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."
