During the forty days of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday (forty days not counting Sundays), Jayme Thompson and I will post daily devotionals on this blog to help guide you through the season. Lent is an ancient tradition in the church intended to be a time of focusing on the cross. To help us in this pursuit, we are studying the book of Hebrews in a series called, "Journey of Hope". It is appropriate that we use this book during our fast, as the theme of Hebrews is "Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Getting through the Wilderness
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. (Luke 4:1)
"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
As the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, Jesus wandered in the wilderness for forty days. As they suffered of thirst and hunger and a temptation to turn back to Egypt, so too was Jesus tempted and tried by the enemy.
We tend to think of wilderness as rugged forest, untamed land. But in this case it was a desert dry, thirsty land. The wilderness symbolizes both a place where we cannot find satisfaction for our thirst, and a place where God seems absent. The Israelites could not understand why God had led them into a dry barren land and then seemingly left them there to die.
We all know the wilderness, don't we? Perhaps you are in one right now. It is difficult to have faith when it seems that God does not hear you.
Today, remember that you have a God who knows the wilderness first hand. He has been there. He doesn't just know about your thirst and your sense of abandonment and rejection and depression. He KNOWS your thirst. He KNOWS the wilderness. We do not have a high priest who doesn't understand. He has been in the desert. He has been through the temptation. He even knows what it is like to feel abandoned by God! He said "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!" (Mark 15:34)
At the end of their time in the desert wilderness, the first Joshua led the Israelites over the Jordan River and into the promised land. At the end of His wandering, the second Joshua (Jesus) was baptized in the Jordan and thus established the beginning of a new age, when all of Abraham's seed could come into the land of promise.
At His baptism, a dove hovered over the water as the Holy Spirit had hovered over the depths at the creation event, thus symbolizing a new creation in Christ.
Jesus went through the desert so that you could come to the river. He went all the way to the cross and took the holocaust in so that you could live with Him in eternity. He took on hell so that you could take on the heavenlies.
Read carefully this quote from John R.W. Stott from his book "The Cross of Christ":
We are not to envisage God on a deck chair, but on a cross. The God who allows us to suffer, once suffered Himself in Christ, and continues to suffer with us and for us today... He cries when we cry....
I myself could never believe in God were it not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the Cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?
I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.
But each time, after a while I have had to turn away. And in my imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wretched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness.
That is the God for me! He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His.
There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark - the Cross, which symbolizes divine suffering. The cross of Christ ... is God's only self-justification in such a world as ours.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
day two: forty days of confession
During the forty days of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday (forty days not counting Sundays), Jayme Thompson and I will post daily devotionals on this blog to help guide you through the season. Lent is an ancient tradition in the church intended to be a time of focusing on the cross. To help us in this pursuit, we are studying the book of Hebrews in a series called, "Journey of Hope". It is appropriate that we use this book during our fast, as the theme of Hebrews is "Fix your eyes on Jesus."
Forty Days of Confession
Jayme Thompson
He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Proverbs 28:13
Getting ready for 40 days of confession sounds fairly intense. It's a little hard to imagine how to start. One idea is to just list all the things one feels badly about. While that's a pretty therapeutic approach, it's probably not going to be particularly life changing.
The truth is, we're all pretty aware already of our own major faults of personality, temptations, and the glaring sin in our life. These are, no doubt, things that need to be dealt with, but they can mask the subtler failures that we've never examined. For example, dealing with a drug addiction can be so overwhelming and guilt-inducing that an addict may never reach a point of conviction regarding, say the giving of the tithe. Feelings can teach us about ourselves but they can also deceive.
In his "Letters to Malcolm" C.S. Lewis said, "I have found (to my regret) that the degrees of shame and disgust which I actually feel at my own sins do not at all correspond to what my reason tells me about their comparative gravity. ...Our emotional reactions to our own behaviour are of limited ethical significance."
On the other hand, sometimes we nickle and dime ourselves into giant mistakes. Thinking we are basically pretty good people, well above average at least and listing the many things we do right (church attendance, service, loving our family, tithing and giving, and fill-in-the-blank with whatever) somehow licenses us to participate in a few pet sins.
The heart is deceitful and wicked. It's hard to see ourselves. Only the light of scripture and its truth can show us who we really are and who we're really meant to be.
Don't consult yourself so much - you're a liar. I know because I am too. Spend some time today in the Word - even a few minutes and ask God how you can be more like Him starting now.
Forty Days of Confession
Jayme Thompson
He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Proverbs 28:13
Getting ready for 40 days of confession sounds fairly intense. It's a little hard to imagine how to start. One idea is to just list all the things one feels badly about. While that's a pretty therapeutic approach, it's probably not going to be particularly life changing.
The truth is, we're all pretty aware already of our own major faults of personality, temptations, and the glaring sin in our life. These are, no doubt, things that need to be dealt with, but they can mask the subtler failures that we've never examined. For example, dealing with a drug addiction can be so overwhelming and guilt-inducing that an addict may never reach a point of conviction regarding, say the giving of the tithe. Feelings can teach us about ourselves but they can also deceive.
In his "Letters to Malcolm" C.S. Lewis said, "I have found (to my regret) that the degrees of shame and disgust which I actually feel at my own sins do not at all correspond to what my reason tells me about their comparative gravity. ...Our emotional reactions to our own behaviour are of limited ethical significance."
On the other hand, sometimes we nickle and dime ourselves into giant mistakes. Thinking we are basically pretty good people, well above average at least and listing the many things we do right (church attendance, service, loving our family, tithing and giving, and fill-in-the-blank with whatever) somehow licenses us to participate in a few pet sins.
The heart is deceitful and wicked. It's hard to see ourselves. Only the light of scripture and its truth can show us who we really are and who we're really meant to be.
Don't consult yourself so much - you're a liar. I know because I am too. Spend some time today in the Word - even a few minutes and ask God how you can be more like Him starting now.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
day one: fix your eyes on Jesus
During the forty days of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday (forty days not counting Sundays), Jayme Thompson and I will post daily devotionals on this blog to help guide you through the season. Lent is an ancient tradition in the church intended to be a time of focusing on the cross. To help us in this pursuit, we are studying the book of Hebrews in a series called, "Journey of Hope". It is appropriate that we use this book during our fast, as the theme of Hebrews is "Fix your eyes on Jesus."
Fix Your Eyes on Jesus
The writer of Hebrews is writing to urban Christians who have been marginalized in a pluralistic culture because of their faith in Christ. Many were tempted to turn away. The writer makes the point that if you are tempted to turn from Christ, it only means that you don't understand the superiority of Christ and the meaning of the cross. In chapter 2:1, he writes, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard..." (NIV) The original language is much stronger. A good literal translation might be "We must be fanatically obsessed..."
If we are not obsessed with what Christ did for us on the cross, it can only mean that we don't understand the depth of our sin that was paid for, or the incredible expanse of His love that would sacrifice in order to satisfy His wrath. In the cross, we see both His perfect justice and loving mercy at work. Knowing this reality in all of it's fullness would cause us to be "obsessed".
In 12:1-2, He writes,
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Let's make this our goal this lent season. Let's "throw off everything that hinders and entangles us" and fix our eyes on Jesus. Let's obsess over the cross as we fast together.
It doesn't get much better than Isaac Watts:
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ, my God; All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down; Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Truly that is the meaning of the season.
Fix Your Eyes on Jesus
The writer of Hebrews is writing to urban Christians who have been marginalized in a pluralistic culture because of their faith in Christ. Many were tempted to turn away. The writer makes the point that if you are tempted to turn from Christ, it only means that you don't understand the superiority of Christ and the meaning of the cross. In chapter 2:1, he writes, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard..." (NIV) The original language is much stronger. A good literal translation might be "We must be fanatically obsessed..."
If we are not obsessed with what Christ did for us on the cross, it can only mean that we don't understand the depth of our sin that was paid for, or the incredible expanse of His love that would sacrifice in order to satisfy His wrath. In the cross, we see both His perfect justice and loving mercy at work. Knowing this reality in all of it's fullness would cause us to be "obsessed".
In 12:1-2, He writes,
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Let's make this our goal this lent season. Let's "throw off everything that hinders and entangles us" and fix our eyes on Jesus. Let's obsess over the cross as we fast together.
It doesn't get much better than Isaac Watts:
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ, my God; All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down; Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Truly that is the meaning of the season.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
the "dreams to memories" ratio
In his very compelling book, "The World is Flat", in which best selling author and New York Times Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman writes extensively of how certain technological innovations have leveled the playing field in a global economy, thus "flattening" the world, he offers this reflection on what he has observed in his travels around the world about those companies that will be able to survive in the future:
"Analysts have always tended to measure a society by classical economic and social statistics: its deficit-to-GDP ratio, or its unemployment rate, or the rate of literacy among it's adult women. Such statistics are important and revealing. But there is another statistic, much harder to measure, that is even more important and revealing; Does your society have more memories than dreams or more dreams than memories?"
He goes on to explain that by this he means those dreams of the positive life affirming variety. He quotes business consultant Michael Hammer who once said, "One thing that tells me that a company is in trouble is when they tell me how good they were in the past."
There is an obvious association to be made here to Southern Baptists and our denomination in general and to the local church in particular. When too many members of any organization spend too many hours and too many days looking backward, that organization is in serious trouble.
Leaders in our churches and in our denomination need to wake up to a reality that savvy lay people in our churches already know- that is that the world is changing rapidly and while we focus on the glories of the past, the future is already here and a new future is being defined almost hourly. In an environment such as this, we need MANY more dreams than memories.
As an example, consider South Asia and the pacific rim. China and India are gaining ground rapidly on the west and it is only a matter of time before the two thirds world will be the dominant market place. As Jay Kessler once said, "the east and west have passed in the night." Soon there will be more Asian Christians than North American believers. The American church will one day have to come to grips with the reality that it is not the center of the universe. There is a movement of the Spirit that is taking place in other cultures and in other places that transcends our particular brand of cultural Christianity. Christ called us to carry the gospel in to every dark corner of the world, he did not mandate that we make Southern Baptists of every nation tribe and tongue.
Most people I know who have spent time overseas and have observed what God is doing in the nations, have more dreams than memories.
My concern for the SBC is that we are so distracted by the past, that we are not engaging present realities. We obsess over inconsequentials. At the exact moment that our dreams should be getting bigger, our tent is getting smaller. I agree with Ed Stetzer who recently was asked what he would tell young pastors who ask if they should bail on the SBC:
I would tell them, “don't.” As a matter of fact, I just wrote an email to a young pastor of a well known megachurch asking me if it was worth it—and I told him it was. But, honestly, I find myself making that statement with more frequency today than ever before. We have already preached most of my middle-aged Purpose Driven friends out of the convention and now it seems that some want to so the same to the next generation. We need understand that if we keep choosing our traditions over our young pastors, we may have our traditions; we will not have our young pastors.
Don't get me wrong, I know that our doctrinal purity is of great importance. We cannot truly worship Him, unless we truly KNOW Him. We are right to hold up doctrine to the intense light of discernment and careful scrutiny. As I have written many times here, I believe that the loss of doctrine is a scandal of our age. I am calling for a strong anchor in our faith AND a broad sail for our forward movement.
I am only saying that if we are not careful we will wake up one day and find that we have been so concerned with our memory, that we have had no time for our dreams.
"Analysts have always tended to measure a society by classical economic and social statistics: its deficit-to-GDP ratio, or its unemployment rate, or the rate of literacy among it's adult women. Such statistics are important and revealing. But there is another statistic, much harder to measure, that is even more important and revealing; Does your society have more memories than dreams or more dreams than memories?"
He goes on to explain that by this he means those dreams of the positive life affirming variety. He quotes business consultant Michael Hammer who once said, "One thing that tells me that a company is in trouble is when they tell me how good they were in the past."
There is an obvious association to be made here to Southern Baptists and our denomination in general and to the local church in particular. When too many members of any organization spend too many hours and too many days looking backward, that organization is in serious trouble.
Leaders in our churches and in our denomination need to wake up to a reality that savvy lay people in our churches already know- that is that the world is changing rapidly and while we focus on the glories of the past, the future is already here and a new future is being defined almost hourly. In an environment such as this, we need MANY more dreams than memories.
As an example, consider South Asia and the pacific rim. China and India are gaining ground rapidly on the west and it is only a matter of time before the two thirds world will be the dominant market place. As Jay Kessler once said, "the east and west have passed in the night." Soon there will be more Asian Christians than North American believers. The American church will one day have to come to grips with the reality that it is not the center of the universe. There is a movement of the Spirit that is taking place in other cultures and in other places that transcends our particular brand of cultural Christianity. Christ called us to carry the gospel in to every dark corner of the world, he did not mandate that we make Southern Baptists of every nation tribe and tongue.
Most people I know who have spent time overseas and have observed what God is doing in the nations, have more dreams than memories.
My concern for the SBC is that we are so distracted by the past, that we are not engaging present realities. We obsess over inconsequentials. At the exact moment that our dreams should be getting bigger, our tent is getting smaller. I agree with Ed Stetzer who recently was asked what he would tell young pastors who ask if they should bail on the SBC:
I would tell them, “don't.” As a matter of fact, I just wrote an email to a young pastor of a well known megachurch asking me if it was worth it—and I told him it was. But, honestly, I find myself making that statement with more frequency today than ever before. We have already preached most of my middle-aged Purpose Driven friends out of the convention and now it seems that some want to so the same to the next generation. We need understand that if we keep choosing our traditions over our young pastors, we may have our traditions; we will not have our young pastors.
Don't get me wrong, I know that our doctrinal purity is of great importance. We cannot truly worship Him, unless we truly KNOW Him. We are right to hold up doctrine to the intense light of discernment and careful scrutiny. As I have written many times here, I believe that the loss of doctrine is a scandal of our age. I am calling for a strong anchor in our faith AND a broad sail for our forward movement.
I am only saying that if we are not careful we will wake up one day and find that we have been so concerned with our memory, that we have had no time for our dreams.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
every member a missionary
If the church as we know it is to survive into the next century, there must be a shift from consumerism to missional, from an inwardly focused needs based ministry model to an outwardly focused every member a missionary mentality. We will need to begin to define the church not by numbers in seats, but by our influence on the streets.
As Cromwell famously said, "it is time to put the saints in circulation".
Consider the following from the latest edition of SBC Life:
As the world draws closer together, perceptions are impacted as much by global values as by traditional influences. The result is that outreach methodology that assumes a biblical worldview is no longer effective. People do not assume a Judeo-Christian God or a biblical vision of heaven. This is why old methods are no longer effective as witnessed by the above statistics.
My contention is that the church must get back to her roots. The early church spread rapidly in a similar world. The Greco-Roman culture was influenced by shifts in globalization, polytheism and the detrimental results of hedonistic humanism. In this environment, the church thrived as it lived out the gospel and practiced a radical love for others. Their compassionate outreach and moral lifestyle (written about by non-biblical sources such as Pliny the Younger, Trajan and Josephus as well as biblical accounts) is well documented with the result being a rapid spread of the church throughout the Roman world. Despite persecution, corrupt dictatorships and competing worldviews, Christianity was the dominant religion in the Roman world in just 300 years.
I believe that as with the first century church, the current challenges provide a tremendous opportunity for the church to be what the church was always intended to be.
One of the clearest voices making this point today is Ed Stetzer. He will be with us here in Oklahoma City next Thursday and Friday at the Compelling Church conference sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. It is a rare opportunity to spend time with someone of Ed's knowledge and insight. I would encourage especially our leadership to attend this conference. Click here to register for the event.
As Cromwell famously said, "it is time to put the saints in circulation".
Consider the following from the latest edition of SBC Life:
- SBC baptisms are at their lowest levels in twelve years;
- Seventy-three percent of SBC churches are plateaued or declining;
- There were 11,740 SBC churches that reported zero or one baptism in 2005;
- Fifty-five percent of SBC churches baptized no youth between the ages of 12-17 in 2004;
- From 1991-2004 the number of unchurched adults in America increased from 39 million to 79 million.
- Every county in North America is at least 50 percent unchurched (statistics available from NAMB).
As the world draws closer together, perceptions are impacted as much by global values as by traditional influences. The result is that outreach methodology that assumes a biblical worldview is no longer effective. People do not assume a Judeo-Christian God or a biblical vision of heaven. This is why old methods are no longer effective as witnessed by the above statistics.
My contention is that the church must get back to her roots. The early church spread rapidly in a similar world. The Greco-Roman culture was influenced by shifts in globalization, polytheism and the detrimental results of hedonistic humanism. In this environment, the church thrived as it lived out the gospel and practiced a radical love for others. Their compassionate outreach and moral lifestyle (written about by non-biblical sources such as Pliny the Younger, Trajan and Josephus as well as biblical accounts) is well documented with the result being a rapid spread of the church throughout the Roman world. Despite persecution, corrupt dictatorships and competing worldviews, Christianity was the dominant religion in the Roman world in just 300 years.
I believe that as with the first century church, the current challenges provide a tremendous opportunity for the church to be what the church was always intended to be.
One of the clearest voices making this point today is Ed Stetzer. He will be with us here in Oklahoma City next Thursday and Friday at the Compelling Church conference sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. It is a rare opportunity to spend time with someone of Ed's knowledge and insight. I would encourage especially our leadership to attend this conference. Click here to register for the event.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Sunday, February 4, 2007
pressing on
"Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on to take hold of that which God has called me heavanward in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:14)
Perhaps you have heard the story of the minister who told his congregation, "I am determined to bring this church into the 1980s!"
Afterward, a deacon gently told him, "pastor, you said you will bring us into the 80s. This is 2007!"
The pastor replied, "I am taking us there one decade at a time."
Occasionally I run into Christians who equate their virtueousness to a particular century or decade (the King James Onliest who visited our church a couple of years ago comes to mind). Despite their volume and passion, my sense is that in total they are an anomaly. By historical standards, Christianity is most progressive. Although the modern church is often guilty of borrowing too much from culture, there is also a positive reverse affect we don't often see. Christianity has always influenced a forward movement- a progression. In spite of what we might think, it is not always the other way around. Jesus told Peter, "upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it...". The church has played offense ever since.
My belief is that the proper interpretation of scripture is to see it as progressive history in motion. Every book of the Bible is eschatological in nature. That is to say, it is pointing us to a future point in time. In the Genesis account, the Lord God tells the enemy, "He will crush your head and you will bruise His heal..." Thus the entire theme of the Old Testament is established, and the rest of scripture is the story of a how history moves us toward that central event when Christ deals Satan a deadly blow at the cross.
But still this is not the end of the story.
From the point of His resurrection and ascension He points the church to that time in the future when history culminates into the final victory at His coming. The text is living and active; as such it is constantly moving us through time and into every culture until the day that every nation, tongue and tribe will behold His glory.
Scripture, in other words, is dynamic in nature, it is not static, fixed in time. From the beginning we learn that God is on mission and is calling us into His redemptive work. By it's nature and it's objective, His word is obsessed with the future, pointing us to the coming day of the Lord. As one reads scripture, the cumulative affect is that his eyes are continually pointed forward.
The church therefore is called to redeem culture and move it along. Throughout history the product of a "Christianized" culture has been an openness and optimism. The City of God pulls upwardly on the city of man. Consider that Christian theology is the parent of all the sciences; that when you find the vestiges of Christianity, you will find soup kitchens, charity houses, hospitals, and orphanages. But you will also find elementary schools, universities and seminaries.
As John Calvin famously said, "all truth is God's truth."
Contrast this with other religions. When you google the words "Hindu hospital", you will get about 150 hits; "Buddhist hospital" gets about 700. When you google "Christian hospital" on the other hand, you will get about 150,000 hits. This fact is all the more remarkable when you consider the sheer poverty numbers in the populations of Hindu and Buddhist dominated countries.
Not a scientific study I know, but when many of us went to Sri Lanka a couple of years to help out with tsunami relief, there were Christian charities on every street corner- we did not see a single Hindu or Buddhist charity.
When I asked one Sri Lankan what he noticed that was different between Christians he met in the relief effort and the Buddhists he has known his whole life, his answer was, "Christian monks serve the people, Buddhist monks are served by the people."
In his book "The World is Flat", Thomas Friedman points out that Muslim societies are far behind Judeo-Christian ones not just in economics and technology, but in education and innovation. He theorizes that unlike Christianity or Judaism's view of their scripture, Islamic dogma forbids the interpretation of the Koran. It is to be memorized and quoted, but not interpreted into it's current culture. The affect of this is that Islam is fixed in the middle ages. As the world has been "flattened" by affects of the Internet and satellite television, the Muslim world is humiliated by her relative lack of power and influence.
He quotes an Egyptian playwright who wrote of the hijackers after 9-11:
"They walk around the streets of the world
looking for tall buildings to knock down,
because they know that they cannot be
as tall as the buildings."
There are some Christians who are fixated on the past. There are some who read their Bibles and look negatively at the future. I think they are reading it upside down and backward. When I read scripture I am joyful and optimistic. "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on to take hold of that which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Sometimes the most effective way to understand the necessity of a truly wholistic biblical world view, and to see the reason that it has always been and must always be pressing us on to what God has called us to, is to contrast it with what it is not.
Afterward, a deacon gently told him, "pastor, you said you will bring us into the 80s. This is 2007!"
The pastor replied, "I am taking us there one decade at a time."
Occasionally I run into Christians who equate their virtueousness to a particular century or decade (the King James Onliest who visited our church a couple of years ago comes to mind). Despite their volume and passion, my sense is that in total they are an anomaly. By historical standards, Christianity is most progressive. Although the modern church is often guilty of borrowing too much from culture, there is also a positive reverse affect we don't often see. Christianity has always influenced a forward movement- a progression. In spite of what we might think, it is not always the other way around. Jesus told Peter, "upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it...". The church has played offense ever since.
My belief is that the proper interpretation of scripture is to see it as progressive history in motion. Every book of the Bible is eschatological in nature. That is to say, it is pointing us to a future point in time. In the Genesis account, the Lord God tells the enemy, "He will crush your head and you will bruise His heal..." Thus the entire theme of the Old Testament is established, and the rest of scripture is the story of a how history moves us toward that central event when Christ deals Satan a deadly blow at the cross.
But still this is not the end of the story.
From the point of His resurrection and ascension He points the church to that time in the future when history culminates into the final victory at His coming. The text is living and active; as such it is constantly moving us through time and into every culture until the day that every nation, tongue and tribe will behold His glory.
Scripture, in other words, is dynamic in nature, it is not static, fixed in time. From the beginning we learn that God is on mission and is calling us into His redemptive work. By it's nature and it's objective, His word is obsessed with the future, pointing us to the coming day of the Lord. As one reads scripture, the cumulative affect is that his eyes are continually pointed forward.
The church therefore is called to redeem culture and move it along. Throughout history the product of a "Christianized" culture has been an openness and optimism. The City of God pulls upwardly on the city of man. Consider that Christian theology is the parent of all the sciences; that when you find the vestiges of Christianity, you will find soup kitchens, charity houses, hospitals, and orphanages. But you will also find elementary schools, universities and seminaries.
As John Calvin famously said, "all truth is God's truth."
Contrast this with other religions. When you google the words "Hindu hospital", you will get about 150 hits; "Buddhist hospital" gets about 700. When you google "Christian hospital" on the other hand, you will get about 150,000 hits. This fact is all the more remarkable when you consider the sheer poverty numbers in the populations of Hindu and Buddhist dominated countries.
Not a scientific study I know, but when many of us went to Sri Lanka a couple of years to help out with tsunami relief, there were Christian charities on every street corner- we did not see a single Hindu or Buddhist charity.
When I asked one Sri Lankan what he noticed that was different between Christians he met in the relief effort and the Buddhists he has known his whole life, his answer was, "Christian monks serve the people, Buddhist monks are served by the people."
In his book "The World is Flat", Thomas Friedman points out that Muslim societies are far behind Judeo-Christian ones not just in economics and technology, but in education and innovation. He theorizes that unlike Christianity or Judaism's view of their scripture, Islamic dogma forbids the interpretation of the Koran. It is to be memorized and quoted, but not interpreted into it's current culture. The affect of this is that Islam is fixed in the middle ages. As the world has been "flattened" by affects of the Internet and satellite television, the Muslim world is humiliated by her relative lack of power and influence.
He quotes an Egyptian playwright who wrote of the hijackers after 9-11:
"They walk around the streets of the world
looking for tall buildings to knock down,
because they know that they cannot be
as tall as the buildings."
There are some Christians who are fixated on the past. There are some who read their Bibles and look negatively at the future. I think they are reading it upside down and backward. When I read scripture I am joyful and optimistic. "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on to take hold of that which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Sometimes the most effective way to understand the necessity of a truly wholistic biblical world view, and to see the reason that it has always been and must always be pressing us on to what God has called us to, is to contrast it with what it is not.
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