Familiarity Breeds Contempt

"We never hear the Gospel until we've been made uneasy by it"

-- Ravi Zacharias

This week we are going to look at one of the most familiar passages in all of Scripture, John chapter 3. I say that because so many people, Christian and unbeliever alike, can probably quote John 3:16 from heart:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Because this passage is so familiar, I'm guessing that there is a good chance you didn't read the entire verse above, or give it serious thought. Which brings us to the old saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt". Although contempt might be too strong a word, at the very least, familiarity does breed a level of apathy. I believe John 3:16 is too often dismissed by unbelievers as well as Christians. It is dismissed by unbelievers as foolishness, and it is often dismissed by Christians as mere milk, or a starting point from which we should quickly move beyond. But in reality, there is so much theological richness in this verse, we will be mining its treasure into eternity. In this verse we see the nature of the Triune God and His many attributes such as wrath, righteousness, mercy, grace, love, and holiness, working in perfect harmony to redeem fallen humanity.

In fact, because we live in a culture that has a church on every corner, and because a lot of silliness is done in the name of Christ, we tend to view the entire Bible with a kind of "been there, done that" complacency. That being the case, sometimes it can be a challenge to come to the Bible (especially familiar passages like John 3) with a fresh set of eyes, and a heart of anticipation that is ready to receive from God's Word. It is my hope and prayer that, as we read this familiar passage of Scripture, we will be able to see it with new eyes and grow in our understanding of the person and work of Christ.

In John 3, we are introduced to a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee and leader of the Jews, and we are more like him than we realize. When Jesus began teaching Him about salvation and the Kingdom of God, Nicodemus did not understand. The teachings of Christ were shocking and unsettling to Nicodemus. Jesus replied, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" (John 3:10).

There is a gentle rebuke from Jesus in those words to Nicodemus, and by extension, there is a rebuke to you and me as well. How is it that Nicodemus could be a highly esteemed teacher in Israel who spent his life studying the Scriptures, and yet, he did not understand what Christ was saying to him? It was because his heart was dull and glazed over with sin, self-righteousness, and a poor understanding of Scripture. But I won't be too hard on Nicodemus, because we will soon discover that the disciples of Christ had similar problems. And guess what, we do as well. It is the human condition.

Part of the problem with modern "churchianity" is that we have tried to file down the hard edges from Scripture and fashion a god in our own image. We've tried to explain away difficult passages that pierce the heart and shock our sensibilities. We are guilty of wrapping the Gospel in a user-friendly media package that is sure to offend no one. But when that happens, the Bible is no longer being taught.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. -- Proverbs 27:6

Here's the reality, the claims of Christ are shocking and unsettling, regardless of the era and place in which you live. They were shocking in Jesus' day, and they are shocking to our generation as well. Great kingdoms have come and gone, but the Word of Christ remains. His words echo through time, and they continue to confront us to this very minute.

If the words of Christ do not, at times, unsettle us and rattle our shaky foundations, we are not reading them correctly. Christ does something that makes us all uncomfortable; He is the faithful friend that tells the truth about our condition, and wounds our foolish and self-righteous pride. As a result, fallen cultures will tend to deal with the Bible in a few different ways; it will change the message to fit the culture, ridicule the Bible, or ban it all together. But it has proven to be a hard book to ignore.

C.S. Lewis wanted to breakthrough that cultural blindness when he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. He wanted to awaken our hearts to awe and wonder so we could better understand the true nature of Christ. In Chronicles, Lewis wrote about a Christ-like figure named Aslan, a mighty lion who sang the world of Narnia into existence. When a little girl named Lucy first heard about Aslan, she was frightened and wanted to know if Aslan was safe. To which Mr. Beaver replied, "Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you."

What we've tried to do is make God "safe" and easy to manage. Or, to put it in the vernacular of Lewis, we've tried to "tame" God. We want a God that we can control. We've tried to change Christ, whom the Bible calls the Lion of Judah, into something as benign and innocuous as Barney the purple dinosaur. But that is not the Christ of Scripture. To truly read Scripture is to encounter Christ, and that is like walking side by side with a lion. We can only do that by the good graces of the Lion, we are not in control.

 

Like Nicodemus, we become unsettled, and begin to discover that everything we thought we knew about God, and even what we thought we knew about ourselves, begins to change when confronted with the person of Christ. (That is not only true before we are Christians, that continues to happen after we are Christians.) 

John 3 is both comforting and unsettling. It is shocking to our sensibilities, because we learn that we are alienated from God by our sin and abide under His wrath (John 3:36). We learn that it is our nature to run from the light of Christ because our deeds are evil (John 3:19-20). We also learn in Romans that we are perishing under a sentence of death, both physical and spiritual (Romans 6:23). It is against this backdrop of despair that we learn about an amazing hope, and the Gospel shines like a brilliant sunrise after a long dark night of the soul. We read, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

In John 3, we see the eternal vistas, ranging from deep chasms of despair and alienation from God, to the mountain peaks of hope we find in the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel means good news, but we can only understand the good news in light of the bad news about our true condition. And with that truth, Jesus brings grace upon grace (John 1:16-17) and love that is beyond comprehension (Romans 5:6-8, Romans 8:38-39).

Hollywood, Worldview and Deicide

CATEGORICAL THINKING & WORLDVIEW
What is categorical thinking? Simply put, we group "like" things together into a single category. Every day we are constantly putting things into predefined categories. For example, when we get home from the grocery store, we automatically unpack our groceries into several categories such as, frozen, refrigerated, pantry, etc. When we see automobiles we think, car, truck, SUV and so forth.

In addition to these fairly mundane product categories, we have moral and philisophical categories as well. And these categories are a product of our worldview. But what separates one worldview from another and what makes for a biblical worldview? In one sense, our worldview is a product of how we categorize things in the world. In other words, worldview is (in part) a product of categorical thinking.

A biblical worldview starts in Genesis with, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…" As we read through Genesis we discover several broad categories such as:

• God: God is our Creator and sustainer. He alone is God and He transcends creation.
• Matter: The physical universe created by God.
• Plant life: Non-conscious life that grows in the soil.
• Animal life: Flesh and blood creatures on a lower plane than man.
• Mankind: Uniquely created in the image of God (mankind divides into two subcategories).
• Male
• Female

These are the broad categories given to us in Genesis, and they comprise the basic structure for a biblical worldview and moral categories. Along with these categories, God has also given us corresponding roles and behaviors for each category. A rejection of a biblical worldview is essentially a rejection of these categories and the God who made them.

What happens when we reject biblical categories? Here are a few examples.

• PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals): PETA rejects the idea that there is a fundamental difference between man and animals. In other words, they believe that man and beast belong in the same moral and ontological category. They regard the deaths of 6,000,000 chickens killed by KFC as morally equivalent to the deaths of 6,000,000 Jews killed during the Holocaust. I'm not making that up. They have rejected the moral categories of Scripture, and they have rejected the notion that man is uniquely made in the image of God.
• The LGBT movement: The homosexual community has rejected the gender categories and roles given in Scripture. They believe that it is evil to categorize the human race into the two genders of male and female. They argue that these are not real categories, but merely artificial social constructs.
• Pantheism: Pantheism teaches that god and creation are one and the same (a single category). If creation dies, the god of pantheism dies with it. In stark contrast, the Bible teaches that God is omnipotent, self existent and above creation.

CULTURAL MILESTONE
This brings me to Hollywood and the movie Cloud Atlas (trailer) which opened last Friday. Cloud Atlas is based on a novel by the same name. It stars Hollywood heavy weights such as Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon among others. It was produced, written and directed by the Wachowski's. The Wachowski's are best known for filming the Matrix Trilogy.

As you can see from the above video, Cloud Atlas appears to be a beautifully made film of epic proportions, and it has been generally praised by critics. But the worldview depicted in this film is flawed to the core. Why? Because, at a fundamental level, it is a complete rejection of biblical categories.

Clout Atlas tells six different stories that span roughly 500 years. Each story is about the same set of people who have been reincarnated six times. And here's the kicker, sometimes they are reincarnated as men, and sometimes as women. The sexuality of the characters range from straight, to gay, to bisexual. The film basically depicts the transmigration of genderless souls. Do you see what they've done here? They've used their art to destroy biblical categories. Lastly, for good measure, Christians are portrayed negatively in this film as well. The negative portrayal of Christians is nothing new for the Wachowski's. Their film V for Vendetta (2005) depicts a totalitarian Christian state that is guilty of several crimes against humanity, including the persecution of Muslims and homosexuals. I think Ted Baehr said it best in his review of Vendetta:

"Are we so far removed from 911 that Americans can be asked to stomach a movie in which the hero is a violent terrorist and the victims are Muslims oppressed by a hyper-fundamentalist Christian government? Do they expect Americans to support a movie in which the Koran is described as “beautiful,” homosexuality is glorified and Christian leaders are depicted as lunatics and pedophiles? Perhaps director James McTeigue and the brothers Wachowski suffer from some sort of mental dyslexia, because they seem to have their villains, heroes and victims miserably reversed."

Right about now you might be thinking, Yeah, Hollywood is liberal and hostile to Christianity, blah, blah, blah. What else is new? Next thing you're going to tell me the sky is blue and water is wet.

The reason I wanted to bring your attention to Cloud Atlas is because I think the production of this movie gives us an especially keen insight into the soul of Hollywood. After all, what institutions do you think have the greatest influence over our culture? The Church, our schools, government or Hollywood? It has been said that politics is downstream of culture, and I agree. But I think the problem runs deeper than that. Culture is also having a profound influence in our homes and our churches. In response, we must be sober-minded about the world of art and media. We cannot afford to be unthinking and indiscriminate consumers of culture. But I digress, more on that later.

Getting back to the Wachowski's (and others like them), it is clear that they have more than just a mild disagreement with Christianity, they have a seething hatred towards it. Why? What motivates them? Please turn your attention to this brief video as the Wachowski's discuss their latest project.

What I failed to mention earlier is that the Wachowski's were once known as the "Wachowski Brothers". That lady in the video with pink hair, that's Lana Wachowski. Lana used to be Larry, but he is currently in the process of "gender reassignment". I think that explains a great deal. Larry is confused about his gender, so they made a movie to help us understand that the idea of male and female genders are false categories forced on us by outdated and bigoted religions (i.e., Christianity).

Why does the Hollywood assembly line constantly produce things like Glee, The New Normal, Modern Family, etc.? Because it is an attempt at self-justification. Just about every film and television script with a gay character is first vetted by GLAAD (The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) before it is approved by a major studio. The LGBT community does not just want acceptance, they want to be celebrated. They don't want to be seen as merely equal, they want to be seen as superior. Once again, I am not making that up or using hyperbole. There are gay academicians who actually believe that the homosexual lifestyle is superior to that of heterosexuals. They have constructed their own worldview with their own moral categories and Hollywood has signed on to their agenda whole-heartedly.

PERCEPTION IS REALITY
The media loves to sight polls, especially when they confirm their presuppositions. But there is one poll they were not very eager to report. In fact, I would be surprised if you've even heard about it. A recent Gallup Poll (10/18/12) surveyed a massive sample of over 120,000 Americans, and it was the largest survey of its kind. (By way of comparison, most election polls sample in the neighborhood of 800 to 1,200 people, give or take). Gallup found that only 3.4% of the population self-identifies as lesbian, gay, transgender, or bisexual.

What's interesting is that another recent Gallup Poll (5/8/11) indicated most Americans believe that about 25% of the country is gay. If that were true, the gay population would be about double that of African Americans. Think about what that means; it means that most Americans are walking around with a grossly distorted perception of reality. How did that happen? How is it that the gay community has amassed so much political and corporate influence? Might I suggest that the media has created this false perception with its music, television, and movies. They have created an imaginary world that most Americans believe to be true. A closer look at the numbers also indicates that younger people have the most distorted view of reality. Furthermore, it appears that a higher percentage of young people now identify as homosexual (6.4% among the college age) when compared to the general population. Is it a coincidence that the key demographic for most media also skews toward the young?

TO BECOME A GOD, YOU MUST FIRST KILL GOD
Whenever we attempt to construct our own worldview with our own moral categories, we are basically playing God; and that takes us right back to Genesis and the Garden of Eden, where we first tried to play God. When we try to take God's place, we are essentially wishing for the death of God because we do not want Him to reign over us. The end result is this: either we kill God in our hearts by pretending that He doesn't exist, or we create a god in our own image, thus creating an idol. As fallen creatures, we do not just have a mild disagreement with God, we have a seething hatred towards Him that is usually masked beneath a thin veneer of civility.

How do I know this? Just ask yourself, what would mankind do if he could get his hands on God? We need look no further than the Incarnation. When God became a man, we did not bow before Him as Lord and King; we screamed for His death and killed Him in the most violent and bloody fashion imaginable. We crucified Him. At the cross we see man's hatred of God and love of sin on full display. But thankfully, at the cross, we also see God's love for man and His hatred of sin on full display as well. It all intersects and collides at the cross of Christ.

How could it be that man, in all of his pride and grasping, tries to become a god; but God, in perfect love and humility, condescended to become a man.

ONE LAST CAUTION
I've spoken here a great deal about the LGBT activists agenda, but of course, the influence of culture goes far beyond that particular sin. Ultimately it is an issue of what the culture holds up as valuable and worthy of praise. And what the world values is summed up in Scripture; the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). We will go to any length to reject Biblical truth and devise our own moral categories. But my purpose here is not to just rant about the culture; my hope is that, as Christians, we would think more soberly about the media we consume, how it impacts us, and how it impacts those we love. After all, can a man hold fire to his chest without getting burned (Proverbs 6:27)?

I especially hope that we would take the time to help young people see through this cultural mirage and think more biblically as they navigate the bright and shiny objects of this world. But at the end of day, a list of rules won't work. Unless the heart has been truly captivated by the person and work of Christ, the culture will always eclipse the Son. But remember, a solar eclipse is caused by the shadow of the moon -- an object that is infinitely smaller than the sun. And so it is with us when we allow the world to eclipse Christ. We become fascinated by the tiny dark speck of culture, and fail to see the radiant glory of Christ.

I will end on this note: When I see the corrupting influences in our world, it makes me angry; and there is a proper place for righteous indignation (Ephesians 4:26). But I must never forget that those who are in the world are not my enemies, they are the mission field. I must never forget that the Larry Wachowskis of the world desperately need Christ. Because I too was once blind, and were it not for His unmerited grace, I would still be lost and loving my sin. As one man said, "I'm just a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." If I fail to remember that, I've become just another self-righteous Pharisee.

Gianna Jessen: Late-term abortion survivor

October Baby opens today in theaters across the country. It is inspired by the true story of Gianna Jessen, a late-term abortion survivor. Today (as you can see in the brief clip below), Gianna is a bright, young, attractive and well-spoken young lady in her thirties. But as a result of the botched saline abortion, Gianna suffers from Cerebral Palsy. 

While Gianna's story is a compelling one, it is not exactly the kind of story that gets you invited on the morning news shows, or on the couch sitting next to Jay Leno. That being the case, it should be no surprise that October Baby has been eviscerated by the critics. 

I could cite many examples, but I think one will do. Here are a few key lines from The New York Times film critic Jeannette Catsoulis:

"But not even a dewy heroine and a youth-friendly vibe can disguise the essential ugliness at its core: like the bloodied placards brandished by demonstrators outside women’s health clinics, the film communicates in the language of guilt and fear... 

"But this G-rated road trip is only an appetizer: the film’s pièce de résistance arrives in the haunted form of Jasmine Guy, playing the clinic nurse who assisted at Hannah’s birth. Her pivotal speech, a gory portrait of fetal mutilation and maternal distress, conjures a vision of medical hackery that is clearly intended to terrify young women — and fits right in with proposed state laws that increasingly turn the screws on a woman’s dominion over her reproductive system."

Apparently the true story of an abortion survivor is so distasteful to this film critic, she is no longer concerned about actually reviewing the film, nor is she concerned about the horror that Gianna Jessen (and others like her) have lived through. She is only concerned about the politics of abortion and the fact that October Baby might give abortion a bad name.

But I really want to get beyond the politics of abortion here. I just want to know how we have become so stone-hearted as a society that we cannot simply listen to the story of an abortion survivor without being outraged by what it implies.

Here is Gianna's story in her own words. This is a must see video.

Broken cisterns

"But the most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything —strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise... The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game...

My whole, more general difficulty, about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are, the delight is incomplete till it is expressed." - C. S. Lewis (Reflections on the Psalms, pp. 93-95)

As Lewis observed, it does not seem strange for us to admire talent, beauty, or to cheer for our favorite sports team. In fact, we do these things spontaneously with hardly a thought. We have a great capacity to praise and admire things we deem worthy. We employ art, song and dance to honor things we rejoice in, and will expend ourselves with great effort to do so.

However, to many, it does indeed seem strange to see someone offer praise to God - the same God who gives us life and sustains it to this very hour. Our culture is embarrassed for anyone who is passionate about Christ. Yet, every other passion, no matter how trivial, is deemed perfectly acceptable. What we desire to praise and admire, what causes us to rejoice, reveals the condition of our heart.

In Heaven God is worshiped because the holy creatures around His throne cannot contain themselves. They see the very face of God and they are filled with awe and joy. If we were not so spiritually dull, if our affections were not so often misplaced, we would joyfully praise God as well.

Something or someone must be preeminent in our heart; if not God, then who or what else? When we refuse to glorify God as God, to recognize Him as preeminent, we will, by default, recognize something or someone else as preeminent.

“for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”   - Jeremiah 2:13

Is true Christianity collapsing in the West?

A church in Spring Lake Michigan has removed the Cross from their church building because they have come to believe that the Cross, and the teachings of Christ, are simply too divisive. They have also decided to make their church more "inclusive" to all religions and changed their name from Christ Community to C3Exchange.




This news comes on the heals of a press conference announcing another development at the Claremont School of Theology in which the Board of Trustees has voted to transform the school to a multi-faith seminary. The stated goal of the school is to “set in motion the University Project as a means to rethink classical models of theological education in an effort to promote interreligious cooperation and ethical integrity in the training of religious leaders for a variety of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and others".

Initially The United Methodist Church, the schools affiliate denomination, moved to sanction the school. However, the sanction has since been lifted by the denomination.
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Randy Alcorn on our pornographic culture

Randy Alcorn had a frank conversation about living in a pornographic culture and the need to protect, not just our kids, but ourselves in this modern day Corinth. You can read his full comments here and watch the video below.


Would you buy your son a stack of pornographic magazines? from Randy Alcorn on Vimeo.


It's not just a problem for boys from Randy Alcorn on Vimeo.

Way to go Brit!

O'Reilly asked Brit Hume about the comments he made on Fox News Sunday to Tiger Woods. All I can say is "Way to go Brit!" (Forward to 3:40 for key moments.)

Brit Hume to Tiger Woods: "Turn to the Christian faith"

Descending into depravity

Increasingly we live in a society that has no sense of morality or propriety. Because of new technologies, people are watching in public things they were once ashamed of in private.