Couldn't Help Noticing

Christian publishing

There's a very interesting article over at Christianity Today for anyone interested in Christian publishing.

It describes the desire amongst Christian publishers to produce the next big Christian blockbuster. As one observer puts it, “In the Christian market, everybody is looking for the next Purpose-Driven Life”. (Actually not everyone; I can tell you that Matthias Media is not really looking for, nor expecting to publish, a book that sells 30 million copies.)

There is much obvious danger in such a quest for the next big thing. Perhaps it explains why so many Christian books these days are stretching not just theology but credibility. The desire for profits pushes people to do some extraordinary things. Take this for example. (It's hard to describe. You might just have to go and have a look. I suppose you could say it is a collection of plastic Jesus action figurines.) I am really hoping this might be an elaborate hoax. But having been at the Christian Retail show in Denver last year, I have no trouble believing this is real.

Excluding the centre

What do you think of the following summary of the Bible's message?

Ever since the fall, God has been active to reverse the effects of sin. He takes action to limit sin's damage; he calls out a new nation, the Israelites, to mediate his teaching and his grace to others; he promises that one day he will come as the promised Davidic king to overthrow sin and death and all their wretched effects. This is what Jesus does: he conquers death, inaugurates the kingdom of righteousness, and calls his followers to live out that righteousness now in prospect of the consummation still to come.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Except for what it doesn’t say.

As Don Carson points out in a recent article on the Gospel Coalition website, this increasingly popular version of the Bible's message is distorted because of what it omits: “It collapses human rebellion, God's wrath, and assorted disasters into one construct, namely, the degradation of human life, while depersonalising the wrath of God. It thus fails to wrestle with the fact that from the beginning, sin is an offense against God.”

Don goes on to point out that this reductionist version of the Bible's message is just one of the factors lying behind the spate of recent attacks on the doctrine of penal substitution. When themes such as God's wrath, death and judgement are downplayed or excluded, then the central character of the cross as propitiation and substitution is also gradually excluded.

The same happens with the recent trend of talking about different ‘models’ of the atonement—the penal substitution model, the Christus Victor model, the exemplary model, and so on—as if one can choose which model best suits our inclinations or cultural context, and emphasize it to the exclusion of others.

In recent times, it has been the Christus Victor model (that on the cross Christ was victorious over the devil and all evil) that has become flavour of the month. “Of course we accept that there is some element of some sort of substitution somewhere in the atonement”, say the Christ Victor crowd, “but the cross cannot merely be about that. Surely it must also be about the victory of Christ over the powers of evil, with all the ramifications that has for our engagement with society, etc. etc.” And thus the scene is set for a book-length discussion of the cross and its achievement in which penal substitution is relegated to a footnote on page 27.

This is not heresy by denial. It is heresy by omission. By marginalizing and excluding what in the Bible is at the centre, one creates a new centre and a new doctrine.

Don Carson's evaluation is apt: “Christians are not at liberty to pick and choose which of the Bible's teachings are to be treasured”.

Materialism II

Gordon's post yesterday about facing up to our own materialism is one we all need to hear regularly. He rightly urges us to consider 1 Timothy 6:6 (“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment”). I would also add that we shouldn't isolate that verse from the verses that come immediately after it, otherwise we could perhaps respond by saying “I am content with what I have—my nice house, two cars, my satisfying job”. But that is not the real challenge Paul is presenting. The two verses following this say: “for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” The real challenge is to be content not just in our comfortable middle/upper class existence, but to be content even if all that should change and we only have food and clothing.

In other words, contentment is something we should, like Paul, be able to “learn” in “whatever situation” we are in (Phil 4:11). It therefore requires a peculiarly Christian perspective on our circumstances. That perspective can be seen in one of the other New Testament references to being content: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5).

No matter what the insecurities of our physical existence, we have this fabulous promise from God: he will always be with us. That is where our security and contentment should be grounded.

Materialism

In church yesterday we were reminded of how easy it is to become greedy. The preacher, Bruce Hall, mentioned Brian Houston's book You Need more Money, one of the more obvious examples of using religion as a cloak for grabbing material things for ourselves.

But then, like all good preachers should, he turned the spotlight back on himself and us. He told us that one of the things that would make it difficult for him to contemplate going on the overseas mission field now (at the age of 60) is the thought of leaving behind his comfortable house.

I must say the same is true of me. I am grateful daily for God's material provision, and accept it as a sign of his generosity in all things. But when I contemplate leaving it all behind for some very good reason, I find that the seeds of materialism lie within.

1 Timothy 6:6 is a good verse with which to face our materialism: “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment ...”.

World Youth Day 2008

World Youth Day is big. Really big. The closing Mass at the last one, which was held in Germany in 2005, was said to have 1 million people in attendance.

The next one is in Sydney in July next year. And organizers are expecting 200,000 registrants from all over the world. As one person described it, “a tidal wave of catholicism is about to hit Sydney”.

Just recently on the nightly news we got the first glimpse of what this is going to mean for Sydney and Australia. The equivalent of the Olympic torch (we were told)—a 3.8 metre high wooden cross and an icon of Mary—arrived by plane with great fanfare and amidst the cloying of politicians, including the Australian Prime Minister and the State Premier, both positively glowing about what a great thing this event was going to be.

Consider this an early warning alert for the tsunami. It's time to ensure your sheep are safely on higher ground, if they are not already. They need to understand that what Catholicism means when it heralds the cross as a great symbol of the faith is not the same as what we mean. They need to understand why Mary is so venerated in the Catholic church, and not in our churches.

We're very pleased that we were tipped off even earlier, and were strongly urged to produce a resource to help. As a result, due for release by Matthias Media in September is Nothing in My Hand I Bring: Understanding the differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant beliefs, by Ray Galea. Keep an eye out for it, and please pray with us that it will be very helpful to people in the next 10 months in particular. You can download the first chapter for free (770kb).