The Times They Aren’t A-Changing

Romans 1:28-32
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

There’s a lot of bad stuff in this passage, but what I find interesting is the last line. It appears that giving approval to these evil deeds are worse than doing them. That seems strange, doesn’t it? After all, isn’t murdering someone worse than not murdering them, but giving your approval? Not according to Paul. Why is this? Well, the answer is simple enough, but in order to answer adequately, we need a little background.

Genesis 3:1-6
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

There was one tree in the garden that Adam and Eve could not eat from – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There are a lot of things to unpack in this passage, but let’s tackle Satan’s deception first. The Serpent lied to Eve about not dying, but the real deception is found in the last part: “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” What does this mean? Does this mean she would be omniscient like God? No. Only God is omniscient and Eve could never attain this. But she could be “like” God in the same way that God is The Creator and we are little image-bearing creators. While knowing good and evil certainly refers to the ability to discern between good and evil, ultimately it carries with it the notion of judgment and authority. By eating the forbidden fruit, Eve was usurping the ultimate authority and judgment of God and claiming it for herself. She was “like” God in her ability to decide what was right and wrong, but that is where the similarities end. Unlike God, Who decides what is right and wrong by declaring it so, she could only distort the truth – which is what happened when she ate the fruit and then tempted Adam with it.

So what if this had never happened. What if Adam – who was standing there when the serpent deceived Eve – had taken a rock and crushed the Serpent’s head, thereby protecting his wife? Or what if Adam, after realizing that Eve was sinning against God, refused the fruit, banished Eve from his presence, and humbly asked God for a new wife that was obedient? Adam, as the representative of man – the federal head – could have done this and it is quite possible that he would have eventually been able to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After all, the point of the tree was that it bestowed judgment and authority when eaten. This was God’s design for man. We see it in later administrations of the covenant. Noah is given the authority to enact the death penalty; God consults Abraham about Sodom and Gomorrah; God gives authority to judges and kings, etc. If Adam had waited, God would have given him permission to eat of the tree at the right time, and he would have exacted judgment and authority in a righteous way. Instead, Adam gave in to Eve, ate the fruit, and the rest is history.

So what does this have to do with Romans? Well, it appears that Paul says the approval of evil is worse than the evil action itself. I believe this is true. There is always going to be evil deeds – it’s really a matter of how many. In a God-fearing nation, evil deeds will be punished, thereby limiting them. In a God-mocking nation, evil deeds will be approved, thereby multiplying them. Take Ancient Israel for instance. When Israel was at the height of its faithfulness, the sins mentioned in Romans were met with severe punishment – usually stoning. Evil was not tolerated. When Israel was at the height of its unfaithfulness, King Ahaz was sacrificing his children to a pagan god,and the people did likewise (2 Kings 16 & 17).

Which brings us to today. America is quickly (if not already) becoming a nation that gives approval to evil. We are rejecting what God has declared right and wrong for our own version. We are a nation that murders millions of babies every year when God has declared that murder is evil and that life begins at conception. Homosexual unions are considered normal and we are well on the way to legalizing gay marriage even though God has declared that marriage is between a man and a woman and that homosexual acts are sinful. We are known world wide (and proud) for being greedy, corrupt, power hungry, and gluttonous, when God has said that we are to be selfless, giving, caring, self-controlled, and faithful. And Christians idly sit and watch it happen… passive approval. In fact, we make things worse, because we believe in the god of Conservatism and Liberalism, the god of patriotism and the god of tolerance. We ship our children off to public schools to be shaped by the ungodly state, and we leave their “Christian” education up to youth programs that pop up on every corner of this country. Paul says the approval of evil is worse than the act itself because we are spitting on what God has declared to be right and wrong and creating our own law. And that leads to destruction.

A Life of Hope

I recently bought a used book for $5 called “An Eschatology of Hope” by J. Marcellus Kik. It’s  a study of eschatology (end times stuff) – specifically the millenial reign – from a postmillenial perspective. I’ve been a postmillenialist for about 7 years now, so I didn’t need any convincing, but I bought it none the less. Boy, am I glad I did. It’s a wonderful read… very insightful and full of scripture. It also got me thinking again about the overwhelmingly popular and opposing view of premillenialism – specifically dispensationalism. My point here, though, is not to discuss the differences between the two views, but rather to approach it from another direction.

One of the most frustrating things to me is contemporary Christian culture – in the sense that Christianity (at least in the West) has created it’s own huge world complete with architecture, music, art, film, literature, apparel, etc… The frustrating part is that most of it is poor. Very poor. Embarrassingly poor. Especially compared to secular culture. Why is this? I admit, I’ve been stumped, but I may now have an answer… well, at least a partial one: Dispensationalism. 

Without going into too much detail, dispensationalism takes the position that all the Christians are going to be raptured to heaven… soon. The world is a bad place, and it’s getting worse. And if you think it’s bad now, wait till the Antichrist comes. Needless to say, it’s not a very hopeful view of things to come, unless your hope is solely of the spiritual kind. I believe this belief has greatly influenced Christianity, thereby creating the “Christian culture” we have today. 

First of all, let me say that it’s a shame that we have a “Christian culture” – in the sense that it is separatist from pop culture. At one time there was such a thing as a Christian culture that was also pop culture. Christians were the usually the best at everything: art, literature, music, poetry, math, business, marketing, architecture, farming, etc… They set the standard for what was great. Truth is Beauty and it showed. Part of their truth, though, was the belief that they were to be stewards of the world, taking part in the renewing of creation, striving for heaven on earth. After all, that is what God promises. They believed that as they created beautiful things, more people would be drawn to that beauty, that the good news would be spread, Christianity would grow, and the nations would be blessed. They had no concept of a rapture, of leaving the corrupt earth behind to live forever in heaven. 

Alas, things have changed. And the majority of Christians believe differently. As Frankenstein would say, “Earth bad. Heaven good.” And we’ve created a monster… a hideous monster that is killing the creator. We no longer make art that lasts, because, well, what’s the point? Why should we make music that transcends generations – as Bach did – when we need to be about the business of making songs that bring about conversion? Why should we build beautiful structures that reflect our creativeness when what we really need are big boxes that can hold lots of people? Why should we encourage our youth to work hard at math, geography, and history and become valuable leaders in the community when what we really need are more pastors, professional youth leaders, worship leaders, and associate pastors?* But this is what dispensationalism does – it completely changes the churches priorities. There is no need for greatness, because there is no time for it. Who cares if you are the next Milton – we don’t need another Paradise Lost, we need more tracts. The gospel used to be shared in cathedrals, symphonies, literature, and sculpture. Now it’s shared on our t-shirts and direct to dvd movies.

It’s one thing to say “we need to be great” and it’s another thing to do it. It’s hard. Francis Schaeffer was mildly successful at it, and there’s been a few others. But there’s a big difference between tacking “the arts are important” onto the end of your theology and actually living it out daily. I’m sure there are many ways to do this, but for the purposes of this post, I have one suggestion: Let’s get our theology right!!!

 

*Now, don’t get me wrong. There is definately a place, and a need, for ministers. It just seems to me that when a young person shows an aptitude for theology, a joy of reading the Bible, and a desire to serve his church, the automatic assumption is to send him to Bible school.