Total Depravity

Just a quick note I would like to share. A thought you might call it. But this thought did not emanate from my mind out of nothing. It came to me as I was contemplating the nature of man and the reason why we need a saviour. This reason being total depravity of the human soul. And by this I mean the incapablilty of mankind doing anything righteous enough in order to warrant the forgiveness of God. Man is born not with a tabula rasa (clean slate) as Pelagius would have it, but with a definite bent towards sin. Man is not born neutral to God. He is brought into the world with a curse placed upon his head. A guilt that calls for a death sentence that is irremovable. That is, unless that man has those sins removed from his charge. Which only the blood of Christ can remove. Christ took upon himself, on the cross, the wrath of God reserved for man upon death.

But I digress, though in a good way.

So, I turn now to the laws of our countries and our obedience (or lack thereof) towards them. It would seem to be a large piece of evidence to prove the depravity of man in the biblical sense to say that we cannot obey them. But this is not true. We do have prisons for a reason. And they are not there to lock the bad people up, or keep them away from the good people. No, we are all of us bad people. The reason we have prisons is because we have rules. And laws. And those laws are broken. But my focus is neither upon the judicial system, nor it's ways up keeping the peace. It is focused on those who follow the laws. Who obey the posted speed limit (at least somewhat); those who help old people across the street; yes, even those who volunteer at the soup kitchen over Christmas time, or even all year round. This is for you.

I am driving 5 km over the speed limit and cars are flying passed me. Most times passing over double yellows. So I think to myself "why do I have to follow the speed limit when no one else does?" And it hits me. I think that somehow, someway, I might deserve a reward, or even a pat on the back , because I am only going 5 klicks over. And as I follow this thought through, I come to realize how depraved we really are. How depraved I really am. How badly I need Christ. Each and every minute of every day.

Why is it that when we obey the law, or do something that might be called good, we think we deserve some credit? credit for what? Doing what is required of us? What is expected of us? Would I not be expected to drive the speed limit? Am I not supposed to help an old lady acros the street? Or save a drowning child? Why would I expect something for doing what I should? If my father told me to mow the lawn, why should I expect some grand reward for doing what I was told? Maybe a short "thank you" or "good job my son" would suffice. So how is it that we would come to think that we deserve anything for doing our normal duty?

As long as we are not as bad as the next guy, we are alright? I don't rob banks. I don't beat my wife or my child. I don't speed... too often... Look at me. I am a good person. I rescue dogs from the pound and I volunteer at the soup kitchen on weekends.

What should we expect for such 'good deeds'? A thank you, or a reward? Nonsense. Such things are our duty. And the thought of even thinking we might deserve something for doing them is proof of our depravity. If we were not depraved, such things would be common place. No need to talk about the man who saved a drowning child. It happens all the time. No need to talk about the work done for Ethiopian hunger. It's taken care of. That stuff is common place. But that is not the case.

Think of humanity as a student. This student constantly gets D's. But, on every report card there is at least a C+. Or sometimes it's a B. On rare reports, it is even been an A. We are so used to the D's that the B looks awesome. We reward the child for a B, though he should be punished for the D's. This is humanity. We know we are D students. but we won't admit it because every once in a while we see a glimmer of hope in a B+. This proves our depravity. We need Christ to save us. We are always going to be D students. We can never pass the grade. Even with our somewhat occasional B or A, we are still D students doomed to failure.

No matter how bright those B's look, the rest of it is bleak and dark without the blood to wash us of our guilt.

The Religious Affections...

It was once told me by someone near to me, that love is not only an affection, but an action as well. Now though that person meant well, and though I did carry that along with me for quite some time, I am come now to the point that i believe it is dead wrong. For if I love out of duty, rather than out of passion, or loving affection, it would seem to be a forced or undesiring love and therefore odious, rather than a sweet smelling incense that rises to the heavens. It is even worse if I attempt to love my Lord in this manner, for then it is simply works based salvation. Now i grant that there will be times when one does not love the Lord with severe passion, but out of duty instead, and it would be said by many that this is perfectly fine. But, i argue again that this is nothing but works. The affections of the heart in that instant would only be misplaced, and so must be placed in their proper area, that is, upon the things of God. If the affections are misplaced, and one then attempts to love God, it is done not out of love, but out of duty. And we do not see this in Scripture. The man did not sell all he had and buy the field with the treasure in it because it was the right thing to do... It was for the joy of the treasure that he sold all and bought that field. we must recognize this. We must get our affections in the right place so we may love God passionately. Out of a desire for His things, not because it is the right thing to do. Not as a duty. May we be a people passionate for the things of Christ. May we forsake the idea that we can please God by doing things because we ought, rather than because we desire Him...

The Importance of Seeing God Rightly

This idea, that of seeing or understanding God rightly, is integral to my arguments against the emergent movement, so, though not entirely wrapped up in the current theme, I would argue that it is nonetheless an important matter, so I will endeavor to show forth its manifestation in some small way here.

In our world, as it is, we have so little room or time for our creator. We spend too many hours on different forms of entertainment, and so few actually tarrying in the presence of God. It is then no wonder that so many things would appear to us to be holy, or Christian, as opposed to things that are secular or even sacrilegious. But when all that surrounds us is the blackness of the world, when we see something that is not as black, even a light grey, we jump on it and claim it for Christianity because it is not as bad as the rest. "That movie doesn't have sex or nudity in it." "It only says the Lord's name in vain once or twice." "It's not that bad." "This music doesn't have any swear words in it." But because all we see in the world is mostly black, all those greys don't seem so bad. But they still are not whites.

And this is what God calls us to: a pure white and holy sanctification. Not less than the black of the world. He calls us to a totally pure and white contradiction of the world. We are to be a contradiction. Not an off-shade! And this is the state in which we find our Christianity. This is the state of our churches. And the Lord is calling us to wake up. I would ask you, brother, sister, do you really think that what you are doing is actually pure in the eyes of the Lord? Or are you making excuses for the things you do right now as you read this?

I will end with a quote from John Calvin:
"And since nothing appears within us or around us that is not tainted with very great impurity, so long as we keep our mind within the confines of human pollution, anything which is in some small degree less defiled delights us as if it were most pure: just as an eye, to which nothing but black had been previously presented, deems and object of a whitish, or even a brownish hue, to be perfectly white."

The New Pelagians

In the 4th century, St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, fought against one of the most prevalent heresies that threatened the Christian Church when he took on Pelagius. Pelagius asserted that there was no original sin and that man was born with a clean slate and that he could either turn one way or the other: towards God and Life, or towards Death and Hell. In The Lost Message of Jesus, Steve Chalke rejected original sin when he said that "Jesus believed in original goodness". In Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell also rejects original sin when he claims that Peter sank not because he lost faith in Jesus, but because he lost faith in himself. God has faith in us. God believes we can do it. We just have to have faith in ourselves. This is obviously a direct contradiction of Scripture (Psalm 51:5; Luke 18:19; Romans 3:12).
Was Jesus' death and resurrection necessary? Is it imperative that he claimed he was the only truth, and the only way, and the only life? It would seem that Rob Bell and Brian McLaren thought not. Bell says that "Jesus was not making claims about one religion being better than all other religions...This kind of life Jesus was living...is the best possible way for a person to live." And McLaren: "I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstancesto help people become followers of Jesus and remain with their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts".
It would seem that many in the emergent church who hold to the same beliefs and ideologies as Bell, Chalke, or McLaren, etc.., are travelling down a path that is works based, rather than faith based. If all Jesus came to do was show us the way to live, and all we have to do to be like Jesus, is walk the way he walked, then he was a pointless sacrifice, and we are as lost as we ever will be. The emergent movement has shifted the focus from Justification by faith to orthopraxy, meaning right living. Is this all it takes to walk on the straight path? Right living? No Propitiation? No Atonement? No, that's not why Jesus died. He died to show us the way to live rightly so that we can follow in his footsteps. And that right there, my friends, is Jehovah Witness doctrine...

The Emergent Church: The re-Emerging Heresies

Paul fought the Gnostics.
Athanasius fought the Arians.
Augustine fought the Pelagians.
Luther fought Erasmus.

In some way, we now have the convergence of all four within the Emerging 'Christian' culture...

They Call Themselves Christians...

Who is Jesus?

There are many people out there who believe in Jesus and profess to know Him. But there are problems that exist when we think or believe something about someone that is not true. It would prove to be quite pointless to have a friend names Joe and believe that Joe was an alien from Jupiter when he really was a banker from Boston. There wouldn’t be much of a connection between Joe and I and that would mean there wouldn’t be any correct communication. No matter how many times I talked to Joe or even talked about Joe, the only thing i would be getting right would be his name. And that just won’t do at all. Especially if there were 66 books of Information written about Joe and his father, and thousands of years of history that would provide a background to Joe and his father’s true self. But this is what the post-modern and consequent emergent generations believe about Jesus. Many would like to simply have a relationship with Jesus, and forgo all of the propositions that describe Him. That would then be no relationship at all, only with the imagined man in one’s own head. And this, according to Scripture, is idolatry. To view Jesus the Son or God the Father as anything other than what the Scriptures show them to be, is idolatry. And this is what the emergent generation has done. Instead of trusting in God and believing what He tells us about Himself through the Scriptures, we have now decided to trust our own selves and make Jesus and God out to what we perceive Him to be. And this is idolatry at its finest. John Calvin understood this long before post-modernity, or even the enlightenment, ever hit our minds:

“Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation. Hence, they do not conceive of him in the character in which he is manifested, but imagine him to be whatever their own rashness has devised. This abyss standing open, they cannot move one footstep without rushing headlong to destruction. With such an idea of God, nothing which they may attempt to offer in the way of worship or obedience can have any value in his sight, because it is not him they worship, but, instead of him, the dream and figment of their own heart.”