June 2001
Just recently I was asked to lead the midweek Bible study on 2 Corinthians 10:1-2 in which Paul warns the Corinthian Church:
By the meekness and gentleness o f Christ, I appeal to you-- I, Paul, who am "timid" when face to face with you, but "bold" when away! I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be towards some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. (2Co.10:1-2)
Rather then try to explain what some of the problems that were facing the Corinthian church, I wanted to draw out the fact that we too have slipped toward the world. I started the study with a concise overview of "modernity" and its effect on the church. Modernity, otherwise know as "modernism", as opposed to "post-modernism", is a period of time in which scientific discovery and invention caused society to make a paradigm shift from what was thought to be truth to newly discovered truth. It started after the mid-1800's and ended before the mid-1900's: being a movement its start and finish are vague; yet its changes in society gave it definition. It became evident that not only had society changed but also its changes were irreversible. It's basic philosophy was two fold: first, "There is no God, there is no sin; everything has a physical cause." And second, "Man controls his own destiny and given enough time and money, man is the solution to all his problems." In essence, God was replaced by science. Now science was to correct all the problems that were thought to come through the belief in God. God warned us of this:
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is for ever praised. Amen. (Ro.1:25)
For one needs faith to see a creator, while science offers hope from all that one could see. Key changes which ushered in modernity were:
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (Ja.5:14-16)
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food
until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Ge.3:19)The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no-one who does good. (Ps 53:1)
It was the belief that science, invention, and society was evolving that caused man to conclude that there was no sin nature, rather man was becoming more civilized in and of himself. This is clearly indicated at the end of World War 1, where people referred to it, "The war to end all wars." Therefore, these are some of the causes and effects of what some call modernity, let us now consider its effect on the church.
Modernity's effect was primarily felt in the protestant church even though it entered the church at a much later date. For on the whole, the church was not going to drop some of its practices without having reasons why change was necessary. In this way, scientific discovery, whether anthropology, biology, physics, or one of the other sciences, challenged biblical truth. The relevance of scripture was judged on scientific merit, rather then the previous practice that scientific discovery must always agree with Biblical truth. An example of this is found in the woman's liberation movement: If sin does not exist, then why male headship? Soon, the husband as head of the home, was challenged, making the home a co-leadership. Not realizing that they in effect were destining the destruction of the home. Christ warned:
If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. (Mk.3:25)
So why do we wonder why divorce has become such a problem? Once headship was deemed archaic, divorced become prevalent in the church, and remarriage soon followed. In less then forty years the church went from no divorce and remarriage to where it is rampant in most churches. All the commands that the world deemed outdated, the church now redefined in light of new cultural studies which classified them as being only for the day in which they were written. Again the Bible warns us of this:
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2Ti.4:3-4)
Paul also says this about them:
…always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. (2Ti.3:7)
It wasn't enough to challenge our obedience to the scriptures, modernity also challenged the very concept of sin. No longer were sins like drunkenness sin, rather it was a psychological disorder, a sickness for which the man was no longer responsible. No longer was homosexuality a detestable sin, rather it was a genetic disorder; an anomaly for which the person was not responsible. The modernists in the church challenge that science proved homosexuality a sickness, to oust a homosexual out of the church is like ousting those with cancer. Jude was right when he prophesied:
For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 1:4)
I could go on describing how modernists have infiltrated the schools of theology, preaching their propaganda, yet this will not help you regain what we have lost. First we need to regain the foundation: any scientific discovery must be scrutinized by the Bible, and where it does not agree with Biblical truth either their data, or their interpretation of their data must be classified as error:
"Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another." (1Co.4:6)
If some preacher, teacher or other, comes and contradicts the need for scriptural obedience, we must realize who they are and put them out of the church. Should they persist we must conclude:
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1Jo 4:1)
If some in our churches claimed they have not sinned, but are merely suffering from a disorder, God's word is final:
But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. (1Co.5:9-11)
Satan will always try to make sin acceptable in the church, modernity has been one of his more recent efforts. We, in the church, must be vigilant, always watching as the Berean Christians
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Ac.17:11)
Therefore the Christian religion must be more then a belief in God, we must be true to his Word:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (Ja.1:27)