76 Sermon Illustrations on Culture

An Englishman would live twenty years in a house without knowing his neighbors: a Frenchman would know all of them in twenty-four hours. Let the sociable Frenchman be planted among the tattooed islanders of the South Seas, and in two years he would be found tattooed: put an Englishman in the same position, and he would be king of the island in the time.

— Kossuth

When things all move so fast, Christian men must be wide-awake if they would have morals and religion keep pace with material progress:

Such is the pace at which we live to-day that, while millions of people in this country have not yet got up to the stage of “civilization” represented by the use of gas, but when they encounter it casually employ it suicidally, other millions have outgrown and discarded it, and will have none of it even for a curling-iron or a chafing-dish, let alone for lighting. To put it briefly, the use of electricity for lighting in New York State alone has increased over 2,000 per cent in ten years, and the use of electricity for power, also from central stations, has increased in the decade nearly 1,200 per cent. And yet the electricians are inclined to think they have only just started in. (Text.)--_The Electrical World and Engineer._

As long as a family thought itself comfortably furnished with a chest or two, a wardrobe, a box-bedstead, a dozen earthenware pots of different sizes, and three or four vessels of pewter or copper, each one of these objects of utility might become a vehicle for a good deal of artistic thought. The piece would be handed down from mother to daughter, from father to son. At all events, it would be made with that possibility in mind. It was made to last, and in an artistic community it would be the object of a good deal of careful consideration as to its form and as to the little adornments that might be added to it. Now, however, when the poorest family requires two hundred utensils of one and another kind, and finds, moreover, that these utensils are furnished at an incredibly low price by great companies which make them by the thousand and force them upon the customer with favorable opportunities for immediate delivery and gradual payment, the possibility of having the common objects of life beautiful has gone.--RUSSELL STURGIS, “Lubke’s History of Art.”

The growth of population in the area now covered by Greater New York is shown thus in _The Tribune_:

1910 4,766,883 1900 3,437,202 1890 2,507,414 1880 1,911,698 1870 1,478,103 1860 1,174,779 1850 696,115 1840 391,114 1830 242,278 1820 152,056 1810 119,734 1800 79,216 1790 49,401

The following interesting figures are given by the Washington correspondent of _The Times_:

[Illustration]

New York now has a population greater than many of the countries of the world, for instance, Australia in 1908 had within its borders 4,275,306 persons, exclusive of the aborigines, while Ireland (1909) had a population of 4,374,158. Bulgaria in 1908 showed a census return of 4,158,409, and Denmark and Greece, respectively, had 2,659,000 and 2,632,000 subjects of their kings. Norway in the same year was populated by 2,350,786 persons, and Switzerland by 3,559,000.

The figures in the cut above exhibit fifty years of New York’s expansion.

The fifteen largest cities of the world, each having more than one million population are as follows:

London 7,537,196 New York 4,766,883 Paris 2,714,068 Tokyo 2,085,160 Berlin 2,040,148 Chicago 1,698,575 St. Petersburg 1,678,000 Vienna 1,674,957 Canton 1,600,000 Peking 1,600,000 (estimated) Moscow 1,359,254 Philadelphia 1,293,697 Constantinople 1,125,000 (estimated) Osaka 1,117,151 Calcutta 1,026,987 and suburbs

Only forty-seven per cent of our population of working age reside in the country districts; they furnish fifty-seven per cent of our successful men, while the cities, with twenty per cent of the population, furnish seventeen per cent.

Dr. Harlan P. Beach says:

In China there are customs which are more important than etiquette. I met a man who had been shaking from head to feet “You have had chills and fever, haven’t you?” I said sympathizingly. He came very near taking my head off, because there is a special god who runs chills and fever, and if he hears a man has chills and fever and is getting over it, he will give him another shake. I had gone against their deadly custom. Another incident of the same sort happened one day when a doctor of divinity saw a cheap sedan chair and bought it. A millionaire globe-trotter used it that day for sight-seeing, and when he reached the missionary compound, he exclaimed, “I have been outrageously treated by the heathen. The whole city was out laughing at me. As soon as I appeared, every man rushed out of his shop, and the streets were in an uproar.” The doctor of divinity asked his native teacher for an explanation. Now, a teacher is never supposed to smile from one day’s end to another, but that dignified teacher, glass, goggles, and all, doubled up with laughter when he saw the chair. “You really must excuse me,” he said, “but that kind of a chair is used only in funeral processions for the spirit of the dead to ride in.” It was as tho a man should ride through our city sitting up in a hearse.

The martial resources of China are not yet developed, but that astute people have hit upon another plan to conquer and hold that which they regard as their own. A current news item from that country says:

China’s chief method of recovering Manchuria is to overrun it with emigrants from the congested mother country, and this plan has worked so well that already Japanese newspapers complain that the Japanese are losing both trade and ground there. Soon after the peace of Portsmouth the Chinese government contributed two million taels for emigration; free transportation began, at the beginning of the year, and in the spring months following as many as three thousand to four thousand coolies got off the train at Harbin daily. The Russians, who, before the war, considered themselves masters of the northern regions, are realizing that they are being crowded out altogether.

This is a suggestion of the peaceful but powerful forces that are at work in changing the map of the world.

How closely our own history and our songs are connected! One can not properly teach our “Star-spangled Banner” without going quite into detail and telling the thrilling incidents surrounding its creation. No wedding of poetry and music has ever been made under more inspiring circumstances. It was caught up in the camps, sung around the bivouac-fires, and whistled in the streets. When peace was declared and the soldiers went back to their homes, they carried this song in their hearts, as the most precious souvenir of the War of 1812. Then there are other patriotic songs, all one with our history. Boys, as a rule, prefer these songs, and will sing them with a hearty zest. I think they must appreciate the feeling of the young major in a Confederate uniform, who said: “Boys, if we’d had your songs, we’d have licked you out of your boots! Who couldn’t have marched and fought with such songs?”--ELIZABETH CASTERTON, “Journal of the National Educational Association,” 1905.

See PRECAUTION.

LANGUAGE, FORMATION OF

For three centuries after the battle of Hastings French was the language of the upper classes, of courts and schools and literature; yet so tenaciously did the common people cling to their own strong speech that in the end English absorbed almost the whole body of French words and became the language of the land. It was the welding of Saxon and French into one speech that produced the wealth of our modern English.--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”

Welsh, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Finnish, and Armenian music is apt to be pitched in plaintive, mournful, minor keys. A Welsh preacher explained to an English congregation why Welsh tunes were thus habitually pathetic. It is because for centuries liberties were lost under Saxon domination. So, in Russia, visitors were imprest by the tender and melancholy tho beautiful strains of the national melodies. People when opprest sing sadly; but liberty and joy emancipate even the music of a nation. (Text.)

[Illustration: FORECAST FOR 1920 CONDITIONS IN 1909]

NAVIES OF THE WORLD

The naval strength of the principal countries of the world is shown in the chart and table here given. The total number of ships credited to Russia includes a disproportionate number of small and obsolete vessels. The chart gives a forecast of naval strength reckoned from the known naval progress of the powers. A comparison of the naval strength of the United States with Japan in this forecast shows how baseless are the notes of alarm of a “yellow peril.”

Talk about dissipations, ye who have ever seen the old-fashioned sideboard! Did I not have an old relative who always, when visitors came, used to go up-stairs and take a drink through economical habits, not offering anything to his visitors? On the old-fashioned training-days the most sober men were apt to take a day to themselves. Many of the familiar drinks of to-day were unknown to them, but their hard cider, mint julep, metheglin, hot toddy and lemonade in which the lemon was not at all prominent, sometimes made lively work for the broad-brimmed hats and silver knee-buckles. Talk of dissipating parties of to-day and keeping of late hours! Why, did they not have their “bees” and sausage-stuffings and tea-parties and dances, that for heartiness and uproar utterly eclipsed all the waltzes, lanciers, redowas and breakdowns of the nineteenth century, and they never went home till morning.

— T. DE WITT TALMAGE

In Japanese art every flower has a meaning. Certain flowers must never be seen together. Certain others must never be seen apart. Then, again, everything goes in threes--blossoms, boughs, or sprays. Even furniture has a meaning. The details of this etiquette are endless, and, to the Occidental mind, bewildering, unless one “has an imagination”--or, at least, an esthetic sense to which its poetic features can appeal.--MARSHALL P. WILDER, “Smiling ’Round the World.”

Movie critic Michael Medved bemoans the standards displayed in many Hollywood movies. He has criticized them, and been rebuked by the establishment. He feels Hollywood ignores soul and substance, glorifies ugliness, assaults the family, and is hostile to religion.

“One of the symptoms of the corruption and collapse of our national culture is the insistence that we examine only the surface of any work of art. The politically correct, properly liberal notion is that we would never dig deeper - to consider whether a given work is true, or good, or spiritually nourishing - or to evaluate its impact on society at large.”

“In the visual arts, in literature, in film, in music of both popular and classical variety, ugliness has been enshrined as a new standard, as we accept the ability to shock as a replacement for the old ability to inspire.”

“Today, the movie business regularly offers us characters who are smaller than life, who are less decent, less intelligent, less noble than our own friends and neighbors.”

“Hollywood portrays a world ... in which ugliness - and emptiness - emerge as the new standard for our society.”

“A war against standards leads logically and inevitably to hostility to religion, because it is religious faith that provides the ultimate basis for all standards.”

Interview with Bill Hybels on the Willow Creek phenomenon:

WHEN WE TALKED TO THEOLOGIAN DAVID WELLS, HE CAME UP WITH THE FOLLOWING QUESTION AND ANALYSIS: "WHAT KIND OF CHRISTIAN FAITH WILL YOU PRESENT OR BE LEFT WITH IF YOU ARE OBSEQUIOUSLY PROSTRATING YOURSELF BEFORE BABY BOOMERS--A GENERALLY SELF-CENTERED, RELATIVISTIC, UNLOYAL GENERATION? YOU'RE GIVING THEM A CHRIST-CULTURE THEME THAT THEY CANNOT POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND, GIVEN THEIR INHERENT NATURE. WILLOW CREEK AND ITS CLONES VIEW ALL OF CULTURE AS HARMLESS AND NEUTRAL; THEREFORE, WHY NOT ADAPT THE CHRISTIAN FAITH TO IT? THE PROBLEM IS THAT CULTURE IS LADEN WITH VALUES THAT INEVITABLY GO AGAINST THE THRUST OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE." HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND?

I think the values of our society are blatantly opposed to the values of Christ. But what we try to do at Willow Creek is say, "Come as you are. Come with your BMW and your Rolex, because even though you have caved in to the values of this sick culture, you still matter to God." And when they confess their sins and see what Christ did for them at the Cross, we begin a very aggressive value-transformation program that will not stop until they go to their graves.

HOW DO YOU MOVE A PERSON FROM A CONSUMER ORIENTATION OF FULFILLING FELT NEEDS TO A CHRISTIAN FOCUS ON SELF-DENIAL?

Through teaching, prayer, fellowship, service, discipleship, mentoring, discipline. Through all the means of grace that people have been using for 2,000 years. This isn't the first culture that's been sick. What has the church been doing for 2,000 years? It's been taking people out of a sick culture, leading them to Jesus, and then trying to inculcate his values in them.

John Seel, the author of "Evangelical Forfeit," presented us with this concern: "If you convert a person under the seeker-sensitive philosophy, how does that affect their spiritual maturity and the nature of their discipleship?" In other words, does the seeker-sensitive church's brand of discipleship inhibit the spiritual development of its members?

I don't think Willow Creek is cranking out believers who aren't maturing in their Faith. I would stack the committed core of Willow Creek against that of any church, because they not only have a growing understanding of the facts of the faith, but they also have hearts that are hurting for the lost and the poor and suffering.

We have a bench out in our lobby called the fool's bench. It got its name because sometimes when our people invite their friends to a service, they stand out in the lobby waiting for them to come. Sometimes they are still standing out there 15 minutes into the service. And their friends don't show up. They're heartbroken because they've been praying for their boss, and he said he was going to come, but he didn't show. This goes on every week at this church. That's the stuff that doesn't get attention.

We get press about our buildings, about our budgets, about our drama--but what the spotlight ought to be on is the fact that we gave away 85 vehicles to single moms last year; that we feed 350 people a month with our food pantry; that we just gave a quarter of a million dollars to our local benevolence ministries. These are the real signs that Christ is being honored in the church, and the spotlight has not been on them.

MANY CRITICS HAVE OBSERVED THAT YOUR CHURCH IS MADE UP OF WHITE, AFFLUENT SUBURBANITES--A HOMOGENEOUS PEOPLE GROUP. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR THE CHURCH'S SUCCESS FOR IT TO BE HOMOGENEOUS?

Willow Creek is almost an exact representation of our community's demography, so we are not intentionally homogeneous. It's a function of where we are. We want to be as inclusive and as integrated as we can possibly be.

DO YOU ENDORSE THE IDEA CALLED THE "HOMOGENEOUS-UNIT PRINCIPLE" IN CHURCH-GROWTH CIRCLES?

I never have. I think a church ought to reflect its neighborhood. If the neighborhood is diverse, I hope the church would be. If the neighborhood is not diverse, it's pretty hard for a church to be.

JOHN PERKINS AND OTHER LEADERS OF THE CHURCH'S RACIAL-RECONCILIATION MOVEMENT SAY THAT BECAUSE OF LONG-STANDING RACIAL BARRIERS IN OUR SOCIETY, ONE OF THE MARKS OF TRUE FAITH TODAY WOULD BE TO GO BEYOND LOCAL DEMOGRAPHICS AND TO BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT RACIAL DIVERSITY.

Periodically we meet with some of the minority groups from our church, and we say, "How do you feel? Are we doing enough? Can you help us understand how we can be a more racially and ethnically diverse congregation?" But we have not come up with initiatives that we think would be effective. So, we're interested, but we're frustrated with our ineffectiveness.

IN HIS BOOK "SELLING JESUS," DOUG WEBSTER QUOTES YOU AS SAYING, "GENERALLY A PASTOR CAN DEFINE HIS APPROPRIATE TARGET AUDIENCE BY DETERMINING WITH WHOM HE WOULD LIKE TO SPEND A VACATION OR AN AFTERNOON OF RECREATION." THAT PHILOSOPHY SOUNDS LIKE IT WOULD LEAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE OUT.

What I was trying to say was that, beyond our broad calling, it's fairly common for people to have a passion for a particular people group. The example I always turn to is the apostle Paul, who had a passion for planting churches among the Gentiles. Similarly, there are some who feel called to Generation X or to inner-city crowds or to the international student population.

ISN'T IT A PROBLEM, THOUGH, THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE COMING UP WITH THE SAME CALLING: TO WHITE, AFFLUENT, SUBURBAN BABY BOOMERS?

So are you saying that pastors are deceived--that they're not really authentically seeking God--or are you blaming God for the way God is leading those people?

IT SEEMS THAT NUMBERS PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE SEEKER-SENSITIVE MOVEMENT. CAN A SMALL CHURCH OF 100 BE SEEKER-SENSITIVE?

Absolutely.

DO YOU MEASURE YOUR EFFECTIVENESS IN PART BY NUMERICAL GROWTH?

It would be one aspect, but certainly not the most important. What we're about as a church is biblical values. We're always monitoring the values.

LET'S SAY YOU DECIDE TO DO A SERIES OF MESSAGES THAT PRESENT THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL WITH A STERN, NO-NONSENSE APPROACH. YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT THE MESSAGES AND PLAN TO DO THEM FOR SEVERAL MONTHS, BUT A COUPLE OF MONTHS INTO THEM YOU REALIZE ATTENDANCE IS GOING DOWN ON A REGULAR BASIS. WHAT DO YOU DO?

Easy answer: We keep going. We've done it in the past. If the values are right, we believe in the long run God will honor what we're doing.

MANY PASTORS RAISE THE CONCERN THAT THE SEEKER-SENSITIVE AND MEGACHURCH MOVEMENT CREATES A JOB FEW CAN DO SUCCESSFULLY--THAT IT WILL INEVITABLY BURN YOU OUT.

It is demanding. It necessitates the move toward team ministry, which flies in the face of entrepreneurial, autocratic, one-man-show types. The kind of person who likes the challenge of planting a church like Willow Creek tends to be a self-starter, a freethinking, risk-taking individual. That person can get one up and going, but keeping it going is almost sure to ruin him; there's too much to pay attention to.

ARE YOU SPEAKING AUTOBIOGRAPHICALLY?

It's been well-documented that in 1989 I almost became unglued emotionally because of the stresses associated with leading this ministry. I was 38 years old and had been an evangelical Christian most of my life and had never heard of the term that's now known worldwide-- team teaching.

That was a novel idea to me, so I went to a bunch of people and asked them about it. They said it would destroy my church. One guy said to me, "Bill, you've almost killed yourself for 15 years building this great church. If you move to team teaching, you'll watch it disintegrate right in front of your eyes." And I said, "I'm already disintegrating right in front of my eyes." So we moved to team teaching.

We've been at it for five years now, and our people would never want to go back to solo teaching. They enjoy hearing the Word of God through different voice boxes.

THE SEEKER CHURCH HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF MINIMIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF FORMAL THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. SOME CLAIM THEY'VE HEARD YOU SAY QUITTING SEMINARY WAS ONE OF THE BEST DECISIONS YOU EVER MADE.

I don't recall ever having said that. I quite often say that I feel handicapped that I did not finish seminary. When young men or women come to me and say, "I think I want to be a teacher someday in the kingdom of God, should I hang in with seminary?" I say, By all means.

SOME CHARGE THAT YOU'RE NOT REALLY ATTRACTING SEEKERS BUT DISENCHANTED CHRISTIANS FROM OTHER CHURCHES.

That's not true. We've never changed our orientation, which is toward nonchurched people.

WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS ANTIDENOMINATIONAL?

No. I would say I'm adenominational. I just don't think it's the wave of the future. I see very little loyalty to denominations anymore, especially among nonchurched people.

SINCE YOU ARE "ADENOMINATIONAL," HOW DO YOU HANDLE TRICKY DOCTRINAL ISSUES, LIKE THE CHARISMATIC GIFTS OR MODE OF BAPTISM?

Our elders just study the Scriptures, led by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we seek counsel from the outside. We'll call in different theologians and have them sit with us and mentor us in a topic. But in the final analysis, our elders will make that call.

ANOTHER CRITICISM OF THE SEEKER MOVEMENT IS THAT IT DEVALUES THE SACRAMENTS.

The Scriptures say, "Believe and be baptized." So if you become a recipient of amazing grace and haven't obeyed the Lord in this, we ask you why not? We have baptisms twice a year and Communion once a month at our believers' service.

IF YOU COULD SAY ANYTHING TO THE LEADERS OF OTHER SEEKER-ORIENTED CHURCHES, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

I would just tell them to preach the Scriptures unapologetically, to hold very close to the Acts 2 definition of a biblically functioning community, and to concentrate more on being the church than building great buildings.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE MINISTRY OF BILL HYBELS AND WILLOW CREEK COMMUNITY CHURCH IS SAYING TO THE CHURCH AS A WHOLE?

I think what I'm trying to help the body of Christ understand, if I can be so presumptuous is 1 Corinthians 12, where it says there is one Spirit, but many ministries. I have never contended that every church should be a Willow Creek. I think that would be a travesty. But I think there needs to be some Willow Creek-style churches around the country and around the world, because God is pleased to reach some of the lost through them.

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Copyright (c) 1994 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine

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#1972

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The cultural values we accept, not the ones we fight against, are the ones that will destroy the church. Before we "clean up" America there are areas Christians have to consider in their own lives.

Three areas that need to be evaluated:

1. Materialism vs. concern for poor and oppressed.

2. Political power vs. speaking the truth in love.

3. People-pleasing ministries vs. prophetic witness.

We often bring our class values into the church and call them Biblical values. Christians have to get back to reading the Bible "straight" without dilution from society's values. It almost requires a mysticism, but it has to be grounded in the historical stands of the Church. It takes hard work to maintain the counter-cultural perspective that is essential for Christian living.

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[Followed by a sidebar with Bible verses and blanks for input, and then "But the world says..." and blanks for input.]

ATTITUDES OF POST-MODERN TIMES.

1] There are no absolutes.

* 72% of those between 18-25 do not believe absolutes exist.

* 53% of evangelical Christians do not believe absolutes exist.

2] Loss of moral criteria.

What we have today is not only immoral behavior, but a loss of

moral criteria.

3] You must be tolerant.

* The only absolute truth is you must be tolerant.

* However, people are very intolerant of those who are not tolerant.

4] Objection to Christianity is not, "Is it true?," but "Why do Christians

believe they have the only truth?"

5] Truth is not the issue. The issue is power.

* The goal in life for a postmodernist is to win.

* Playing fair is not a value.

6] If there are no absolutes, then truth is relative, there can be no

stability, no meaning in life.

7] Postmodernists stress style over substance.

* The surface is more significant than the interior.

* They lack a commitment to the inner life.

8] According to postmodernists, we are all hypocrites, acting various

parts and following various scripts without any real identity

of our own. They are consumed with surface appearances.

Image is everything.

9] The tendency in the postmodern age is to evaluate everything in terms

of its entertainment value.

* Church shopping used to be, "What church has the best teaching?"

* Now church shopping is, "What church has the best worship?"

10] Postmodernism promotes the development of tribal groups.

They are terribly divided over race, money, abortion, homosexuality,

and gender roles to name a few.

* Has the church become a "tribal group," merely a segment of society

rather than an integral part of culture?

* Christians in the USA are building a parallel culture with our own

bookstores, contemporary music, TV networks, and our own

schools.

* Christians have withdrawn from the greater culture, and now the

culture is excluding us from them.

* The Church in the USA is becoming a ghetto.

11] The culture is emphasizing multiculturalism, while the church maintains

its monocultural local congregations.

* The valid life to a postmodernist is a diverse experience.

12] The postmodernist believes in what they like.

Religion is then seen as a preference, a choice.

We believe what we want to believe.

13] The difference is that today, unlike any other time in history, many

people are unwilling to believe what they do not enjoy.

14] The postmodernist 'sins' include "being judgmental," "being

narrowminded," "thinking that you have the only truth," and "trying

to enforce your values on anyone else."

#4257

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Ten years ago I wrote a book called "Against the Night," drawing a parallel between our own day and the sack of Rome by barbarians in ancient times -- and warning that the modern barbarians are already at the gates.

Little did I know that, a decade later, I would write another book -- this time about how the ancient Vikings and Vandals were eventually subdued by the Christian church ... and how we too can overcome barbarism in our day.

But to do so, we must understand how the medieval church was so successful. When Rome was sacked in AD 410, Christians were shocked. By that time, the empire had been largely Christianized, and believers frantically asked why God had not protected them. Where was divine providence?

These questions prompted Augustine to pen his great book, The City of God, warning Christians that they should not confuse the earthly city with the heavenly one. Nor should they view enemies of Rome as necessarily enemies of God. In fact, what believers really ought to do, Augustine said, is get on the ball and convert the barbarians!

And that's exactly what the Church did. After Rome fell, successive waves of barbarians overran the Roman Empire, pillaging and destroying. Cities were reduced to rubble and Roman civilization was destroyed, to be replaced by small kingdoms ruled by illiterate, barbaric warrior-kings.

In this time of cultural dissolution, it was the Church that preserved not only the religion but also the art, literature, and philosophy of Western culture.

Take, for example, St. Patrick, missionary to the Irish. St. Patrick courageously faced down pagan druids, who still practiced human sacrifice. He faced down fierce Irish warriors, who hung their enemies' skulls from their belts as trophies. Into this bloodthirsty culture St. Patrick brought the Christian message of love and forgiveness -- with remarkable results. Within his lifetime, the warriors cast aside their swords of battle, and a culture of war and illiteracy became a culture of peace and learning.

What's more, this vibrant Christian culture then sent out a flood of missionaries all across the European continent. The monks carried on their tradition of copying the Bible, along with the other classics of Western literature. Everywhere they went, the Irish monks carried their Bibles and books around their waists -- just as the Irish pagans had once tied their enemies' skulls to their waists.

Lasting peace could not come to Europe, however, until the barbarians themselves were evangelized. One of the most exciting chapters in the history of the Christian church is the conversion and transformation of the barbarians from bloodthirsty warriors into peace-loving farmers, living by the work of their hands instead of by theft and plunder.

This is how Christians are meant to function in society -- not defeatist nor despairing but always ready to rebuild and restore. Like the Roman Christians in Augustine's day, we too live in a society that was once largely Christianized, but is now succumbing to barbarism.

And we too should be rolling up our sleeves and working to convert the barbarians and rebuild the culture.

_________________________________

Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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88 of the first 100 colleges founded in America were organized to promote the gospel. Every college founded prior to the Revolutionary War--except the Univ. of Penn. was established by some Christian denomination. 52% of the graduates of Harvard University in the 17th century became ministers.

40 years ago when I was a first grade school child guns were as common as dirt. Many, if not most, adult males had a rifle or shotgun in the closet. Or in a rack in an unlocked truck. Many, if not most, had a .38 revolver in the nightstand drawer near their bed or in the glove box of the car. You could buy a revolver or even a 20mm anti-tank rifle through the mail from advertisers who placed ads in popular magazines.

There were no schoolyard massacres in those days. In those days the possession of so much as a Tijuana stag film could get an adult a few days in the pokey. Booze could not be sold from after midnight Saturday until Monday morning. Stores closed up by 6 PM on every other evening, 9 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. No stores were open on Sunday. The vagrancy laws were enforced, as were the curfew laws for children. If you spoke a racial slur or derogatory remark about someone’s family you were likely to get a broken nose for your pains. And then get whipped when you got home and had to explain yourself. Children were not allowed to talk back to their parents, nor were they allowed to run like a pack of wild animals through the stores or up and down the streets. Parents were the authorities you had to answer to. Punishment was a bar of soap in the mouth for lesser crimes and a belt across the buttocks for more serious offenses. All adults in the community were to be obeyed and respected. All adults in the community held themselves to be responsible for all the children.

Credit was something precious and hard to get, a badge of higher standing in the community. Bankruptcy was shameful, as was illegitimate birth. A young man who got a girl pregnant and didn’t do right by her would never get a responsible job in his own town and would have to spend years proving himself again as trustworthy. Thrift and virtue, viginity and self restraint, self-reliance and moral character were hallmarks of respect and public esteem.

Ministers, School authorities, Parents, all firmly believed that they had a moral responsibility to live and conduct themselves, and hold others to high standards of moral conduct and good character. They believed that setting an example for others was a civic obligation. The badge of authority of adulthood.

There were no schoolyard massacres in those days.

America, Since that time you have universalized every form of pornography and filth. You now have normalized every kind and type of perversion and deviancy. You have taught and rewarded Moral Relativism from kindergarten on through university for the last 4 decades. America you have made the murder of babies in the womb a routine substitute for moral character and an acceptable form of birth control, and in so doing proclaimed to all your children that their lives are worthless to you. You have allowed them to become the wards of the state by abandoning them to the public schools and turning your teachers into daycare workers and babysitters. You have encouraged and rewarded your children for remaining in a state of immaturity long into their adult years by remaining in that state of self-absorbed immaturity yourself. You have tolerated and rationalized, and justified self-indulgence as an enshrined right.

You, America, planted the seeds of wanton greed, lust, self-glorification, self-righteousness and arrogance. You have pacified your military into garbage collectors and traffic cops. You have militarized your policemen into para-military goon squads and unsupervised spy organizations. You have turned your face away and allowed priests to molest children and go unpunished. You have allowed your judges to become Social Experimenters. You have allowed your leaders to commit flagrant and public crimes and shouted down and demonized those who would hold them accountable. You have closed your eyes to blatant criminal activity and acts of war by your elected representatives so long as your wealth and positions are not harmed.

You have labored mightily for forty years and defended your choices against any and all who tried to stop the evil. You have made yourselves into indentured servants to unlimited desires and enslaved yourselves to mindless passions. You have elevated the most corrupt to the highest positions and persecuted those who would try to undo the horrors.

Now in your advancing years the fruits of your labors have come home to you. Now the seeds of destruction you sowed and nurtured and defended have flourished and are reaching their appointed harvest.

Why are you now surprised? You have reached the ultimate fulfillment of all your desires and dreams. Your aspirations have reached maturity. These are your children America. They are everything you raised them to be. They are the epitome of everything you slaved for all these years.

The children who have been performing these hideous acts of evil, these schoolyard massacres are not nice, normal, “ good kids “ who suddenly became deranged, slavering psychotics after touching a gun. Each and every one of them signaled their intent through their behavior months, years in advance. Each of them was known to parents, teachers, police, and other children as being twisted, perverse, dangerous and blatantly so. Each had a long history of flagrantly violent and dangerous behavior that was known to everyone they ever came into contact with.

Where were the adults all those years?

This is your reward for your lifetime’s success at sabotaging, betraying, denying and overturning a thousand years of law, morality, religion and culture. Embrace your legacy, your monstrous offspring. They are the mirror image of you, their parents and the society you have reshaped.

For a generation you have fought long and hard to achieve this day, You have succeeded. Now those other days are gone. Then, children respected their elders. Parents respected themselves, each other, and their leaders. America was respected by her friends, and by her enemies.

There were no schoolyard massacres in those days.

Many parents are hard pressed to explain to their youth why that some music, movies, books, and magazines are not acceptable material for them to bring into the home or to listen to or see.

One parent came up with an original idea that is hard to refute. The father listened to all the reasons his children gave for wanting to see a particular PG-13 movie. It had their favorite actors. Everyone else was seeing it. Even church members said it was great. It was only rated PG-13 because of the suggestion of sex–they never really showed it. The language was pretty good–the Lord’s name was only used in vain three times in the whole movie.

The teens did admit there was a scene where a building and a bunch of people were blown up, but the violence was just the normal stuff. It wasn’t too bad. And even if there were a few minor things, the special effects were fabulous and the plot was action packed.

However, even with all the justifications the teens made for the 13’ rating, the father still wouldn’t give in. He didn’t even give his children a satisfactory explanation for saying, “No.” He just said, “No!”

A little later on that evening the father asked his teens if they would like some brownies he had baked. He explained that he’d taken the family’s favorite recipe and added a little something new. The children asked what it was.

The father calmly replied that he had added ‘dog poop’. However, he quickly assured them, it was only a little bit. All other ingredients were gourmet quality and he had taken great care to bake the brownies at the precise temperature for the exact time. He was sure the brownies would be superb.

Even with their father’s promise that the brownies were of almost perfect quality, the teens would not take any. The father acted surprised. After all, it was only one small part of what was causing them to be so stubborn. He was certain they would hardly notice it. Still the teens held firm and would not try the brownies.

The father then told his children how the movie they wanted to see was just like the brownies. The movie industry would have you believe that just a little bit of evil won’t matter. But, the truth is even a little bit of ‘dog poop’ makes the difference between a great treat and something disgusting and totally unacceptable.

The father went on to explain that even though the movie industry would have us believe that most of today’s movies are acceptable fare for adults and youth… they are not!

Now, when this father’s children want to see something that is of such questionable material, the father merely asks them if they would like some of his special ‘dog poop’ brownies…. That closes the subject!

=====================

Another version from Stephanie Johnson:

Homemade brownies

Last week, I walked into my office to find a sandwich bag on my desk containing three chewy, tasty, homemade chocolate brownies. Some thoughtful and anonymous person who knew my love for tasty homemade brownies had placed them there, along with a handwritten short story. I immediately sat down and began eating the first chewy, tasty, homemade brownie as I read the following story:

Two teenagers asked their father if they could go the theater to watch a movie that all their friends had seen. After reading some reviews about the movie on the Internet, he denied their request.

“Aw dad, why not?” they complained. “It’s rated PG-13, and we’re both older than thirteen!”

Dad replied: “Because that movie contains nudity and portrays immorality as being normal and acceptable behavior.”

“But dad, those are just very small parts of the movie! That’s what our friends who’ve seen it have told us. The movie is two hours long and those scenes are just a few minutes of the total film! It’s based on a true story and good triumphs over evil, and there are other redeeming themes like courage and self-sacrifice. Even the movie review websites say that!”

“My answer is ‘no,’ and that is my final answer. You are welcome to stay home tonight, invite some of your friends over, and watch one of the good videos we have in our home collection. But you will not go and watch that film. End of discussion.”

The two teenagers walked dejectedly into the family room and slumped down on the couch. As they sulked, they were surprised to hear the sounds of their Father preparing something in the kitchen. They soon recognized the wonderful aroma of brownies baking in the oven, and one of the teenagers said to the other,

“Dad must be feeling guilty, and now he’s going to try to make it up to us with some fresh brownies. Maybe we can soften him with lots of praise when he brings them out to us and persuade him to let us go to that movie after all.”

[About that time I began eating the second brownie from the sandwich bag and wondered if there was some connection to the brownies I was eating and the brownies in the story. I kept reading...]

The teens were not disappointed. Soon their father appeared with a plate of warm brownies, which he offered to his kids. They each took one. Then their father said, “Before you eat, I want to tell you something: I love you both so much. That is why I’ve made these brownies with the very best ingredients. I’ve made them from scratch. Most of the ingredients are even organic. The best organic flour. The best free-range eggs. The best organic sugar. Premium Vanilla and chocolate.”

The brownies looked mouthwatering, and the teens began to become a little impatient with their dad’s long speech.

“But I want to be perfectly honest with you. There is one ingredient I added that is not usually found in brownies. I got that ingredient from our own back yard. But you needn’t worry, because I only added the tiniest bit of that ingredient to your brownies. The amount of the portion is practically insignificant. So go ahead, take a bite and let me know what you think.”

“Dad, would you mind telling us what that mystery ingredient is before we eat?”

“Why? The portion I added was so small. Just a teaspoonful. You won’t even taste it.”

“Come on, dad; just tell us what that ingredient is.”

“Don’t worry! It is organic, just like the other ingredients.”

“Dad!”

“Well, OK, if you insist. That secret ingredient is fresh organic...dog poop.”

[I immediately stopped chewing that second brownie and I spit it out into the wastebasket by my desk. I continued reading, now fearful of the paragraphs that still remained...]

Both teens instantly dropped their brownies back on the plate and began inspecting their fingers with horror. “DAD! Why did you do that? You’ve tortured us by making us smell those brownies cooking for the last half-hour, and now you tell us that you added dog poop! We can’t eat these brownies!”

“Why not? The amount of dog poop is very small compared to the rest of the ingredients. It won’t hurt you. It’s been cooked right along with the other ingredients. You won’t even taste it. It has the same consistency as the brownies. Go ahead and eat!”

“No, Dad...NEVER!”

“And that is the same reason I won’t allow you to go watch that movie. You won’t tolerate a little dog poop in your brownies, so why should you tolerate a little immorality in your movies? We pray that God will not lead us unto temptation, so how can we in good conscience entertain ourselves with something that will imprint a sinful image in our minds that will lead us into temptation long after we first see it?”

[I discarded what remained of the second brownie as well as the entire untouched third brownie. What had been irresistible a minute go had become detestable! And only because of the very slim chance that what I was eating was slightly polluted. (Surely it wasn’t ... but I couldn’t convince myself.) What a good lesson about purity! Why do we tolerate any sin?]

========================

Another version by Don Johnson of Succasunna, New Jersey:

A father of some teenage children had the family rule that they could not attend "R" rated movies. His three teens wanted to see a particular popular movie that was playing at local theaters. It was rated "R." The teens interviewed friends and even some members of their family's church to find out what was offensive in the movie. The teens made a list of pros and cons about the movie to use to convince their dad that they should be allowed to see it.

The con's were that it contained ONLY 3 swear words, the ONLY violence was a building exploding (and you see that on TV all the time they said), and you actually did not "see" the couple in the movie having sex - it was just implied sex, off camera.

The pros were that it was a popular movie - a blockbuster. Everyone was seeing it. If the teens saw the movie then they would not feel left out when their friends discussed it. The movie contained a good story and plot. It had some great adventure and suspense in it. There were some fantastic special effects in this movie. The movie's stars were some of the most talented actors in Hollywood. It probably would be nominated for several awards. Many of the members of their Christian church had even seen the movie and said it wasn't "very bad". Therefore, since there were more pros than cons the teens said they were asking their father to reconsider his position on just this ONE movie and let them have permission to go see it.

The father looked at the list and thought for a few minutes. He said he could tell his children had spent some time and thought on this request. He asked if he could have a day to think about it before making his decision. The teens were thrilled thinking; "Now we've got him! Our argument is too good! Dad can't turn us down!" So, they happily agreed to let him have a day to think about their request.

The next evening the father called in his three teenagers, who were smiling smugly, into the living room. There on the coffee table he had a plate of brownies. The teens were puzzled. The father told his children he had thought about their request and had decided that if they would eat a brownie then he would let them go to the movie. But just like the movie, the brownies had pros and cons.

The pros were that they were made with the finest chocolate and other good ingredients. They had the added special effect of yummy walnuts in them. The brownies were moist and fresh with wonderful chocolate frosting on top. He had made these fantastic brownies using an award winning recipe. And best of all, the brownies had been made lovingly by the hand of their own father.

The brownies only had one con. He had included a little bit of a special ingredient. The brownies also contained just a little bit of dog poop. But he had mixed the dough well - they probably would not even be able to taste the dog poop and he had baked it at 350 degrees so any bacteria or germs from the dog poop had probably been destroyed. Therefore, if any of his children could stand to eat the brownies which included just a "little bit of crap" and not be effected by it, then he knew they would also be able to see the movie with "just a little bit of smut" and not be effected.

Of course, none of the teens would eat the brownies and the smug smiles had left their faces. Only Dad was smiling smugly as they left the room.

Now when his teenagers ask permission to do something he is opposed to the father just asks, "Would you like me to whip up a batch of my special brownies?"

In a recent television interview, Charlie Rose questioned Frank McCourt, best-selling author of "Angela’s Ashes," about his spirituality. McCourt likened all of the world’s religions to a smorgasbord or buffet before him, and he takes a little of this from here and a bit of that from there - whatever pleases him. Needless to say, religious truth is not what it used to be, and any appeals to absolutes in religion or elsewhere are considered power plays at best and discriminatory at worst.

The Apostle Paul, living in a pluralistic culture, was convinced that the Christian faith departs from other faiths in a significant way. Allow me to explain. Paul was a man of many cultures: Hebrew by birth, educated in a Greek city, a citizen of Rome. Each of those cultures had its own ideals and its own metaphor for ultimate reality. Specifically, the Hebrews gave to the world our moral categories; the Greeks have given us our philosophical categories; the Romans, our legal categories.

For the Hebrew the great pursuit of life was symbolized by light: "The LORD is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear?" "The true Light which gives light to every man was coming into the world." For the Hebrews, light said it all.

For the Greeks, the ultimate goal was knowledge. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "I know whom I have believed," said Paul. For the Romans, the epitome of life was symbolized by glory. Rome was a city to which all roads led. It was not built in a day. It was the eternal city - you’ve heard of the glory of the Roman Empire, the glory of the Caesars.

So we have light, knowledge, glory; the ideals of these three great cultures. Writing to believers in a city that embodied all three influences, Paul said, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, [has] shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

How that captures every longing and ideal! All are ultimately shown to us in a face. Here we see the ultimate expression of God, the culmination of God’s revelation. It was not restricted to the philosophy of Greece, the spiritual experience of the Hebrews, or the glory of an earthly city. "Do you want to see God?" ask the writers. Look at the face of Christ. That face beckons you not to a smorgasbord of fleeting tastes but to a life of eternal joy.

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Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

Among the reasons given for his jihad against the West, Osama bin Laden cited something he called "the tragedy of Andalusia."

He was referring to the re-conquest of Southern Spain in 1492. For nearly seven centuries, Moorish Spain embodied the Islamic world’s cultural superiority over Europe. While much of medieval Europe lived in squalor, Muslim Cordoba boasted street lighting, hundreds of public baths, and at least seventy libraries.

And Islamic greatness at the time wasn’t limited to Moorish Spain. Bernard Lewis, the world’s greatest authority on the Islamic world, writes in his new book, What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, that a thousand years ago, only China approached the achievements of Islamic civilization. Name the area - science, math, architecture - and the Islamic world ran circles around the West. My friend Jack Kemp noted in a recent column that this flowering of Islamic civilization "occurred when it showed the most tolerance toward religious minorities."

"Suddenly," Lewis tells us, "the relationship changed." For the last five hundred years, the Islamic world has lagged behind the Christian West: politically, culturally, and economically. According to Lewis, this once great civilization has become "poor, weak, and ignorant" compared to its rival, the Christian West.

According to Lewis, while the twentieth century saw advances in freedom and democracy in the West, the same period saw a "string of shabby dictatorships" in the Islamic world. This was coupled with religious oppression. While Lewis’s book was written prior to September 11, we can see how the rage of some Islamists over this reversal of fortunes was reflected in the events of that day.

One of the major reasons for the reversal, writes Lewis, is that the Muslim world, instead of turning its gaze inwards, chose to blame its decline on external forces, specifically, the Christian West. But there’s more to it than Islam’s wrapping itself in victim status. This difference has to do with the capacity for self-criticism and reform of the Christian worldview.

It’s not a coincidence that the period that witnessed Islam’s decline and Christianity’s ascent began with the Reformation. The Reformation ideal of the Church as always being reformed was a bulwark against the kind of cultural stagnation that has plagued the Islamic world. And this idea of perpetual reformation wasn’t limited to the Protestant world; the Catholic Church also embraced reform.

The reforming mindset not only affected Christianity, but it also created the foundation for the modern world. The dynamism and freedom that characterizes the West is the product of Christianity’s reforming itself and moving forward culturally. As historian Samuel Huntington has noted, Western Christianity shaped the basic institutions in most of the world’s truly democratic societies.

By contrast, when Muslims speak of "reform," they mean moving back culturally to the legal and social arrangements of Muhammad’s day.

While it’s important to understand the historical reasons for the decline that outrages the bin Ladens of the world, there’s an even more important lesson for Christians. The ascendancy of the West is the story of the difference that Christianity makes, and it’s a story we can’t let our culture forget.

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Copyright © 2002 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

*

Seven years ago, my friend Richard Neuhaus lay near death. Doctors told him a few months before that he had intestinal cancer. Surgery to remove the tumor had not gone well. As he puts it, it was "an unspeakable mess."

He started to hemorrhage right after coming out of surgery. So, the doctors had to open him up again and risk his dying on the table. Fortunately -- providentially -- Neuhaus survived. Then, the next night, while lying in his room, he was "jerked into an utterly lucid state of awareness." He sensed that there were two "presences" there with him. And he heard someone say, "Everything is ready now."

My friend has never doubted that he was visited by angels that night, who were prepared to take him home. But he was allowed to stay here, and I think God graciously did that because there is still so much we have to learn from Father Neuhaus.

For nearly four decades, Richard John Neuhaus has been setting an example of how Christian faith can transform not only individuals, but society as well. In the 1960s, the Canadian-born minister was the pastor of a mostly black and Hispanic church in Brooklyn. His commitment to biblical standards of freedom and equality led him to become an active participant in the Civil Rights movement, marching alongside Martin Luther King.

In the 1970s, Neuhaus, then a Lutheran pastor, was one of the first religious leaders to denounce both the Supreme Court's decision in Roe V. Wade, and the direction that America's embrace of abortion was heading.

In the 1980s, as people denounced the increasing role of Christians in public life, Neuhaus wrote what has now become a classic, The Naked Public Square. In it, he argued that the belief that America is a "secular society" is both "demonstrably false" and "exceedingly dangerous" to the health of American democracy.

In the nineties, Neuhaus worked with other Christians, including me, to point out the perilous state of American democracy. His magazine, First Things, featured a controversial symposium called "The End of Democracy?" that challenged the judiciary's usurpation of functions the Founders intended for "We the People" working through our elected representatives.

That symposium led to a joint declaration entitled "We Hold These Truths." Fourteen Christian leaders, both Protestant and Catholic, wrote that if American self-government was to survive, it would have to adhere to the moral truths of the Declaration of Independence.

We pointed to the "bitter consequences" of separating liberty from moral truths on abortion, crime, drug abuse, pornography, family disintegration, and neglect of the poor.

Neuhaus is one of those intellectual leaders whom I have been talking about in recent days -- the ones who are leading a Christian counter-attack against the entrenched secular mindset in academia and other centers of cultural influence. His powerful books and articles have earned him the title of "the modern-day C. S. Lewis," and his writings are being widely read across America.

Neuhaus will be a keynote speaker at our Wilberforce Forum conference in Chicago this coming June. God in his sovereignty is raising up some mighty warriors like Neuhaus -- armed with a biblical view of life and a keen intellect to contend for Christian truth. And this is one reason I think we'll experience a great Christian renewal in this century.

_____________________

For further reference:

Cox, Harvey. "Putting God Back in Politics."(Review of Richard John Neuhaus, The Naked Public Square.) The New York Times, 26 August 1984; Section 7, Page 11.

Neuhaus, Richard John. The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985.

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Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

*

Believers can misinterpret the love of God and make chaos of Christian theology by isolating one aspect of God's love at the expense of a fully biblical understanding of it, New Testament scholar D.A. Carson said July 16 at the Southern Baptist Founders Conference.

Carson, longtime research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, warned believers against isolating individual texts when grappling with the biblical doctrine of God's love.

Carson was the keynote speaker for the 21st annual Founders Conference June 15-18 at Samford University. The conference theme was “The Love of God.” Carson is author of scores of books and commentaries, including “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God” and “A Call to Spiritual Reformation.” Founders is an organization founded in 1982 for the perpetuation of historic Calvinistic doctrines within the Southern Baptist Convention often referred to as “the doctrines of grace.”

Carson noted that the first -- and perhaps most critical -- error is using one expression of God's love as the lens through which every expression of it in Scripture is viewed.

“It is a mistake to fail to observe the ways in which the Bible speaks of the love of God and not to listen to them carefully in their respective contexts,” Carson said.

“This is important today because there is so much in our culture that is trying to squeeze all notions of love into one or two narrow categories and therefore” avoid other texts, he said.

As a contemporary illustration of such erroneous “proof-texting,” Carson pointed to what he said was the mainstream news media's most- quoted verse, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” Many pundits quote it but few can cite the place it is found in Scripture (Matthew 7:1), he said.

Contemporary pundits typically aim the verse at Christians as if it settles every moral or ethical question, be it homosexuality or gambling, he said. Christians often use the same hermeneutic when quoting verses out of context regarding the love of God, he said.

“That [Matthew 7:1] is the sum total of contemporary western Christian ethics in the mind of the media,” he said. “[In their minds] that settles the argument, doesn't it? It is very easy to rip texts out of context.

“Somehow, in this whole area of the doctrine of the love of God, I think that we are particularly prone to do so and from different sides. It is possible to absolutize several different kinds of biblical texts and really play around with our theology in very detrimental ways by simply absolutizing one strand of biblical truth.”

Carson said Scripture speaks of the love of God in at least five distinct ways:

-- Love between God, the Father and Christ, the Son, often called God's “intra-trinitarian love.”

-- Providential love. This type of love points to God's watchcare over and superintendence of creation. This sort of love is spoken of in Matthew 5:45 by which God sends rain and sun on both the “just and unjust.”

-- Yearning, inviting love, by which God cries to all sinners to repent and be saved.

-- Electing love. This is His love directed at those whom He has chosen for salvation by His own sovereign choice and will.

-- Love as conditioned by obedience. This type of love accompanies the Ten Commandments and occurs throughout Scripture, including in John 15. It is presupposed in Jude and is prominent in the Old Testament, Carson said.

Carson gave several examples of how God's love might be misinterpreted.

If one views God only by His providential love over creation, something close to pantheism is the result.

“[Then] all religions are the same, all of nature is the same,” he said. “God becomes this genial granddaddy who has lost about three- quarters of His marbles and sort of exercises a beneficent watch over the world without power, without truth. But He's sort of nice and He's sort of kind and He smiles a lot and has a snowy white beard.”

Making God's electing love ultimate leads to hyper-Calvinism and scuttles evangelism, Carson said. On the other hand, absolutizing God's yearning, inviting love to sinners leads to the notion that salvation depends on human effort, he said. A full-orbed biblical understanding will hold the two together in unison, he said.

“You can absolutize God's love that is conditioned by obedience,” Carson said. “Then, God loves the good and hates the wicked. It's as simple as that. You are lost in a quagmire of merit theology and looking at yourself to see if you have been good enough today to please God.

“More recently, some people have tried to absolutize God's intra- trinitarian love. That is, we sort of all become part of God by a certain understanding of theosis, of becoming divine. The whole distinction between God and human beings is lost and we all become a part of this circle of love that begins with the Trinity and reaches outward.”

Carson also warned against over-characterizing the different categories of God's love. God must not be viewed as mechanically turning on one expression of His love while simultaneously “switching off” another aspect, he said.

“I may truly say I love my wife and I may truly say I love my brother's wife,” Carson said. “I hope I don't mean the same thing by both. I love woodworking and I love reading, and in each case the object of love means that I am thinking about love in slightly different ways.”

A fully biblical comprehension of God's love also will assist Christians in rethinking well-worn cliches such as “God loves everybody the same way” or “God loves us unconditionally,” he said.

In many places in Scripture God's love is specifically conditioned by obedience. On the other hand, God's love for Christians is unconditional, Carson said.

Carson compared God's love to that within family relationships. There are different contexts within a family relationship between father and son in which it is proper to speak of both conditional and unconditional love.

Finally, Carson said Christians are often in danger of thinking of God as toggling on and off certain attributes so that He has room for others. But God is constantly and unchangingly loving, holy, just, merciful and altogether perfect. All of His attributes are always operative and work out in the dynamic interchange with His people, Carson said.

For example, God loves Christians and at the same time can express His wrath toward them due to sin. But it is important to note that God's wrath does not suddenly awaken because He is ill-tempered, Carson said.

“What God never does is display His wrath because He loses it,” Carson said. “It [God's wrath] is always principled. He is never controlled by His emotions. He always works out of His the perfection of all His perfections. He can never be less than perfect. And therefore, He never falls in love and He never loses His temper.

“And as we grow in conformity to Christ, there are ways in which these sorts of things must be seen in our lives as well.”