Sovereign Grace Chapel

3rd Sermon in a Series on the Book of Revelation

There is only a handful of men who have rocked the western theological world over the past 2000 years. Some have been a Godly influence, such as Augustine, Luther and Calvin. Others have been instrumental in the apostasy of the Church. Chief among these is Frederich Schleiermacher.

Frederich Schleiermacher

Today, few have ever heard his name. But in many respects, we are living in a Schleiermacher-shaped world, thinking that this is the way things have always been. To one degree or another, our thought patterns and paradigms are molded by his long arm. His teachings are ever-so-delightful to the unbelieving world; and they are a pernicious influence on those of us who claim the name ‘Christian’.

So, here’s a brief look at the fundamental shift in theology that he was able to accomplish.

Let’s start by defining the Bible. What, really, is it? In one respect, it is the collection of 66 ‘books’ written over a period of 1400 years, but assembled together because of a unifying factor. The Old Testament was assembled by the Jews as each new book was recognized that it belonged; then New Testament was collated and added to the Old by the Church.

What is that unifying factor? The orthodox stance is that every one of these ‘books’ is ‘God-breathed’. The writers were superintended by the Holy Spirit in such a way that they produced works without error in factual data, and contain information that explains the origin, purpose and destiny of mankind. It reveals things about God and man that can be found no where else. For those who believe it, it is the authority for morals and ethics. It provides the guide for faith and practice, giving assurance for the forgiveness of sins. For those who reject it — either in whole or in part — it will be used as the indictment when men are called to give an account of their lives.

Since these are operator dependent, they have not gained much popularity. 4. cheap cialis We keep saying that it isn’t continue reading to find out more get viagra australia about the points or the rebounds, but the timing of it all for Dirk Nowitzki. Therefore, it is one of the best ayurvedic supplements to online levitra treat low stamina in males. What is Tadalis used for Tadalis tablets 20mg ( best viagra pills) are used to treat erectile dysfunction (impotence) in men, which is inability to achieve or maintain a hard erect penis for sexual activity. cialis contain the active ingredient sildenafil citrate. The path to understanding the Bible is no different than the path to understanding any other writing. It is apprehended by applying the intellectual faculties of the mind which can organize and systematize the information in a logical fashion. Once done, it satisfies man’s innate drive for rationality and coherence.

Before Schleiermacher, these things about study and learning were well-understood. It was considered self-evident. Bible study gave rise to creeds, catechisms, doctrinal statements, confessions of faith, commentaries, and scores of other types of works. All were done to expound truth and to persuade people to conform. As the Bible puts it, doctrinal truth is built in the minds of men ‘line by line, precept upon precept.’

Now comes Schleiermacher’s shift. For him, truth is not apprehended through intellectual processes of the mind. Rather, it is apprehended through ‘feeling’; that is, through the emotional inclinations of man. Bible is not the authority that past generations believed it to be. Now, we have entered into a new era, where religious feelings, or affections, are source of truth. For him, the ‘feeling of dependence’ upon God was the key. Man’s emotions would now rule the day, and trusting those emotions would be the guide to faith and practice. No longer is it ‘precept upon precept’; now it is ‘feeling upon feeling’.

This is the heart of Liberalism.

The wise man has said, ‘It it difficult to rise above one’s time’. To that degree and only to that degree, one or all are now liberals.

More to come on Mr. Schleiermacher…

Modern Liberalism has shaped our world more than any other movement in the past 200 years — and particularly the past 100 years in America.

Frederich Schleiermacher

My grandfather, being a staunch Libertarian, detested FDR for his New Deal in the 1930’s. And my father, being a WWII veteran and imbued with an entrepreneurial spirit, was disgusted with LBJ’s Great Society in the 1960’s. And now, the very fabric of our society is being torn apart as the current crop of liberals exert their political power over the western world.

Yet, you may be surprised to learn that the philosophical basis of liberalism is not political — it is religious. It all started as a deviation from orthodox Christianity.

It was begun in Germany in the early 1800’s by a protestant theologian who fundamentally altered the historic Christian faith. He altered it so significantly that great Presbyterian theologian Gresham Machen, a hundred years later, was forced to write a book “Christianity and Liberalism”. In that work, he makes the argument that Liberalism is a completely different religion, devoid of any of the basic tenants necessary to call itself ‘Christian’. Yet Liberals continue to claim the name of Christian while denying the set of beliefs that comprise Christianity. How is that possible?

In order to understand, let me introduce you to Frederick Schleiermacher, the acknowledged Father of Liberalism. To know Schleiermacher and his work is the first step to understanding our present hour.
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Schleiermacher was born and raised in Prussia in the later 1700’s as the son of an army Chaplain. His parents raised him in a Christian home, where the Bible was the presumed Word of God. The basis for his parent’s ethics and morality was rooted in the authority of the Scriptures. Yet young Frederich came to a crossroads in his own beliefs when he was a teenager, as he could not accept the historicity of the Bible. In a letter to his father, Frederich wrote:

“Faith is the regalia of the Godhead, you say. Alas! dearest father, if you believe that without this faith no one can attain to salvation in the next world, nor to tranquility in this — and such, I know, is your belief — oh! then pray to God to grant it to me, for to me it is now lost. I cannot believe that he who called himself the Son of Man was the true, eternal God; I cannot believe that his death was a vicarious atonement.”

In one short confession, Frederich pierced the heart of his father. For in it, he denied the essence of Christianity — the person and work of Jesus Christ. No clearer statement of unbelief could there have been. Yet, Frederich was not willing to walk away from the religious realm. If he had done so, it would have been better for him as well as the rest of us. But no. He applied his great intellect to search for a way to justify himself before God in his unbelieving heart. Through that effort, he invented a new religion that salved his conscience. And we have been suffering ever since.

Liberal Christianity was born.

In my next article I will explore the nature of this new religion and its enormous influence on our culture.

In the aftermath of the Waldo Canyon fire and the resulting loss of hundreds of homes in Colorado Springs, comments abound about the age-old question about God’s sovereignty and His goodness.

Waldo Fire Hits Colorado Springs

Thousands of professing Christians were praying that this fire would not destroy homes, yet their prayers were not answered. Why, they ask, did God not intervene? Was he not able, or worse, not willing to act to prevent this?

One answer put forth was that God has turned this world over to Satan, and that, in affect, ‘the devil did it’. This seems to relieve God of any culpability in the matter. However, this does not square with the Bible, nor with the God who inspired the Bible.

While the Bible does say that Satan is the ‘god of this world’, this refers to his dominion over the spiritual condition of men’s souls. Everyone is born into this world with the corrupted sinful nature, and as a result, a slave to sin and to Satan. But this is not to say that Satan is without bounds. He, in fact, has no authority to exercise his will beyond God’s sovereign will. So from time to time God overrules Satan by reaching down to certain individuals, granting them the gifts of faith and repentance and frees them from this slavery. Satan has no power to prevent this from happening.

But what about the power over nature? Who’s in control of those things?

On Tuesday June 26th, the fire seemed to be well-defended, as the officials had established two separate lines with crews in place should the fire encroach the city. As the officials in charge were holding a 4PM news conference on the status of their efforts, an unexpected and powerful wind swooped down from the west, blowing the fire past both lines. They immediately ordered a complete evacuation of the area. The much-feared firestorm was on.

2000 years ago, there was another fierce wind that caused much anguish. On the sea of Galilee, Jesus and the disciples were in a fishing boat when a ‘furious squall came up’. Waves broke over the boat and the men were fearing for their lives…well, except for Jesus. He was sound asleep. The disciples woke Him up in a panic. “Don’t you care if we drown?”

Standing up, Jesus rebuked the wind and waves, saying “be still!”  Immediately, the winds died down and the sea became completely calm. And the disciples became even more fearful. “Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey Him!”

Jesus, the God-Man, has power over nature. This demonstration of power was performed in part to validate His claim as the prophesied Messiah. Combined with Jesus’ demonstrations of power over disease, over demons, over blindness, even over death, Jesus proved that He was God in the flesh, and omnipotent over all creation.
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The principle of His sovereignty over nature holds over all time periods and in all circumstances. This should put to rest any questions about God’s power over the Waldo fire — and the wind that blew it beyond the fire lines.

So, what about God’s goodness and His mercy? If He has the power, why did he not exercise it to prevent the destruction of hundreds of homes, not to mention those who lost their lives? This is a serious charge leveled at the Almighty.

It may be helpful to remember that entire created order has been subjected to God’s curse, due to one man’s rebellious act. Adam sinned, despite God’s warning that in that day of sin ‘you will surely die’. And we were all ‘in’ Adam, so in a very real sense, we all sinned with Adam. We now inherit his sinful nature and come into this world under God’s judicial review.

So death is a supernatural judgment of God. It is not ‘natural‘ — because in the beginning it was not so.

At one point during Jesus’ ministry, a question arose among the Israelites about a disaster that had occurred in Jerusalem. Eighteen people had been killed when a tower collapsed, killing those that happened to be walking by. What was it about these people that God allowed this to happen? Were they particularly sinful, to the point that God ended their lives?

Here was Jesus’ response. “Do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

This was not the answer that his followers expected. Rather, Jesus explained the universal condition of mankind — we are all culprits. We all face the looming judgment of God for our hostile acts that flow from our rebellious nature. Apart from God’s saving mercy on those who believe in the person and works of Jesus, and repent from their sins, none will escape God’s perfect judgment.

In the Waldo Canyon fire, there was much mercy of God evident. The powerful wind that caused the firestorm did not occur until three days after the fire began. During this time, fire officials had time to amass the men and equipment to defend the city. This mobilization took that amount of time to stage up. Once the fire breached those lines, fire fighters fell back to Centennial Boulevard. There they made their stand, knowing that if the fire breached that line, much of the city would have been lost. They had hundreds of men and a massive amount of equipment at their disposal — because they had three days to prepare. Without that time, much of Colorado Springs would have been lost.

So God did show His mercy in the midst of the fire fight. The city is now safe again. But what will be the response of us citizens. Shall we take heed? Shall we make use of this brief reprieve? Shall we repent and believe?

(The following is republished by permission from the author)

The brilliant religion commentator for the New York Times, Ross Douthat, in Bad Religion(2012) concludes that while postmodernism has produced an exhausting “relativism and rootlessness that has weakened the church,” a revival of Christianity can be envisaged. Reviewer Tim Keller states that Douthat sees no “next big thing” on the horizon to oppose Christianity. I must differ from Douthat and with all who fail to see the power of the contemporary revival of apostate “Christian” liberalism, revitalized by a natural alliance with the progressive spiritual neo-paganism now dominating our culture.

Diana Butler Bass, in Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (2012), triumphantly announces the advent of “the Fourth Great Awakening.” Emergent activist Shane Claibourne hails this as “new life budding from the compost of Christendom.” For Brian McLaren, Bass’s prophetic voice is “provocative, inspiring…a sage guidance for the future.” Does the term “Great Awakening” indicate a reclaiming of 18^th century Gospel orthodoxy? Not a chance!

For Bass “religionless Christianity” is the elimination of creeds and dogmas, of authority structures and inhibiting moral codes, of a propositional, inerrant Bible. She hails a movement borne along on the breath of an undefined “Spirit” into an age of pure inner experience. This Awakening has nothing to do with historic Christianity. Bass notes that “Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists have been undergoing similar revitalizations” and concludes that “the next great awakening will have to be an interfaith awakening” because “the 1970s were…the first stirrings of a new spiritual awakening, consisting of the encounter of Western and Eastern religions and …[the incorporation] of each other’s practices into their respective faiths.”

Such an “interfaith” One-ist view of the Spirit involves a radical redefinition of God that ditches “submitting to a transcendent—and often distant-God” in favor of “finding one’s self in God and find[ing] God in one’s self.” This involves praying to God as “our Mother”  and seeing the godhead “in less dualistic [Two-ist] terms,…less in terms of an absolutist, sin-hating, death-dealing ‘almighty Father in Heaven’ and more in terms of…the nourishing spirit of mother earth.”

I am sorry. These statements are pure pagan One-ism. The union of Nature with the divine jettisons the transcendent God of the Bible and removes any need for a divine Savior, so Bass’s “Christology” becomes pagan Gnosticism.  In the biblical Gospels, Jesus’ question, “Whom do you say that I am?” gives rise to the heavenly revelation of his divine nature. For Bass, the question “plunges Jesus’ friends into …the self-query, ‘And who am I?’” This question, not in the biblical text, is precisely where the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, goes. “Jesus” tells Thomas not to call him Lord because he and Thomas are of equal status. Knowledge of the self as divine is true salvation. Bass shows this by citing the Gnostic Book of Thomas the Contender:  “…he who has known himself has already understood the depth of all things.”

Such a Christology empties the Gospel of all biblical content. As Bass puts it, “Salvation is not…escaping some dreadful fate of judgment…at the hands of a wrathful God; rather, it is being saved to ourselves.” She leaves no place for the cross or the atonement. The “Spirit” now at work since the Sixties is “a romantic spirit…[with] an ethic of self-realization.” Such moral-ism is salvation by works for the creation of “a global common good.” This “Awakening is actually something we can do”—delivering people from the “fear of women, Islam, pluralism, environmentalism, and homosexuality.”

Bass’s new faith is paraphrased by the title of a recent Unitarian sermon, “Hindu and Unitarian Universalist Encounter and Transformation on the Way toward a New Universalism”; her kind of thinking allows Oprah Winfrey to call herself a Christian while assiduously following the Hindu mysticism of Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle; her vision is the very content of the present day revival of religious paganism, animated since the turn of the 20^th century by the occult vision of Madame Blavatsky who saw in the joining of the East and the West the final achievement of spiritual One-ism.

So in this time of emerging “new universalism,” when it is becoming illegal to teach from certain Bible texts, how many “believers” will find their way into the suffocating arms of religionless Gospel-less Christianity? How many of our theologically-starved rising generation of young Christians, under the enormous influence of Emergent leaders who love Bass, will be lost to the only Faith that can save them?

In light of this “next big thing” we do need a revival—of biblical Truth, but it will not be easy. Pray that the Lord will revive his church by courageous preaching of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, the only power of God unto salvation.

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