American Christianity's Adultery with Secular Culture

American Christianity's Adultery With Secular Culture by Michael D. Lemay addresses the American Church's desire to be relevant to the society around her. I saw the title and some of the contents of this book online, and was pretty intrigued, looking forward to reading it. But, after going through it, I have mixed feelings.  Let me try to explain.

First, let me explain some of what this book is about:  In this book, Lemay goes through and points out many of the philosophical poisons the church voluntarily drinking and diluting the gospel with.  Thinking they're improving it, the modern church is actually making it deadly. The author lists several popular teachers and preachers of our day and points out specific heresies of their teachings.

The author attacks the notion that we need to make God and the gospel more palatable to the unbeliever, and laments that so many Christians are content to not spiritually grow.  He also attacks the heresy that repentance from sin is not a part of God's gift of salvation, and that we are free to do whatever we want in Christ.  "Jesus died to free us from sin, not from obedience."  I especially liked his pointing out that church meetings are primarily for believers, not focused on unbelievers.  I'll quote my favorite part here:  "The early church was a family, not a social club. Christians came to learn more about the Word of God.  They shared meals and possessions when necessary, and they challenged one another and together raised the corporate level of Christian spirituality.  They were committed Christians, not curious strangers.  They didn't send out fliers announcing cleverly disguised outreach events that are just ploys to attract new members.  If you weren't serious about the gospel, you stayed away.  The Word was not reduced to the lowest level of common understanding, allowing the spiritually weak to drag down those who wanted to pursue holiness and righteousness."   I thought that was pretty interesting.  We all are committed to helping each other grow and understand the message, it's not the preacher's job to teach the elementary truths of the Gospel every single Sunday, he is focused on discipling his congregation and having many of them at the level of eating spiritual 'meat' and his congregation will help him teach the elementary truths to new believers.   

Now, as I said, I really liked some parts of the book, but there were others that really bothered me.

For instance, at least at the beginning of the book, the author is very much focused on the American church's relation to the country as a whole.   He apparently thinks that, in their separating from England and setting up a new republic, the founding fathers were inspired by the Holy Spirit.  That kind of shocked me.

   He says things like, "a free republic and a strong church need each other.  Secularists and extreme left-wing  progressives realize this, and their attacks to implement 'hope and change' are a coordinated assault on both the American republic and Christianity in America."

"..American Christianity was entrusted by our founding fathers to be the moral guardian of this nation….We, the professed body of Christ in America, have failed this nation and its citizens."

"The church was  to be the guardian of this nation, providing righteous, moral boundaries to keep this nation 'under God. But the church started to remain silent at a time when our nation needed it the most."'

"our democratic republic is, I believe, the one form of human government that comes closest to getting it right with God."

"We need to become willing partners with God to reclaim the culture from the Enemy."

I'm sorry…but I don't see how one could claim that our Republic is the best form of government before God.  Do I prefer it? Yes.  Am I against it, absolutely not! And I am so grateful to live in this country and have the privileges that I do. And I think that it is a gift of God allowing us to (for the moment), as Christians, to live "quiet and peaceable lives" (1 Thess 4:11). But biblically, I don’t see where, in the Bible, this type of government is promoted by God.  God didn't propose a republic to Israel (No, the absence of a King did not make it a republic, and the times of the Judges were not times of democratic republicanism).  And, remember the statue in Daniel? Which government was the Gold Head? A Monarchy, Nebuchadnezzar's government.  After that, things degrade, and by the time we get to what might be symbolizing the time of our government, we're a mix of clay and iron.  Hardly as valuable as gold and I'm not sure how sturdy that is either.

Of course, someone might point out that the best government is a Theocracy.  Yes, but that is not what America is or ever was. That will only come in the Millennial Kingdom. America might have claimed to be "under God" but she was not ruled by God.  Remember what John said, "We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one." (1 Jn 5:19)  I don't think that has changed. In the past, America might have been more strict about keeping some Christian morals and being mono-theistic, but, as in any premillennial age, her people were still ruled by the god of their age (2 Cor 4:4), even if that "age" looked morally better than ours.  For all we know, America was populated by a bunch of self-righteous mono-theists who attempt to keep the ten commandments. Satan would be okay with that.  And that might be what we get back to by "reclaiming the culture from the Enemy".  We won't be able to do that anyway, and it never will be claimed by Christ, until He comes again. The church is here to make disciples of individuals, not of the culture. 

Because of this and some other things that the author said and pushed that I did not think were biblical,  I didn't like it well enough to give it a high rating. 

Thanks to the folks at Aneko Press for sending me a free review copy of this book. My review did not have to be favorable.

My rating: 1 out of 5 Stars

This book may be found at Christianbook.com and Amazon.com

Quote of the Day

Spirituality is…not an individualistic experience of solitude, defined by the amount of time spent in protracted periods of communion alone with God, but  an active obedience to God's commands that practically demonstrates love to others and is integrally involved in Jesus's mission to the world.  Christian spirituality, properly understood is a spirituality of engagement, not withdrawal…There is nothing inherently spiritual about the study of Scripture if that study does not lead to obedient, active application. 

- Andreas Kostenberger

From his book Excellence: The Character of God and the Pursuit of Scholarly Virtue

See more quotes on my quote collection blog:  https://snickerdoodlesquotes.blogspot.com/

Eve in Exile - Rebekah Merkle

What is God's purpose for Christian women? Do women have a unique roll to fulfill or is it exactly the same as men's?  In our Christian circles, which seem to be infected by our feminist focused society, this book is quite a refreshing breath of reaffirmed biblical truth (rather than reaffirmed worldly cultural preference).

In her book Eve in Exile: And the Restoration of Femininity,  Rebekah Merkle writes an excellent exhortation to Christian women of our day. There are four sections in the book,  I'll give a description and perhaps some comments on each one. 

Section one: Two Distractions.  The chapters within this section deal with two ways that will NOT fix the problem of ascertaining how Christian women can fulfill their purpose in life. I found it fascinating that one of the 'distractions' Merkle critiques is the way some women try to deal with the problem by looking to the past, a particular period of history, the Austen era, for example, a time when gender roles were very distinct.  This is not a biblical method for obtaining true femininity as the Bible doesn't tell us isolate ourselves in  our own little bubble of some other time period.  We have to live in this age, though this age will not define us, nor will the ages of the past, which weren't actually that great anyway. 

The second way, and this seems to be the most popular one, is to make yourself number one.  Merkle demonstrates the selfishness of this view very plainly,"….. Our society has clearly ruled that when it comes down to a choice between your husband and children on the one side and you on the other….the right choice, the noble choice, the wise choice, is always you.  You do what makes you happy.  You do what makes you fulfilled.  You don't let anyone get in the way of your dreams.  You don't settle.  You deserve it.  You go girl!....If that baby is going to get in the way of your dreams or your pursuits, then obviously that baby must be eliminated.  Nothing must stand in the way of your aspirations..   Your personal hopes, desires, or opportunities trump all else, and sacrificing your dreams for someone else is not seen as noble, it's seen as ludicrous.  If you lay down your 'life' for another, you certainly won't get respect or admiration from our society, and you will definitely get disdain.  By many, your choice will just be seen as downright offensive."

Section Two deals with the history of feminism for the past few hundred years or so.  Don't worry, it's not a boring read.  It's fascinating and sad at the same time and Merkle adds plenty of interesting commentary, including an interesting theory on what jumpstarted each wave of feminism:  Feminist movements always seemed to happen when women saw their place in society as being an ornamental rather than doing any sort of really valuable work and they thought that the men were doing the really worthwhile things.  In the 1950s housekeeping became easier and easier with all kinds of conveniences being invented.  Instead of seeing it as a blessing and making the most of their work and being creative with it, women became bored and "fussy" and became very demanding.  "This is fundamentally at odds with biblical teaching on what is an obedient (and effective) response to injustice.  Christ did not tell us that when someone takes our coat we should loudly demand its immediate return….When we are reviled He did not tell us to make sandwich boards and picket.  When we are struck, we are not told to strike back harder.  When Paul was imprisoned, he didn't commence organizing a prison riot or, for that matter, go on a hunger strike.  And yet, aggressively demanding that everyone give women what is owed to us has been the entire campaign strategy of the feminist movement from Day One."

Section Three:  What Are Women Designed For?   Addresses the way women can find true fulfillment.  "If God designed women for a specific purpose, if there are fixed limits on the feminine nature, then surely it would follow that when we are living in accordance with those limits and purpose we will be in our sweet spot.  That's where we'll shine.  Where we'll excel.  And where we will find the most fulfilment."  We were not created to be the center of attention.  We were made to work, to help, to be fruitful, to glorify…etc.

Let me pause here and say my usual disclaimer:  Of course, I didn't necessarily agree with everything in this book.  For instance, and I'm sure that Merkle didn't mean this, but sometimes some of her argument came across as though men merely preach the Good News and the truths of God's Word while the women are the ones who live it out and embody it.  But that's not correct.  Men are supposed to live out the truth also.  I think that Merkle may have been trying too hard to describe our women's work as a unique thing. Our work doesn't have to be outstandingly unique, if it's of God then it's a privilege to be able to do it, unique or not. She also sounded rather mystical in some of her attempts to describe women's work and how great it is, I didn't follow all that she was saying especially in some of the chapters toward the end of the book.

Okay, back to the description:

Section Four:  Living Out Our Design.  Merkle exhorts women to be creative with what God has given them to do.  She emphasizes that,  "This teaching isn't meant to keep the women out of sight; it's describing the way that they can shine the light of the gospel on a lost and sinful culture.  We have to trust God here, because oftentimes we want to be the ones to decide what will be a good witness.  God says, 'Here's how to be a good testimony,' and we think He doesn't understand the nuances of modern society the way we do."   And then she also clarifies that "A household is bigger than the house itself, and as Paul describes the duties of a wife and mother, it is clear that her duties are defined by the people she is surrounded by and not simply her street address."  Keeping one's household doesn't not necessarily involve not having a job outside the building that a wife calls "home" but it means that "home", the people in  it, are her priority, her focus, and if other things become the priority then they are distractions, not worthy goals.

Using those four sections Merle really gets one thinking about our God-given job as women and how we can best fulfill that service to the best of our ability.  When we see that we can best please our Maker by doing what He made us to do then we have something to work toward. We are here to please our Savior, not ourselves, and He Himself tells us, in His Word, how we can be pleasing to Him and fulfill our God-glorifying purpose.  Overall I really liked this book.  And Merkle is an excellent writer, she keeps the attention (especially because of her sense of humor and sarcasm), and continually pulls one's perspective back to God's Word and His purpose rather than our own.  It was a very enjoyable and thought provoking read.

Many thanks to the folks at Canon Press for sending me a free review copy of this book! (My review did not have to be favorable)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

*****

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com and at canonpress.com

Jesus' Terrible Financial Advise - By John Thornton

This book, Jesus' Terrible Financial Advice, was in a list of books available for review in the book reviewing program of which I'm a member.   The description of this book caught my attention.  It was described as not being the book that the author, John Thornton, intended to write.  He wanted to write about how his family had gotten to a debt free state and wanted to back it up with biblical principles.  But then He went to the Bible to study the topic and found that Jesus' teachings on money shocked him, they really seemed like irresponsible teachings, teachings that didn't seem like the type of instructions that God would give wise stewards to follow.  He put off writing the book for a long time.   I was intrigued by this information and so I requested the book. 

Thornton later decided to dive in and write the book with this perspective,  "If my theology disagrees with God, one of us is wrong, and it's not Him."    Thornton directs us to think about why Christ came to the earth in the first place, "to glorify His Father".  And all of Jesus' teachings, including his teachings on money, stem from this purpose. God does not need money to get things done, and we Christians do not need money either because God supplies all our needs, and he does not need money to do that.

 Thornton makes it clear that being rich does not make you an evil person, nor does being poor make you a good person.  Money is not bad in and of itself, but it does have potential to become an idol when we look to it for peace, security and help.  Poor people can do this just as much as rich people.  The love of money is deceiving, it promises that money can supply all our needs, directing our focus to it rather than to God.  And many also may be deceived by thinking that the Lord's work cannot get done without money (look at all of the Christian ministries out there begging for money!). God can supply our needs however He wants, with or without money. 

Being a wise steward does not mean building up earthly treasure, but building up a heavenly treasure.   "Imagine if you were playing Monopoly, and you were offered the chance to trade in your pink fivers for real ones.  Or better yet, trade the yellow $100 Monopoly bills in for Benjamins.  You'd go straight to the bank and make the exchange.  And  you wouldn't ask how many of the Monopoly bills you could keep.  You'd trade in every last one."  The author demonstrates from the Bible that this is the perspective of a believer.  We are after real treasure, not fake treasure.  A believer doesn't care about storing up treasures on this earth, but storing up treasures in Heaven.  A believer doesn't care about gaining worldly acclaim, but commendation from His Father in Heaven.  A believer's goal is to glorify the Father, to do His will.  And Christ tells us how this is to be done, "Jesus explains how we can make the most of the lives He has given us…"  Many of the means by which Christ says we can glorify the Father are shocking to us, such as letting people sue you and giving them more than they demand of you, by giving to everyone who asks, by letting yourself be wronged financially, even by a brother in Christ, or rather, especially by a brother in Christ. There are some questions about how we are to implement the 'giving to everyone who asks you', and I think that Thornton addresses them pretty well by pointing out that it may be clarified by other biblical truths. 

In this book we are reminded that God wants us to run our whole race, the beginning and end of it, at full speed. This, among other things, involves being wise stewards of everything God has given us, including our use of any money He has allowed us to have.  We look to our Master to give us the standards for how we are to use His property and money, He defines what good stewardship looks like.  And we should not look on our growing old as permission to use God's gifts to us however we want. The thought should not even cross our mind that we will ever reach an age where we will be able to retire from being good stewards of the Lord's gifts. We should not look to slow down as we get old, and enjoy our earthly life, our goal should still be to serve the Father with all the strength He gives us, grasping any opportunity He gives us to serve Him and invest in eternal things.  Thornton laments that some older Christians do not desire to end their spiritual race at full speed, and yet hypocritically ,"We condemn our brother who squanders his early years, all the time longing to squander our later ones."

All in all, I think that this is an excellent book, pointing us back to the Lord as our Master, and reminding us that we are to live a life of faith.  We must trust that God really is infinitely wiser than we are, even when we think that His commands are not humanly logical.  As Thornton says, "God has a better plan for our lives than we do", God knows best whether or not our earthly richness or poorness will bring the most glory to Himself.  And we Christians desire to be content with His sovereign placement of us in this earthly life.  

Many thanks to MoodyPublishers for sending me a free review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable)

My rating:  5 out of 5 stars

*****

This book may be purchased at (among other places), Christian Book Distributors and Amazon

Understanding the Congregation's Authority - by Jonathan Leeman

Understanding the Congregation's Authority by Jonathan Leeman is a short and yet quite thorough explanation and defense of what Leeman calls, "Elder-Led Congregationalism".  He does not advocate congregationalism nor Elder-Rule, rather he presents the concepts of 'congregational authority' as 'responsibilities' and the role of the pastors/Elders he presents as the God-given 'trainers/councilors' of the congregation. 

Each member of the congregation is responsible to prod one another to love and good works, building and discipling their brothers and sisters in Christ (which may involve correction) and coming to be discipled as well, to attend church regularly not making a habit of forsaking the assembling of their church family, and the congregation is also responsible to submit themselves to the elders of the church(the Elders do not make them submit), which Elders are to train up the congregation to fulfill their responsibilities by preaching/teaching the Word of God.

I thought that the author's overall premise was good and I thought that he argued most of his points very well, the things that I didn't feel comfortable with were his 'reformed' terminology, for instance referencing Christ and Christians as the 'true Israel', his referencing the observance of 'the Lord's Table' as being a time of Communion with the Lord and it also being a sign of the new Covenant.  I don't think that I agree that the church exercises the authority of the "Keys" through baptism and the Lord's Supper (a man is to examine HIMSELF as to his manner of living while taking the Lord's supper), I don't really see that in the Bible rather I see the congregation cutting off an erring member from fellowship because they are not living in a Christ-like way (not primarily cutting them off from partaking of the elements though that necessarily follows). But perhaps I didn't understand what he meant.  And lastly I didn't agree with a lot of his 'Priest-King' hermeneutic, that Adam was basically a priest-king mediating between God and creation and then applying the term to Abraham, Moses, David and then all Christians….it didn't make biblical sense to me.

Aside from the above and perhaps some other things, I really liked Leeman's argument and would recommend the book to other Christians as he does a great job at showing that if you're  a Christian, whether or not you are an Elder you  have a God-given job to do and you should take it seriously. 

I'll end with a quote from the book: "You, as a baptized Christian and ordinary member of a church, are responsible for protecting the gospel and the gospel's ministry in you church by discipline other church members.  Remember Ephesians 4:15-16.  The church builds itself up in love as each part does its work.  You have work to do to build up the church and part of that includes the ministry of words.  A few verses later, Paul says, 'speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another'(V. 25).  Speak truth to them, and help them to grow. Our words should be 'good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear' (Eph. 4:29).  Also, make yourself available to be spoken to.  Are you willing to listen?  Basic Christianity involves building up other believers.  It is a part of fulfilling the Great Commission and making disciples."

Many thanks to B&H Publishers for sending me a free review copy of this book! - My review did not have to be favorable.

You may purchase this book at websites like Amazon and Christian Book Distributors

Consider Your Calling - Gordon T. Smith

Usually, at least for me, when I think of God 'calling' someone to some type of work it is always in the context of some type of 'official' evangelistic type of work, such as one being a missionary overseas, starting a 'prison' ministry, working at a rescue mission, teaching a class at Church on Sundays…etc.    Normally it is always outside of 'everyday life', outside of one's secular profession and outside of one's life at home, it is something recognizably 'spiritual'.  The author of this book has a different perspective(one that I basically agree with).  The premise of this book, Consider Your Calling by Gordon T. Smith,  is  that the work that God  calls Christians to do is not just missionary work, or heading church ministries, but it is also the seemingly 'secular' callings.

 I LOVE the premise of the book, I just have some problems with how Mr. Smith tries to teach it.  First,  he talks about discovering ourselves, discovering what matters to us (after first asking what matters to God which is good), and I sort of get what he means but something seemed 'off' to me.  He says things like,"…It can be so difficult to peel back the layers of pretense and get to the heart of our identity, to the deep sense of who we are.  But we must, because wisdom is found here.  The wise are always those who know God and know the ways of God.  But the wise are also those who come to the gracious and liberating truth of their own self-identity. "  and "Saying yes to our lives will mean saying no to that which is not us. …we stop living with living with illusions about who we are or wish we were - and accept the life that has been given to us.  We embrace it, we choose it, and we walk with it." Yes, God will often work with our desires and interests, but what if He chooses to put us in a vocation which we have no interest?  Mr. Smith does say that, "…God's calling on our lives will consistently be in light of our actual circumstances."  And I completely agree with that and appreciate his bringing that up, I just wish he would have dealt more with submission to God when we end up in a vocation that we would not have chosen for ourselves, that we should try to develop an interest in it and do our work to the best of our ability to God's glory.  One really may end up in a profession in which one has no interest but doesn't have a plausible way of getting out of it.  For instance, in Biblical times I am sure that many (if not all) servants would not have an innate interest in their vocation if they had an unjust master, and perhaps they would rather have  done something else, but Paul tells them, "Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is acceptable, if for conscience toward God a man endureth griefs, suffering wrongfully."(1Pe 2:18-19 ASV)  Perhaps they were slaves or bondservants and didn't have a choice as to their profession, but if they were a Christian they already had their true identity given to them by Christ (they didn't have to analyze their own interests, their interests were given to them by God in His Word) and thus they knew how they were to act in their profession. 

The above brings me to another point that I think Mr. Smith should have dealt with, our identity in Christ - that type of 'self-discovery' is more important to discover first than the self-discovery Mr. Smith was talking about.  That is something that I do not remember him dealing with, the new people we are in Christ (defined by God's Word),though he does talk about us aspiring to deeper fellowship and  identification with Christ, I just don't remember him focusing on the fact that as Christians we are new creations/people in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), that that is something that we need to come to grips with first of all by reading God's Word which tells us who we are and what attributes we are to be pursuing, humility (and counting others as more important than ourselves (Philippians 2)) ,self-control, patience, love, joy, submitting to authorities/bosses that God has placed over us (Romans 13, Titus 2:5..etc.), giving thanks in every circumstance, renewing our minds, dying to self…and on so on. The Bible is the best place to start for discovering our identity, if we realize who we are in Christ and how we are best pleasing to our true Master, then we are ready for any profession God assigns to us. 

Another thing that I didn't like was that Smith seems to think that the 'religious orders' of various monks (Benedictines, Franciscans…and so on) were legitimate works for God, but from what I understand, most monks were imposing sacrificial works upon themselves to earn some type of favor with God (for salvation or grace) rather than working from salvation/grace that God had already given, they worked for it, and that type of work is heretical as the salvation/grace of God is not of human works, it is not earned by us at all.

And lastly, he is a bit too open to liturgy for my taste, he encourages signing oneself with the sign of the cross before going about our work, and there is also a prayer at the end of the book that one can use in corporate worship.  He defines worship as "the liturgy of the gathered people of God" - But isn't true worship obedience?  Serving God and submitting to His will in everything?  I think he missed another great starting point there, instead of talking about how we are to participate in God's work by being like Him in being creative and working along with God's plan to redeem people, he could have, instead, defined worship and obedience/our work for the Lord/submission to Him and thus have come from the standpoint of "we don't only worship on Sundays, or at official church gatherings, we can worship every single day, every hour by our submission to His will and by our obedience to His Word".  And thus we can work at secular occupations and be worshiping God.  Yes we want to participate in the work of God (though I might have some trouble with how Smith described I in the book), but our participation is not just a privilege, it is 'worship'.  I must say though that I heartily agree with this statement the author makes:  "We are participants in the grand narrative, the work of the Creator and Redeemer.  It is not, in the end, all about what we are up to, but rather what God is up to."

All in all, though I loved the point of the book, I think that Mr. Smith missed some key starting points for the basis Christian service.  I'll end with my favorite quote from the book where the author is encouraging people to recognize God's sovereignty in their lives/in their occupations:

Our vocations are always for 'such a time as this ' (Esther 4:14). Our vocations are always for this time and this place.  Always.  We always embrace the good work to which we are called in response to actual circumstances, challenges and opportunities.  No one is ahead of their time, no one missed their time.  Further, this means that vocation is not generic, by which I mean that we do not fill out a form about ourselves and our interests and strengths and then turn to the back of the book to see if we are to be an engineer, artist or preachers.  Rather, our vocations are always received and responded to in light of the actual situations in which we find ourselves.  And typically these are circumstances over which we may have very little control.  We have been placed here, in this time and place, and now we need to navigate our way through what lies before us.   What must be stressed is that wise women and men refuse to think of themselves as victims of their circumstances, but rather as those who have been providentially situated - before God and in the grace of God - and will respond with courage, creativity and patience to what is at hand."

Many thanks to the folks at InterVarsity Press for sending me a complimentary review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable).

You may purchase this book at Amazon.com and at other websites/bookstores