big difference between understanding the culture in order to reach it and compromising to become part of and accepted by the culture. We should observe and study the culture, but our goal should not to become a part of an idolatrous culture that stands in rebellion to God.

Paul observed his culture. We should observe our culture. We should be objective observers of culture. But there is a difference between being an objective observer of culture and being an indiscriminate consumer of culture.

One of those is completely and utterly unacceptable. An indiscriminate consumer of culture says that it's right because it's popular in the culture. And the goal is to be popular in the culture. Therefore, we must adopt and adapt whatever it is that the culture celebrates.

Paul is not making that argument. He is observing his culture with a view toward the proclamation of the gospel.

The ultimate goal of observing and studying the culture is to boldly speak truth to the culture, even if the truth will offend the culture.

Paul says, I observed your culture. I observed your statues and I observed your temples. Now what I want to say to you is this. It's all wrong. God doesn't live in those places you built. God's not served by human hands.

He's not impressed with those statues that you built or those monuments that you built. Does this sound like somebody who showed up on Oprah trying to make her happy? He didn't compromise to get there.

He doesn't compromise while he is there.

The Christian message to people living in an idolatrous culture is that they need to repent of their sin and turn to Christ alone for salvation, regardless of how tactfully we present this message. This message is, at its heart, offensive to sinners who are in self-centered rebellion to the God of the universe.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. How do you get right with this God? Repent. Turn from your sin. Is it not amazing to you that people go here and argue for cultural compromise?

People go to Acts chapter 17 and look at Paul, you know, here before the Areopagus and basically make an argument for look like the world, sound like the world, smell like the world, taste like the world, so that perchance you can get in there and get an opportunity with the world.

Then you can spring it on them. Now, not only has Paul not compromised in order to get here, but once he's here, he says your worldview is wrong. Your philosophy is wrong. It's not just wrong. It's an affront to God.

You ought to know better. You're in sin. But the good news is God has extended to you an opportunity to repent, to turn away from your sin, to turn away from the things that you have attempted to do in order to appease this God that you don't even know.

There is simply no reason to compromise on what the Bible teaches to be accepted by the culture, because the point at which we speak the truth of the gospel is the point at which the culture will turn against us.

Instead, Christians are called to faithfully and boldly stand upon and proclaim the offensive truth of the gospel, which is the only message that can save sinners in rebellion against a holy God.

You know what happens when you compromise and men finally get an opportunity to preach the gospel? Having compromised and sinned against God. You know what, if you preach the gospel, even if you compromise and get an opportunity to eventually preach the gospel, some are going to mock you, some will hear you further, and some will believe.

You know what happens when you don't compromise and God opens an opportunity for you to preach the gospel? Some will mock you, some will listen to you further, and some will believe. So why bother compromising in the first place?

Compromising is not going to save anyone.