Daily Devotions: Enduring Forever

Post-modern idealism is heretical.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

I was reading an article yesterday on what has been called post-modernism. It’s a trend that has been affecting our society since the 1990’s. Post modern people think everything is relative and that there are no certainties anymore. What one person experiences, thinks, and believes is just as important, valuable, and truthful as what the next person experiences, thinks, and believes. The hope is that if enough people adopt a post-modern attitude then we will be able to solve all of the conflicts, divisions, and disunity in the world. In other words, an enlightened post-modern humanity can become its own Savior.

And that’s precisely the trouble with this kind of thinking. Christ becomes redundant. He is no longer the Savior of the World, but only another religious teacher. We replace Jesus with our own philosophical and cultural ideals. We idolize humanity and discard the divinity of Christ.

It’s called ‘heresy’ which is a word that post-modernists abhor. How can anyone be called a heretic, they protest, when no one knows the absolute truth? And when people like me write about the insidious nature of heresy in our church, culture, and society, we’re accused of being narrow-minded, arrogant, and insensitive to this post-modern phenomenon that is circulating around the world.

But here’s my two cents on the whole issue: the World has constantly sought to diminish, dilute, and discard God’s Word. Jesus was crucified for His absolutist ideas and uncompromising teaching. The First Christians were persecuted and martyred for their unconditional beliefs and unwavering loyalty to Christ. Do we honestly believe that we know better than those who walked and talked with Jesus? Are we saying that our post-modern views are more valuable than Christ dying on the Cross?

The Word of God, as the writer of Hebrews states, is living and active. It cuts through our post-modern idealism and narcissistic society. It penetrates our self-absorption and disturbs our one world philosophies. It challenges our cherished ideals and upsets our self-centered 21^st century sickness that heretically separates us from God. We don’t like it; we fight against it; and we defiantly won’t embrace it.

But when post-modernism has turned to dust, God’s Word and Christ’s Gospel will remain. And so long as the wheel of Time turns, people of all ages, cultures, languages, and races will come to Christ and accept Him personally as their Lord and Savior. Heretics may come and go, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the Christ of History and the Savior of the World. Kingdoms may rise and fall, ideas and philosophies may emerge and diminish, but Your Gospel and God’s Word endures forever. Forgive us for embracing false ways and preserve from allowing heresy to harm our faith. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Episcopalian Bishop - A Modern Heretic

Thank God that we don’t burn heretics at the stake anymore. The terrifying reign of the Spanish Inquisition and the European wars of religion are well and truly over. In Western society, people are allowed to think freely and express their beliefs publicly without fear of torture or execution. However, heresy still persists in the Church and our modern dilemma is all about how we deal with it.

Take the American Episcopalian Church for instance. Last week its presiding bishop and leader, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, announced at a meeting that Jesus is only a way to salvation. At the time, she was being asked to be more precise about this, so Schori stated that she could not limit God to one way of salvation.

This is heresy. The Gospels and the New Testament are very clear about who Jesus is and how unique His role is as the Savior of the World. Jesus Himself states that He is the Only, Way, Truth, and Life, and that no one can come to God except through Him. In the Book of Acts, when Peter is boldly preaching before his opponents, he has this to say, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Our Episcopalian brothers and sisters now have dilemma of their own – whether to depose Schori for her brazen heresy, or to seek the Gospel Truth in other churches that are loyal to our Lord.

Schori argues that Jesus is only one way to salvation because she doesn’t want to limit God. But if God has so particularly chosen Jesus to be His One and Only Anointed Savior,  then Schori is misleading her people and defiantly misinterpreting Christ’s role, ministry, and mission.

For me, Schori is a heretic and a dangerous one because she is the leader of her church. I hope that American Episcopalians see her errors and seek to depose her. Schori is no Christ, nor is salvation to be found in her misleading theological ideas and opinions. The New Testament Christians were unequivocal when it came to proclaiming Christ’s uniqueness, authenticity, and divine role as Savior of the world. We would do well to keep the faith with them, and not some errant followers of their own misguided and worldly thoughts.

Prayer:                        Lord God, we pray for our brothers and sisters in the Episcopalian Church. We ask that You protect them from heresy and enable them to oust those who would lead them away from Your Son Jesus Christ. Keep us vigilant in our own faith and help us to rely upon Christ the One and Only Savior of the World. In His Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

4 Minute Devotions: Jesus Never Existed

People believe many things about Jesus that are just not true. The Christ of their deluded minds never existed.

Podcast version here

John 2:25 He did not need man's testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.

Jesus did not exist.

Let me qualify that statement: the huggy-touchy, airy-fairy, freely feely, open-minded, peace happy hippy Jesus never existed. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve come across Christians in the world and on the internet who believe that Christ was a totally tolerant freedom worshipper Who completely accepted everyone’s ideas about God and inclusively embraced their individual opinions. They obviously have only scanned the Gospels and have never truly read, believed, or accepted what Jesus actually thought, said, and did.

I feel sorry for those who shape Christ into their own kind of savior and make Him into a happy collage of their own misunderstanding. Instead of being challenged and changed by Jesus, they toy with and turn Him into a tolerable figment of their own imagination. They want Jesus to be always joyful and never judgmental. They want Christ to be carefree and never constrictive. They want Him to be the Prince of peace and harmony, but never the Absolute Monarch of heaven and earth. They want fiction, not facts. They want grandiose tales and not the Gospel truth.

It’s time to stand up to them because they’re leading the church astray and heading down a path that leads to death. Jesus does not need their untrue testimony because He knows what is in man: arrogance and self-deception, delusion and narcissism, pride and hedonism.

As I wrote before, this modern-conceptualized Jesus did not exist. It’s time to step back from the abyss of heresy, hearsay, and unbelief. It’s time to truly read the Gospels and let God reveal to the Church His Holy Son once again.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, sadly there are many people who think they are Christians because they worship a Christ of their own making. They are deluded and dangerous; heretical and harmful; rebellious and wrong. Keep us true to Your ways and words. Protect us from their misguidance and malevolence. In Your Holy Name, we faithfully pray. Amen.