Healthy Pulpit Healthy Nation
(Excerpted from my SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall)
“O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!”
Ted Baehr, the founder and Publisher of Movieguide, helps us to understand what we mean by the word “worldview” in the context of socialism. Says Ted,
A worldview is a way
of interpreting reality. Although political ideologies are not technically
worldviews, they often display attributes or qualities similar to worldviews.
For example, the communist writer Karl Marx said that his communism was the
ultimate humanism and advocated that humanist society should abolish religion,
family, nation, and private property. That is one reason why Movieguide has a separate
worldview content category for communism. Movieguide also shows readers when a
movie merely has a moral or biblical worldview, as opposed to an explicit or
implied Christian worldview.
Take any Western nation. Western cultures are Christianised cultures.
Some more. Some less: a lot less! To be Christianised doesn’t mean that
everyone in the nation is Christian. It simply means that they are under the
influence of the so-called Judeo-Christian ethic. In other words, the teaching
of the Old and New Testaments, i.e., the Bible, permeates that culture – to a
greater or a lesser extent.
Culture is religion externalised. Music, food, drink, mode of dress,
politics, architecture, art et al are
expressions of culture, of a nation’s religion. That’s why it is worth
restating what we saw in an earlier quote articulated by John Eidsmoe regarding
the overthrow of Scottish culture by the British after the Battle of Culloden,
However, unlike the British establishment at the time of Bonnie Prince
Charlie, Christianity does not destroy culture. Christianity influences culture
for the better. The City of Glasgow’s motto expresses this idea well: “Let
Glasgow flourish by the preaching of Thy Word and the singing of Thy praise.”
Using the Bible as its blueprint, Christianity transforms culture,
making it more wholesome. Christianity helps nations think Christianly.
Therefore, on account of its positive influence, Christianity frees nations
from making many blunders!
Christianity influences nations primarily from the pulpit, i.e., from
preaching. The Bible is expounded from cover to cover, which is to say that the
Gospel is proclaimed and the Law is explained each Lord’s Day from the pulpits
of the faithful. As Jesus tells us, His church, with warning, that we are the
salt and the light,
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.[2]
The Gospel with the Law brings liberty to the people. The Law, properly
understood and properly applied, enables the Christianised nation to retain its
liberty. Healthy pulpit: Healthy nation.
Where the Gospel is stifled God’s Law is flouted. By Gospel we mean the
Good News that Jesus Christ died for sinners. By Law we mean the Ten
Commandments that shows that all of us are sinners – in need of the Saviour of
sinners, Jesus Christ. Not only does the preaching of God’s Law expose us as
sinners in need of salvation in Christ, but, (as well as showing Christians how
to live their lives in demonstration of their gratitude to God for saving them),
it also shows us how to restrain evil in our nation.
Christianity helps us to see the nation as God sees it and thus frees
that nation from many a blunder!
Many pulpits in the West preach another gospel, which is not the Gospel. They preach what is known as the Social Gospel. The message of the Social Gospel has more to do with Marxism than the salvation of the individual by grace through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ. Others preach a gospel that is devoid of God’s Law. Indeed, they preach against the Law, as if the Ten Commandments were something evil, something to be rejected! Either way, the Gospel is robbed of its power. In this limp condition it cannot transform the individual and certainly not the nation! Says Joel McDurmon,
Unless
conservative Christians can present a forward-looking, optimistic vision for
society, then they will continue to allow socialism and other unbiblical
systems to succeed.[3]
Jesus says,
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…[4]
Bottom line: Healthy pulpit: Healthy nation!
For a copy of my book see Amazon, eg, SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall : McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Amazon.com.au: Books
[1] John Eidsmoe, Historical and Theological Foundations of Law: Volume 2, Classical and
Medieval, (Expanded Second Edition, printed November 2016, Nordskog
Publishing Inc., Ventura, California), 787.
[2] Matthew 5:13-18 (NKJV)
[3] Joel
McDurmon, God versus Socialism: A
Biblical Critique of the New Social Gospel, (American Vision Press, Powder
Springs, Georgia, 2009), 33.
[4] Matthew 28:18b-20a. (Emphasis
mine.)
No comments:
Post a Comment